Forgetting and Remembering

Introduction

So, what’s on your mind? No, that’s an expression we use all the time. Hopefully, after a song like that we’ve just sung, God is on our minds. The awesome God that we serve. I want to talk this morning and perhaps next week, I must say next week’s sermon about developing a heart for God is merely in its conception stage, so I can’t guarantee anything for next week. But that’s the plan as it stands now. Developing a heart for God. Wouldn’t you want to have one of those? Wouldn’t you want to bring one of those with you when you came to a place like this? And so we’ll talk about that next week. But this is preparatory for that, as we talk about the role of the mind.

Christianity is a battle for the mind. The way we think. Our affections. Our perceptions, our values of things. And all of that really pertains to our souls, does it not?

And the battle we face on a daily basis and then on a yearly basis as time passes is this battle for the affections of our minds. And so I say a lot about that. And I’ll say a little bit about that this morning to hopefully get our minds going if they haven’t been in the right direction. And as I thought about the things I was going to present this morning, I thought about a sermon I preached not very long ago. Well, I thought it wasn’t very long ago. But it was actually two years ago. Some of you weren’t even here. Two years ago. And I thought, wow, I can’t believe it’s been two years. Ashley, I can’t believe it’s been three years. Since you were with us last.

Wow, time is flying. But I want to remind you just briefly, since a lot of you weren’t here to hear that. We’ve had so many new people come. We talked about destructive thoughts. That people have. Thoughts that don’t contribute to our betterment spiritually. This is what I want. This is what makes me happy. Well, it’s not that bad. Other people have done worse things. I’m better than others. Simply are the way we think of ourselves in relation to others can be destructive. Or as so many think.

The Bible’s not really relevant to my day-to-day activities. I really don’t need to consult the Bible. Should not a people consult their God was the question in the days of Isaiah. I’m not going to listen to him because I don’t like him. Maybe you’re in that camp this morning. Not going to listen to Tony. There’s something about him that really bothers me. You know, take a ticket. Get in line. Don’t listen to him because I don’t like him. Sin, I like it. I’m not going to stop. Look, that’s just the beginning of some of the destructive thoughts that we could entertain that are damaging potentially to our minds. But we didn’t spend a lot of time there. We spent a little bit more time on having saving thoughts.

Thoughts that contribute to our betterment spiritually. My life without God is bankrupt. Hopeless. And empty. We need to think about that on a regular basis. Without God, I really am at rock bottom. Whether I perceive it or not, whether it seems to feel pretty good or not, whether I sort of like it or not. You’re rock bottom without God.

I believe in Jesus. Oh, that’s a simple thought. But so contributed to our spiritual wellness. And we talked about that last week about being safe and sound. I believe in Jesus. I don’t just believe in him as a historical person, but I believe in his message and that it is supreme wisdom for my life. The word of God contains ultimate wisdom. Don’t ever discount what the word of God does for us and in us. My sin is appalling and destructive. And therefore, as the psalmist said in Psalm 119, I hate every false way. All of his commands I will observe. That is the example that Jesus set for us. I need God to work in my life. And we need to have a perception of that more on that in a moment.

I will trust him even in pain. Even when I’m troubled and confused and disappointed. I think a lot of people experience those states in their lives. Troubled, confused, disappointed. Life isn’t turning out like I’d expected or hoped. It certainly isn’t right now at the present. And at that time, people can get so far away from the right kind of thinking and begin to question their involvement in spiritual things and their involvement among the Lord’s people. And this is a saving thought. I’m going to trust him even when things are at their worst. I didn’t want to just rush through these in case you’re writing them down for the very first time. Destructive thoughts and saving thoughts. This morning, I want to look at these same kind, this same kind of concept from a little bit different perspective.

From the idea of two opposed processes of thinking, and that is forgetting and remembering.

The older I get, the better I forget. And I don’t do as well at the second as I used to. I used to be able to remember a lot of stuff. Now I’ll forget your name next week.

Forgetting and remembering. And the Bible talks about these two very simple things in relation to the mind all the time. The words forget and remember are all over the scripture. And so this battle for the mind is going to involve some things that you need to forget and need not forget. In fact, what did we study in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 8? God is warning them before they ever enter the land. You are going to come into the land, you are going to eat, become full and satisfied, and you are going to forget me. Now, that doesn’t mean that God is going to be completely absent from their minds for months and years. And that they’re going to live their lives cultivating their fields, and God is never going to enter their thinking at all ever.

It’s as if he is not there. He’s dead. He doesn’t exist. That’s not what he’s saying. They may still be going through all the motions of worship. But God is not in the proper place in their thinking. To the extent that he is in first place in their thoughts. And so, in essence, they have forgotten him. And so I want to look at some things that the scriptures talk to us about. Things that need to be forgotten. And needs things that need to be remembered. And as I look at this, you can’t help but think of Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23. Right? How many times have you heard that verse? If you’ve not committed that one to memory, you really need to do so. Christianity, as I said in the very beginning, is a battle for the mind.

Keep your heart. Keep your heart with all diligence. That suggests you might need to put a little effort into it. That’s what we’re doing right now, when perhaps you’re a little sleepy. You’ve been listening to me for 10 minutes already. You might need to buckle down, give a little diligence to this. We’re talking about keeping your heart. So keep your heart with all diligence. And it should extend beyond this little time that we’re together. And the reason why we need to do that, the wise writer said, is for from it flows the springs of life. The issues of life spring from this keeping of our minds, the proper reflection on the right things. And a dismissal of other things. And it’s this dismissal that I want to spend a few minutes talking about because the New Testament talks about things we need to forget.

1. Forgetting What Lies Behind

And the first passage that comes to mind in this regard is Philippians 3, verses 13 and 14. Remember those familiar words in Philippians chapter 3 when Paul has just said, I count all things to be loss in sake or for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And then he says in verse 13, I’m not done. I’ve not grown to the extent that I plan to. He said, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. Not that I have already obtained it, the New American standard says, or have already become perfect. He says, I press on in verse 12, in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do.

Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now that’s a new American Standard rendering, and I really like it. The idea of we’re on an upward call. It’s the upward call of God. And if we’re going to be continuing in that right and higher direction, he says, we need to put the past in the past. Now he’s not saying, don’t resolve the issues of the past. Don’t resolve the issues of sin. He is not discounting the importance of repentance and coming to God in his terms in obedience. In other words, fixing the past. Yes, God has provided grace and redemption. He has provided atonement in Jesus’ blood.

But we need to embrace those provisions by following his will as he has prescribed. And that’s why on the day of Pentecost it says, when they asked the question, men and brethren, what shall we do? He said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. When Paul is saying forgetting those things that are past, he is saying that from the standpoint of one who has dealt with the errors of his past. But he’s saying, once you’ve done that, once you’ve done that, you’ve got to leave that there. Can you think of how crippling it might have been? You know his past, right? The Apostle Paul? Introduced to him in Acts chapter 7 at the death of righteous Stephen. And he was consenting unto Stephen’s death, and the robes of those doing the killing and the murdering of God’s servant laid their robes at his feet, and that he, in the next chapter, in chapter 8, is wreaking havoc among the church.

Do you think there were ever times when he woke up at night and thought about the death of righteous Stephen?

And ravaging the church of God among whom he is now one of their leaders. You ever thought about those houses that he entered and dragged righteous people out into the streets? As he was wreaking that havoc and persecution? Do you think that ever crossed his mind? It absolutely did.

But you know what that could do? That could paralyze you.

It could completely control you. But I’ll tell you what Paul had to do, and he mentions that in 1 Timothy chapter 1. I was the persecutor. I am chief of sinners. He understands that. And really more on that in the last point this morning.

While he understands that, he knows he has been forgiven of that. And you know what? As much as he would have wanted to, he can’t go back and change that. He can’t bring Stephen back to life. Oh, that was possible as a sign or a miracle, but that’s not going to happen now. Yes, people can rise from the dead, but that’s not going to happen in relation to people that he’s murdered years ago. He can’t undo that or fix that. And let me just say that about your past. Thankfully, I don’t think there’s anyone here who has murdered people in their past. Now you can be forgiven of that, and murderers have been forgiven. I think of Ricky Blackman. Murderers have been forgiven. But you don’t have that in your past.

But you have things that are just as crippling, things that tarnish your image in your own eyes. Things that you have done that you are totally ashamed of. And let me just tell you if you are in Christ, if those things have been forgiven, we’ve got to leave them behind. We can’t be tormented by those failures over and over again the rest of our lives. We’ve got to put that by. We can’t fix any of that. We can’t. We can fix it spiritually. We can be forgiven. But we can’t undo the damage that we did there. It’s there. Whatever it was in your past. Don’t be crippled by it. Don’t spend undue time on it. You need to pick up the pieces right now and move forward.

And that’s what the apostle Paul did. And he did so with gratitude, and he did so in an amazing and effective way, did he not?

2. Kill the Flesh

Put those things away. There’s something else. We need to forget. And really, forget is not as strong a word as Paul uses in Colossians chapter 3. When he talks about the influence of our flesh and the desires of the flesh, what did he say? What word did he use? He said, You need to crucify it. You need to kill it. And by killing it, you’re forgetting. You’ve got to kill the flesh. You’re in an extreme battle in regard to lust and temptation where the flesh is concerned. If you just follow the impulses that you have, it’s going to lead you down the path of the flesh. You’ve got to fight against that. You’ve got to mortify it, you’ve got to kill it. Paul says in Colossians chapter 3.

3. Forget About the Slights

That’s going to require some effort. That’s going to require some discipline. A word that’s used in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7 when he says, we have not been given a spirit of timidity, that very first verse that flashed on the screen. But of power, love, and discipline, or sound judgment. You’re going to have to do some thinking and planning and strategizing about this. And you must say, the flesh is back there. It’s in the past. I’m done with that empty way of life. And one more thing I would add to this list. Not that there is any passage specifically that says, you know, you need to forget about the slights. Things that people have done to you in your past that injured you in some way.

Physically, emotionally. Do you think anybody thought of the Apostle Paul, this murderer who became a Christian? You think they had some issues with some slights? That’s not even the right word, is it? He killed people that I know. They had to get over that. And while there’s not a passage that says, you need to forget about the slights, there are a lot of passages about bitterness. Where does that come from? Malice and bitterness. Speaking of relationships, things that have happened that just sort of like attack that you’ve set on. That just sort of is an irritant. And it bothers you, and that bitterness can overtake you. And I’ve seen this among the Lord’s people at times. Something that someone has said, something that someone has done, and people just can’t get over it.

Has somebody done something that has really injured you emotionally in some way? Perhaps a brother and sister in Christ, perhaps an elder or a preacher. Let me tell you what you can do about that. And the reason why I talk about it in terms of slights, what if it’s transgression? Well, you have a responsibility if they’ve actually transgressed against you. But a lot of this has to do with simply our perceptions. We can’t say for certain that it was a sin against God. And so I want to tell you, if it’s a sin against God, you need to handle that, you need to deal with that. But if you don’t know that’s what that was, you have a couple of options. You can go to that person and deal with that.

Let them know the hurt that has been caused, whether intentional or unintentional, and I would just suggest that a lot of the slights that people have were not somebody saying, you know, I really want to be malicious, and here I go. They weren’t really trying, they weren’t setting out I’m going to hurt them. I think that’s probably not the case most of the time. But you were hurt by it, whatever it was. Then you should either go to them and deal with that slight, whatever it is, or I’ll just tell you’ve got to let it go. And I saw this little quotation about forgetting. To forget is to let go, to let go is to move off. And so the things that we’ve talked about forgetting, the past because we’ve adequately dealt with it, the flesh, because we’re killing it, or the slights that may or may not have occurred against us.

4. The Lord Is Near

Look, we need to let go. And to let go means we’ve got to move on. Or those things will cripple not only our relationship with God, but our relationship with one another. And at the same time, as I look at this battle for the mind and things that we need to forget, there are also some things that we need to remember. Thus the post-it note. If we have trouble remembering things, we make a little post-it note. We write it, or we put it on our phones now. Everything is electronic anymore. And I tell you, if it wasn’t for my iPhone, we do grocery lists on the iPhone. Gotta write it down somewhere. And that’s what really this lesson is about. If you want to be serious in the battle for the mind, perhaps you need to write some of these things down and put it somewhere where you’re going to see it on a regular basis because that’s how significant this battle is.

Let me suggest to you quickly. Some things that need to be retained in your thinking. There’s some things that need to be jettisoned in your thinking. There are some things that desperately need to be retained in your thinking. And I now wish I’d put the point at the end here. I need it right here. But let me go ahead and tell you quickly these things. We need to retain in our thinking the presence of the Lord. Philippians 4 has a lot of admonitions that aren’t really easy to do. You racking your brain. What is Philippians 4? Rejoice in the Lord always. This is one of them. Be anxious for nothing. We talked about that on Wednesday night. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Think on things that are pure and lovely and good report. Be content with such things as you have. I summarized most of the context there in Philippians chapter 4. But I think the key to all of that is actually in verse 5 with this little bitty four-word statement that says, the Lord is near. And you know it sort of occurs to me that’s what’s going on in the book of Deuteronomy. As all of this instruction is being imparted, God is saying through Moses, look, the Lord is near to you. You are his people. The Lord is near. And so the success of all of this instruction is we need to realize that the Lord is near. And as we contemplate the Lord is near, we need to think about two things in particular: the crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.

You talk about two themes that are central to most New Testament instruction. I mean, everything is based on Christ did something incredibly sacrificial for us to remedy the problem of our past and has given us hope in his resurrection from the dead. We need to contemplate that regularly. Isn’t that not what this memorial says? If we’re going to be victorious in this spiritual battle, we must not move far or long from these thoughts.

5. Don't Forget Your Former Sins

Oh no, wait a minute. You just said to put the past in the past. Now you’re bringing up my sins again. Isn’t it interesting in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 9? To set that in contrast with Paul’s words in Philippians 3, forgetting those things which are before. Basically, don’t let the past hamper your productivity in the present. But in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 9, as Peter is talking about some of the same things that Paul would be talking about in regard to the mind, the things that we need to add to our faith, such as godliness and virtue and brotherly kindness and love. He says, if these qualities are yours and are increasing, you’re going to be fruitful in his cause. I’m summarizing.

But in verse 9, he says, if these qualities aren’t yours, he said, you’ve forgotten something. The purification of your former sins. Okay. Put the past in the past, but don’t forget your former sins. Well, what is Peter saying? He’s again, he’s not saying, dwell on the sins of your past to the extent that you’re crippled in the present, that you can’t forgive yourself. He wants us to move on from the transgressions of our past, but he says, don’t ever forget where you came from. Remembering where we came from contributes, it keeps us motivated, grateful, sensing our indebtedness to God, and helps us to maintain a proper view of ourselves. You know, in this putting things in the past in the past, we need to remember we’re only here because of God.

6. I Am More Than What I See

Let’s not get too carried away with ourselves. And I’ll tell you what else we need to think about. I am more than what I see. 2 Corinthians 4 helps me with that. And the reason why I think this is so very important is I think this is something we fail to retain in our thinking sometimes. That mind that we’re talking about is interrelated with our spirits. And that’s the most important part of you. This physical casing that we have that we give so much attention to take care of so very diligently is all very temporary. Now some of us don’t take care of it as diligently as others, but I’m but we do give a lot of attention to this outward material casing, and it is very temporary and very insignificant compared to what really makes you.

And that’s your spirit, your soul.

He says, we’re constantly being delivered over to death for your sake, and he means that literally.

But to the things which are unseen. If there’s something our mind needs to be constantly doing, it is focusing on the unseen. Our spirits. Our preparedness for the last great day. And because we are focused on our spirits, we do not forget our mission as his people to do good and to share, and that’s found in Hebrews chapter 13 with these words. Do not forget. Remember to do good and to share. Now, this is what I wish I would have shared with you in the very beginning. This is the whole point of this lesson. This isn’t accomplished by 30 minutes of toning. I’m done. 30 minutes. Your mind is now all what it needs to be. We’ve got to train ourselves for the purpose of godliness.

Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 7. Bodily exercise profits a little, but remember that’s only a temporary produce. Bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and the life that is to come. This is just establishing the framework for your training exercise. And may I suggest if we do or do not get to the heart for God lesson next week?

Conclusion

It’s all going to start right here. The kind of training that we’re doing in our minds. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life. So are you forgetting the things you need to forget and remembering the things you need to remember? Saving thoughts versus destructive thoughts. I want to conclude this lesson in Revelation chapter 3. With the words given to the church at Sardis, because it becomes apparent to me that the reason why they had a name, that they were alive, but found themselves spiritually dead is because they had not done sufficient work in their minds, in their hearts.

He says, wake up and strengthen the things that remain which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of God. So, well, there it is. Remember what you have received and heard and keep it and repent. Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour that I will come to you. Isn’t it interesting that in regard to the Lord’s people in Sardis, that their spiritual failings could be reduced to things that they had not remembered? Being a Christian isn’t that hard. It’s not that complex, is what I mean. It’s not some secret formula that only a few people possess. It’s simply a matter of your willingness to devote your mind in the proper way to God and to his things.

And while there’s a challenge to that, while there’s some training involved in that, while you’re going to have to give some effort to that beyond just listening to Tony go on for 30 minutes every week. How important is the work?

The Lord is coming. And even in the first century, they were being warned. It’s going to happen when people don’t expect.

Like a thief enters your home, like a terrorist attack happens in Paris. Not when you expect. All of a sudden, people aren’t prepared. The Lord is going to return. Are we going to be his prepared people? And perhaps if you’re not a Christian, you’ve not started this journey and dealt with adequately your past of sin, having it forgiven in the blood of Christ, being baptized into Him for the remission of your sins. If you’ve not dealt with it obediently and submissively, what are you waiting on? Is it time to wake up and take care of it while there’s time and opportunity? We sing to encourage your response. Let’s stand and sing together.