Thoughts that are true & noble

Thoughts that are true & noble

Welcome to Westerville Christian. If you are new that makes you our guest. We’d love to connect with you and the best way to do that is to fill out our Online Digital Connect card located on our Mobile app. If you fill out our Online Connect Card we will donate $5 in your name to Samaritan’s Purse. SP is an international place of hope helping people recover from natural disasters like what happened to people in both Georgia and Alabama. Thank you for connecting with us.

Today I’m beginning a new message series called Thoughts Inside My Head and to do that I want you to meet these two women. The woman on the right is Melinda Coleman. The woman on the left is her daughter Daisy. I feel for Melinda Coleman. Melinda’s husband died in a car accident several years go. Her son Tristan, died in a car accident in 2018 and then her daughter Daisy committed suicide in August of 2020. That’s allot of death for one person to navigate. Can you imagine the thoughts going on inside her head? Why is all this happening to me? I didn’t deserve this. OR maybe I did! Does God care about me? Does God even exist? I can’t imagine loving another human being - they all die.

What thoughts are stirring around in your head today? Are they helpful? Hurtful? Good? Evil? Positive? Negative? Constructive? Destructive? Do you have some of the same reoccurring thoughts? Negative, anxious thoughts that easily spiral out of control. Thoughts that make you think or feel that no one cares! Not even God! I wonder if the Apostle Paul thought this way. It would be easy to think he had good reason to think this way. Open your Bibles to Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Turn to Philippians 1:1. Paul is writing a letter to a church. The church is located in Philippi, Greece. The first time I traveled to Zimbabwe, Africa was in 2005. We finally arrived and as we entered the Mushayamunda Village a few men and several women had gathered right by the front gate. Dereck Mushayamunda told me the wanted someone to speak to them about God. So I did. I spoke to them using John 3:16. This is what Paul does when he enters Philippi. He speaks to some women who had gathered just outside the city gate. One of them is named Lydia and she accepts Christ and a church is born. Several years pass by and this church at Philippi finds out that Paul has been arrested and is in prison in Rome. So they gather some supplies. They give these supplies to a man named Epaphroditus and he hand delivers them to Paul who again is in prison because of his belief that Jesus resurrected from the dead. Paul can’t stop, won’t stop explaining to people that Jesus came back from the dead. Paul is so thankful for the gift – money, clothes, maybe a blanket and food. Prisoners were not guaranteed food. Paul is so overwhelmed with their gift that he writes these dear friends a letter thanking them for their kindness. His thank you letter is four chapters long. Here’s how he starts. Let’s read the first eight verses in Philippians 1. (Read 1-8)

That’s nice. Really nice. How did he muster up these words considering he’s in prison? Paul’s under house arrest. Chained every day to a different Roman solider. Paul has no rights. No privileges. He can’t come and go as he pleases. But for four chapters Paul can’t stop using the words “joy or rejoicing.” He explains how he’s content no matter how difficult his circumstances. We struggle with contentment and we eat three meals a day. I seriously doubt Paul did. If I were Paul this is how I would have been tempted to start my letter to the Philippians.

Paul, a one-time servant of Christ Jesus, to all the people at Philippi, together with your leaders: Listen to me. Where I am you don’t want to be. I can’t thank God. I just can’t. My circumstances are terrible. I appreciate what you sent me but it will only last a few days and then I’ll be hungry again. I can’t really think about you. Because when I think about you, I remember the times when I was free. Don’t trust God like I did. If you do, you might end up where I am.

Isn’t reasonable to think that his letter should have sounded more desperate and frustrated instead of grateful and faithful? What kind of thoughts would be swirling around in your head if you were in prison because people thought you were out of your mind because you believed in some Jew named Jesus who came back from the dead? How did Paul’s thoughts lead him TO God instead of AWAY from God? Flip over to Philippians 4:4. This begins some of Paul’s final words as he wraps up his letter to the Philippians and then hands it to Epaphroditus to take it back to the people he loves. Let’s read verses 4-9.

If you want to experience the peace of God, it starts with your thoughts. Change your thoughts, change your life! Good thoughts lead to contentment, joy and peace. Bad thinking leads to misdirection, depression and destruction.

In verse 8. Paul provided eight “thought virtues.” These virtues come in four pairs: true & noble, right & pure, lovely & admirable, excellent & praiseworthy. Let’s spend the rest of our time focusing on Paul’s first set of two. Thoughts that are true & noble. To do this we must start with definitions. True is defined as “consistent with fact or reality. The opposite of false.” Noble is defined as “honorable, thoughts that that lead to respect.”[i] Think thoughts that are true not false. Thoughts that are honorable & respectful.

I just finished this book by Craig Groeschel called “Winning the War in your Mind.” His book is divided into these four sections - Replace, Rewire, Reframe and Rejoice. I want to focus on section #1 – REPLACE. Replace Satan’s lies with God’s truth! Jesus stunned his Jewish audience when he said this in John 8:31. (Read 31 - Egypt, Babylon, Rome[ii] 33). Jesus answered them in verse 43. (Read 43-44). Never forget this. Satan lies. God speaks the truth. Remove the lies and replace them with truth. But what is the source of truth? Where can we find truth?

Jesus said the following. John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. John 16:13: But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. John 17:17: Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

What conclusions can we draw? Truth is a person, not a concept. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth and truth is the Word of God. Truth comes from the Word of God, not culture. Culture changes, God does not. When culture dictates truth there are no absolutes. When the Bible dictates truth there are absolutes. Here’s an example. A CNN reporter wrote an article on March 31st saying, “It’s not possible to know a person’s gender identity at birth, and there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.” An evolutionary biologist responded to that article saying, “Observing genitalia is the consensus criteria for determining one’s sex at birth. It is inaccurate only about 0.018 percent of the time.”

Interesting. The Evolutionary Biologist is saying what God has already said. Genesis 1:27 (NIV2011) 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Our culture is demanding that we should no longer use the words “mother or father”, brother or sister and male and female to describe a human. But mother & father, brother & sister, male & female are listed everywhere throughout the Word of God. Replace the world’s false narrative with the Word of God. The Bible is where you will find truth because truth is a person.

Greg, why should I care about this? Because people are hurting and confused. Look at what happens to our thoughts when we fall for Satan’s lies. Paul could have concluded that since he was in prison, God must not love him. That God had forgotten him. That suffering comes to people who are disobedient. That Paul had failed God. All of those thoughts were lies.

Paul knew that God would use him whether he was in prison or out. That he was dearly loved. Are you going through some kind of suffering that’s making you believe that God does not care or worse – that he doesn’t exist? How do you defeat the lie? Replace it with the truth.

Do you remember that story about Melinda Coleman? Melinda is the one who suffered through so much death. Her husband died in a car accident. Her son Tristan, died in a car accident in 2018 and then her daughter Daisy committed suicide in August of 2020. Can you imagine the lies Satan poured into her mind? Lies like Everyone I love is gone. Nothing is important. Nothing matters. I have nothing to live for. No one will miss me when I’m gone. No one will blame me. Apparently, Melinda Coleman lost all hope because she committed suicide last December four months after her daughter took her own life.[iii] Can you see how our false thinking can lead anyone to do the unthinkable. Are you thinking about taking your own life? Please let me or someone you know get you help. Call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255. Don’t fall for the lie that the world would be better without you. I’ll get super personal with you. My older brother Bill turned 60 in July of 2014. He died one month later. I turn 60 this September and I keep thinking the same thing is going to happen to me. I am not afraid to die but I’m not looking forward it. I know this thought is a lie. It’s irrational. I’m not my brother. Bill is not me. God’s will for his life is not the same for my life. So what am I supposed to do with that lie? What should you do with the lies that come into your head? Replace them with the truth. Here’s how.

#1: Read the Word of God consistently so you can distinguish between truth & lies. Read what God has to say more than you watch the news or Internet. This is especially true of the Internet. People say, everything you read on the Internet is true, but we all know it’s not. On March 30th, Volkswagen announced that it would rebrand itself as “Voltswagen” to promote its electric car strategy. But that announcement was a set up as an April Fool’s Day prank.[iv] It was just a harmless joke.

This email was not a joke. In April of 2007 this email began circulating on the Internet. “Recently, this week, the UK removed the Holocaust from its school curriculum because it ‘offended’ the Muslim population, which claims the Holocaust never occurred.” This email was passed on and shared more than 40 million times. But there’s one huge problem. It was false. But people believed it to be true. James said we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Since we live in the 21st century I think we should also be slow to post online. Is what you are posting online consistent with the Word of God or are you simply passing on lies? #2: Meet with someone consistently and tell them the thoughts inside your head. A counselor, pastor, friend, spouse, small group member. Let someone know what you’re thinking about. #3: Fix your eyes on Jesus, who is the truth. I wonder if Paul had this reoccurring noble thought as he sat in prison. My suffering is nothing compared to what Jesus endured for me. I want to end my message today with us fixing our eyes on Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for you. Have you accepted him? Will you accept him today? Never stop thinking this. No matter what I’m going through – no one loves me as much as Jesus does. And that’s the truth! (Pray – communion slides)

[i] Logos Bible Software, Strong’s Enhanced Lexicon, Philippians 4:8

[ii] MacArthur Bible Commentary, John 8:33, 1386

[iii] https://people.com/crime/melinda-coleman

[iv] https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/famous-april-fools-jokes-and-the-denial-of-truth-praying-on-maundy-thursday-for-the-faith-to-have-faith