Six Paths to Self-Forgetfulness

0:01 Well, good afternoon to you all. We're going to get started here. My name is Scott Hubbard from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I work at the ministry Desiring God. I am husband to Bethany and father of three boys. And it is my joy to be with you all this afternoon. For these next few minutes, I want to consider a quality that C.S. Lewis described as the cheerful hallmark of humility. It's what Tim Keller called a doorway into freedom.

0:50 And John Piper names it as the best friend of deep wonder. And yet you and I might know it as one of life's most elusive gifts. Self-forgetfulness. true joy the joy that God made us for it doesn't live in a land of mirrors and peace of mind isn't found inside ourselves no matter how rigorously or how long we look and no personality test however accurate it may be can usher the soul into contentment it's true that we must know some things about ourselves if we're going to live wisely and well in this world.

1:56 We must even, at times, examine ourselves. But the healthiest Christians in the world, you maybe know some of them, They hardly care what psychological categories they belong to, and they hardly care how they compare to other people around them, and they mainly forget about themselves and live. now when I say all that I feel a little bit like Moses on the eastern side of the Jordan River as he is looking over at the promised land I know that place that country of self-forgetfulness and I have tasted some of the joys of that place but it's not where I live my every day On most days, I find myself wanting to leave the land of self-consciousness and join those saints whose joys are many and whose thoughts of self are few. only God can do this, ultimately.

3:09 Self-forgetfulness is a gift. Only he can take a soul that is curved inward on itself and gently bend it upward, outward. But as we pray for him to do that, there are a few things we can do. And so I want to share an acronym that's going to guide the rest of our time together. Okay, the acronym is the word FORGET. F-O-R-G-E-T. So if you find yourself too focused on yourself, would you consider with me now these six modest steps toward more joyful self-forgetfulness? Fill your mind with Jesus. if you've ever told yourself to forget yourself, you've probably also discovered how powerless that command is.

4:20 Self-forgetfulness happens indirectly, not so much as we forget ourselves as when we remember something else. And nothing in this world warrants our attention and our remembrance more than Jesus Christ. The Father, he commands us to listen to him. The Spirit is given to glorify him. The apostles again and again bid us to behold him. The angels now and forever will never cease to worship him. Scripture talks about his riches being unsearchable, His glories incomparable and the joys of those who know Him inexpressible. so how do we fill our minds with him in any of a hundred ways if the riches of jesus really are unsearchable and they are then they invite creative exploration but just as a start, maybe you could keep one of your Bible ribbons in the Gospels all year long, or maybe you could find rich, robust theological books about the person and work of Jesus, or maybe you can make part of your regular reading diet the meditations of Christ-saturated saints like Samuel Rutherford or John Newton.

6:02 however you do it, seek to make Jesus your morning sun and your evening star and your afternoon oasis and the joy of every hour. Rutherford, I just mentioned him, old Scottish pastor from a few hundred years ago, he says this, I am sure the saints at their best are but strangers to the weight and worth of the incomparable sweetness of Christ. It will take an eternity, brothers and sisters, to know him.

6:42 So, with Rutherford, would you make it your happiness daily to win new ground in Christ's love, to catch a new sight of him, to enjoy a new glory in him, and fill your mind with Jesus? Oh. Obey more than you analyze. I want you to consider a couple of scenarios for those familiar with introspection. You're on your way home having just led a Bible study, and now with your roommate in the car next to you, you can't seemingly stop replaying half a dozen comments that you made.

7:29 Or you're standing there in corporate worship on Sunday morning, or perhaps in a setting like this one, and you keep gauging your emotional temperature and comparing your demeanor to those around you. You know what that feels like? In moments like those and a whole bunch of others, self-analysis, it can feel so reasonable and even so responsible because we do not want to miss our mistakes and sins. We don't want to be strangers to ourselves.

8:07 But at the same time, it would be worth considering how self-analysis can lead us into subtle disobedience. Think about it. As long as you replay moments from the Bible study, you are failing to love the roommate with you in the car. or as long as you keep gauging your temperature and looking around to others you fail to behold the lord of the song and even in solitude when self-analysis doesn't necessarily keep us from loving our neighbor it can still distract from important obedience like doing our work or getting our sleep or saying our prayers or putting our mind on all that is honorable or excellent or lovely. There is a place for self-analysis in the Christian life, for paying attention to yourself, watching yourself, confessing your sins. But that place almost always is not the dinner table or your kid's bedside or in conversation with a friend or in any other arena where God has major duty plain. When we're there, he calls us to look to the interests of others or speak a grace-filled word or do our work heartily as for him. So, when introspective thoughts intrude upon your mind, don't assume that God expects you to heed them. Instead, ask yourself, are these distracting me from more important obedience?

9:55 And if so, then tell yourself, I should maybe think about that sometime soon, but not now. I have a different job to do. And then pray for grace to do it. Obey more than you analyze. R. Repent and confess quickly.

10:20 Imagine with me that in the morning you spill a bowl of cereal all over your floor, but instead of picking it up right away, you go about your day with that mess still strewn about. You can see it in the corner of your eye as you go from place to place in your house. You know it's there in the back of your head, and you have a suspicion that maybe it's even damaging the floorboards, but you don't do anything about it. many of us respond to sin similarly, as ridiculous as that scenario is. Say that sometime in the morning, you welcomed a twisted thought and indulged it, or you neglected something obvious that God was calling you to do, or you made a thoughtless comment that you're pretty sure hurt your friend or your spouse, you sin. But instead of cleaning up that mess right away, you step around the sin. Instead of bringing it to God and confessing quickly, you try to go about your day. And so you walk through a haze of vague guilt and background accusation and stumbling self-consciousness. It makes me think of the old hymn, oh what peace we often forfeit, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Do we not have an advocate in heaven? Do we not have a father who runs to his returning children and a gospel that is big enough for any sin that you or I could bring.

12:10 The truth is that harboring guilt holds no atoning power. and God doesn't tell us to confess only after feeling awful through the afternoon. Instead, everything in him, everything in the gospel, everything in the words of Jesus upon the cross, it is finished. Call us to come right now, right away, to respond to the first pang of guilt by saying, I'm going to go to my father. And you really can sit down, confess and renounce your sin outright, receive forgiveness in Jesus, and move on. In Hebrews 8, God tells us that he he forgets the sins that he forgives. and so surely that means that we can forget them too when we bring them to him, and in forgetting our sins, you and I might just forget ourselves. Repent and confess quickly.

13:19 G, get lost in something good. When was the last time you were wrapped? Do you know that word? Wrapped. It refers to one of the most self-forgetful and one of the most pleasurable experiences that God gives in the world. Here's how one author puts it. To be wrapped is to be completely absorbed, engrossed, fascinated, perhaps even carried away from the scholar's study to the carpenter's craft to the lover's obsession. When you become wrapped before some beauty, some hobby, some person, you lose yourself. Even if only for a few moments. And then when you come back, you find yourself all the better for it.

14:14 there's lots of people in scripture who we could describe as wrapped they often happen in the context of worship i think of david in psalm 27 who says one thing have i asked of the lord that i will seek after to behold the beauty of the lord and gaze upon him in his temple moses on mount sinai praying please show me your glory and then actually getting a glimpse of it these are rapt believers. But it also happens when someone stands before something that God has made in his world. Like the wise man who is standing astounded at the ant. or Jesus who bends down to notice the splendor of the lily outshining Solomon in all his glory, or the author of Psalm 104 who bursts forth in praise to God for sky and sun and moon and rain and grass and sheep.

15:20 When was the last time you were so engrossed, so blissfully lost? when was the last time you found yourself in a context where you even could be? Where you lingered long enough, found yourself before some pleasure long enough to get lost in it?

15:42 I know that life is busy, but find some way to place yourself before the goodness of God in his good world to open your eyes to walk on some path of pleasure long enough to get lost in something good. E, embrace your God-given callings. I'm a fairly self-reflective person. It's why this topic intrigues me. But for as inward as I can be, I used to spend a whole lot more time pouring over my soul. If you were to look through journals from my college days, you would see page upon page of this agonizing introspection. But then if you kept going, you would see that the entries slowly taper off until they're pretty much gone altogether, just blank pages.

16:35 Why is that? Lots of reasons, but one of the more significant is that I simply got busier. Started taking more classes, becoming more involved in my local church, working more hours, and those God-given callings or responsibilities became for me a blessed kind of busyness. They were a friend to self-forgetfulness. when dark thoughts lure us inward, when we feel on the precipice of being sucked into the vortex of self, what a gift it is to have a friend to meet with, a spouse to love, an infant to console, a neighbor to invite over, a work project to accomplish, a church to build up, or any of another dozen needs that you can meet.

17:40 Callings like those, they give a glorious objectivity to those who are tempted to be mired in subjectivity. I'm not suggesting when I say this that you fill up your time so much that you have no room for calm moments throughout your day, or quiet mornings before your God, or leisurely Sabbath-like rest, but I am suggesting that you get and pursue and embrace a few big callings in life and then hear the voice of God in them saying, Husband, love your wife. Mother, train up your toddler. Student, study hard. Friend, stir up your brother or sister. Church member, meet the needs of the saints. In other words, that you hear the voice of God in them calling you out of yourself. embrace your God-given callings.

18:36 And finally, T, thank God always and for everything. However self-conscious and inward you feel, resolve to thank him in all circumstances. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, or in Ephesians 5, thank him always and for everything. Because morbid introspection and Godward gratitude work against each other, do they not? It's hard to do both at the same time. Introspection takes us deep underground. Gratitude lifts our eyes to a big and bright sky. Introspection curves us inward. Gratitude bends us outward. Introspection sends us into a hall of mirrors where we often see ourselves, but also often become deceived about ourselves. gratitude lifts us up to the father of lights our good and giving god in the book of first chronicles the levites chapter 23 this was part of their job they were to stand every morning thanking and praising the lord and likewise at evening what would happen, what might happen, if you and I matched that godly practice and for a few minutes each morning, each evening, looked back to see the many gifts God has given to look at and discern the goodness and the mercy that are chasing us home?

20:14 We might find that Thanksgiving snaps us back to reality, that it speaks a gospel louder than our inward thoughts, that it becomes a remembrance of God that helps us forget ourselves. So, fill your mind with Jesus.

20:35 Obey more than you analyze. Repent and confess quickly. Get lost in something good. Embrace your God-given callings and however stuck inside yourself you feel, thank God always and for everything.