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Here is a primer for the message this morning. And I’ll start it with a question… How can you become content, in God, and in God alone, without putting God at the center of your life? How is that possible? The answer is – it isn’t.
Last Sunday, in Phil. 4, Paul explains how he found a way to be content through incredible challenges – almost losing his life several times, being imprisoned and persecuted. He found that putting Christ at the center not only gave him strength for those challenges, but helped him find a place of contentment. Paul was content with what he had in the Lord, each day, because his relationship with Jesus was where he operated from. That was his base!
Now, anything we put at the center of our lives must be important, right. So the question for today is – what occupies that space for you right now? What’s at the center? Is Jesus on the radar? That’s what we are going to be talking about this morning.
Last week Michael ended the sermon series in Philippians called Heavenly Citizens. I hope you enjoyed that series, and that you have drawn closer to God from learning what it means to be, to live as a heavenly citizen in this time and place, and in our culture. As you can see today we are launching a new sermon series called “One Year Later” and the sermon title for today is “Jesus is still central”.
It has been a year since we opened our church in this new location, and our focus, as a church, is crystal clear. And here are the sermons for this series
Aug. 7: One Year Later – “Jesus Is Still Central”
Aug. 14: One Year Later – “Family Is Still Critical”
Aug. 21: One Year Later – “Chasing Is Still Captivating”
Aug. 28: One Year Later – “We Are North Village Church”
This “One Year Later” sermon series highlights our church vision:
We are a family who places Jesus at the center of our lives so that it moves us to chase after every man, woman, and child in Greater Austin to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus Christ. Placing Jesus at the center of our lives is about making Jesus the Lord of our lives.
It is about His Lordship. What Jesus says goes. We follow Him.
Where is Jesus in our lives? Is He at the center of our lives, or is he over in the corner, or on the side, or on another page – just in case we might need him? For Jesus to be the Lord of our lives, we have to press into questions such as…
Do we believe He is God in the flesh? Do we know what He wants us to do? If so, do we obey Him? Do we follow Him? Are we trusting Him with our lives, or are we trusting something else – ourselves, our friends and family, our bank account, our jobs, the government, those kinds of things?
How much change and transition have we seen, not only in our personal lives, but in the world the past three years. A lot has been going on. There have been a lot of changes which have impacted all of us. A pandemic that is still churning, going into its third year, still impacting families and the workplace. Russia invading Ukraine, which has created much uncertainty and insecurity in the world. What if China invades? What if North Korea invades? Inflation is wreaking havoc on everyone’s finances. Interest rates up, stock market down, people moving, job transitions. And the list goes on and on. We live in a world of constant change. In the midst of all of this, is Jesus still Lord of our lives, are we trusting him with our needs and direction, or are we falling into the fears, insecurities, lies and traps of our culture, of what’s going on around us?
One area of caution about this is we all need to watch what we are consuming from the media, especially on the news as opinion, opinion of new programs. What we consume, what we feed ourselves, is what we become. And we don’t want to be filled with cynicism and pessimism each day. Be careful not to adopt some system of thought as God’s truth. For us, for believers, for Christians, Jesus should be central in our lives regardless of what’s going on in any season of our lives. After all, Jesus is the one who overcame sin and death, he was able to do incredible miracles like healing people, even bringing dead people back to life. And, most important to us, making it possible for us to have eternal life with him.
Jesus deserves His Lordship, right? He has proven worthy to be the Lord of all.
Titus.
This letter was written to Titus when he was on the island of Crete, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea. Titus was a Greek Gentile (Gal. 2:3). He had probably become a Christian under the influence of Paul, and he subsequently became one of Paul’s protégés (Titus 1:4). Titus had been with Paul since Paul’s early ministry. On one of his missionary journeys, Paul left Titus in Crete to set the church there in order (Titus 1:5).
1. “But” changes everything!
Titus 3:3-6
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior,
The But in verse 4 is a huge transitional word. Do you see that? Look what happens from verse 3 to verse 4… They (and Paul includes himself) had been: foolish, not sensible; disobedient, not submissive; deceived, not enlightened; enslaved, not free and self- disciplined. Moreover, they had been malicious, not peaceable; envious, not considerate; and hateful, not loving. Paul is saying that Christian behavior should be the opposite of Cretan behavior. Unfortunately, we have some Cretan behavior in us. Then we see the But in verse 4. But when the kindness of God arrived on the scene – his name is Jesus – everything changed! Salvation was available. Life-transformation was made possible. This “but” changed the Cretans character and behavior, as it should change ours.
2. God’s motivation for “But”
What is God’s motivation for “But?” Why not just leave the Cretans where they are? Why not just leave Americas living in secular humanism? God can’t do that because of who God is: in these verses we see that he is kind, loving and merciful. That is God’s nature. And the appearance Paul refers to in verse 4 was the sending of Jesus Christ – appears on the earth – to die for us. God’s love for us appeared in the flesh, in Jesus, it is called the incarnation. God became flesh – in Jesus our savior. Now that was the greatest act of God’s kindness and love for humankind.
And God took the initiative. God does not save people because they behave righteously, or on the basis of their good deeds. God saves people because God is merciful. He gets all the credit and glory. God’s motivation for the But is not only who He is. It’s also about how God feels about his creation – us! He has great love and mercy for us
John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
That’s how much God loves us! And he makes it clear in Titus 3:5 that salvation is not on the basis of deeds. Not by works – making it clear to Titus – in his ministry to the Cretans – that works have no value in saving a person. It is solely on the basis of God’s mercy that we are delivered from the penalty of our sin.
3. His process of renewal
Titus 3:5-6
he saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, The washing of regeneration refers to the work of the Holy Spirit, who, in a moment, makes a person new by the cleansing of regeneration.
This new nature is the ground for living the Christian life out of which good deeds flow. Paul also connects regeneration here to the washing off of sin’s filth and renewing by God’s Holy Spirit. Away with the bad, and in with the good. What does that mean. The renewal by the Holy Spirit is the continual process of being enabled and empowered to live well, living out our identity in Jesus Christ, which results in growth in character and good works Then in verse 6, we see that He richly and abundantly pours out the HS on us. He is not just sprinkling a little bit on us. He is drowning us in the HS. The apostles and disciples of Jesus experienced this at Pentecost.
Acts 2:33
33 Therefore, since He has been exalted at the right hand of God, and has received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.
When the Holy Spirit arrived at Pentecost. He was seen. He was heard. And he filled those in the room, and they even started speaking in tongues. God pours out His Holy Spirit on believers richly. He did this first at Pentecost, but He has continued to do it since then whenever anyone experiences conversion (cf. Rom. 5:5). So, it is clear that God the Father sent the HS thru the work of Jesus (Luke 24:49)
In summary, Paul explained what God did – saved us, washed us, regenerated us, renewed us, justified us. That’s great news!
And the basis of His work – is God’s mercy,
And the means of His work – the Holy Spirit
And its ultimate goal – hope of eternal life
This is the gospel. This is the richness of what we have in Jesus. BUT…Is that where we rest each day? Is this central to our being – where we settle out. Jesus at the center of our lives so we can experience contentment, like Paul, even in
the hard times? For some of us, we might just be content to survive each day. The good life may look like we hold onto our faith, our trust in God, when we are struggling to survive – when we are drowning in loneliness, our marriage relationship, our parenting, our finances, our health issues.
For others, we may feel we are thriving in life and contentment in Christ comes easy. But hear this, regardless of your state of contentment, as we put Jesus at the center of our lives, we find that His grace always exceeds our need.
Jesus at the center so we can resolve our marriage issues!
Jesus at the center so we can manage our health issues!
Jesus at the center so that we can be salt and light in a dark world!
Jesus at the center so that we can be empowered to do things we are not able to do in our own strength!
You see, God wants us to live life to the full. Content in Him and for His purposes. And it starts with Jesus’ Lordship of our lives. It starts when we put Jesus at the center.
Here’s what helps me do that, or at least gets Jesus closer to the center…
o Having a quiet time – “A Guide to Prayer for Ministers” helps move me into Bible study and prayer. I also do the devotional each week leading up to the sermon.
o Praying for specific things throughout the day, as they occur.
o And, at times, when I am doing some stinking thinking, it is praying for God to take me off a ledge before I go into an anxiety attack, or even panic.
o You help keep Jesus central for me. Kay and I have leaned on you, our brothers and sisters in Christ, to help keep Jesus central for us. We need each other.
o Wednesday night Guy’s Group or a Community Group
o Of course, worship services on Sunday – Michael’s teaching, singing songs of worship together, fellowship
o Engaging in uplifting conversations with family, friends, coworkers and others I talk to each day. How can I pray for you today? This is what I need prayer for…
o God often uses my wife, and her wisdom, to help me see when Jesus falls off center.
o And I try not put too many things in place of Jesus. There are so many distractions out there, so many choices on ways to spend our time, when Jesus is calling us to a simple life in him where we keep the main things the main things, where we love our neighbors as ourselves.
Like me, maybe there are some things you need to do to help move Jesus closer to the center. He really wants to be there – at the center.