Good LEADERS

The Book of Titus | Making Leaders | Titus 1:5-9 | Pastor Duane Smets

This an exegetical sermon of Titus 1:5-9 which addresses the need for leaders, the example of leaders and the qualities of leaders. Particular attention is given to the plural elder model of church government, the importance of church planting and the qualities pastors need to possess in order to help teach and train others in those same characteristics. This sermon was originally preached on June 12th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
June 12th, 2011

Good LEADERS | The Book of Titus | 1:5-9
I. The Need For Good Leaders (v.5)
II. The Example of Good Leaders (v.6,9)
III. The Qualities of Good Leaders (v.6-9)

Introduction

This is our second week into our summer sermon series going through the book of Titus. Titus was a church planter involved in a number of young churches on the island of Crete and the apostle Paul wrote this public book letter both for him and the Crete churches and for us today that we might benefit and learn from it.

One of the things I’m so grateful to God about concerning the Bible is not only does it contain everything we need for life and godliness like 2 Peter 1:3 says but it also contains everything we need for being and doing church. The book of Titus is especially helpful for that.

Crete is a large island in the northeastern part of the Mediterranean sea and since Bible times has been an important passageway for commerce trade. Because of that it became strategic place for the going out of the gospel in the early church. In that way it’s not unlike our city, the city of San Diego…which due to it’s culture and climate and military and schools is one of the most transient or transitional places to live in the country…people are here for awhile and then gone. While that makes it difficult to plant and run a church here, it’s a great advantage for the spreading of the gospel.

The churches in Crete were young growing churches who had simply heard about who Jesus is and what he has done and the people were being changed by it. Then what happened is what happens a lot of times with new things…they grow.

When things first start out everything is sort of casual and cool. It may be disorganized and half hazard but it works because things are small and loose. But as things grow both in depth and in breadth, both the numbers of people and the messiness of lives being changed by the gospel begin to demand real, healthy, strong leaders with maturity who can manage and care for the people well in the midst of a lot of challenges.

That’s pretty much what we’ve experienced and what that does for us is put us in the direct line to receive the help and instruction from the book of Titus. It directly addresses our biggest need as a church right now and that is leaders. So we’ve called this series on the book of Titus, “Making Leaders.”

Last week we looked at the introduction to the book where we learned the biggest and most important principle of leadership and that is that God makes leaders. Ultimately all healthy and true leaders are that way because God designed and planned them to be and he is and has been at work in changing them and enabling them to be good leaders.

This week we launch into the body of the first chapter and look at the need, example and qualities of good leaders. So let’s read the text, pray over it and we’ll get into it. (read text and pray)

I. The Need For Good Leaders (v.5)

To begin, let’s talk about “The Need For Good Leaders.” In verse 5 we hear a glimpse of the historical situation in the first century which prompted the a number of events resulting in this letter we now have recorded as Scripture for all time. The nuts and bolts that we get straight from the text is Paul, the author of Titus, had been there with Titus…he “left” him there, churches were started, but Paul had not been there long enough to raise up and develop elders himself, so he “directed” Titus to do it and then he took off.

Now there’s a couple universal principles latent within the words of verse 5 here.

One, it takes time to develop leaders. When Paul was in Ephesus it took him three years (Acts 20:31).
Funny enough it took us a little over three years before we appointed our second elder here at The Resolved Church and since then it’s almost have been another three years when in a couple months we’ll likely appoint our third elder.

It takes time. We’ve had several guys that have come along but after getting to know them after a year plus, stuff starts coming out in their character or their life which shows they are really not quite there yet. In the six years that we have been a church we have had guys we thought would become pastors here that disqualified themselves with drugs, drunkenness, pornography, promiscuity, marital affairs, arrogance, and lack of commitment.

John Calvin says this, “The building of the Church is not a work so easy that it can be brought all at once to perfection.” It takes times to get the right guys. It’s why in 1 Timothy 5:22 Paul says not to be “hasty” in appointing elders, do is slow and careful and make sure they fit the bill.

The second principle here in verse 5 is the missional focus. Notice he says here “appoint elders in every town.” Crete was known as and referred to by Homer as the “island of a hundred cities.” So there is a vision here to plant churches in every one of these cities. It’s an affirmation of the principle we have seen throughout church history that the best way of reaching people for Christ is not so much through new and innovative ministries or evangelistic efforts outside the church but through planting churches.

Years ago now in 1991 C. Peter Wagner wrote “Church Planting is the most effective evangelistic strategy under heaven” and since then studies and statistics have proved it time and time again. In our own church we’ve seen several people become Christians. We want to see that trend continue and we want to plant other churches out of our church.

The third principle here in verse 5 is the clear identification and declaration that having multiple elders, a plurality of elders in each church is the model of church government the New Testament intends and instructs. We’ve got to deal with it at some point in this sermon, so I guess now is as good a time as any to talk about what an “elder” is.

In the Old Testament “elders” were the bearded ones. Which is why when we planted the church I grew out a mustache and a goatee. I’d do the full beard if I could but my face won’t cooperate. Now the word “elder” is an odd one. In our culture it often means elderly, like an old man. But that’s not the Bible’s idea of elder when it uses the word.

The book of Titus will specifically address “older men” in chapter two and in 1 Timothy 4:12 Pauls tells Timothy who was an elder in his mid thirties like myself ,“Let no one despise you for your youth.” When the church first got started in the first century “elders” were the guys who ran the Jewish synagogues, so a term that just got carried over. In order to differentiate the role, the New Testament uses a couple other terms. One is here in our passage in verse 7, “overseer.” See that? “For an overseer, as God’s steward…” It’s referring to the same elder role and underscoring that the role is being a steward God’s house. The word steward literally means housekeeper, as in a person who would manage the land and finances of a master’s estate. The overseer is literally the housekeeper of God.

The other term doesn’t occur here in Titus, it actually only occurs a few times in the Bible in reference to the leaders of the church and that’s the term “pastor.” It’s become the most popular term today for the primary church leaders but it refers to the exact same elder/overseer role. So elders, overseers and pastors are all the same thing. Got it?!

Alright, now back to the principle. I’ll just use the word pastor for you since a lot of you may not used to thinking of pastors as elders and re-read part of verse 5, “appoint pastors (plural) in every town.” So there are to be multiple pastors in each church in every town.

What we have is clear instruction on how the church is supposed to be set up and run. Commentator Donald Guthrie says this is, “an official endorsement of the plural elder system” of church government. John Stott writes, “the one-person pastorate is not a New Testament model of the local church.”

Here’s the point. Churches need leaders. My goal is not to bore you and get over technical with you here on church government but to highlight the point that the church needs leaders. Not just one but a lot of ‘em. That’s God’s design and intent for the church revealed in the Bible here. The Bible envisions team leadership for the church.

I’ll hit a few heart issues here real quick and then we’ll move on.

One, some of you have a real hard time with authority. I get that because I’ve been there. You don’t like hearing that there is supposed to be leaders who are over you that God means you to submit to. That may be because of a bad past experience, maybe a dude didn’t meet the qualification we’ll talk about in a second, or maybe he abused his role or whatever. Regardless, you can’t get away from the fact that God means for there to be elders in the church. An anti-authority attitude, when it comes down to it, every time, in one way or another, comes down to attitude of rebellion against God in your heart.

Two, some of you have a problem with church structure itself. This is sort of a subset of being anti-authority but in this one you just think community is all that matters and you see any structure as politics and unnecessary interference. Now community is super important, anyone who knows me knows I believe that. Yet, structure and systems are not a bad thing, they are a good thing, designed by God for our good. The lie is that things would be better and easier without having authority structures. It’s not true, not having it only creates confusion and inaccountability. As 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”

Three, some of you need to stop sitting back and just being a follower and letting others lead. You know there are areas and ways you could lead but you often opt just to be passive and it’s because you’re being lazy. God has gifted you and designed you to lead and if you’re not exercising that, you’re not only being disobedient but your squandering your talent and potential and the church is missing out what you have to bring to the table.

II. The Example of Good Leaders (v.6,9)

Alright, enough of me being mean. Let’s move on to our second point for today, “The Example of Good Leaders.” This is important, because in all this talk about church leaders it’s very easy to tune out and think, “oh I’m not a pastor so none of this applies to me” and you start reading this passage merely as a job qualifications list for hiring and firing pastors.

If you look at your Bibles a lot of them probably have even titled this paragraph “Qualifications for Elders.” That’s somewhat misleading. Sure that’s there, there is an official side to today’s text but at the same time there is an extremely practical reason why the leaders are supposed to be like this and that is because they are supposed to be able to lead by example and help everyone else become like the person described here. That’s why I used the word “leader” in my sermon title and outline, to help get that point across. Today is not just about pastors, though it includes them, it’s about all of us.

As I said last week, if you’re a Christian God means for you to be a leader. There are different spheres and places we lead. So if you’re a mom, you’re leading your kids. At your job, you ought to be leading your co-workers and your clients. Men are meant to lead their families. If you’re a student, you’re to lead your friends. In church we all lead one another in different ways. Everywhere you turn you’re either going to be a leader or a follower and God means for his people to be forces of influence for his glory in every sphere of life.

Look at verse 6 with me. Verse 6 says, “If anyone is above reproach.” This phrase “above reproach” is a real interesting phrase. It literally means “unaccused” or “unimpeachable.” The idea is among both the church community and among those outside the church a leader is someone who is observed and in that observing of them, there are no disqualifying marks but rather the leader has shown themselves to be a model to follow.

Now being “above reproach” doesn’t mean “sinless” or “perfect” or no one would ever be a leader. Jesus is the only one who meets that standard. Above reproach here means this is the normal tenor or character of a person’s life. Real simple, leaders often are obvious because you see it by how they carry themselves and by what they do.

It’s natural thing. There’s a real good example in the news right now. So say it comes out that you are sexting pictures of yourself in your underwear to teenage girls. Automatically, without much thought needed, the outcry from the community rises because the person has become accusable or reproachable.

The goal of every Christian ought to be living a life that is pleasing to God in accordance with God’s word and when they realize something is out of sync they quickly repent, not just with sorrow but change. But if there is an ongoing, unrepentant lifestyle happening…then really you’re not only showing yourself not to be a leader but demonstrating you’re not really even a Christian.

This is what we talked about earlier in that it takes time to find and establish leaders, because you have to watch and observe their life. It’s one of the reasons we don’t call anyone an elder or a pastor until they’ve proven themselves over time. Until then we just say leader, be a leader and then the title comes later. Too often the title can be the motivator which is really a desire for prestige or power when really the whole purpose of the role is simply to care for and lead others not lord over them.

You hear it real clear in verse 9 it when it says leaders are supposed “give instruction.” It’s so important for leaders to be above reproach because as a leader your job is to instruct others but if you are not living the way you are calling others to live, that’s hypocrisy and no one is going to listen to you and they shouldn’t.

Okay, so do two things for me. One, stop for a second and think of all the different things you are involved in amidst your life. Where are you or is there opportunity to lead? You’re meant to be a leader, are you leading? Two, here’s a real good test for being “above reproach.” Think of one week of your life, a normal week. If we were to do a reality show on your life and just follow you around with a camera 24-7 what would we see? Would we see you and learn and want to follow your example or would we want nothing more to do with you?

Your example matters. May God help us lead lives that reflect his glory, goodness and grace.

III. The Qualities of Good Leaders (v.6-9)

Okay, let’s move on to “The Qualities of Good Leaders.” I called it qualities instead of qualifications to hint at what we’ve just been talking about, that this passage though it’s listing some things that elders must be it does so because they are supposed to help everyone else become like this too.

In 1 Timothy 3 where Paul gives almost an identical list he follows it up by saying, “put these things before the brothers (1 Tim 4:6).” The idea is encourage everyone to be this kind of person. Now with that, the list also does set a standard which elders must meet. So I could’ve titled this point, “how to get myself fired.”

What I’ve got for us to help break it down is five divisions. There are fifteen qualities here and each fall into one of these camps: relation to God, relation to family, relation to others, relation to self and relation to opponents.

So we’ll go through each of these. But before we do I’ll tell you a story which helps illustrate why each of these qualities is so important.

In 1958 the Navy built the first real nuclear powered attack submarine. It took five years to build and finally one early morning in 1963 it set out off the coast of Cape Cod for testing. It got out about 220 miles and then began to take its first deep sea plunge. The sub was nearly 300 feet long and weighed about 3500 tons. As it began to dive and the water pressure mounted there was one joint in the piping system which had not been inspected correctly and the joint broke causing the entire sub to implode, sink to the bottom of the ocean and it killed the entire crew.

One of our church members is a welding inspector and he was telling me this story this last week and immediately it made me think of our text today because looking at these qualities is like looking at our joints. We’ve got these five main joints, our relation to God, our relation to our family, our relation to others, our relation to our self and our relation to opponents and if any one these joints are broken it will cause us to implode and we’ll take a bunch of people down with us.

Each on of these things here in God’s Word are so important. So let’s go through ‘em.

Relation to God

First, our relation to God: we’re a steward of God’s house, to be above reproach, hold firm the trustworthy word.

As a steward of God’s house, it means he’s entrusted things to us. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 we’re told our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit he has entrusted to us. In Matthew 25 Jesus tells us all of our money is God’s money that he has entrusted to us to steward well. In 1 Peter 4 we’re told all of our gifts and talents come from God who has entrusted us to use for his glory. And here in Titus God has entrusted to us his church. The idea drives at our personal responsibility. Being a steward of God’s house bars you from thinking of church just as something you go to and instead is something you must take care of.

In verse 7 we see and here that phrase “above reproach” we’ve already talked about a bunch, but it gets repeated there and this time in relation to God. Before it’s being above reproach before others here it’s being above reproach before God. Remember we talked about having a video camera follow you around 24-7 to watch everything. Here’s thing when it comes to God. He sees everything. Hebrews 4:13 says everything is uncovered before “the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” God sees everything.

There should not be anything in our lives we would be ashamed of before God. With God you can’t have any skeletons in the closet, things you’re hiding. He calls us to walk in the light and have everything exposed. The Christian life is meant to be the open life. I try to say it often…my life is an open book and if there’s anything that’s questionable I want to know about it and be talked to about it.

At the end of our passage in verse 9 is other relation to God that matters and that is our relation to his word. It says the example we are to lead and follow is of one who “hold(s) firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may give instruction in sound doctrine.” For pastors this definitely means he needs to be educated in the Bible, know what it says, and firmly be convinced it is true. Too many pastors don’t put their confidence in the Bible but in their strategy or methods. Our confidence must be in the word, that the word of God does the work of God.

A biography of John MacArthur written by Ian Murray just came out. John MacArthur is a pastor in LA of Grace Community Church and has been so for over 40 years. I’ve been there before. There’s nothing flashy about the place, but the church has flourished and grown into one of the largest church in the country under their simple dedication to putting a huge focus on just preaching and teaching the Bible week in and week out.

Ian Murray writes this, “It has been a ministry marked by characteristics that re-appear in every spiritual advance – not concern for ‘relevance’; not special attractions for young or old, male or female; but love for God and dependence on his Word and promises. MacArthur has proved, without ever intending to do so, that true preaching of the Word of God is international, “because if you teach the Bible it transcends every border, every language, every culture. It is as relevant today, and will be tomorrow, as in all the years since God put it down.”

But holding firm to the word is not just for pastors is it? It’s for all of us. The phrase “holding firm” could be translated as “clinging to.” Imagine a person drowning in the middle of the ocean who gets thrown a life-line. When he does, he grabs ahold of that rope and he clings to it. That is what we are supposed to do with God’s word, “cling to it” with the fervor of a drowning man lost in a sea of ideas, philosophies and religions among the world. We can trust God’s word because it’s trustworthy as nothing else is.

That’s our relation to God. We live our lives before him above reproach, we’re his stewards, and we cling to his word.

Relation to Family

Now our relation to family. Two things are in view here a person’s marriage and their kids. We’re still in verse six. The man is to be “the husband of one wife, and his children are believers not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.”

First let’s talk about marriage, “the husband of one wife” literally a one woman man. Now officially when it comes to these being qualifications for a pastor, there are the obvious things here that he’s got to be a dude, not be hooking up with multiple women and probably not divorced. When you look at the culture of Crete concubines and divorce was rampant. But the way this phrase is constructed drives deeper than just a rule.

In the Greek text these words are set right against each other and the idea really is the man’s devotion to his wife, that he is all about that one woman. As Ephesians 5:25 says, the husband is to “love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Being a one woman man digs not just into the outward actions but the internal affection toward her in all things. One Greek commentator rightly noted that this even extends to the sex life of a man in his thoughts and actions, he is solely with and for his wife.

Now if you’re single it means you’re saving yourself for that one woman. And if you’re a gal the same principle goes for you that you’re a one man woman.

Second here in relation to family is kids. What the text is getting at with a man’s children being believers not open to charge of debauchery or insubordination is that they follow his lead. The man is meant to lead and teach his family the faith and he is meant to discipline his children. Debauchery is being reckless and insubordination is being rebellious.

The idea here for leaders of the church is as 1 Timothy 3:5 states, “if a man does not know how to manage his own household how will he care for God’s church.” It’s simple logic. Every dad is meant to be a pastor of his home and for every pastor, his home is the first church he pastors. The home is meant to be the training ground for church leaders. The good dads become the pastors of the church.

I mean really, if you can’t get your kids, who are exposed to your life and teaching more than anyone else…if you can’t get your kids to follow you in the faith what makes you think you’ll be able to get anyone else to follow you? If you’re kids don’t respect you and are reckless and rebel against you what makes you think people in the church are not going to do the same?

What Scripture is demanding of it’s leaders here is no less than what it demands of every dad. And if you don’t have kids yet the principle still stand for you. Can you teach the kids in Sunday school and they get it? Do you watch out for the safety of the kids in the church, physically and spiritually.

And moms you’re included in this as well. I know it’s primarily got the man in view here because he is ultimately responsible before God for what happens in your home, but you’re often the one who implements his lead. Do your kids follow your example of love for Jesus? Do they respect and listen to you? Dads, do you make sure mom is respected?

For pastors the text here clearly demands that your marriage and children be solid. If stuff isn’t right in your marriage and your children are out of control it disqualifies you and you’re not ready or in a place where you can be a pastor. That’s why we heavily inspect and watch a man’s marriage and the way he parents before ever calling him up to be a pastor at The Resolved.

It’s so important for the pastors to be this way because it’s part of their job to try and help teach and train the other dads how to be good husbands and good dads. I mean it, if I ever cheat on my wife, even by going to a website I shouldn’t or if one of my kids denies the faith and God’s Word and I let them live in my house…if either one of those things happen I will quit being a pastor of this church and you should know that’s grounds for firing me. We’re not messing around here with this church thing. This is our lives and our families.

Relation to Others

Alright, let’s move on to our relation to others. We’ve got five vices here in verse 7 and I’m going to fire through them quick. Five nots. Not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not drunkard, not violent, and not greedy.

Not arrogant means you can’t be a know it all. To be a good leader who teaches and influences others you’ve got to be humble and teachable your self. You’re really a chief learner always listening and learning.

Not quick-tempered means you don’t get angry easily. You’re quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Actually caring for people is like standing near a puddle, you’re going to get wet. We are all tainted and messed up because of sin and often times when you try to care for other you get bit because of it and it’s easy to get angry. But if you do you end up hurting people and making things worse.

Not a drunkard means you’re free from controlling substances. If you’ve got to use alcohol to cope or function in life, you’re looking to and relying on the wrong savior. Basically don’t be Donald Draper. Alcohol is not bad, it’s okay to enjoy a beer or two it’s what happens when you have too much that brings destructive results. Not drinking alcohol is not the answer, self-control is.

Not violent. This one often goes hand in hand with quick-tempered and drunkard. The word in Greek is “plektes” which usually meant a person who like to brawl. The old King James version translates it striker. Either physically or verbally, this one gets at someone who like to fight. It’s the opposite of being gentle. It’s being argumentative and forceful.

Not greedy has money in view. It’s when you think if you just had enough money then things would be better or when your confidence is in how much money you have. Money can become an idol either way. It’s entrapment and greed either way.

Each one of these things, not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not drunkard, not violent, and not greedy are all things which are perceivable by other people because they are the ones who are effected by them. The way you treat others by managing yourself matters.

Relation To Self

Okay, now relation to self. We’ll fire through these too. Six virtues here in verse 8. Hospitable, lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

To be hospitable literally means to welcome people into your home. The principle is being friendly and letting new people in to get to know you. And this applies both to people in the church and outside the church. You need to invite other people over and in to see how you live.

To be a lover of good means your inclinations have been transformed by the gospel so you don’t delight in wickedness but always want what is good and best…it’s the valuing of the things we naturally know are good and true.

To be self-controlled actually admits there is still remaining sin in us but as Galatians 5 states, through Jesus’ Spirit living in us, we learn to reign in and master our sinful passions and inclinations…by God’s grace and help we can control them…push them down and bring ‘em in.

To be upright is to be just and fair. Not underhanded and scheming. Your honest and truthful in all your dealings.

To be holy involves a passion and pursuit of purity in your internal heart and life before God. Like the song we sang earlier, “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.” That’s a prayer for holiness…for God to purify our hearts and lives. You’ve got to care about holiness.

Then to be disciplined. This means you’ve developed holy habits. Things like spending time with Jesus reading the Bible and praying every day. To be disciplined means you’ve developed some consistency and stability in your spiritual life.

Each of these things, being hospitable, loving good, having self-control, being upright, holy and disciplined…each one matters. How you function internally effects everything.

Relation To Opponents

Lastly today we have our relation to opponents. This is the last part of verse 8 which says not only are we to “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught” and “give instruction in sound doctrine” but we are to “rebuke those who contradict it.”

To rebuke here is to refute, confront or challenge winsomely one who is not holding to the word wherein there is sound doctrine. To be a leader means you can’t just sit on the sidelines and hope and wish people will magically get straightened out. No. Change most often happens when we are confronted and challenged.

I see two ways this one plays out. One is with those outside the church. Too many Christians don’t know what they actually believe, what Christianity actually teaches and even less know what other religions and philosophies teach. We are called here to be smart. You ought to know and learn other belief systems and how Christianity is different so you can actually have a healthy conversation with people coming from a different viewpoint. If you don’t know the word and you don’t know false doctrine it will be very hard to refute other ideas when you encounter them.

The other way this plays out is in church discipline. Often times the biggest opponents we face are those among us. It’s not fun but it’s part of really loving one another to tell each other when we’re denying the word and blindly running toward a cliff.

In Matthew 18 Jesus outlines real clearly how that’s suppose to happen in the church. When someone you love and care about is caught in a sin you go them alone and you do what it says here, you “rebuke” them. If they don’t listen you go get another church member and sit them down and together rebuke them. If they person still will not repent then you go get a pastor and if they won’t listen even to the pastor then the person has revealed they are really not a church member and are not welcome among the church anymore.

Refuting opponents means you’ve got to have somewhat of a spine. You got to get a little backbone. This goes for everybody but especially pastors. I swear half my job seems to be calling people out on stuff. I don’t enjoy it but the lives are at stake as well as the purity of the church. A pastor who will not call people out on stuff is not fit to be a pastor because he just becomes a weak enabler.

If I don’t call people out on things like drunkenness, husbands loving their wives and providing, parents parenting, single people dating unbelievers, arrogance, anger, discipline…all this stuff, then I’m not a good pastor. And you don’t call people out on that stuff too you’re a bad leader and a bad Christian. We can love better than that.

This stuff matters. The truth of the gospel and the way we live our lives matters. We can’t afford to let either slip away. So know the word, live by the word, instruct one another in the word, and rebuke deviations from the word. Okay?

Conclusion

Alright, we’ve hit a lot today. Let’s conclude.

I’ll be really honest with all of you. Reading and studying this passage in depth this week was really convicting. This passage is like a surgeon’s knife filet-ing open the heart and showing everything beneath. Personally I might keep a real good tight reign on making sure I meet all these qualifications. I mean I have ‘em memorized, they’re in my phone and I take ‘em seriously.

But if I told you I don’t have to fight the temptation to be a lazy husband and dad, if I told you I don’t have to fight arrogance and anger or greed…I’d be lying. I’m not detached and patting myself on the back as a pastor for meeting all these qualifications. I figure there’s a lot of you today who maybe in hearing all of this and what God’s word calls us to here feel like it might seem like this dark heavy cloud hanging over you.

What I want to say to you is this. Only Jesus meets all of this perfectly and he did it all for us, for all of us who have failed at every point. And because of that, through his life, death and resurrection we get grace and that changes us and makes us like him.

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.“ Know today that because Jesus died there is forgiveness for failure in these areas. There is cleansing where he washes all the junk away with his blood shed on the cross and we get to start new and fresh. This is why the gospel is good news, because there is hope for us.

If we are below reproach, many women men, have rebellious children, don’t care about God’s church, are arrogant, quick-tempered, drunks, violent, greedy, unwelcoming, love evil, have no control, are unjust, unholy and undisciplined, don’t believe and trust God’s word and never call anyone out…guess what there is hope because Jesus lived and died and rose.

What we need is to know the depth of his grace and forgiveness and that changes our hearts so that we can look at these qualities and see how he bringing them about in us and enabling us to be what we could never be on our own. If you try, you will fail. If you turn to Jesus he will enable you.

So as we come to the table today to remember and celebrate Jesus death and resurrection in our reception of the bread and wine in the Lord’s supper respond this way.

Admit to God, who sees and knows everything already, admit to him where you fall short and need change. Then accept his provision of Jesus for you. Acknowledge you could never achieve this on your own and ask him to change you and make you into the leader he designed you and calls you to be.

Maybe you feel like that submarine and you’ve already imploded, the good news of the gospel is Jesus is alive and he can resurrect you and give you new life.

Let’s pray.