Where Is Your Crete? How God Uses Ordinary People to Change Extraordinary Places

Meta Description: What if God has placed you exactly where you are to bring about real change? A look at Titus 3 and the playbook for transforming your world. URL Slug: where-is-your-crete-how-to-change-your-world Featured Image: An aerial or wide-angle photo of a beautiful but complex landscape — mountains meeting ocean — representing the tension between beauty and brokenness in the places God calls us.

What if the most unlikely place you've ever been sent is exactly where God wants to use you most?

That's the question I've been sitting with all week, and it's the one I want to explore with you today — because I believe God has placed every one of us somewhere specific, with a specific mission, and most of us haven't fully grasped what that means yet.

The Island Nobody Wants to Visit

I opened Sunday's message with some pictures — beautiful ones, actually. Crystal-clear water, mountains, a waterfall. The kind of place that makes you want to book a flight immediately.

Then I told you where it was: Haiti.

Three hundred murders in the first six months of this year alone. Over 275 kidnappings for ransom. Seventy percent of the capital controlled by gangs. No commercial flights in. A place of breathtaking beauty and devastating brokenness existing side by side.

Now here's the thing — that's almost exactly what the island of Crete looked like when the Apostle Paul sent his young protégé Titus there. One of their own poets described the Cretans this way, and Paul quotes it directly in his letter: "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." Roman and Greek historians wrote about their history of violence, piracy, and corruption. The churches there were filled with false teaching.

And yet, God's plan to reach that island was to send one faithful person and give him a step-by-step playbook.

That playbook is the book of Titus. And it's in your Bible for a reason — because God has you somewhere too. So where is your Crete?

Step One: Live by Example

Paul's opening instructions to Titus in chapter 3 are striking in their simplicity. He lists seven things: be subject to rulers and authorities, be obedient, be ready to do good, slander no one, be peaceable, be considerate, and be gentle toward everyone.

He's not starting with a strategy. He's starting with a person. You have to be the change you want to see in others.

That means respecting authority — even when it's uncomfortable. Paul wrote Romans 13 under the reign of Emperor Nero, a man whose cruelty was staggering. And still, the instruction was clear: "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except that which God has established."

It means being ready to do good — not occasionally, not randomly, but prepared. Always equipped. Like Batman, honestly. You see a need, you meet it. Someone is short on rent and you have what they need? You leave it in their mailbox and don't tell a soul. That's the life.

And it means treating everyone with gentleness. Paul is specific here: slander no one and be gentle toward everyone. You can disagree with someone without dishonoring them. That's a skill worth developing, especially right now.

Step Two: Remember You Were Saved

Here's where Paul gets to the heart of it — and where I want to stay for a moment.

"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." — Titus 3:3-5

You weren't saved because you were good, smart, beautiful, or well-connected. You were saved because God is good. That's it. That's the only reason.

And when you remember that — really remember it — it becomes impossible to look down on the person still living in the mess you used to be in. It becomes impossible to hate the people you're hoping the Holy Spirit would reach.

I'll say it plainly: it is an absolutely miserable evangelism strategy to despise the people you hope to convert. No one has ever been hated into the faith. Not once in the history of the world.

So instead of superiority, let compassion lead. When you see someone living in sin, don't feel superior — feel the weight of I remember when. God took your mess and is making it your message. Don't waste it.

Step Three: Stay Focused on the Mission

Paul wraps up his letter with a clear warning: don't get pulled off course by foolish controversies, arguments, and quarrels. He's not saying these topics don't matter — he's saying they're not the main thing.

"Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives." — Titus 3:14

You can win an argument and lose your witness. Don't let that be your story.

The mission is doing good — radical, nearly irresponsible generosity that flows naturally out of a life that's been genuinely changed by grace. Good works don't save you, but they are the unmistakable mark of someone who has been saved.

I shared a story Sunday about a friend of mine — a creative, artsy guy who felt called by God to take a job at a hunting clothing company. Completely out of character. But he went. He started praying before meetings. They asked him to teach the Bible. He shared the gospel with executives over lunch. He wrote a devotional for the whole company. And eventually, the clothing itself started bearing Scripture — "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1) printed right on the shirt.

One person's faithfulness. One island changed.

Your Crete Is Waiting

Titus went to Crete and did his thing. Archaeologists have now excavated 18 church buildings from the era just after his ministry there — one of them over 37,000 square feet. The island that was once known for violence and corruption became known for Christianity. Today, Crete is 80 to 90 percent Christian.

So I'll ask you again, and I want you to sit with it this week: Where is your Crete?

Maybe it's a conference room. A carpool line. A poker group. A Thanksgiving table. A classroom. A company. Maybe it's your own home.

God has you there. He's given you the playbook. And his grace — which found you right where you were — is more than enough to work through you right where you are.

If this message stirred something in you, I'd love for you to watch the full sermon and share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you're ready to go deeper, our small groups are a great next step — real community where we can work through what it looks like to live this out together. Reach out to us at the Welcome Center or online and we'll get you connected.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): What if God has you in that difficult, unlikely place on purpose? Titus was sent to one of the most corrupt islands in the ancient world — and it changed everything. This week's message from Titus 3 asks the question we all need to answer: Where is your Crete, and what does God want to do through you there? Read the full recap at the link below. 👇

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