Think and Act

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Well, It is good to be with you this morning. I am grateful that Pastor Zach has asked me to teach on this Lord’s Day. I am also grateful that baby Noah and Hope are doing well.

As many of you know, I am the Director of the PowerHouse in Washington. We are gearing up for another school year here soon and also Lord willing we will be breaking ground on a new building very soon. If you would like to know more about the PowerHouse please see me in the back after the service today.

If you would, open God’s word this morning with me to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians 4. I have titled this message Think and Act, The Battle of the Mind. Our focus will be on verses 8 and 9 but for context I will be reading through the whole chapter this morning. If you are able would you please stand for the reading of God’s word.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

Exhortation, Encouragement, and Prayer

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.

3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

God’s Provision

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

14 Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.

15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.

16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.

17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Final Greetings

21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.

22 All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.

23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

This is the word of the Lord.

Let’s Pray

You May be Seated.

One of my favorite living preachers, Steve Lawson, tells a story of one of my favorite dead preachers, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones. It is said that when the Dr. decided to leave his medical practicing and dedicate his life as a pastor that he had many offers. Out of all the offers he chose the one that he believed to be the most challenging. This happened to be a congregation in Whales. Upon arrival to Whales the Dr. noticed they had what they called a drama ministry. What they would do was, move the pulpit off the stage on Saturday nights and bring in the young actors and actresses to act out their fantasies right there in the front of the church. They contended that this would bring in the young people in the town and get them aquatinted to the church. So Lloyd Jones took it upon himself to enact the first order of business as pastor of this congregation. He bolted the pulpit down so it could not be moved. Can you believe that. He was making a statement. He was saying that the first and utmost ministry of this church was to be too the preaching and teaching of Gods word. He wasn’t about to let worldly acts and ideas to come into their church. He wasn’t going to let that occupy his congregants minds. He knew that these dramas were carnal and worldly.

You see in this day and age we are no different than Lloyd Jones in the early 20th century. We have a battle for our minds happening. We have so many things that are desiring our attention. With our phones bombarding us and re-training our brains. To our tvs streaming shows. To information at our finger tips, we are berated with things. All of it is battling for space in our minds.

This battle for our mind is one of the most important battles that us humans face. How, we think matters. What we think about God matters. What we dwell on matters. How we think of ourselves, matters. Even secular people will tell you this. Now they wont point you to the correct way of thinking but they know it matters.

We are the richest, most powerful, most medicated and educated people yet we rank as one of the highest in suicides, depression, and anxious people on the plant. So yes we have a battle of the mind. We have a battle of what we think.

Let’s look to our text. Philippians 4:8-9

9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul is addressing the christians in Philipi. We see him call them brothers. And then he goes through a whole list of things that he tells them to keep in the fore front of their minds. He tells them to think about these things. He says to think on these things and then to practice what they have seen him do and he tells them that if they do that to think and do that the God of peace will be with them.

Now if you remember that just about these verses Paul says -

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And then again in our passage he says - the God of peace will be with you.

There is a battle of the mind. If we are anxious we do not have the peace of God. So how do we not be anxious? How do we have the peace of God? By thinking a certain way and acting a certain way. So let’s go through these.

Think on whatever is TRUE. true, sincere, real. This Describes something as credible, aligning with reality, reliable, or trustworthy. Just by the definition can you see how just thinking of what is true can help you mind. The issue is we believe lies. We take our thoughts and feelings as truth. We take the news as truth. We take the neighbors opinions as truth. Some of our issues isn't that we take the news as truth, our real problem is we don’t know enough of God’s word to understand what the news is telling us is a lie. Church, we have 66 books of God breathed word in our hands. We have the truth right here. Yet we would rather listen to some talking head on tv give us their opinion to actually know truth. Do you not know church that Eve was deceived by the serpent telling her that God really didn't mean what He said. Think on what is True. Find that in Gods word!

Think on whatever is HONORABLE. worthy of respect or dignified. Are your thoughts respectful and dignified? If someone saw or heard your thoughts would they categorize them as respectful or dignified. Or would you have thoughts that are disrespectful towards God and others.

Think on whatever is JUST. just, correct, righteous, innocent. The characteristic of following God’s law. For something to be just is to be in accordance with God’s law. We are to think on these things. Think on God’s law. In any situation we are to act justly, which is to say act according to God’s law. Deuteronomy 6:7 “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Do we think of what is just?

Think on whatever is PURE. Pure meaning spotless. Think of it as perfect without blemish. This word here was originally used in preparation for worship or ceremonial. It was used when sacrifices were to be brought to God. It is used in talking of Jesus as the pure and spotless lamb. Its ethically pure. Are your thoughts pure? Are they clean and rid of filth? Is your mind in the gutter? If so then rid yourself of those thoughts. Purify your thoughts. Think purely.

Think on whatever is LOVELY. Lovely meaning pleasant, inspiring, beautiful. Fill you mind with these thoughts. There is so much stuff in this world that is not lovely. There is hatred, murder, riots and abominations happening all around us that it can fill overwhelming. There is people telling children that it is ok to pick what ever sex they want to be. They can even go through the mutiliation of their body and hormones to get what ever they want. Church this isn’t lovely. They tell us that we have teens committing suicide because they are not accepted for being who they want to be. Church that is a lie. In fact we have been the most accepting people of all time and yet suicide is at an all time high. No what they need to be told is God made you in His image. He created you just how he wanted you. You are lovely because He created you. We need to teach that it is lovely and good to be a man and it is lovely and good to be a woman. Why? Because God is good and lovely and He made us in His image.

Think on whatever is COMMENDABLE. Commendable means of good report. Think on the things that bring good reports. The actions in people that are good. Share this about people. Dont be the person that always has something bad to say about people. Dont be the gossip always bringing bad reports. Be the one to bring good news. Be the one who speaks well of people. Bring a good report.

Think on any EXCELLENCE. This word here for excellence is especially meaning of moral excellence. Its a high standard. Are you thinking of these things. Are you working on raising your standards for yourself higher. Are you working on excellence. Most of us just try to be better than the person sitting next to us. We say things like, well im not like that person. This is not excellence. So train you mind to think on these things.

Think on anything WORTHY of PRAISE. Praise is to give adoration or honor to something. We praise God with our singing. We praise him in our prayers. We give him adoration or honor. Are your thoughts geared towards this through out the day. Are you finding things or seeing things and giving praise to God. Most seem like they just want that for themselves. We as humans love to receive praise, but our praise needs to be directed at our Lord and saviour.

So Paul says to think on these things. Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely commendable. He say to think about anything that is excellent or worthy of Praise. Paul says this because he knows the battle for our minds. He knows the war that is waged against our thoughts. This is vital to the christian walk. 2 Corinthians 10:5 We take every thought captive to obey Christ.

In the parable of the sowers Jesus explains Mark 4:18-19 “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” All of these things Jesus mention start with our mind.

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Our minds must be renewed. Our thoughts can not be the same. We must be on guard to what we let in to them. This means the tv that watch, the books we read, the music we listen to, the people we listen too. Church, just because it says it’c christian does not make it so. Just because it’s in the christian category at the book store or on Spotify does not make it christian. We have all kinds of people and things claiming to follow Christ but they have left the faith to create their own christ that suits themselves. I literally just this morning saw a book titled “ I quit being a christian to follow Jesus”. That is literately an oxymoron. Christian means little christ. Christian means a follower of christ. This is in the same vain of “don’t go to church, be the church”. You literally can not “be the church” without meeting with people, without going to church. I mean this is all nonsense. This is why we need God’s word not pop culture. This is why we need real truth no opinions. We need God and His word.

The reason why this is important is because how we think is how we act. If we think there is a God but he doesn't really care about our everyday life, then 10 times out of 10 we act exactly how we want to act. If we think there is a God who sent His son to die for my sins and he wants the best for me so he has given me the bible with ways in how to think and act, guess what we do? We read his word and we act upon it. How we think directly reflects how we act.

Paul says to practice these things. Practice the things to think about and practice what you have seen and heard from me. We think about what is true but then we actually practice telling the truth. Practice being honorable or worthy of respect. Practice being just and pure. Practice being lovely and commendable. Do things with excellence and Praise God for it all. Practice these things.

Why. Because when we do think and act on these things we will have the peace of God. Does that mean our lives will be without troubles. Well according to the life of Paul, the one writing this letter from jail, no your life will not be without troubles. However, in the next few verses Paul speaks of being content in all circumstances. This means that all though we face trials and troubles, good times and bad, we can have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding because we can take all thoughts captive and think on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely commendable. He say to think about anything that is excellent or worthy of Praise.

The battle of the mind is happening all the time. Thankfully we have a loving God whom we can trust and cast all our worries on and focus on all the things He has created and done for us His people. For God’s Glory and Our Good. Amen.