We welcome you to Stone's Hill today!

A typical Stone's Hill service has:

* music (so feel free to sing out);

* some announcements (things that are upcoming that you can be a part of);

* a message out of the Bible (God speaks to us through his Word);

* and an opportunity for you to respond to the message (either immediately in the case of a decision that needs to be made OR in the future as you live out the message in your daily life.)

So relax and enjoy your morning! We're so glad you are here!

MESSAGE TEXT
Titus 3:12-15
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INTRODUCTION
“Dear Titus” - It’s a very short letter to a church leader named Titus to whom Paul is passing the baton.
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Titus 1 focuses almost entirely on the church itself and the need for leaders to lead in the church. Titus 1 is a blueprint for the type of leadership that is necessary for a healthy and thriving church.
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Titus 2 focuses on the people of the church and how both men and women should live in their homes and communities. Titus 2 is a blueprint for living out our roles and gender-based assignments.
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Titus 3 focuses on what it means to live as a Christian outside the church in the community and more specifically in the workplace. Titus 3 is a blueprint for public engagement.
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Things were disordered all over the island and in the fellowships. A church without qualified leaders guiding it is disordered. A home without a bible influencing it is disordered. A community without a believer engaging it is disordered.
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PROPOSITION
“Dear Titus” series. If week one was “Walk in your authority.” Week two: “Get your life in order.” Week three: “Tend to your attraction.” Week four: “Allow grace to be your teacher.” Week five: “Do the unexpected as an act of worship.” Week six: “Make the necessary life exchanges.”
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SERMON POINTS
Proposition: Make the necessary life exchanges. In light of this series and Paul's closing remarks in Titus 3, I’m going to ask you to make some exchanges today (with help from Scott, Kevin Paul on the wording). My challenge is for all of us to make these FOUR EXCHANGES:
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Exchange Fans for Friends
Exchange Expedience for Excellence
Exchange Dollars for Difference
Exchange Shallowness for Significance
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Paul had made these exchanges in his life. Exchanges aren’t always about choices between good and bad decisions. Those are easy. The most important exchanges are between really good things and even better things. Those are much harder, but they shape our lives. Many of the toughest choices in life are trade-offs — meaning you must give up something good to get something better. The Cretans could exchange their wild, chaotic, and disordered lives for one of focus, stability, and impact. This will be more fulfilling and satisfying as you look over the course of your life someday.
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CONCLUSION
Invitation: We need righteousness to be acceptable to God. But we don’t have it. What we have is sin. So, God has what we need and don’t deserve — righteousness; and we have what God hates and rejects — sin. He loves sinners, but hates what we’ve aligned with. What is God’s answer to this situation? His answer is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died in our place and bore our condemnation. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is the gospel — the good news that our sins are laid on Christ and his righteousness is laid on us, and that this great exchange becomes ours not by works but by faith alone. What a Christmas! He exchanged heaven for earth; His peace for our chaos; a limited human body for a glorified existence; a high position for a lowly one; a throne for a crib; a kingdom for a cross.

Quotation: "The Exchange" by Pastor Keith Peters
My rags for His riches; My gain for His loss:
My Joy for His Sorrow; My forgiveness, His cross.
My health for His sickness; My peace for His pain:
My freedom for His bondage; My glory, His shame.
My sin for Salvation, abundant and free;
He traded on Calvary. Oh how can this be?
That Christ from His Heaven would stoop to my Hell;
Would take all my sin-debt and offer as well,
A home in His Heaven, and meaning on Earth.
All this in exchange for a Heavenly rebirth.
Such love, so amazing, abundant and free,
Compels me to offer some gift to my King.
But what can I give to the Maker of all;
When I am so poor and defiled by the fall.
I’ll give him those things that would have most effect;
My Love and my Life are now his to direct.