Titus 1:5 “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:”

Is everything in order in your life? In Isaiah 38, the prophet Isaiah tells king Hezekiah “Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.”

We all would like to get things in order in our life, and particularly in view of death!

Order is important. God is a God of order, and hence he commands “Let all things be done decently and in order.” … but just how “in order” is your life? And not talking about OCD or anything like that… but is your life following God’s order as it needs and must be, not just now but in sight of eternity!

… in the book of Titus, the apostle Paul is writing to Titus “my own son after the common faith” hence the name of the book!

The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ had reached Crete! And Titus had been entrusted not just by Paul, but God, in helping to establish the believers there in the truth of God’s word.

What a privilege and responsibility! Could you ever be trusted by God in this way? Could God send a lost soul your way because he knew you’d be able to faithfully and truthfully lead them to his Son?

… Here at the beginning of the book, Paul is reminding Titus that he’s been left there to set things “in order”… order which we still so desperately need, irrespective of how disorderly and upside down and back the front everything has seemingly become these days.

… and Crete was a tough mission field! They all are! There were a lot of things to iron out, set in place, and bed down in the churches there. Perhaps like in our lives also.

But if your and my Christian life is ever going to amount to anything, we’ll need to follow orders, God’s orders… to be in order and acceptable, pleasing, fruitful and useful to our Saviour.

A while back, I remember reading Leviticus 1, and seeing the phrase “in order” there repeatedly. Because the sacrifices that were to be made to God were required to be done “in order”. The wood had to be laid in order upon the altar, and all the parts of the sacrifices too! …and God hasn’t changed, he is still just as about “order” as ever.

How to order things? When Samson’s birth was announced to his parents, they were careful to ask for God’s orders and followed them to the tee “How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?” May we have the same heart as believers for the godly order.

And it’s really quite simple in the end to get things in order. Just follow the orders that God gives! He’s given you his book, there’s no mystery to unravel, just a heart to obey… do what he says, follow it to a tee!

Let him order you! Take orders from him! Good soldiers can take orders, every employer knows how valuable the ability to receive and follow orders is… and every soldier of the cross must be able to take and follow orders from the captain of their salvation!

… In 2 Chronicles 29, king Hezekiah leads Judah in revival, he’s a godly king, and by the end of the chapter, he’s gotten things back in order that his dad had totally messed up in rebellion to God’s word “So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order.”

If you need help getting things in order, as we all do, follow Hezekiah’s example! He did a good old fashioned spring cleaning… that our lives could do with too!

… Maybe you can see it, maybe not yet, but so many churches that are open for business are yet totally out of order these days. And because they set their own order rather than following God’s order… they are useless to unbelievers for being saved, and believers for growing in the Lord. Just the facts.

It’s happened because they abandoned God’s orders, the godly order, and you might as well hang an “out of order” sign on their doors… If the priests of the old covenant had to put the parts in order, do you think the priests of the new are in any different case?

It’s amazing how out of order things have gotten. Many Christians these days don’t even know what being “born again” means. They don’t even believe Genesis 1 and 2… first order of business in the Bible is creation, if you can’t get that in the right order, how could you get what follows?

Look at your own life! How did you become a Christian? Was it through repentance of sins and faith in Christ and then you were born again of the Spirit of God? Or were you christened as a child and think that makes you saved? If so, you are out of order… because that is not what God’s word teaches, it is not what God ordered.

… In Crete, there were things wanting, just like our lives also, that’s why we need preachers of God’s word and the Holy Spirit, we need to be taught and reminded. The Cretians were slow on the uptake. They were resistant too. And they were found wanting when it came to the godly order.

… it doesn’t have to be us! It doesn’t have to be you. Titus was there so things could be set “in order”! You can read Titus and be set in order too, not only by that book but every other one also! “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me”

Let God order your life, which he will, and that way your Christian life won’t be “out of order” in more ways than one, even in a time where so many are.

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