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Mark Wheeler
Titus 3:12-15
“Why This Is Important!”
02/23/2020
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
Through the Written Word,
And the spoken word,
May we know Your Living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Last Thursday while eating lunch with my colleague and “accountability partner”, I shared with him where we were in our sermon series in Titus. He preached a series like this at his church last Fall. I told him how much I have enjoyed this Book – one that is seldom preached from, for a whole host of reasons – because I keep finding every paragraph so very relevant to today’s America, and to me personally.
One thing we both noticed is that most English translations title this closing paragraph that we are looking at today something like “Final Remarks”. That’s a real shame because these last few lines go so much deeper than merely giving Paul’s sign-off, “Love and kisses, St. Paul”. The NASB titles it, “Personal Concerns”, which is a little better.
During this season between Christmas and Lent, January and February, we have been looking at Paul’s letter to Titus, the Church Pastor on the Island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea.
Titus is Paul’s spiritual son whom Paul assigned there to encourage these church members who were better at professing the Christian faith than they were at practicing it. They said they believed it, but they did not live like they believed it! I would say that the key verse in the letter is 1:16, “They (the Christian Church members on Crete) claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” And then every passage after that is about how to fix that problem, to remedy this dilemma, to right the wrong.
After this letter’s greeting, we learned that God expects/demands blamelessness and living in congruity with our words and with God’s Word. And then we see that every generation of Christian has the responsibility of teaching “sound doctrine” to the next generation. So that in every way we will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive … to all people everywhere! And we listen to Paul instruct us that as followers of Christ, we owe it to God Himself to do our darned best to listen for His Word to guide our voting and our conscience, and to reflect His love and mercy by being loving and merciful in our political debates.
To start today’s reading allow me to read the opening words, the greetings (chapter 1), and then straight to today’s “closing words”, the salutation. Listen for how they connect:
Hear the Word of God,
1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus 3:12-15 …. —-
12 As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. 13 Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. 14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.
15 Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith.
In chapter 1 Paul described his ministry as furthering the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness – how Titus was to encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
And then in these “Closing Messages” Paul says, “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.” When Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 to summarize the Ten Commandments as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your migh; and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22, Mark 12, Luke 10), He summarizes Paul’s “sound doctrine” of “knowing God, and [not] denying Him with their actions”.
“Devoting ourselves to doing what is good” demonstrates who we are, our identity as God’s people – not simply our behavior, not just our actions, but our very selves, as those who love the Lord our God with everything we’ve got!
This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the liturgical Season of Lent. By next Sunday we will have finished this study of Titus and entered the Season of Lent and our new series on God’s Generosity to us and how what Titus tells us becomes real in our lives as our identity is rooted in knowing Jesus and having our lives endorse Him (not deny Him).
In two Saturdays our Deacons and Elders will invest a half-day in devoting to grow in understanding a culture of generosity – God is generous, God’s people reflect God’s generosity; and the following Sunday, the Rev. Dr. Rob Hagan leads us all in learning to provide for urgent needs even after our lives have ended – so that our lives can remain productive even after we are gone.
Why do we give? Why do we give to the Church? Why do we give to charities? Why do we give to help those who have less?
Those are all questions we need to consider – why and how much and to whom? And I think we need to approach those questions in that order.
Our most recent former called and installed pastor, the Rev. Dr. Lloyd Thompson – a man who had become a self-made millionaire in his previous career – could turn a dime into a dollar. Lloyd’s personal rule of financial faithfulness, fiduciary fidelity, was if the church or charity promoted God’s Word and work, then give to your heart’s content.
Why give? Out of obedience to God’s Word – we are told in Scripture that giving a tithe is what God expects, 10% of our income to God’s church. But … obedience is not a big sell-factor. So,
Why give? Because we want to reflect God’s glory. God gives, and so we give. Giving helps demonstrate God’s presence and power in our lives.
Why give? Because giving shows our love for our neighbor. Urgent needs arise, and God provides the means to meet them by way of His people!
How much do we give? That’s a much more personal question – but the general rule most financial advisors offer is, budget your income to include 10% for savings and 10% for some kind of charity. That’s much easier to do if your annual income is $100,000 than if your income is $10,000; so, start there as a guide, but in prayer and with wise counsel, find your sweet-spot for generous giving. (If you’re a millionaire, give a way bigger percentage, and watch your generosity bless God’s purposes and your neighbors, and watch how God blesses you in and with your generosity.
To whom do we give? The Scriptures’ general guidance is to tithe to your local place of worship, but only start there. After church, to follow Pastor Lloyd’s advice, ask if it furthers God’s Kingdom. That’s a super-general rule. Right? How do you determine that? Does the UGM further God’s Kingdom purpose? Do those tear-producing ads on TV for the abused pets further God’s Kingdom? The Girl Scouts? The local public school? Medical-based charities? We all have our own priorities and heart strings and personal attachments, so ask the question and discern your answer through their stated missions and God’s Word and your understanding of what it means to fully love God, and to love your neighbor.
If the local homeless shelter shows God’s love to our neighbor, then sure! If protecting God’s created creatures seems like it is part of God’s call for you, then yes. If helping to grow young women into productive members of society, then absolutely.
This is why LPC supports things like If You Could Save Just One, CEO:Mission in Kenya, and others. This is why we receive special offerings to these organizations, to Presbyterian Disaster Funds, to One Great Hour of Sharing and Christmas Joy. These are all things we believe further God’s work in God’s name.
But Paul gives Titus one more rule here. He says to “not live unproductive lives”. Do not just expect others to take care of you. Get off your own back side and do what you can to be productive. The back side of this directive is to not make others dependent on you – give when needed, help in ways that assist their living, and then give them independence.
An example of this is our Kenya Mission. It is an on-going need – new children needing sponsors are born every day. But our goal is to help them become more and more self-sufficient. We bought them some property – so that they can plant corn and grow their own food, and produce enough to sell for living money. When the few of us who go back this summer, we will not be building their orphanage, we are going to bless their groundbreaking, to be with them as they ordain new leadership, and to grab a shovel and do what they tell us to give another hand. Our aim is that the CEO:Mission children and leaders will require less and less and be able to provide more and more.
This is why this Book is important. Through these few chapters, two pages, we hear God’s Word declare His generous grace and we learn to further the faith of God’s elect and our knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. Yesterday at the Presbytery Summit, Rev Eric Peterson preached about being a people who welcome outsiders, and he told a story about how last Fall he and a dozen others went to San Diego and Tijuana to see firsthand the effect of the border wall on those directly addressed by it. He said that they met a small family, a mom and her two young children, from Venezuela, and he gave them three bottles of water and some granola bars – a relatively easy and inexpensive little donation that meant to world to that family! The next day, as they were going through security at the San Diego Airport, the TSA Agent found two bottles of water in his carry-on that he had completely forgotten about – the TSA Agent poured the water out! And Eric realized how easy it is to take our advantages for granted, to forget what God has given us, to forget who we are in God’s Kingdom. Our identity as God’s people gains ground as we grow in grace and godliness. Let’s do that with integrity together. Amen.
Resources:
Johnson, Luke Timothy; 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus; John Knox Press; Atlanta, GA; 1987; Pp. 1-10, 136-139.
NIV Study Bible; www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/intro-to-titus/.
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