Titus 3:12-15: Doctrine and Devotion Series week 19

Have you ever seen or heard something that is too good to be true? Perhaps you got an add, email, phone call, saying you won something or you were a grand prize winner, only give out your banking info, or send a small payment, and you will get what you supposedly one. There is something in those types of things that intrigues us. Even though many times we might even see through it, there is usually just enough truth in it to hook us or intrigue us, and if we’re not careful we can be taken for a scam. ‌‌ This happened to me one time a few years ago. I got a request to come speak at a conference in Europe. And nothing strokes a pastor’s ego more than a request to come speak—we’ve been listening to your sermons and they are so good and we want you to come speak at this conference. And for a moment, I was excited, wow they want me to come speak! But it didn’t take too long to notice that this indeed was a scam. There was no conference and somehow I was just being baited. Why do things like this work? They work because there is usually enough truth mixed in with the lie that it becomes believable. ‌‌ Unfortunately, the same can be said many times for Christian communities—for churches. Things look great on the outside! They are such a loving church, they care about one another, there is so much unity, the Spirit is really working there. And it looks good on the outside, until you get on the inside. That’s when the fractures and fissures that weren’t evident on the outside become truly evident. There was just enough truth on the outside to make one interested, only to find out things weren’t what they seemed . . . Too many churches have enough on the outside to be believable, but when you get on the inside, you find there are all sorts of issues—fighting, bickering, division, gossip, all sorts of things that make a christian community unbelievable. This is not God’s vision for the church! ‌‌ As we come to the last section in the book of Titus this morning, we get to see an inside picture of how believers in the church ought to relate to one another. We get to see how believers in the early church responded or were to respond to one another, and I think we get a vision for how we ought to be in the church today. How we claim to be as a church ought to be believable, and should mesh with how we actually do treat one another in the church. And from our text I think we learn four characteristics of a believable community of believers. Our big idea this morning is simply this:‌‌ Big Idea: A community of believers ought to be believable