Sunday Setup – Titus 1:1-9

[Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Hey, Cross Church man. Welcome to the Sunday setup. I'm super excited just to read through scripture with you. Uh this is where we read scripture and we pray through scripture about what we're going to be talking about this Sunday. And we are going to be in First Titus. Sorry, we're going to be in Titus 1. Not First Titus. We're going to be in Titus 1:es 1-9. And this is where we're going to start off reading. And uh let's just read the passage. Let's just dive right in. Here we go. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness in the hope of eternal life. That God who cannot lie promised before time began. In his own time, he has revealed his word. In the preaching with which I was entrusted by the command of God, our savior, to Titus, my true son, in in our common faith, grace and peace from God and the father and Christ Jesus our savior. The reason I left you in cretet was to set right what was left undone. And I directed you to appoint elders in every town. An elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, with faithful children who are not accused of wildness or rebellion. as an overseer of God's household. He must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not an excessive drink, excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching ing and to refute those who contradict it. Church, we see many things going on here in this scripture, but four things I want to point out is that God's people, it says God's elect. Yes, this is written to leaders, but man, if we really look at this through the perspective of being God's people, we can all learn something from what Paul is writing to Titus about. Guys, we see four things here. a a go a godly person, God's people, people that are seeking after God, they they seek out these four things. First is that we pursue godliness. Second is that we prioritize a godly home. Third is that we perfect the details of our heart. We perfect the details of what's going on inside of us. And lastly, we proclaim the message of eternal life. We proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. And so, that's kind of what I want to do. That's where I want to start off in our prayer and how we how we um basically attack these verses, how we are going to just be thoughtful in when we go to read these these verses and explain them and see how God is going to transform us through these verses. I that's what I want to lead you guys in prayer through these verses is to focus on these four things before Sunday. And so first the first prayer prompt is for you, you the individual. and and and this prayer prompt can just be um lead me in to pursue you more. Lead me into um prioritizing my family to to be centered around you to be centered around a godly home instead of um our things. And we're talking about blueprints all about blueprints this Sunday. And blueprints sometimes we fixate so much on our own blueprints and we don't fixate on God's blueprint. Um, the the third thing, hey, how do I how do I perfect the details of my heart? How do I change the things that I'm struggling with? And I come back to Jesus and I come back to prioritizing and perfecting what's really going on inside me. And lastly, how do I lead my family well? How do how do you husbands, how do you wives, how do you children lead your families well of where you're at in your role? And how do you proclaim the message and refute the lies that the world is trying to teach us? So the first prayer prompt is just for you as the individual believer in Jesus is is God help me lead in this. And that could be whatever whatever those four points are that you might be struggling with right now. Let's do that in prayer right now. [Music] God, help us uh help us to lead well. Help us to pursue you always. Us us believers that believe in you, we want to pursue you. We want to chase after you. We want to chase after who your son is. We want to prioritize our homes. We want to to lead well and where where you have called us to lead as fathers, as as mothers, um just even as kids. Help us to be able to just prioritize you inside of our homes. Help us to perfect the details of our hearts. Whatever we're struggling with, whatever sin we're struggling with, how can you perfect the things that are going on in our life? How can you perfect us through Jesus Christ? How can we just chase after you more and set aside and give you all of our sin at the feet of the cross? And God, how can we proclaim your great glory? Lead us in how we can do that more. Lead us in how we can refute the lies that our world is teaching and that we can just proclaim the message of eternal life more. God, help us to lead in this way. Help us to just be more focused and dialed into that and not to be fearful of actually changing our lives to match your masterpiece and not our own blueprints. Let me say these things Jesus name. Amen. And church, the second thing I wanted to pray for is is just how can you lead others when you start looking into these verses and you start seeing the transformation that just captivates your heart. Cuz there's a lot of things that that Paul addresses to leaders of the church. But he addresses these things over and over and over again throughout scriptures in his letters that we need to have a transformative heart. And and this helps us lead others to Christ. This helps us to lead others to find eternal life in Jesus Christ. That is our whole entire point as Christians is to go out and teach his message, teach his message of of eternity, teach his message of salvation. And it only comes through Jesus Christ. And so, how can we lead others in doing that? And right now, this is a prayer prompt for us as the church to reset our hearts, to really prioritize his masterpiece, to be his masterpiece, to set aside our blueprints of our life and to truly be the instruments in his hands. In his hands. And guys, I want to do that right now. I just want to pray of how we can lead, how we can go out and how we can be truly submissive to where God wants us to to go into the world, where God wants to put us into the world, wherever that may be. It might be just in your job. It might just be in your own four walls as a father and a mother and teaching your kids. and and it just might be um you going to school if if you're a teacher or something like that, you might have a a 30 kids in front of you and you're teaching to a bunch of kids, but you are being a light of Christ in that moment as well without even preaching the gospel, but just having them see the light of Jesus wherever you're at. That is what are we should be doing. That is what we should be pursuing. So, I want to pray over that. I want to pray of how we can lead lead others to come to Christ right now. Let's do that. Let's Let's give that prayer prompt of of God, help me to lead others in. God, help me to lead others in. Let's take that time right now to pray. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] God, help us to lead others in in just being an instrument in your hands. God, sometimes we don't know all the right things to say. We don't all we don't always know the right things to do, but you do. And you give us those prompings when we need them. You give us that inspiration through your Holy Spirit when what we need to say in those given moments. We don't have all the answers, but you do. But God, just help us to be able to lead others in just following you that we become submissive to you so that we can teach others to be submissive to you so that they will follow you. They will fear you, but not fear you in a bad way, but fear you to get closer to you. Because a life without you is is misery. It is darkness. It it is it is lossness. And God, we just want to teach the world that if you they follow you, if they trust in you, if they seek after you, man, they will have a life that is that is so full. It is so magnificent. It is so full of joy and happiness. And God, we just want to lead our world in that. We want to be the salt of the earth like you taught us. God, how can we keep on doing that? How we can we be imitators of you, of your holy throne, of the glory of who you are. God, help us to lead others in that. Help us to be be challenged in that. Help us to to plant seeds where we need to plant seeds. And sometimes we don't always see them grow, but but you are going to make things grow. God, just help us to be instruments in your hands. Help us to be able to just do the things you command us to do. send us beyond borders and just help us not to be afraid to leave our blueprints behind and to become your masterpiece, to become your instruments. We love you, Lord, and we're so thankful for you and we give you all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, so excited to see you this Sunday. Can't wait to dive into God's word some more. It's going to be a great weekend. We'll see you later. Peace. [Music]