How to Stay out of Trouble

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Transcript:

Good evening. We’re going to be back in the book of Titus tonight, Titus chapter 3. And the theme of this book is more than I ever realized until we started this study, is about our behavior as Christians.

And really we could sum up the, and I think I’ve said this many times, but I’m probably tired of hearing about it. We could sum up the book by saying, we could sum up large parts of the book, I should say, with the phrase, if you’re a Christian, act like it. If we’re believers, we’re supposed to act a certain way.

We’re supposed to live a certain way. We’re supposed to be different in certain ways. And he spent most of chapter 2, which we just finished up looking at.

Paul spent most of chapter 2 writing to Titus about different groups of people within the church and saying, teach your older men to be this way, your older women to be this way, your younger men to be this way, your younger women. and sort of identifying the needs that they had at that stage in their life and saying they need to learn to live this certain way. He gives instruction to servants and said you’re supposed to do this.

Gives instruction to all believers and says you’re supposed to do this, and then goes back into the doctrinal reasons for that because we are a reflection of the gospel that we claim to believe. And then he moves into chapter 3, And keep in mind, why all this emphasis on your beliefs and the behavior that’s supposed to flow from it? It’s because the place where Titus was ministering in Crete was evidently a rough area.

And so people needed to be reminded, hey, if you’re in Christ, you’re not the same person you used to be. And we could say the same thing for where we are today. You know, some of you may have been like me and grew up in church and Christian family and had that advantage in life.

But still, apart from Christ, you are not with Christ. You are not who you were born to be. That makes sense. You are still a changed person, a changed life.

Some of you were not born with that advantage. And that’s not to say we’re we’re better than, you know, if you were raised in church, you’re better than somebody who was not raised in church. Quite honestly, I think it’s the grace of God, and maybe God knew I couldn’t handle that and would not have come to Christ otherwise.

I don’t know. But maybe you were not born with that advantage of a church-going family and a Christian home. Still, if you’re in Christ, you are not who you used to be.

I heard a story recently about a man who’s a pastor. I never would have guessed this, and I still find it hard to believe. a man who’s a respected pastor up in the city who, back in the 70s, was one of the most notorious drug dealers in the whole city.

And when I was told that story, I went, wait, are we talking about the same guy? Because it never would have occurred to me. You know what, it doesn’t matter whether we grew up in a rough area, whether we grew up in a church going home.

It doesn’t matter our past. We are not the people we used to be, and we’re not supposed to be the same people we used to be. And so he continues on in this theme in chapter 3, and says, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. And that’s really, those two verses right there are what we’re going to focus in on tonight.

But just to give you a little bit more context of what he’s talking about, I want to read on a little further in the chapter. He says in verse 3, for we ourselves were also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.

Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.

These things are good and profitable unto men. And we’re going to stop there. We’ll talk a little bit about that passage in the coming weeks.

But I wanted to give you a little bit broader picture of the chapter before we look at these two verses. Because what he gives here is a distinction. And he explains to the Christian believers on Crete, through Titus, the way that they’re supposed to act in the first two verses.

And then he goes on to give them a reason for this. Throughout Titus, we see instruction followed by the reasons why. Here’s what you’re supposed to do, and here’s the reason why.

Here’s how you’re supposed to behave, here’s the reason why. Well, he tells them to be subject. He tells them to obey, be ready to every good work, so on and so forth.

And then he tells them in verse 3, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice of envy, hateful and hating one another. Verse 3 paints a very bleak picture of the world apart from Christ. And it’s a reminder to us as believers to say that’s what we were. And that’s what we still would be apart from the grace of God from Jesus Christ. Because that’s our human nature.

We talked this morning about the sin nature. And all these things that we look at and say, that’s a sin, that’s a sin, that’s a sin, when they’re really byproducts of sin. Stealing is a byproduct of sin that is already there in our hearts.

Lying is a byproduct of sin that is already there in our hearts. Adultery, murder, you could go down the list of all the things we know we’re not supposed to do. And it’s not those acts, I think, that are in and of themselves.

I mean, yes, they’re sinful. But hear me on this. That’s not what makes us a sinner.

That’s what I mean, and that’s what the man I was listening to meant by, that’s a byproduct of sin. It’s not the murder and the theft and the adultery and all these things that make us sinners. It’s what was in the heart that led to that.

And those outward actions are really a byproduct. But this is our human nature. This is our sinful nature on display here.

foolishness, disobedience, deception, lust and pleasure, malice, envy, hateful. My goodness, sounds like a real dog-eat-dog world, and that’s exactly what it is. Now, I’m not saying that apart from Jesus Christ, we’re as bad as we possibly could be.

Not everybody running around the streets is Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. I mean, not everybody running around is a mass murderer, as wicked as they possibly could be, as depraved as they possibly could be. But it reminds us that there’s not any part of us that has escaped this tainting of sin.

And sometimes we as Christians, after we’ve trusted Christ, and after we’re a few years down the road of him beginning to change us and transform us from the inside out, we get a few years removed from that, and we forget that we were ever that way. And we get to where we look down on the world outside. Well, they’re just a bunch of rotten, stinking sinners.

Yeah, they are, but so are we. We just happen to be saved, rotten, stinking sinners. The only good in me is what Jesus Christ has put there.

But we get removed from this. And we need to be reminded, and I’ve always looked at this, starting in verse 3 and going on, as a reminder that this is what we were, and this is what we would be today apart from Jesus Christ. And so we need to remember that the lost world is in need of the same grace and in need of the same consideration that we were. What I mean by that is we can get self-righteous and turn up our nose at the drunk on the corner.

But you know what? He needs the same gospel that was preached to us. And it wouldn’t take a bit more grace to save him than it took to save us.

It’s a sobering thought that I’ve given you before. it would not have taken any more grace to save Osama bin Laden than what it took to save me. We’re both sinners.

Now, is all sin equal? In a sense it is, in a sense it isn’t. Biblically, the Bible does talk about the gravity of some sins.

But the fact is, all sin is equal in the sense that it condemns us equally before God. It doesn’t matter if I stole a pack of gum or if I murdered six million people. Sin is sin.

There’s sin in the heart, sin in the nature that corrupts everything else. The fact is sin is sin before God and it all is enough to condemn us. So this is not only a reminder of where we’ve come from and the grace of God, but it’s also a reminder of how we’re supposed to interact with the world around us and why.

Because you know what? We’re not so very different from them after all. The only difference is Jesus Christ. Hear me on that.

The only difference is Jesus Christ. It’s easy to sit in our pew and think, I’m doing pretty well for myself. Think of where we would be tonight were it not for Jesus Christ. And so having said all of that, looking at verse 3, we go back to verses 1 and 2. Because when it says for in verse 3, think of that like because of, because of this, for this reason.

So verse 3 gives us the explanation for why verses 1 and 2. He says, put them in mind. Who’s them?

That’s the churches on the island of Crete, the Christian believers on the island of Crete. Put them in mind. Get them in the mindset to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.

Why? Because they don’t deserve it. So why?

Because we ourselves were also sometimes foolish, disobedient, go down through the list. Because we were in the same boat that they are in now. And thank God he demonstrated the grace not only to send his son to die for us, but also demonstrated grace by sending someone to tell us the good news that Jesus Christ had died for us. And so he lays out this template for how Christians are supposed to behave.

I think this should be a fairly simple message and a fairly short one at that. Because not only is there the spiritual dimension of we act this way because it reflects well on the gospel. Always, everything throughout Titus is you act this way because of this doctrinal reason.

We believe this, so we need to live in a way that demonstrates we believe it. But also there’s the intent that if you’re a Christian, you should be different. So act like it and stay out of trouble, which was hard for the people of Crete.

And maybe hard for some of them. Has anybody ever, and you don’t have to raise your hand, but have any of you ever had a tough time staying out of trouble? There are some people who, it seems like they don’t find trouble, trouble finds them.

Those are the kinds of believers that I believe this was written to. People from that background who say, you know what? I am different.

I have trusted Christ. He’s made me different. But sometimes there’s still that tendency to want to go back into the way I’ve lived before. And he reminds them and says, you’re supposed to be different.

Here’s what you need to do. Because you used to be that and you’re not that anymore. So I love it.

Because you’ve experienced the grace of God. So four things I’m going to give you very quickly. About how we as Christians are supposed to stay out of trouble.

Not only for our own sake, because, you know, who wants to be in trouble? Who wants, and, you know, interpret that however you want to. Whether trouble means jail, whether trouble means family issues, whether trouble means financial. Whatever trouble means to you, who needs it?

Who needs it? Stay out of trouble. Not only for our sake, but ladies and gentlemen, for the gospel’s sake.

Because I’m tired. I’m so tired of hearing, well, look at so-and-so. if they’re a Christian and they act that way, I don’t want any part of it.

That’s exactly what he’s talking about throughout the whole book. He talks about adorning the message. He talks about demonstrating the grace of God.

He talks about living a life that is becoming to the message of the gospel, that our lives should fit what we profess to do. And so for our sake and for the gospel’s sake, here are some ways that he instructs the believers at Crete and us by extension how to stay out of trouble. First of all, have a proper attitude toward the world around us.

Have a proper attitude toward the world around us. He says in verse 1, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers. We’ve talked about this a lot, the difference between obedience and subjection.

And they go hand in hand, but there is a difference. And anybody who’s ever raised children knows there’s a difference. I can tell Benjamin pick up the cars, And he may go pick up the cars and stomp and spit and snort the whole way over there to do it.

Is that what I really wanted? Or do I want him to say, yes, sir, and go pick up the cars with a happy part? Still waiting for that to happen.

But that’s the goal. That’s the goal. That’s the difference between obedience and subjection. Obedience is, yes, outwardly, I’m going to do the thing you told me to do. But if there’s not subjection, it’s I’m going to do it, but I’m not going to like it.

Subjection is the right attitude. being subject, he says here, to principalities and powers, to do things with the right attitude. Now, that can mean the government, that can mean our employer, that can mean our parents if you’re that age.

But we all have authority in our lives. We all have God-given authority. Are they perfect authorities?

No, they’re human. Are they going to make the wrong call sometimes? Yeah, but they’re going to answer to God for that.

But as long as what our authorities tell us to do, does not contradict the law of God, then we are responsible for obeying them. And if they’re wrong, they’ll answer for it. And I think about a kid I had an issue with this week in school.

And as a teacher, I am an authority in this child’s life. We had some issues with his work in a particular subject, and I had to take his work away from him and send it to the office. He said, so I’m not going to do that subject this week?

And I thought about it and said, Well, no, not until we hear back from them and they say it’s okay for you to proceed because we have a behavioral issue and not doing what you’re supposed to do. Well, I’ll get in trouble if I don’t do the work. And I sort of told him, you know, then that’s between me and the administration.

Right now, you need to do what I told you to do. And if I’m wrong, I’ll answer for it, not you. But I’m the authority, and so you need to do what you’re told.

That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about when I say our authorities will answer to God for what they do with their authority. Our job is as long as it doesn’t contradict what God has told us to do what we’re supposed to do and to do it with the right attitude, to be in subjection means to follow God-given authority with the right attitude. That is hard.

Every time we talk about this, I think how hard that is for us as Americans. We don’t like to be told what to do. I don’t like to be told what to do.

I’ll be the first to admit it. It’s hard for me having somebody say, well, you need to do this. I say in my family all the time, ask me anything and I’ll do anything for you.

Tell me what to do and we’re going to have issues. We don’t like being told what to do, but the fact is God has given us authorities in our lives for a reason. And let me ask you this.

Say you do get pulled over for, here’s a real life example, putting this passage into practice. Say you get pulled over for a traffic that you’re speeding. And I hear laughter.

Does that happen quite a bit? And the policeman comes up and says, license and insurance, please. Now, none of us want to be in that situation.

But we say, yes, sir. We comply. We go on.

He either gives us the ticket or gives us a warning. We make it so much worse when, fine, here you go. You happy now?

I’ve never done that. So I can’t really tell you what comes next, but I know it’s not good. Normally, I’m the one I get pulled over, I’m going to cry.

And not to get out of the ticket, I’m just going to cry. Because ever since I’ve been a child, I didn’t like being in trouble. And I’ve heard policemen say that when women cry to try to get out of a ticket, they’re automatically going to give them the ticket.

I’ve not met one yet who knows what to do when he comes up and there’s a man in tears. I’ve never been pulled over for speeding either. Other things, but not speeding.

Usually has something to do with the tailwind. But that gives us an example. It gives us an example of what it means to be in subjection.

How do you respond to that authority when he pulls you over? Are you hostile? I’ll pull over and I’ll give you my insurance, but I’m not going to like it.

How far does that get us in life, you know, honestly? And there are, you know what, there are times that it’s hard to do the right thing and it’s hard to react the right way, but if you do it, you’re going to end up being so glad that you do. So I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to react hostily in a situation like that, or any, but for some reason the traffic stop thing keeps coming to mind.

First thing after I moved to Arkansas, we were still in the process of moving. I had a trailer that I was pulling with stuff for the house, and it was about 12. 30 at night, so we were pulling into this neighborhood late, I still had Oklahoma plates, Oklahoma driver’s license, and a trailer from Oklahoma.

And in Oklahoma, you don’t have to have a tag on the trailer. In Arkansas, you do. They pulled me over, asked me where I was headed.

I wanted so badly to say, you had no right to pull me over because I’m an Oklahoma driver, all this stuff. I don’t have to have a tag. But I answered nicely, and I’m so glad I did because they always ask the question, where are you employed?

It was so much easier to say, I’m the pastor at Eastside Missionary Baptist Church, after I had been subject. Hear me on this. People, the world outside, especially when they know we’re Christians, they’re watching the way that we react to things around us.

Whether our authorities are our boss, the police, the IRS, it doesn’t matter. They watch how we respond to things. So we need to have a proper attitude to where we’re going around us.

It’ll keep us out of trouble. And for the sake of the gospel, It prevents people from looking negatively on Christ and on the change that he’s made in our lives. Second of all, we demonstrate our obedience toward those who are in authority.

These two, again, go hand in hand, subjection and obedience. It says in verse 1, to obey magistrates. Not only are we to have the right attitude, but then we’re supposed to do it.

We’re supposed to do it. A lot of people have good intentions and don’t follow through. I’d say in that case, in the obedience thing, it’s probably rare that somebody’s going to be in subjection but be disobedient still.

But it could happen. We’ve got to make sure we have both. We’ve got to make sure that we are obeying, that we’re doing what we’re supposed to, whether it’s what our boss tells us to do, whether it’s what our parents, if you’re that age, or our teachers or the government.

We’ve got to make sure that we’re being obedient but also doing it with the right attitude. Two different things that we’ve got. We’ve got it on there.

That one is fairly easy, not as easy as the subjection one, so we’re going to move on from that one. Third of all, we actively look for opportunities to do good. I hear the statement made a lot that nature abhors a vacuum.

Nature does not like a vacuum, meaning nothingness, emptiness. I don’t mean by that that you’re out in the woods and the bears are going to take you a hoover and beat it against a tree. When I say nature abhors a vacuum, anytime you take something out, something else is going to come in and fill it.

You know, you can kill off a certain kind of predator that’s going to try to take your cows, and then something else is going to move in and try to take them. You can kill off all the coyotes, and that opens it up for wolves and such. That’s just an example.

We try to take, as believers, we try to rid ourselves of these negative influences and things that we’ve done in the past and we get them out of there and then we need to fill that back up with something else if that makes sense. We need to fill our lives and our thoughts and our pursuits back up with something else that takes that place. Otherwise, it’s going to fill up one way or another, but we need to be intentional about what we fill up our lives with.

We need to actively look for opportunities to do good. And the point of this is that the Christian life is not just about avoiding the wrong things that we’re not supposed to do. The Christian life involves actively seeking to do God’s will.

There’s more to pleasing God than just saying, well, I didn’t steal anything today. I didn’t commit adultery today. I’m doing pretty good.

What did we do that was right? Did I wake up this morning thinking, how can I please God today? Did I start my day asking him, God, will you show me what you want me to do today?

Will you show me how you choose to use me today? God, what good thing is it that you can do through me today? God, what do you want from me?

Are we actively looking for opportunities to do what’s right? Because he tells us in verse 1 to be ready to every good work. Be ready, be anxious for every good work.

Not just waiting for the opportunity to present itself, but we are actively out there looking for things that we can do. You know, I used to, before things got quite so scary, I used to, from time to time, pull over and help people who were stranded on the side of the road. At least, you know, there are some minor things I can do for a vehicle on the side of the road.

If nothing else, back in the days when cell phones weren’t as universal as they are now, and I had one and could let people call, you know. So I would try to give some kind of assistance to people. I knew of people, though, who would get together, some of them from a youth group at Southgate, would get together with an adult and some of the youth kids, and they would go out driving around looking for people.

Hey, it’s Monday night. Let’s just go drive around and look for people we can help on the side of the road. They had a lot of fun doing it.

There’s a difference between the two. In one, I happened to be driving by and saw an opportunity to do good. Some people go out looking for the opportunity to do good.

Not specifically helping people on the side of the road, but that gives you the idea. Are we just waiting for the opportunities to fall in our lap, or do we get up every day with the pursuit of what does God want me to do today? I’m going to go out and look for it.

And fourth of all, finally tonight, he tells them to treat others the way we expect to be treated. Guys, this is the golden rule. This is what Jesus taught.

Do unto others as you have them do unto you. He says, speak evil of no man. Be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness to all men.

Tells us, don’t badmouth people. You know what? It’s going to get back to them.

And we as Christians have sort of a reputation of being gossips and being slanderers. and those who speak ill of other people. I don’t think that reputation is as deserved.

Well, I don’t think we deserve as much of that reputation as we have, but some of it is well-deserved. The world looks at us and says, oh, they say such awful things about us. Sometimes we do.

He says, speak evil of no man. By the way, telling the truth is not always speaking evil. Sometimes telling the truth is what needs to happen.

But we shouldn’t go out of our way to speak ill of people. We shouldn’t go out of our way to, did you hear what so-and-so did? Oh, I’ve got a juicy story to tell you.

You can ask me after church, I’ll tell you. No, not really. Speak evil of no man.

You know, the world hears us gossiping. The world hears us going to lunch on Sunday and griping about the preacher. Y’all don’t do that, do we?

And griping about what so-and-so did at church this morning. And griping about our family. You know what?

That reflects poorly on us. It reflects poorly on the cross. It gets us into trouble and it makes people think, why would I want anything to do with Jesus and look at his followers?

To be no brawlers. I think that pretty well goes without saying that we as believers shouldn’t be out beating each other and beating people up in the streets. We know that.

And most of us would never think to do anything of that sort. And yet it’s worth saying, not only because it’s in God’s word, but also because it happens. I tell the story all the time of pastoring, not here, and being in business meeting, and there being a fist fight that broke out over who got the mail.

You laugh, but it’s true. And being told, he hit me in the hallway. What are you going to do about it, preacher?

I don’t care. I’m done with both of you. I do not care.

You can go beat the living daylights out of each other in the parking lot. I’m done. How is that any way for believers to act?

How’s that any way for us as Christians to conduct ourselves? Why would the world want any part of it? He says, but instead be gentle.

Be gentle. He tells us to be wise as serpents, but harmless as dogs. Doug can’t hurt anybody.

He says, showing all meekness unto all men. There’s a misconception of this word meekness. Meekness is not weakness.

Meekness is not weakness. We get this idea, the world has, and some churches have portrayed Jesus as this hippie flower child. I don’t know where they got that idea.

And he was just peace and love and rock and roll. And, you know, folks, Jesus was the one who got the whip and drove the money changers out of the temple because they were cheating God’s people. What I’m telling you is Jesus was not a wimp.

Jesus was not a pushover. He even said, no man takes my life from me. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up to him.

They couldn’t have crucified Jesus if he hadn’t allowed them to. I don’t want to worship this flower child Jesus that the world portrays. This idea of meekness in the Bible is power that’s under control.

The Bible’s not telling us that we have to just sit back and be weak and sing kumbaya all the time, hold hands in a circle and dance. I’ve been to that church. We as Christians have to be tough.

We’re not a negative. We have to be strong. We have to have an inward power to deal with the things that the world throws at us, that just life throws at us.

Power is under control. You notice Jesus had the power to throw the money changers out of the temple because of what they were doing. He was also gentle enough to stop and hold the little kids and say, suffer the little children and let them come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven.

That is power under control. Jesus at the cross could have destroyed the entire universe. By the words of his mouth, he could have brought all this to an end, brought it crashing down.

And yet that same power that he used to create the universe and will one day use to bring everything to an end, he kept under control because he had a purpose in going to the cross. That is meekness. Meekness is not weakness.

And I know in particular so many men are driven away from the idea of going to church or being Christians because they think you have to be weak. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is power under control.

So he gives us these four things to do to stay out of trouble, not only for our sake and because the believers in Crete might have had some difficulty with this coming from the background they did. Whoops, to fall back into these old habits, I need to be reminded, don’t beat people up in the street. Because we don’t become sinless overnight.

We don’t become sinless ever, but we don’t become respectable Christian people necessarily when we’re not. But he gives this reminder because they would need the reminder. Some days we need the reminder.

For our own sake, stay out of trouble because you’re making life much harder for yourself than it needs to be. But also, and more importantly, because the world cares more about what we live than what we profess. And if we profess to believe in a Christ who died for us, who died for our sins, who forgave those sins, and who began to change us from the inside out, we don’t act like people who’ve been forgiven and who’ve been changed.

The gospel means nothing. Shame on us if we let that happen.