Think about these things…November 29, 2009 Philippians 4:8,9
What are you thinking about right now? Maybe you are thinking about how nice it is to be in church this morning, with people who think it’s nice to have you here. Maybe you’re having thoughts about what you had (or didn’t have) for breakfast. Maybe you’re pondering what to have for lunch (you can stay for our potluck right after the service) Maybe you’re thinking about whether or not you turned off the iron at home, or the lights, or the coffee pot, etc. Maybe you’re wondering if you locked the front door. Will someone break in? Maybe you’re thinking about an argument you had with a close friend. They were wrong after all and I was right…Maybe your thoughts dwell on a tv show you watched last night, but maybe should have not watched…Maybe you are wondering what will happen with the stock market on Monday morning. Will gold continue to skyrocket upwards, or will it come crashing down. And speaking of crashing down, what about my relationship with ____. What about my health? What about my friend’s health? What about my kids, how ill they turn out? Will they take care of me one day? What about the end of the world? What’s going to happen next? How bad can things get before they get better? What’s the use of going on…?
Anyone care to share what’s on THEIR mind today?
You know, we can get ourselves pretty depressed and worried and fearful and even sick if we let our minds dwell on so many ‘bad’ things. We can lull ourselves into thinking that everything IS bad, especially if we make a habit of watching the news and reading the paper. Oh, and speaking of papers, have you lugged in your paper lately to find that not only is it loaded with lots of sad and depressing and scary news, but it’s loaded with all sorts of ads for Christmas shopping? I mean really, how much time do advertisers think we have in order to actually read all these things?
But that’s just it, we DO read and think about these things. At this time of year it is so easy to get caught up in thinking about all the things we have to DO and SHOP for and BUY and SPEND, spend, spend…
Might I suggest we take some time to think about some other things? May I be so bold as to say that we ought to spend a lot more time thinking about good things, and not so much time worrying about bad things?
Paul give us a list of things we can and should think about in verses 8 and 9 of of the 4th chapter of his letter to the Philippians. Let’s read that right now. Turn to page ___ in the Bibles provided in the pews.
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (NIV)
True – what a perfect place to begin, truth. I don’t think anyone likes to be told a lie, or even a half-truth, especially when it comes to matters of the heart, what we believe. In a court of law, they ask witnesses to swear (on a bible no less) to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The judge wants to hear what really happened so that he can judge accordingly. To lie is not only a crime against the court system; it can also hurt others by giving false testimony about them, and getting them into trouble. One of the 10 commandments is not to give false testimony against you neighbour. In other words, tell the truth.
But to think about truth, we have to first FIND truth. What is truth? Truth is fact, reality, and accuracy…all things which we can believe in. And the thing that I believe in more than any other is Jesus Christ, my Saviour and my Lord, the Living Word of God. My friends you can seek truth in many places and in many ways, but the one thing that will always be true is Christ. In John 14 He tells us that He is the way and the truth and the life, no once comes to the Father except through Him. Jesus is Truth, not a lie. He is the truth and He tells the truth. Many times in His teaching we hear him say, ‘I tell you the truth…’ almost 100 times in the 4 gospels we can read about the truth.
If we would take the time to not just read, but think about and BELIEVE the truth that Jesus himself teaches us, I believe we would be a changed people. Why not take some time and look up those truths that Jesus told us…think about them, believe them, live them out.
We need to identify what are the lies being fed to us, and ignore them. How do we do that? We have to get to know the truth. Banks will often train their employees how to identify counterfeit money not by showing them all kinds of fakes. No, what they do is get them very well acquainted with the real thing, so that if anything counterfeit comes through their hands, they can see that difference right away. It’s the same for followers of Christ. If we get to know Him and His truth so well, we will be able to see a lie or half-truth coming a mile away.
So…think about the Truth.
Noble – (honourable, honest, morally excellent). When we hear something called noble, what do we think of? It is royalty, or a feeling of looking down on others? That’s not the case here. What Paul is referring to is things that are morally great or excellent. We see many ‘noble casues’ in the world. These are things that people do or attempt to do in order to make the world a better place, in their view. Sometimes they’re good, sometimes not.
Our moral standard needs to be the Bible. Don’t just go by what men say, go by what GOD says…amen?
Right – Have you ever thought, ‘I know this is wrong, but I’m going to do it anyway?’ Anyone care to share? In our hearts, we know what is right and what is wrong. I believe God has placed His truth deep inside of our very being. Whether or not we choose to follow that, is completely up to each of us. We can think about all sorts of wrong things. Things that go against God’s standards, His laws, His creation, other people, even other believers. Some people feel that they have to be right all the time. The question is, does their ‘rightness’ line up with God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS? I looked up ‘what is right’ and was taken right to the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 4, where God is speaking to Cain, one of Adam and Eve’s two sons. God tells Cain this… 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. (NIV)
Now was that RIGHT? No! It was sin. If we do what is right in the sigh of God, He will accept us. But if we keep on thinking and doing whatever WE think is right, we will find that sin is just waiting for us. But we can master it. We can master our thoughts. We need to ask God to SHOW us what is right, and then think on those things, not just whatever anyone tells us is right. It must again, line up with God’s Word, and His righteousness.
Pure – for something to be classified as pure, it must not be mixed with any other substance, or another way to say it is that it must be free from impurities, things that are added to the original substance. For example, a pure wool sweater, pure gold, or pure sound of a musical note. Our thought life as Christ-followers ought to be pure. We shouldn’t think of God as part of our life, or even as most of our reason for living. God gives us life, is our life, and should be the One being that gives us purpose. To have mixed thoughts about another person is confusing enough, but to confuse our thinking about God by ‘mixing’ different things together, that will really cloud our minds. To think we can live partly for Jesus Christ, but also think that there are other ways to get to heaven (works, other ‘deities’, reincarnation, or otherwise), this will not work. As the first commandment, God tells us that HE alone is God, and we shall have no other gods before him (or after for that fact…). No mixing faiths, religions, gods, etc… 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph.4:5,6). Pure ly God, pure thinking.
Lovely – I love to think of lovely things: My wife, my kids, God’s people singing, a sunrise, a flower, all of creation. These are lovely things. I feel good when I think about them, they bring wonderful memories and great hope for the future. In The Sound Of Music, Sister Maria tells the children that to feel better, she just thinks of some her favourite things…all things that are lovely, yes? Ugly things are things like hurting others, greed, envy, lust, and death. To think of these things will lead to depression, pain, suffering, want, jealousy, and a host of other emotions. Thoughts often lead to emotions, actions and habits. What we think about can define who we are. The world puts all sorts of images in front of our eyes to see; powerful images that sometimes we can’t get them out of our mind, even when we close our eyes. The world also takes things meant to be beautiful and distorts them into things that are not, as it does with sex and the human body through explicit films and pornography. We can go to a G-rated movie and see people killing each other. Move down the scale of ratings and one could watch the worst of things being done to people. These images get burned onto the hard drive of our minds, able to be recalled at any time. How do we deal with that in a world where imagery is so prevalent? We have to control what we allow ourselves to see. Remember the old song, oh be careful little eyes what you see…? It is SO true, and not just for little eyes, but for grown-up eyes as well.
Admirable – What do we appreciate in this life? Is it someone who takes time out of their life to help others in need, or perhaps a group that reaches out with their abilities to help those who are struggling? Is it the simple act of giving of ourselves, rather than just giving of our cash? The greatest act of humble giving was when our Creator came to this earth as a human being, born as a baby to a simple young couple in the middle east during the Roman occupation of their land, who grew up as a simple carpenter’s son, built things with his hands (like carts and cupboards and maybe even crosses), who helped all those who came to Him, who scorned the pious ways of those who would put the way we worship in front of the O
ne we worship, who was wrongly accused and took the scorn and shame and humiliation and the beating and the death that we deserve and who died, nailed to a cross for all to see, lay in a cold stone tomb for 3 days…then rose to life, claiming the keys of death and the grave so that we might put our trust in Him and receive His forgiveness for all our sin, and thus have eternal life rather than eternal suffering…THAT is admirable, THAT is what we should think about.
Excellent or Praiseworthy – Who is more excellent or praiseworthy than our Lord Jesus? What is more excellent than someone coming to a point in their life when they realize that life is not about us, but about others? What is more praiseworthy than a child who is obedient, honest and loving; whether our own children or all of us as God’s children? We should think about being that kind of person ourselves.
The best way to learn anything is by example. Missouri is often called the ‘show me state’. If you want to teach me something, show me. I just spent several minutes talking about all sorts of reasons to think in all sorts of ways…Paul said it much more concisely. But perhaps better than just talking about it, I need to live it, as Paul did, and more importantly, as Jesus did. These lead by example. They SHOWED us what it means to think and live according to God’s morals, God’s standards, God’s priorities. Paul is pretty bold to say, whatever you’ve seen or heard or learned from me…do it. Can I say that about me? Can we all say that about ourselves?
If we would change the way we think, it would change the way we act; towards ourselves, others and towards God.
As others see that in us, maybe they will inquire as to why we do the things we do? What gives us such joy, such peace, such love, and such hope? It is Jesus, the One who demonstrated His own love for us in that while we were still living our lives for ourselves, he loved us and he died for us. And today He lives so that we might have life, so that we might have hope.
Do you know that hope? Will you share it with someone this Christmas season? Will you live a life that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable?
May the God of peace, give you peace, and may we receive the promise that He is with us…Emmanuel.
