Christian Amnesia: The Good Life (Week 8)

Good morning, everyone.

It's great to see you.

My name is Joe.

If you're new, welcome.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And as Becca mentioned, we are in the book of Titus, doing a short summer series that we're calling the good life.

Now, the reason we're calling it the good life is Titus gives us some instructions, or actually, Paul is writing the letter to Titus, gives us some instructions for how to live the good life, because we can get confused and deceived into thinking that the world's version of the good life is indeed the good life.

And so we have been looking through what the Bible says is the good life.

And in Titus 3, last week we talked about some important reminders that we need because we are forgetful.

Now, maybe you have heard the phrase, don't forget where you came from.

It's sort of a phrase that is used to remind people of their humble beginnings.

Maybe when they get a promotion or a new opportunity, maybe you've seen or heard that phrase in a moment where somebody from a small high school or division two college has the opportunity to sign an NFL contract or an NBA contract.

Maybe a grandma or a coach or a mentor says, hey, don't forget where you came from.

The idea is that it is a warning against both arrogance and amnesia.

It's a reminder that success ought to breed gratitude, not pride.

Well, again, if you missed last week, in Titus 3, verses 1 and 2, we are given some reminders.

Titus 3:1

And I want to read them to you just to remind you.

Chapter 3, verses 1 and 2.

Paul says, Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy towards all people.

And this can be a hard thing.

We dealt last week with how we respond to authority, whether that's authority in our homes or in our workplaces or in our government.

And then how we engage with people, particularly in mind here, is our civic life, namely life in public.

And but we stopped at chapter two, or sorry, we stopped at verse two, and in the following verses this morning, we will see one of the primary fuels in our lives for how to live that way.

So how do we live in a way that is submissive to rulers and authorities, obedient, ready for every good work, the things that we say, the things that we do are holy and Christ-like.

How do we do that?

We do it, at least one of the ways that we do it, is by remembering where we came from.

See, what happens is we get what I'm calling Christian amnesia.

What Christian amnesia is, is when you are saved from your sin, from your pre from your previous life, you're brought into the family of God, and then somewhere along the way, you forget where you came from and you start looking down your nose at all those other sinners out there.

All those other people that are so much worse than you.

We watch the news or read something on an Instagram feed, or we're gossiping about people in our neighborhood, and we are just amazed and baffled that people can live this way.

How terrible, how evil, how pagan.

And boy, do we forget who we used to be, don't we?

See, we're told to speak evil of no one.

But what Christian amnesia can do is it causes us to mock instead of showing mercy.

That mugshot goes up, that story comes up, that little piece of information on our social media and the jokes are already written in our minds.

We're told to avoid quarreling.

Well, what Christian amnesia causes us to do is to pile on people instead of praying for them.

The comment section, boy, does that comment section fill up quickly, right?

We have an opinion about that politician, about that leader, about that person.

Oh, I knew they were gonna get in trouble.

Let me tell you about all the reasons that they're worse even than this story says.

We're told to be gentle.

And instead, Christian amnesia causes us to sort of swing the hammer at people instead of extend the hand of grace.

We're told to show perfect courtesy.

And what we'll do is instead of walking alongside people, we will write them off.

One mistake, one wrong move, and we sort of chalk them up as a category in our minds.

And so, quite honestly, we need reminders.

We need to take a little trip down memory lane.

Because Christian honestly, if I'm just gonna be straight with you, not in my notes, I think that Christian amnesia in our country has caused Christians to be mean and rude and arrogant and largely has ruined a large swath of our witness to the world because Christian amnesia causes us to act like self-righteous clowns.

So we're gonna take a little bit of a trip down memory lane, both in our own lives and a theological trip.

I have three headings this morning.

The first and the third are a little shorter.

The second one is where there's gonna be some meat.

And if you're a note taker, uh limber up.

Here we go.

Subheading or first heading number one, who we were.

Who we were.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy towards all people, for or because we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

See, Paul describes who every person is outside of Christ.

Foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice, envy, and hatred.

And he says, he he connects these two things intentionally.

You can live a certain way towards authority and towards outsiders when or because you used to be enslaved to the very things that they were enslaved to.

You used to walk in the very same darkness that the world walks in.

And so what it ought to produce in you is humility and mercy that reflects Jesus Christ as opposed to arrogance and superiority.

For we ourselves were once that way.

I'll be honest with you.

I don't care to linger very long in my mind on the man that I used to be outside of Christ.

It fills me with shame and with embarrassment and honestly with sadness for how many years I wasted and how many people I hurt.

And maybe you feel the same way, but I'll tell you what, when we don't go back there, when we don't remember who we were outside of Christ, it causes Christian amnesia.

So we don't need to linger there long, but we do need to go there.

Foolish, lacking spiritual understanding, disobedient, rebellious against God, led astray.

So this idea is to be deceived into thinking that our way is the right way.

That's at the center of life outside of Christ is not only that we're foolish, and not only that we're disobedient, but we think we're right in being that way.

Slaves to various passions and pleasures.

Not we had a few bad habits, slaves, Paul uses.

Meaning the passions and pleasures that we once pursued owned us.

Days filled with evil, at odds with God and with others.

And here's what happens: this process perpetuates itself because we'll begin to feel the brokenness.

We begin to feel the emptiness, we begin to feel that something's wrong or not right.

We get a sense of guilt or shame or something's mixed up.

But what happens is outside of Christ, we think we know the answers, and so we just begin to choose other sins and other things to be enslaved to.

If I just make enough money, if I just reach that title, then I'll finally feel secure enough to stop being afraid.

Well, that doesn't work.

You would think we might turn to God.

No, no, no, no, no.

This is this perpetuating cycle outside of Christ.

If I if enough people want me, romantically, sexually, socially, then I'll know that I'm not the reject that I secretly think I am.

We jump to another thing.

Well, maybe if I can stay busy enough, numb enough, scrolling, streaming, drinking, working, then I won't actually have to feel, be alone with the feelings that I have been trying to avoid for so long.

If I never disappoint anyone, if I stay agreeable and keep the peace and keep everyone happy with me, then no one will ever have a reason to leave again.

If I control my health or my schedule or my finances tightly enough, then nothing will ever be able to blindside me in life again.

If I can just prove that I'm right in the argument, in the group chat, in the comment section, then I won't have to sit with the possibility that I might be wrong.

We're fools and we think we're wise.

We're slaves and we don't even recognize it.

And what happens is when Christian amnesia sets in, we look at other people and go, what a fool.

And they think they're wise.

They're a slave to that sin, and they don't even recognize it.

Instead of seeing where we once were and who we used to be, and encountering them with the grace and the mercy and the love of Jesus Christ.

That's who we were.

If you are in Christ, you're not there anymore.

If you're here today and you're not yet a Christian, that is still your reality.

You're being deceived into thinking that the solutions to your brokenness are within your grasp.

And I would just challenge you this morning with the reality that you can't fix yourself.

Only God can do that.

And that's our next heading.

So we need not only remember who we were, but secondly, we need to remember or learn for the first time how we were made new.

Now I say learn for the first time because sometimes you might be a Christian in the room, and but theologically you don't know how it happened.

You might genuinely be a Christian.

You placed your faith in Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and to be the Lord over your life.

You may have genuinely done that, but you actually don't know what the Bible says happened in that moment.

So it may be that you're gonna remember or you're gonna learn for the first time how we are made new.

How is somebody who is foolish, led astray, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another?

How does that person who is an enemy of God become a child of God?

What occurs?

I think a common misconception in modern Christianity is that we were standing at a crossroads, and there was the path to life and the path to death, and it was up to us.

There was a moment, a low moment, a hard moment, a life-changing moment, and we decisively made the choice.

I'm gonna go this way instead of that way.

It's not what the Bible teaches.

There's something that happens in there, is only one way.

There is one way that enemies of God become children of God, and it is through a miracle that the Bible calls the new birth.

And we're gonna talk about that.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another, verse 4.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

There's just a few words here, but it what Paul says is as important as what he doesn't say.

He doesn't leave much room for anything that we have done to be the decisive reason that we came to faith in Jesus Christ.

He describes us very clearly: foolish, disobedient, led astray.

And what happens?

The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared.

Boom.

It appeared.

So that there is a moment in your life, if you're in Christ, there was a moment where the loving kindness of God appeared.

Boom.

And what did he do?

Well, we had a conversation, and I was thinking, you know, life's been a little on the negative side.

Maybe I'll try God.

And God goes, well, hey, I think that might be a good idea.

Let's partner up on this thing.

It's not what it says.

The goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared and he saved us.

Well, surely he saw something worthwhile in me.

Some things that I've done or said, I volunteered at sports camp this week, that counts right?

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy.

That statement is extraordinary.

That God, in his infinite divine wisdom and sovereignty, if you are a Christian, chose to save you just because he is infinitely merciful.

To really sit with that, really?

There was nothing that got me bonus points?

No.

So if you were to ask the question, God, why did you save me?

His only answer would be the way that he describes himself in Exodus.

Because I am gracious and merciful and slow to become angry with you, and I'm overflowing in loyal love and faithfulness towards you.

That's the only reason.

We were busy being fools.

He saved us, not because of works being done by us in righteousness.

Now that word saved, Rick asked us that a couple weeks ago.

Are you saved?

My grandpa used to ask that question.

It was a unique time living when my grandpa was alive because he lived a long time in his life without being a Christian.

He was a gruff second-generation Italian immigrant.

And he became a Baptist, like a like a pretty staunch Baptist.

And uh, but his personality was still his personality.

So we would go out to dinner as a family.

The waitress wouldn't even get water on the table.

And grandpa would go, Are you saved?

And I would just try and hide somewhere.

And the poor waitress would be like, um, I don't think so.

Well, why not?

And grandpa would just jump right into the gospel message.

These poor gals usually were just nodding along.

What does it mean to be saved when we say that?

Are you saved?

Here's what it means: to be rescued from the power.

So sin no longer has you're no longer a slave to sin, the power of sin and the penalty of sin.

You don't have to pay what you deserve, you don't have to experience the wrath of God.

So you're saved or rescued from the power and penalty of sin and restored to relationship with Him.

Now, how does that happen?

Here come the subpoints.

Number one, our salvation is initiated.

So how do we get, you know, how does it start?

How does the process spin up?

It's initiated by God's revelation, not our recognition.

So again, I think sometimes we think we come to the end of ourselves or however we want to say it, and then we get this bright idea that maybe God is going to be the solution.

That may have happened in your mind, but theologically, biblically, what's happening behind it is God is producing that in you.

It's not self-developed.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us.

Not one day I figured it out.

Maybe here's a better way to say it.

We don't recognize our need for God until He shows it to us.

God's goodness and loving kindness appeared.

Number two, salvation is based on God's mercy, not our merit.

It's not God looked at my life and saw I was trying hard enough.

And decided I had earned a spot.

Paul gives us no room to misinterpret this.

He says that God chose actually not to reward our effort.

Because if we had gotten the reward that we deserve for our efforts, we would have received punishment for being in rebellion against God.

Instead, he extends mercy, not based on fairness, not based on a balanced scale.

And this is hard because we live in a merit-based society.

But the moment we bring merit out of our normal lives, where we get a trophy because you kicked the soccer ball into the goal, or you get a promotion because you did really well at sales, the moment we bring that into our relationship with Jesus, we miss and misconstrue how salvation comes about.

So it's initiated by God's revelation, it's based on God's mercy, and third, it is accomplished through regeneration, not human resolution.

Salvation is not accomplished by us setting a new holiness goal for this year.

How?

By the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So we are regenerated.

The word in Greek literally means again birth.

To be born again.

And we are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it's purchased or poured out, available because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Not, I finally got serious and turned over a new leaf and cleaned my life up.

That may have happened.

But theologically, what's happening under it is what Paul calls regeneration.

Now, here's my four sub points.

What's happening in regeneration?

Four things that regeneration from God does.

And it's not like they happen in a specific order, they happen.

The grace and loving, or the loving kindness of God appears.

The moment of new birth, what happens?

Four things.

Number one, new eyes.

I'm talking spiritually here, new eyes.

That see our sinfulness finally as foolishness.

We finally see the things that we've been going to, the things that we've been grasping at to solve the brokenness problem in us.

We finally see them as ignorant.

And we begin to see that God is infinitely beautiful.

And that He is the answer.

So we get new eyes.

Number two, we get a new heart.

We get new affections.

Now, when I say affections, I'm not talking about knowledge.

I'm talking about the things you love because you can't help but love them.

See, we we can have all the information in the world.

You could come to church and learn about God and your affections still be cold towards Him.

You can know that broccoli is good for you.

But your affections say donut.

Right?

And here's the thing: what rules are actions?

Affections.

You might be able to white knuckle it based on information for a little while.

But ultimately your affections will drive what you do.

And so, this is why in the Old Testament, God says to his people, you need a new heart, so that you will obey me out of delight instead of duty.

So we have new eyes to see our foolishness, to see our sin as ignorance, to see Jesus as infinitely valuable, and then we get a new heart, so that our affections follow the information.

Third, we get a new will.

So this is the way that our affections are connected with doing things.

See, we were walking on the path this way, enslaved to sin.

That's what Paul tells us we are, slaves to various passions and pleasures.

And we're walking that way, and so what we need is not only new eyes to see, this is dumb, and new affections, but we need a will.

We are volitional creatures, we choose to do things.

We need the will to repent, to say, I don't want to live this way anymore, God, I'm sorry, and start moving in a different direction.

Again, you may have done that.

Hallelujah! But the theological things that happened inside, it's the work of God, the Holy Spirit, in the work of regeneration, going, nope, we're going this way now.

We get a new will.

See, theologians historically would have said, we have a will.

Everyone has a will.

You make decisions.

The problem is our will is in bondage to sin.

And we need something supernatural.

Slaves don't make themselves free.

Paul elsewhere says, you're dead in your trespasses and sins.

Dead people don't make themselves alive.

We need a miracle that gives us a new will to turn around and go the other way and finally new trust.

We don't trust ourselves anymore.

We trust the finished work of Jesus Christ.

To lead our lives because we see the way that we were leading it was headed towards disaster and to forgive our sins because without that forgiveness, we have no hope of heaven.

Let me try to illustrate it.

I mean, goodness gracious, we we we could have done four weeks just on this text.

Let me try to illustrate it.

In 2018, maybe you heard the news story.

There was a boys' soccer team in Thailand, and they went down into these caves.

And they went really far down into these caves.

Well, while they were in there, a monsoon happened outside and flooded half of the caves.

And so there was no way for them to get out because they would have had to go underwater and swim through these channels that they had just hiked through, and there was no way that they could hold their breath long enough, much less see in the dark.

And so it took a long time, they were they were like two miles underground or something like that.

Well, rescuers were trying to figure out a way to get to them.

They developed a plan.

Professional divers from around the world came and found their way through these nooks and crannies and caves, and and and they ended up finding where the boys were.

Now, it had taken quite a bit even for these professional divers to get through these tight spaces.

So then the question was, okay, we found them.

How do we get them out?

Well, we can put a diver's mask on them, okay.

But even some of the best divers in the world, when you're in uh uh a tight space or when it is pitch black, you can start to hyperventilate and you can die easily because you can't just pop up your head.

There's nowhere to go.

So what they did is they sedated the boys.

They sedated them and they put them on this on this stretcher that they could control with air balloons so that they could move them through the various channels and the various caves and get them out.

When the boys came to on the other side, could any of them have taken any credit for getting themselves out alive?

Absolutely not.

If if one of those boys would have stood on the on the evening news and said, man, it was really tough, but I got it done.

It was a long swim, had to hold my breath, my arms were really burning, but I finally made it.

I'm glad that I took those swimming lessons in the fourth grade.

The divers would have looked at them like they were abs, they were like they were crazy.

This is the picture of salvation.

Do we make choices and respond?

Yes.

But none of the response and the work that happens in our heart, our emotions, our lives, our choices is found within us.

It is the miraculous work of God floating us out of the cave of death by his grace and mercy.

Third heading.

Who we are now, verse 7.

So that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

There are two more terms here.

I want to just clarify what does it mean to be justified?

Justified is a legal term that means the judge declares you innocent.

There are two options in a courtroom.

You are innocent or you are guilty.

If we remember who we were from verse 3, it's very clear we're guilty before God.

What happens in the work of Jesus Christ is that he justifies.

So when Jesus dies on the cross, I think we talk a lot about forgiveness of sin.

You can be forgiven of sin and you will go straight to hell forever.

Because being forgiven of sin is not enough.

You also have to be righteous, perfect.

And so on the cross, what happens is an exchange.

It is not only that Jesus takes our sin upon himself, but he imputes to us or gives to us freely his righteousness.

This is the work of justification.

So that when you stand before God someday, you don't have to go, I mean, I did okay.

There's, I mean, there's a little bit of good that outweighs the bad.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We stand before God on the day of judgment, and we can say with complete confidence, I am a part of your family because Jesus Christ has died once for all, and his sacrifice was sufficient to cleanse all of my sin, and he has given me his righteousness, and God the Father looks at you and he sees you through the lens of the finished work of his son and he declares you innocent.

That is the only reason that we will be in heaven.

Now, let me just for the sake of theological clarity, as it was coming out of my mouth, I was like, we are not justified later.

I want to be very clear.

Justification does not happen in heaven someday.

You are justified right now if you are a Christian.

You're justified right now.

Then the process of growing in holiness is called sanctification.

That's another sermon for another day.

We are justified and then we are heirs.

That's a family word.

When you inherit something, and you don't get into God's family because you turned in a good resume.

That's not how you get into a family.

You get into God's family because you're adopted, based on his mercy and his love.

And that is the root of our assurance.

That we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Why do you this so here's where this is where it all comes to the culmination?

If you're a follower of Jesus, why do you have any hope of eternal life?

Because your salvation is not based on you and your performance.

Hallelujah.

Your salvation is based on the finished work and regeneration of God Himself.

I don't know about you, but I wake up every day and it can sometimes be a crapshoot as to how firm my grasp on God is.

If it is based on how tightly I hold on to him, boy, I'm in trouble.

But if it is based on how tightly he is holding on to me, I am secure in my hope of eternal life.

In John 10, Jesus says, My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one will snatch them out of the Father's hand.

Now, what do we do with this?

So we have to we have to come back.

This is not just theology lesson today.

Theology is always intended for practical use.

So we've gone back, we've remembered where we came from.

Maybe we've remembered or learned a little bit about how we became new if you're a Christian.

We've looked a bit to our hope for the future, and Paul's aim here, let's come back to the aim, is that it would change the way that we live, particularly our civic life.

Our life as it relates to those on the outside.

There's there are tons of instructions for how we should live inside the church.

It's all very similar.

But his aim here is how do we live amongst a lost world?

Do we live in a perpetual state of Christian amnesia where we look down our noses at people with a sense of self-righteousness and arrogance?

Or do we read Titus 3, remember who we used to be, marvel in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and let it melt our hearts appropriately such that we look to the world around us in all of the mess that it is in with eyes of grace and mercy, as Jesus intends us to.

See, we mock when we have forgotten that we were once foolish and disobedient and led astray.

We pile on when we forget that God had every reason to pile on us and yet extended us mercy instead.

We swing that hammer of destruction when we forget.

The hammer to put nails in hands and feet ought to have been aimed at us.

And the hand and the nails went through the hands and feet of Jesus Christ instead.

We don't write people off because of a moment or two or three or a hundred of bad behavior.

Because Jesus didn't write you and me off after a billion mistakes.

Once we actually remember, those responses to the world around us don't just feel wrong, they feel a bit absurd.

And so my hope is that we would be a people, that Cuyahoga Valley Church would be a part of a wave of transformation in our culture, that we would change the reputation of Christians in our world.

That we would be not cruel and arrogant and self-righteous and mean, but that we would look like our Savior, gracious and merciful and slow to become angry and overflowing in loyal love.

That's what our lives look like when we remember where we came from.

And so that's my hope for us.

That this little trip down memory lane would produce much fruit in our hearts and lives.

That our lives would give us the opportunity to share the love and message of Jesus and watch him work as he produces the miracle of new birth in people just like us who are far, far from him.

Let's pray.

Jesus, I thank you for this little trip down memory lane.

It has been hard for my heart and equally important because I can fall into these bad cases of Christian amnesia.

And I got this, I get this air of superiority.

But I ask that you would give me your heart for a lost world, that you would give your mercy to me towards unrepentant people, that you would make me even more so a man who instead of piling on people would pray for people.

God, we were all foolish and deceived and led astray and disobedient.

But when your grace and loving kindness appeared, you saved us not because of works done in righteousness, and these things ought to humble us and send us into the harvest with good news, gracious news, instead of bitterness and anger and rivalry.

So help us to choose evangelism over anarchy.

We pray in Jesus' powerful name.

Amen.