Titus 2:11-15

Holy Spirit take my words and speak to each of us according to our need. Amen

We’ve been hearing over the last few weeks that the main thrust of Paul’s letter to Titus is that there should be sound doctrine and sound living within the Christian church.

In today’s passage Paul urges us to say no to ungodliness and to live self controlled upright and godly lives as we await our eventual salvation.

When we read passages like this one today we know we ought live holy and godly lives but often we can feel defeated and very ungodly.

So what practical steps can we take to help bridge this gap between what Paul says we should be like but perhaps we struggle to live up to.

Well I think there are a few essential ingredients to living upright and effective Christian lives and this is what I’d like to look at this morning.

The first essential ingredient to living a Godly life is to read and study the bible particularly the New Testament and to know what it says about who we are as Chrisitians.

Did you know that the word Testament means a will. Hence we speak of someone’s last will and testament. When Jesus died on the cross for you he left you an inhertitance in the pages of the bible. As God’s child you are an heir to this inheritance and spiritual riches are waiting for you to appropraite within its pages.

Many of these spiritual riches concern your new identity as a child of God.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We will be transformed as people as we take on board who we are in Christ.

As we read and take in what God says about us and what Jesus’ death has secured for us and made us, it should transform the way we think about and see ourselves.

You see as Christians we have a completely new identity in Christ Jesus.

What does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? Well Jesus does have a physical body in the world today. It is made up of the millions of people in whom his spirit lives. As Christians we are part of this body. We are in him so to speak. We are now his hands and feet and mouth and eyes.

This is why Jesus said to Paul when he stopped him on the road to Damascus prior to his conversion – why are you persecuting me. By imprisoning and persecuting Christians Paul was attacking the physical body of Jesus in the world.

When we were put in to Christ Jesus, we became new people with a completely new identity. Thus Paul says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.

We used to be cut off from God and unforgiven but that person is now dead and we have been re-born as completely new people in God’s eyes.

This new person we have become is fundamentally different to the old person we used to be.

The new person is a child of God. He or she has been adopted into God’s family. He or she has crossed over from death to life and from darkness to light.

This new person has the Holy Spirit living in them. As Christians therefore we carry God’s presence around in us wherever we go. The new person has been forgiven and redeemed. The new person is bound for heaven.

None of this was true of the old person we used to be.

The new person is controlled not by their sinful nature but by the Holy Spirit. As Paul says; You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.

You may feel your sinful nature is powerful but the truth is that the Holy Spirit within you is more powerful.

As we start to see ourselves as God sees us, as we start to realise that we are no longer just sinful weak human beings but actually glorious, holy, powerful children of God, our behaviour and attitude towards ourselves and others should start to change.

The truth is that as a Christian you are Holy and therefore you can approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that you may receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need.

So read the bible, particularly Paul’s letters and the New Testament and start to see yourself as God sees you and as you do this and believe what it says you will find your behaviour changes accordingly.

Understanding your new identity in Christ is absolutely central to living a godly and effective Christian life.

Some of you may say I read the bible quite a lot but I still don’t feel very Holy or Godly.

And this brings me on to the second point I want to make, which is as a Christian you should not be ruled by your feelings. Your feelings are very unreliable and potentially deceptive. God’s word however is absolutely reliable and truthful.

The writer to the Hebrews says for instance; “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. “

Who are you going to believe – the writer to the Hebrews or your own feelings?

I was feeling quite negative and unholy in the weeks before writing this sermon. I was thinking Lord do you really want me to preach about being holy and godly as I’m not a very good example.

I was feeling spiritually out of sorts and a bit down,

But as I started to think about what I was going to say it occurred to me that most of what I was experiencing was based purely on negative feelings.

The truth about me hadn’t changed. I was still a Child of God and God was still with me. I started to remind myself of the truth about who I was in Christ and to thank God for what he’d done for 

me and then I started to feel better again.

This little episode brings me onto a couple of other ingredients that I think are necessary for a Godly and upright life.

I began to feel better when I reminded myself of the truth of who I was in Christ and thanked God for it.

Thanking or praising God is essential to a healthy upright Christian life. Praise encourages our faith and helps us to believe the truth about ourselves.

You can say in your heart thankyou God for saving me. Thankyou that I am your child and you hear my prayers. Thankyou that I can approach your throne with confidence.

I don’t know about you but I can sometimes be a bit like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh.

Eeyore as most of you will know had a somewhat negative outlook on life. Nothing good ever seemed to happen to him and if it did it wouldn’t last long.

We mustn’t be like Eeyore and if we do feel a bit gloomy the best antitdote is to start thanking God for everything he’s done for us in Christ and for all the blessings he’s given us.

There’s a little saying that I like.

Two men stared through the self same bars. One saw mud the other saw stars.

 When you look at your life do you see the mud or stars?

Thank God for the stars and your faith will start to rise like a tyre being inflated with air.

Part of the reason I felt as I did was I’m sure because the Devil encouraged me to and this brings me onto my next ingredient for a Godly and upright life, which is that as Christians we all face spiritual opposition from the Devil, and we need to be aware of it and to fight it.

The bible calls the Devil the accuser of the brethren. He likes to make us feel weak negative hopeless useless and unholy.

He likes to whisper negative thoughts into our minds - to cast doubts in our minds about our holiness, our salvation, whether God hears our prayers and whether God would ever want to use us for anything.

He likes to disrupt our walk with God and encourage us towards unhealthy worldy pursuits.

This what CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters are about.

If you listen to these negative thoughts they will paralyse you into inactivity and keep you from being an effective Christian disciple.

As Christians we have authority to tell the Devil to get knotted and to clear off and this is what we should do. Paul tells us; “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.”

The next ingredient for a Godly life that I want to mention is living with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus.

Paul says that we are to live by the Spirit and then we will not gratify the desires of our sinful natures.

The Holy Spirit is the one who lives within us to empower us to live as Jesus did. If we are to live upright and godly lives we will need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. We will need to ask for his help every day of our lives. We will need to ask him to fill us, to strengthen us, to empower us, and to guide us.

I recently read a book about a young American boy who had an experience of heaven. His father was a pastor and while the boy was in heaven he saw his father praying before preaching a sermon.

He couldn’t hear what he was praying for but he saw that as he prayed light was coming down from heaven upon him in response to his prayer.

Some time later he told his father what he’d seen. His father remembered the occasion and was really surprised. He’d been feeling a bit grotty and really not in the mood to preach but he’d not realised that God had heard and answered his prayer so clearly.

So as you try and lead a godly and upright life remember to ask God for the help of his Spirit to empower you to strengthen you and to direct you.

If you feel spirtually flat Campbell or myself will always be very pleased to pray for you to be empowered and filled by the Holy Spirit.

Everything that I’ve spoken about so far falls under the heading of what I’d call discipleship. The word disciple has a similar origin to the word discipline. If we are to lead the lives that Paul urges us to in his letter to Titus we need to be disciplined. We need to focus our lives on following God. We need to put aside time to go to our rooms and pray, time to read our bibles, time to go to church, time to attend bible study groups and to meet with other christians.

These are all essential ingredients of a healthy Christian life.

Imagine your life as a small boat with your hand on the rudder. Where are you steering the boat. Are you listening to the one who is with you? Or are you just going wherever the fancy takes you. 

To lead a godly life involves making a determined effort to steer your life in a godly direction.

So the book of Titus urges us to live sound and godly Christian lives as we await our salvation. 

This morning I’ve tried to cover some of the ingredients I believe are necessary to do this. My list isn’t exhaustive and no doubt you may have other ingredients you’d like to add.

But just to recap, firstly we must read the bible, particularly the New Testament and recognise who we are as Christians. We must take hold of our inheritance as children of God and realise that we are holy and redeemed.

Next we mustn’t allow ourselves to be ruled by our feelings. The truth about our identity as Christians doesn’t change whereas our feelings change on a daily basis.

We must thank God and praise him for who we are and what he has done for us in Christ. Don’t be like Eeyore. Look at the stars in your life - not the mud, and thank God for them.

We must be aware that we face spiritual opposition from the Devil and we must resist his lies and tell him to depart.

We must rely on the Holy Spirit and ask him to strengthen us, empower us and guide us.

And finally all these ingredients should be part of a life that is focused on walking with God as a disciple of Jesus, a life that involves regular prayer, bible reading and meeting with other Christians.