At our December 4^th worship service, we continued in our “First Come, First Serve” Christmas series.  In it, we looked at this Big Picture Question:

Big Picture Question:  How did Christ Come For Us to Serve God?

And we looked at this passage at scripture:

Titus 2: 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

We answered our Big Picture Question in this way:

Big Picture Question:  How did Christ Come For Us to Serve God? 

Christ came to save all people.
Christ came to make a unique people.
Christ came to enable good works.

Christ came to save all people.

Titus 2: 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

The great controversy of the early church was whether or not non-Jewish people could be saved.  But this verse specifically speaks to how the birth of Christ, the Grace of God appearing, means that all types of people can be Christians.  Paul described it in this way.

Galatians 3: 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise

Because Jesus came into this world, all people can serve God.  There are none that are beyond the grace of God.  Additionally, Jesus came so that we can serve God because…

Christ came to make us a unique people.

12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 

We can now serve God because we are unique in this world.  God works in the heart of the Christian to enable us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passion.  We can live self-controlled, upright lives.  And in the midst of the hurting world, we are unique in that we alone have a true hope.  We know that Christ is returning and will make all things right.

And finally, we saw that Christ’s came for us to serve God because…

Christ came to enable good works.

14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 

While we are zealous for so many things:  entertainment, food, nothing, through Christ, we are now zealous to obey.  That is possible because Christ has redeemed us from our sin, and we are now His prized possession.  That change of identity, enables us to obey God in this broken sinful world.

We ended our sermon with this summary: 

Big Picture Question:  How did Christ Come for Us to Serve God?

Truth:  Christ came to so that all people can serve God as a unique people who are enabled to good works.

Application:  Live knowing that Jesus came so that you may experience the love of God which enables you able to serve God as His prized possession, specifically gifted to do good works.

Action:  Preach to your heart that God will use you to change this world through your good works because you are God’s prized possession.