Devoted to Good Works (Titus 3:14)

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.
– Titus 3:14

It’s so interesting, as I’ve been reading through Titus again, I don’t know how many times I’ve read it, but just to see, over and over again, this emphasis on good works. We prayed from Titus 2:14 that we would be zealous for good works, and then when you get into chapter three, there’s more language about being ready for every good work. And then you get to the end of the book, and this is the third of the last verse, “Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works.” And then specifically, “so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.”

Titus 3:14 Teaches us to live out good works in the context of urgent needs.

I just want to encourage all of us to think for a moment, how are we doing good works in cases of urgent need right now? Because there’s no lack of urgent need in the world. Radical has a whole initiative that we call Urgent to say, okay, wherever the most urgent, spiritual and physical needs in the world, meaning places in the world where there’s the least access to the gospel and most physical need, and we want to be zealous for good works in those places. So we have a whole initiative where we’re trying to help connect followers of Christ and churches with work, good work being done on the front lines of urgent need.

And there’s many other avenues. I mean, think about urgent needs right around you, where you live and then, yes, around the world. I mean, we pray every day on this podcast for people who’ve never heard the gospel. Surely we need to devote ourselves to good works among people who’ve never heard the gospel.

Titus 3:14 teaches us to support one another in Christ.

So I would just ask you, how is this playing out in your life? How are you devoting yourself to good works, not just kind of everyday things. Not that that’s unimportant. We prayed about all those things that we could do every day in Titus 2:14, but specifically here in Titus 3:14, how are we devoting ourselves to good work in cases of urgent need?

So let’s pray accordingly. God, help us to devote ourselves to good works in cases of urgent need. Lord, I pray for every single person who’s listening right now, even as I pray in my own heart in a fresh way. God help us to open our eyes to urgent needs around us and around the world far from us. And help us to devote ourselves to good works for the sake of those who are in urgent need. God, we pray specifically for all, for the sake of brothers and sisters in Christ who are in urgent need. Think about brothers and sisters in Christ and poverty who are struggling in urgent ways.

Prayer for the Sarki People

And then I think about, oh, God, the number of people, billions of them, who have no knowledge of the gospel right now. God, we pray specifically for the Sarki people of Nepal and India and Bhutan, most of whom have little to no knowledge of the gospel right now. Lord, urgent need Sarki, men and women are dying and going to a crisis eternity without even hearing the good news of your love.

God, help us to devote ourselves to good works on behalf of the Sarki and thousands of other people groups like them. God, we pray you to help us to do whatever you’re calling us to do when it comes to good works in cases of urgent need, that you would keep us from an apathetic, complacent version of Christianity that turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to cases of urgent need, and help us to devote ourselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and to be fruitful.

And we’re praying this straight from your Word in Titus 3:14. May it be so in us and may the fruit of our lives resound to your glory and your grace and your provision and your love and your mercy being poured out in cases of urgent need through the good works you call and invite us to do. May it be so, we pray, according to your Word, in Jesus’ name. Amen.