It's Good

We are in a series right now called Unbreakable Joy.

This is something that we started back in February, and uh we took a little break during the summer to cover some wisdom scriptures like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, but we're back in Unbreakable Joy, and what we are doing is studying the book of Philippians.

Philippians is an amazing letter in the New Testament.

If you've never read it, you should read it.

It's only four chapters.

You can read it fast.

It is filled with statements of gratitude and joy and perseverance.

And you would think, reading it, not knowing the context, you would think that whoever wrote it, his name was Paul, was living the high life, like everything's going great for Paul.

That could not be further from the truth.

Paul is in prison, he's awaiting possible execution, he knows that, and yet, Philippians is not a downer, it's not a bummer.

And it should be.

It should be like Paul pleading with people, praying, please pray for me.

I'm barely hanging on.

That is not the case.

Paul is constantly talking about how much joy he has, how he rejoices.

Paul shows us that through Jesus we can have a joy that is truly unbreakable.

It is not circumstantial.

We don't need everything in life to go great for us to have joy.

Most people do.

Most people need life to cooperate, to feel happiness and joy.

If we're believers and we have the Holy Spirit, we follow Jesus, there's a whole different kind of joy.

It's available to us, but it doesn't just happen automatically.

So Paul sort of walks us through it.

And we could read Philippians and read it like a blueprint for how to experience joy when life isn't going well.

And today we get to one of the most iconic verses, set of verses that we have in the entire book.

This is one of the most popular scriptures in the New Testament.

This is something people put on t-shirts.

A lot of people would say this is their favorite verse.

Let's just jump into it.

Philippians 4, verse 8.

Philippians 4:8

We're going to read 8 and 9 today, just two verses we're going to focus on.

It says, And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me.

Everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you.

And when you read these verses, they're really positive, right?

Think about all the good things in life.

Fix your thoughts on all the good stuff.

What is true and lovely and admirable and worthy of praise.

Focus on that.

And that's one of those verses that sounds really nice.

It just sounds like, yeah, it's cheerful and I like that.

But I could not think of a more challenging thing to be told.

Do you know how easy it is to fix your thoughts on all the other stuff?

Of course you do.

We all do.

I get super easy to fix your thoughts on all the negative stuff.

That's automatic.

We're actually hardwired as people to do that.

There's scientific research about it.

It's called this negativity bias that we have in our minds, where if something bad happens, it affects us greatly.

Like, think about it this way: if you go to a restaurant ten times and it's great.

Ten times, great meal.

And then you go the 11th time and the service is terrible and you have to wait a long time and the food isn't good, you don't get what you ordered, and it's cold.

And are you going to number 12?

Are you gonna go the 12th time?

A lot of us, if we're honest, we're like, no.

Doesn't matter that I had 10 good experiences, that one bad one outweighs the 10 good.

That happens a lot.

Or think about the last time you told someone you had a bad day.

It's like you said, how was your day?

Ah, it's not a good day.

Usually what people mean when they say I had a bad day is one bad thing happened to me.

It's like I woke up, I had breath in my lungs, the sun came up, I have a family, I have people who love me, I ate whatever I felt like eating, but then I had this one conversation that really just ruined my day.

Right?

We have that happen.

Because the negative stuff, there's something about us as people, we're sort of hardwired to fixate on the bad.

And here we're called, we're literally called by God to be very different than that.

This is a calling.

It's interesting, the word church in the Greek language is the word uh ecclesia, and it literally translates those who are called out.

Usually we think of being called out as a bad thing, like you're some behavior you have that isn't good is being spotlighted.

But no, no, no.

This is God calling us out of life as usual.

God is calling us out of living the way and thinking the way and behaving the way that everyone else lives into a totally different life.

And it's a better life.

But it's easier said than done.

Like if we just stopped right now and said, hey guys, uh, just think about all the good stuff.

Don't think about bad things.

Don't do it.

Like, how?

Let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it.

Um we are being we're being taught, okay, to think.

Let's just let's start here.

Think the good.

Think the good.

Can you imagine how terrifying it would be to read people's thoughts?

You think about superpowers you would want to have, you know, strength, whatever it might be.

If anyone ever says, I wish I could read people's minds, you would tell them, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You don't want that.

Like, would you want someone else reading your mind all day long?

Would you want your best friend to be able to read your mind?

Would you want your spouse, 24-7, to know exactly what you're thinking?

I mean, there's times where Megan and I are having a fight, and I'm like demanding, I want to know what you're thinking, and then I go, why did I demand that?

I actually didn't want to know what she was thinking at all.

I would rather have not known what she was thinking.

That would have been better for me.

Like, what can go on between our ears, the kind of thoughts that we can have?

It's this is like a minefield.

This is dangerous territory, and Paul and the Holy Spirit through Paul is telling us to take control of how we think.

Our thoughts matter so much.

Years ago, I was in a counseling session, um, and I was the one being counseled, not the one giving the counsel.

I'm broken in all kinds of ways.

And uh counselor's name was Ben, really grateful for him.

He was talking to me about my my thought life.

And he said, Justin, you have to understand the way your thoughts work.

He said, if you think something long enough, it becomes a belief.

And if you believe something long enough, it crystallizes and it becomes a truth to you that is so clear that you can't even be persuaded of something different.

In fact, once it's at that stage, once it's it's taken root like that, you will find evidence that that backs it up.

You will look and you will gather evidence that supports this deeply held truth that you have.

It starts with a thought, you think it long enough, it becomes a belief, you believe it long enough, it becomes truth that you will find evidence to support.

And so let's say there's a person and you don't like him, and for a while you think, man, this person's annoying.

It's just annoying.

You work with someone and they drive you crazy.

They have annoying habits.

You think that long enough, you start to believe it.

It's not just a thought, it's a belief now.

They are annoying.

That is an annoying person.

And if you believe that long enough, it's just true, they're annoying, and now the only thing that you ever see is the annoying stuff.

And every time it happens, you're like, yep, yep.

It all starts with our thoughts.

And we're told here to take control of those thoughts, to understand the seriousness of those thoughts.

I was reading a Bible commentary that was talking about the fact that our thoughts are so interesting.

Um, sometimes we begin to think about something so much that eventually we can't help but think about it, we obsess over it, those thoughts dominate our minds, and if something dominates your thoughts, it dominates your life.

It's just true.

If it dominates your thoughts, it will dominate your life.

So we're called here to be extremely intentional with how we think.

Paul says, think about the things that are good, the things that are righteous, the things that are worthy of praise.

Now, doing this is tough.

This is tough because there's a lot of things that affect the way you think.

Like, take people, for example.

The people you're around affect you.

It is true.

In fact, I was hanging out with my my oldest.

Um, I say hanging out, he wasn't hanging out with me, I was trying to hang out with him, but then he's at that age where I'm hanging out with him, and then I it becomes clear that he doesn't want me to hang out with him.

Uh, he wants to hang out with other people.

So I got the message, and I said, Hey, um, what are you about to do?

And he said these words.

He said, this was like two days ago.

He said, I'm finna go hang out with my friends.

I'm finna go hang out with my friends.

And this is language I've never heard come out of his mouth before.

And I I started to correct him.

You know, how don't talk like that.

Finna.

But then just a few minutes later, I was like, you know, I'm fixing to go grab a bite to eat.

That's not any different.

That's not a word.

Fixing?

I mean, we made it a word.

Finna's gonna be the same thing, I guess.

But, you know, it's just he's hung out with some guys and they talk like that, and just a few days hanging out, he's at a new school.

He's only been there for two days.

Two days at a new school, and he's finna go do stuff.

You know?

I feel like it took me two years in the South to say fixing for the first time.

Took me two years.

Goodness gracious.

The people that were around, they affect us.

They do, they affect us in all kinds of ways, how we talk and how we think.

That's why it says in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 10, and guys in the back, I know I'm way out of order here in what I gave you, but bear with me.

Proverbs 1:10

Proverbs 1, verse 10 says, My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them.

Proverbs 1:10

My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them.

If you hang out with people who entice you to do what is wrong, to talk about what is wrong, to think about what is wrong.

If you spend time with people like that, your thoughts will be affected.

You you will.

You will laugh at those jokes, you will think those thoughts, and then they go from being their thoughts that are funny to your thoughts that are funny.

And that's a dangerous place.

Scripture says, walk with the wise and become wise, walk with fools, and your life falls to ruin.

And we're gonna talk about this for a long time because we actually just did a couple messages a while back on relationships and friends, and we've talked about that a few times this year.

If you want to go back and listen to those, do it.

Just know that if you want to take control of your thoughts, part of that is taking control of the people around you who influence your thoughts.

I am so grateful for all the opportunities that we have here at His Hands to get connected and to know people.

Even on Wednesday nights, we just launched Wednesdays again, tons of people coming.

And if you come, I'm not saying every person there is the best person ever, and we're all works in progress, but there's just something about being around people who are trying to grow closer to God, and when you leave, your thoughts are different.

There's joy, there's a perspective that is better than when you came in the room.

Surround yourself with people who help you think right.

You can't do it on your own.

Think about the other things that affect the way that we think.

Think about what we consume.

Like what we take in.

I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands because I think it'd be a little too vulnerable for us to admit this, but I imagine if I asked, how many of you think that the stuff you watch doesn't really affect you?

There's very few things more practical than what we watch, because as Americans, we spend a lot of time watching stuff.

You know, we go from watching here to watching the TV, back to here, sometimes both at the same time.

Sometimes we're like, I don't want to, I gotta, I gotta watch two things at the same time.

And I gotta be honest with you guys, I I for many years I've I've been a hypocrite in how I watch things because you know I definitely believe that we should be extremely careful with what we consume.

But then I I'll make excuses sometimes.

I'm like, well, if it's really funny, I love humor.

I love being a clown.

I've always been a class clown.

And so even if something is isn't good, it's not it's it's not wholesome in any way, but it's funny.

I'm like, oh, I just shouldn't watch it, but it's so funny.

Or something's really well made, you know.

If something's just, man, it's such a good show.

I mean, it's filled with garbage and trash and and all that, but it's so good.

It's amazing how as time goes on as adults, the way that our world works and the way that our world teaches us to view things, we start thinking seeing things often that are wholesome and good is like childish.

It's like the stuff that's just pure and beautiful and wholesome, that stuff is like, eh, it's kind of just hokey.

And there's a, let's be honest, there's a version of that.

It's like there's a version of Christian music that's just really cheesy.

Where it's just like life is great and God is great and everything's great, and it's just, you know, just not.

I mean, God is, but you know, not the other stuff.

But you know what I'm talking about, where it's like fake.

It's like, you know, there's pastors that smile too much.

You know what I mean?

Like there's certain people out there that you're like, you don't smile.

It would hurt your face to smile like that all day long.

It's an act.

So I'm not talking about this fake kind of goodness, but the reality is it's very easy for us to make excuses for why we allow ourselves to consume stuff that just fills our minds with garbage.

And I've done it, and I regret it.

And it does affect us.

Here's how you know.

Um, if you have a young child, you've probably had this experience where, and if you don't, you you might one day, or maybe you can remember this as a kid, but you know, our kids will just be watching uh something on on YouTube or something like that, and then an ad will come up for a horror movie.

There's always a horror movie.

Like those are the most constant types of movies, right?

There's always horror movies.

And just five seconds of it is like you don't get a warning, it's just boom, oh my gosh.

And there's nights where one of my kids will come and wake me up in the middle of the night because that commercial they saw, five seconds of before they closed their eyes, it affected them.

And and maybe we get to a certain point in life where like, oh, I watch horror movies all the time and it doesn't bother me at all.

And actually, if that's the case, I'm not judging you, that means that you're the most affected by those.

It means that they have affected, like the natural reaction to that stuff should be like, no.

But you've seen so much of it that it's desensitized you.

And it doesn't bother you.

That's a sign that actually those things have affected you deeply.

Like, oh, okay.

One guy, one guy.

A few of us are like, I love horror movies, and I'm look, I'm not I'm not talking about some hyper-religious, uh, everything's bad.

You know, we talk about being a tree of life church, not a tree of knowledge of good and evil church.

If you're not familiar with that language, you're new here, it means that we don't we don't approach God based on this is bad, this is good, this is bad, this is good.

We have a relationship with him that's built on grace and mercy.

At the same time, there's just things that aren't good for us.

And no good father would recommend their child fill their minds with stuff that that's gonna corrupt the way they think.

I know that because in many ways I'm not a good father.

I grew up with a very, I just grew up in the 80s and the 90s, and my parents had no idea what I was watching.

And my older brother was eight years older than me.

We had joint custody.

My dad was divorced before he married my mom, so my older brother would come and he would uh bring movies from Blockbuster Video, and my parents would let me stay up late with him, and they had no idea what was in those boxes.

By the time I was like six or seven, I'd seen all the Freddie movies, like all those, all the Jason movies, and I have memories, actual memories, and and Brandt, my older brother, if you're watching for whatever reason, I don't think you are, but it's cool.

We're good.

Um, but man, you messed me up.

Uh I looked up to him so much, he was eight years older than me.

He was the coolest person on the planet in my mind, and he's a really cool guy.

And I remember sitting next to him watching like a Freddy movie as like a seven-year-old, six-year-old, wanting to cry and crawl under the couch.

But sitting there, like he was laughing at it.

I'm like, ha ha ha ha ha, yeah, this is great.

This is awesome, you know.

Man, I grew up just watching that kind of stuff, and so I don't, I'm not introducing my children to horror movies, but I also grew up watching just really cool action movies.

The 80s action movies are awesome, they're so good.

And so when my my my kids you know get older, there's part of me as a dad that just naturally wants to introduce them to that stuff.

Like, you never seen Predator?

We gotta watch Predator.

I saw that movie when I was seven.

I thought it was super cool.

I didn't make my kids watch Predator, don't worry.

But I wanted to, is what I'm saying.

I'm just being honest.

Because I have nostalgia for that stuff, right?

When we consume things and we watch things and they mean something to us, we have a desire to share them, and sometimes they're not good.

And I started watching one of those types of movies with my oldest a few years ago.

I was like, hey man, you're old enough now to watch this movie.

Here, come let dad corrupt your mind.

And so I didn't think about it like that, but I was like, no, you'll think this is cool.

And you know, you want your kids to think you're cool, and that's not good, but it's real.

And so we start watching, he just goes, Dad, I don't want to watch a bunch of people die.

And I was like, You're gonna shut up and watch these people.

No, I didn't say that.

Be a man.

No.

No.

I was like, yeah, you know what?

That's that's fair.

That's fair.

The only movie I've actually forced him to watch, even though a lot of people die is Saving Private Ryan, because I believe that every young man should understand the sacrifice that was made by our veterans, World War II, and all that kind of stuff.

So there we go.

There you go.

The fact that that got a bigger clap than don't watch horror movies, I don't know, we gotta pray, but we'll figure that out.

Yeah.

Okay.

Listen to what God's Word says about the things that we consume.

And take this in.

Proverbs 4.23.

Guard your heart above all else.

And in the Hebrew language, it's interesting, as time has gone on and language has evolved, heart for us means your emotions, mind means your intellect, your your logic.

That is not the way it worked in the Hebrew world.

The word heart and mind are interchangeable.

It means your inner being, not just your emotions and your deep feelings, but your thoughts.

Okay?

It says, guard your heart.

We could say guard your mind, guard your thoughts above all else, above anything.

For it determines the course of your life.

The way you think determines the way you live.

So guard it.

Job 31, 1.

Listen to this.

I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.

And we could replace that, ladies, you could replace that with you know young man, person, whatever.

I've made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at anyone.

How many people could say that?

Job was wise.

He said, I don't need those thoughts.

Those aren't going to lead to anything good.

Psalm 119, 37, turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your word.

How much of the things out there that are begging us to watch them and consume them are just worthless?

Proverbs, or rather, Psalm 101.

Listen, hey, if you you want a challenge, uh frame this verse, put it next to your TV.

This one's incredible.

It's amazing this was written like almost 3,000 years ago, uh, around that time, that this seems like it's completely modern for today.

David wrote, I will lead a life of integrity in my own home.

I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar.

Man.

And what would life be like if you just said, you know what?

I'm gonna take my thought life so seriously.

I want to think about the things that are good and admirable and worthy of praise that I'm not going to consume or I'm not gonna have my family consume.

Stuff that's just worthless, that's vile, that's vulgar.

But our culture, man, it wants us to.

And again, this is not about being judgmental.

This is not about saying what you watch on TV determines your relationship with the Lord.

No, what Jesus did for you determines your relationship with the Lord.

But if things determine the way you think, that will determine your ability to enjoy the life that God has won for you.

So be wise.

Be wise.

Think the good.

But it's not just that.

We're also challenged to see the good.

And this is where it gets really interesting for me.

Because Paul is telling us when he says, you know, think about these things, fix your thoughts on these things.

We've already kind of talked about this, but but the way you think determines the way that you see everything, the way that you see the world, the way that you see people.

And so if you think negativity, if you think about all the bad, if your mind fixates on things that are just negative and wrong, you will you will see those things in the world more.

You just will.

And we're actually called to see the good.

That is hard for me.

I am really good at seeing problems.

Part of it, I think, you know, years ago, 10 years ago or so, 11 years ago, I became the lead pastor here in kind of a challenging season, and I have no ill will toward any of that if you were here at the time.

You know, it's just a hard season.

But it kind of thrust me into a role that I wasn't quite ready for.

In some ways I was, in other ways I wasn't.

So all of a sudden I went from a life where I had problems, but they were fairly minor, to like, I am responsible for a lot of problems.

And I was talking to Megan about this.

You know, I sometimes I think that I was 30 years old when that happened.

And I think in a lot of ways it kind of changed my personality because I became responsible for so many things.

And my life really quickly went from like, you know, I was a youth pastor, and shout out to our youth pastors, they do an amazing job.

Um, they're way better at it than I was, and I'm not just saying that, they're phenomenal.

But I went from being a youth pastor to being like the lead pastor overnight, and then it's like I'm doing funerals and I'm dealing with all the problems in the church, and people are coming to me with like marriage crises, and I'm like sitting in meetings going, yeah.

Yeah, okay, I can help you with this.

And in my mind, I'm going, God, I have no idea what to say.

Please help me, please help me.

And there were financial problems here at the church and all kinds of things.

And I became so focused on solving problems that over time all I began to see were problems.

Does that make sense?

It's like all I could see were things that needed fixed.

And that affected the way I operated at home, and it still does to a degree where instead of just being joyful and being grateful for what's in front of me, I just see things that need fixed.

Sometimes I'm like that with my kids.

I just see them as little projects that I need to fine-tune.

Like this happens at dinner.

We have dinner together as a family as often as we can.

And it's just a giant mess.

You know, like I don't know if you has anyone here figured out how to have dinner with a huge family and it not just be uh go like off the rails really quickly?

Anyone?

I would love, seriously, if you'd have figured that out, please meet me afterwards, be like, here's what we do.

Um because like every kid has a different diet.

I don't know how that happens.

We have four kids.

They all have like one of our kids doesn't eat meat.

He just doesn't like it.

We have to make like making him eat a meatball is is like other kids eating vegetables.

It's like, how do you not like meat?

Who are you?

You know, you have these conversations.

And so we're sitting at the table, and sometimes I'm at the table and I just want to have dinner with my family, but I'm looking across the table at one of my kids, I'm like, hey, dude, you know, elbows off the table.

Come on, sit up straight.

Because I want you to be able to have a date one day and then have a second date.

I want you to have an interview one day and get the job, you know, like come on.

Like, you know, and then I'm looking at yesterday, we're eating spaghetti, and I look, well, I'm on a diet, I was eating the meatballs, but my kids were having the carbs, and uh, I look, and my son sitting next to me is looking straight up in the air and just dropping one noodle all the way down.

And it's funny, you laugh at that.

It's cute, it's funny, but in the moment, I it just made me angry.

I didn't laugh.

I looked at him, I was like, what are you doing?

Stop that, you know, and and like it's funny when I'm up here, but I don't think it's funny.

Like my kids didn't think it was funny, they just feel like critiqued all the time.

And to a certain degree, they need to learn how to eat.

That's true.

We haven't taught them, I guess.

Too many fast food meals or something.

But man, it would be so nice if I could see the good.

If I could, if I could look at my oldest, and instead of being like, why don't you do it that way, if I could say, God, thank you for the next few years that he still lives at home.

Thank you for this meal, because I don't know how much longer he's gonna be here.

If I could look at my youngest and just see the the all-out joy that he has.

The reason he's putting the spaghetti up there is he's just having fun, he's living life, he's enjoying it.

Come on.

Like, I need to see the good.

I think for a lot of us, we live in this world, you just turn on the news and it's just here's the bad stuff.

Bad thing, bad thing, bad thing, bad thing, bad thing.

And it trains our brains to only see the bad.

And we're called by God to fixate, fix our thoughts, focus on the good.

If there's good, find it.

Search for it, hunt for it, find it.

Stop nitpicking everything and focus your thoughts and your heart on all the good.

Remember years ago I read a book, um, a bunch of us did here at the church called The Four Eight Principles, written by a guy named Tommy Newberry, and it's about Philippians 4.8.

And he there's this thing in there where people will say, Hey, how can there be a God when there's all the bad things that happen in the world?

And he was like, How could there not be a God when there's all the good things that happen in the world?

Why don't we focus on that?

Think about Jesus for a moment, and we'll wrap up.

Like Jesus, he saw people differently.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector, he was a criminal, he was a he was a horrible person.

Tax collectors were extremely corrupt, and everyone hated tax collectors.

And Jesus shows up to this town, and Zacchaeus climbed up a tree just to be able to see Jesus.

And Jesus sees him and he goes, Hey, Zacchaeus, he knew his name.

I'm gonna be a guest in your house tonight for dinner.

Which, by the way, cool that Jesus could invite himself over for dinner.

I've not really thought about that as an option.

I could be having so many dinners, I used to be like, hey, guess what?

I'm coming to your house tonight.

See you there.

Um, no.

Different culture.

Um, but Jesus invites himself over for dinner, and that was a sign of honor.

I mean, for Jesus, this famous prophet from the people's perspective, the Messiah, to come be your special guest, that was a sign of honor.

And here's what it says in Luke chapter 19, verse 7.

Luke 19:7

When this happens, it says the people were displeased.

He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner.

They grumbled.

So Jesus going to have dinner with Zacchaeus made everyone mad.

Because they saw Zacchaeus as a notorious sinner.

What they didn't know is that after that meal, his heart was going to be changed, and Zacchaeus ended up giving back everything he had ever taken from people, and then some.

Jesus didn't see Zacchaeus as a notorious sinner.

He saw him as a man on the brink of an entire turnaround in life that was going to bless a lot of people.

In Luke chapter 7, Jesus is having dinner at a Pharisee's house.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

We're not sure whether or not he invited himself.

We don't know in this situation.

But he's there.

And this woman comes in and she begins to anoint his feet and wash his feet.

This is a sign in their culture of respect.

But she didn't have a good reputation and says in verse 39 of chapter 7, when the Pharisee who had invited him, oh, we do know.

The Pharisee invited him.

Okay, good.

Good.

Jesus wasn't rude all the time.

Alright, here we go.

He said to himself, if this man were really a prophet, if he were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him.

She's a sinner.

And Jesus, if you keep reading that story, has a great interaction with this Pharisee.

But Jesus didn't see her as a woman of ill repute or just a sinner.

He saw her as worthy and honorable.

He sees us differently.

He just does.

In Matthew chapter 9, verse 36, it says, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew 9:36

He didn't get annoyed with people.

Not all the time.

He didn't look at people and say, like, what a bunch of whatever.

He said, man, they need help.

I want to be their shepherd.

Jesus saw fishermen as fishers of men.

He saw He saw the world differently.

He saw people as pre-great.

You know, it's like it's like that interaction he has with the Pharisee, that guy's thoughts, man, if you only knew who this woman is, like Jesus could turn around.

If you only knew who she could be, who she will be, that's how he sees the world, that's how he sees us.

What if we looked at people like that?

Like, what if we could look at the world and see not just who people are today, but who they could be?

How would that change the way we live our lives and just how much joy we have?

Instead of getting so upset and so offended all the time, we look at people and go, man.

I mean, some people you can just go, man, they are pre-pre-pre-grade.

You can put some more prefixes on that, right?

They got some work to do.

But aren't you glad that Jesus didn't look at you as a lost cause?

He saw you for who you could be.

We're challenged to do the same.

We're challenged to think about the good.

To let our minds be shaped by what is good and right and pure and lovely.

And then we're called and challenged to see that in the world.

And that takes effort, that takes work.

You've got to practice that, which is why we'll wrap this up in worship team, you can make your way out.

Philippians 4 9.

Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you.

You've got to practice this.

This is gonna take work.

This is a this is a work of the Holy Spirit.

To see the good, to think the good, but you can do this.

And the result of it's really simple.

If you think the good and you see the good, you get to live the good.

You get to experience that.

Your life begins to be defined by the good things.

And people ask you how your day was, and you're like, it was good.

Because it was.

Even if it wasn't.

Does that make sense?

So take responsibility for your thought life.

And let the Holy Spirit do his thing.

Like, invite the Holy Spirit into your mind, into your thoughts.

Not that he needs the invitation, but he'll take it.

And say, Holy Spirit, like, come into my mind, guide my thoughts, help me discern when a thought needs to be taken captive, as scripture would say, and thrown out.

And fill my thoughts with what is good and what is right, and give me patience for people.

Help me see the good and think the good, and then you live the good.

And life is good.

We're gonna wrap up by taking Lord's Supper.

And then we got a couple people getting baptized.

So shout out to that.

Um, yeah.

If you're new, if you're new, we finish every Sunday, usually it's at the end, sometimes we move it around, but we take Lord's Supper together.

When you walked in at these tables at our entrances, there were little containers with cups with bread and juice.

If you didn't grab one, you are free to go do that right now.

You're not gonna bother anybody.

Um and if actually, if you do bother them, they didn't listen to this message at all.

So, you know, there you go.

Um but go ahead and grab that.

And if not, if you want to stay seated, you can join us with this next week if you come back.

Hope you do.

Um we take this every week, and it just gets our mind focused completely on Jesus.

This represents the meal that he had with his disciples right before he went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he was arrested and taken to ultimately die on the cross.

And so this meal that he shared with his disciples, it represents his sacrifice, and the bread is his body, and the juice represents his blood.

And that was all poured out as a sacrifice to take our place, to take our sin, to take our failure, all of our stuff, and not just yours, but everyone around you, everyone that annoys you, he died for them too.

It's kind of an inconvenient thing.

He did, though.

And for us, this is a big reminder of what we're talking about today.

Aren't you glad that Jesus saw us as worthy of this?

You would think that after all he experienced, after all he went through, after all the rejection, that he would say, you know what?

I don't know.

I don't know if they're worth it.

I'm having second thoughts.

Father, I've spent 33 years here.

He could have prayed, and I'm telling you, these people are the worst.

I'm coming back.

We're not doing this.

He could have said that.

But he saw you, he saw all of us as worthy of his life.

He saw the good in us.

And honestly, it doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes.

But we got to be like that, and we need him to help us be like that.

So let's take the bread.

And let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this bread.

We thank you for what it represents.

This is your body.

It was broken on our behalf.

And we pray in your name, Jesus, that as we take this, we wouldn't just receive your sacrifice, we wouldn't just receive your mercy and your forgiveness, but we would also receive your thoughts, the way you think.

Help us see people the way you see people.

Help us look at life the way you look at life, Lord.

Give us the strength through your spirit to think on the good things and see the good things like you did.

Help us be like you, Jesus.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this juice.

This represents your blood.

It was spilled.

It was an offering, it was a cleansing of our sins.

In your culture, sin was always cleansed with blood.

And this wasn't just the blood of some animal.

This was the blood of the one and only Son of God, the creator of everything.

Thank you, Lord, for seeing us as worthy of this.

Help us realize that.

Help us see others the same way.

We love you, Jesus.

Let's take the juice.