Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

I want to open up this morning by reading you several quotes:

“Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.”

Ezra Taft Benson

“Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.”

Ezra Taft Benson (religious leader/government official in the 50’s)

“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals.

The struggles within yourself, the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us, that’s where it’s at.” - Jesse Owens (American track and field athlete and four-time gold medalist)

American track and field athlete and four-time gold medalist

“A spiritual practice is a constant battle within, replacing previous negative conditioning or habituation with new positive conditioning.”

Dalai Lama

“A spiritual practice is a constant battle within, replacing previous negative conditioning or habituation with new positive conditioning.”

Dalai Lama

“All of the truly important battles are waged within the self.”

Sheldon B. Kopp (author and psychotherapist)

“It is Zen practice that you gain power, balance, and wisdom.

The battles that you fight are within your own mind.

That is where the real victories and defeats are.”

Frederick Lenz (a spiritual teacher who taught American Buddhism)

Different religious thoughts, people from government, the educated, the athletic, etc....but what do they all have in common?

Different religious thoughts, people from government, the educated, the athletic, etc....but what do they all have in common?

They all recognize that the mind is a battlefield

Not only that but they recognize that what goes on in here, affects so much of what happens out there.

And it’s so true!

So how many of you would say that you can attest that the mind is a battlefield that affects so much of our life?

Even science is backing this up

Neuroscience (which is the study of the nervous system and brain) shows that the way we think, can literally rewire our brain.

Its something called neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life.Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.

Neuroplaticity - The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections

Our neurons develop connections which strengthen over time as we repeat our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

That means that when you create a habit of thinking negatively, it makes it easier and easier for your brain to go that direction now, and the same is true for positive thinking.

What goes on in here can affect our mood or emotions, functionality, how we process thoughts, memory, health, how we percieve things, how we relate to things, how we act, or even how we perform physically.

OUR PHYSICAL MECHANICS CAN BE AFFECTED

To give you an example:

There were a couple years in high school that I took up golfing

Golfing is an incredibly mental game

Jack Nickalaus – “Golf is 80% mental, 10% ability, 10% luck.”

Worried I’m goin to hit the houses story

All I needed to do was trust the process

follow through on the swing

line up right with the hole

trust the process

But I couldn’t win the battle of the mind, so I let the fear of hitting a house affect the mechanics of my golf swing, and everything went downhill from there.

And in case you are wondering, YES, I hit the houses plenty of times, and NO I never killed anyone!

But I lost this battle, and so I lost this battle.

So how many of you can say that you’ve recognized that the mind is a battlefield?

Heres where I want to go with this this morning:

If the mind is a battlefield, then the thoughts we fill our mind with, are either equipping the enemy for victory, or equipping you for victory!

At this point some of you may be thinking, “Is this a self help talk…you just have to think positive and the world will be great, or what’s going on right now?”

No its not, because the Bible has something to say about our thought life?

There are many directions I could go with this sermon, but I want to talk about how the things we fill our mind with affect our joy and contentment

The lighter battles of maintaining a good attitude

The Title of my Sermon is Elevated Thinking

But which lead into the second battle:

The battle for Joy

If you could, turn with me in your Bibles to , and we are going to start reading in vs. 8

The Title of my Sermon is Elevated Thinking

Think On These Things

One of the key themes in Philippians is joy.

“Joy” is mentioned in one way or another nineteen times in these four brief chapters.

I love Philippians because it is such a positive and encouraging letter

One of the key themes in Philippians is “Joy” which is mentioned in one way or another 19 times.

Another key emphasis in Philippians is the mind, Paul is constantly mentioning “remembering and thinking.”

Pastor Warren Wiersbe summarizes the theme of Philippians as “the Christlike mind that brings Christian joy.”

One of the key themes in Philippians is joy.

“Joy” is mentioned in one way or another nineteen times in these four brief chapters.

Another emphasis is the mind.

As we read Philippians, note how many times Paul talks about remembering and thinking.

We can summarize the theme of the book as “the Christlike mind that brings Christian joy.”

So with that in mind, we find ourselves in the last chapter and Paul is kind of summing all this up starting in vs 8.

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Paul is telling us how to think!

What things are true, noble, just , pure, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy?

The truth of Gods scripture…what He has said:

He loves you

God loves you

In Christ you are forgiven

God in Christ forgives you

You are victorious in Christ

You have worth and purpose

Factual things…(you ever role play in your mind)

Promises of Scripture:

What things are noble and just?

All things will work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose

His grace is sufficient

His mercies are new every morning

God’s testimonies in your life

How he saved you

How he healed you

how he provided for you

How he answered a prayer

Being thankful for the good and lovely things in life:

Friends and family

A roof over your head

food to eat

beautiful nature around us lakes and trees and hills, and animals

Then Paul just easily sums it up for us and says, “if it is virutous, or worthy of praise, think on these things!”

Because the things we let consume our mind will eventually manifest itself in our speech and actions.

We are not just encouraged to think about these things but to put them into practice as well and the result is: