How to Have Peace
Key Passage: Philippians 4:8
Date: June 7, 2024
Turning your mind was to Philippians chapter four, Philippians chapter four. I love this time of the year, love the Christmas music. We’ve been playing Christmas music at my house since Thanksgiving, or maybe just a touch before since we’re out of town for Thanksgiving, but I love it. Thank you to all of you who made it happen in the music department.
Philippians chapter four. I have felt all week that God wanted me to focus on this thing about our thoughts, but I really have not known how or what in particular God wants us to cover. Thoughts are a very broad subject, and so I’ve just kind of been trying to think what the Lord wants. We’ll start a little broad on this subject and we’ll narrow as we go and try to get to some good thoughts for you.
The title for the internet would be “How to Have Peace.” How to have peace, or at least part of the formula of having peace is this. We’re going to start in Philippians chapter four, with a very familiar verse. I believe many of you would know it. Brother Frank is going to stand up and quote it right now, just right off the top of his head. And Brother Frank says, “Yeah, right.”
But Philippians chapter 4, verse number 8, right there. Philippians 4 and verse number 8. Would you please stand as we read God’s Word together this morning just to show respect? Philippians 4 and verse number 8 of God’s Word, and you’re already looking at it. That’s a good thing. Here we go. Philippians 4 verse 8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest.” By the way, you said, well, it’s kind of saying the same thing twice. That “honest” has to do with honorable. “Whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest. Whatsoever things are just. Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue”—by the way, virtue is the strength to do what you know is right—“if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
If you’re going to truly have praise—I’m not just talking about Sunday morning, I’m talking about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all that, Sunday, too—but if you’re going to have true praise, you’re going to have to think on these things. If you’re going to have virtue, sometimes you’re just going to be so worn out if you’re not thinking on the right things, you won’t have the strength to do what you know you ought to do. Think on these things. Six categories, God tells us. Think on those things. That’s what we’re starting out this morning. We’ll kind of try to narrow it as the Lord leads as we’re going. We’ll be done by three today, I’m sure. Right? Okay. Let’s ask God to speak to hearts this morning. Lord, I know you have led me this way. I have tried to seek how to narrow it, what part you want us to cover. So, Lord, I pray for your guidance in that. Lord, help me to say everything you want said. And then, Lord, maybe there’s a little sentence or phrase you want me to say that would speak to a heart, have me to say that. Lord, at the end of the day, we know it’s you. You can do more in a second than I can do in a lifetime. So, Lord, we ask for you to work in our hearts, please. And we’ll brag on you and rejoice in you for it. Father, I’m asking for that in the name of Jesus. We’re asking in faith in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
I want you to notice, if you will, the focus of the verses around the context is peace. Verse number six right there—we did not read that—but would you look at verse number six? It gives us five things to do. If you do those five things, in verse number seven, this is what you get. Look at verse number six right there. He says, “Be careful for nothing.” That’s the first thing, number one. Don’t worry about everything, if you will. “Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer.” By the way, the way not to worry about everything is to pray about everything. Then supplication, next thing, that’s spending time, walking with God, supplicating with Him. And then with thanksgiving. You give thanks; that’s very important. And then the last thing, “let your requests be made known unto God.” It’s all right to ask God for your request, what you want. That’s all right to do. Now, if you do those five things in verse number six, verse number seven, once you get right there, you get “the peace of God.” That’s the subject here. That’s the focus. And “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts”—keep you from getting cold and bitter—“and your minds through Christ Jesus.”
So I get verse number six, and I get verse number seven, but I want you to notice the first word of the verse we just read, verse number eight. Notice what he said. He says, “Finally.” By the way, the next word is “brethren,” and he’s speaking to Christians. You’re saying, “Finally,” he said, “let me add a final thought.” By the way, us preachers rejoice in this, that he said, “finally.” But he didn’t end with that verse; he kept going for a lot of other verses. Amen. That proves it’s all right for the preacher to circle the airport before he’s done. He just closes and closes. That’s what he did. Is that Bible or a lot? You know, got some Bible for me this morning, help me out, you know? But really, he said, let me give you another thought, a final thought on this thing of peace. Okay? He told us five things in verse number six, and in verse number seven, you get the peace of God that passeth all understanding. And he said, let me give you another thought on that in verse number eight. All right. Then it goes through the sixth category of things you’re supposed to think about. And I want you to see this thing of thinking. It has to do with your peace. See, God kind of puts it together. Now let me say this about verse number eight: notice it does not tell you what not to think on. It doesn’t say that. Because sure as the world, if you say, “I’m not going to think about it, I’m not going to think, I’m not going to think,” the more you think about that, the more you’re thinking about it. Anybody know what I’m talking about there?
The perfect illustration for this, really, the way to not think on that thing is to get a positive thought. This is when it comes to music. You go to the store and you’ll hear a song that you maybe knew years ago. You ought not to know it, but you know it. And you leave out of that grocery store or whatever, and you’re singing it. You know, “What am I doing?” And you say, “I can’t sing that. I can’t sing that.” And the more you do that, the more it’s stuck in your brain. How many of you have already heard “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” this Christmas season? Maybe. But all right, you go to the grocery store, and you hear that, and you don’t want to sing it. “I’m not going to sing ‘Grandma Got Run Over,’” and you’re singing it yet. So honestly, if you go on to a different song—sinful, bad songs, you know—the answer to it is always, “Hey, Lord, would you give me a good song to sing?” And you start singing that good song, and before long, you forgot about “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” you know, because you’re singing the right, the good song. And boy, you sing about that, and we sang, “Ring the Bells,” and, you know, all these songs. There are more great songs: “Joy to the World.” And what’s the one about the bells ringing? I can’t remember. Good songs, all right? Now you say, sure, you can’t even remember what it was. But good songs. The more you sing the good songs—by the way, that’s my good music—you don’t just get rid of music; you get good music. It’s so important. Man, you get good music flowing through your head and your heart, and that’s important. But it’s the same thing with thoughts. God does not tell us, “Don’t think on this,” because you’re going to be thinking on that. God tells us what to think on, because that’ll keep you from thinking on the bad things. See, that’s why he says, “Think on these things.”
Now, going back to the subject, the focus of this whole passage: one of the keys to having peace is thinking on the right things. All right. Now let’s go a step further. Would you look over in your Bible to Isaiah chapter number 26? We’re going to try to narrow it a little bit more. Isaiah 26. And many of you know the verse already. Isaiah 26. And would you look in verse number three? Isaiah 26 and verse number three. We’ve already learned from Philippians about peace and our thoughts; there’s a correlation there. Now, let’s try to narrow it down a little bit more over here in Isaiah 26, verse number three of God’s Word. We’ll stand as you read it. No, I’m joking. We won’t do that. Brother Tim Dempsey has already fallen asleep. We can’t wake him up from his nap this morning. I’m teasing, of course. But look at verse number three there, Isaiah 26. Would you look at verse number three? He says there, “Thou wilt keep him in”—what’s the next two words?—“perfect.” Perfect. Wow, perfect. What’s the next word? “Mind.” It has to do with your thoughts. “Whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.”
Now, friend, here God is using it a little bit more specific. He said, “perfect peace, whose mind.” Your mind is the container that holds your thoughts. It can go through your mind to your heart. That’s an interesting study; we may touch on it tonight. But these thoughts, if you keep them in there, they’ll get to your heart. Your thoughts are very, very important, and your mind contains them. Sometimes I’ll say your mind is the hardware and the thoughts are the things you put in the computer, you know, the software, if you will. But your mind—that’s why over there in Corinthians, he says, “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” By the way, it doesn’t say over there in Corinthians that every single thought has to be right. Hang on for a second, because that would be impossible, as Satan can put thoughts in your mind. Now, as soon as it comes, boom, you have to bring every thought into captivity. Once it’s there, you’re responsible for it. But wrong things will come, and what you do with it, you’re responsible for—bringing it into captivity. But go back over here to Isaiah; he says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.” Well, Philippians just talks about peace. It’s great. It’s the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. People can’t understand it. I tend to think, just pastorally, that Philippians is a little bit lower, or it covers a greater gamut of peace. It could be high peace, perfect peace. But it’ll keep your hearts, keep you from getting bitter in a hard time, keep your mind from going crazy through Christ Jesus. But it’s not necessarily perfect peace. Isaiah over here says, “I will keep him in perfect peace.” I tend to think he’s stepping up a little bit here. This is, woo, perfect peace. That would be awesome to have. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” By the way, perfect peace is only mentioned one other time in the Bible. It’s a king talking to the prophet Ezra, and he’s just kind of like a greeting: “Hey, I hope you have perfect peace.” That wasn’t a promise. Really, this is the only time it mentions perfect peace as far as the promise, and he said, “Your mind is stayed on the Lord, on thee.”
Now, here’s the thing about it over there in Philippians 4:8. Are y’all still with me this morning? Philippians 4:8 gives these six things: true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report. Think on these things, right? Well, help me out: is there anything—it starts off with truth—is there anything more true than God? In fact, Jesus said, “I am the truth,” remember, “the way, the truth, and the life”? So you take these categories: whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest—well, man, that means honorable; nothing more honorable than God. Whatsoever things are just—Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “He is just, just and right is he.” And you go through these categories of things Philippians 4 says we are supposed to think of—well, in that category, nothing is better than the Lord to think of. And Isaiah over here says, “I’ll keep him in perfect peace if your mind is stayed on the Lord.” Nothing, or if you will put it this way, the ultimate fulfillment of Philippians 4:8 is thinking on the Lord. Because He is true, honest, just, pure, good. Pure, wow, that’s the Lord for sure. By the way, aren’t you glad you have a pure God in an impure world? So dirty and filthy. By the way, I just got to mention it. I understand they passed this bill about what’s supposed to be the Protection of Marriage Act. And really, they’re trying in some ways to restrict us from mentioning what we believe in the Bible and what’s right. The Bible is for a man and a woman. God created marriage, not the government, by the way. No matter what the government says, marriage is between a man and a woman, but the government is trying to keep us silent. But don’t you get fearful over that. You just keep doing right. And I believe we’ll send the email out about that real soon here. But don’t get too fearful over those things. God’s got you. This isn’t the first time God has seen things like this happen in governments. He’s seen this a whole lot. He can handle it, friend, you know. But perfect peace, perfect peace. I don’t know how I got off on that subject. I don’t know how we got there, but we got there, you know.
Let’s talk about this word here: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed.” Stayed on Thee. Now, what does he really mean by “stayed on Thee”? Well, the first time the word “stayed” is found in your King James Bible is actually over there where Noah was in the ark. Remember, he sent out that dove one time, and it wasn’t real good; the dove came back, and then he stayed in the ark. Then another time, it mentions over there—that’s the first time it’s mentioned—but then right after, it says he stayed again; he stayed in the ark. It has to do with that. You stay. So, your mind—I don’t think it means your mind necessarily never goes to any other subject besides the Lord. You’ve got to work, and you’ve got to focus on work. I mean, I look back there and see Brother Tony, Brother James, whichever name you want to go by, he works at a machine shop, and if his mind doesn’t go on what he’s doing, he’s going to look like pastor. He won’t do that. So, it means your mind goes back; it just can’t leave the subject of God. It’s like, no matter where you have to deal with problems, it always goes back to God. Your mind is stayed on Him. In fact, whatever situation you’re dealing with, you pray about it. You pray about everything. Just always, your mind is always going back to the Lord: “Lord, handle this. Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.” And his mind has stayed on Thee. No matter what the problem. Our focus tends to get on all the problems, but no, you don’t get so focused on that that you can’t get the Lord in that. Your mind keeps going back to the Lord about the problems. Your mind is stayed on Him.
The other Bible talks about some people whose minds just can’t have God on their mind. Let me read it for you: Psalm 10, verse number 4. “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” By the way, if you say, “Why do I have to pray about everything?” you realize it’s a little bit prideful, self-dependent. But when you get to the point where your mind just always goes back to God, it’s just stayed on the Lord, that’s when God says, “Man, I’ll give you perfect peace.” Yesterday, I lost my belt. Anybody ever lose anything out there? My mom used to say, “You’d lose your head if it wasn’t connected to your shoulders.” Anybody have my mom tell you something like that? Pretty true, by the way. Anyway, I looked and I looked, and what does every husband in the world do? Come on, ladies, you know what every husband does: “Have you seen my belt?” Not in blame or order, amen. But she had one eye watching me on that one there. Unfortunately, I looked for a while, and then finally I thought, well, I didn’t pray, and I prayed. And honestly, just a little bit after I prayed, I found my belt. Now, I’m not a perfect example about my mind being stayed on the Lord, but eventually I got there. And it has to do with things like that. Your mind is stayed on Him. You just always go back to the Lord, to the Lord, the Lord.
Perfect peace is the promise there. That’s amazing. So many things can help you in that. We’ve preached a whole message on Isaiah 26:3. I’d have your thoughts on the Lord before. Music can help us. Let me just try, just for a bit here: What are some good thoughts to think about the Lord, especially during tough times? If my mind is stayed, I’m thinking on the Lord, I have perfect peace. So let me just try to mention a couple of things. Would you look over—and I tell you what, I think many of you won’t need to look it up. Let’s just quote John 3:16. All right, here we go. Would you say it out loud? Here we go: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Did you hear the first part? “For God so loved.” Can I tell you a great thought to think about the Lord? The fact that God loves you. Man, I hope you never get so old that you can’t sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” Amen. Friend, if you think all day long that God is looking down—He’s looking down on James or Ethan or Josh or Daniel—and you just think about God looking down on you and He’s saying, “I love you,” that’ll do something to you, friend. In the midst of a problem, you just revel in the fact that God—if you’re a born-again Christian, if you’re saved—God loves the world, but you have a choice there with all that. But once you’ve accepted that love, can I say this: He has always loved you. In eternity past, before you were ever formed, God knew you; He knows the end from the beginning. And God loved you way back before Brother Eddie was born—and Brother Eddie is at least 29 years old now, I’m not sure, at least he says. But way before Brother Eddie was born, God, in eternity past, loved Brother Eddie. And once you’re saved, God loves you today. And there’s nothing, nothing you can do to keep God from loving you. Once you’re saved, God puts His heat-seeking missile of love on you, and you can turn wherever you want to; it’s going to follow you, friend. You will be loved by God. Amen. If you’re a young Christian, these young people right here—I hope you grow up and become godly men and godly ladies in church, one day serving God however you want to serve God—but no matter what you do, you will always, always be loved by God if you’re saved. Once you’re a born-again Christian, you’re always loved today. You see, because God doesn’t love you because you’re lovely; God loves you because He is loving. You’ve always been loved. You can’t change that; you can’t change and keep God from loving you today. And you always will be in eternity future. You will always be loved. It’ll be a wonderful thing because you’ll feel it real good in heaven one day, but you’ll always be loved. And just thinking and dwelling on this, saying, “God loves me,” I’d have to get toward that perfect peace. But just thinking, God’s looking down right now on you at Rutherford County Baptist Church on this, what is this, December the 4th, '22? God’s looking down right now on you, and He says, “I love you.” He loves you. I hope you never get past that. He loves you. He always will love you. Hey, friend, can I put it this way? God will never abandon you. Amen. He’s not going to walk away from you. He’s not going to leave you stranded. He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. He’s always going to be right there with you. Once you’re a born-again Christian, you’re just stuck; you’re going to be loved by God. Bad of it, friend. It’s God’s love. When I start thinking on God and I start thinking about God’s love…
The everlasting love of God, and its unconditional love, and He gave His Son. Romans puts it this way: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sakes we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Once you’re in Christ, you will always be loved. You’re stuck with His love. Man, once you start thinking about that, you’d have to get that perfect peace. You’re just focused on God. When you feel like a flop—anybody ever there?—God loves you. God loves you.
Let’s go to another thought, just a couple of thoughts. There’s so much, but another thought about God and some good thoughts about God to think of. Would you look over in Lamentations, Lamentations chapter number three? Lamentations chapter three. And by the way, each one of these is God really talking about His people. I read that Romans 8, the last part of that chapter, was talking about God’s people, the love of God in Christ Jesus. Over here, we’re about to read in Lamentations; it’s the children of Israel. God had judged them. Judgment had come upon the city of Jerusalem, God’s city. Jeremiah is standing looking at the heaps, the trash and the debris and the dead bodies and the smoldering smoke coming up. It’s a very sad scene. He’s lamenting the judgment God sent on His very own people. But then Jeremiah says these things in chapter number three. Would you look in verse number 22? Lamentations chapter number three. Would you look at verse number 22? Lamentations 3:22. If you’re there, amen? Amen. Good. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.”
I want you to think about it. Okay, we’re trying to get our mind stayed on God with some good thoughts. And He loves you, and then every single morning when you wake up, God looks down and He has brand new compassion on you every morning, every single morning. “Great is thy faithfulness.” He’s so faithful in that. Now, this word “compassion” became real to me when I realized the first time it’s found in the Bible. I love to put a definition on the Bible from the Bible, that way I’m not taking man’s definition. The first time compassion is mentioned in the Bible, it’s baby Moses. He’s three months old. He’s in the basket, and they put him in that Nile River, remember that? And Pharaoh’s daughter came down, and she was taking a bath and all that. And they found baby Moses in that basket. And they brought—probably the servants brought the basket over there to Pharaoh’s daughter. And the Bible says she took that lid off, and baby Moses started crying. You know how, every lady here in the room that brought those twins out, your heart kind of went to them. You look back at me, and you know what a difference now. But your heart just goes out to those babies. And the mom took the basket off, and baby Moses cried, three months old, and she had compassion on that baby. Now, that’s the way it is every morning you wake up. God looks down; He’s not waiting to hit you over there with a bat. He’s not trying to see if you did every single detail right. Praise the Lord, Jesus did everything right. Every single morning you wake up, God looks down, and His heart just goes out to you in compassion. He’s not waiting just to see you mess up a little bit so He can get you. God’s not like that. He has brand new compassion on you every single morning. “Great is thy faithfulness,” every morning. How many hit your snooze a couple times this morning? How many had your wife come in there and kick you out of bed this morning? No, I didn’t. Brother Frank raised his hand. Ms. Wanda’s sugarhead. Yes, like she did. And even if your morning is horrible, if it’s an awful day, if it’s the day you shut it off and forgot, and you slept in—it doesn’t matter. Every day He has compassion on you. Now you start thinking about that. Every single day, God’s got compassion on you. His heart goes out to you, if you will.
Last night I was in my office, kind of the back part of the house there, and Sarah was over, and Tammy and Sarah were out in the living room, and John was on FaceTime, and I could hear our two-year-old grandson out there. Man, I couldn’t stay in my office. That’s why I don’t know what I’m going to preach, because I couldn’t study last night. I just had to go out there because Ryan was out there. Closer we can get to Ryan right now. And I had to go out there and talk to Ryan for a bit. We passed the football through FaceTime. It was pretty awesome. But that’s kind of like God, if you will. He has compassion. His heart goes out to you. He’s not waiting for you to mess up a little bit and then beat you when you’re down. Trying to help you get back up is what He’s trying to do. “His mercy endureth forever.” That’s why He’s waiting for you. The Bible says He is ready to forgive. He’s a righteous God; He’s not going to lower His standards for me or anybody else. But friend, He’s not waiting just to beat you over the head. He’s waiting to help you and forgive you and love you, and He has compassion on you. When you start thinking about that, man, you lost your peace because your heart and your mind are going elsewhere and all these thoughts are coming in. Start thinking on God. Yes, Philippians 4:8: True, honest, yes, yes, yes. But man, nothing is better than God. That’s where perfect peace comes in.
I’m going to jump ahead a little bit. I wasn’t planning on going here quite yet, but let me tell you, here’s our battle. By the way, every single person in this room, let’s take the facade off about battle thoughts. Everybody has them. So nobody’s arrived there. Let me tell you why you battle your thoughts. Look over in Acts chapter number five. Acts chapter number five. This is a story in the New Testament where this husband and wife lied about how much money they put in the offering plate. It was their money to do what they wanted to, but they lied about it, acting like they were giving more than they actually did. And God wasn’t happy about it. What led to them doing that? Look over here in Acts chapter 5. Would you look at verse number 3? Acts 5:3. The Bible there says, “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath—what’s the next word?—Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” Now your heart can think too, and it goes from your mind to your heart. But why has Satan filled thine heart? So Satan can put thoughts in your mind, your heart. That’s why I’ve already said you’re not responsible for every thought that comes in there, but as soon as it’s in there, you are responsible for it.
We don’t have time to look it up, but over there in the Old Testament, in the book of Daniel, the high priest is praying, and all of a sudden the devil starts attacking. You ever have thoughts come to your mind during your most holy times? Where did that come from? The devil. “Why has Satan filled thine heart?” And why do we battle the assaults that bring us away from peace and even perfect peace? Because Satan has a part of that. For a preacher, Saturday afternoon and evening is always just the time. I remember one time, three Saturdays in a row, I was in the ER with either myself or one of our immediate family members. Three Saturday nights in a row. In my family, we know if anything’s going to go wrong, it’s going to go wrong on Saturdays. It’s part of it. Sometimes on Saturdays, I can tell, boy, the devil’s just bombarding my mind. And by the way, I appreciate your prayers. Sometimes I feel like, man, somebody’s praying for me, and I appreciate that very much. But there’s a battle, not just for preachers, but for you too. I’m not trying to lift me up; we’ll all go through that. I’m trying to make it real to you. Friends, Satan can put those thoughts in your mind, and there’s a battle. You’re going to battle it. Satan is always walking about seeking whom he may devour. You’re going to have a little issue, maybe not even an issue, but just a trying time in your marriage, and Satan is going to try to fill your mind with bad things about your spouse. I guarantee it. There’s a battle going on. It’s a battle for your thoughts. But here’s the key, friend: when that battle is happening, when Satan’s putting all those bad thoughts in there, what do you do? Okay, put your mind on good thoughts. What are the best thoughts? God. God loves you. He has compassion on you. You woke up this morning with brand new compassion. You start thinking these thoughts because there’s a battle going on, and the battleground is in your mind. I’m telling you, friend, why do you battle it so much? Because, number one, Satan can put thoughts in your mind.
Now, let me say this: Number two. We won’t have to look it up; it’s in Ephesians 2, too, but let me just say it. Satan is called the prince, or the leader—that’s what “prince” typically means—he’s the prince of the power of the air. In Corinthians, the Bible, God’s Word calls Satan “the god”—now it’s not a capital G, but it’s a lowercase g—“the god of this world.” And we live in a sin-messed-up world, and Satan is the leader of the power of the air. I think about the power of the air; I think about all those radio waves and TV waves. You see this pole down here about halfway from here to the end of the seminary property. They were putting it up months ago, and there was a little thing on top of it maybe a year ago. I don’t know. Finally, I stopped and said, “Hey, what in the world are y’all putting up here?” And they said, “Man, you’ve been… I don’t know how many people have stopped and asked us what we’re doing here.” I said, “We’re a bunch of very nosy hillbillies here in Tennessee.” And they said, “We’re putting up 5G.” You’re going to find them all over the place one day, and it’s sending out these waves. I’m just saying, Prince of the power of the air. He’s the leader of this, the god of this world, the world system. Satan is. And you live in this world. Man, you turn the TV on—how many watched football yesterday? Anybody watch at least a little bit of football? Come on, man, you’ve got to be right. We’ll watch some football, at least a little college football. Even watching football, the commercials are getting their junk in there. You just live in this world. They’re pumping their junk, their negative thinking, the doomsday stuff, whatever may be. They’re always pumping all their stuff—you name it—they’re pumping it in. So why do you battle your thoughts? Because you live in a sin-messed-up world, friend. And Satan is good. If you have a smartphone, man, Satan knows how to use a smartphone even better than the young folks know how to use them. And they know how to use them a whole lot better than us old folks. Come on now. I have my phone for a year and think I know everything about it, and I’ll ask my kids, and I’m like, “Dad, you know this?” I’m like, “No, I didn’t know that.” It bothers me; they know everything about these phones. Satan knows it better than the young folks, and he will use that to implant all his thoughts. That’s why you’ve got to guard the music you listen to, and the movies you watch, and the screen time, and the social networking, and even who you’re talking to—all that you’ve got to guard it because Satan’s trying to pump. He’ll do it personally through him and his little demons, and then also in his world system. He’s trying to pump his junk in there. He’s just busy. So you’re going to battle what you think about. What do you do? Start thinking about the good things and the best things; start thinking about God.
Then let’s get one last thing: Why do you battle this thing? Why do you battle this thing? We talked about Satan himself, the world, and then let’s just call it your flesh. Jesus, over there in the Gospels more than once, said—let me just read it for you; I have it wrote down, we’re going to run out of time to look everything up—Matthew 15:19. He says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.” So it’s not just coming in, but out of the heart. You know why? Because we have a heart, our flesh, if you will, that came from Adam. Sin passed down. Sin came upon all men from the oldest sin. You understand that, the endemic nature we call it. And Jesus said it more than once, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts: murders.” Now we’ll talk tonight a little bit more about the heart. God can get your heart right, but man, if you’re not careful, you allow all these thoughts in here, and pretty soon—the Bible talks a lot about it, we don’t have time to get into it—the imagination of the thoughts of the heart. That’s why, by the way, that’s why He brought the flood over there in Genesis, because “the imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually.” Man, you’re in a sad situation there. But you have your own heart. Just because you’re saying, “Yes, God lives inside of me, the Spirit,” and you’re regenerated, yes, there ought to be some kind of change in your life if you’re truly saved. There’s no change at all. Nothing. Even your close friends never see any change in your life. Something ain’t right, friend. If God moves inside, there ought to be some kind of change in you. You ought to be a new creature. Amen. But you still have your flesh. What does Jeremiah talk about? Your heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” And so you still have this heart, and even out of your own heart, there can be bad things. Look over, if you will, in 1 John. We’re going to try to wind this thing down. Look over in 1st John, if you would. Chapter number 3, not St. John—there’s Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, that’s St. John—but then in the very back of the Bible, there’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, Jude, Revelation. We’re talking about 1st John, towards the back part of the Bible. In 1 John chapter number 3, and I really just want you to look at one verse for a second. Look at verse number 20, 1 John 3 and verse number 20. Are y’all there this morning? Amen. Look at verse number 20. He says, “For if our heart condemn us…” Your very own heart will condemn you. I can go a lot of different ways, but it’s the truth. It can condemn you because of all those evil things. It can condemn you just because your heart will eat on itself, if you will, where guilt comes from. “If our heart condemn us…” You’re a sorry husband, a sorry dad, a sorry life, sorry mom. You know, you’re the worst Christian in the world; you should have done better. If your heart condemns you, what’s the answer to that? Why do I battle my thoughts when my own heart will condemn me? What’s the answer to it? Look at the rest of the verse: “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.”
If your heart condemns you, look at the rest of that verse in Isaiah 26:3. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” God, if your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart and knoweth all things. Friend, the answer to this is the value you’re going to have in your mind. There are so many things, but one key is if you get your thoughts on the right thing and the best thing—get your mind, your thoughts, on God. Think about how He loves you. Your heart is condemning you, but hey, God is greater than your heart. And God says, “I love you.” God says, “I look at you through the shed blood of Jesus on the mercy seat.” And God says, “I don’t see that problem, that sin in your life. I see you as perfect because Jesus put His righteousness on your account.” And so I see you as perfect. You’re like, “Me? Perfect? I got all kinds of problems.” And God says, “But I love you because My Son already paid for it. I’m not going to require two payments for the same thing.” Jesus paid it all on the Cross of Calvary, and God sees you as perfect. And boy, you say, “Man, I’m loved. He has compassion on me today.” If we had time, I’d look at the verse where David penned it in Psalm 56:9: “When I cried unto thee, then turned mine enemy back: this I know; for God is for me.” I love the last part of that verse. Football season, man, my wife—praise the Lord, I have a wonderful wife—she even watches football with me sometimes. Not all the time, but most of the time, unless—forgive me for saying this word in church—unless the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing. She’ll say, “Well, who are we for?” And typically she’ll go whichever team I’m for. And man, she’ll be cheering, especially if it’s Tennessee. Amen. And God’s like that. He’s not waiting to beat you over the head. He’s for you. Psalm 56. God’s for you. When you start putting those thoughts in your mind and you say, “Devil, I’m not going to let you put all that junk in there. This is not your mind; this is God’s mind. I’m bought with a price. He’s already paid for it. Get on out of here. I’m going to start thinking on those good thoughts of Philippians 4:8. I’m going to do better than that; I’m going to start thinking on the Lord.” Perfect peace comes. When the world tries to conform you to the image of the world, it’s trying to pump all that junk in your mind and your heart, say, “No, no, no, no. I’m going to think on God.” Man, nothing is purer than God. Amen. Holy. Daniel was over there in Babylon, and they had all kinds of gods over there. But when they talked about Daniel’s God, they said—I think four times in the book of Daniel—he serves the holy God. By the way, that’s a good sign of a Christian: the holy Christian. The whole world is trying to pump its impurity and filth in there. You say, “I’m going to start thinking on the most purest thing there is: God.” And then your own heart starts condemning you. You say, “Man, all these thoughts of being—I’m just not sufficient, and I’m inadequate, and I’m a bum, I’m no good for anybody, I’m just the lowest thing in the world.” That’ll happen. Your own heart will do that to you, especially if you had some issues from childhood past. But you say, “No, no, no. I’m going to get my mind on the right things: true, honest, yes, pure.” But I’m going to get my mind better than that; it’s going to get on the best thing: God. You start thinking about how God loves you. He always has. People maybe have abandoned you; God has never abandoned you one time. He never will. Once you’re a born-again Christian, He’ll always love you in eternity. You’re just loved. You start thinking about God looking down right now. That’s where perfect peace comes from: “Whose mind is stayed.”
Now, let me just try to finish this out, friend, I have to quit. But if I’m not saved, it may not be my heart condemning me; it may be God, the Spirit of God, convicting me. The Bible does say the Holy Spirit of God reproves the world of sin. Why? Because they need Jesus. They need a Savior because they believe not in Jesus. I’ve said so many wonderful things about God, and they are all absolutely true, way beyond what I could ever describe. But those are for Christians. God loves the world, yes, but you have a choice. You say, “You know what? I don’t want to accept that. I don’t want to accept the way to God through His Son Jesus.” And the Bible says the wrath of God abideth on him. What a sad thing. You’ve turned away the love of God where God says, “All right, I leave you alone.” What a sad thing. But once you’ve accepted that love through Jesus Christ, you’ll always, always, always, always, always, always, always be loved.
Original File: How to have Peace - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 1242022