Good Works

Session 12 of our 12 part series in 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. We finally made it to Titus. All semester long we have been talking about Timothy and the youth kept asking "When are we going to get to Titus?" Well we saved the best for last. Poor Titus!

Titus 3:1-8: "Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God's people should be bighearted and courteous.
It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this." (The Message).

Why do we do good deeds for other people, is it because we are trying to work our way to heaven? The Bible says that we can't do that because no one is good not even one. Ok here is a little quiz to prove the point: Answer all six of the questions correctly with no help or cheating.

1. What's the square root of 1,764?
2. What day did Texas join the US?
3. What third baseman has the most career home runs?
4. What's the shortest verse in the Bible?
5. What is the first stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange?
6. What was the 36th most popular name for girls in 1999?

Ok so I probably lost you at question one you want the answers? (1. 42, 2. December 29, 1845, 3. Mike Schmidt, 4. John 11:35 "Jesus wept.", 5. Agilent Technologies, 6. Stephanie). Did you fail too, only one youth got one question right! To show them God's mercy they all got a candy cane.

This activiy shows us that we cannot be good enough on our own. We don't do good things because we have to, but because we get to. It is the Holy Spirit in us allowing us to do good deeds as an overflow of His work in our lives.

We did a quick evaluation of our church and youth group as a way of tying the whole study together. I asked them to list 5 good thins we have does as a church and as a youth group. They were then asked to answer the following survey:

1. Are these good things mostly planned or spontaneous?
2. What grade would you give our church for good deeds?
3. What grade would you give our youth for good deeds?
4. What more do we need to do?
5. How often should we do them?
6. How can we get others involved?

That pretty much wraps up Timothy and Titus. Next semester starting in January, we will be taking 6 weeks to discover the Life of Jesus. I hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

No Lesson

There was no lesson this week.