Grace in Tullahoma

Titus 3:1-7

Connected (Week 1) | Relationships Matter | Matthew 22:36-40

The whole world is connected. In the early 1990s the world would change because of the world wide web. Previously, you could make a phone call and be connected to just about anyone in the world, but the world was connected now like never before. Information could be shared and relationships formed with a click of a button. Families thousands of miles apart could be connected as if they lived in the same town. The internet revolutionized how the world was connected.

Then in 2004, one company changed the way our relationships were connected through the world wide web. The Facebook was started. If everyone was connected before, now they Really were. Now you could see people’s who lives lived on display for you to see. Social media was born. Since that time, many other forms of social media have sprung up to seek to capitalize on the connection and relationships that we all have.

The crazy thing is, with all the connectivity we have, we are the least connected than we’ve ever been. What was supposed to foster community has led to a fake kind of community. We don’t really get to know people anymore. We text instead of talk and we think people’s lives are only what they post. Our communication has been boiled down to a few snaps. What was supposed to enhance our relationships has actually left us less connected than we’ve ever been.

One of the most foundational aspects of our lives, from the time we are born till the time we die, is relationships. We all have them. You immediately form a relationship with your family even before you are born. Many people start having friends from the time they are one or two years old. It doesn’t take long to start forming enemies as well. The second a kid takes a toy away from you, you learn really quick that relationships can include enemies. No matter what kind of relationships we have, we have to admit that relationships are foundational to every single person that is alive. We can’t get away from them. They are as natural as breathing. We were created to be connected – in relationships.

Our most foundational relationship is our relationship with God. Most of us understand that, even though we don’t always live like it. God is Trinity – three in one. He has always existed and has been in perfect relationship with Himself for all eternity. If anyone knows anything about being connected, it is God. Then God created us. He created us to be connected, in relationship with Him. You see Him walking and talking with Adam and Eve from the very beginning.  But soon, sin entered in, and that relationship between God and man was fractured.

Most of us understand this. We intrinsically know that we were created for relationship with God. But here’s the deal – we can’t tangibly see God. So, how do we live out this relationship with the God who created us to be in relationship with Him? It is played out through those we CAN tangibly see. We can tangibly see our friend, our mother, our bully, and our loved one. We can see them, and we act towards them. And how we act or do not act towards them is the most foundational aspect of our life here on Earth.

Yes, our most foundational relationship is with God. But, that relationship is played out through every single one of our relationships on earth, both good and bad. How we act towards one another is how the finite, tangible world sees the infinite, intangible God.

So, Jesus enters the scene, God in the flesh, coming to mend the fractured relationship. It was promised all the way from Adam and Eve that God would come to make things right (Genesis 3:15 – I will put enmity between you and the woman,  and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”) God cares about the relationship. He has come to make a way when there shouldn’t be a way. This verse from Genesis 3 is what is called the protoevangellium, meaning “first gospel.” I

Titus 2:11-15

Main idea: We all have a story, and it needs to be told.

Secondary idea: Our story is often our greatest apologetic.

Who likes a good story? We all do. It’s really our main form of entertainment. It’s the core of every good tv show and movie. A good story makes for some of the best songs. Books continue to be written and read even though we have all these other forms of entertainment now. It’s because stories matter.

(Talk about some of my favorite stories.)

Stories matter, and everyone likes a good story. Here’s the deal with you. If you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have a story. And it’s an incredible story, whether you think it is or not. And it needs to be told.

There are two reasons we must tell our story, and they both have to do with Jesus. If our story doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus then we either don’t have a story, our story isn’t worth telling because it’s all about ourselves, or we need to learn how to tell our story.

The first reason we must tell our story is:

1) We are compelled to tell our story.

When you find something you like, you can’t help but tell others. It is one of the most natural things we do. When you see a good TV show, movie, sports play, funny video, book/author, good deal, etc., you can’t help but tell anyone and everyone about it.

When you truly encounter Jesus, you can’t help but tell others about Him.

I want us to read in full two encounters and responses of some people whose lives were changed by Jesus. It’s ok to read large portions of Scripture together. It is the Word of God that changes us. Let it change you as you listen intently to these lives that were changed by Jesus, and see yourself within these stories, because He offers you a changed life as well.

Luke 8:26-39 (ESV)

26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

John 4:1-30; 39-42 (ESV)

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for

Titus 2:1-10

Titus 1:10-16