Choose Two

Titus 3:8 | January 5, 2025

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…7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

INTRO AND PRAYER

Have you ever had to make a tough choice?

For Christmas I was given the gift of two packages of bacon by two separate people and since there was already so much food made for Christmas, I decided to keep those gifts and kick off the New Year with them – which also meant that I was left with the choice of which package of bacon I was going to open first.

You may think that wouldn’t be a big deal, but you see I made a resolution for the New Year to get in better shape and start doing some core exercises like planks and crunches every day.

And by crunches, I mean the sound bacon makes when I eat it – so, yes, I’ve already done a lot of crunches in the first 5 days of the New Year.

Life is full of choices – some of them are easier than others – but every choice you make impacts the lives of other people – at the very least it impacts your own life.

So, shouldn’t we at least try to make good choices?

We start a new series today called “Do the Next Thing” where we will be looking at what it means to do the next thing – whatever the next thing may be.

I know this sounds lofty but I’m really hoping that this series will change all of our lives – that we will discover some simple daily ways to engage with and deal with and survive and at times even thrive through all the moments of triumph and tragedy and stress and strain and anger and anxiety and fear and failure and joy and pain and sunshine and rain that we will all face in the days or years ahead.

So, as philosopher D. Lawrence Whitney would say let’s git-r-done – let’s do the next thing – right now – together – and turn our attention toward the Bible in the book of Titus.

Titus was friends with the Apostle Paul – and about 1,958 years ago Paul tagged Titus to be the leader of the church on the island of Crete – Crete is an island in the Mediterranean Sea about 200 miles southeast of Athens, Greece.

What does Paul have to say to Titus about doing the next thing?

And what does it have to do with me and you?

Let’s find out – our message today is “Choose Two” and we will be looking at Titus 3, verse 8.

Paul writes…

8 This statement is trustworthy;

What is this trustworthy statement?

The whole last sentence that Paul wrote.

Titus 3:4

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

 

Titus 3:5

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness,

 

Titus 3:5

but in accordance with His mercy…

What is the most remarkable act of kindness that has ever appeared at any time and at any place in the universe?

• It was not a day of volunteer work at a charity
• It was not a donation of food or clothing or water
• It was not a holiday gift card to a family in need

Those things are very loving and very kind and are things we should very much do – but the most remarkable act of kindness that has ever appeared and ever been carried out and will ever be carried out is Jesus of Nazareth volunteering his body and donating his blood as the ultimate sacrificial gift to satisfy the just and right penalty of sin.

John Stott

…the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God,

John Stott

while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.

John Stott

Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be;

John Stott

God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.

Before you existed, Jesus Christ substituted himself in a place he didn’t deserve.

Before you existed, Jesus Christ died for your sin.  

That is the most perfect act of kindness…ever.

Kindness like that is trustworthy.

How does God save a person?

Titus 3:5

…in accordance with His mercy…

If God saved a person based on their good deeds that person would never get saved.  

Why?

Because our best deeds will never be enough to make things right with God.

Our good deed credit cards will always get declined for having insufficient funds.

God rescues and redeems and saves according to his mercy.  

What does that transaction look like?

God deposited the just and right penalty for sin temporarily but completely on Jesus when he was crucified on a Roman cross.

And because Jesus paid and satisfied the ultimate penalty of sin with his own blood God can now take the perfect righteousness of Jesus and deposit it in your spiritual bank account. 

You cannot make the deposit.

You can only repent and ask God to save you.

You can only plead with God to make the transaction.

When we were helpless and dead in our sin, Christ died for us.

When we were far, far away from God, Jesus brought the mercy of God to us.

Mercy like that is trustworthy.

Paul’s statement is trustworthy because it is based on the mercy of God through Jesus Christ.

C.H. Spurgeon

My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know,

C.H. Spurgeon

but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.

Jesus Christ is not a dead religious leader who had a good run for a few years but then slipped up and got himself killed.  

Jesus Christ died and rose again and is alive and has promised everlasting life and joy to those who believe in him and cling to him and trust in him and rely on him. 

And until earthly death comes, the hope of salvation tells a believer over and over again that their faith in Christ is real.  

Kindness and mercy and hope like that is deeply and extremely trustworthy.

So, Paul makes this statement about how stunning and amazing salvation in Jesus Christ is and how there is absolutely no way we could make that salvation happen on our own which makes it even more stunning and more amazing and then he says to Titus – and to us…

• “What I just wrote is trustworthy.”
• “You can build your life on those things.”

How?

8 and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently,

Do you talk about God with confidence?

Is he part of your conversations outside of this room – and if so, what do you say about God?

Does Paul’s trustworthy statement ever come up?

Does the kindness and mercy and hope of God in and through Jesus Christ ever come up?

Paul is pressing Titus talk about these things…all the time.  

Why?

Because we live in an uncertain world.

• Fair skies can turn into flash flooding.
• Routine tests can turn into heartbreaking reports.
• Holiday parties can turn into deadly tragedies.

So, the time for dwelling on the kindness and mercy and hope of salvation in Jesus Christ is always right now.

We think deeply about God’s love and care on the sunny days so that our hearts will remember that the sun is still up there on the cloudy days.

Elisabeth Elliot had some cloudy days.

This week 68 years ago, her husband Jim and four of his friends were attempting to share the good news of great joy about Jesus Christ to a tribe of people in Ecuador who were known for their violent behavior – and men from that tribe murdered Jim and his friends that day.

Elisabeth had discovered an old anonymous poem that contained a phrase that not only helped her through the tragedy and trauma of losing her husband in a such a violent way but gave her strength for the next 59 years of life – she died in 2015 at the age of 89.

Here's the beginning of the poem…

Anonymous

From an old English parsonage down by the sea

There came in the twilight a message to me;

Its quaint Saxon legend, deeply engraven,

Hath, it seems to me, teaching from Heaven.

And on through the doors the quiet words ring

Like a low inspiration: “Do the Next Thing.”

What should we do on good, sunny days?

We shouldn’t just dawdle or dilly-dally or fritter away or piddle away our minds with talk radio or sports updates or social media scrolls or gossip on the phone – no – we should do the next thing.

And what is the next thing?

• We brush our teeth.
• We drink a latte.
• We sit at the stoplight.
• We eat a slice of pizza.

And as we do those things we simply and deeply and consistently keep preaching to ourselves that the kindness and mercy and hope and love and grace of God in Jesus Christ are extraordinary!

That is a trustworthy statement.

C.H. Spurgeon

The child, in danger of the fire, just clings to the fireman, and trusts to him alone. She raises no question about the strength of his limbs to carry her, or the zeal of his heart to rescue her; but she clings. The heat is terrible, the smoke is blinding, but she clings; and her deliverer quickly bears her to safety.

C.H. Spurgeon

In the same childlike confidence cling to Jesus…

We take these trustworthy things about salvation in Jesus Christ, and we confidently cling to them and always make them the next thing we do in our minds – and then we do something else with them.

8 so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.

We don’t take this trustworthy statement and etch it on a brass plaque and hang it in the sanctuary – we go do something with it – we live it out.

Someone/Unknown

The real mark of a saint is that he makes it easier for others to believe in God.

Now that’s something to etch in a plaque and put at every door on the way out of the church, right?

None of us are perfect, but generally speaking, are you making it easier for others to believe in God – or are you making it harder?

Is Christianity more attractive to people who are around you or less attractive?

It’s a New Year – that time when we make resolutions of things we want to do different – how about making good deeds for the gospel one of those resolutions.

We can’t change everything or do everything, but we can do some things – and the same is true as a church – we can’t be all things for all people all the time every time they want or need something.

But we can do some things – there are some good deeds we can do – and we can do them together. 

13 months ago, I started preaching a series called “Together for Good” that contained the 14 values we long to hold dear here at Holland Avenue – you can go to hollandavenue.com/together and find links to watch or listen to or read those messages. 

I want to briefly note those 14 values with a simple challenge – choose two of them to pursue in 2025.

You won’t be able to keep them perfectly but imagine the huge impact that can be had within our church and in our community and in your home and in your life if you just choose two of these good deeds to engage with and put energy toward.

Here are the things we desire to be together in…

Together for God’s Sovereignty – we desire to embrace and enjoy that God is sovereign and supreme over all things past, present and future

Together for Absolute Truth – we desire to embrace and enjoy the Bible as the most convicting and satisfying source of written truth

Together for Confident Prayer – we desire to have a prayer atmosphere that has confidence in God

Together for Making Disciples – we desire to help people find Christ and grow in Christ through intentional, one-on-one relationships

Together for Joyful Nations – we desire to give and go to the work of the gospel among unreached people groups, in the persecuted church, and through ministries that share our values

Together for Maximum Relationships – we desire to build evangelistic relationships with unbelievers

Together for Genuine Conversions – we desire to affirm that God converts in accordance with his mercy and that godly living is the evidence of that conversion

Together for Meaningful Membership – we desire to esteem a commitment to the local church that is marked with consistent attendance, confident prayer, generous giving, and accountable conduct

Together for Generous Giving – we desire to think about our money and our possessions in a way that primarily raises our standard of giving, not our standard of living

Together for Committed Fellowship – we desire that fellowship be primarily viewed as sharing the joy and hardship of life together, not just potlucks

Together for Truth-Filled Homes – we desire to affirm the home as the primary gospel campus

Together for Servant Leadership – we desire to affirm and trust in faithful leaders in the church

Together for Musical Worship – we desire to place primary attention on musical worship that reflects the person of God and his character not just a style

Together for Expanding Churches – we desire to expand the work of the gospel in all churches and not just grow numerically or expand our buildings

Choose two.

Why?

Listen to the last part of what Paul says to Titus…

8 These things are good and beneficial for people.

The message about Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, is the most important message that exists – so, what we believe about him and what we speak about him and the way we represent him matters – it is extremely beneficial for people.

I never tire of hearing the story of Jakov.   

Jakov met an old man named Cimmerman in a village in Serbia – and he spent some time talking to him and eventually started telling him about the love of Christ.

Cimmerman interrupted him and said he wanted nothing to do with Christianity – and went on to tell him about the awful history of the church in his hometown in Serbia and how it was known for stealing from people and exploiting people and even was involved in the killing of innocent people – including his own nephew.

He said, “They wear those elaborate coats and caps and crosses signifying a heavenly commission, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore.”

Jakov graciously listened to Cimmerman and patiently let him express his pain and anger.

Then after a while Jakov said to Cimmerman, “Imagine if I were to steal your coat and put it on and then go and break into a bank – and the police saw me running away from the scene of the crime but they couldn’t catch up with me – but they did spot the uniqueness of the coat I was wearing – and someone recognized it as your coat – and the police showed up at your house and accused you of robbing the bank – what would you say?”

Cimmerman said, “I would deny it.”

Jakov said, “But what if they said they’ve identified you as the thief because of your coat?”

Cimmerman understood what Jakov was getting at with the story and it made him angry and he asked Jakov to go away.

Over time, Jakov continued to drop by the village from time-to-time and talk to Cimmerman and try to encourage him with the love of Christ.

Finally, after a long time of investment, one day Cimmerman asked Jakov, “How does one become a Christian?”

Jakov talked with him and Cimmerman bowed to his knees in the dirt and surrendered his life to Christ that day.

As the story goes, he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, gave Jakov a big hug and said, “Thank you for being in my life.”

And then he pointed to heaven and whispered, “You wear His coat very well.”

For this New Year – do the next thing – choose two – and let us strive to wear the coat of Jesus well.