It is no Secret. It is God’s prescription for a negative mental attitude

My Great Need to be Continually Thinking Upon the Excellent and Praiseworthy Things

Philippians 4:8-9

(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon.)

Please turn to Philippians 4:8-9. As you are turning there, I want to point out the very well known fact that we live in a world where people are confused. People are confused. They are depressed. They are scared. People's thoughts are filled with self absorption. They can't quit thinking about how horrible the world seems to be. They can't stop thinking about how much they don't like their job, or their marriage, or other family members. People contemplate their coming death and they become absorbed in thoughts of that inevitable day. If we could look into the average person's mind, we would see a black thunderstorm of oppressive thoughts. These thoughts, are the result of sin in a sinful world. When we, as God's children in Christ who are empowered by the Holy Spirit from the inside out, go through thunderstorms in our thoughts, we turn to the Lord--we trust in Christ. But, people in the world don't turn to the Lord. They don't tap into God by turning to Him in prayer and casting all their anxiety off on Him. They don't look for the peace that passes understanding to be sent to guard their hearts. Instead, they dwell in a strong realization that their thoughts are negative. People know that their thoughts are oppressing themselves. They see their thoughts as being their enemy, and it is a battle. So, to deal with this inner war, instead of turning to God, they turn to themselves--the same people who generated the oppressive thoughts to begin with. What I mean is that they will try all kinds of gimmicks to change their way of thinking. They look to secrets that will make everything better; and so they look for secret methods of manipulating their thoughts to create goodness; like a little bit of heaven on earth, a piece of paradise, a glimpse of Eden. It is a desire to bring order to their world through the power of positive thinking. One manifestation of this that has hit the usaved world culture over the last couple of years, is actually called The Secret. A movie has been made about it. There are also books about it. The teachings are meant to convince you that The Secret is the secret to your happiness. It is based upon the religious belief they call,

The Law of Attraction.

The secret is that people supposedly become, or attract to themselves what they think about the most. So the way to become your own best friend, instead of your own worst enemy, is to think about things that make you happy--and think about them a whole lot.

What is financial success to you?

Well, think about that image, and according to the presumed Secret, you are supposed to get it. The same goes for thinking about peace. Visualize peace for yourself, or visualize world peace. You can be famous. You can be popular. It is the belief that your thoughts become things. You become like a god to your own self who gives yourself whatever you want. The real secret is that anyone who believes that junk is deceived. They are lying to themselves with vain imaginations in an attempt to be God. People try to do this same kind of thing with the false religious practice of word faith mantras. It is where you think about something that you want to come into existence, and then you speak it. When you supposedly speak it in faith, then it will presumably come about as reality. The preaching movement that espouses this is called Positive Confessionalism. Robert Schuller calls his version of this stuff; visualization. Schuller's version is where you create mental images of what you want in your mind, and then your thoughts become so real that they become reality for you.

All of these things are borrowed from a godless culture. They are cloaked in a bunch of Christian sounding language, with some words from the Bible clipped out of context, to make it all sound good. This is nothing new. The devil had a secret to tell the first woman that God made. The devil lied to Eve by telling her that she was thinking wrongly. Why? The devil lied and told her that God had led her to believe a lie. The devil told Eve she had a self esteem problem. He told her that she could be just like God if she would just re-adjust her thinking to follow what the serpent told her was the truth. The Serpent came to Eve to reveal The Secret, but the secret was a lie. Once Eve believed the lie of the devil, (where she thought she could be like God by sinning against God), she acted upon her deceptive thoughts and fell into sin and its cursed consequences.

Over our last few generations, the serpent's secret lie has been repackaged in many ways. It has come and gone by so many noble sounding labels. The precursor to the modern secret, and psuedo-Christian visualization fantasies, was called the Postive Mental Attitude, just a few decades ago.

"Think and Grow Rich,"

was Napolean Hill's ear tickling sermon. He said,

"... be anything you want to be, if only you believe with sufficient conviction--and act in accordance with your faith." --Hill

Folks, empirically, this church right here would grow into the thousands within a mere few years if I were to start preaching that same lie consistently. I say empirically, because every day men start churches preaching this stuff and their poison becomes fertilizer that grows a huge humanistic machine. Hey, but the message makes you feel good! Sure it does. It rakes in the money. Yep, that is correct. The Secret has the appearance of working in a certain way for the preachers who peddle it, but that's the hook. Adam and Eve thought the same exact things that are being preached in those so-called churches. In fact they had a very positive mental attitude about what they believed--at least for a few moments. Then reality hit, and the negative mental attitude of realizing that sin is a destroyer that seperates us from God left Adam and Eve facing the facts concerning what they had done. Now you and I are living in that reality too, and the unsaved world is trying to cope with this curse by practicing pagan secrets. It is gnostiscm, where secret knowledge supposedly makes people like God and they can change their lives with their thoughts. The modern Secret harps about the so called, Law of Attraction. Hill claimed,

The Law of Success --Hill

which he named another book he wrote. He said that the brain is a broadcasting and receiving station for vibrations of thought frequency. If you tune into the right frequency, then you have it made. W Clement Stone, was another one with a secret. He said,

"What the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve with a positive mental attitude." Stone's secret

All these kinds of gimmicks are lies found in the roots of the scaley belly of the Serpent. But people are looking to their thoughts for the secret answer to their percieved problems. And yes, there are religious institutions where thousands upon thousands of people congregate on the foundation of this lie.

Then there is the self esteem disciplines. People buy the books and recordings by the millions. Through something called self speak, you coach your own self to convince yourself that you are a great person. You look in the mirror, and you smile, and say,

I'm successful

I'm happy.

I'm confident.

One method is to listen to recordings that tell you that you are happy, successful, and confident;

I am a skilled metal worker. (the comical line from Vegetales, where a caterpillar is listening to the kind of recordings I am talking about.)

Most of these gimmicks are really just forms of denial. They are where people don't want to face reality, so they deny the truth and try to create their own truth that makes them feel better. It is all pride boosting stuff. All of these things are focused upon your thoughts in an attempt to bring happiness, and ability to cope. But the problem is that none of this stuff is what God wants us to do as His children. And yet, God is very concerned with what, and how, you and I think. Yet, He does not want us to think to create our own reality. What God wants us to do is think about reality--more specifically, areas of reality where God wants our minds to dwell. Paul is going to launch into this in our passage. Please read it with me now starting in 4:8

"Finally, brothers, 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, think on these things. 9 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

Let's prepare our hearts to learn from, and be encouraged with the preaching of God's word, in this sermon titled,

My Great Need to be Continually Thinking Upon the Excellent and Praiseworthy Things
[prayer]

Is it any wonder that the world comes up with mental gimmicks to try to boost their lives? After all, life in a sin filled world isn't that great. The problem is that depression does not go away, failures do not go away, poverty, pain, disease, and death do not go away. Hostile or despondent spouses keep staying that way. Dissatisfied and unappreciative spouses are still here. Children still try to get away with what they clearly know is wrong. Jobs still stress people out. People still die; and get sick. People are hurting each other. People are staying in financial deficits. And the negatives go on and on and on. They are the effects of the curse of the fall; And God knows that we experience all of these kinds of things. But, the real positive mental attitude according to God, is not to completely quit thinking about the effects of the curse of the fall. Instead it is a matter of focus. That's our word this morning:

Focus.

Instead of denying the existence of negative things, God wants you to lesson the importance of the negative in a certain focus way. But, the question is how do we do this? We lesson the importance of the negative by turning our mental attention to certain things that He tells us are positive, and then focus upon those things. This is why our theme this morning is,

My Great Need to be Continually Thinking Upon the excellent and Praiseworthy Things

According to God's word, God actually wants us to have a certain kind of positive mental attitude. But it is not the kind that the world suggests in their futile self-decieving gimmicks. What God has for us is no secret. You realize this don't you? It's not a secret. It is revelation from His word. Our part, is that we need to do what is already out in the open by opening Bibles and renewing our minds on a daily, moment to moment basis by the Holy Spirit. And so, God gives us six things in this section, plus two more bonus items that equals eight things, in telling us what He means by His own version of having a positive mental attitude. They are eight things that you can usually find on Christian wall plagues, and on little Bible book marks, because this verse is a reknown passage. Before Paul goes to those eight things, he wraps up talking about not being anxious about anything, but instead, bringing your requests to God in thanksgiving. It is the TAP principle. TAP means Turn And Pray. I was going to use Stop and pray, but SAP didnt' sound like it would work as well; if you know what I mean. The point is that you TAP until the peace comes. Why? Because when you give over your requests to God that you can become anxious about, the peace that passes understanding will be sent to guard your heart. Okay, now that you have done that, what do you do next? In other words, you've turned to God. And now the guard is there. He sent it. And so now what you need to do is keep your thinking adjusted, and focused, upon the right things. Paul tells us what to think about. Paul says,

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, ... think on these things

@1 God wants me to think about __________ things.

Thinking starts in your mind doesn't it? The world tries to say that it starts in your mind too, but the world believes lies. Lost people believe what they want to be true. God wants you thinking on whatever is true already--not whatever you want to be true. Whatever is true would be anything that is over and against false or speculative data that can not be known to be correct. In order for us to know what is true, it must be evaluated by an absolute standard. The absolute standard that we have as Christians, is the revelation that God has given us in His word. It is through the Word of God, that we continually think on the truth that Paul is talking about. The truth of God is what Paul is talking about. I want us all to consider something very important concerning this. How many of you realize that when you are watching a movie, or reading fiction, your mind is not dwelling upon truth as a first principle? First of all, your thoughts are being entertained by fiction, and fiction is not true. I want you to follow what I am saying, because what I am about to suggest is not some religious legalism. I am wanting our minds to think upon something that is true. It will help us to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind, so that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, Romans 12:2. It will help us in taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5. What I mean is that many of the movies that Christians watch are written, directed, produced, and acted out by ungodly people who do not think in terms of a biblical world view. The same goes for many fictional novels and other stories. These kinds of people are not neutral in the message they are creating for you to digest. Their hearts are darkened according to the futility of the Gentile mind. Their minds are thinking worldly thoughts that are thoughts that they want everyone else to learn, appreciate, and embrace. The way the lost world culture can accomplish this is through their fictional stories. But the point is that they are not true as a first principle, and consistently the lost world culture demonstrates that they use this medium to promote things that are opposed to God's truth as He defines it. What happens is that when we begin to feed upon the fiction of the world, we begin to assimilate man's answers to man's perceived problems according to what he thinks is true. This is the essence of secular drama;

Human answers to people's percieved problems according to what they think is true, and what they think is important as truth.

Analize any secular movie script, and you will find this theme in practically every frame:

Human answers to people's percieved problems according to what they think is true, and what they think is important as truth.

God is left out of the picture, or an unbibilcal relationship to God is presented as if it is the truth. Secular media that reports the news is the same way.

How many of you know that the media is not neutral?

There is no such thing as objective media. So the problem is that when we go to a news provider to find out the truth, we get some of the facts blended in with a subtle presentation that paints the facts the way the bias of the particular media wants the facts to be showcased. Schools are the same way. The godless school systems of the world are always painting the facts according to the godless agenda of the world system. Spreading and listening to rumors is the same way. The reason is because rumors are speculations about the truth. You don't really know for sure whether they are the truth or not. Rumors and gossip are seeds of discord that have been planted to make you think a certain way, but it is not necessarily the truth. God says not to be a rumor bearer. The Philippians were being bombarded with all kinds of philosophies, beliefs, rumors, and lies in respect to the things of God. Paganism was all around them. Persecution was all around them. Paul's imprisonment was on their minds. They needed to get their minds dwelling on whatever is true from God's revelation. It is what we all need to do on a moment to moment basis. The truth is that Paganism is a lie. You and I get pagan, anti God, anti Christ lies shoved down our throats practically every day. The truth is that it is all a lie. The truth that the Philippians needed to hear is that persecution is granted for Christ's sake, and is a sign of destruction for those who oppose Christ and the body. You and I need to think about the blessing of our persecution for Christ. The truth is that Paul is assured that he will be let go from prison. The truth is that Paul was let go, demonstrating that Paul was correct, and that he was miraculously set free from his first imprisonment. The truth is that Paul told the Philippians that even if Paul was about to die, Paul assures them that the truth is to live is Christ, but to die is gain. You and I and all Christians need to dwell upon this truth everyday. This is the positive spiritual attitude of Christ. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Think about this when life is good. Think about it when life is bad. You and I need to do this so that we will not be conformed to the world, and its temporal, speculative, self oriented way of thinking that it keeps shoving down our throats. Transform your mind by the renewing of it in the truth of God's word. This is how you prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Take your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ by dwelling upon the truths that God wants you to think on. Sure, Paganism was all around the Philippians. Of course persecution was all around the Philippians. Certainly Paul's imprisonment was on their minds, but these are not the truths that God is concerned with, because they are only partial facts. Anyone's mind can focus upon facts as bad news. But God is concerned with whatever is right and good in the midst of what seems like a wreck. So here is what God is telling us to do:

I need to think like God Who thinks about His good news at work in me.

Paul talks about this focus all through each chapter. The word gospel means good news. So, what Paul is saying is that the thinking of the Philippians must be goverened by the gospel--the good news. That is the focus. In other words, the gospel is not about the tragedy of the cross. Yet, you could think of the cross that way. But God is not thinking about it that way. The gospel (the good news) is about the plan of the cross. There was pain on the cross, but the pain alone, is not the essence of good news thinking. The essence is that the cross was the means for saving sinners and putting the good news in you. So, the good news is the truth. You were a lost sinner, now you are a saved saint. Think on it. So, the first thing to think on is whatever is true in the sense of edification, and that would be anything that is God's good news. The second thing Paul says is good news is,

whatever is honorable, ... think on these things

Whatever is honorable is whatever is respectable.

@2 God wants me to think about __________ things, which are respectable things.

The Greek word used for "honorable," comes from a word that means to revere. This word describes the respectable lifestyle required of deacons in 1 Timothy 3:8; of women in 1 Timothy 3:11, and of older men in Titus 2:2. Godliness, self contol, and manifesting Christlikeness is honorable among the body of Christ. Christ Jesus is also the highest example of whatever is honorble and respectable. It is honorable for you to seek the higher standard of the upward call in Christ. The opposite of this is for us to think on the things that are worldly that dishonor us. If we are focused upon trivial, temporal things that are superficial, where we look so much like the world that nobody can tell whether we are Christians, then we are dishonorable. Our thinking doesn't need to be there. Our thinking needs to be focused on everything that commands respect of Christ that makes us into His body. For example, when you manifest the fruits of the Holy Spirit Who lives in you, your life should be pointing to the glory of the Lord. People should think of you as a Christian, and it is because you are a Christian that you are acting that way. It is not because you are merely a religious kind of person like a Mormon, or a Muslim. They should see Christ in you because He is worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. Anything that is a fruit of the Spirit is honorable.

"the fruit of the Spirit is: Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, temperance:" Galatians 5:22-23

There is great respectability and honor in all these manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit, including the way we think about others. You can have love thoughts, but you can also have thoughts of contempt for other Christians. One is to manifest honorable Christlikeness. The other is to manifest sin. You can have thoughts that build up the body--even heal the body, or you can have thoughts that divide the body. This was a problem in Philippi. People there were thinking on things that caused division, and broken friendships. It is honorable to have joy in the Lord. Paul urges this fruit of the Spirit to ripen among the Philippians in about 5 different place in his epistle. Joylousness in Christ is not something that is respectable to think upon. Peace is honorable. Long sufferig is honorable. Being kind is respectable. Proverbs 19:22 says,

"What is desirable in a man is his kindness ..." Proverbs 19:22

God is urging us to keep our mind thinking upon kindness.

@3 What is desirable in a man is his ___________.

Goodness is honorable. Think about good things, and things of faith, and gentleness, and self control.

The way so many martyrs for Christ leave this world behind is honorable. We should be thinking about them. They die everyday. Christians are in these positions every day. If you read publications like Voice of the Martyrs, you realize this. Some have had a gun pressed up to their heads. They have seen a line of people in the same position. The questions are asked by one group of persecutors who hold the guns,

"Do you deny Christ?"

By another group in another country,

"Do you worship the god of Islam?"

By another group in another coutnry,

"Do you deny that there is a God?"

They are there. They know it is their last minutes alive on this planet. They have seen people say "no," and instantly be shot. They have seen people say yes, and walk away with a pat on their back. They are scared, but they have been empowered by God. And they have the postive mental attitude that God is talking about. They say

"No, I will not deny my Lord."

Afterward, they leave this world behind. They go to be with that same Lord forever. This is honorable. It should get the respect of your thoughts. Unlike the propoganda of the world, martyrdom is honorable. We could say:

How horrible it is to be martyrd!

And of course it is wrong to murder Christians, and it is painful, and it is scary, and we could think on these things. But God would rather have us think upon the honorableness of dying for Christ that has occurred in the midst of it all. Put your mind there instead of dwelling on the failures of Christians all around you. Something I have seen over the years is that there are some people that think that ministry is all about being a watchdog that is ready to pounce on Christians when they fail. They set their mind there, and that is where they stay. Their whole purpose seems manifested as being the one who is consumed with whatever is dishonorable in the body. They are not focused upon whatever is honorable.

This means other things for you my dear Christian. This also means to get your mind off of being focused upon your own failures. I am not talking about falacious, worldly, positive mental attitude gimmicks either. What I mean is that your failures in sin are not honorable things. Your success in Christ is honorable. And each and every day, you are a living success in your position in Christ. You are honorable because you are a child of God. Whenever you sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus the righteous one. Of course you need to think on the upward call of the Christian walk because it is honorable, but while you do it, you should not dwell on your dishonorable condition as you plod through the curse. Why do I say this? Because you can allways find something dishonorable to meditate upon if you want to. To combat this, we need to take every thought captive to Christ in us, instead of thinking about all the mistakes and failures coming from us. Way too many Christians come under condemnation because they keep looking at themselves as dishonorable failures. They do not think of themselves like they should. They do not think of themselves as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. They do not think of themselves as sitting in the heavenlies in Christ, at the Father's right hand, Ephesians 2:6. You must think of yourself as a special part of the body who is privileged to be continuously forgiven in Christ. In Him you are always honorable. It is grace, and it is truth. Then Paul says that good news is also,

whatever is right, ... think on these things

Whatever is right is whatever is just. This particular Greek word that is translated here as "right," is an adjective. This means that it may also be translated as "righteous."

@4 God wants me to think about right things, which are __________ things.

Again, Christ Jesus, who is our all in all, is the epitome of this. Paul says that we have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16. The Christian's mind, which is your mind and my mind, is to be thinking about what is in harmony with God's standard of righteousness. This is the same word that Paul used in Ephesians 6:1, to describe children in obedience to their parents:

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" Ephesians 6:1

@5 God wants me to _________ my parents in the Lord because it is right.

In other words, it is good--it is righteous to do this. When Paul urges us to think on whatever is right, he means that which is right in accordance to God's will in Christ. This thinking is not the same thing as thinking specifically on truth in general. The reason is because unrighteous things can be true. So, when Paul is saying, "Whatever is right," we should be thinking about what pleases God. The only way we can do this is by measuring everything by Christ, who is our righteousness, from the revelation from God's word by the Spirit working in us. His thoughts need to become our thoughts. Instead of thinking about works based righteousness, we should be thinking about Christ who makes us righteous. But it doesn't stop there. Think about the good deeds too. Good deeds are righteous deeds that God accomplishes through you. The more you think about good deeds, the more you are going to inclined to do them when the occassion comes around to do so. When Paul says to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, the stimulating won't be very hard when others are already thinking that way. People who are thinking upon revenge, or breaking friendships, or getting carnally angry with a brother and sister, are not thinking on good deeds, and so they aren't going to do certain righteous deeds that accompany salvation. Then Paul says that good news is,

whatever is pure, ... think on these things

@6 God wants me to think about _________ things.

This word is primarily used in the New Testament with respect to moral purity. Paul is essentially talking about whatever is sexually pure and free of moral defilement. In 1 Timothy 5:22 Paul uses the same word. Paul urges Timothy to,

"keep yourself pure." 1 Timothy 5:22

Impurity literally permeates our culture. If we do not take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, then the impurity taints our own imaginations, thoughts, fantasies, and dreams. Once our thinking is tainted, it is impure thinking. In our sin filled lost world culture of our day, sex outside of marriage is treated as if it is pure. It is treated as if it is the common and ordinary way of life that is good. Also, sensual conversations, messages, and images are all around us. Sensual thoughts must be taken captive to remain pure. Certain images tempt Christians toward impure thoughts. If you view these images, then your thoughts are being tainted. God is telling us that impure thoughts are to be taken captive to the great loving Master who has a better way for us to think. Then Paul says that good news is,

whatever is lovely, ... think on these things

In the Bible, the Greek word that Paul uses for lovely is found only here. What is lovely is what God loves.

@7 God wants me to think about _________ things, which are the things that God loves.

Christ Jesus is the great lovely One. What God loves is the standard of what we should be thinking. God particularly loves Christlikeness. The world may hate you in your lifestyle, but your godly living is lovely to God. What is lovely is that we obey Christ who is the lovely one. What God particularly likes is when you rely on Jesus totally for your forgiveness. This leaves no room for self-righteousness. When you are thinking on what is lovely in your salvation, think about the fact that you were unlovely when you were lost. While you were yet a dark detestable sinner, God saved you. God saved you when there was nothing lovely about you. God made you into a member of the body of Christ, which possesses the lovliness of Christ. It is lovely to think about ways to serve the body. These are lovely thoughts. Think on how to give youself to others. Think about how you will forgive people even though you don't feel like forgiving them. The body of Christ is lovely to God. Think about how lovely all the people are around you in the body of Christ. God made them into the body in the midst of all their failures and shorcomings. He made them lovely when they were yet unlovely. Think about how you are going to stay in unity and not divide with your brothers and sisters because of the love of Christ that has been shed abroad in our hearts. Think about bearing one anothers burdens. Think about looking at others as being better than you are. These things are lovely to God. Also Paul says that good news is,

whatever is of good repute, ... think on these things

@8 God wants me to think about things of ___________ reputation, which are the things that are known to be good.

This is also translated, "good report." Paul is talking about those things that have been found worthy of approval, or reputable. This word is only used once in the New Testament (right here). It seems to imply that we are to be dwelling on those things that are known to be, by reputation, good. If there are solid, mature, spiritually minded Christians among us, and this is their good reputation, then we should be thinking about these people as personifying a standard that is higher than Christians who do not care much about growing spiritually, who do not manifest Christlikeness, but rather manifest carnality as an overarching affinity. In other words there are people who claim to be Christians who have very bad reputations. Don't focus your thinking on them, unless it is to pray for them, or minister to them, or to avoid them because they drag you down. Think on those who have a good reputation as the example of a stable, mature, Christlike man or woman. These are six things that should govern our thinking. They are whatever is true; honorable; right; pure; lovely, and of good repute. Then Paul says that good news extends to two other things,

"... if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:9

Paul is covering everything. When Paul says "if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise" he is generally referring to the six things he just listed, and anything else the Philippians may have been discipled in. This is made evident through his use of the word "if." Because it is used in what is called the "indicative mood," its not to be understood as a normal conditional statement. It is a first class condition, which means that Paul is meaning that this is an assumed statement of truth for the sake of argument. So, it is interpreted for out understanding to be on par to since. I've pointed these out before. This is a favorite expression of Paul, where he uses "if" to stimulate thinking in people reading his letters. He uses it in 2 Corinthians 7:14, and 10:7, and he used it earlier in this Philippian 2:1. So Paul means since. He means,

"... since [as an assumed statement of truth for the sake of argument] there is any excellence and since [as an assumed statement of truth for the sake of argument] anything worthy of praise, think on these things.

Since true things are excellent and worthy of praise; since honorable things are excellent and worthy of praise; since right things are excellent and worthy of praise; pure things are excellent and worthy of praise; lovely things are excellent and worthy of praise; things of good repute are excellent and praiseworthy. Since, in fact all these things exist, then dwell your thinking on anything in respect to these things. Then Paul says,

"9 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."

Paul is telling us to follow his example. Paul the apostle's mind was dwelling on all excellent things, and all the things worthy of praise. Paul demonstrated that he was thankful for the Philippians, and positively confident that God would perfect His work in them, 1:3 and 6. Paul was thinking positively about his imprisonment. He said that he was "rejoicing" and that it was an opportunity for the gospel to thrive; 1:12 -18. Paul was thinking positively about his deliverance through the Philippian's prayers. Paul said it was his "earnest expectation"--particularly that Christ would be exalted in his body whether by life or by death. Paul expressed the ultimate Christlike thinking in 1:21-25 where he said:

"21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith," Philippians 1:21-25

Paul has the positive mental attitude which is the real one that God wants.

@9 Paul the apostle's desire was to leave this world to be with ____________, but God thought it was more necessary for Paul to stick around a little longer to minister.

Paul rejoiced at being expended for them as a living sacrifice in chapter 2:17-18. Paul was thinking on experiencing the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, in order to attain the resurrected life in chapter 3:10-11. Though Paul did not think he was yet like a resurrected person, he kept his mind there forgetting what lay behind and reached forward to that upward goal. Paul lived the example of thinking upon whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and of good repute--all the excelent and praiseworthy things that God would have us continuously set our minds upon. You and I need to follow the example of Paul. We need to nurture the proper focus of thinking, so that we will manifest Chirst in us to the world. As we leave here this morning I urge you to keep your mind focused upon your great need to be continually thinking upon the excellent and praiseworthy things.



@1 God wants me to think about __________ things.
@2 God wants me to think about __________ things, which are respectable things.
@3 What is desirable in a man is his ___________.
@4 God wants me to think about right things, which are __________ things.
@5 God wants me to _________ my parents in the Lord because it is right.
@6 God wants me to think about _________ things.
@7 God wants me to think about _________ things, which are the things that God loves.
@8 God wants me to think about things of ___________ reputation, which are the things that are known to be good.
@9 Paul the apostle's desire was to leave this world to be with ____________, but God thought it was more necessary for Paul to stick around a little longer to minister.