Perseverance of the Saints - Philippians 4:8-9 - What You Think About Matters

Good morning, family.

Good morning.

Good job, good job.

A couple things.

First things first.

I want to encourage you, especially parents with young ones,

to be more open to the world.

I want to encourage you, especially parents with young ones, okay?

There's a beautiful little, I want to say it's a poem, is it a poem?

It's a poem that's written to parents who bring their little ones to church.

And as Mount Eaton family, we encourage and absolutely love them being here.

So I want you to know, it's obvious that they're here, that we are so thankful that they are here with us

and that you are here with us.

As they learn to grow and as they learn these things, things change over time.

And I just want to encourage you with those words.

I think it's important that as it was in the early days of the church before Sunday school

and quote unquote children's church, kids sat in church with their parents.

And it's important that they hear and learn and develop and to grow in the faith with us together.

So thank you, family, for being so gracious and understanding.

And I want them to know that this is their home as well as it is ours.

And they mean a whole lot to us.

So if you would please stand as we read the Apostles Creed.

Read with me.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ,

his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.

He ascended into Hades.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

From hence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen. You may be seated.

It's important that we continue to think about these orthodoxies.

And orthodoxies are vitally important to continue to maintain the doctrines

that are passed down from generation to generation.

It was crucial for me, even in my life as a young boy, when I go to my dad's church,

which would be once in a while, that I heard these things on a regular basis.

And for some reason the church has, some churches have run away from orthodoxy

because they're considered ritualistic or old.

But when you hear the truths of that statement that the Apostles brought to us

as a creed, as something to share from generation to generation,

it gets instilled in the hearts and in the minds of our young people and they carry it.

And in many cases it's like the beginning that causes a thirst and a hunger for God's Word

because we hear the doctrines and truths that are in it.

So we're going to be dealing with some of that today and dealing with what we think about,

what we think about matters, what we think about matters.

So before we get started I want to pray.

Father, I want to thank you so much for your faithfulness and goodness.

Thank you for your Word. Your Word is true. You are truth.

We thank you that in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation

you have given us everything for life and godliness to clearly show and to live out

and to set our minds on things above, not on things of the earth.

So Lord I pray that you would guide us that the full counsel of your Word is spoken.

The Holy Spirit, you would implant your Word deep in our minds and our hearts

and that it would produce fruit beyond measure.

Lord we thank you, we praise you for your faithfulness and goodness

and thank you Lord for your Word in Jesus' name, Amen.

So I'm going to read Philippians 4, 4-7 and then we'll go right into verse 8.

As you guys remember in Philippians 4-6 at the very end

he says concerning the people of Philippi that your names are written in the book of life.

So your names are written in the book of life.

Therefore rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I say, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

Why? Because the Lord is at hand. He is near.

And if He is near then do not be anxious about anything

but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving

let your requests be known to God.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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.

The question is how much of our mind, how much time and space and thought do we give to God?

The reality is I think for many of us our minds get distracted

because we are worried about everything else that is around us.

We are not worried about thinking about Him

regardless of what is happening in our lives.

We are human and as a result we worry and we think and we ponder

on all the things you can't control.

And that is very similar to what was happening among Iorio and Suntuke.

They were too worried about their battle with each other,

their lack of peace with each other

and not committed to the unity of the body.

And so God reminds us again of what really matters.

What happens to the mind when it gets distracted?

When it thinks about everything else but Him?

Well, Justin Peters calls it the disengaged mind.

And here is a statement, the disengaged mind is the enemy of the Christian.

It is not engaged in the things that matter,

it is disengaged from the things that matter.

It is disengaged from the truth of the Word of God,

it is disengaged from the doctrine,

it is disengaged from Christ Himself.

We are too worried about other things

and so our minds and our energy and our thoughts

and all the things that matter that don't matter we think about

but everything that does matter is an afterthought.

Jesus reminds us of the importance of where our minds should be.

In Matthew 22, 37 He says,

And He said to them,

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind.

And in Luke it says,

And with all your strength, with all your heart,

the deepest part of man, with all our soul,

with our inner being, with all our mind,

with every thought set upon Christ,

and with all our strength, with our physical body.

What He is saying is that you shall love God

with every single ounce of your being,

material and immaterial.

And so Paul reminds us this in Philippians 4, 8.

He says, Finally.

What's interesting about this word,

finally means remaining the rest,

or the rest of things that remain.

In other words, out of everything I've just told you,

along with all of these other remaining things.

Brothers, whatever is true.

What is the word true?

The word true is literally true,

loving the truth, speaking the truth, or truthfulness.

Christ is truth.

So whatever is true, whatever is of Christ,

how much of Him is your mind occupied with?

How important is He to you?

How much time?

Do people really look at the reality

that you are totally, completely sold out for Jesus,

and the main person that you think about most of the time is Him?

Many would say, but you should also be thinking about your wife.

If I'm thinking about Jesus,

then I'm thinking about Jesus and my wife.

Think about that.

I don't think my wife's going to argue with that point.

Whatever is honorable.

The word honorable is respected or impressive,

greatly respected.

How much of God's things, His word, Him,

do you look at as impressive or greatly respected?

See, when you respect something, you think about it.

You spend time pondering these things.

Whatever is just.

Now, many would think that this idea of justice, social justice,

that's not what this word is.

Actually, it's not a very good translation.

This is one of the words in ESV that I'm like,

eh, it could have picked a better word.

But understanding what God is talking about here,

this idea of just means righteous.

Whatever is right, virtuous, upright.

Only Christ is righteous.

There's no one righteous, no, not one.

He alone is righteous.

And He alone is respected and should be respected.

So whatever is righteous, do you think about these things?

When I think about righteousness,

I think about the ways of God.

Which should be produced in our lives on a regular basis.

Are we living righteously?

I would say probably not because we don't think righteously.

Whatever is pure.

Actually, yeah, whatever is pure.

And let me give you one more thing on the issue of righteous.

It's also the idea of whatever is approved of or acceptable of God,

holy, is Christ holy to you?

Have you set apart Christ in your heart as holy?

So whatever is pure.

This word pure is the idea of sacred or perfect.

The most holy thing.

That's probably one of the reasons why as men,

this is probably the one thing we struggle with the most as men.

Because men think about other things.

We don't think like women think.

We're easily distracted just by vision.

Easily distracted by our own desires.

And I shared this in early service also.

When we look at the reality of things being sacred or perfect or holy,

have we really sanctified, have we really looked at the reality

that Christ is the most holy thing?

I think for us as men it's difficult.

Then he says whatever is lovely, whatever is acceptable or pleasing.

So if Christ is the sacred one, do I look at him as the lovely one?

As he is acceptable and pleasing.

And are my thoughts and my deeds acceptable and pleasing to him?

Or do I just find things wrong?

Whatever is commendable.

Commendable is this idea of sounding well, well spoken of or reputable.

Are our lives, do our thoughts reflect our lives?

Do our thoughts in reality talk about what is well spoken of of my life?

Am I above reproach?

It's sort of like this idea of what a man thinks so he is.

I like what Vodi Bakum says, a man doesn't do what he thinks,

he does what he believes.

Because eventually what you think about becomes what you believe.

If you think little of Christ, then Christ will be little.

But if you think great of Christ, the God of all creation,

he will be the God of your life.

We've talked about this before where we look at these things

and we look at our lives as completely defeated.

It's like everything I do I just never get by, it's never enough.

I can never finish.

Why do bad things always happen to me?

How much time and thought does Christ leave with you?

How much time do you give to him?

And how much time do you spend listening or reading his word?

How much time do you love him?

Or do you only love him when you're in need?

Is your life a life of a sacrifice to him as a fragrant offering?

Is your life reputable?

That's one of the things I think about, let my kids carry my name.

And I want my name to be looked upon as a name that reflects Christ.

That when they remember Cain, they don't remember me,

but they remember Christ.

The Cain family loves Jesus.

That's what it means that we would be commendable, well spoken of.

The second is, the last two is, if there is any excellence, any excellence,

the word excellence here is virtuous course of thought,

moral excellence, praise, or virtue.

You notice it's not by accident that this idea of excellence is what you think about.

You will do what you think about, I mean what you believe.

What you believe is what you think about.

How much time do you put on these thoughts?

Because eventually you will believe it.

If there's any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,

this word praise is commendable,

approbation, a very important word, this idea of worthy of all praise and glory.

It's just worthy of everything that you have in you to bring.

Because in reality if you don't praise, the rocks will praise.

I think when we think about earthquakes, we look at them as a bad thing.

I look at them really as the earth is praising God.

If you're not going to do it, it's going to do it.

So much so it shakes.

When you think about the ocean and the ocean's roar, it praises God.

When you think about the birds, the birds praise God.

When you think about every animal that goes about and makes noise,

whether it's the fox at night, it praises God.

The earth and everything in it will praise God, even if God's people will not.

Sadly I think that God's people complain more than they praise.

How can we miss this moment of praise and glory to the only God of all creation?

Well, because our minds are too focused on our problems

and we miss the awesome, amazing, living God of all creation,

the beautiful and lovely Christ.

Colossians 3, 1-3 says this,

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,

where Christ is seated at the right hand of God,

and set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

So not only should your minds be completely saturated with the reality of who Christ is,

but you should be thinking about it all the time.

You're probably like, but that's a Jesus freak.

Exactly.

You wonder why Christians live defeated lives.

Because their mind isn't on the king.

That doesn't mean that in our lives we're not going to struggle.

In reality, if we reset our minds back on Christ, this is what it says.

Here it is, last principle.

Live in such a way that when others watch your life,

they don't see you, they see Christ in you.

Live in such a way that when others watch your life,

they don't see you, they see Christ in you.

That's what it says in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 21,

1 Peter 2:21

for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you,

leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

Philippians 4.9, what you have learned.

And what you have learned, you have received.

And what you have received, you have heard.

And what you have heard, you have seen.

And be careful in this when you have learned, and received,

and heard, and seen in me, practice these things.

It's interesting that Paul tells Timothy,

Timothy follow me as I follow Christ.

The Christian life is meant to be modeled.

learned and received and heard but seen and not only seen but modeled practiced

lived out why so that you will follow you have godly men who love Christ who

live above reproach before you all the time we are here as examples for you to

follow not only follow but you have learned and not only are you learning

but you're receiving and not only are you see receiving you are hearing now

all the time and not only have you heard but you have seen you can live the life

that Christ has called you to live even in the midst of difficult and suffering

times and so this is what Paul ends with that when you practice these things

when you when you practice what when you practice whatever isn't true whatever is

honorable whatever is righteous whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is

commendable if there's any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise set

your mind on these things think about these things why because the peace of

God the God of peace will be with you it's an imperative not that he's maybe

he will and what does he what else does he say what else does he say in verse

seven he says and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard

your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus you notice the continual far here

if our minds are on Christ we don't have to be anxious if we think about Christ

we don't have to be anxious that doesn't mean life's not gonna happen it means I

don't have to be anxious about it why because he's near he is with me he is

literally in me and with me all the time I can call upon him anytime I need him

the problem is we want the answer now we want the fast food Jesus and that's not

the way God works why well he doesn't work that way because he has predestined

you to be conformed into the image of his son God doesn't take away your stuff

because it's difficult because he has a bigger plan in your life than your

comfort his plan is to conform you into the image of Jesus without those things

you won't know and learn and develop the tools that are necessary in your mind

to think about him all the time learning to suffer well is the reality of the

character of surrender but learning to praise him in the midst of the good and

the bad is the reality of honor and peace

Christ is all you need he has given you everything you need for life and

godliness you need nothing but what's occupying your mind is it the things

that are true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable are you

seeking to do all things in excellence is is your life filled with the worthy

things of praise what do you think about it's one thing that think about these

things it's another to literally live them so whatever you have learned

whatever you've received and whatever you've heard and whatever you have seen

in me Paul says and as as your pastor my greatest passion is to live out Christ

and I'm not perfect at it but man when he has the heart of the men of your

church follow and practice these things test them out prove us to be true and if

you prove us to be false then run but the men of God when they are living

according to the truth of the Word of God when you get that you hold on to it

practice these things and the God of peace will be with you father I want to

thank you so much for your faithfulness and goodness thank you for your holiness

thank you that you have given us everything for life and godliness thank

you that you have you have called us implored us and treated us to think

about whatever is true and honorable just and pure and lovely and commendable

that you have called us to excellence and to be to be thinking about the things

that are worthy of praise help us to walk intimately with you in all things to

love you supremely more than we love anything and anyone else help us to be a

light in a very dark dark generation or do we praise you and thank you in Jesus

name amen