So, the part of the chapter I want to focus in on, excuse me, this evening is in Philippians
chapter 4 verse 8 where the Bible reads, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there
be any praise, think on these things.
The title that's served this evening is Things to Think On, Things to Think On, and it's
kind of a little bit of a different sermon, not something I've really done before in the
past and we'll see how it goes, but this is a passage that I've always kind of, always
had on my mind and something I've always kind of wanted to preach is just go through this
list and point out some of these things and I think it's important because we need to
learn how to direct our thoughts.
Our thoughts are something that we should learn how to direct and not the other way
around.
I mean, a lot of times, we as human beings, especially when we get in the flesh, is our
thoughts tend to direct us.
You know, it tends to direct how we feel or even the things that we do.
So I think it's important that we stop and consider what type of things should we be
thinking on and the Bible here gives us a great list of all these different things to
think on and I remember early on in my Christian life when I was trying to really kind of get
control of my thoughts, this was a great passage that I actually memorized and I would just
sit there and I would think and I would come to that first thing and think, okay, whatsoever
things are true, what kinds of things are true and I would sit there and try to think
about true things and honest things and just things and pure things and lovely things and
so on and so forth.
And I've always kind of wanted to preach a sermon on that and maybe it'll be a blessing
to those of us tonight and it would just help us to understand that we need to take control
of our minds and that this is a great passage with which we can do that.
The Bible says, if you would, keep something there in Philippians, but go ahead and turn
over to 2 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse 3, the
Bible reads, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Verse 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the
knowledge of God.
Verse 5 at the very end there, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ.
See, that's the goal, is to bring into captivity every thought.
Now that's a daunting task, to sit there and try to say, I'm going to bring every thought
into the obedience of Christ.
I mean, if you were to set out to do that, you would find it would probably be more of
a struggle than we realize, that it's hard to make sure that our thoughts, the things
that we think, the things that we're meditating upon, are always pleasing unto God.
They're things that God would approve of us thinking about.
And here's the thing, a lot of time when people are trying to, you know, get a right thought
life, not allow their mind to wander into places it shouldn't or dwell upon things that
maybe not are even necessarily sinful, but things that just aren't helpful.
Things, you know, my people might begin to tend to dwell on the past too much, or they
might tend to think about just things that have no value.
There's kind of just daydreaming, letting the mind go, and just wandering about.
When people try to get away from that, they kind of get into this, it could be possible
they try to just think that it's, well, it's just a matter of not thinking those things.
You know, but what you're doing is you're just kind of making a void.
You can't just make a void in your life, especially in this area of your thoughts.
You can't just make a void because then you get that look on your face and everyone wonders
what's going on.
You know, kind of like the Eastern religions, right, where you've got to reach the no thought
or they literally teach that you should just try to have a blank mind, you know, which
is kind of a crazy thing to think about.
Because the problem is when you break a void in your thinking, you know, it's a vacuum.
Something's going to fill it.
Something's always going to take its place.
So the mind must be occupied with something.
We have to direct it into a certain, you know, direction.
We have to make sure that we're thinking about things that are godly.
And isn't the world very good at occupying our mind?
I mean, the world has gotten very good at it today.
I mean, we think about just the television alone, you know, which, you know, when I was
growing up, that's really all we had.
I mean, nowadays you have tablets, you have smartphones, you have laptops, you have computers.
I mean, even when you're at the gas station, at some of them, they'll have a little video
that you can watch while you're getting your gas.
I always hit that mute button.
I can't stand it.
There was, you know, it's a commercial for something dumb.
But the point is that the world, you know, with their billboards and their magazines
and they're just always trying to fill our minds with what we should think or how we
should feel about something, and that we spend a lot of time letting the world direct our
thoughts and not necessarily maybe the word of God.
You know, I was reading an article when I was thinking about the sermon and I looked
up just how much time people were spending watching television.
Just television.
Not counting all the time we spend on our phones and every other form of media that's
available to us today, but the average American today spends five hours watching television.
Five hours.
That's the average.
That means there's people that are watching less television, but that also means there's
a lot more people that are watching more television than five hours.
They're taking in more than five hours of television a day.
Now I'll admit, when I was a teenager growing up, I was a TV junkie.
Like when I came home from school, man, the idiot box went on, it was tortilla chips,
PB&J and a glass of milk, and I watched the cartoons and then it turned into whatever
came on at seven.
I mean, I would sit there for multiple hours just non-stop watching television, and it's
a shame because I can never get that time back.
That time is gone.
I mean, think of all the other things.
If you had five hours every day, the things that you could do with five hours.
If you applied your mind to doing something, to developing a skill, whatever it might be.
You pick the subject or whatever it is you want to do.
If you could devote five whole hours, I mean, if any of us, especially those of us that
are busy, you're trying to find five hours to carve out time, I mean, that can be a little
bit of a task.
You might be lucky if you could carve out two or three.
So I don't know where people are finding all the time to spend five hours, but really it
is available.
I mean, if they're coming home from a normal job, just a 40-hour work week, they're working
their nine to five, they're coming home at night, I mean, it'd be really easy just to
plop down at six and stay up to 11 or maybe even later, take in all the late shows and
everything else and let just the television just fill your mind and direct your thoughts.
And you're going to wake up the next morning and all that stuff that just filled your mind
is what's going to be direct your thoughts the next day.
The radio that you're listening to on the way to work, you know, that's going to affect
your mind, the way you think.
These things are going to affect your mind and it's often very vexing things that we
find in the world.
The world isn't telling us a lot of good news today.
You know, we preached a little bit about this morning about the abortion bill in New York.
I mean, that's not a pleasant subject to have to talk about, but it's making the news rounds,
you know, imagine just having that in your mind day in and day out, those type of things,
all the wars and these laws and everything that's going on in our country and in our
world today.
Just constantly every day, you know, maybe up to five hours a day just filling your mind
and it'd be very easy to see how you could just vex your own soul by just allowing yourself
and your mind to just wander and be filled with whatever the world wants to put in.
So when we're trying to clean up our thoughts, when we're trying to direct our thoughts in
a godly way, you know, we can't just make a void there.
We can't say, well, I'm just going to stop thinking about these things.
That's a good place to start, but you actually have to decide to start thinking about some
other things and this list has given us here.
You know, we can fill that void with godly things, you know, such as reading the Bible,
memorizing scripture, you know, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs, that's a great
way to occupy the mind.
If you're trying to keep your mind from wandering off, you know, you could just start singing
a hymn, you know, and try to, you could actually end up probably memorizing hymns that way.
I know when I was early on in my Christian life, that's how I learned a lot of hymns.
I would just sit down at home and I would just sing the hymns by myself and just try
to keep my mind occupied.
These things that we, if we do that, if we'll fill our mind, this void, if we fill it with
things as the Bible, godly things, you know, what it's going to do is it's going to give
us peace.
If we're filling our minds with the things from the world, it's not going to give us
peace.
It's going to vex our souls.
It's going to bring us angst and paranoid.
I mean, we're living in a very fearful and paranoid culture today because they're not
filling themselves with the things of God.
The Bible says, go into Romans chapter 7.
The Bible says in Isaiah 26, thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed
on thee, because he trusteth in thee.
The man that keeps his mind stayed on God, is thinking about God's word, is thinking
about the things of God.
His mind, if he keeps it there, will bring him peace, the Bible says.
You see, the battle, often with sin even, is lost or won in the mind.
That's often where it begins.
If you look in Romans 7, look at verse 21, I find in a law that when I would do good,
evil is present with me, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I
see another law of my members warring against the law of my mind.
See, the flesh, you know, it's going to start to come up and try to make us, we're going
to think about wanting to fulfill the desires of the flesh.
That's where the battle begins, is our mind.
That's where the war against the law of our mind begins, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members.
So it's very important that we begin to direct our minds and understand that our minds is
where the battle is won or lost against sin.
So what are some of these things?
Now I just want to kind of go through verse 8 here in Philippians 4.
So if you kept something there, just go ahead and turn back, and we aren't going to turn
to a lot of scripture tonight, but just keep something in Philippians 4.
I just want to kind of go through these things, and what are some of these things that we
can think about?
That's what the title of the sermon is.
Things to think on.
What kind of things should we be thinking on?
Well, let's just go through this list tonight and look at some of these.
Now I'm not going to look at all of them for the sake of time, because I found out very
quickly when I was writing this sermon, the Bible speaks a lot about each of these things.
And if we were to go over, each one of these could be a topic in and of themselves.
But sometimes it's nice to just go through a list in the Bible and just meditate upon
it, talk about it, and see what we can get out of it.
So it starts, first of all, right there, it says, finally, brethren, whatsoever things
are true.
That's one of the first things the Bible lists for us to think about.
These are the things that we should think on.
He says, think on these things.
What's the first one?
Whatsoever things are true.
So when we step back and say, let's think about things that are true, what are some
things that we can think of that are true?
One of the things that first popped into my mind is we can think about men in our lives
that are true.
I mean, isn't that great to know that we have some faithful men in our lives that are true,
or other people even?
But I think especially of our pastors, our fellow laborers in the church, our brethren
in Christ, and I'll be perfectly honest, I thought about people in this church and thought,
man, it's great to just think about what a faithful man this guy is.
This guy's faithful to the service.
This guy's faithful to the soul wedding that's going on and loves the Lord.
I thought about that.
Why?
Because that individual is true.
They're sincere.
We can think about preachers.
Other preachers we like to take, they're preaching in online, or we look forward to hearing them
preach in person, we can think about these people to say, what a blessing it is to know
that we have some people in our lives that are true.
That's something the Bible talks about.
It says in Exodus 18, it says, Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men,
such as fear God, men of truth, gaining covetousness, and place such over them.
So when Moses' father-in-law is telling him, hey, you need to delegate some of this responsibility
that you've taken on and judging the people of Israel, he tells them to look out certain
men.
He tells them to look out men of truth.
And it's great to know that we have some men in our lives that are men of truth.
I mean, couldn't we easily say that we know some men in our lives that are not true?
People that are very dishonest, I mean, there's very dishonest people out in the world today.
People who do not care about the things of God.
So it's good to stop every once in a while and maybe think about some men in our lives
that are true, a man of God.
The Bible says in 1 Kings 17, And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou
art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.
Isn't it great to know that we have preachers in our lives who the word that is in their
mouth is truth, that they're preaching us the true things of the word of God.
They're not deceiving us.
They're not handing the word of God deceitfully, but they are actually trying to teach us the
words of truth.
Go ahead and turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we ought to think about things that are
true.
One of the things we can think about when we stop to meditate on what kinds of things
are true, we can think about the men, the pastors, fellow laborers, preachers that are
true.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2, But I have renounced the hidden things
of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handing the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, commending to ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God.
I mean, we can definitely look these days, you know, even people that we might have considered
to be true in the past, and people that have let us down, and think, and we can dwell on
that, and we can say, man, it's too bad that this guy turned to be a fake or a phony, and
you know, I can think about several people over the past in my Christian life that have,
you know, turned out to let me down, or hurt, or harm the cause of Christ, and we can dwell
on that, or we can dwell on the fact that there are people in our lives, people that
we do know, that have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, that are not walking
in craftiness, that are not trying to, you know, be something, you know, be one thing
one day and something else another, that they're sincere, that they're not handling the word
of God deceitfully as so many are today.
I mean, think about other people we meet out door knocking when we go soul-witting, that
are just being absolutely deceived by people who are handling the word of God deceitfully.
We talked to that lady, that Jehovah's Witness day, I mean, she knew her stuff, and I knew
it wasn't even worth getting in a discussion with her, and I knew that I lost her, I would
lose her right when I got to the verses about hell in my Gospel presentation, and sure enough
I did.
But it was a shame that that woman is being deceived by individuals out there who are
handling the word of God deceitfully, and we should think about these things and meditate
about the fact.
If you want to think about something that's true, praise God that we have some people
in our lives that are preaching to us the truth.
Go ahead and turn over to Hebrews chapter 13.
You know what, turn to Psalms chapter 33, I'll wrap up on this point, I'll read to you
from Hebrews 13.
Just go to Psalms 33, Psalms 33.
We should be thankful for people who have preached to us the word and truth, not deceitfully.
The Bible says in Hebrews 13, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
You want to meditate on something that's true?
We can meditate on the fact that we have men, fellow labors, Christians, people who are
standing on the word of God that are sincere and true and honest.
Think about the fact that God is true.
I mean that's something, even if men let us down, we can always think about, well what's
something true Lord?
Your Bible tells me here that I ought to meditate and think on things that are true.
Whatsoever things are true.
What's something that's true?
Well God is true.
The Bible says in Exodus 34, And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed the Lord
God, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and
truth.
God is abundant in truth.
We have a God, there is no lie in him, he is truth.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32, He is the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways
are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
There in Psalms 33, look at verse 3, Sing unto him a new song, play skillfully with
a loud noise, for the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in truth.
Now if we were to stop and meditate on the fact that God is true, that God is honest,
that God is abundant in truth, it might bring us to the place where we actually begin to
sing unto him a new song.
We might actually begin to sing and play skillfully with a loud noise.
We might actually find ourselves lifting up our voice in praise unto a God, that's
true.
But the question is, will that ever happen if we don't stop and allow our minds to think
on these things?
Go ahead and turn over to Psalms 100, Psalm 100.
God is true, that's something that we can think about.
The Bible says in Titus 1, In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began.
God couldn't lie if he wanted to, it's not even in his nature, because we know that a
lie is what comes from the devil, that he is the father of lies.
That's who the lie comes from.
Look at Psalms 100 verse 4, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts
with praise.
Be thankful unto him and bless his name, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting
and his truth endureth unto all generations.
I mean isn't it great to know, to think and meditate upon the fact that God is true?
And that not only will he be true in our lifetime, but will he be true in the lifetime of our
children and our children's children?
That the same God that we serve today will still be the same God that our children can
serve one day?
That God is the God of truth?
That's something we can think about.
That's something we can occupy our mind with, rather than whatever the world would have
us to think on.
We can also think about what it means to walk in truth.
Just what?
Knowing to walk in truth, knowing who God is, knowing the things that the men in our
lives who spoke to us truth have spoken unto us, what does it mean for us to walk in truth?
Go ahead and turn over to Psalms 15.
Bible says in Psalms 25, you're going to Psalm 15, Show me thy ways O Lord, teach me thy
paths, lead me in thy truth and teach me, for I walk the God of my salvation, on thee
do I wait all the day.
Have you ever stopped to ponder and think about how we can walk in truth, what God wants
us to do?
The Bible says in Psalms 15 verse 1, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
Maybe we should try walking in truth, maybe we can think about what could we do better
to be found walking in truth.
Go ahead and turn over to Psalms 26.
Psalms 26, the Bible says in Psalm 43, O send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead
me, let them bring me into thy holy hill and thy tabernacles, then will I go into the
altar of my God, unto God my exceeding joy, yea, upon the harp, will I praise thee, O
my God.
He's saying, send out thy light, send out thy truth, let them lead me.
You know, if we meditate about the fact that we want to walk in truth, we might find ourselves
praying and asking God, God, show me the truth, open my eyes and I may behold wondrous things
out of thy law, guide me in the way everlasting.
The Bible says in Psalm 26, verse 1, judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity,
I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me, try my reigns in my heart, for thy loving kindness is before
mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth.
We should think about what we can do to walk in the truth, not just know what the truth
is, but to actually live it out and to do it.
So if we walk in the truth, you know, we understand that God is true, and we walk in his truth,
maybe we can think about where that truth will lead us.
Where will truth lead us?
That's something to think about.
These are just thoughts that I had as I was sitting down and thinking on things that are
true.
Where will the thoughts lead us?
Go ahead and turn it over to John chapter 14, John chapter 14.
So if we think on things that are true, and we think about maybe walking in the truth,
maybe we can think about where will the truth lead us if we walk in it.
The Bible says, and you're going to John 14, but it says in John 8, then said Jesus to
those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then you're my disciples
indeed, and he shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
If we walk in God's truth, if we meditate on God's truth, and we understand that God
is true, and we start to walk in his ways and in the ways of truth, it will lead us
to the place where we shall be made free.
Maybe we'll be in bondage to that sin that's been troubling us and holding us back.
Maybe we won't end up going to those places we used to go to.
Maybe we won't be hanging around with those people that we used to hang around with, but
we'll actually be free, we'll be free from those things.
Look at John 14, verse 6, Jesus saying to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
You know, if we were to know the truth and be set free, if we were to know the truth
of the gospel, it would lead us to the Father through Jesus Christ.
You know, we can think about the fact when we're thinking about things that are true,
we can think about the fact about how we have the truth.
Isn't that great?
That we have the truth.
You say, what do you mean we have the truth?
Well, look down in your hand there.
Right there.
You have the truth.
Amen.
The Bible says, Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.
And then we talk about people who want to, you know, we're in the truth movement, they're
all about the truth.
Well, here's the truth right here.
We can know all the truth there is to know about God right here.
That's a great thing to think about.
So that's what we can think about when we think about whatsoever things are true.
Goes on and says there in Philippians 4 verse 8, whatsoever things are true whatsoever things
are honest.
Now I didn't make a list on honest but I thought, you know, in truth and honest that almost
seems like it's redundant.
But when you think about it, the truth is just the truth.
It's no matter what.
You know, the truth is the truth.
Honest is whether or not you're going to acknowledge the truth as the truth.
You know, we can think about things that are honest and that'd be a whole other, you
know, it's not in my notes, I'd have to shoot from the hip here so I'm not going to.
But you can kind of think about not everybody's honest about what the truth is, are they?
So that's just a thought on those things which are honest.
He goes on and says whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure.
That's what I want to focus in on next is whatsoever things are pure.
Go ahead and turn over to Exodus chapter 25.
Whatever things are pure.
God wants us to think about things that are pure.
So when I sat down and I started to think, well what kind of things are pure?
Well God desires his vessels to be pure vessels.
I thought that was very interesting.
We see a picture of that back in Exodus 25, if you're there, look at verse 10, that God
desires to use pure vessels.
We're going to read quite a bit of scripture here so keep up with me.
It says in Exodus 25 verse 10, and they shall make an art of Shittim wood, two cubits and
a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth thereof,
a cubit and a half shall be the height thereof, and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold.
Pure gold, within and without, thou shalt overlay it, and shalt make a crown of gold
about it.
Look at verse 17, and thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold.
He wanted pure gold on his vessels.
Look at verse 23, thou shalt also make a table of Shittim wood, two cubits shall be the length
thereof, and a cubit shall be the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height
thereof, and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make there unto a crown of gold
round about.
Verse 29, and thou shalt make the dishes thereof, the spoons thereof, and the covers thereof,
and bowls thereof, to cover withal of pure gold shalt thou make them.
Verse 31, and thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold, of beaten work shall the candle
be made.
His shaft, his branches, his bowls, his knobs, his flowers, shall be the same, of the same.
Verse 36, their knobs and their branches shall be of the same, all shall, it shall, all it
shall be one beaten work of pure gold.
Verse 38, and the tongs thereof, and the snuff dishes thereof, shall be of pure gold, of
a talent of pure gold, shalt thou make with all these vessels.
When we think about things that are pure, we can think about the fact that God desires
to use pure vessels.
Now we know today that these, this course talking about the instruments that were used
back in the, in the, not the ark necessarily, but in the tabernacle, in the service for
God, the priests and things that would use these things.
But today, if you would, go ahead and turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2.
We are those vessels.
Today we are the vessels, Christians, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, those of us that have
believed on Christ.
We are the vessels of God, that God desires to fill with his Holy Spirit, and to use in
his service, and that God desires that we be pure.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2, nevertheless the foundation of God, verse 19, nevertheless
the foundation of God, stand assured, having the seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his,
and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
But a great house are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth,
and some to honor, some to dishonor.
If a man therefore purge himself of these, he shall be an honor, a vessel unto honor
sanctified, you know, made pure, set apart, and meet for the master's use, and prepared
unto good work.
We also youthful us, but follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call
the Lord out of a pure heart.
You know that verse right there in 22, that's what led me to a Baptist church.
That's what wanted me to find a good church, is the fact that I wanted to be around some
people that were calling on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart, that they were doing
things, that they wanted to be used of God in sincerity and truth.
So that's something we can think about when we're thinking about things that are pure,
that God desires us to be pure, that we should desire to be around those that are pure, that
we can be instruments that are pure that God can use.
How are we going to be pure?
How are we going to be made pure?
Bible says in Ephesians 5, husbands love your wives, he that has Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water
by the word.
That's what cleanses us, is when we think about the washing the water of the word, when
we let the word of God dwell on us richly, and it fills our minds, it starts to push
out everything else that is impure.
Bible says in Psalms 12, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the
furnace of earth.
If we want to have a pure thought life, if we want to be pure vessels, then we need to
cleanse ourselves from the filth of the flesh and the filth of the mind, we need to let
the word of God dwell in us and wash our minds because the word of God is pure.
Bible says in Proverbs chapter 30, every word of God is pure, he is a shield unto them that
put their trust in him.
So those are some thoughts about things that are pure, what are things that we can think
about that are pure?
Well we can think about the fact that we ourselves need to be pure as vessels that God can use,
we should keep our minds pure, we should be around others that desire to be pure in their
thoughts and in their actions.
It goes on and says there in Philippians chapter 4, move on to another one, and this will be
my last one for the evening, but it says, what so ever things are lovely, what so ever
things are of good report.
Now I'm sure we can sit around and think of things that are lovely, but as a man I don't
know that I want to get up and discuss in front of you things that I think that are lovely.
Nah, just kidding, but there's a lot of lovely things that we can think about, you can think
about just nature itself, how beautiful God's creation is, I mean I'm looking out this window
now and I'm watching the sunset behind those mountains, I'm thinking, what a beautiful
tint of orange, the silhouettes of the trees and the palm trees and the mountains, that's
a very lovely scene, this painting I've gotten several compliments, I didn't paint this,
I just hung it up, but everyone's like, wow what a great painting, and it is, but what
is the painting of something that God made, it's God's creation, that's something that's
a very lovely painting, we can think about just the things that God has made that are
very beautiful, things that are very nice to look upon, things that are very lovely,
those are things that we can think about.
And don't people already kind of do that, like I had an aunt who was really into bird
watching, and I never understood that, until I started to actually really look at birds,
and I have, let me confess my fondness of things that are lovely to you guys, I have
one of the, on my Facebook, I have this group, it's something, I don't know what group it
is, but all it is is people posting pictures of these exotic birds, and every time I come
across on my newsfeed, I just stop and I just look at that bird, and some of them are
just the most amazing creatures you could ever look at, they're just beautiful, all
the different colors and designs and the way they're made, and whenever I see a hummingbird
out around here, I have to just stop and just take it in and think, wow, what an amazing
creature, they're very lovely to look at.
So there's all kinds of things that we can think about, you can see what a great list
this is, when you're trying to clean up your thoughts, when you're trying to think about
things to dwell on in your mind, how you can just memorize this one passage, this one verse,
in Philippians 4-9, or 4-8, excuse me, and just dwell upon it, and everything that comes
up, you could just stop and think about things that are true, things that are honest, things
that are just, things that are pure, things that are lovely, things that are of good report,
and every single one of those things could just lead into more and more thoughts, and
you'll find yourself just thinking about the things of God, it's a very powerful passage
in the Word of God.
Lastly, what I want to focus in on there is, whatsoever things are of good report, good
report.
Now what does it mean by good report?
Well, when you think about a report card, you know, some of us had good report cards,
right, and some of us had bad report cards, right, well, what is a report card?
It's your teacher reporting back to your parents, telling, there's a, you know, an assessment
coming back, and saying, hey, this is where he's at, it's a statement of the facts about
where the student is at, good or bad, right?
You could think about 1 Kings, a good example of this would be, and with Queen Sheva, it
says in 1 Kings 10, and when the Queen Sheva, the Queen of Sheva had seen all of Solomon's
wisdom in the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of
his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their peril, and his cupbearers, and they
said by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her, and
she said unto the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own country, in my own
land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
So someone had come to her and given her a report.
They told her about another place, you know, they reported, you could think about a rifle
report, you know, if you've ever heard a rifle go off in the distance, you know, it's telling
you where that rifle is at, that's the rifle's report, right?
I think we all understand what it means when it says of a good report.
So what are things that we could think on of things that are of good report?
Well, we could think of people that are of good report, people who have a good reputation,
people who that we can appreciate for their reputation, go to Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter
10.
The Bible says in Acts 3, you go to Acts 10, Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you
seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we appoint over this
business.
Of course, he's talking about when they were orgaining the deacons, one of the things they
wanted to have was an honest report that what could be said of them by others, not what
they would say of themselves, but the report that somebody else would give of these individuals
would be a good report.
So it's good to have people around you that are of a good report, people that have a good
reputation.
That's something we could think about.
Maybe we could think about somebody who we could maybe look up to and say, you know,
I could think of several people in my life that I can admire certain attributes and qualities
about them and can meditate about that and think about how I want to, what I could do
to make myself more like them in that regard.
You know, what is it that they do that I myself could begin to do, that I might have that
good report as they do.
So these are the types of things we can start to think about when we think about things
that are of good report, people that are of good report.
Acts chapter 10, verse 22, And they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man and one
that feareth God and of good report among all the nation of the Jews.
So this guy Cornelius had a good report, you know, and it's not, it's no coincidence that
before he had that good report, it says it's one that feareth God.
You know, if you're one that wants to have a good report among men, it'd be very good
for you to have a fear of God.
You know, the person that fears God and walk in God's commandments, you know, they will
have no evil thing to say of you, you know, and they'll actually have to say, you know
what, whether they like you or not, hey, the guy has a good report.
Maybe the boss at work or whoever it is might say, you know what, I don't really care for
where he believes or where he goes to church, but he shows up to work on time, he puts in
an honest day's work and I got nothing bad to say about him.
He has a good report.
But you can think about people that are of good report, I'm going to turn over to Proverbs
chapter 15.
Another man that had a good report in the Bible was in Acts 22, and one of Gnaeus, a
devout man, according to law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there.
So he was devout, you know, he was somebody who was, followed God, wanted to know God
that he was, you know, according to law, he was in the Bible, he was trying to follow
God's commandments, and what did end up happening to him?
He ended up having a good report.
The Bible says that, in Proverbs chapter 15, the light of the eyes rejoice at the heart,
Proverbs 15 verse 30, excuse me, verse 30, the light of the eyes rejoice at the heart
and a good report maketh the bones fat.
That's an interesting verse, isn't it?
The good report maketh the bones fat.
What does it mean by that?
I mean, we could sit here, when we're going to think about things that are of good report,
we could, okay, well, the Bible says that a good report maketh the bones fat, and we
could begin to meditate and allow our minds to be filled with the things of God thinking
and wondering, well, what does it mean when it says that the good report maketh the bones
fat?
Well, I think it's interesting because I think one thing we can take away from it is that
a good report can nourish you.
I mean, you think about your bones, if something goes wrong with your bones, like if you get
disease in your bones, I mean, that's what makes your blood, I mean, that's serious disease,
it's hard to cure.
Like if you get bone cancer or bone marrow cancer, very painful, very difficult to treat,
and the Bible says here that about a good report maketh the bones fat.
You know, if someone has a good report, if you have a good reputation, it could be something
that nourishes you.
You know, maybe you find yourself in a bad situation, maybe you find yourself backed
up against a wall in some way or there's some false accusation coming against you, but it's
not going to stick because you have a good report.
You know, that it's sucked down deep, it's into your bones, they're going to, you know,
that good report is going to keep you, it's going to nourish you through that time.
You know, a good report, it can nourish you with something that sinks in deep, you know,
gets down to the bones, you know, but especially what it made me think of, it makes me think
of solany.
When we go out solany, having a good report, you know, when you go out and when we get
done solany, we always ask, how did you do?
You know, when some people say, hey, we got X amount of people saved today or we got zero.
You know, either way, it's a good report because the thing is you went, you know, the command
is to go.
So once you've done that, you know, you've obeyed the command, praise the Lord.
Well let's face it, we like to come back and say, man, the neighborhood was receptive,
the people were ready, you know, we went to San Carlos and people were just, they're ready
to receive the word of God, they got saved.
I mean, we were out there a few weeks ago, we got 31 people saved.
Praise the Lord.
That's amazing to have 31 people saved in one day.
I mean, people will say, well, all those numbers are overinflated, but here's the thing.
We had, you know, a dozen people out there filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching the
word of God for six to seven hours in one day, you know, in a receptive area.
That's not unrealistic.
When you have people who are going out there filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching an
unadulterated gospel, you know, efficiently and effectively, that kind of thing can happen.
And you can get a good report that comes back from a place like that.
They think of Pastor Joe Major reporting back from Jamaica of the, I don't, I don't remember
what the last number was, but every day I saw him in my newsfeed on Facebook and it
was like 70 people, 30 people, 80 people.
I don't know how many, but it was a multitude of people that were getting saved down there
because, and I thought, praise the Lord, that's a good report and those, those good reports,
those can sink down in us and they can get, we should let those good reports sink down
and get into our bones.
You know, I think especially when you go out and you go out into a place and you get some
money saved.
I mean, sometimes people get saved and it's just so matter of fact, it's like, like you
might as well just had a bank transaction, you know what I mean?
They're just very matter of fact about it, not very emotional and it doesn't have to
be, you know, it's just human nature and it's just, yep, that's what the Bible says, what
do you need to do?
Do you want to do that?
Yes.
And they do it and bam, they get saved.
The other people, it seems like, and I found this to be true on the Indian reservation,
is that they start to pour out their heart with you.
It's amazing to me how many times recently I've gone out, I should say how many, but
the last few times I've gone out soul winning on this Indian reservation, how these, these
ladies will allow me to, I can think of one lady in particular, she just said, she let
me talk and give her the gospel and I'm a big, you know, I believe that there should
be some give and take, you know, when it's necessary, when appropriate and soul winning,
that if a person's going to sit there and listen to what you have to say intently when
you're giving them the gospel, that sometimes it's okay to let them speak.
I mean, maybe not if they're trying to carry you off on some rabbit trail or bring up some
obscure silly doctrine or argue with you.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about maybe when a person starts to tell you a little bit about the things
that have gone in their life.
And I'll never forget this lady, I let this, this is a report that, you know, I'm giving
you was one that has sunk down into my bones, you know, and it's carried me through some
bad neighborhoods.
I was out in Ahwatukee last week up in Phoenix, you know, Ahwatukee or as I like to call it,
Ahwatukee, right?
Because everyone there is white and wealthy and well off and they, you know, they're just,
you know, they don't have need of nothing, right?
And every door was just like some of the rudest people I've ever had, you know, rude.
They were the nicest rude people I've ever seen.
I'll say that.
They have a very nice way of being rude to you.
And you know, and it was, and I could let that get me down, but I had this good report
from this lady that I met on the Indian soul winning reservation that nourished my bones.
And if I was going house to house in a place like Ahwatukee, I know that there was somewhere
out there on one of these Indian reservations, there was a lady like this lady I talked to
and I talked to her and, you know, she started to share with me about the fact that she was
a widow, that she had two sons, one had died, slipped in the shower and bumped his head
and died.
His other one, her other son was a bull rider and he was going up to some bull riding thing
and she said to him, you know, don't go son, don't go.
And he went and he ended up getting gored by a bull and he died.
And then shortly after that her husband got sick and he died.
You know, and my heart just broke for this lady, you know, when I gave her the gospel
and she listened so intently and you know what, she got saved.
She prayed, she received Christ the Savior and it was such a sweet moment with her and
I walked away just praising the Lord that there was somebody out there who was humble
enough and meek enough and, you know, I thought about how God wants us to go to the fatherless
and the widows and how we reached one of those widows out there, going somewhere that
maybe no other Baptist church would even bother going.
That the only other people, and she told me, that the only other people that would come
around were a bunch of Mormons that were so persistent they would keep coming around and
they would start going around the house looking in their windows, knocking in the windows.
That's how zealous they are, that's how fervent they are, you know, but where are the Baptists
going out there?
Why aren't we hearing a good report back from them, well praise God now we've got one.
At least somebody went out there and knocked that door and led that dear widow to the Lord.
And now I have that good report that's made my bones fat.
And now I can go to places like Awatukee and I can knock those doors and I can say, you
know what, I don't care if these people reject it or not.
You know, of course I want them to be saved, but if they go and reject it, it's on them
and I know that someday I'm going to be going back to one of these receptive areas and I'm
going to meet another person like that and they're going to get saved.
That's a good report.
That's how we think about these and where did all this come from?
Where did this whole sermon come from tonight?
I mean, there was probably six or seven sermons that I preached here tonight.
Any one of these topics that I preached about could be a whole sermon in and of itself.
It all came from just thinking on these things.
From just thinking on things that are true, thinking on things that are honest, thinking
on things that are just, thinking on things that are pure, thinking on things that are
lovely.
Whatsoever things are true or whatsoever things that are lovely, a good report, if they're
being a virtue, if they're being praised, think on these things.
So that's my challenge tonight.
If you're one that's struggling with your thoughts, I would start out by just memorizing
this verse, Philippians 4a, and just allow that to be a catapult into thinking on these
things.
Let's go ahead and pray.