Focus on the Good Rep

3am Dwell on the Godly Influences in your Life

3am Dwell on the godly influences in your life

Ask 3 questions

1. What does it mean to dwell?

2. What is repute?

3. What influences your thoughts?

Conclude: Influences lead to thoughts what you think produce actions

Good Morning Everyone. As Shayne said my name in Alex. Every ministry needs a ginger and I gladly took that spot in Junior High.

Application:

· Use the Bible as your filter

· Watch what goes into your brain

Examine your speech (lead to repentance) (lead to gospel, starting with desire to gospel to call)

Good Morning Everyone. As Shayne said my name in Alex. Every ministry needs a ginger and I gladly took that spot in Junior High.

So before start, who has heard of an app called FaceApp? Who has used FaceApp? For those of you who are thinking what is this crazy red head talking, FaceApp is an app that got popular like over night. You pretty much take a picture of your face and it shows you what you will look like when you are old. It is kinda cool. Now yes this app is made by people who use your picture and sell it on the internet but we won’t worry about it.

Now for those of you who have used FaceApp, do you think that it looks pretty accurate? Yeah. I actually had a friend text me a picture of me if I were like 70. And I have to say I didn’t look half bad. I looked like that really nice old grandpa. You know like the one who always will give you like a piece of hard candy that he has probably had for like 15 years.

I still had fabulous hair and a great beard, but I kinda looked like a St. Bernard though. You know like the dog. I had jowls, all this loose skin on my cheeks and neck, I really just wanted to see myself shake my face around. I also had a bit of a gut. I am now kinda excited to be old.

But overall I love this app and I love what we can do with pictures. There are so many filter to do different things. There are colored filters, polarized filters, even filters that make colors vibrant. Filters can distort, make funny effects, and dramatically change a picture. But there are also filters for cooking which screen out unwanted items from your food, making dishes taste better. There are filters for your house which keep your air cleaner.

And Christians need to have a filter as well. In our study, Watcha Thinkin About, we have been talking about this filter. We need to filter our thinking. God gives us . It is a verse we all should memorize. Let’s read this verse together.

If your Bibles aren’t already there, open them to .

reads

(NASB95)

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.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

We have talked about true, honorable, right, pure and we just heard from James about dwelling on what is lovely. And in our continuation of our series we will tackling ‘Whatever is of good repute.’

Now what are

To Tackle this I want to ask and answer three questions. And in these three questions we are going to build the answers to one final statement. And that statement is this. Dwell on the godly influences in your life. If there one thing I would like for you remember from this message it is that, it is to Dwell on the godly influences in your life.

Dwell on the godly influences in your life. Dwell on the godly influences in your life.

Well if there on

So lets dive in and ask our first question.

That is our central them, but now let’s expand that and go deeper.

Question 1: What does it mean to dwell?

If we look back to all of our messages in this series they have had something in common. It is this word of dwell. Look back to Philippians with me.

So I said we will have three questions.

Question 1:

In 4:8 at the very end, do you see how it says “dwell on these things.”

So when we are talking about our topic of good repute, what we are supposed to do with it is dwell on it.

But what does it mean to dwell?

Dictionary.com define Dwell as thinking on or talking about incessantly. Pretty much to dwell on something is to keep in your mind, to let it fill your mind.

The word dwell is often related to the word meditate. And it is kinda funny because these words in Bible times were actually related to cows. Like black and white moo cows.

And fun fact did you know that cows have 4 stomachs? Yeah and the reason that these words were associated with cows is because of how cows eat. A cow would start chewing grass then they would start to digest it and then they would regurgitate or the food would come back up and then they would chew on it again. They would do that total of four time. And that is the imagery of what we are supposed to use here. So when it Dwell on the truth, that would be like what it says in . That we are called to to meditate or think or constantly think on or talk about the word day and night. When we dwell on something it should fill your mind, it should be the main thing you are thinking about and those thoughts should fuel your actions.

It is important to watch what you are thinking about because God looks at the heart and what you are thinking about. I may not know what you are thinking about right now but God does. ***Pause*** You also need to watch out because what think on leads to how you act. What you think about is the key to killing temptation. If you struggle with anger, it starts by thinking rightly. If you have a tendency to gossip it start with thinking different about that person. Your thoughts are the key to your spiritual growth.

So we hopefully now know what it means to dwell and how important our thoughts are. And we need to dwell on our topic today. We need to dwell on what is of good repute. And that leads us to question number 2.

Question #2 What is repute?

It is hard to know apply something if we do not know what it means. And honestly when I first read this I struggled. I had never heard of this word repute.

We you see he words good repute this is the only occurs here in the New Testament. It describes something which is highly regarded or well thought of. It gives this idea of Good Reputation.

But when I think about things of good rep I start thinking about things or people that are well thought of by the world, but here it is this idea of the things that are of good rep to God.

What the world thinks of as good often different than what God thinks is good.

We are called to purity but the world tells you to do what you want with your body. We are called to be humble but the world says be self confident or be self proud. The word of God tells us to live differently, to think differently.

says that we are to not be conformed by this world.

Romans 12:2 ESV

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.

When we think on things that God says are of good rep it requires us to go against the world to go upstream. The world, your friends, your family, ads on instagram, this whole world is pushing you to go this, to think on perverse and immoral thoughts but we are called to go this way to think on what God approves of.

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12.2

Let me ask you a question, if we were to project your thoughts, from just the last week here on this wall, would they show someone who thinks on things that are of good rep and would be approved of or would would they show an embarrassing life of filth.

So if you think about good repute, You are to think about topics which could be spoken in God’s presence. Good repute means good sayings, appealing truths, a good reputation, edifying–someone’s good character, sacrificial actions, service unto Christ and more. Filter your thinking by dwelling on all things that of biblically good reputation.

And the only way to keep you and to keep me in check is check our influences. This leads us to our third and final question.

Question #3 What influences your thoughts?

Our thoughts can be influenced from different sources. But I want to talk about the Big Three. These are probably the three biggest influences in our lives. And if we to be thinking on and living of good godly rep than our influences should also be of reputation.

So lets work through these influences.

Influence #1 Entertainment

Entertainment influences us way more than we care to think. From what we listen to, to what we watch on Netflix, to our Instagram feed to even the games we play, they all have an influence on us.

I want to be honest with you, this a hard one for me. I like to be entertained and when I was a new Christian I had to cut a lot out of my life. I watched shows that were inappropriate, listened to worldly music full of bad words and even had to get rid of my social media for a time.

You may think, no this show is not that bad. But scientists have proven time and time again that what you see, you think on and then you are likely to act on.

reminds us of that same truth that your actions flow from your heart and your thoughts.

So be careful of what you choose to listen and watch. Make sure that they are up to the biblical standard of what we should think about.

Influence #2 Friends

Your friends, the people you talk to most and confide in affect you in so many ways. So who are your friends? Are your friends of good reputation?

I remember being a kid and my mom not letting my friend AJ ever come to our house or let me go to his. And that was because he was a bad influence. I did not understand then but I get it now.

Remember . Bad company corrupts good morals.

So what are your friends known for? Do your close friends seek to grow in Christ?

Now not all your friends need to be Christians. Your Non-Christian friends you shoould be evangelizing to.

But your close friends need to be active in the Church and seeking to grow because they will help you grow as well. So make sure your friends are of good godly reputation.

Influence #3 Role Models

Who do you seek to be like? Do you want to be like Ariana Grande, Robert Downey Jr., or Tom Brandy OR do you want to be like one our staff members. Will all the the Junior High Staff members please stand up?

Do you all see these people? these are men and woman are not perfect but seek to be like Christ more everyday. These are the people we should be seeking to be like.

Alright you can sit down.

So let me ask again who are your role models? We need to find people who seek after Christ someone who can help us and point us to Christ.

So if we want to be godly people, who are those who are of good godly reputation, then we must think on what is of good godly repute, and this means that our influences, our entertainment, our friends, and our role models must be those of good godly repute

Some of you may be saying Alex I really don’t want to do that and I really like this world. And to you I would caution you, because that heart shows of someone who dooes not love Christ. And I will plead with and beg you to see that you are a sinner and if you contiinue down a path away you are destined for an eternity apart from him. But God made a way, he came down and lived a perfect lii

So lets wrap this up. I have two quick things that must do to help us dwell on that of good repute.

We must use the Bible as our filter.

The Bible is true, making Bible the filter to all godly thinking. The Bible needs to be your light, your food and your guide. , “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” The Bible is what saves you and Bible is what sanctifies you.

The Bible should the glasses that help us see the world correctly.

So Paul says in , “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” Let the Bible saturate your internal life, your mind, your thinking. Let the Bible be your lens, your filter, your focus, and your decision maker. Let God’s Word direct what you think about by you choosing to think about the Scripture continually. Choose to have God’s word dwell within you, which means having the Bible be at home in your mind. , “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”

2. We must watch what goes into our brains

As we saw in our third question, our influences affect us greatly. We need to be careful who or what we choose to look at or think about. I will ask to think about and evaluate who your friends are, who your influences are and what you choose to be entertained by. Check to make sure these are things that God would be pleased with.

Now to conclude, I gave everyone one statement in the beginning of this message, and that was Dwell on the godly influences in your life.

This is it, in verse 9 of we see that we are called to act but we cannot act unless we are dwelling on the right things. So if we are t be people of good repute or of good godly reputation them we need to be a people who dwell on the godly influences in our lives.

Let’s pray then we will head into a time of D-groups

Pray on the gospel