Titus


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2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus Good morning. [Audience: "Good morning."] Thank you for being here this morning. It's good to see you. I noticed as you were coming in some people are getting here early now. You've got to get here early for your assigned seats. That's good. And now that we're here, in two weeks we can begin to set up a seating chart. I've been looking to see where you're all going to land. I saw people coming in the backdoor there looking up behind them seeing if there was a balcony. Come here a minute. This guy, Sage, [applause and cheering] was it back in the middle of November, early November, like I called you up one day and said, "You're leading worship from here on out." And you'd really never led worship anywhere every week before that, right? [Sage: "No."] So you just sort of made it up. And he's been faithful. Sage is a first semester junior at University of Valley Forge studying to be a pastor, right? [Sage: "Yeah."] Yeeah, so we want to support this man, love on him. The reason I mention that is you're going to see him up here leading many more times, but next week Pastor Lee & Sage, Interim our new Worship Director comes, Brandon, he's playing his last Sunday at Worship Leader Lancaster Calvary there and moving up here this week. He starts tomorrow morning. But I just wanted to have you guys shower your love on this man because I don't know what we would have done without him, so [applause and cheering]. [Sage: "Thank you, guys. Thank you."] He serves a lot in our youth and one of our worship interns, they just love him. His heart, the humility that he has served with has been amazing. So, cool stuff, great stuff happening here at Calvary. I'll try to answer a couple questions for you right now. Everyone's asking me what's the progress? You may have noticed when you walked in today that all the holes around the bottoms of the floors are filled and they've painted almost everything this week to just get it looking fresh for you. This week they'll put in the code basing, and what we're able to get to right now it looks just the way it always has so we're thankful for that. The auditorium if you went in there it looks like it's under construction. Most of the drywall was pulled down to let it dry out and so it looks like it's just totally ripped out. The ceiling of the balcony has been pulled out because it was sitting there just holding a ton of water and all those lights, and all the wiring has been pulled out of there so they can start fresh. And then we have a sunroof now and we're trying to figure out how to make it retractable. We think that would be really cool and be something very worthwhile having so we'll see if we can pull that off. People are asking me how long it's going to be. I imagine it could be put back together really quickly, but as you know we have to do engineering and we have to do architecture and then we have to put it out for a bid and then we have to get permits and all of that kind of stuff. So, it's not going to be any time too soon but one of the things that everyone's saying is, "We love it in here!" So, I thank you for just the encouragement that all of you have been. The prayers you've been praying for us as a team, the way you all have just been jumping in and we've been getting just notes saying, "How can I serve?" "What else can I do?" "What else do you need?" And I just want to say thank you for that. I got a note from a Christian leader this week who said this: "Sir, I envy you. You are about to receive the blessing of God in your life and on Calvary Fellowship that you cannot even comprehend today." And I really do, I believe that that's been the case already. We're just seeing God's hand upon this. He's developing us and I haven't heard a negative word in this room and I just totally thank you, thank you for that. Everyone's just seeking God in this. And it sort of shook us up and in these moments it shakes us up to say, "Okay. We're plowing forward. God wants this to go on." And so we're excited about that.

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2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus I do want to mention a seminar that's coming up not this Wednesday but next Wednesday and it's got a cool title, "Tough Guys + Drama Queens." A gentleman by the name of Mark Gregston, he founded and leads an organization called Heartlight Ministries and he's coming here to tell us what to do with all these teens that are coming here; how to raise them, how to lead them, how to help them through the rough waters of being a teenager, so if you have a teenager you've GOT to be here. If you think you might ever have a teenager, you really ought to come. And if you've ever run across a teenager or you think you might serve in our teams, you really ought to come. Six to nine next Wednesday, a week from this Wednesday [Wednesday, February 17, 6-9 p.m. RSVP appreciated.]. You can just show up, that's great, but we would love to have just a little order of magnitude in knowing how many chairs to set up, so if you could sign up on the website that would help us out a ton. This is free and when I say free, I don't want you to take the value of this lightly. This is a very, very, very expensive seminar and a family in our church saw this as a need that we have as a Church that is so great that they said that this is taken care of. So, please, please take this really seriously. This man is a big deal and he brings us incredibly important information and if you're navigating the waters of teenagers like I am, I'll be here. Hey, let's just stop for just a moment and let's pray. I know you've come in here with a lot of stuff on your heart or on your mind; we're going to open up the Word of God. By the way, I know, you can lift up your heads for a moment. [laughter] Ah! There you are. I forgot to tell you something. So, over the next few weeks this room's going to develop a little bit. What you see right now is just what we were able to pull together pretty rapidly. We didn't have any plans for this, as you can imagine. So, one of the things, this is so cool, the one "complaint" that I've heard is like the coolest and greatest complaint. Everyone's telling me, "I couldn't read my Bible. It's so dark in here." I was so thrilled to hear that! What that means is you're carrying your Bibles to church. In 99% of the churches in America no one carries their Bible to church. If you watch, you'll see that. That's not true here, so I want you to be able to read your Bible. I want you to bring your Bible to church. I want you to be reading it all week. Thank you for bringing your Bible to church. We had these racks like you see up there that are supposed to hang from the ceiling. Well, no one wants to hang anything from a ceiling right now. They're scared of hanging things from the ceiling so we had to pay an engineer and he crawled all over this roof measuring everything ten times over to make sure that the little that they weigh can hang from the ceiling. And the engineer finally signed off on it this week and the Township agreed to let us hang those. So, they tell us we have to take them down every week, they think it might be a little too much strain on the roof to be up all week long. No, I don't know why, but we have to take them down every week. But anyhow, I say all that to say we ordered some extra lights, there's going to be three of these [points up at lights] throughout the room here and we ordered some extra lights for down lights on you because some of you are in a big, white splash and the rest of you are in darkness, so we ordered some extra lights. It probably will never be perfect but it's a lot of better, so we'll be getting that over the next couple of weeks. I just wanted to bring you up to speed on everything I know you're asking me about. And like I said, that's one of those questions that it's sort of a problem that's a wonderful problem, so you can use your iPhones and your iPads and Androids and all that kind of stuff or your flashlight app to see your real Bible. [laughter] All right, now I want to pray for you. Jesus, Thank you for letting us come together. Thanks for the sweet spirit in this room and in this Church. Thank you for people who just have the faith to believe that You're in all this and that You're walking us as a Church through something and You're taking us to where You want us to be. I just thank you that there's been so much prayer and so much encouragement and so much love in this room. And Lord, I pray that that prayer and encouragement and love would just –2–

2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus spread throughout this area. That this would be a lighthouse for those who are just hurting in need of the soothing balm that only you can bring. And so now, right now, Lord God, I just want to bring each of my brothers and sisters in this room before you. I know they've come into this room with a lot of stuff weighing them down and there's things that they're asking You to touch them. Lord, would You right now just wrap your arms around each person in this room? I pray that they would just be able to feel your Presence. I pray that they would be able to hear your whisper in their ear right now. I pray that they would not leave here the same as they walked in. So Lord, I pray that You would lighten their load. I pray that You would take that burden off their back. Lord God, I pray for that pain that they are feeling in their life, maybe it's a relational pain; I pray, Lord, that You would give them a way through that. Lord God, something that's happened to them in the last week that is just weighing them down, Lord, I pray that You would give them an answer to that in this time. Lord, You've told us that we can ask for wisdom and You'll give wisdom, and so we're asking for wisdom right now. We know that You are a God who heals. And I know there are people in this room right now just saying, "Please heal me, Lord God." And I pray that maybe even in this room this morning You would bring complete and full healing to them physically. Lord, I know that in this room right now there are those who are struggling in their marriage. There are people that left home this morning and things aren't right. Lord God, I pray that You would do a work in those relationships and in these families today. Lord, we brought up teens. We know some in here just wish somehow something could help their teenager. So, Lord God, I pray right now that as we open up your Book that it would come alive in front of us. That your Holy Spirit would reach into those dark recesses of our lives and do your work. I pray that where my voice is not helpful that it would disappear and your voice would come up. And Lord God, I just pray that You would allow your Word [audio stopped 0:29:29.0-0:29.21.1]. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Amen. Okay, if you have your Bibles and you can see them, turn to the book of Titus. If you're new to our community here, we started a year ago in the Bible starting with the book of Genesis and we read one book of the Bible a week. And so this week we read the book of Titus, next week we're going to read the book of Philemon, and if you're new to this and saying, "Yeah, I'm committed to reading a book of the Bible a week," know that you are a blessed lucky person. Some of us who have stuck it out all the way, we had to read 1st and 2nd Chronicles in one week. It was a long week and some of these people in here did it and they've been doing it all the way through. The nice thing with Titus, it was nice and short. Do I have an amen for that? And Philemon is even shorter and it's a powerful book on forgiveness. You gotta come back next week. You gotta bring someone along and be part of that. The book of Titus, Titus is a book written by Paul to an individual, the first letter written to an individual. Titus was a young pastor that Paul had been traveling with. Paul drops him off in the town of Crete to minister to the church there. And, in fact, he says to set things straight. Evidently something was broken and, in fact, in chapter 1 where you see that phrase, "I sent you there to set things straight," it is the picture of setting a bone, putting things back together again. And most specifically the thing that is so broken in this church is the teaching. False teaching had slipped into that church.

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2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus It's a theme we see through the New Testament. It's not something that we talk a lot about in our time. I think in our time we think if they're saying words from Bible probably it's okay teaching, but you may remember that Satan even took God's words all the way back there in the Garden at the beginning of our Bible when he said these words—I'm just going to turn there, you don't have to turn there, Genesis chapter 3. You may remember in the fall of man. It says: 1

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” — GENESIS 3:1

And in that moment Satan takes God's words and begins to go to work with them to try to confuse and to try to lead her away. And you know as a result of that sin came to her and then it was passed on to all of us and that's why we're dealing with the messes that we're dealing with today because of the curse of sin on mankind. Satan has very few tools at his disposal and yet just keeps using those tools over and over to mess us up. We've said it before, he is an ancient enemy and he has learned how we respond and how we respond to things and he keeps on messing with our heads. And so he takes something that sounds biblical, something that God says, and throws a little twist on it and begins to lead us astray. The Apostle Paul saw this so much through the New Testament where The Church of God quietly and easily got moved off of the path by false teachers. Chapter 1 of Titus Paul says to Titus, hey, listen, we talked about some of these things. I'm putting them in writing now; go appoint elders to lead and to teach well. And he gives a description there of the qualifications of those elders, those teachers in The Church. Move to chapter 2. Chapter 2 begins with these words: 1

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. — TITUS 2:1

And he's going to go on and he's going to say this: I want you to talk to young men, young women, older men, and older women. He's going to address those four groups, so be thinking about that a moment. I'm going to ask who's who here in a minute. And you notice I didn't say old men or old women. I said older men and older women. So we'll see which group you're going to identify with here in a second. Let me just say this, he says I want you to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine. If I said to you I'm going to ask all of you to become teachers and I want you to teach things that's in accord with sound doctrine, I think a lot of us would back up and sort of hold back and say, "I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I'm trained enough. I don't know if I have a curriculum enough to teach with sound doctrine." I want to say this to you this morning: When you walk out of here you will and we're going to make this really quick, so you will get this and you will be able to do this. And what you will get and what you will be able to do the Bible calls sound doctrine. It's simple and it has to do with how to live out life on a daily basis. Crazy practical, crazy simple as to exactly what we have to do and the Bible calls that sound doctrine. Before I go on, let me ask you this question: Can you think of an older man that you respect a lot? An older Christian man that you just go, man, when I look to that person I go, "Wow. I really, really respect that man." You got that name in your head? Maybe you want to write it down. Got that name in your head? Church, we're in a small room now, we can see each other. Shake your head, talk back, all this kind of stuff, just get involved here. Okay? Gotta stay awake. Okay, think of an older Christian woman that you just go, "Now THAT is a godly woman." Got that name in your head? Oh, that was fast. Good. Okay. Now I want you to think of a young man that you look at and you go, "That young man –4–

2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus has a lot of promise." Got it? Okay. A young woman that when you look at that young woman you go, "She, boy, she's awesome." Got it? A couple of you, beautiful. Okay. So, here's what chapter 2 says, here's what you say to older men. Titus, if you're teaching these older men here's what you should tell them. Here's what you say to the older women. And here's what you say to the younger men, and here's what you say to the younger women. So let's just start out and let's go easy on this crowd here this morning. How many younger men do we have in this room? Come on, get your hands up. Let me see them. Let me see them. Okay. Okay. How many younger women do we have in this room? Good. How many older women do we have in this room? Okay. How many older men do we have in this room? Lots more honesty in this service than first service. Well done. At least we got over that hump. The Church is growing from hour to hour in our walk with the Lord. That's awesome. So, here's what he starts with. He starts with speaking in verse 2 to older men and he has six things he tells older men; that Titus needs to tell older men, six things. That's a bunch. He thinks we can handle it, guys, so are you with me? Men, this is for you, older men, this is for you. Here we go. First of all: 2

Older men are to be sober-minded,

What's that mean? Well, they have their priorities in order. They've lived enough life that they step back and they say, "You know, I don't need everything that I once had. There are things that matter. I'm going to be sober-minded and I know what I'm about right now." The second word it says here they're to be sober-minded, they're to be: dignified, Any dignified men here this morning? So, you've lived a lot of life. You've seen how life works and as a result of living a lot of life and seeing how life works, you know how now to respond to the specific issues of life. So, sober-minded, and then this next one and there's three groups of people who are going to be told this, they are to be: self-controlled. Specifically, above reproach; that no one can bring an accusation against you. That the way you live when no one's looking is the same way you live when everyone's looking. You can go in the front door of a place and come out that same front door. There's nothing to hide. You are above reproach. We can go so far as to say this person who is self-controlled has learned to manage their will, their emotions, their words, their passions. There's a lot in that. But he says teach the older men to be self-controlled. And then he says I want them to be: sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. — TITUS 2:2

That adds up to six different things he says. Sound in faith, that these older men realize that in the course of life that God's got it. They realize there's a lot of things that are going to happen out of their control that we're going to step back and go, "Yup. There's a hole in the roof. Yup. Evidently, God knew that was going to happen. Evidently, God's okay with that. God, we trust You for whatever You're in the midst of doing. God, how do you want me to move forward now that there's a hole in the roof?" Just trusting God that He's on the throne, that He's got it and it's okay. And then I don't have to control it, I don't have to fix it, I don't have to manage it, I just need to trust Him in that. Sound in faith. –5–

2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus Then it says sound in love. That's not a word normally described of guys. Some of you guys are already starting to figure out what you're going to do about Valentine's Day next week and you're going, "Oh, shoot. That is this month." Because that's not normally the first impulse that most of us guys think of. When a guy tells us he loves us we have to add the word "man" behind it to just make that okay. But he says part of this deal is we're to be a group of people sound in love; learn to be people that can love one another. Then the final one says sound in steadfastness. For so much of the world they run hot and cold, up and down, you never know what to expect and Paul says to Titus teach these guys how to hold the plane steady. That we're not all over the place, that we're not all over the map doing one thing this week and another thing next week; living one way today and another way tomorrow. Know who we are, know what we are called to be, know who we're called to live for and stay there. He says this is what you're to teach the older men. Then he immediately rolls into here's what you would teach the older women. He starts out by saying this: 3

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior,

So the question is, okay, how? And he sort of gives a list and basically the list that he gives is how older women are to show their maturity, how God has matured them so that they can live this thing called the Christian life. So just because they're older—they're old enough to have to now color their hair because the roots are gray—just because they're older doesn't make them mature in their faith or be maturing in their faith. He says what I want you to do here is I want you to find those older women who have grown in their faith and who can now exemplify that, and he says this, here's what I want you to teach those older women. He says they're likewise to be reverent in their behavior, and then he says this: not slanderers Evidently under the inspiration of God, he knew that one of the problems that older women would struggle with is what they say about other people to each other. Enough said? Yeah. And then he says: or slaves to much wine. And then he says this: They are to teach what is good, — TITUS 2:3

One of the things I love to do when I'm reading the Bible is observe certain words that are repeated over and over, especially when I'm in a small book like this they sort of jump out to me. And one of the things I recognized right away this week as I was studying this book is I saw the word "good" all over the place and so I went back and just highlighted that word throughout this book and it's all over the place. In a lot of what he's doing here is when he says hey, teach the older men, teach the older women, the younger men, the younger women, over and over it's teach us to do what's good. He's not just trying to make us morally good people. So if as a result of this we all just become better people leaving here today we could become better people and still spend an eternity in hell; that would be a very bad thing. In fact, the Apostle Paul clarifies this in chapter 3. And if you're looking there, you may want to just glance over there to verse 3. In verse 1 he talks about every good works, verse 3 says this:

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2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus 3

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. Couldn't have described it better of what life before Christ looked like. If you ever want to tell your testimony, one of the best ways to tell your testimony is to say this is who I was before Christ and this is what happened when I put my trust in Christ. Look what it says next. It says this: 4

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us,

Isn't that cool? When the goodness of God, he says here, I was no good. You know, in our ABC's on that little card for salvation that we have. The first one is Admit. Admit that I was no good. Here's where I was. This is who I was. Here are the things I was given to. Satan keeps on causing people to be given to those things, but because of the goodness of God—so it's not about my goodness. Foundationally, the thing that's going to matter is the goodness of God being placed on you by His Son Jesus and you receiving that and accepting that. And that's why he says when the goodness of God our Savior came upon me. You see, the only good in me is not found in the fact that I'm good, it's found in His good. And so he says here when the goodness of God came upon us 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, — TITUS 3:3-5

So, when he says this teach what is good, here's what is good: What God has done for us. Older ladies, he says, here's what you teach younger ladies. Teach them what is good. Tell them about the righteousness of God. That they don't have to be what they once were. This is who I was and this is who I am because of the righteousness of God coming upon me. And this is where God is taking us in the days ahead. So that's your testimony. You need to be thinking about that and it's an awesome place to be. Now, let's continue on. He says they are to teach what is good, now look at verse 4: 4

and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, — TITUS 2:4

Here he tells the older women to train the younger women. He doesn't tell Titus, hey, your job is to train the younger women. He tells Titus tell the older women to train the younger women. Again, you say, well, I don't know what I'd tell them. I don't know what I'd train a younger woman. If a younger woman came to me and said, "Hey, teach me. Train me," it might be sort of like, "This is a scary moment. Now, do I get a book to take her through?" I'm just going to tell you in about three sentences here he tells you everything you need to do. The first thing you can do, if you've got that opportunity, it says train them to love their husbands. How would you do that? I think just simply by saying this is how I love my husband. Any of you ladies have an unlovely husband at one point in your marriage? Don't raise your hands. This is how we got through that. That's how we worked our way through that. That's how we got over that hump. Teach them how to love their husbands and then it says and their—let me hear you—children. So you teach them to come to the seminar on—no, no. Yeah, that'd be a good thing, tell them you'll come with them and then you'll actually have a conversation and spend some time talking it through and processing it afterwards. "Let me come with you. Let's talk about it. I had teenagers at one time. I have children. My kids were little." And so that they can bounce things off of you. You say, "Well, I don't know that I –7–

2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus have all the answers." Yeah, sometimes that's better. Just someone to say, "Oh, my, I know what you're going through," and cry with you and pray with you and just to be there alongside of you. Sometimes they have some phenomenal wisdom and that would be like a good thing. That would be bonus. But teach them this is where I've been, this is what I've seen, this is what I know. And then it says this, teach them to love their husbands, their children, and here's this word again: 5

to be self-controlled,

So the men need to learn to be self-controlled. These mature women need to teach the young women to be self-controlled. Let's redefine that again. Above reproach so that no one could bring something against you; so that what's going on internally, so that what's going on in private is the same thing that you see in public so that no one could bring anything against you. Learning how to keep under control your emotions, your tongue, your passions. This is something that you can talk about constantly. See how simple this curriculum is? Older ladies, this is what you would teach the younger ladies. And then he adds a few other things to it. He says helping them to be: pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, — and he says this so — that the word of God may not be reviled. Because here's what happens. People from the outside know what's going on in the inside of our homes by how things are going with our husbands, how things are going with our children, how we respond and how we speak and how kind we are, how loving we are. And he says here when we live like this we live the life of the goodness of God flowing through our lives, the Word of God will be seen by others and say, "This works." This doesn't take a huge seminar to figure this out. We can just follow these couple things. These are the things that he says are to be taught. Now, I like verse 6. So we've covered older men, we've covered older women, we've covered younger women. How many things do you think he tells the guys to teach the younger men? One. Because we guys if we have to teach something, we won't be able to remember what to teach. [laughter] So he told the guys earlier on you need to be self-controlled. We go, "Yeah, that's probably an area we need the most help." Okay, that's the thing you need to teach the younger guys. 6

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. — TITUS 2:5-6

Just teach them to be self-controlled. If you can teach them how to be self-controlled, you've got it. You've got it covered. You'll be good to go. It covers just about everything. Guys, older guys, if you want to teach the young men, teach them how to be self-controlled. Anything coming into your mind right now of the things that you struggle with in self-control that you could really work with them on to help them become self-controlled so that they are above reproach? So that they can manage well their own emotions, their own will, their own passions. I'll say this; remember I asked you a few minutes ago write down some names, think of some names? Do any names come to your mind right now? Is there one of those names that's really sticking out to you? Maybe you're a young woman and there is an older woman, don't tell her she's an old woman, tell

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2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus her she's an older woman, she's older than you, an older woman that you just feel like I wish that woman would reach out to me. Go to her. Here's the cool thing. Just this week I received an email from Stephanie who's working with our Women's Ministry and she was sort of laying out some of the stuff that all the ladies are talking about where they want to go right now and the thing that she said is she goes we want, we want so bad to just be working at the older women mentoring the younger women. Isn't that cool on the week that we're talking about Titus? I just saw her out in the hallway a few minutes ago and she said, "Ah, I didn't send that to you this week. It was sent last week. Talked to you a little bit about my weeks." I don't know when that was sent to me. I read it this week. You see, already, as a Church, when we want to put something together as a group to figure out how we can help each other, the thing that comes out is exactly what God's already said. Younger women, say to the older ladies, "Help me. Help me. I need you." Older ladies say, "Girls, let me jump in there with you." So would you right now think of a name, older ladies, of a younger girl that you would reach out to? Younger ladies, if no one reaches out to you, can you think of a name of an older woman that you would trust and respect that you could call or send a note to this week and say, "Any chance?" Men, is there are young man that you could reach out to? I was excited this morning. I noticed something on the stage here this morning. This stage leading worship has people on this stage from the age of 14 to 62. You see, this church believes that all ages are important. The Word of God believes that all ages are important, and the Word of God takes and brings us all together. It doesn't separate us out and say young people there, old people here. This is a service for young people, this is a service is for older people. It brings us all together. We need each other. I'm going to stop right now and I'm just going to bow my head and just pray that we as a Church will be a group of people that will just come together and begin to reach out to each other. Lord God, Thank you so much for your Book, for your Word. Thank you that we get to talk it through today. And I would pray right now that You would lay on our heart a name of a younger woman or a younger man or an older man or an older woman that we can reach out to and say would you walk me through it. I pray that all over this room we will get connected and that we will help grow each other in your Book and in your Word. Lord, I heard that word "self-controlled" mentioned so many times this morning, so I know in this room right now that that's what many of us are needing help with, and so I pray for each person that is struggling with that today. We know that this isn't what we can muster up, but we know that your Holy Spirit will help us through that, so I pray that You will help each person. Lord, thank you that we can give our gifts right now and our offerings. Thank you for all the people over the last month that have seen all that's been going on and have just given so generously. Lord, thank you for the generosity of people that many we have never met, that don't know, that are concerned about us and our needs right now here at the church and just the extra expenses right now and have helped. Lord, I pray that that generosity would inform our generosity even as we watch that happen; to just change us. This isn't about something small but that You're doing something really big here and that we can be a part investing in it. So Lord, use these gifts for your glory, to touch a life, to win a child to You, administer to a teen, to help parents. Lord, to help those who are on our behalf spreading your Word on the other side of the world. We're thankful we can just be a part of this, so God, You be glorified right now. We ask in Jesus' Name. Amen. –9–

2016-0207. {The Book} | Exemplification | Titus Okay, so at the ends of your rows, you're sitting on like that end of the row, right there or right there, there's a bucket right underneath your seat. If you'd just reach under your seat and grab that bucket and pass that across and give you an opportunity to just generously give your gifts back to the Lord. Thank you, again, thank you for your generous giving. It's been amazing and it's been incredibly important in this time. I pray that You've been blessed by your giving, so just take those buckets and pass them across and someone will come pick them up. God bless you as you give. [CLOSING PRAYER] Thank you, Lord, for what You're doing in my heart. Thank you for what You're doing in the hearts of my brothers and sisters in this room. And Lord God, I pray that we won't just end that quickly. Lord God, I just pray that You would just continue to do a work and those who are just wishing they would have come up; I pray that you still will. And Lord, I pray that as we step out of here today that we would live lives worthy of the calling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Give us a new resolve to fall under the leadership of your Holy Spirit and follow what You're doing in our lives this week. We love you, Jesus. Help us to love each other while even as we leave here; not to rush out but to care for each and love on each other in this important moment. We love you a whole lot, Jesus. We thank you for coming into our church and doing a work that we would have never done. It's in Your Name we pray. Amen. Thank you for worshipping here. Don't rush out. Don't rush out of here. Encourage each other. Minister to each other. I know there's this urge to tear down the chairs real fast; give us like ten minutes. Let's just, after the last service there were a whole bunch of people just came up to the people here in the front to be prayed over. Just don't rush out of here. Come on up here. Let them pray over you and care for you and do ministry with you. We're here for you. We want this to be a place of God's work going on. God bless you and thank you for being here. Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/154502734

SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS ARE FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV). COPYRIGHT © 2001 BY CROSSWAY BIBLES, A DIVISION OF GOOD NEWS PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT © 2016 – LEE WIGGINS – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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