This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome to the New
Mercies Podcast. Just so you are aware, the way
I'm laying this out, I know we've kind of rebranded
and relaunched. I have a daily reading plan myself.
My church is going through it as well. And so
I'm going to be reading each episode each day
is going to be from the excerpt from the texts
that I've been reading. And I just want to share
a little bit about what God is doing within the
text and how we can understand and kind of walk
away with a little bit of encouragement today
and a little bit of challenge maybe. So my reading
today is in Titus chapter 2. So I just want to
read a couple of verses out of Titus 2. I hope
and pray you read the entire chapter. It's a
great chapter in the scripture, but I just want
to read a couple verses starting at verse number
11. The Bible says this. For the grace of God
has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly
passions and to live self -controlled, upright,
and godly lives in the present age, waiting for
our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness
and to purify for himself a people for his own
possession, who are zealous for good. works.
There's more scripture in that chapter, so I
encourage you, go read it and let it all soak
in. As we talked about in the first episode of
all of this, let the Word of God breathe into
your life and give you life and give it to you
abundantly. I just want to break this down and
look at a couple of things that stood out to
me today as I was reading this. The grace of
God appeared. This is Paul writing to Titus and
he says the grace of God has appeared. I believe
he's talking about the first advent of Jesus
Christ. When Jesus came to save the world as
the Savior, the Messiah, the one who would come
and repair and restore all things. That's what
he came the first time as Jesus of Nazareth.
Because he says in there he's bringing salvation
to all people. Salvation. What did we need? We
didn't need another sovereign. We didn't need
another military presence. We needed a savior
because we had an issue. The issue is our sinfulness
that kept us in rebellion against God. What did
we need above everything else? We needed a savior.
He brought us salvation through Jesus Christ.
Now, once we receive this salvation, this is
one of the most incredible places that I can
encourage you and also challenge you today to
know as soon as you receive salvation. There's
something that happens within you. I don't want
us to misunderstand the scripture today. The
scripture says, training us to renounce ungodliness.
Most of the time, whenever we read this scripture,
we do it inappropriately. We do it to where we
say, we're going to renounce anything that is
ungodly in the world. That's not what he's saying.
Because he says, I want you to renounce ungodliness
and worldly passions. Then he goes and says what
we are supposed to produce. So he first says
what we're supposed to renounce or deny regularly,
actively deny. And those things that we actively
deny are within us. It's you're supposed to deny
or renounce the ungodliness in you. The old man
of Anthony, the old man is a sinful creature
that is created in the flesh, fallen, broken,
and there are things that still linger in my
life. Yes, Jesus saved me, and yes, he made me
a new creation, but there's still the old that
tries to seep in. Anything that is ungodly, I
am supposed to renounce in my life. It's supposed
to be like, have you ever used two magnets and
you put them together and they attach? Well,
then you flip it around and they're not opposites
anymore. And then they push against each other,
right? They're renouncing one another. They're
trying to push the other away. That's what we're
supposed to do if we are a believer. Salvation
has come into our life. The grace of God has
appeared. And when the grace of God appears in
your life and takes over you, you then start
renouncing the ungodly things in your life. If
you've got something ungodly in your life and
you're not renouncing it, check your heart. Because
then it says, and worldly passions. The things
that the world is trying to make you, bring you
in, whether it be worldly lusts or worldly...
things that take your attention away from the
God of glory, we're supposed to renounce it.
We're supposed to push it away. And then what
are we supposed to produce? We're supposed to
live self -controlled. Well, if you're renouncing
ungodliness and worldly passions, the opposite
of that is being self -controlled. You're understanding,
I'm going to say yes and no to the things I need
to say yes and no to. No longer are you going
to fool me or trick me or lure me in. I'm going
to say no if you're doing something ungodly and
you're trying to ask for me to do it. If you're
trying to pull me into a worldly passion, I'm
going to say no because I'm controlled. I'm self
-controlled. I've got a sober mind that is willing
to think things through and say, does this align
with scripture or not? If it doesn't align with
this book, the answer is no. I'm not going to
do it. I'm going to be self -controlled. I'm
going to be upright. Self -controlled is inward.
I'm going to control my behavior. And then upright,
or that word is also translated into righteously
or righteousness, that's toward other people.
I'm supposed to do the right thing all the time
with everybody. If I've got the grace of God
living in me, then I'm supposed to be self -controlled
myself. I'm going to tame down my fleshly habits.
I'm going to tame that down, and I'm going to
treat you the right way, the way the Bible tells
me to treat you. If you're a brother in Christ,
I'm going to treat you like a brother in Christ.
If you are a lost person, I'm going to do my
best to draw you to the saving knowledge of Jesus.
It's changed my life. So I've got to be able
to walk in and help you see it, help you understand
it. Because then it says, and godly lives in
this present age. He's saying, whether you are
dealing with something internally, be self -controlled.
If you're dealing with a brother in Christ or
those that are around you, do the right thing.
Act the right way. Be the responsible person
in the relationship. And then it says, or if
you're dealing with, you need to live a godly
life in this present age. Those that are around
you need to see you and see the Lord first. If
I were to ask all of your friends, all of your
neighbors, all of your family, give me two words
to describe this person. Would it be godly? Would
it be holy? Would it be Christ -like? I'm just
asking. That's for you to understand it to know,
because then in verse number 13, it says this
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of
the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus
Christ. If I can tell you one thing today, I
am waiting on that day. See, he talks first about
the salvation of God. The grace of God has appeared.
Jesus has appeared bringing salvation to us,
right? He showed up as the savior. He's showing
up next. The next time Jesus comes, he's coming
as king and reigning and ruling. That's when
he's showing up. We get to wait on that day because
I know that I'm in the right relationship with
Christ. I have him as my savior. I have God as
my father because Jesus has connected me to him.
And now I get to wait for the blessed hope. The
hope that I have that I get to live forever with
the God who made me, the God who loves me, the
God who saved me. Yes, those saints that have
gone before, I can't wait to see them again.
But let me tell you this. I've got a blessed
hope. I've got an inheritance coming. And those
saints before me didn't give it to me. Jesus
did. I've got a blessed hope that I cannot wait
to see God, my Savior, Jesus again. And then
verse 14, who gave himself. This gives the explanation
as to why I want to see Jesus so bad. Verse 14,
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all
lawlessness and to purify for himself a people
for his own possession. I get to be. I get to
be in the king's house eating at the king's table
because Jesus loves me. He did that for me. If
that doesn't change the way you live your life,
you have probably Christianed wrong. You've probably
done it all wrong. Knowing that Jesus is coming
back to take me and take me home and show me
the beautiful place he's created for me to be
in perfect harmony with him forever and ever
and ever. If that doesn't affect my life today,
I've probably done it wrong. Same with you. Does
that affect your life today? Has the salvation
shown up in your life? If so, you've renounced
godliness in your life. If the love of Jesus
has penetrated your heart and your soul so strongly
and so powerfully to save you, to raise you from
death to life, you're going to renounce and deny
all of the ungodliness and the worldly passions
that once took you in. You're going to do that.
And then what are you going to do? You're going
to replace it with self -control within, with
uprightness without, and with godly lives for
the world to see. Why? Because our goal is, our
hope, we are waiting on the day Jesus shows back
up. And when he does, I'm going to be with him
and everything's going to be fine. Every tear
is going to be wiped away. Every sorrow I've
ever felt is going to disappear. I'm going to
experience perfect glory and bliss with the one
who saved me. Let that change your life today.