Reminders: The Good Life (Week 7)

This Sunday, Lead Pastor Joe Valenti teaches that because Jesus Christ is the true King over every earthly authority, we can live with humble obedience, gracious speech, and confidence instead of fear, even when we disagree with those in leadership. We learn that when we trust God’s sovereign rule, we replace outrage with prayer, reflect Christ through our actions, and become faithful witnesses to the hope of His unshakable kingdom.

PDF Resources: ( Sermon Notes )

Transcript

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Good morning, everyone. Good to see you. My name is Joe. I'm one of the pastors here. If you would turn in your Bible or your app to the book of Titus with me, we'll continue in the book of Titus for a couple more weeks. Then we're gonna have a morning where we will dedicate our time to prayer and worship to commission our children and families back to school. And then on August 30th, I'll preach our state of the heart sermon, which is a yearly sermon where we sort of look at where God has led us and where we're prayerfully asking him to lead us into the future. So you don't want to miss those sermons. And then, of course, as many of you know, uh then beginning in September, we'll start a journey through the book of Revelation. So that'll be exciting. A few weeks ago, Fred, one of our staff members, um, asked me if he could borrow one of our life jackets. He was going out on the lake with some friends, and uh, you know, Fred and I are built a little a little bigger than the average dude. And uh so Fred needed to borrow one of my life jackets, and so I said, Yeah, I'm glad to give you one, Fred. Make sure to remind me later because I will forget. And so Fred did his due diligence. He texted me that night, he said, Hey man, don't forget to grab the life jacket, put it in your car so you can bring it to work the next day. I said, Got it, Fred. I'm on it. Don't you worry. I forgot. The next morning, Fred texted me again. Hey, just another reminder about that life jacket. If if you didn't put it in your car last night, this is your reminder to do it right now. Yep, got it, Fred. Not a problem. I will remember. Thanks for the reminder. I was about halfway to work. Guess what I forgot at home? The life jacket. Now, my wife is in the room somewhere nodding along, going, Yes, he forgets just about everything. If it is not written down, the odds are that I will forget. And so maybe you have someone in your life, uh, or you use your device to be your reminder mechanism. Maybe your spouse is your reminder, maybe your phone is your reminder. Uh maybe, maybe you have a parent who reminds you about homework for school or whatever it may be, but we also need theological reminders. One of the most common refrains in the Bible is for us to remember or to not forget. And so this morning in Titus, we have a reminder. The problem with our brains is that we forget things. Uh theologians call this problem the noetic effects of the fall. So, noetic meaning having to do with the mind effects of the fall, of brokenness, of sin in our world, that our brains don't function at perfect capacity. And so we need reminders because when we forget theological truths, when we forget truths about the character and purposes of God, it actually affects the way that we live. We don't live out of the truth unless we are reminded of the truth. And so we have important reminders with us or for us in the book of Titus today. If you're new or newer, we have been studying this book. Titus is a letter written by the Apostle Paul, who was a church planter and missionary, and he had left Titus, one of his apprentices, on this little island in the Mediterranean called Crete, where he had started several little churches, and Titus's task was to make sure that all of those churches got up and running and off the ground in a healthy way. So there's much to teach these new believers, and there are many reminders to give them. And so here we are, Titus chapter 3, verses 1 and 2 are all we're going to deal with today, and there's plenty there for us to tackle. Titus chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. 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. This is a good reminder for us, is it not? Because we prefer self-rule. We like to do what we want to do. And so we need to be reminded to be submissive and obedient to those who have been given authority over us. Paul assumes this in the text. Otherwise, we wouldn't need the reminder. Paul also assumes that civil life, life as it relates to politics, as it relates to our school board, as it relates to our neighborhood, as it relates to interactions with laws and rules and codes and governance, are gonna bring out the worst in us. This is why he reminds us to be ready for every good work, to watch the way that we speak, to be gentle, to show courtesy towards all people. We need to be reminded towards obedience because we're prone to anarchy. We need to be reminded to be ready for every good work, because what happens is typically when an authority figure, particularly one that we don't like, is is leading, we step back from every good work and we just want to sit back and hopefully they will screw up so that we can watch it burn to the ground and be justified in our opinions. We need to be reminded to speak evil of no one, excuse me, because we are prone to slander. We need to be reminded to avoid quarreling, because man, nothing will spin us up like Americans, like politics, will it? We need to be reminded to be gentle because not only does it make us angry, but it can also make us violent. And we daily need to be reminded to show perfect courtesy towards all people because, especially when it comes to these topics, we are prone to be jerks. Now, this is not deep theology. It's not hard to understand. I could just read this. You don't need any exposition. It's very simple and very straightforward. It's it's it's a reminder. Be submissive and be obedient to those who are put in authority over you. Watch the way that you speak, watch the way that you act, so that you're courteous and display the love and grace of Christ to all people. It's not hard to understand. The problem that we have, and the reason that we need the reminder is because the application is the difficult part. Not the knowledge, it's easy knowledge. The application is the hard part. And so let's dig into Paul's instruction and God's instruction in Titus 3. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities. The Greek here is also uncomplicated. It reads as vague and as broad in Greek as it does in English. Rulers and authorities literally means all of the people who might have some type of authority over you in the given system. So it could be everyone from, you know, the president of your HOA who, you know, is like, I'm gonna need you to cut the grass, you know, who's worried about that. It could be the people who are checking on code violations for the adjustment in your home. It could be the in the fire inspector at your place of work. It could be the police officer that pulls you over. It could be our state officials, it could be our president, it could be federal law enforcement. There are all sorts of people at various levels that have authority over us. And God's word says, be submissive to them and obedient, ready for every good work. And I'll tell you what, I don't know about you, but that makes me squirm a little bit. Because in our fallen state, we don't like people telling us what to do. Well, here's the bedrock under these commands that is vital for us to understand. It is the ultimate and perhaps the most divisive political statement that the world has ever known. Here it is. Jesus Christ is king. Period. Now, typically, when we address the issue of politics, Christians can fall into two camps. One, believing that Christianity is not political at all, that these two things should be separate. The other extreme is combining or marrying American politics, because I'll just speak to that because that's where we live. Combining American politics with Christianity. Neither of those extremes are healthy or helpful. Christianity is indeed political. It's extraordinarily political because the claims of Christianity are political, namely that Jesus is a king and he has a kingdom. The problem that happens often is then we will swing to the other side and we think that American politics is the means by which his kingdom is saved or brought to fruition. And that's not what the Bible says. So we have to cut down the middle and figure out how we are to live? How do we live the good life? Well, Paul tells us that the good life is actually lived in submission to rulers and authorities. And we can do that because the foundation is that Jesus Christ is king, that his kingdom is an eternal kingdom that will be forever and ever. And so when we have that foundation, we have that root, it allows us then, under the lordship of King Jesus, to follow his instructions. He is the king of kings. We say that, but if you think about the reality, what does that mean? Jesus is king over all kings. He is Lord over all lords. And so he has decisive authority over you and over me to do or to tell us to live and to be however it is that he sees fit. And he says, I've put in place other governing authorities, and you're to submit to them. Not with begrudging, bitter compliance, or with an outrage-addicted, toxic attitude, but with a heart that is gentle and kind with words that bring life instead of death. Now, sometimes we read text like this and we begin to immediately look for loopholes. Well, that president, that mayor, that senator, that police officer, I don't like the way that they lead. I think they're immoral. I don't prefer their policies. Therefore, we deduce God must not have put them into authority. The devil somehow snuck them in. Well, scripture actually says otherwise. Romans 13, verse 1 is perhaps the most clear. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. No qualifications, no yeah buts. John 19. So Pilate said to him, Pilate was a Roman ruler at that time, he says, Will you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you? And Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Curious, is it not? Ever think about that? The very man who signed off on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was ordained to his position by God. It doesn't leave us any room for excuses. If Jesus submitted to the Jewish Sanhedrin and to Pilate, who committed the most heinous act of violence that the world has ever seen, then you and I have no loopholes. The first loophole we look for is, well, God must not have put them in authority. Scripture says otherwise. The other loophole that we look for is, well, they're leading in a way that I don't prefer, that I don't agree with, that I don't like. And so I shouldn't have to submit to them because they're immoral and their policies are immoral. Now, this one requires a little bit more nuance. I would propose to you that there are two biblical responses to authority in our lives. The first is what Paul is reminding us of here, namely strategic submission. Strategic submission. Let me define that for us. The active, intentional choice to honor, respect, and serve under existing earthly authorities, even when they are ungodly, not out of compromise, but out of trust in God's ultimate sovereignty. If you're trying to write all that down or take a picture, these notes can always be found at cvconline.org/slash connect. Let me read it again. Strategic submission. The active, intentional choice to honor, respect, and serve under existing earthly authorities, even when they are ungodly, not out of compromise, but out of trust in God's ultimate sovereignty. There's several examples of this in the Bible. Joseph under Pharaoh's rule. He is sold into slavery by his brothers into a pagan land with pagan gods and pagan practices. He is falsely accused, he is imprisoned, and yet he never seeks rebellion. In fact, what he practices is strategic submission, and God puts him in a place to not only influence the Pharaoh of Egypt, but to save his people. Daniel under King Nebuchadnezzar and King Darius. Nebuchadnezzar sacks Jerusalem in the 580s. He hauls Daniel along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and many others off to captivity in Babylon. Daniel is put in charge of enculturating Jewish people into the Babylonian way of life. It doesn't get a whole lot more evil. And Daniel takes that role and he serves both kings for seventy years. Nehemiah, under King Artaxerxes, he serves as the cupbearer to the king during the same captivity. He serves that king faithfully and obediently and humbly. And God strategically positions him to have the ear of the king when it's time to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city. And of course, like I just mentioned, Jesus under Pilate. It's not just submission for submission's sake. Jesus, as King of the universe, has plans. And his strategy is not for you and me is not anarchy or rebellion. It is strategic infiltration through submission, obedience, and Christ-like living. But there is a second option. The second option I would call holy defiance. The peaceful, resolute refusal to obey any human law or authority, when it directly forces a believer to violate the explicit commands of God. It does not seek political takeover or violent revolution, but humbly accepts the earthly consequences of allegiance to a higher throne. Again, we see several examples of this in the scriptures. The Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1, when Pharaoh commands that all of the young Jewish boys be killed. The Hebrew midwives quietly disobey. Daniel, while he does serve Nebuchadnezzar and Darius for many years faithfully, there does come a moment in his life where Daniel is commanded to pray to the king and not to God. The penalty is you were thrown into a den of lions to be ripped to shreds. And Daniel practices holy defiance, peaceful refusal to obey that guideline because it explit is it explicitly violates the command of God. And Daniel humbly accepts the consequences, namely being thrown into a den of lions. His friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do the same thing. When King Nebuchadnezzar erects a statue that says you're to bow down and worship this statue, they had served King Nebuchadnezzar faithfully, humbly, prepared for every good work for a long time, and they go, That's too far. And he says, Well, the consequence is you're going to be thrown into a furnace and burned alive. And they say, not. They don't try to rebel, they don't try to lead an uprising, they don't blow Nebuchadnezzar up on social media. They humbly submit to the consequences because of their allegiance to a higher power. Now, when we're faced with those two options, often we lean towards the one side, towards holy defiance. Feels a little bit better. But here's what I think, as I see it, is happening in American Christianity. We really, really don't prefer strategic submission. It doesn't matter what political party is leading the country or your state. We have a hard time with strategic submission because, as Christians, neither of those Those political parties perfectly display or embrace the values of the kingdom of God. And so we have a hard time with strategic submission. And so we want to rebel, but instead of holy defiance, what we end up doing is this third track that is an unbiblical track that I'll call unholy rebellion. Here's the difference. Holy defiance says, I love God so much and am so committed to his ways that I will humbly accept your furnace, your lion's den, your jail cell before I break one of his commandments. Humble, sorry, holy defiance maintains the instructions in Titus three, one and two, speaking evil of no one, avoiding quarreling, being gentle, showing perfect courtesy towards all people. It maintains those attitudes, speech patterns, and heart postures in the midst of the defiance. Unholy rebellion sounds like this. I dislike your polity, your personality, and your party, so I will bypass your authority and slander your name and fight for my personal rights. Here are four ways that I think we do that that cause me significant concern for the American church. Number one, subtle rebellion. We do this when no one's looking. Maybe you do a little off-the-books work and don't pay your taxes. It's illegal. And you have an instruction to be submissive to rulers and authorities, and you go, the government just wastes my hard-earned money anyway. It's sin. Just call it what it is. Subtle rebellion of that nature is sin. Maybe you're doing a little project at your home, and you know that you're supposed to pull a permit. And you go, nobody's ever gonna know. We'll get in there, we'll fix the wires, we'll patch it up. It's illegal. Which is why we need to hear Titus 3:1. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities. Number two, verbal rebellion. Speak evil of no one, remind them to speak evil of no one. See, the remind could be put in front of any one of these phrases. Remind them to speak evil of no one. Remind them to avoid quarreling. Remind them to be gentle. When a leader acts in a way that we don't believe that they should act, how quick are we to slander, to mock them, to give the I told you so speech. Slandering law enforcement, snarky, disrespectful, deceitful, motive questioning. We presume that we know the heart of a person because of a sound bite that we heard on Instagram. And so we silently rebel, remind them to speak evil of no one. What about this third one? Exemption rebellion. Because I don't approve of this leader, of their policies, of the way that money is being spent, of the morality maybe behind it, everybody else has to obey, but not me. I get to make the call. What about this one? Party allegiance rebellion. I'm down with Titus three one when my party is in control. Glad to submit. Oh, when my party's not in control, then I'm free to ignore the instructions in Titus three one and two. There are several reasons why we act this way. Why we ignore strategic submission or holy defiance and merge into unholy rebellion, I think at least one of the reasons is fear. And this is why we need reminders. Because when we're thinking incorrectly about God and about his kingdom, it has a negative impact on how we live, how we act. We buy into this lie that if the wrong candidate wins, if the wrong policy passes, if the wrong judge sits on the bench, that the kingdom of God is somehow in peril. Like the kingdom of God is like a fragile little ornament. And that American politics, if the wrong person gets voted in, that it's just going to fall on the ground and burst into a hundred pieces. And so what has happened is in America, rooted in fear, and because of our biblical illiteracy, we then marry American politics and Christianity. As if to believe and say, unless a certain party is in charge, God's kingdom cannot move forward in victory. What a load of nonsense. That's insane thinking. That's insane to believe that a political party in America has any rule or reign or influence over the victory of the kingdom of God. Come on, brothers and sisters, this is crazy thinking. And that's why we need to be reminded. Because we get scared that God's kingdom is fragile and that Jesus' rule is in jeopardy. Consider, consider some of the world powers just in the time of the Bible. When Paul wrote this letter to Nero, guess what? There was not a Christian regime in power. Nero was sitting on the throne of the Roman Empire, an emperor who burned Christians alive to light his gardens at night. God's kingdom was not in peril. Consider who was in charge when Daniel served in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was an ego maniacal nutjob who threw people to burn alive into furnaces when they would not bow down to the statue of him. You want to talk about a crazy leader. You want to talk about immoral and totally off the deep end. Read Daniel 1 this week. You know who put Nebuchadnezzar in control? God did. Absolute control. God's not in heaven wringing his hands, going, oh no, what am I ever going to do if that judge gets appointed? And yet we, again, because of our biblical illiteracy and our addicted commitment to social media and the news, presume upon God and his kingdom things that never ought to be. See, fearful people rebel against the empire because they think their safety depends on it. Faithful people can submit to the empire because they know their Savior already rules it. Can I just give you a little bit of freedom today? The good life is not spent in a perpetual state of political rage. You don't have to view your neighbor or your coworker who voted differently than you as an enemy. I just honestly, I want to say collectively to evangelical Christians in America, calm down. Jesus Christ is King. Calm down. Now, I'm not saying don't be involved. Don't hear me say that. In God's providence to you, to me, we have been given an opportunity to live in a country where we can vote. Where we actually have the opportunity to choose who we submit to. There are many, many, many, many Christians across the world and across history who did not have the opportunity that we have. So vote, goodness gracious. If the command is to submit, well, play your part to pick one that you can submit to. That's usually not a problem. The problem is when the person who we don't like gets into office. It's surely not going to save his kingdom. God and his kingdom don't need your saving. Speak evil of no one. Avoid quarreling. Be gentle. Show perfect courtesy towards all people. Again, it's not hard knowledge. It's hard action. And so I would just ask you how you doing? How you doing with that? We just need a reminder. I'm not here to beat you down. That's why we need reminders. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities. Remind them to be ready for every good work. Remind them to speak evil of no one. Remind them to avoid quarreling. Remind them to be gentle. Remind them to show perfect courtesy towards all people. Here's why this matters. Just like Joseph, just like Daniel, just like Jesus, our obedience to God's word here is not obedience for obedience's sake. It's strategic infiltration. See, here's a scheme of the devil. Hear me. If you fell asleep, eyes up. Here's a scheme of the devil. If I can't get these people in CBC, if I can't get these people in Christianity to abandon their faith, then here's what I'll do: I'll render their witness ineffective. And a great way to do that is to cause them to be afraid that the American political system holds sway over the kingdom of God. And if I can get them to believe that, they are gonna absolutely lose their stuff. They're gonna get fearful, and when people get fearful, they act out in all sorts of crazy ways. They get malicious, they get mean, they start talking behind people's backs. They're gonna fall more in love with the political leader than they do with Jesus. They're gonna fall more in love with watching YouTube shorts and Instagram than they will reading their Bible. And I'm gonna just stir them up. I'm gonna stir them up so that their neighbor, so that that person at soccer practice, so that that friend in the hallway at school will think they're an absolute nut job. And they'll look at them and think, man, if Christians always act that way and talk that way and live that way, then I want nothing to do with their Christianity. And I'll tell you, brothers and sisters, that scheme of the devil is working like a charm in American Christianity. And so Paul says, we need a reminder. We need a reminder of how to live under authority and among people with whom we disagree. Because when you spend hours scrolling political commentary, getting your heart rate up over a headline, treating political opponents like your enemy, the devil wins, and you are being sidelined in your effectiveness for the kingdom. Jesus did not call you to win arguments on the internet. He called you to show perfect courtesy towards all people. So that maybe those same people might look at you and go, man, they are not concerned at all about the future. Where do you get that kind of peace? You get that kind of peace from bedrock truth, that Jesus Christ is King. And so then I can obey his commands and infiltrate enemy lines strategically. And just like Joseph and just like Daniel and just like Jesus, we bring light into dark places, and the darkness never even saw it coming. Two action steps for you. Number one, trade your outrage for intercession. There's some great books about habits, and it says that we need a trigger. We need something to remind us. I'll tell you what happens to me. I'm reading an article or I'm watching a video, and it has to do with politics and things that I don't disagree with, and I get spun up. I can feel my anger rising. Well, now, when that happens to us, that's our trigger to remind us to trade our outrage for intercession. Next time an earthly ruler makes a decision that drives you crazy or a headline makes your blood boil, instead of calling the friend, instead of typing back a comment that nobody's going to read, but you feel better about yourself because you did it. Pray. Take that leader and the situation to the Lord in prayer. Number two. Trade rebellion for evangelism. Trade rebellion for evangelism. It's really important that we look at it this way. That strategic submission is indeed strategic. And the goal of showing perfect courtesy towards all people is that you might have a winsome platform to share the hope of Jesus Christ. Earthly kingdoms will rise and fall, but the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, as the Messiah chorus says, He shall reign for ever and ever. So remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities. Because here is the bedrock that lies under that command. Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. That all nations and peoples and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Amen.