Think on These Things... Grappling with Philippians 4:8-9

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Paul's concerned with the life of the mind look what he says he wants just to think about and not just to think about but internally examine the things that are true and honest and righteous this is Philippians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9 fantastic text we're gonna grapple with it right now all right here we are Philippians chapter 4 verse 8 through 9 finally I thought Paul had another finally somewhere else and I found it here chapter 3 verse 1 finally brethren rejoiced but he's got a he's got a final finally coming here at the end chapter 4 finally brethren whatsoever things are true now Paul's gonna give us a list a quite beautiful list of things and he's gonna say think on these things now we're gonna we're gonna look at this word think on these things to to dig into it a little bit what what he means by think what the what the root is there but Paul knows that out of the heart remember how Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 12 verse 34 Jesus says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so that out of the heart through the mouth so if there's rot in the heart it's gonna come out of the mouth that is a mouth see you didn't recognize it but see the eyes there the nose mouth now out of the heart come if it's filth in the heart that comes out of the mouth of its if it's good things in the heart then that's gonna come out of the mouth it's gonna in other words what shows what's in our heart is gonna show up in our thinking in our speaking and in our acting and so Paul that's gonna set us to to meditate on to think on to roll over in our mind and even to analyze all of these things that are well that are this whatever things are true whatever things are honest this is a nice list whatever things are just we could say righteous that's the word that's underneath it whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely and lovely it's actually a really good translation towards brotherly love it's a it's prosper let all their so whatever things are lovely let's let it stand and whatever things are of good report so with things that have a good reputation and if there any virtue it's not just moral virtue because we want to include in these things both the law and the gospel but but virtue is probably as good a word as we have in English for this and if there's any praise anything praiseworthy praiseful that's not even a real word but that's it think on these things now this word think it's low goods oh my it's uh it's a it's a word that Paul used once before here in Chapter three went remember when Paul says brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but that count not is the same word as think here sometimes it's it's translated reckon or as they're okay and reckon or meditate but it's it has to do with it's it's it's probably something like reason about or or or to take apart and put back together in your mind to to examine mentally to consider in your own heart now so that Paul is setting he he is giving instructions for the life of the Christian mind this is a important remember Jesus says love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and all your strength that's in mark chapter 12 so that even with our mind we are exercising a love for God and one of the ways that we do that is that we let rollover in our mind these things now there's a danger you guys know this we all know this that our mind gets stuck on this loop and you start thinking about something over and over and over again and normally it's not something helpful we get stuck in our loop some sort of uh you you know you could be angry at someone and someone did something to you so here you are and and someone came they sinned against you lamb sinned and what happens is you think about that and that gets caught in this whirlwind of your own mind and you're thinking about it over and over and over or it could be something else it could be whatever it could be greed or you could have it could be lost or it could be some sort of what does whatever it is it works its way into this loop of the mind and it starts getting played over and over there that's it's it's a form of meditation and and meditation is not just in the mental sort of thing but meditation again shows up and what we talk about and what we do so what Paul is doing is all this stuff's got to be out and what you're trying to put in there is this list of stuff if there's stuff that's true honest righteous pure lovely good virtuous and praiseful we want to put that in the mental loop and we want to have that rolling over in our mind over and over again and not only in our mind but look he continues those things which you have learned and you've received and you've heard and you've seen in me do so those things that you've seen in Paul that are true honest righteous pure lovely good virtuous and praised well those things that you've heard about you've learned you've actually observed those are the things that you should do if there's stuff that's not true or honest or righteous that you've seen in Paul you shouldn't do those things but those things which you've seen like this you should imitate Paul says this imitate me as I imitate Christ so so insofar as the pastor or the preacher or the teacher is an imitator of God in Christ so we are imitators of them and then look at the promise and the God of peace shall be with you remember he said already the peace of God shall be with you that's where he says with prayer and Thanksgiving make your requests known and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord now if that was the peace of God and now it's the God of peace so it's not only God's peace that we have it's actually God who gives peace that we have he is our treasure and our great reward so so remember as we're as we're meditating on these things then the God of peace is with us now this points us to the fact that when we say well what you know what are these things what are the true things the honest things the righteous things the pure the lovely things there's a probably a lot they could fit into this but all of these are ultimately pointing to our Lord Jesus he I am the truth of Jesus says he I know that God cannot lie he is completely righteous and pure and lovely in every way the good report the gospel is about him he's virtuous that means he's he does everything as he should be and he is worthy of praise so that our chief meditation is on none other than our Lord Jesus Christ Hebrews says it like this that we fix our mind on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and so forth so that when it said well what should we think about what should we roll over in our minds what should we meditate on the answer is none other than Jesus Christ and when we meditate on Jesus as he's given to us in his word then he himself is with us and the peace that comes from his death on the cross also belongs to us as well so there you go I mean this is just really quite quite wonderful what Paul's setting us to do shaping up the Christian enlightened Christian mind to be full of Christ and all the things that flow from the gospel when we meditate on the scriptures we're doing exactly what Paul says we're we're setting our minds to the words of God which are always lovely and true and pure God cannot lie so he tells us the truth in these things absolutely fantastic thanks for as always for joining me for grappling if you have any questions or comments you can drop them down below and if you subscribe you'll get notifications to not only these studies that we do every week but also to the Sunday drive home and some theology questions we've been having a great conversation about baptism so you can be part of that as well on some of the other videos so thanks for joining us God's peace

Channel: Bryan Wolfmueller

Views: 28,184

Keywords: whatever is true, whatever is lovely, philippians 4:8, think on these things, epistle to the philippians (religious text), philippians 4, whatever is true whatever is right, whatever is lovely think on these things, think on these things sermon, philippians 4 8

Id: rfhGXEZ3_CE

Length: 8min 36sec (516 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019