This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back, New
Mercies Today. Tuesday, February the 10th, I
just want to share. We're reading in Titus chapter
3 today, and I don't want to read through the
whole text because I know I'm going to read this
again another point this week, but I want to
jump in and just talk about a couple of verses
specifically in Titus 3. Letter from Paul to
Titus, a great church leader. I want to read
verses 3 through 7. This is what stood out to
me today, and I guess that the call today is
really remember who you were and where God found
you and what you're really doing. Sometimes as
believers, I think we get so far in our Christian
journey, we forget where we came from. I used
to tell people that somebody... I knew that was
a great believer, a man I would trust with my
whole life, had a terrible story. I didn't know
him until after he had become a Christian and
a believer. And he was just the most passionate
man I'd ever been around. I mean, he absolutely
loved Jesus so much. It's like he loved Jesus
more than I did. And I thought, what is the deal?
And he used to tell me, he used to break down
and say, I was so far gone that I had no hope
until Jesus showed up. Like I had no hope. And
in my mind, I thought, well, none of us did.
And I began to realize that sometimes we forget
where we were. And I think if we go back, as
Paul encourages. With Titus here, if you go back
and remember just what kind of person you were,
now you may say, well, I was a kid before I knew
Jesus. Yeah, but you know, you had no hope, right?
No hope. I want to read a few verses here, beginning
in Titus 3, chapter number 3, verse 3. The Bible
says this, For we ourselves were once foolish,
disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions
and pleasures, passing our days in malice and
envy. hated by others and hating one another.
But when the goodness and loving kindness of
God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Not because
of works done by us in righteousness, but according
to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration
and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured
out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
So that being justified by his grace, we might
become heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. This is wrecking me today. And I hope and
pray it wrecks you a little bit. And it reminds
you of where you came from. It says we were once
ourselves foolish. Do you know what foolishness
is? It's not knowing truth or not acting on truth.
You may have had truth around you, but you were
acting in a foolish way, a way that was against
truth. You were that way. I was that way. We
have all been that way. Before salvation showed
up in our lives, we were foolish. We did things
that were in rebellion to God. That is foolishness.
If we could just see a picture of God's throne
and just watch the scene in heaven right now,
and we would do, if we did anything contrary
to that, we would be absolute fools. The thing
I like to say is we'd be idiots, right? We'd
be absolute idiots. How foolish can we be to
know this God created us and loved us and still
act opposite of the way he wanted us to? That's
foolishness. Once ourselves, all of us that are
believers now, we were once living in opposition
to the truth. We were foolish. He says we were
disobedient. Not only were we living in a foolish
manner, we were also disobeying what God told
us to do. He said, live this way. And we said,
no, we're not going to. We rebelled against him.
We were disobedient. Don't think that just because
you're a Christian now and you've kind of figured
some things out now that you don't forget where
you came from. You were once disobedient. It
says we were once led astray. Do you know what
led astray means? You were tempted and fooled
by a lesser thing. That hurts. As I'm reading
this today, I was once led astray, meaning the
enemy, who one day, by the way, is going to bow
and proclaim Jesus is Lord. Now, it's going to
be too late for him. He's still going to be separated
from God's glory and his presence forever. He
is so foolish and such a loser. And he has once
led us astray. Don't ever forget that. Don't
ever forget. You were once lured by the enemy
to stay out of God's presence. That's what we
once were. We also were once slaves to various
passions and pleasures. You know what a slave
is, right? It's somebody that doesn't get to
choose their own. They don't get to choose what
they do. They have no freedom. You once had no
freedom from whatever was holding you back. You
were once a slave to that. I was once a slave
to the sinful nature that I had. Because of our
disobedience, we were slaves to the world's passions
and the world's pleasures. Then it says passing
our day in malice and envy. We were once walking
around, I want that. I don't have that. I don't
have that. I don't have that. One of the best
explanations of the Garden of Eden I could realize
was that it says the tree was in the middle of
the garden. It was in the midst of the garden
or in the middle of the garden. So do you realize
Adam and Eve had to walk past everything God
had given them to get to the one thing they weren't
supposed to touch? They had to walk past abundance
to find the lack. They had to walk past all that
God had given them and see the one thing that
God said, don't eat of this tree. I can't help
but think most of us in our life have so much.
If you are listening to this or watching this
today, you have a device or a resource that 100
years ago, 10, 15 years ago, you didn't have,
right? We have so much abundance, and yet we
focus on what we lack. That's how you walked
before you were a Christian. That's what you
did. You walked around and said, I don't have
this. I don't have this. I don't have this. I'm
envious. I've got malice. I don't like. It says
you were hated and hating. You were hated by
people and you were hating other people. That's
what you did before you were a believer because
you're of the world. And the world is where Satan
is roaming and messing and doing things in. That's
what's gone on. It says, but. I love that but
in the scripture, but when the goodness and loving
kindness of God our Savior came, let me tell
you, if it wasn't for his goodness, if it wasn't
for his kindness, we would be in a very, very
miserable, terrible place. We don't think about
that every day, and we should. Shame on us. When
the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
when that happened, verse 5, the first phrase,
he saved us. Are you walking around saved today
or are you walking around in envy, in malice,
in slavery? Are you walking around today in those
passions and those worldly lusts that are still
pulling you and still bring? Are you walking
around in being foolish? Are you walking around
led astray? Are you walking around in disobedience
or are you walking around saved? Are you living
saved today or are you living? foolishly, unsaved,
walking around like you've got something else
that's more important or more valuable to you.
His loving kindness saved us, not because of
anything we did. Well, yeah, I read just before
that the things I did were terrible. He didn't
save us because of what I did. He didn't save
me because of what I did. He didn't save you
because of what you did. He saved us because
of his loving kindness, according to his mercy,
not because of ours, because of his great mercy.
By the washing of regeneration and renewal of
the Holy Spirit. That's why he saved you and
how he saved you. He washed you by the Holy Spirit
of God. And verse number six, whom he poured
out richly on us through what? Through who? Through
Jesus Christ, our Savior. It was all the work
of Jesus, every bit of it. If our life does not
point people to Jesus, we're living wrong. I'm
telling you, as I read this more and more and
more, and why did he do it? For what reason?
Because he gets us. That's why he did it. It
says, so that being justified by grace, we might
become heirs. You know what an heir is, right?
It's a family member. It's one who receives from
a family. We are an heir according to the hope
of eternal life. I get to live forever in a home
that God builds for me. I don't have to go build
my home in heaven. He's doing it. I don't have
to do anything to get what God wants to give
me in heaven. I am an heir of his. Why? Because
Jesus. That's it. That's the only reason. There
is no other reason I get anything that God gives.
It's because of Jesus. It's not because of how
much money I gave. It's not because of how many
times I spoke to people and encouraged people.
It's because Jesus. came and died and lives again.
And then he gives me, he washes me by regeneration.
This beautiful spirit of God comes over me. And
because of that, I get to receive everything,
all the benefits of being a son of God. That's
what I get to receive. Why are we walking around
led astray and disobedient? Stop. Just stop.
That's what we once were. There's way more in
Titus 3. Don't have any more time to jump into
it today, but an encouragement to you today is
live saved. Live verse five out, but he saved
us. Not because of anything we did, but because
he's awesome. If somebody took a bullet for you
and they lost their life and you were rescued,
my guess is you would tell everybody how great
that person was. That would be my guess. Well,
here's the deal. Jesus took more than a bullet
for you. He took on every mistake you've ever
made, every problem you've ever had, every foolishness,
every time you were led astray, every disobedient
move. He took all of it. Every time you slipped
into worldly passions, every time you allowed
any of that to end your life, he died and took
on the wrath for all of that so that we could
be heirs of God's family. Go live like it today.