Titus lesson 11

announcement. I thought, if you guys agree, we'll go and do First Timothy next. What do you think? Which means we'll probably do Second Timothy after that. The reason they fit is because they're pastoral epistles, and so there's similar stuff going on in Timothy as was going on in Thessalonians. So I think that's where we'll go. So hopefully I'll get the notes out to you on the lessons this week.

So let's pray. Dear Father, I'll thank where we are to be able to come together and spend time in your word. We ask that as we do this, that you would open up our understanding and we would be able to enter more fully in to the truths that are in your word. We know that this study allows us not only to find out the facts, but also to come to a greater intimacy with your son, the Lord Jesus. And that's what we really, really strive for. And we're thankful that we can do that.

So today, we pray that you would comfort Erica as she recovers from knee surgery and that she can improve and be able to become mobile quickly, you know, six weeks or so, being incapacitated very much is really a difficult time, but that she would, through that process, grow in your son.

We also pray for, don't know his name, but you know who he is, this young man that's in an induced coma in San Antonio, who is the, a brother-in-law of a man that's a friend of mine and some others. Their doctors are saying that he probably won't survive. I don't know at this point. He is a believer. You might have already taken him home.

But that you would comfort his sister and brother-in-law. as the situation unfolds, that they would trust you and that you would use this for their spiritual growth. We continue to pray also for Russ as he deals with issues, medical issues. His faith in you hopefully is growing and he's trusting you in all aspects of the circumstances and trial that he's in. And lastly, we pray for Pat who is in a neck brace in the older man in Canada who's not a believer.

We pray for his salvation that through this process here that he First of all, Myles would have an opportunity to share the gospel with him and that you would lead him to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. So, thank you again for the grace that we live under. We pray in your son's precious name, amen. Well, this morning it's really interesting. I left my cell phone at home. and my notes. But I didn't think about that, because JD was going to teach, but his dogs are up all night. And he and I didn't communicate this week, which that's my fault. I should have called him.

So we're going to wing it. What do you think? So we can either wing it. These are verse 11. Or I've got a question that's been bugging me for two days that you can help me with. What do you think? Which one do you want to do? I'm actually very curious about that question, Mike.

How many of you read The Hungry Heart this morning? OK. So The Hungry Heart this morning, there was one paragraph in it that just sort of blew me away. So I'm going to read it, and we'll talk about it. How many of you do read The Hungry Hearts? If you don't have them, let me know. I'll get you one. I got boxes of them downstairs. And you can get them electronically on the web, too. But this morning's Hungry Heart, the title of it was Life's Motivation. And the passage that was used was Romans 8, 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God.

And first paragraph, this is not the one I want to talk about, but it sets us up. It takes a good many years of sin and failure in order to see through our own motives. What do you think about that? I mean, that's like, really? Okay. The growing believer finally learns to trust but one source of motivation, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. So that's sort of the lead-in to the paragraph that grabbed me.

It said, all of our motives will be tested by fire. Are we seeking personal influence, popularity, reputation, prestige, acceptableness, success? We may think our motives to be perfectly pure, but not until we pass into daily death, death to any and all of the above, and find ourselves despised and rejected of men, our names cast out as evil, and a real holdup, seemingly, of our work, do we really come to face the true purpose and motive of our having any place in the service of God. The cross separating us from everything Adamic, both within and without, is a good test of motives.

I think the thing that grabbed me about this is the whole idea of motives. I'm one of those people that, I've got one of those weird minds that says, why did you do that? What motivated you to do what you did, whatever it is, good, bad, or indifferent? Why do I do what I do?

And so when I read something like this and I check my own motives, am I seeking personal influence, popularity, reputation, prestige, acceptableness, success? And you guys are way more spiritual than I am, so I can probably say three out of those six I'm involved in. What do you think about that? What do you think about sitting before the Lord and saying, you know, I'd like to have, I'd like to have a greater understanding in my motives. Why do I do what I do? What do you think? Good question to ask the Lord or not?

Boy. I'm looking at the statement around the fact that they are tested by fire. Yeah. That's a little overwhelming because I wake up every day with various motives, but to think about them being tested by fire, or am I thinking about personal influence, popularity, etc., I don't know that it's a check of my motives with the Lord based on being tested by fire. Yeah. I'm curious about your thoughts there.

I don't think that Miles is wrong in what he's saying by any stretch, but to check my motives in terms of being tested all day, is that the right attitude? Yeah, that's an interesting question because, and maybe it's more interesting to me than somebody else because of the study we're doing in Romans 7 right now. But, how do I say this? One of the things you discover in studying Romans 7 is that you have this man, the Apostle Paul, and from a worldly standpoint, in his society, he was a big hitter.

You know, he had reputation. As a Jew, popularity, prestige, acceptableness, he was very successful. You know, he's like, he went to the right schools, knew the right people. Plus he was a zealot, and then he becomes a Christian. And everything that seems to have been positive to him is now a negative. All of these folks that thought he was terrific have turned on him.

And I guess maybe there's a question there. The question is, can I expect that to happen to me if I become a believer and I get serious about it? I think I can. I think there are people in our lives that I don't know if they turn on you so much as that they walk away. I remember when I was first a believer, I was 35 years old, and I spent my whole life trying to achieve these things.

The first thing that hit me was I got to give up my Bronco tickets. I had great seats, 35-yard line, five rows off the field, pretty nice. with six other people. So we always got together on Sunday morning, whether it was a way game or a home game, had a brunch and watched a game or went to the game. Well, I figured that had to go. And then a week later, I was at one of those brunches and one of the guy's wives said to me, I heard that you became one of those Jesus people. I said, yeah, I did.

She said, if that's true, I'm not going to speak to you anymore. She never did. It's 45 years later. She never did. And I thought, wow, is it that serious a thing where people will say, if you're serious about this, then you're not going to be my friend anymore? So have you experienced, a lot of you were believers as young kids, and you kind of grew up in environments where there were a lot of believers around you. I never did.

I grew up in Catholicism, which it's pretty hard to find a believer in the middle of that dance. The fire, I think the fire, JD, has to do with, all of these things that I value so much, valued, past tense, so much, begin to be, that's where the fire is. Well, it's an evaluation, right? As we grow as believers, I think the really interesting part of what Miles talked about there was pass into death daily, tested by fire. Those sound negative, right? They're like, I don't want that. Nobody wants that. But it's actually the very thing that it's not that.

The Lord is testing every single motive as much as He is desiring us to recognize that separation that we have from the endemic life. And if we're starting our thoughts in that way, surely our motives are being tested by fire, but not in the sense that you're being judged or Maybe you are.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but I think that being in a mindset of, are my motives passing through the death of my endemic life? That's my concern. That's where I need to place my thinking, because he's separating us from everything that is in the world, everything that you wake up, you're ready to go, you've got these thoughts, you're doing the things, and then you happen to catch yourself, hopefully, sooner than later in your prayer life, and maybe in your daily time with the Lord, and you're asking, Am I separated? Is my life passing into the death that I need to understand about where my motives come from today?

Is that helpful? Yeah, I was thinking as you were talking, how does God replace what used to be a motive that was really important to you before you were a believer with the one, one of his motives, which is to serve him. You know, to serve, because that's what we're called to do, is to serve him, Donna. I was thinking, you know, look at the Lord's motive. I think he would have us, I'm more aware of that. I think that, you know, beholding is in a mirror. It's, it's, that's a good point. That's a really good point. Yeah. Where your eyes are focused. Yeah. Where's your focus? Yourself.

I mean, yeah, I think the Lord shows you those things, but he doesn't want us to dwell there. He wants us to acknowledge it in the same way he views it. Okay, well that adds another element to it. As I put it this way, as my love for the Lord Jesus grows, I want to be more and more involved in whatever he wants me involved in. Which means, on the other side of that coin, these other things are going to happen.

People aren't going to understand. The fire that JD's talking about isn't because I've decided just to be a, you know, kind of a loudmouth Christian and in your face about it. It's just that my value system is going somewhere else and it's not the same as yours.

It's like in business, when you're in business, everybody's on the same page. Everybody in the real estate business, people say, how many scalps do you have? Where do you fit in the tribe? Are you one of the hitters? Are you making a lot of money? And that's the focus all day long. But then you become a believer, and it isn't that you stop doing those things, and it isn't really instantaneous, but the Lord begins to grow importance to you in a way that he begins to slowly take over the priority. He becomes first place. I want to be involved with him first, and then the rest of the stuff will, and I can trust him about all of it.

I think the thing is, there are motives I know that are just wrong. I think the testing of it is the motives that you think are right but are not. The testing is to get those that you're not aware of. The motives, I know they're wrong, that I'm not focusing on the Lord, I'm focusing on something else, and that's easy. It's the ones that I think are right or I don't notice or whatever, and the trials are meant to, I think, illuminate those motives that are not in focus with the Lord. And that's where the trial and testings are, to do those that you don't know about or don't think are not focused on the Lord or a wrong motive or something. That's where the testing is. It's just to show those things out.

The other one you say about the Bronco tickets and things like that, I go back to what we've taught several times. It's what masters you. There's nothing inherently wrong with having Bronco tickets. It's if it masters you. If you can't live without it, that's kind of the litmus test, I think, is if it masters you, then it's a problem. It's like your buddy who said golf is everything to me. You've used that example. And there's nothing wrong with Bronco. I remember old days when somebody used to give me grief about scuba diving in the house. That was me. What was it you? Oh, OK.

But I mean, I look at it as the beauty of, you know, he made this incredible creation that, you know, is decaying, but beautiful. And I see his creation in all of this, his hand in creation. Well, and so I see it that way, not as prideful or whatever. It's just I enjoy, again, he didn't have to, but he did. It's like he could have made everything grand white in this world, but he made it colorful and different animals and different things. Yeah, that's true. So I see his hand in creation, and that excites me. And I do, too.

We're studying on Wednesday night Pauline Dispensationalism, and Miles Stanford makes a very interesting point. He said the difference between Reformed theology is earth and heaven. Reformers are earth-based. The true church is heavenly based. So I think that that's where the motives start to change, is that, you know, since I'm risen with Christ, I'm to seek those things which are above.

Well, does it mean I don't go to a Bronco game? No, it doesn't mean that at all, but it means I'm doing something else that's more important to me. I don't even think about that. You know, if the Lord convicted you that scuba diving was in the way of spiritual growth, you'd never go again. I know you wouldn't, you know.

And I think that that's where the fire comes. And, you know, if you've been freed up from certain things and I haven't been freed up, then we have these conversations, well, you ought to be free of this, and oh, you ought to be free, no. The thing is, is that the Lord Jesus, you begin to understand that God intends Him to be all in all. That He, personally and alone, is to be the focus of our affections, our interests, everything. And the Lord Jesus was like that with the Father, and there's no question that the apostles, and especially Paul, was like that. They didn't—Paul says, I count everything lost for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

Well, the fire comes when you have—I think when you have to say, well, I've got to let that go, because I have something better here. You can't do both, you know? If I realize that, I don't know, that I have a, that say I realize that what I really, really like is prestige. I like people to think that I'm a pretty cool person and that I know my thing. If I begin to realize through the work of the spirit that that's in the way, then that's a hard thing to get. You just don't let it go, because it's like the law. Every time the bell rings, I respond. It's like Pavlov's dog.

I think the other is when you're talking about losing friends or whatever, I think we all probably run into people who, oh, you're a believer. Yeah. overarching thing is when I meet new believers, it's much more exciting to meet a believer than anybody I've lost who isn't a believer.

I travel and work and everything, and when you find somebody I think there was a night when we passed a guy who I think I worked with at the Water District. Oh yeah. I thought you were going to run off the road trying to wave at him. I was trying to wave at him because he's a believer. But he was the one who had heard lessons trying to find me and he heard my lesson. Oh, I like what you said on Sunday after a meeting.

I'm like, what? So yeah, and we've had great talks about the Lord. I have several engineering friends who are believers, and it's just a different conversation we can have. And so whatever I've lost in unbelievers, I've gained tenfold in believers who I have as friends or working peers. So do you think the Lord, during our lifetime as growing believers, will test our motives? Yes. Yeah, I think it will. Absolutely. And you know what's cool about that? Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad somebody's doing it.

I think it's interesting that Miles talks about the educated flesh. That's a pretty powerful thing for man, especially a believer, but that is not our motive at all. Educated flesh is simply submitted to daily death. just because you're educated and you understand how things work and you can, we'll call it fake it till you make it, you can't present yourself as a living sacrifice when you're the focus. Educated flesh is an enemy. It's an enemy to what the Lord's doing in your life. There's a lot of believers, me included, that feel educated. Like, okay, I got this.

But that's not what motivation is about. Motivation is about presenting, and I think that's really the word, present yourself. Your body is a living sacrifice, and that's reasonable. That makes sense. That's what Paul's talking about in Romans 12. It's reasonable for you to not be educated about your flesh, but to present your body a living sacrifice, I'm going to do what I'm going to do and I'm going to use you in a way that not only is, maybe you can fill in the rest of that sentence, but I'm doing something here that's far greater than your education, far greater than your thought, far greater than the way that you want to approach your day. need you to pass through death because that puts the endemic life in its place. That's presenting your body as a living sacrifice.

Yeah, that's a good point. Think about it. Miles Drager's 84-year-old neighbor, who's not a believer, rolls his truck. What's Miles thinking about? He's not a believer, and I want to go talk to him about the Lord. Does Miles realize that before there can be life in others, there must be death in you? I mean, that's one of those thoughts where you think, oh my goodness.

Or somebody even closer, somebody in your family, you know, you pray for a family member sometimes for years and wonder why, you know, why don't they come to the Lord? Why don't they see? Why don't they understand? Why aren't they drawn? And then one day they are.

Something, the spirit of God shows them something about them or about the life of somebody else and they think, oh, I want that. whatever that, I don't understand it, but there's a rest and peace about that person and I'd really like to have that. How do I get that? See, so I think my thought about death working in me so that there might be life in you is a realization that a certain kind of a person who's been trained of the Lord is useful to the Lord.

He does not, like J.D. was saying, he doesn't need somebody who... That's why I'm kind of not a real fan of seminaries. These guys all come out trained in the world system. They don't have the heart for the job. because they don't know about what the work of the cross is in their life, that the cross is there to separate them from Adam, and they can become heavenly minded so that they can be earthly good.

That makes sense, that statement. So that's why motivation always grabs me because, why do you do what you do? I mean, some people, it's obvious. You look at them for five minutes, and you know why they do what they do. That's what they are. It sort of drips off of them.

Other people, you think, I wonder why they do what they do. Especially Christian people, why do they do I remember as a young Christian, I thought, well, now that I'm a Christian, I better go watch those Christians and figure out what they're doing, because I don't know how to be one. So I'm watching them, and then I got the idea that, well, I better find out what motivates them to do what they do.

And so then you get introduced to God's word, and you begin to read it and study it, and you start to find out what the motive is. The motive is a person, the Lord Jesus. And that gets exciting, but then you're not too excited about the other side of the cross, which is death to all of this stuff. Oh, wait a minute.

You know, Mike, even I think of good Christian motives, too, that are not Not what I should be doing, I guess. I keep thinking of when you said about people, they're not believers, and you want them to be, well, family members. I thought it was my job to convert everyone to my family members. Yeah, so did I. That didn't work out so good. And the minute I got out of the way, they became believers. You know, and I thought it was my job to do that. That was my motive was that I had to get sure. And not that I don't say anything or whatever, but it was like, you know, that was my my I had to do it. That was my job. And, you know, as soon as I got out of the way, it. They all became believers, most, whatever.

And so, even though we have a great motive, it wasn't the right motive. And so, I think that's where the spirit world came from. get you out of the way, that testing will illuminate the fact that maybe you're not supposed to be the one who does it. Maybe it's not your job. Maybe it's the Holy Spirit conducting it.

And I'm just to be used as Sam Dalton used to say, I'm a straw. I'm not anything but a straw to have the Lord flow through me, and that's it. And so I think there's those things that even good motives can be tested and found out to be not what you should be doing, even though they have the Christian mantle on it or whatever. I'm amazed at how the Lord works.

I'm going to have lunch this week with a guy. that said to me 45 years ago, you need to go talk to this guy over here, which was a college friend. He's got the answer for your life, right? And that guy did have the answer. He led me to Christ, but the guy that told me to go there has never come to Christ, never. And I go to lunch with him every once in a while, and I tell him about the Lord all the time, and he's like, I don't get it. And he knows, he says, well, I'm glad I sent you to so-and-so, and it looks like it turned out pretty well. I said, well, why didn't you come with me? Or whatever I can think of.

It's amazing how the Lord knows those that are his, and within some instances, You know, you don't know why they don't come, or like, what's his name, my friend in Colorado Springs, who's a Jewish guy, his dad came to Christ 15 minutes before he died. And that's after he told his son, don't ever mention the name Jesus Christ in front of me ever again. And he went into his hospital room and said, Dad, I got to tell you one more time about Jesus. I know you told me not to ever tell you this, but he did. And he came back the next day and he said, his dad told him, well, you and I believe in the same Savior.

So this whole man's life, he gets into glory right as he's moving up to the door. Is it 948? Time for the musicians to go. Let's play. Thank you, everybody. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to spend time discussing things, principles of your word. We thank you for the fact that you're the one that changes our hearts and changes our motives so that we might be able to rest in your provision for each one of us. And that we may continue to grow in the knowledge and the grace and the intimacy of your dear son, the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen.