Godly Thinking

The Problem of Man’s Thinking

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As we begin this text, I would like to remind you that things are not good for Paul.

He’s not writing this from some exotic beach, while soaking in some rays.

Paul is writing this while under house arrest in Rome.

We hear house arrest and we think that he gets to live in the luxury of his own home.

House arrest isn’t like the our idea of house arrest.

No GPS ankle bracelets, or Netflix for him.

Paul is in an apartment, with a Roman guard chained to his side.

He’s responsible for the rent of his apartment, paying the Roman guard, as well as food and the basic necessities.

Since he can’t leave his home, and since he has a guard next to him, his employment opportunities are limited..

This means he’s dependent upon the kindness of others to support him.

People have to send him supplies and money so that he’s able to support himself during his time under arrest.

Additionally, Paul has some enemies within the church who are grateful for Paul’s incarceration.

They are using his time away to make a name for themselves.

They are trying to steal his influence upon the church.

Yet, through Paul’s time in jail, he doesn’t complain.

In fact, Philippians is not a negative book at all.

Overall, it’s very positive.

It’s filled with joy.

Back in the 1st chapter, Paul says he’s grateful for his stay in prison, because the imperial guard and people within Rome, have now heard the Gospel.

And when it comes to his enemies who preach from envy and rivalry, he’s even joyful about that.

Because even if their motives are wrong, Christ is being preached; the Gospel is going out.

Paul never complains about things.

Instead, at the end of he says that he has rejoiced, then he says he will continue to rejoice.

He’s rejoiced in the past, and he will rejoice in the future.

Paul desires his joy to be contagious.

Last week, we heard Richard preach, and in verse 4, Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice.”

So there is Paul, in a situation that is way worse then ours, and he is telling us to rejoice.

What’s funny is if we were to compare our lives, ours to Paul’s, our lives are completely opposite.

We don’t live a life like Paul’s.

We aren’t under the same pressures as him.

We don’t suffer like him.

None of us have had to endure the kind of hardships that Paul’s gone through.

You would think that if anyone would have reasons to experience joy, it would be us.

If anything, Paul should be receiving a letter from the Philippians telling him to rejoice and to endure this trial.

The Philippians should be telling Paul, “Cheer up Paul, things aren’t as bad as they could be.”

But no, this is a letter from someone under arrest, and suffering, and he is writing to tell those who have it better to rejoice.

We don’t have the same joy as Paul.

If anything, we are one miss-step from disaster.

A couple weeks ago, there were a series of suicides by high profile celebrities.

These are the people who appear to have it all.

These are the people that we hope our children will one day become; rich and successful.

And yet … while they appeared to have it all, they couldn’t be more disappointed, and they took their own lives.

Don’t you see how there is something wrong here?

Paul is the one suffering and he’s telling others who are not suffering to rejoice.

And then there are those who are not suffering, and they live as if they are.

Think about how quickly we can lose it.

You go to Starbucks and the barista forgets to put whipped cream on your Frappuccino, and all you see is red.

“Why does this happen to me?”

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

“God is out to get me.”

It’s hot out, and rage clouds your vision.

There’s traffic and suddenly you go from being a nice guy, to Mr. Hyde, and you’re looking for your next victim on the road to destroy.

We have a problem.

And the problem is our thinking.

The first thing I want you to see is that there is great Importance in Your Thinking.

What is it you spend your day thinking about?

What is it you spend your time meditating on?

Where does your mind go, when it just wanders?

Sometimes we forget how vulnerable the mind is.

Sometimes we lower our thinking.

Most people are so casual about their thinking that there is no battle within their mind at all.

They’ve already given up.

They don’t try to control their thoughts, they just go where they go.

We see this played out in

But I’ve got news for you, how you think matters.

Much of the time we place very little emphasis on what we think about.

It’s okay to think certain things as long as we don’t act on them.

Get angry in your mind, just don’t say it out loud.

But Jesus doesn’t see things that way.

Jesus sees man’s problem as coming from within.

In He says, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

In the Jesus says that if someone even just lusts after another person within his heart.

He doesn’t even have to act on that thought.

If it’s just a thought, a pondering, a fantasizing, that in God’s eye, the person has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Your thinking matters.

Many times we spend all our time fighting external sins -

You try not to lie.

You try not to cuss out.

You try not to lose your temper and say something you’ll regret.

We try so hard not externally sinning, that we forget that there is an internal battle that needs to be waged as well.

We forget that there are sins that can be committed internally, that are just as damning as those that can be committed externally.

We are not just to do good, but we are also to think good.

says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, …”

How you think matters.

Which why your thinking needs to be guarded.

says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Guard your heart.

Sometimes we forget how vulnerable the mind is.

Never be content merely guarding your actions and not your mind.

Sometimes we lower our thinking.

In , Paul says, “We destroy arguments and lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,“

Most people are so casual about their thinking that there is no battle in their mind at all.

If you desire to actively not sin, then it must begin within the mind of the Christian.

They’ve already given up.

Which brings us to our second point, there is a Need for New Thinking.

There are many who think that when it comes to thinking and meditation, that what must first occur is that you must empty your mind.

Breathe deeply.

Exhale.

And think of nothing.

People say mantras to clear their mind.

They repeat phrases in an effort to think of nothing.

Yet, no where does Scripture say anything like that.

God has never told us to be empty headed.

God has created us to be thinkers.

He has given you that big brain to use.

He has given you that big brain to use.

In our text in Philippians Paul gives us a big list of things to think about.

Whatever is:

True

Honorable

Just

Pure

Lovely

Commendable

Excellent

Worthy of praise

Paul says to think about these things.

And that’s not a suggestion.

We are commanded to think about these things.

Which is opposite of the person who says we are to empty our head.

So again, we are not told to empty our minds.

We are told, we are commanded to think about these things.

But I find again that there is a problem.

The problem is that we don’t think about these things.

Maybe it’s residue of our old nature sticking to our soul the way grime from yesterday’s dinner sticks to dirty dishes.

But our minds don’t easily think about true, honorable, just, and pure things.

Why is that?

Maybe it’s because we’ve spent too much of our life thinking about bad things.

Maybe it’s because we spend too much time looking at bad things.

Think about what we find entertaining.

Often times the Christian’s entertainment is no different from the world.

It’s still just as raunchy, violent and sex filled as the world around us.

I think of the old adage, ”garbage in - garbage out”.

It might be because we feed our soul on sinful stuff.

Jesus said it’s not what comes into the body that defiles us, but what comes out of the body.

Do you see the problem here?

It’s just a cycle of filth.

What comes out is filth.

What goes in is filth.

If we already have a tendency to pursue evil, then if that is what we watch and feed our soul with… then there is a problem.

It’s adding junk upon junk.

So what are we to do?

tells us to “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.”

It doesn’t say become a Christian and continue thinking the way you used to.

It doesn’t say become a Christian and continue feeding your soul with sin.

It doesn’t say become a Christian and still try to out-gossip others.

And it doesn’t says empty your minds, or free your minds.

It says to set your minds on things that are above.

This tells me that if you desire to set your minds upon things that are good; if you desire to be obedient to Scripture … then something needs to change.

Spend more time loving what is good.

Set your minds on things that are above.

Spend more time gazing upon the Cross.

If we spend more time thinking about the Cross then what is sinful should become offensive.

Nothing should cause you to hate sin more, then knowing that the innocent Lamb of God suffered for your sin.

Thinking Like a Disciple

What breaks my heart is when I see the dirty affects of my sin.

There have been a handful of times in my life where I mess up, and I mess up bad, only to see others suffer the consequences of my sins.

I think of the man who drinks and abuses his wife and his children.

They suffer because of his sins.

I think of the woman who can’t control her spending.

And now the electricity is turned off.

Her family suffers because of her sins.

Now exaggerate that; blow that up.

Your sin, deserves Hell.

And not just a small time in Hell, but an eternity in Hell.

And when Jesus was dying on the Cross, He was receiving that eternity of Hell that you deserved.

Not for anything He did.

The Cross is the consequence of your sin.

You, therefore, are a participant in the cross of Christ.

Many times over the years people have asked, “Who’s responsible for the death of Christ?

Was it the Jews?

Was it the Romans?

It was you.

It was me.

Because He who knew no sin, became sin.

Those were our sins that put Christ on the Cross.

So as Paul said in Colossians, set your minds on things that are above.

Spend more time thinking about Christ.

Think about what you deserve.

Think about what you have received.

Think about what He’s accomplished.

I promise you … you will think differently.

You will no longer want to dwell on sinful things.

The other way we learn to fixate on things that are good, is to fill your mind with God’s Word.

Saturate your mind with God’s Word.

Remember, there is power in the Word of God.

says that it is sharper than a two-edged sword.

It cuts to the soul of a person.

When you are in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit penetrates your soul.

Something supernatural happens as you read the Bible.

This is why it’s so important to regularly be in the Word of God.

And may I encourage you to be patient in this process.

Many times Christians hear a pastor or someone say what I just said, “Read your Bible, and the Holy Spirit will work in you.”

So you get up early.

You grab a cup of coffee.

You open it up to read.

And … nothing. … You get nothing.

You quickly become frustrated, because you were more excited reading the owner’s manual to your car then whatever you just read in the Bible.

And you quickly give it up.

I ask for you to be patient, because you may not notice the change immediately.

But as you feed regularly on God’s Word, your soul is nourished.

says that the person whose delight is in the word of God, and who regularly meditates on it, he is like a tree.

Trees don’t grow quickly.

You can’t watch a tree grow.

But over time, a tree grows, it’s roots sink deep, its branches stretch out and it towers into the sky.

You ever look at old pictures of your home?

You notice that little tree that you planted in the front yard.

It used to be so small.

Now it’s huge, and covers the whole front yard.

And you think, “Wow, when did it get so big?”

That’s what happens to our lives as we regularly feed upon God’s Word.

Over time, the Bible saturates your soul and changes the way that you think.

Therefore it’s good to be in God’s Word.

says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

So if the idea of thinking about good things is overwhelming, begin with God’s Word.

Immerse yourself in it.

The idea isn’t to empty your mind, rather to fill up your mind with God’s Word.

Memorize it.

Feed on it.

And watch as you are transformed.

So we talk about filling our mind with the Word of God, but there is still something that requires some self-control, and that is our thinking.

We have to make a concentrated effort to think about good things.

Many like to think of our thoughts as simply a current that we have no control over.

And a random thought comes by that grabs our attention and we go with it.

Meaning that we have no responsibility for how we think or what we think about.

“I can’t help it. It’s just who I am.”

But Paul thinks better of you.

He says to control your thoughts.

At the end of verse 8, he commands us, “think about these things”.

Let me clarify something here, the world around us likes to talk about the power of positive thinking.

The idea is that if you think positive then positive things will happen.

Think happy thoughts, then you’ll be happy.

That’s not what this is.

This is not the idea to bury your head in the sand and ignore reality.

This is guarding your mind from going down sinful paths.

9 says to “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

This means guarding your mind from engaging in sinful thoughts, because you know it is offensive to God.

Paul tells us to think on what is true.

Don’t fixate on lies.

Or when it comes to other people, don’t fixate on the worst possibilities about people.

When it comes to other people, there are some who come to conclusions about other people, that simply aren’t true.

You women do this really well.

You look at another woman and you instantly know everything about her.

She doesn’t like you and you don’t like her.

You look at her, and see in her eyes that she’s a mean girl.

Why? Because of how she looked at you.

Men you do it too. You do this by a handshake.

His hand was too smooth to be trusted.

It was like holding a wet fish.

He’s slippery.

He must be an attorney.

When we prejudge someone before we know anything about them and let that prejudgment divide and remove any possibility of fellowship, that is thinking a lie.

We are to think what is honorable.

This means being respectful, even in our minds.

Like many kids, I was able to have a bit of an attitude with my parents, and especially my mom.

There would be times she’d tell me to do something … and I’d do it.

But my thoughts weren’t honorable.

And she’d see right through it.

My mom would say, “Don’t look at me with that tone of voice.”

Now understand, I hadn’t done anything wrong.

I had obeyed my mom.

Externally I was obedient.

But internally … there was no honor.

I broke the 5th commandment of honoring my mother in father without saying a word.

We are to be honorable even on the inside.

Paul says to dwell on things that are just, pure and lovely.

These are good things.

These are righteous things.

Notice we are also commanded to think about things that are worthy of praise.

”If there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The mind of a Christian isn’t one that thinks about religious things only occasionally, or once a week.

We are to be defined by an attitude of looking for the works of God.

Look for the providence of God, and His overwhelming goodness.

A great way to do this is to frequently be in prayer.

Think about His acts and kindness.

As you pray more, then your thought life will be transformed into seeing how God frequently works.

And you’ll find yourself trusting in God and being thankful for what He’s done.

Paul then calls for us to Think Like a Disciple

At no point do we think that we are there.

At no point are we to think that we are a finished product.

You continue to be a work in progress.

God will continue to work in you and to change you until the day that you are brought to glory.

Paul says, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things …”

If you are a Christian you are a disciple of Christ.

And an attribute of a disciple of Christ, is that we are perpetual students.

Think of the Great Commission.

We are to make disciples, “teaching them to observe all that” Jesus has commanded us.

Discipleship is defined by being taught something.

Therefore, the Christian life is a life of continual learning.

And we will continue to be students our whole lives.

This applies to pastors.

I don’t know how many times I’ve read the Bible.

I typically read the Bible every 3-4 months or so.

And I am still surprised at what I find in it.

This requires some humility, because it means acknowledging that I don’t know everything.

And if I as your pastor, who God has put over you, know that I don’t know everything, and that I still am a student, a disciple … then follow my example, and continue to learn.

But not only are we to learn, but we are to receive what we learn.

You ever read a book, and drift off while you’re reading.

You then look back and realize you’ve been reading for 30 minutes, and you have no idea what you just read.

If you spend 30 minutes reading, you’d like to know what you read during those 30 minutes.

And if you are a disciple, you want to know what you are learning.

So if you are coming to church, and sitting listening to sermons, attending CU, take some time to hold onto what you are taught.

Receive what you are learning.

Remember, we are pressing forward.

We are aiming for maturity.

The author of Hebrews rebuked his listeners in :11-13

”About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.”

He uses children as an example.

When a child is young what he can eat is limited.

He drinks milk.

But as the teeth come in, he can eat more sophisticated food.

And in the same way, you should be able to move on to harder subjects.

A disciple is also close to someone, he has a relationship with someone.

A disciple is not meant to be alone.

Paul says that the Philippians have heard and seen him.

They have been able to observe him.

Therefore a disciple is under someone, and under someone that he can observe.

Are you under someone?

The Christian life is not just come to church on Sundays.

It’s living together.

It’s observing.

It’s talking.

It’s going to coffee.

It’s serving together.

It’s observable.

I can’t say this enough:

Be involved in the life of the church.

And find yourself a more mature Christian and be under him.

Women, place yourself under a more mature Christian woman and learn from her.

Men, place yourself a more mature Christian man and learn under him.

Being a disciple is not a simple task.

Paul tells the church to practice these things.

There’s always that joke about doctors.

You have a recurring headaches.

The doctor says it’s just a sinus infection.

It’s not a sinus infection.

You go back and he says it’s your eyes.

It’s not your eyes.

Again you go back, he says it’s your blood pressure.

It’s not your blood pressure.

Finally, it turns out you haven’t been getting enough sleep.

You get more sleep, problem solved.

And what do we say about doctors?

”That’s why it’s called practicing medicine.”

It takes practice to think rightly.

It takes practice to live rightly.

Growing up while playing baseball, there were times I learned that there was something wrong with my swing.

Perhaps my elbow was too high, or too far back, or not far back enough.

I couldn’t just change my swing.

I had to go to the batting cage and spend hours trying to teach my body how to swing a bat in the new way.

And only after lots of practice could I do it rightly.

The same with the Christian life, it takes practice.

Continue to practice holiness.

Continue to practice thinking rightly.

Continue to practice striving toward maturity.

And know that the Holy Spirit is working in you.

Lastly, there is a Promise of Thinking

Many people go through life wondering what God’s will is for their lives.

They wonder if they should take that job.

If they should move to this town.

If they should buy that car.

If they should marry this person.

And they say, “I just want to know what God’s will is for my life.”

But God isn’t a Magic 8 Ball.

Remember Magic 8 Balls?

You ask it a yes or no question and it might give you a yes or no answer.

God doesn’t work that way.

We see how God wants us to make decisions in this text.

He says to use your head.

Think wisely.

Fill your head with the Word of God, dwell on things that are good, and you will make wise decisions.

You do these things and you can know that the God of peace is with you.

What a great promise!

You fill your mind with the Word of God.

You apply it to your life.

You make a wise decision based off of good input, and you can know that the God of peace is with you.

Not only can you know that God is with you, but you can also know that there is peace with God.

You see that in his name, the God of peace.

Those who have received new hearts and faith from God have a promise in this text … they have peace with God.

God is to be feared.

Exodus says that God is a man of war.

And in our sin we act as rebels against God, as if we are in a war with Him.

confirms this by saying, ”For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, …”

But because of what Christ has done, there is truly peace with God.

Jesus died on the cross, to pay the penalty for sin.

And you know that His death has been applied to you … when you no longer live and think the way you formerly did.

You know that there is peace with God, when you are a new creation.

When you have received a new heart.

And with that new heart, you think differently.

And with that new thinking, then you demonstrate it and put it into practice.

Some of you might be struggling with thinking properly, but really the problem isn’t with your cognitive ability, your mental strength, or your IQ; the problem is that you are not at peace with God.

Then for you, it’s time for a new mind.

And that is available through Christ.

Pursue Him.

Pray to Him.

Plead with Him to change your thinking.

By the way I’d love to pray with you if that is the case.

And to the Christian, if you are at peace with God, then live like it.

Don’t go back to rebellion.

Don’t ignore the battle within the mind.

But live as one who is at peace with God.