Titus 2:11 Doctrine and Devotion Series week 13

If you’ve ever made an investment, purchased life insurance, created a retirement account, chances are you had to name a beneficiary. A beneficiary is someone who is designated to receive the benefits or proceeds from someone else’s property when that person passes away. Beneficiaries can be named for many types of property: ‌ Bank accounts‌ Brokerage accounts‌ Insurance policies‌ Retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s and IRAs‌ A will or trust‌‌ All of these and more have the option to name a beneficiary, who will take over possession of items or finances when the current owner passes away. And chances are, most of us have beneficiaries of some sort. If you have a will or trust, you’ll have a beneficiary. A retirement account has a beneficiary. I know my wife and I both have life insurance—she’s my beneficiary and I am hers. Why? Because we want each other to be taken care of in the event that something sudden or tragic happens. It makes sense, and it is a good move to have some of these things set up. ‌ But one thing is usually true about beneficiaries. The beneficiary is usually someone who is close to you. It’s someone that means something to you, usually a close relative. But we wouldn’t expect that you would make just any random person the beneficiary on something like this. Most of you are not going to make me the beneficiary on your life insurance. It’s going to be your spouse, or kids, or something like that. You certainly would not name a complete stranger as your beneficiary. We want someone we know, love, and trust to handle our affairs in our absence. ‌‌ But as I thought about these things this week, I came to realize that there is one exception to this. There is one individual if you will who made his beneficiary to someone who wasn’t a close part of his family, but this individual made his beneficiary, or I should say beneficiaries, individuals who were far off, who had become estranged. And in this unique set of circumstances, treasures more than could ever be valued were heaped upon the most unlikely of recipients. The individual of whom I am talking of course is God, and the goods that were left are the blessings of his grace. The beneficiaries then, are all those who believe on the name of Jesus. If you’re a believer today, that is you. You are a recipient of God’s undeserved favor. And through the death of his son Jesus, all who believe on him become recipients of his divine favor. What a blessing this is! ‌‌And as we come to our text today, Paul shares some of the items we recieved as beneficiaries of the divine favor of God. He shows us two specific works that God has done to bestow this favor upon us, and we are left to come up with a response to such great blessings. And as we unpack this text today, we encounter the big idea that we can take home with us today: ‌‌ Big Idea: God deserves our praise for his undeserved favor