Sermon Recap | Think

Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:8-9

This passage generates many rules. Don't watch any R rated movies, for example.

We often use God's principles to manufacture rules, which is okay. It's important to adjust our lives to Scripture.

However, when our rules replace God's principles, we have a problem. Principles point to God. Rules point to man. We must be careful when studying a passage like this that we don't worship ourselves through rule following rather than worshipping God through His principles. We want to be men and women of principle, not men and women of rules.

So, please don't simply look for rules. Instead, look for God's truth and let it shape your thinking. Before we get carried away by the adjectives in this passage and make a checklist for what movies are okay to watch, etc., let's take a closer look at the verbs.

We are to dwell on these things. This an aggressive verb. Rather than simply opening or shutting the door to our mind to various input, we are to intentionally set our minds on these things. Like heaving a stack of books onto a table, we need to purposefully place our minds on these kinds of subjects.

In other words, we're responsible for what goes on in our minds. As 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, we're to take every thought captive.

So here's a test to help us see how we're doing on this:

1. What have you been thinking about today?

2. What did you think about as you drove to work this morning? What do you usually think about as you drive?

3. What did you think about as you got ready for the day (in the shower, brushing your teeth, etc.)?

4. What did you think about in the time between turning off your light and falling asleep last night?

5. How actively do you monitor your thought life? Are you aware of what's going on up there?

This passage tends to make me more vigilant in avoiding bad thinking; yet the primary message is to aggressively seek out good thinking. Why?

1. Because as Proverbs teaches, as a man thinks within himself, so he is.

2. Our experience of the presence of God depends on it.

The promise at the end of this section is that the God of peace will be with (accompany) you. This means that there is a way of thinking that connects us with God's presence. Conversely, there is a way of thinking that can disconnect us from experiencing His presence.

The thought life of one connected to the presence of God:

Set your mind on the true.

This means accurate according to reality (which is the world as God sees it).

Set your mind on the honorable.This means grave and honest; taking seriously what God takes seriously.
Set your mind on the right.This means equitable, just, and fair.
Set your mind on the pure.This means clean, innocent, modest and chase.
Set your mind on the lovely.This means friendly and acceptable.
Set your mind on the reputable.This means well spoken of.
Set your mind on the excellent.This means virtuous. For example, things that pertain to justice, wisdom, courage, moderation, etc.
Set your mind on the praiseworthy.This means commendable.
Fact: what you put into your mind affects your thinking. Yet there are no hard and fast rules to follow. Just absorb the principle: godly thinking brings about godly being and connects us with the presence of God. And keep an eye on what you're putting into your mind and how it's affecting your thinking.
If style magazines stimulate false thinking, stop reading them. If watching The Simpsons stimulates dishonorable thinking, stop watching it. If listening to talk radio stimulates unfair thinking, stop listening to it. If walking by the magazine rack and Wal-Mart stimulates impure thinking, take a different isle. If movie previews stimulate ugly (unlovely) thinking, get to the theater later. If conversations with someone stimulate shameful and worthless thinking, fire them from your Facebook friend list. You get the idea.
Finally, note how verses 8 and 9 are connected. Paul jumps straight from this list of good things to think about into "the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things." What has Paul been teaching, giving, speaking, and living out for them? God's Word.
God's word is the truest, most honorable, just, pure, lovely, reputable, excellent, and praiseworthy subject matter possible. We should fill our minds with it and practice it, meaning repetitively work it out into our lives until we habitually live according to the truth of Scripture.
If we can do so, Paul promises that the God of peace will be with us in our endeavors, our challenges, our victories, our failures, our illness, our wellness - in all of life.
Think about it...