Think On These Things - Joel Schrock

Good morning.

I also want to greet you in the name of

Jesus this morning and welcome you here.

Especially.

I want to welcome visitors this morning. Welcome here, Thank

you for being here with us.

Enjoyed the service so far.

And the I don't know that I ever caught that

before before, about being loaded up with blessings. That's a

neat thought. The title of the message this morning is

taken from Philippians. You can turn there if you want

think on these things, and you could add to the

back of that and do which we'll I think we'll

see why after a while. But think on these things

is what we're going to be talking about. Primarily. These

words are found in Philippians, chapter four, verse eight, and

I would like to use verses eight and nine for

a text today. But before that, I would like to

back up to chapter three and point out what looks

to me like something that Paul kind of explains multiple times.

I would like to back up chapter three to make

that point about our mind and our thoughts.

Now. Paul explains in.

Chapter three that by all earthly standards, there as a

Jew in that area. He had it all put together.

He was a pharisee, he was zealous. He was blameless

according to the law. If anybody, if anybody could keep

the law, he was probably at the top. But he

found he found out that his righteousness was not sufficient.

He needed the righteousness of God, and he needed the

power of the resurrection in his life. And many were

all kind of like to jump on the pharisees here

and sometimes run to the other ditch, and you know,

declare that it's simply simply a matter of the heart.

Works works are dead.

All you have to do is believe in your mind.

But that's not the entire conclus part of the conclusion

that Paul came to. But it's not the entire conclusion

that Paul came to. So I'd like to read a

few verses from chapter three, verses fourteen to seventeen. So

Philippians three, starting in verse fourteen, I press toward the

mark for the prize of the high calling of God

and Christ Jesus let us Therefore, as many as be

perf be thus minded. And we're talking about thoughts, So

thus minded, attention to that, And if in anything you

be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless,

where to we have already attained. Let us walk by

the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. Brethren,

be followers together of me, and mark them which walk,

so as ye have us for an example. So Paul

in his letter to the Philippians uses the word mind,

I believe at least a dozen times, and minded he

uses them often. Paul says that he presses toward the

mark for the prize of the high calling of God

in Christ Jesus. And then he says, as many as

be perfect, you want to be perfect, he says, be

thus minded, or perhaps you could say think this way.

So then again we could argue that Paul is saying

it's just a matter of the heart, just a matter

of the mind. Which it is a matter of the

heart and mind. But look at what comes next. In

verse sixteen he says, let us walk, let us walk

by the same rule. And this looks like action to me.

And verse seventeen he says, be followers, be followers together

of me. And again is there some action involved? So

we see the way it looks to me at least,

is that Paul calls us to think, to be of

this mind, but also to do, to act. And now

I'd like to jump to chapter four, Versus eight nine,

and I'll read those which is the verse. These are

the verses I'd primarily like to focus on this morning,

especially verse eight Philippians four, verse eight. Finally, Brethren, whatsoever

things are true, Whatsoever things are honest, Whatsoever things are just?

Whatsoever things are pure? Whatsoever things are lovely? Whatsoever things

are of good report? If there be any virtue, and

if there be any praise, think on these things. That's

quite a list there, those things which you have both

learned and received and heard and seen in me. Do

there's the action, and the God of peace shall be

with you. So verse eight this is where we get

the title think on these things. So before we look

at this verse further, I'd like to stop and think

about thought for just a minute. So if you were

asked to give a definition for or describe thinking or

thoughts without using a form of the word think, what

would you give any any takers. There's there's quite a

few different words you could use. Miriam Webster gives it

a shot here, kind of a shotgun approach. Maybe some

of these definitions do have forms of the word think

in them. But here's here's a list they get to

form or have in the mind.

Never go of the mind.

To have as an intention, you tend to do something,

to have as an opinion, to regard as, or could

say consider, to reflect on, or we could say ponder,

to determine by reflecting. So not only reflecting, but then

the determination we make by reflecting.

Both of those I think to.

Call to mind. That's an important one to remember. Call

to mind, keep that one in your mind. To devise

by thinking, right like we thought we thought up a

plan to escape, for example, that would be devising by thinking.

To have as an expectation, like anticipate, to center one's

thoughts on, to form a mental picture of the process

of logical thought, to think things out. And these are

are the these are the transit of verb definition. So

there's a few more of you. I want to keep going.

But needless to say, the word think is not just

a simple we can just like wrap it up with

a little bow and give one word and that sort

of encapsulates everything. There's different there's different ways of thinking.

There's the thoughts that flit through our mind. There's the

things we recall, we bring into our mind. So how

many thoughts do we think, who knows, right, are you counting?

So there's been various studies on this, and of course

there's just a wild range of numbers. But according to

the Laboratory of Neuroimaging in California, the brain generates about

seventy thousand thoughts per day.

So if you sleep eight hours.

A night, which some of us do and some of

us don't, but if you do, that means that for

every bit of the time you're awake, you're averaging more

in a thought per second, which seems kind of outrageous.

Another study shows that actual I think they did some

measurements on the brain, actual shifts in the brain, right,

because sometimes sometimes we have a lot of thoughts going

on at once, but actual shifts in the brain happen

about sixty two hundred times a day, which is about

if you're up for sixteen hours, it's about, you know,

one brain shift for ten seconds, let's say roughly like

where you kind of jump from. Now, some of us

are probably thinking those studies were done over here, not here,

but I don't know that that was verified. So it

was also estimated that ninety percent of the thoughts we

think we have thought before, right, they're recurring thoughts, which

leads us to something powerful about the mind. We can

allow our mind to stop and think about something, or

we can discard the thought and think about something else.

And as someone pointed out said, did you not know

that you cannot only think about something? You can think

about what you're thinking about. Think about that now more seriously.

I believe that the devil uses thoughts to bombardis with negativity, impurity, dissatisfaction, anger, resent,

my jealousy, the list and go on and on.

I believe that if we have.

We could say a bad thought almost categorize them as

bad thoughts. If a bad thought comes to your mind.

I do not believe that that in and of itself

should bring guilt to a person, and I think sometimes

it does. I think that's also a I'm open to

correction on these thoughts, but I believe that's another trick

of the devil. You can discard that thought, and you

can fill your mind with good. But if you let

that thought stay, if you bring that thought back, if

you analyze it and you enjoy it, and.

You ever.

Is your mind never spin or your mind never race

or do things like that. You let that thought get

in your mind and just spin it is now your thought.

I believe.

You own it, and if it is bad, you should

feel guilty and repent of it. But I believe that's

different than something popping into our mind and.

What we do with it. Now.

Many brilliant men over the years have tried to define

or define thoughts. They've tried to understand the power of

the mind, what it does to our body.

There's studies that.

The mind, we can actually affect our physical bodies with

our mind, as far as like new pathways through our brain.

Right by the way we think we can shut off

certain receptors by just having negative thoughts actually affects our body.

It's a powerful, powerful thing. Henry Ford said, whether you

think you can or you think you can't, you're right right. So,

whether you think you can or you think you can't,

you're right, Renee. I don't know how you say this, discarches.

I guess said. This is a quote we've probably all heard,

and maybe we've all made fun of at some point.

It is I think, therefore I am now sounds a

little new agy some ways, there's a point to it.

I believe.

The fact that we can reason, that we can ask

questions about our existence. Well, for one thing, that means

we exist to reason and ask those questions. And I

think it's true, and I think we'll see from the

Bible that it's true. But it maybe doesn't go far enough.

Gandhi said, a man is but the product of his thoughts,

what he thinks, he becomes.

And this shows. But there are stages.

From thinking to becoming and doing. You know, it's a

sobering reality that Nazi Germany did not collectively wake up

one morning and decided it was time to do away

with the Jews, or decided to take over Europe or

whatever all they decided to do started with a thought,

led to belief, led to a conviction, led to action

and destruction. Another quote by ancient Chinese philosopher on how

thoughts turn into who we are, or how we turn

into what our thoughts are, it says, watch your thoughts

they become words. Watch your words they become actions, Watch

your actions they become habits. Mm become us, or we

become them.

We could say.

Now, I read just on the power of the mind.

I read an article once about the power of the

mind and why we should pay attention to what we think.

I forgot.

I did not put this in here, but uh, somebody

that that studies and has written in lecture extensively on

the brain and the mind, doctor Caroline Leef. If any

of you have read any of those her books, she

said something like, if you knew what happened in your

body when you thought negative thoughts, you would you essentially,

you would stop. You wouldn't think another negative thought in

your life. I don't remember the exact quote, but that's

that's the idea. There was an article that I read

years ago, and I don't know where I read it.

I don't remember the details very well, but I do

remember this. There was a a school bully, and I'm

thinking this must have been high school ish age, and

he did you know, he didn't make a lot of

friends being the bully. And one day a group of

students decided to take matters into their hands and.

Teach this bully a lesson.

He wouldn't forget, you know, maybe they could change his

ways by a little coersion. And they knew he walked

along a certain path, and so they waited in the

dark behind the bushes.

I believe they were masks, so.

I couldn't tell who they were, and he comes along

and they jump out, grab him, blindfold him, and inform

him that he.

Is to be executed by beheading.

And they put him down on a block and they

took a wet rag and snapped it on his neck.

Now this was a prank, This was to teach him

a lesson about being a bully. But his mind was

convinced that he was being beheaded. And when the rag

hit his neck, his heart stopped and he died. Now,

you would say, nobody would die from a rag hitting them,

right hurts. We've had that happen. He was convinced, so

convinced of truth that something was true, but it wasn't right.

But to him, his mind, his body was wrapped up

in this truth that was a lie. Now look at

some verses on the mind and on thinking. Have you

ever you know, sometimes you get these I don't know

why people ask celebrities for advice sometimes, but you know,

give a word of wisdom, you know, and get up

and say, if I could give you one piece of advice.

Follow your heart, But where is your heart headed? You know,

when you wake up in the morning, where's your heart going?

Sometimes my heart would go straight back to bed.

And it's good. I'm not following just my heart.

What does the Bible have to say about that? Jeremiah seventeen,

verses nine and ten. The heart is deceitful above all things,

and desperately wicked.

Who cannot so? Is that what you're going to follow? Iy?

The Lord search the heart.

I try the reins even to give every man according

to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.

Now verse ten, I would like to read in a

different translation, So I'll read both the nine and ten

acts different version. The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Now listen to this.

I the Lord search the heart. I examine the mind.

I examined the mind to reward a man according to

his way, by what his deeds deserve.

We have this.

Mind and actions again tied together. God examines the mind

to reward a man by what his deeds deserve. Genesis six,

Verse five says, and God saw the wickedness of man,

that it was great on the earth, and that every

imagination of the thoughts, Remember we think about what we

think about the imagination of his thoughts of his heart

was only evil.

Continually.

Now, this is before the flood, and this may have

been the reason for the flood. Not only were man's

actions on average wicked at this point his thoughts. Not

only were his thoughts always the imagination of his thoughts.

Not only like the sixty two hundred transitions of the mind,

I believe, but I think.

The seventy thousand things that.

Flitted through their mind every day, the constant rehashing, the meditating,

the thinking about the thoughts that one had, it was

all evil continually, according to Genesis. How about a word

from King Solomon, the wisest man. We say it ever lived,

did some foolish things, but he was a wise man.

Proverbs twenty three, verse seven says, for as he thinketh

in his heart, so is he. Now I don't think

this is saying that you are everything that passes through

your mind. But the things that you bring in and

you think about in your heart and you meditate on,

that's who you are. It's pretty plain English, that's who

you are becoming, at least. And this may help to

explain some of the teaching or the Sermon on the

Mount Jesus teaching that seems rather abrupt. For example, Matthew five,

verse twenty eight says, but I SAand to you that

whosoever looketh on a woman to lost after her hath

committed an adultery with her already in his heart. Now again,

I don't think this is one look, one thought that

popped into the mind. But this is allowing the thoughts,

This is inviting them back, This is rehashing the thoughts.

This is letting your mind spin. Perhaps this is dwelling

on them, letting them become part of who we are.

And while the effect on others around us is less

than adultery, as far as this person's standing before God

is concerned, it's the same. I believe that's what Jesus

is saying, or is teaching. A few verses earlier, in

verse twenty one and twenty two, you have heard that

it was said of them of old time, thou shalt

not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger

of the judgment. But I say it to you that

whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall

be in danger of the judgment. And so here it

looks like Jesus is equating anger and murder. But again

I don't believe this is an angry thought that comes

to your mind. I don't even believe it's an unjust

angry thought that comes to your mind.

I believe that.

This is a simmering anger that is allowed to come

back to the mind, that is allowed to stay in

the mind, that is allowed to go round and around

in your mind and get bigger than it actually is,

be hashed and rehashed, to look at from various angles,

and to feel the injustice of what we've been dealt.

We think to wallow in self pity and anger and bitterness. Again,

no one is actually dead, and so the outward effect

is much less than murder.

But I believe that Jesus is teaching that that.

Angry man standing before God is in no better place.

So now I'd like us to come back to Philippians

and look at verse eight. I'll read verse eight again. Finally, Brethren,

whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things

are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,

whatsoever things are.

Of good report?

If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,

think on these things. Now, I'd like to break this

down a little bit. The apostle Paul is telling us

something about our thoughts. We've discussed a little bit, and

I think determined that thoughts are very powerful. What goes

on in the mind is powerful. We are constantly bombarded

with thoughts. Thoughts have the ability to drag us down

or to lift us up. They can be the beginning

of a slippery slope to self we never wanted to

be self destruction, or they can lift us up to

the selves that God intended for us to be. Thoughts

are powerful, and we have some agency over them. As

we've heard in this church before years ago. I believe

it's Charles Hamilton. Ideas have consequences. Thoughts have consequences, but

we allow in our hearts and mind have consequences. So

Paul gives us instructions on how and what to think.

The King James version at the end of verse eight

says think on these things. Other versions, many other versions

use words like meditate or ponder, bring these back to remembrance.

These things should be ninety percent recurring thoughts right come back.

We allow them in, we dwell on them. Meditation and

the connotation of the world of connotation. I believe generally

you know has something to do with the emptying of

the mind, we empty the mind, we get the distractions out.

While it's important to get distractions out, I believe that

biblical meditation is not only emptying our mind of distractions,

it is filling our mind with good with goodness us.

So what goodness shall we be filling our minds with?

Paul says whatsoever things are true? Now he could have

just probably stopped there. He goes on to qualify I believe,

and gives some other words. But I think all the

rest of them come under this umbrella, or are built

on the foundation. Everyone to look at that of truth.

Whatever things are true. So I'll spend most of the

time on this one. I'll comment on the others. If

it is so, if it isn't, if it isn't true,

if the thought is not true, kick it out as

something that should not be meditated on. We should not

invite it back.

What is true? You know?

Pilot asked that question, whether it's sincerely or insincerely? About

two thousand years ago, Pilot asked that question of Jesus,

what is truth? Well, there's a few things we could

say about truth. If some thing is true, we could say, well,

it's Acrip could say it's a fact, it's reality. It

can mean things like it's exact, like like you know

this line is true, it's straight. It could mean loyal.

He was true to the end. But one thing that

true is not is false. True, I believe is what

God created. I believe when God created everything good, everything

very good, it was true, it was right, it was sound,

It was as God intended. The devil has distorted many things.

The devil has perverted many things. And the crown of

God's creation we see was man and woman and the

union between man and woman. God created marriage between one

man and one woman for life. Jesus references this so

anything besides that as it relates to marriage is not true.

It is not sound. It is not how God intended.

It should not be something we meditate on. It should

not be something that is an option for the believer.

Divorce in your marriage is not God's intention. It is

not true. It is not a true version of marriage.

Fornication and adultery, homosexuality, polygamy, these things are all not true.

They're not things to be pondered on and.

Accepted. They're not the design of God.

They are a perversion of what is true. And the

thing that has really hit you know, the country and

maybe the world in the last few years is this

whole transgender issue, which you know, I don't think that's

something we think about just a lot, but it's something

something that's really taken hold in various parts of the

country and the world. And as I said, Jesus reference

the beginning and how he created male and female, and

this was the crown of his creation. This is not

an afterthought or a byproduct of his creation.

This was this was very good.

You know when when God created this or you know,

the light, and he spoke and he said, this is good.

When God created man, it was very good. He formed it,

says he, and it is very good to so to

say that there are other options, you can switch between

the two. There's some headline recently about you know, six genders,

and it's like, no, none of that is true. It's

not the way God created it. It's not sound. So

think of what is true, not partial truth. Eve in

the garden, the serpent came to Eve, and the serpent

told Eve, you know, if you eat of this fruit,

you you'll be like God's You'll know right from all

you'll gain some knowledge of good and evil that was

partially true. There was some truth in that, but as

a package, it was a lie. She was driven from

the garden, punished, begin the process of aging and eventually death.

And you know that's how well, No, that's how if

you're rat poison, that's how that works.

You take a good chunk.

Of food, put a little bit of poison in there.

That's mostly true, it's mostly good. Doesn't matter, it is

not true, it is not good. It is poison because

it's only partial. So the question is what partial truth

is the devil bringing to you? What partial truth is

the devil bringing to me? Because I think that's how

he tempts us. I don't think the devil comes to

us very often with a big, huge, fat lie. I

think he tempts us often with something that has some.

Truth in it.

Maybe it's mostly true, but it's not entirely true. And

I think we could all answer that question. We could

all probably stop and reflect and answer the question, what

partial truth does the devil bring to you?

To me?

You know, how about something like I'm not good enough

in some capacity? That comes in various forms.

You know.

That you're not enough in some way not good enough,

You're not beautiful enough, you're not cool enough, you're not

smart enough, you're not rich enough, you're not strong enough

for what you have to face. Or how about when

the devil attacks your worth?

You know.

You're nothing, nothing, all that special. No one really loves you,

you're picked on, you're a victim. You really can't help

the situation you're in. No one's really your friend. Your

parents don't care about you all that much. And God,

I mean, when's the last time you heard out of God?

Anyway? He doesn't care about you all that much. Or

how about contentment? You know you'll never You'll never.

You can't be contented because you'll never have what he

has or what she has? Or did you see all

those pictures on Instagram or whatever the latest picture place

is now?

You know that paints life as perfection? Right?

Life is not perfection for anybody, I promise no one,

you know, no one is living a life like I am.

But what is truth?

Even if there's some truth in some of those things,

What is the truth? Well, as it relates to God,

God created in his care for us. God created man

with his hands and breathe. God formed man and breathed

in him, the breath of life. And as I said before,

said this is very good. So God, what is true

is that God created you very good. God created you specifically,

and that's an easy one to miss or to think

that's not true. So I'm one thirty nine, verse thirteen

going to read this in the NIV for and listen

to these words. For You created my inmost being, and

now listen to this. You knit me, knit me together

in my mother's womb.

All right?

Does knitting take any sort of attention? Is there any

attention to detail that goes into knitting? I haven't knitted,

but I've seen things are knitted. I've watched people knit,

and it's a fairly personal process as far as I

can tell. Right, Like, you don't holler over in a

corner and something's knitted. It takes some You pay attention

and you make it happen. You knit me together in

my mother's just a beautiful picture. God took the time

to create you. Does God make mistakes? Does God make

anything that's not beautiful? Does God create junk? And these

are rhetorical questions. The answer is no, all right?

So what is truth? God created you? And God created

you for a purpose.

God, talking to Jeremiah, says this, before I formed THEE

in the belly, I knew THEE. So stop right there

there again formed. There's a personal touch. And before that,

before you existed, I knew you, says God. And before

thou camest fourth out of the womb, I sanctified THEE,

and I ordain the often into nations. God created you specifically,

and God created you with purpose. God has a plan

for you, has plans for you. Again in the Nivy

Jeremiah twenty nine, verse eleventh four, I know the plans

I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper

you and not to harm you. Plans to give you

a hope and future. God created you with purpose and

with plans. God loves you, and we say, okay, I

know that.

God.

You know, we all know John three point sixteen. For

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten.

So we can rattle that off and not even think

about it. I think what happens often is we think, well,

God loved mankind. There's this collective group of people that

God loved enough to die for It was enough. The

weight in the balances was enough, and we missed the

personal part of it. First John three, verse one says,

behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us,

that we should be called the sons of God. God

loves you enough, so much that he will call you

his child. Right, that's a personal touch.

So he has formed you. He's created you with purpose,

with a plan.

And you can be his child. Somebody loves you. You

are not alone, and someone else has faced what you

are facing. Think on truth. Meditate on what is true,

Not what might be true, Not what your friend.

Says could be true, the latest gossip.

Not what your favorite podcaster might be abloviating about currently,

not the latest and greatest conspiracy theory, but what is true.

You know when yours.

Let's assume that some of you listen to the occasional

podcast or whatever when your favorite voice is online or

let's say, in a race for clicks like subscriptions and views.

Do you think that the first thing they think about

when they wake up in the morning is truth?

Like? Is that their motivating fact factor?

There could be a couple, I suppose, but probably not

the majority. I recently came across a disturbing critique that

someone was making of algorithms and social media X or

Twitter is as I understand open source, so you can

actually go in and look at what the algorithms are doing,

and likely other and I don't understand them. So I'm

taking some things i've I've.

Heard and read, but.

Likely other social media platforms are following some of the

same patterns, let's say, and and according to this critique,

recently there has so dwell time. I don't understand a

lot about this, so, but dwell time, the amount of

time you stop and look at something, has always been

a factor. But essentially the idea was you could you

could you could sort of weed out or you could

sort of say what you want in your feed, what's

thrown at you by the things you like, the subscriptions,

the the uh things you follow, the people you follow,

whatever informs the algorithm what you want to see, so

you have some agency over what comes to you. So,

according to this critique of of current algorithms, that there's

been a recent change and in the algorithms that, if

not the only the primary algorithm that's tracked as far

as what to send you is what you slow down

for even as your scroll dwell time. Even if you're

scroll and you just slow down for something, ah, you'll

see more of that instead of something that you have

subscribed to that you speed past. Let's say I tried

to verify that somewhat and did some googling and found

this dwell time outweighs all clickbased signals on x's algorithm. Currently,

So what are you Let's say that you do have

social media, and let's say you do scroll on social media, which.

We could discuss that. Let's just say some of us

in here do that. What are you most likely to

slow down for and.

Take a second look at? Stop just good old truth,

some good old solid maybe some scripture verses or whatever.

How about a juicy conspiracy theory or some loud clickbait headline,

or a picture that doesn't belong on your screen, or

you know, all these different things. Society is bending toward

the immediate, towards the first reaction. Now, if I give

you two headlines, and let's just say you're scrolling through

some headlines, which one would you slow down and take

a second look and maybe find no matter your belief,

no matter what you think is true or not true,

And this one maybe doesn't matter all that much, but

I'll give it as an example. Let's say your first

headline is the day JFK was shot and surrounding events.

Okay, well, a few people would.

Find that interesting because they find that story interesting. Most

people probably zeeing right past it. How about never before

seen evidence that the CIA was involved directly in the

JFK assassination scandal. Right, so we've got never before seen

we've got government on government conspiracies, and we've got a scandal.

All right.

No matter what you think, no matter what you believe,

likely you will be drawn to that, at least for

a little bit. And so truth is getting pushed to

the back as the race to monetize your and my

clicks and looks accelerates. So I would say guard yourself.

That means.

No social media, do that, but guard yourself beyond guard.

Meditate on what is true, Meditate on what is eternal true,

Meditate on God, the ultimate Truth, and the Bible. I'm

gonna quickly look at the rest of this list. Whatsoever

things are honest? Now, obviously there's a lot of overlap

of truth, but many versions say more like honorable or

noble things. Think of things that are decent and becoming.

Think on whatsoever things are just? All right, we could

say righteous, Meditate on what is righteous. Not only should

we think on things that are just. Micah six' eight

says he has showed, you o, man what is good

and what Does lord require of? Thee but the first

thing is to do. Justly meditate on things that are,

just and do justly whatsoever things are? Pure we could,

say purity is something not mixed or not, contaminated no

impurities in. It think on those, things ingest those, things

to those things in you know WHEN i and you

can make your own application. Here BUT i enjoy raw, Milk,

OKAY i enjoy it with all the cream left in.

It and BUT i care whether or not it's. Pure

If i'm gonna take it, IN i care if it's.

Pure not only DO i not want twenty percent grapefruit

juice mixed in with?

It?

Okay IF i get a cup of, good, cool whole

milk and there's a fleck of kalmanure in, THERE i

don't care what percent pure it. Is it's, contaminated kick it, out.

Okay so in, jest bring in what is? Pure psalm

fifty one to ten, says create in me a clean,

Heart Oh, god and renew a right spirit within. Me

how Does god create a clean? Heart, inness not if

we're contaminating it with. Impurities, whatsoever things are? Lovely you,

know if you ever told your let's say those of

us that our, parents maybe even older, siblings, uncles, aunts

a child comes to you with some scary, things and you, say,

look instead of thinking about monsters under your, bed why

don't you think about, butterflies chocolate, bars sheep jumping over, fences,

bubbles ran and bow something?

Else?

Right and that maybe sounds kind of silly and, elementary

BUT i really think there's something to. It when our

mind is being bombarded with unlovely, thoughts stop and fill

it with things that are. Lovely think on things that are,

lovely retrieve those thoughts and meditate on. Them, whatsoever things

are a good. Report you're hard pressed to find a

good report. Today you go on the news. Headlines here's

a couple headlines from yesterday or the. DAY Vp vans

issues stark six word warning After iron's alleged ceasefire breach

in the straight of horm. Moves top, HEADLINE i run

the protection, Program johnson vows to Shield trump and his

allies from. Scrutiny and you can go on all none

of the none of the headlines.

Are like this is.

Good you, Know, ah where can we go for a good?

Report certainly The, bible you, know The bible fits all

of these categories really. Beautifully but there's there's other, things you,

know other things that are, beautiful things that that can

help shape you, know classic, Literature christian, PRODUCTION a visit.

With a good.

Friend when we are by, ourselves are we meditating on

things of good? Report or do we let the negative

loudness spin around in our minds.

And race here and?

There if there be any, virtue and if there be any,

praise anything, virtuous anything, praiseworthy think on these things and

imagine a world where everyone thought about things that are, true,

honest just, pure, lovely of good, report, virtuous and. Praiseworthy,

now since you are not the whole, world AND i

am not the, whole imagine a life where, you, personally

WHERE i thought about meditated brought into remembrance that ninety

percent of the thoughts THAT i thought before that are

coming back THAT i allow back in to ten, percent let's,

say of new, thoughts if there's such a, thing what

if those consisted of were made up of things that are, true,

honest just, pure, lovely of good, report things with, virtue

and things that are, praiseworthy would your attitude or my

attitude or outlook on life be any? Different in many,

ways we've just scratched the surface of this vers this.

Morning we haven't really done it. Justice But i'd like

to just look very briefly at verse. Nine those things

which you have both learned and received and heard and

seen in, me do and The god Of peace shall

be with. You see here call to. ACTION i, think

think on these things things you've, seen, heard, learned.

Do and what will?

Happen The god Of peace will be with. You and

so often we wonder what to do when our mind

is not at peace and we don't have. Peace what

do we? Do paul, says do the, things think on certain.

Things Excuse paul, says do what you know is right to,

do and The god of, peace The god that has all,

peace to fill your lives with, peace will be with.

You And i'd like to close with a verse a

beautiful verse about peace and what our mind has to

do with. It Asay had twenty, Six verse, Three thou

wilt Keep thou Being, God thou wilt keep him in perfect,

peace whose mind is stayed ON, thee.

Because he trusteth IN. Thee the peace Of.

God perfect peace is ours if we think, about if

we meditate, on and if we trust In.

God god bless you and your. Thoughts let's tell us.

Wrong