The Embassy of Heaven: Living as Christ’s Cultural Artifacts

• The Church as an Embassy [00:48:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines the church as an 'embassy of the kingdom of God' where the culture reflects the home country (America/Christ's Kingdom) rather than the surrounding world.
• Sanctification and Transformation [00:54:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the culture of the kingdom is transformative to believers' lives, moving beyond mere teaching to practical holiness.
• The Reality of Sin in the Church [00:52:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor acknowledges that the church is not perfect because it expands in 'enemy territory' alongside 'tares' (Satan's work) and contains sinners who are not yet glorified.
• Church Culture and Lordship [00:54:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the church culture must reflect Christ's rule and lordship, not just in teaching but in the lived experience of the congregation.
• Christ-like Leadership [00:56:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Identified as the first cultural artifact, emphasizing that leadership must be word-centered, teaching sound doctrine, and modeling integrity.
• Christ-like People [01:02:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > Identified as the second cultural artifact, focusing on how believers must model Christ-like virtues to 'adorn the doctrine of God' and influence others.
• The Role of the Word [01:00:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that the church's culture is fundamentally a 'culture of the Word,' where scripture shapes and transforms the community.
• Christ-like Modeling [01:08:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses analogies of sororities and the Marine Corps to illustrate how behavior is caught through observation and imitation of mature believers.
• Intentional Training and Instruction [01:10:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the church must actively train, mentor, and coach believers, citing Paul's instructions to Titus and Jesus' training of the disciples.
• Barriers to Training [01:15:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies pride (admitting need for growth) and impatience as primary reasons churches fail to train, using a road trip analogy to illustrate the patience required.
• The Grace of God [01:18:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that the church's existence and fruitfulness are solely dependent on God's unmerited favor, contrasting this with the 'church growth movement's' reliance on human formulas.
• Salvation and Sanctification [01:22:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that grace brings both justification (salvation through faith alone, not works) and sanctification (ongoing transformation into Christ's image).
• Grace and Salvation [01:24:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that salvation is a gift received by grace alone, requiring humility and repentance, not earned by works.
• Sanctification [01:25:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > Defined as the ongoing process where God's grace transforms believers into the image of Christ, empowering them to do good works not to earn salvation, but because they have it.
• Divine Empowerment vs. Human Action [01:26:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that while humans are commanded to act (evangelize, preach, live virtuously), the power to do so is provided by God's grace, using John Piper's APTAT acronym to illustrate the balance of human dependence and action.

• Sermon Illustration [00:48:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of an American embassy in a foreign country (like France or Japan) to explain how the church should feel like 'American soil' or Christ's kingdom, distinct from the surrounding culture.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal childhood memory of visiting Disneyland with his father, describing the sensory experience (smell of cookies, rides) as entering a 'land of enchantment' to illustrate how the church should be a transcendent, enchanting experience reflecting Christ's kingdom.
• Sermon Illustration [00:53:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a Baptist joke about a man on a deserted island with three houses: his home, his current church, and his 'old church' (which he had to leave), illustrating the common experience of church hurt and imperfection in congregations.
• Sermon Illustration [00:53:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > A Baptist joke about a man on a deserted island with three houses: his home, his current church, and his 'old church' which he had to leave.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The biblical story of Nehemiah throwing Tobias out of the temple and raising Ezra to read the Word, illustrating the critical importance of leadership in restoring a community.
• Sermon Illustration [01:03:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy comparing church members to Disney 'character actors' who are trained to reflect the vision and enchantment of the park, just as believers should reflect Jesus Christ.
• Sermon Illustration [01:08:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > A personal anecdote about observing distinct mannerisms and speech patterns in different sororities at A&M, illustrating how culture is 'caught' through modeling rather than just taught.
• Sermon Illustration [01:09:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > A reference to Marine Corps training at Parris Island, where elite Marines model perfect behavior for recruits, illustrating how younger believers should model Christ for new Christians.
• Sermon Illustration [01:08:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes how influential girls in sororities set behavioral standards that others model, and how the Marine Corps uses top-performing Marines to train recruits through example.
• Sermon Illustration [01:13:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts visiting Watermark Church in Dallas, observing an open lobby where people were meeting one-on-one with open Bibles for training.
• Sermon Illustration [01:16:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a family road trip with children asking 'are we there yet?' to illustrate the patience required for training others.
• Sermon Illustration [01:19:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor critiques the 'church growth movement' for relying on formulas, lighting, and music to attract people, arguing this is a weakness compared to reliance on God's grace.
• Sermon Illustration [01:24:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor quotes 19th-century bishop J.C. Ryle, describing how true Christians come to God by pleading no other plea than Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.
• Sermon Illustration [01:27:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about learning an acronym, APTAT (Admit your need, Pray, Think of a promise of God, Act the miracle, Thank God), from John Piper, which he uses to prepare for preaching and illustrates the Christian life of dependence on God's grace.

• Pastoral Charge [01:08:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > Men in the church to visibly model self-control for younger believers.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > Congregation to live as visible reflections of Jesus Christ in all public and private interactions.
• Pastoral Charge [01:25:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Humble oneself, repent of earning salvation, and receive Christ's offer.
• Pastoral Charge [01:24:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > Humble oneself, repent of earning salvation, and receive Christ's gift.
• Pastoral Charge [01:31:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > Actively step forward in faith and obedience rather than waiting passively.

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:10:22] As we prepare our hearts for worship, I'd like to open us up in God's Word to Psalm 67. Psalm 67.
[00:10:34] And as we read God's Word and listen aloud to His Word, I want you to just think about, I was sharing this morning with our orchestra and choir, about the kindness of our God.
[00:10:47] Isn't our Lord kind to us? He is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and forgiveness.
[00:10:57] on that in my time with Lord over the last couple of weeks of just being reminded, even as Paul writes in Romans, of how it is the Lord's kindness that leads us to repentance. And as we listen to
[00:11:13] God's word in Psalm 67, think about his kindness as the psalmist starts off in verse one. May God be gracious to us and bless us. Make his face shine upon us that your way may be known on all
[00:11:30] the earth. You're saving power among the nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you judge the peoples with
[00:11:43] equity and guide the nations upon the earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its increased. God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us.
[00:11:57] Let all the ends of the earth fear him. Fear him. May that be the tenor of our worship as we come to him on this Lord's day. So if you will, bow your heads with me and let's go to Lord in prayer
[00:12:10] and ask him to prepare our time this morning and prepare our hearts for worship. Bow your heads of me. Gracious God, Lord, we shout for joy to God all the earth. We sing the glory of his great name,
[00:12:24] giving to him the glorious praise. We say to God, how awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you.
[00:12:39] They sing praises to your name. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this Lord's day.
[00:12:47] Father, thank you, Lord, for the grace and, Lord, your kindness that you've given to us even now, at this moment, Lord, on this Sunday.
[00:12:56] Father, I pray that you will prepare our hearts for worship.
[00:13:00] Block out any distraction from our mind and our heart.
[00:13:03] Lord, I pray for those in this room that have had a hard week, that are going through the midst of suffering, going through the midst of hardship.
[00:13:10] Lord, I pray that your spirit will comfort their heart and their mind in Christ Jesus.
[00:13:17] I pray, Lord, that as we sing songs of praise and continue to build the fellowship and pray, and most importantly, have the Word preached to us, Lord, convict us, guide us, and Lord, sanctify us to Your truth
[00:13:30] and make us more holy and righteous in Your sight.
[00:13:33] Father, we pray these things in the good name of Christ.
[00:13:36] Amen.
[00:13:38] Well, if you will, let's stand together and let's sing and give God praise by singing, O Worship the King.
[00:13:43] Let's stand together.
[00:14:00] We'll just take a moment and meet your neighbor beside you.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:16:41] and the grace of the Lord Jesus.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:17:39] The elders here at the King's Chapel, as we continue to read through the catechism questions, we are again reminded of God's grace through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
[00:17:52] Today we're reading questions 55 and 56.
[00:17:55] I will read the questions, and together we will read the answers.
[00:18:00] Question 55.
[00:18:02] What do you understand by the communion of saints?

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:18:23] Question 56. What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?
[00:18:54] Good morning, King's Chapel family, and happy Memorial Day, or I should say welcome this

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:19:26] this Memorial Day and this rather gloomy but nice and relaxing Sunday. I hope you had a good relaxing day as I did yesterday. It's one nice thing about being in Raleigh on Memorial Day weekend. The traffic isn't so bad if you have to go out, but with a rainy day, you don't even have
[00:19:44] to go out, so good all around. But I do welcome you, welcome those that are joining us online, And I would like to direct your attention to our announcements this morning.
[00:19:56] But first, as you're pulling that out, if you are visiting us this morning, if this is your first time or if it's maybe a second or third time and you'd still like to find out a little more information about the King's Chapel,
[00:20:09] I would ask you to look in your pew in front of you.
[00:20:12] There's a blue and white card, a connect card.
[00:20:15] There's places there where you can place your information, telling us a little bit about yourself and giving us all the details so that we might follow up with you. On the back of this card, there is a prayer request form. We'd love to
[00:20:31] hear from you too. If you have something on your heart, on your mind that you would like prayer over, we have a prayer team, a dedicated prayer team that considers those and prays over those during the week. Our elders would also like to know about that so they can be praying
[00:20:46] about you as well. Well, I don't know if I even said, my name is Jim Briggs. I'm the pastor of discipleship here. And as we take a look at your bulletin, I want to just call attention to a few
[00:21:00] things that are happening. Actually, there's a lot of things that are happening. You may have noticed though, if you got here at nine o'clock sharp this morning, our life groups are no longer meeting. Sorry about that if you didn't get the word, but we're glad you're here anyway. So life
[00:21:14] groups have have wound down for the summer and so we are going to take a couple of weeks break and then we start up our summer teaching series so June 7th you will come here for the life
[00:21:26] life group hour which is at nine o'clock and you would we're going to join right next door in the fellowship hall for some really excellent teaching over the next four weeks of June so every Sunday
[00:21:39] nine o'clock, we'll meet in there for teaching. And then that'll be followed by King's Cafe. So four weeks in a row of King's Cafe where we can meet and mingle and enjoy some warm fellowship
[00:21:51] and maybe a couple of tasty treats. Let me also mention that a few things coming up in June. One is a summer story time. So we have something planned for our younger people here in the
[00:22:07] congregation. That's coming up June 4th at 10 a.m., and so if you want information about that, check your bulletin. There's also for our young but not so young adults, the Grill and Game Night is coming up on June 6th at 4.30. That's going to be at the kids' house. We'd like for you to
[00:22:30] register online just to let us know that you're coming, but that should be a lot of fun as well.
[00:22:35] We have a family meeting coming up on Sunday, June the 7th at 6 p.m.
[00:22:42] So just mark your calendars.
[00:22:43] You'll want to come and hear some of the important information, the church budget and other information about the church.
[00:22:53] Life groups, as I said, have been suspended for the summer.
[00:22:57] We are in the middle of planning for the fall.
[00:22:59] So as I said, come back in June, but keep your ears open as we think through what's going to happen for next year for exciting things coming up, new ministries starting up in the fall.
[00:23:11] If you would like to be a part of those, there is a place in your bulletin to sign up to be a volunteer and to be involved in those different ministries.
[00:23:21] well I would now like to invite the ushers to come forward to receive our tithes and offerings and then I'd like for you to join me in prayer if you would as we begin our day together in worship
[00:23:37] so bow your head with me and pray heavenly father thank you for the opportunity to come together this Memorial Day weekend. And as it is Memorial Day weekend, we pause to remember those brave men
[00:24:00] and women who did lay down their lives for the cause of freedom. We're so grateful and deeply moved by their supreme courage and their selfless love and their ultimate sacrifice.
[00:24:17] Lord, comfort their families and friends, those that have lost loved ones who carry the weight of losing a loved one. Guide our hearts as we honor each of them this day and this weekend.
[00:24:34] Father, we pray for peace for the whole world. We pray for the armed forces, those men and women serving today that are in harm's way. Lord, we pray for our president and all of the leaders
[00:24:49] of the world and of this nation that through wisdom they will pursue peace. Lord, we thank you for the cross of Christ. We thank you that when Jesus came and offered his life, it was a perfect substitute to cover all of our sins father we we ask for forgiveness and the
[00:25:16] new life that we receive through him as we claim him as our lord and savior father thank you for calling us into your presence this morning here in this church though it may be rainy outside
[00:25:32] we're reminded that you pour out your grace on all the world. And as the plants are renourished, as they soak in your goodness, Father, we pray the same would be the case for us as your Holy
[00:25:46] Spirit helps us receive your grace upon grace. Father, bless our service today and lead us by your Holy Spirit in every moment of our lives. Speak to us clearly today through the word as preached and the word as read and recited, Lord, and in the word that we give back to you through
[00:26:10] our praise and worship. Father, we ask you to convict our hearts this morning, those times that we have turned against you in thought, in word, and in deed. Father, forgive us of our sins. Thank
[00:26:27] you that your word promises that when we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Father, now humble our hearts as we lift this up,
[00:26:44] this prayer and all the prayers of the people in your son, Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:26:52] And Christ is mine forevermore. Can you hear my angelic voice now? Good.
[00:30:32] In a moment, we're going to sing Christ is mine forevermore.
[00:30:35] And this is a sweet hymn to sing together as a congregation.
[00:30:38] But, you know, Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century pastor and theologian, talks about in one of his books the sweetness of Christ, the sweetness of Christ.
[00:30:48] And what he means by that is when, as a believer, you experience the grace and the majesty and the love of God.
[00:30:54] And when I think about this song and sing this song with you, that's what I think about is the sweetness of Christ and how, as Pastor Grant, in just a few moments, will teach us through in Titus,
[00:31:05] just reminded of how He, through His Holy Spirit, disciples us in our inner being and makes us more into the image of His Son, Jesus.
[00:31:14] So, if you will, let's stand together.
[00:31:16] Let's sing this hymn together, Christ is mine forevermore.

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:31:19] For days that God has come, I was made.

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:31:48] Titus chapter 2 and we are going to read the whole chapter of Titus chapter 2 but as for you teach what accords with sound doctrine older men are to be sober-minded dignified self-controlled sound in faith in love and in steadfastness older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior
[00:37:06] not slanders or slaves to much wine they are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children to be self-controlled pure working at home kind and submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled likewise urge the younger
[00:37:27] men to be self-controlled show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own
[00:37:50] masters in everything. They are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Four, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and
[00:38:16] 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
[00:38:37] a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. This is God's holy word. You may be seated. And let's go to the throne of grace. Our triune God, we praise you this morning.
[00:39:07] Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, we are especially thankful for our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, the God-man, the eternal Son of God, who came into this world, who took on our humanity. Lord, we know that you lived for us a righteous life, fulfilling
[00:39:27] the law of God, and then you laid down your life on our behalf. And then, overcoming death, you rose again from the dead, and you have now ascended to the right hand of the Father,
[00:39:43] where right now you are mediating on our behalf as our perfect and great high priest.
[00:39:50] it is in the mighty and perfect name of Jesus Christ that we now approach the throne of grace knowing that you are a gracious and kind God and that you have showed your mercy upon us what
[00:40:05] mercies you have given us that we were born in this country or came to this country a country where we have religious freedom to believe what has been handed to us in Your Word, that we may proclaim the good news
[00:40:28] on the streets, in the halls of government, in our schools, that we can tell people about the good news of grace that Jesus Christ has appeared bringing salvation to all people.
[00:40:43] What a wondrous country that we live in.
[00:40:45] And Lord, we know that this freedom is not free.
[00:40:49] And so, Lord, we thank you for the men and women who have given their lives in defense of this country, who paid the ultimate price in so many wars so that we could be here freely worshiping
[00:41:02] the triune God. We thank you, Lord, for their sacrifice today. And we do not take that for granted. Lord, we pray with our freedoms that we would live lives that are a living and holy
[00:41:17] sacrifice to you as you exhort us to in Romans 12 1 that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we would not be conformed to this world so Lord we pray even this morning that you
[00:41:30] would transform our minds more and more into the mind of Christ that we would think your thoughts after you and Lord that we would put into practice your word that we would be sanctified in the truth
[00:41:44] by the power of your Holy Spirit.
[00:41:49] So, Lord, we pray that you would sanctify us now as we come and study your word, as we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
[00:41:56] Sanctify us, Lord.
[00:41:57] Do a mighty work today in our lives.
[00:42:02] Lord, we pray this for your honor and your glory.
[00:42:06] Amen.

[00:42:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:42:16] Let's sing this hymn before we hear the preaching of God's word in Titus.
[00:42:20] And let's sing together, Fairest Lord Jesus.
[00:42:23] If you will, let's stand together and let's sing.

[00:42:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:42:25] your heads with me one more time lord enlighten our minds as we now study your word do your work

[00:47:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:47:23] of sanctification we pray lord for anyone here who does not know christ as lord and savior that you would open their eyes to the truth of the gospel and that they would be saved we pray lord
[00:47:34] that you would do that miracle of regeneration this morning we pray lord that you would speak through me and the power of your Holy Spirit. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen. Well, if you would
[00:47:48] open up your Bibles to the passage that I read earlier, Titus chapter 2, and we are going to do a series within a series. We're going to do a mini-series on Titus chapter 2 called The Culture
[00:48:03] of Christ's Kingdom. The Culture of Christ's Kingdom. And what we're going to do this morning is we're going to do a flyover of all of Titus chapter 2, and we're going to notice certain things, but it's not going to be an in-depth exposition of the chapter, but we're going to
[00:48:21] look at it and seek to understand the culture of Christ's kingdom in general. One of the ways to think about the church here on earth is that it is an embassy of the kingdom of God. An embassy of
[00:48:41] the kingdom of God. If you've ever been in a foreign country and you lost your passport or you needed to speak to an American, you make your way to the embassy and Marines are out front
[00:48:53] guarding it. And when you step foot in the embassy, are you still in France? Are you still in Japan? Where are you now? You're on American soil. And as soon as you walk through the door
[00:49:09] of that embassy everything that you now see everything that you experience is American the culture everything in that embassy is a reflection of the United States of America in many ways that's what the church is to be for the kingdom of God is when you enter the
[00:49:32] fellowship of the kingdom of God you have entered into an otherworldly experience in fact it's a transcendent experience. It's a transcendent experience of God's kingdom here on earth.
[00:49:47] Really amazing to think about. Perhaps one of the best illustrations of this that I can think of is going to Disneyland. I remember when I was four or five years old, we were out in California,
[00:50:03] And this is when my father, Preston, was dating my mom.
[00:50:11] And so they took me to Disneyland.
[00:50:13] And I remember going through those gates.
[00:50:16] And you begin to smell the aroma of, what is it?
[00:50:20] Chocolate chip cookies that they're pumping through the entire place.
[00:50:26] And you go ride Pirates of the Caribbean.
[00:50:30] And It's a Small World.
[00:50:32] And all these rides.
[00:50:33] And what does it do?
[00:50:36] It takes you to a land of enchantment.
[00:50:39] That's why people love to go to Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom at Disney World.
[00:50:44] It's not because the roller coasters are better than what you get at a Six Flags or something.
[00:50:51] That's not it.
[00:50:51] It's because you are entering into rarefied air.
[00:50:56] And that's what Walt Disney designed it to be.
[00:50:58] He designed it to be a place that reflected the enchantment that you experienced in Snow White and Pinocchio and all those movies. Well, that's what the church is to be. The church is to be,
[00:51:16] as one of my friends said, the loveliest place on earth because it is an embassy of Christ's kingdom. When you come to a biblical church, that's what you are supposed to experience.
[00:51:33] Now, let's be honest with ourselves. Is that all of our experience in various churches?
[00:51:42] Like, think about the various churches. If you've been a Christian long enough, think about the different church experiences that you've had. There's even a thing now called church hurt, where people have experienced pain and difficulty in churches. People go to various
[00:52:00] churches and they don't experience the sweetest place on earth. Why is that? Well, I'm not going to have you turn there, but Jesus, of course, gives us the answer to this. Matthew 13, he gives us the
[00:52:13] parable of the kingdom. He says, the kingdom of God is like a farmer. He goes and sows seed.
[00:52:17] and then he says but an enemy comes at night and what does the enemy sow tares tares and so the tares jesus says grow up alongside the wheat of course he goes on to explain who is the enemy satan satan so the church is planted christ is building his church and by
[00:52:43] the way, he goes on to say that the kingdom is like leaven, that it continues to expand and grow.
[00:52:49] It's like a mustard seed. It grows into a great tree. And so Christ is building his church.
[00:52:55] The kingdom is expanding, but it's expanding over enemy territory. It's expanding in the midst of tares. And so it's very, very, very difficult to have a biblical church that completely reflects the kingdom of God on earth. And by the way, are we glorified yet? No, no, we're sinners.
[00:53:28] And so as long as we're in the church, the church is not going to be perfect. Have y'all heard the old Baptist joke about the man who was discovered on a deserted island, and he had three houses?
[00:53:39] And they said, well, what's the first house? He said, well, this is my home.
[00:53:43] They said, what's the second house? He said, this is my church. And they said, well, what's the third house? He said, well, that's my old church. I had to leave it. Well, in many ways, that's our
[00:53:57] experience. But yet, what Paul is commanding Titus to do as a church planter and evangelist is to build, as best he can by the grace of God, a culture in the church that reflects Christ's
[00:54:16] kingdom. And that's Titus chapter 2. It reflects Christ's rule on this earth. That's what we are to be about. Is Jesus Lord? Yes, He is. Therefore, this place, the church, must be under the lordship
[00:54:36] of Jesus Christ. And what happens when you do this, this is why it's so important. It's important, one, because the church must reflect the lordship of Jesus Christ. We must give praise, honor, and glory to Him. But secondly, it's important because the culture of the kingdom is transformative
[00:54:56] to our lives. It's not just what we teach, although teaching is of primary importance, but it's what you experience when you come into the church. We can teach the truth, but if everybody's angry and dour and upset, do you think that's going to impact the world?
[00:55:18] Of course not. So it's more than just what it's taught. It's not less than, but it's the entire culture of the kingdom reflected in the church. So what are the artifacts of that culture? One
[00:55:33] of the things we sometimes say is it's one thing to say that you have a culture, but what artifacts prove that you have that culture? And I want to show you this morning, just fly over, we're not
[00:55:45] going to look at each of these very long, but four cultural artifacts that should be present in the church. Okay? So, artifact number one is Christ-like leadership. Christ-like leadership.
[00:56:03] Leadership that reflects Christ's rule in word and deed. Notice this. This is interesting.
[00:56:13] In Titus 2, the chapter begins with an exhortation to Titus as a leader.
[00:56:22] Look at verse 1.
[00:56:24] But as for you, Titus, teach what accords with sound doctrine.
[00:56:30] Now, notice verse 15, how the chapter ends.
[00:56:35] It's bracketed with another exhortation about leadership to Titus.
[00:56:41] declare these things exhort and rebuke with all authority let no one disregard you so where does Paul begin he begins with leadership with Titus where does he end Titus 2 he ends with leadership do you think that's enough no he puts it in the middle as well look at verse 7 and 8 he comes
[00:57:06] back to Titus right in the middle. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech, so on and so forth. Do you think
[00:57:18] leadership's important? Leadership is massively important. History proves this. You study the Scriptures, it proves this. Remember when the children of Israel came back from exile, things were in a shambles. A fellow named Tobias had gone into the temple and taken up residence even
[00:57:38] in the temple. And a man, he was the shortest man in the Bible, Nehemiah. Nehemiah came back, he grabbed Tobias by the collar, threw him out of the temple, he organized people to build the walls,
[00:57:58] and he raised up a man, a priest named Ezra, to begin reading the Word of God. It hinged on leadership. And so there's a sense where if you have the right leadership in place, biblical leadership, any church can be salvaged. Any church can be salvaged.
[00:58:21] Herschel York, who I work for in Kentucky, pastor at Buck Run Baptist Church, he used to say, if you have the pulpit, then any church can be led in the right direction because ultimately the pulpit and the leadership is going to drive the church. Now notice what Titus's leadership
[00:58:43] is to be about. This is important. It's not just secular leadership. It's not just generic leadership. It is a word-centered leadership. Look at Paul's instructions in these three verses.
[00:58:58] They all involve teaching. Teach what accords with sound doctrine, verse 1. Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, verse 15. Then in verse 7, in your teaching show integrity and dignity. So, the teaching of the Word of God, massively, massively important for this culture,
[00:59:25] and that's important because the Word is given by who? Christ. So, if you're going to have a Christ culture, then it's going to be saturated in the Word. And let me say this, I think the degree
[00:59:39] that the Word of God is taught in the church is the degree that the church will be submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ. So, some churches, it's not so much. And you say, is the gospel
[00:59:53] there? Yes, the gospel is there. But is the culture of Christ's lordship fully reflected in that church? Not so much. And sadly, if I might say a word about our denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, this is what has happened over time, is so many Southern
[01:00:16] Baptist churches aren't really going deep in the Word of God. And so now we're having a disagreement about the ordination of women. Well, you have to go a long way. You have to move a long way to be
[01:00:33] having that disagreement. If churches are really teaching the Word of God, there's no disagreement because it's very clear. We've studied this in Titus 1 about the office of elder being reserved for men. So, leadership, so important. And let me just say this, the culture of the church
[01:00:58] is really a culture of the Word of God. The culture of the kingdom is a culture of the Word of God. I've been reading this book. It's by a Lutheran, Lutheran theologian pastor named Harold Sinkbill, and the book is called The Culture of the Word. And here's a quote. Let me
[01:01:21] give you this quote. He says, faithful mission in a chaotic world builds on this New Testament template. People in every context, every nation, tribe, and language should be acculturated by the Word of Christ. Did you hear that word, acculturated? People from different places,
[01:01:41] different cultures, they need to be acculturated. They become part of this culture by the Word of Christ. For two millennia, Christians have held that the church cultivates its own transcendent culture in a rapidly shifting social context, and it's the culture of the Word. Don't you love that?
[01:02:05] The field is the world. The seed is the Word. The Word grows and cultivates its own unique culture. You could put it this way. As the Word is sown, the culture is grown. The Word creates
[01:02:21] its own unique and transcendent culture that undergirds, shapes, and directs the mission and life of the holy Christian church on earth until Jesus comes again. That's what we want.
[01:02:36] You enter this fellowship, and you experience the culture of the Word of God.
[01:02:44] And of course, it begins with leadership, but it doesn't end with leadership.
[01:02:50] It keeps going to the people that are within the congregation.
[01:02:55] That's the second artifact, the people, Christ-like people.
[01:03:00] If you go back to the Walt Disney illustration, when you go into Disneyland, what do you see walking around? Little girls, who do you see? The princesses, right?
[01:03:16] You see the character actors, and those character actors are to be a reflection of the vision, the story, the enchantment that Disney had in mind. By the way, do you go get character actors from Universal Studios or from other parks? No. You get the character actors that are trained
[01:03:42] in Disney, and they are to be a reflection of that enchantment, okay? When somebody comes into the church and they see a member of the church, what is that member of the church to be a reflection
[01:03:59] of? Answer, the Lord Jesus Christ. When someone encounters you, and it doesn't have to be just in this building, by the way, but when somebody encounters you at Walgreens and you're upset at the pharmacist, you're saying a few mean things to the pharmacist because they messed up your
[01:04:19] medication, what do the people behind you in line think? Man, that person's a comradion.
[01:04:26] I don't want anything to do with that person. No, what we're to be is we're to be a genuine, genuine, bona fide reflection of Jesus Christ here on earth. Remember Jesus said, you are my body. You are the hands and feet. When people see us, they are to see Christ.
[01:04:46] Christ in you is the hope of glory. And so the people that are making up the church should be a reflection of Jesus Christ. Now, this is all over this chapter, all over this chapter.
[01:05:02] So if you look, notice the different way that Paul addresses different groups and how they are all to reflect Jesus Christ. Look at verse 2. He addresses older men. He says, older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, so on and so forth.
[01:05:23] older women, verse 3, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine.
[01:05:32] They are to teach what is good. Younger women, next verse, verse 4, he says, so train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.
[01:05:49] Younger men, verse 6, likewise urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
[01:05:56] Bond servants, slaves, verse 9, he says, bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything.
[01:06:04] They are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, that in everything, and underline this phrase, it's an important phrase because I think it's true of all people in the church, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Isn't that
[01:06:24] beautiful? You think of an adornment, you think of something that beautifies something else.
[01:06:32] And what Paul is saying is that the actions and the virtues of Christ's people adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior. If I were to ask you why you became a Christian, almost everyone's story involves a Christian who was kind to them and invited them in to the
[01:06:57] Christian life. Somebody came along at some point and said, I want you to know something. They took an interest in you. They said, look, you know, I think God can work something in your life. And
[01:07:09] they invite you to a Bible study, or they invite you to be a part of a group, and along the way, you see something different in that person that's compelling. You say, what is it? What is it that's
[01:07:22] so compelling? And they say, let me explain it to you. Jesus has changed my life. You say, wow, would you like your life to be changed? And that's our introduction to the gospel so many times.
[01:07:38] And so in the people that we encounter that are Christians, we see who we want to be.
[01:07:46] And so the reason why this is so important for the culture of Christ's kingdom, think about a new Christian coming into this church.
[01:07:57] Now, I can teach them from the pulpit who they're supposed to be.
[01:08:00] We can give them the exhortations, just like we're doing.
[01:08:03] Young men, you are to be self-controlled.
[01:08:07] I can give the exhortation.
[01:08:10] But what else do they need to see? They need to see other men exercising self-control.
[01:08:19] Because in so many ways, Christianity is caught just as much as it's taught. And this is true in all of life. It's true in all of life. When I was at A&M, I would go to the different sorority
[01:08:34] houses for different events and things like this, and the fraternity houses and all this. You know, they would have dances and socials and all that thing. One thing that was curious to me, you go to the Pi Phi house, they all talk the same. They all would kind of have the same
[01:08:51] mannerisms. You go over to the Tridel house, a little bit different. There's some unique aspects to the different groups. And what had happened over time is an influential girl in those various sororities had been there, and other girls started to model how they talk
[01:09:14] and how they dress and how they look after that girl. And before long, what's going on?
[01:09:19] Everybody in the whole group is like that person. Now, did somebody in the sorority stand up and say, hey, you got to wear your ponytail like this, and you got to talk like... No, they didn't do
[01:09:29] that. It was just kind of caught. Same thing in the Marine Corps. What did we do in the Marine Corps when I was at Parris Island, what we would do is you get the best Marines and you send them to
[01:09:41] Parris Island to train the new Marines. Now, these Marines, you know, a lot of them, their waist is like this, their shoulders are like this, they're walking around, and everything that they do is defiantly perfect in the way that a Marine should do it. How they wear their belt, how they
[01:09:58] wear their uniform, how they salute, how they do all of this. And so, what you want is the Marines, you're teaching them, the recruits, but they're seeing it. And that's how the church is supposed
[01:10:10] to be. The younger believers are to look at you and see it modeled. So that's the second artifact, is that there's Christ-like people who model Christ. Remember what Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ, Philippians 3.1. The third artifact, and you see it all through
[01:10:37] the chapter, is Christlike training and instruction. Christlike training and instruction.
[01:10:48] So the Word of God is taught, the Word of God is modeled, and it's people, and then what should take place in the church. What you should see is training, training, people teaching and coaching
[01:11:04] and mentoring and bringing other people along so that they become more Christ-like and godly.
[01:11:13] notice for example you see this in verse 15 Paul tells Titus exhort and rebuke with all authority now a rebuke when you rebuke someone does that mean that they were doing it right or that they
[01:11:34] were doing it wrong it means that they were doing it wrong so somebody was doing something wrong and Paul says to Titus, you are going to have to give them a rebuke. Notice also the qualities
[01:11:49] that Paul gives to older men. There's various virtues. He says sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love, steadfastness. Notice what he says about younger men. What's the quality he mentions for younger men? Just one, self-controlled. Here's the idea,
[01:12:08] is that the younger men who are self-controlled need to add virtues. They need to become also sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, so on and so forth, or sound in faith, etc.
[01:12:20] Notice verse 4. What are the older women to do with the younger women? So train the young women to love their husbands and children. So in the life of the church, there needs to be training.
[01:12:39] what did Jesus do with his disciples, the 12 and the 70? Did he just teach the Sermon on the Mount?
[01:12:46] Did he just teach the Sermon on the Plain? Did he just teach them in the upper room? What did he do with the 12 and the 70? He trained them. He taught them. He said, no, you don't do it like this.
[01:12:57] You do it like that. He sent them out by two, and he said, come back. Give me a report. Then we're going to reflect back on what you did. There's training involved so that people begin to know,
[01:13:10] oh, this is what I'm doing wrong. This is what I'm doing right. This is how I need to grow.
[01:13:15] One of the places that I saw this best in a church, one time I went and visited, there was a church that one of my friends pastored in Dallas called Watermark Church. And I walked in just on
[01:13:30] a weekday. This is right in the middle of Dallas, right inside the Central Expressway, and they had a big open lobby in this church. Lots of tables, lots of chairs, coffee shop right in the middle.
[01:13:44] You got to have good coffee, some caffeine. But what was amazing to me is everywhere I looked, men were meeting with men, women meeting with women, businessmen, and everywhere I looked, people had open Bibles, and they were talking one-to-one, one-to-two, and people were training
[01:14:06] one another. See, that's the picture here that we're talking about. We're talking about this culture where training takes place. Now, most churches, sadly, do not do this.
[01:14:22] This is something that the parachurch ministries took up because the churches were not doing it.
[01:14:27] So many churches, we have a responsibility to teach the Word of God on Sunday morning, to worship the Lord, all those things.
[01:14:34] And so it's a challenge to add on to that this culture of training because it's more than just that.
[01:14:40] So for that reason, so many churches over time fell to carry out the training that they should be doing.
[01:14:48] But this is what we need to be doing is to be training men and women to godliness.
[01:14:56] Here's why I think churches don't do this. First, because training people means that you admit that you need to grow. It means that we admit that we all need to grow. We admit that we have not
[01:15:18] arrived. That's hard. Have I arrived? Have I figured everything out? No, no. I need to grow.
[01:15:26] I make mistakes. I need to be trained. Peter says, jot down this verse, 2 Peter 3.18, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We all need to grow.
[01:15:46] So a willingness to train or be trained is a willingness to admit that I need to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we need to get there. Second, this requires
[01:16:03] a word called patience. Patience. Because if you are going to train someone, it means that you're training someone who is less mature and Christ-like than yourself. I don't know if we have many parents here this morning, but have you ever gone on a road trip with your kids? What does that
[01:16:28] require? When you have to pack the car, you get going to your destination, within 30 minutes you hear, are we there yet? Dad, can you stop? I have to go to the bathroom. You know, you're
[01:16:44] driving and you're like, it's patience, right? That's what's required to have a culture of training. What does Paul say? 1 Thessalonians 5.14, he says, we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. Be patient with
[01:17:08] them all. We have to be patient. But in order for us to be a type of church that produces the people that we're talking about, we have to be willing to take steps forward in order to train.
[01:17:24] Notice we put the blueprint for discipleship in the handout this morning. You notice that second column, what kind of church? The church is transcendent in its worship. It teaches the Word of God. We've talked about that with the leadership. It reaches out. It touches people,
[01:17:45] creates warm fellowship, evangelizes, but then it trains its people, it trains its disciples, and then it gives them time to succeed or fail to be fruitful, because kingdom fruit takes time.
[01:18:02] So that's the third artifact, that the church trains. You should see it everywhere you go in the life of the church, this training in godliness. And by the way, that means that we have to be
[01:18:12] willing to speak the truth in love. We have to be willing to speak the truth to one another, but also do it in love. Okay, fourth and finally, the fourth artifact, and this is the most important,
[01:18:29] is the grace of God. Because the kingdom of Christ here on earth can ultimately only be created by the grace of God. And that's so important. I believe that with all my heart. We cannot pull
[01:18:47] off the church as the embassy of the kingdom of God in and of ourselves. It requires the grace of God. What is the grace of God? It's God's unmerited favor given to us in Christ. But if
[01:19:04] you think about everything that we've talked about so far, what is Christlike leadership?
[01:19:09] What produces Christ-like leadership in the church? Answer, the grace of God. What produces Christ-like people in the church? Answer, the grace of God. What produces Christ-like training where people are transformed as people are training and mentoring one another? Answer,
[01:19:31] the grace of God. Here's what that means. Can we pull this off in our own strength, and our own ingenuity, that right there is the great weakness of the church growth movement, is the church growth movement said, if you do the right formula, if you welcome people the right way,
[01:19:57] if we can just figure out where the entry point is into someone's heart, we can pull this off.
[01:20:05] You do this type of music over there. You do that type of music over there. You have that fog machine right there. You have the lighting just right. If we get the lighting just right, you know what?
[01:20:12] The young people will come. We can pull this off. That's not what Paul says. He puts this section in here. Look at verse 11. Notice that word for. It's the Greek word gar, and it means the cause.
[01:20:39] what's the cause of all this? Why is Titus to teach what accords with sound doctrine? Why are we all to be godly and virtuous? The cause of all this, he says, is for the grace of God has
[01:20:57] appeared. That word appeared is where we get our English word epiphany. What's an epiphany? It's when all of a sudden you realize something. You have an epiphany. It's when you see it for the first time. You're like, whoa, I see it. I have had an epiphany. Who appeared in history manifesting
[01:21:21] the grace of God? Jesus Christ. The eternal Son of God appeared. That's the response to the shepherds, right? The angels come and they tell them the Messiah is here. They go, they meet the boy, they go praising the Lord. We have encountered the Messiah. The grace of God has appeared and the
[01:21:41] grace of God has a name, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ. Remember John says, from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. The entryway into grace, the transformation of grace is Jesus Christ alone. So you'll notice Jesus Christ, it's the grace that saves. He brings the grace
[01:22:07] that brings salvation. If you look at verse 11, look at this, bringing salvation to all people.
[01:22:15] That doesn't mean all people without exception. We're not universalist. It means all people without distinction, both Jew, both Gentile, both people of highest state, both people of lowest state. Salvation means that you are rescued. Rescued from what? The penalty of your sin.
[01:22:38] This is explained. If you just turn over to chapter 3, Paul gives an explanation of what he said in verse 11. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, notice the pronoun,
[01:22:56] 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
[01:23:11] through Jesus Christ our Savior. So Jesus saves us. To be saved, to enter into this kingdom community, you have to enter in by the narrow way of Jesus Christ. You have to.
[01:23:33] There's no other way. There's no other way into the church except through Jesus Christ. There's no other way into the kingdom of God except through Jesus Christ. You can't do enough good works. You can't go do enough confessions. You can't be born into it. I heard somebody tell me
[01:23:50] the other day. I was born a Baptist, you know. No, you have to be born again. You're not born into the church. You must be born again. Who said that? Jesus did. Listen to J.C. Ryle. He was the
[01:24:08] bishop of Liverpool, 19th century. Love Ryle. He said, true Christians come unto God in a certain peculiar way. They come unto God by Christ, pleading no other plea, mentioning no other name, trusting in no other righteousness, resting in no other foundation than this, that Jesus hath
[01:24:34] lived, Jesus hath died, Jesus hath risen again for their souls. I, the chief sinners, the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me. This is the way by which the true Christian draws near to God.
[01:24:50] It is by grace alone. It's a gift that Jesus offers you, but you have to receive it. You have to humble yourself. You have to repent of trying to earn your way to heaven, and you have to receive
[01:25:03] what Christ offers you. Moreover, Paul says the grace of God doesn't just bring salvation.
[01:25:11] Salvation sometimes is called justification, but it's also the grace of God which transforms you more and more into the image of Christ.
[01:25:20] Every day that we wake up in the Christian life, guess what?
[01:25:23] We are dependent upon the grace of God.
[01:25:25] It's not that I was saved by the grace of God and then I endeavor to live the Christian life in my own works, in my own strength.
[01:25:33] All of the Christian life is empowered by the Holy Spirit, and that is called the grace of God.
[01:25:40] So sometimes that's called sanctification. When you're saved, that's when you are justified.
[01:25:46] That's where you are declared righteous. That's where you are forgiven of your sins.
[01:25:51] Sanctification is then the process that inevitably follows where you will become more like Christ.
[01:25:57] You do good works, not to earn your salvation, but because you have salvation. So notice how the grace of God is to fuel even that. Look what Paul says in verse 12 of chapter 2. He says,
[01:26:10] for the grace of God, he says, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.
[01:26:17] You know what's interesting about that? What did Paul say earlier to the older women? What did he say that they're supposed to do? Same word. He says, you're to train the younger women, right?
[01:26:28] But what does he say here, what is to train us? The grace of God. So in other words, we do it, but it's the grace of god that's really doing it we we are acting the part but it's the grace of
[01:26:45] god that's really carrying out the kingdom remember we might evangelize but what does jesus say i will build my church so we're commanded to do all things but the power to do it is grace it's all of grace you cannot manipulate it i learned something from john piper i was
[01:27:13] listening to him talking about preaching, and he said before he gets up to preach, he goes through an acronym in his mind. And I watched this a couple years ago, and ever since I heard this,
[01:27:26] I've done it every single Sunday morning. When I'm down here on the pew, this, along with worshiping with you, this is what's going through my mind. The acronym is APTAT, A-P-T-A-T.
[01:27:44] A-P-T-A-T. The A is admit your need. Lord, I cannot bring someone into the kingdom of God myself. You must open their eyes. I cannot sanctify anybody here. I wish I could. I cannot.
[01:28:08] You must sanctify them in the truth. Your Holy Spirit will sanctify them. I cannot sanctify them.
[01:28:14] I cannot do this. This is one of the most difficult things about being a preacher, is I have no capacity whatsoever ultimately to carry out the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus does. And so you admit your need. I cannot do this. The P, you pray, Lord, impart your grace
[01:28:38] now to the people of God. May your Holy Spirit sanctify them. Will your Holy Spirit make them more like christ all of these virtues that we just talked about with the older men younger women the older women the bond servants lord would you work these virtues you must do this
[01:28:56] please god do this work now so you pray and then the t you think of a promise of god because we live our lives based on the promise of god in his word what god has already said
[01:29:18] And oftentimes I am looking in various passages of Scripture, even before I come up here, I'm thinking about the promises of God to me in Christ.
[01:29:32] And oftentimes I go to Ephesians 3, where Paul says this, he says, verse 20, he says, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the
[01:30:03] power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all
[01:30:14] that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. I'm thinking, Lord, you can do this. You can do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. And then, you know what the
[01:30:28] A is? So it's admit your need, pray, think of a promise of God. That next A is amazing. Act the miracle. Act the miracle. I have to get up and preach the Word of God. Can't just call in sick,
[01:30:44] calling a rain check. You have to come, act the miracle, and trust that God's grace will be at work through the Word. You have to act. And this is how it is in the Christian life, is it not?
[01:30:57] Notice with all the…if you look at Titus 2, notice that they're all imperatives through the whole chapter. It's all imperatives. We have to act. Older men, You are to be sober-minded. Older women are to be reverent. So train the younger women. The
[01:31:22] younger women are to do this. You, Titus, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters. We have to act. We can't just say,
[01:31:35] well, we prayed the grace of God's going to work. We have to step forward and act.
[01:31:40] and then the final T is then after you see God's Spirit at work, you thank God. You turn around and you thank God. So you admit your need, you pray, you think of a promise of God, and then you act
[01:31:59] in dependence on God's grace. And then at the end, you say, thank you, Lord. Again and again and again, you provide. You do the work. And guess what you're doing when you do that? You're giving
[01:32:13] Him the glory. You're giving Him all of the glory and all of the praise. And that's what God the Holy Spirit likes to do. Put you in a place where you need to depend on Him, and then you rely on
[01:32:27] Him, you act in faith, and then He gets the glory. And so in looking at these cultural artifacts that we've looked at, that Christ-like leadership, Christ-like people in the church, the training, and the grace of God. And ending in grace, the imperative is not sit on our hands.
[01:32:48] The imperative is dependence and action, that we endeavor to become those type of people and that we endeavor to train people so that we can become this type of church. Heavenly Father, we thank you
[01:33:06] for your word. Lord, we want to be the embassy of God here on earth. We want to be a manifestation of the kingdom of God by your help, by your grace, by your strength. Lord, we desire to have
[01:33:27] Christ-like leadership. Lord, we pray for our elders, our pastors, that we would all lead well, that we would lead according to the word in proclamation and living lives that are conformed to the Word. We pray, Lord, for all the people that make up this church, Lord, that we would
[01:33:45] be praying that we would be more like Christ, that we would look at these virtues of the different people in the church, and we would say, Lord, may I be more like that. Where there's weaknesses in
[01:33:57] my life, where there's sin in my life, may I repent and step into more Christlikeness. And, Lord, may we admit that it's okay to see where we need to be trained, our weaknesses.
[01:34:09] and Lord may we be willing to be trained by others may we be willing to train others Lord help do this work of creating a culture of training in this church where we are coming
[01:34:23] alongside one another and teaching one another what it means to be a godly man a godly woman a godly son a godly father a godly mother godly daughter all these things godly worker and Lord we know and we confess that we are completely and utterly dependent upon your grace
[01:34:42] completely that this is your work and so Lord we ask that you would do a great work in our midst that this church would become a culture of the kingdom Lord and we know that only you can do this
[01:34:56] and for every ounce of work that we see accomplished we give you the praise and the glory amen now we're going to stand we're going to sing a hymn of praise to christ kenny's going to come

[01:35:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:35:12] lead us let's stand and sing together i will glory in my redeemer i will glory in my redeemer

[01:35:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:35:25] whose priceless blood has ransomed me my mind was sin that drove the bitterness And hung him on that judgment tree I will glory in my redeemer Crush the power of sin and death My only Savior
[01:35:54] Our voices, let's just give God praise

[01:38:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:38:18] and sing the doxology.
[01:38:20] Let's lift our hands.

[01:38:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:38:22] Praise God from whom all bless able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work

[01:39:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:39:17] within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen