Sweet, Sweet Spirit (4 of 4)
Series: The Successful Church
Jeff Strite
Titus 3:1-8
OPEN: Sesame Street has been a popular children's educational show for years. With the exception of a few ''human'' actors, the show revolved around the learning experiences taught by hand puppets called ''Muppets''.
Kermit the Frog, The Cookie Monster and Bert and Ernie have all been favorite characters on the show. And even though they were basically hand puppets, the children on the set would ignore the man holding the ''Muppet'' and interact directly with the hand puppet as if it were real.
The majority of the characters were hand puppets, but one was not. Do you remember what this big yellow character's name was? That's right, ''Big Bird'' - a big yellow feathered bird with a man inside.
One day, one of the children on the set was stunned when he the actor climbing out of the Big Bird costume. ''Mom,'' the toddler yelled, ''Do you think Big Bird knows he has a man inside of him?''
APPLY: It never occurred to this little boy that there might be somebody inside the costume.
He just thought that Big Bird did what he did - because that was what big birds did.
But he was wrong.
Big Bird needed someone inside him so that he could BE Big Bird.
He needed someone inside him so that his character could truly live.
In the same way, the Bible teaches us that we also need Someone inside of us so that that can truly live.
In Titus chapter 3, Titus is told to teach the Christians on Crete 3 things
1. There is a certain behavior that's expected of Christians (verse 1-2)
2. We didn't used to be that way. At one time we lived an entirely different kind of life (vs.3)
3. But that changed once we became Christians (verses 4-7)
Now, there are people who believe that's all there is to it.
There are people who believe that we can live Godly lives SIMPLY because we made a decision to be Christians. Thus (they believe) we do what Christians do because we go to church, ...
Series: The Successful Church
Jeff Strite
Titus 3:1-8
OPEN: Sesame Street has been a popular children's educational show for years. With the exception of a few ''human'' actors, the show revolved around the learning experiences taught by hand puppets called ''Muppets''.
Kermit the Frog, The Cookie Monster and Bert and Ernie have all been favorite characters on the show. And even though they were basically hand puppets, the children on the set would ignore the man holding the ''Muppet'' and interact directly with the hand puppet as if it were real.
The majority of the characters were hand puppets, but one was not. Do you remember what this big yellow character's name was? That's right, ''Big Bird'' - a big yellow feathered bird with a man inside.
One day, one of the children on the set was stunned when he the actor climbing out of the Big Bird costume. ''Mom,'' the toddler yelled, ''Do you think Big Bird knows he has a man inside of him?''
APPLY: It never occurred to this little boy that there might be somebody inside the costume.
He just thought that Big Bird did what he did - because that was what big birds did.
But he was wrong.
Big Bird needed someone inside him so that he could BE Big Bird.
He needed someone inside him so that his character could truly live.
In the same way, the Bible teaches us that we also need Someone inside of us so that that can truly live.
In Titus chapter 3, Titus is told to teach the Christians on Crete 3 things
1. There is a certain behavior that's expected of Christians (verse 1-2)
2. We didn't used to be that way. At one time we lived an entirely different kind of life (vs.3)
3. But that changed once we became Christians (verses 4-7)
Now, there are people who believe that's all there is to it.
There are people who believe that we can live Godly lives SIMPLY because we made a decision to be Christians. Thus (they believe) we do what Christians do because we go to church, ...
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