Think on these things
Category: Bible Study & Scripture
Key Passage: Philippians 4:8
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: April 3, 2022
Philippians chapter number four, Philippians chapter number four in God’s word. Philippine’s chapter four, a very familiar passage tonight. Verse number eight.
Philippians 4 and verse number 8 of God’s Word. And I want you to notice something. I want you to notice that the very first word is “finally” there. But would you look over in chapter number three in verse number one? And would you notice right there it says “finally.” Now, here’s my thing.
You say, well, preacher, you close and close and close again. That’s biblical. You see that in chapter three, he said “finally,” and then he closed again in chapter four. So I’m trying to say, hey, be gracious. By the way, did you notice we got out a little early this morning? There’s a living Lord. You thought that never happened. There are miracles that do happen. I gained a little time so we can go a little longer tonight, right? Don’t give me a hard time when you said, well, you closed a couple times. Paul closed a couple times. This is biblical stuff here. Anyway, I had to get that in there a little bit. We’re in Philippians 4 and verse number 8 over there, Philippians 4 and verse number eight of God’s Word. Would you please stand as we read God’s Word together? Philippians 4 and verse number 8.
Verse number 7 just gave you a five-part formula on what to do. Verse number seven, the peace of God, passeth all understanding. You keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, Lord, Christ Jesus. And he said, let me give you a final thought here.
Finally, it does start off with “finally.” We are getting to the real truth here. But he says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.” That has to do without error. What sort of things are honest? Is he repeating himself? No, it has to do with honorable, if you will. What sort of things are true? What sort of things are honest or honorable? What sort of things are just?
That just has to do with impartial. When you have an argument with someone—I know it is never, ever your spouse—but if it were to be, and you think about that, are you thinking just your side? Or do you think impartially? What sort of things are just? You see both sides of it; you’re honest, you’re just about it, impartial. What sort of things are pure? Well, that we eat out a lot in our day and time. What sort of things are lovely, friendly? Sweet, if you will, just using that lightly. What sort of things are of good report? Have a good reputation, if you will. I’m not trying to get into all the details of these six things, but notice the last part. He says, “If there be any virtue.” Virtue is interesting. The word has to do with masculine; it has to do with strength. If you’re going to have the strength to do what you know is right to do, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise—well, it’s good for God’s people to have the garment of praise on. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. It’s critical what you’re thinking, your thoughts. It’s interesting. If you look up the definitions in Strong’s Concordance, that last part—think of it—it says to take an inventory. You take an inventory of things that fall in these six categories, and you think on those things. Just your thoughts, how important they are. I don’t think you’ll necessarily hear anything new tonight, but I know myself need to be reminded about my thoughts.
And having the right thoughts. Think on these things. I just want to give you five helps for your thoughts, five helps for all of us. Just briefly tonight, would you pray that God would help our thoughts be better because of tonight? Lord, help us all, Lord. You know this is where the battleground is. You know better than I, of course, Lord. Father, I pray you to help us be aware of it. Lord, help us to fight the good fight. Lord, help us to win, Lord, in this battle of our thoughts. Lord, guide me to say what you want said, the way you want it said. And would you use that, Lord, for your glory and the good of your people? And Lord, thank you for what you do in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
A couple years, most years I was in college, I worked second shift. Almost every year I worked second shift. Typically, you go to work about 3, 3:30, you get off at midnight. Every year I was in Rice dormitory, second floor. I was either Rice 205 or Rice, I think, 217. I was in Rice 205, and pretty much all of our guys—it varied how many guys were in the room—we had four or five guys in there. All of us worked second shift besides one guy. Now, he’s a good guy; his parents paid his bill. So the rest of us guys were a little bit jealous or envious of it. We’d be working until midnight or somewhere along there, and we’d get in, and Don would be over there in his little bunk, sound asleep, just sleeping away. We’re getting in there all dirty and everything, trying to get cleaned up, get to bed because we had class the next morning.
So one night, very early, but one night we all just happened to come in about the same time, all of us working guys. And Don was over there getting his beauty sleep, you know. And we thought, man, this ain’t right. A big guy over there sleeping in like that. I don’t know who came up with it, but we all agreed, and we all changed the clocks in the room, every one of the clocks. I don’t know what we said to him, but we knew he had an 8 o’clock class, or 7 o’clock, whatever it was, but we were right there at it. We all, of course, got in our beds like we were sleeping, and the alarm was set. I got up, and Don, he hit a snooze, if I remember. I remember he didn’t get up. Finally, we said, “Hey, Don, man, time to get up. You got an 8 o’clock class.” If I remember right, he was going to sing in a choir in chapel that day, so he was going to dress up very nice, have a suit on and all that.
He woke up and kind of shook himself, “Oh, man,” you know. And you know how it is when you’re late. He was like that. “Man, I got up late.” And he’s rushing around. You know, all the guys were mostly in bed. I remember they were kind of burying their head on their pillow because they were laughing so he wouldn’t see. I’m trying to keep a straight face.
Then down the hallway, at the end of the hallway, there was a restroom for everybody, a large restroom with showers and all that in there. I went down there to take a shower. A couple guys were in there, a lot of guys from work. We had told them what we were doing, so those guys were ready. I went down there, he took a shower. I mean, he got ready, you know. And he came back in the room, and he’s hurried. You know how it is in the morning? You’re in a hurry. And he’s just running around quick. I’ll never forget, he had a suit on. He had a briefcase. I’ll never forget this; it was around 2 a.m. at this part.
I’ll never forget this, 2 a.m. And he said this. I remember this part because I’ve used it several times. Remember this part very clearly. He said, “Man, Paul,” he said, “I slept in, but my body must have needed it because I feel so good now.” 2 a.m. And literally he felt good. He’s like, “I needed that. I feel good now.” 2 a.m.
Now, the power of your thoughts. He thought he had slept in. He thought he had had more sleep. And he literally went lying to me—he literally felt better, more rested because of his thoughts.
A friend, your thoughts, your mind is so powerful, so crucial. They say the human mind processes anywhere between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts in a given day. Your thoughts. What are you thinking? Someone said negative thinking will lead us nowhere fast. Your thoughts. Can I give you just a couple of observations before we get these five helps? Just a couple quick thoughts. If you’ll notice in verse number eight right there, he does not tell us what not to think on. Because as soon as you say, “I’m not going to think on that,” you’re thinking on that.
How many in your past know some songs you ought not to know? And you go to the grocery store or wherever it is, and they’re playing that song. And later on that day, or maybe that moment, you’re like, “Oh, man, where did that song come from?” Well, they’re playing it wherever you are. And so that mind, your mind brings that way back, brings it back up. And you find yourself singing that song in your mind or it replaying in your mind. “Man, I wish I could get rid of that.” Can I tell you here’s how to get rid of it? Start singing a good song. Do it on purpose. Because as long as you’re like, “I’m not going to think about that song,” you’re thinking about it. So start singing hymns that spent in vanity and pride, carry not a little over crucified. Start singing a good song.
Number one, notice God does not tell us what not to think on here in this verse. Number two, would you look over in 2 Corinthians chapter number 10? Second Corinthians chapter number 10 here real quickly. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and would you look in verse number 4, 2nd Corinthians 10 and verse number 4, if you would please, of God’s Word:
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.”
Now notice this next verse. Casting down, what’s the next word? What do imaginations happen in? Your mind. Friend, you know where the major battle goes on: in your mind, your thought life. And he’s talking about weapons. They’re not carnal; they’re mighty if you’ve got to pull them down. But Satan, he’ll shoot at us in our thought life.
Casting down imaginations and every high thing—that “high thing” kind of reminds you over there in Ephesians 6 where it talks about the armor of a Christian, very close wording about warfare, talking about the devil and his entourage of his higher-ups, if you will—casting out imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge. Where does knowledge happen? In your mind. See? Every high thing that is all of this have against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought. Where does your thought happen? Of course, in your mind, to the obedience of Christ.
Now, here’s what I’m getting at: the battle for him, this major battle, so much of it is thought right there. And by the way, I’ll talk about it a little bit, but in your heart also. But the thoughts. Now here’s the thing. It says bringing into captivity. They’re saying that it exalts itself against the knowledge of God—who’s that? The devil. And I want to really emphasize how Satan will bombard your mind with thoughts. Some of you ever have just maybe the most holy times when you’re alone with God or something; the devil will put just a wicked thought in your mind. Maybe try to get your mind to go critical towards someone or something. Or he’ll bring in all the issues you’ve got going on. Satan can attack your mind.
The reference often used, and I did it, you’ve probably heard it many of times, but Acts 5:3 over there, Ananias and Sapphira. Peter said, “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?” So I’m not necessarily responsible for every thought that comes into my mind because Satan has power there, but I must bring it into captivity. I’m responsible for it as soon as it gets there. You can win the battle, but the battle goes on there. And you must be aware of that. That’s why the Bible there in Peter says, “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.”
And I must be vigilant. Vigilant means, you know, we want to all just be relaxed all the time. But if you’re in a battle, you’ve got to be where there’s a battle going on. You’ve got to have your lives ready. There’s a fight going on. And the major fight is in your mind. And you must, you must be aware that if you put your mind in neutral and let it go wherever your flesh wants it to go to and the devil wants it to go to, Satan is going to have a field day with you. He’s just going to wreak havoc in your life, and he’s going to use you to wreak havoc in all the people you’re around their life.
And it’s about your thoughts because your thoughts are so very, very important. Now, look over in Proverbs 23:7. You’ve heard this one here. It’s familiar. The number one observation we got: notice, God does not tell us what not to think on, Philippians 4:8. But then number two, Satan will attack your thought life, and you must battle there. You must battle. Then number three, your thoughts can go all the way to your heart. Heart has to do with the center of you, the core of you. If I just let Satan have a field day, he’ll go through my mind all the way to my heart, the center of me.
Boy, that’s what he’s after. Because God wants to bless you. He looks at the heart. Man looketh at the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh at the heart. See? Look at this. It seems, if I understand this right, this passage here, that this man is eating with a wealthy man. He said, “Be careful. Don’t desire all his luxuries.” Be careful of that. And besides this guy saying all this stuff to you, but hang on, you don’t know what’s going on inside. Look at verse number 7, Proverbs 23, verse number 7.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Your thoughts can go all the way where your heart starts. Your heart thinks, you know that. It’s very important what your heart thinks about. By the way, you notice over there in Acts 5:3, “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?” For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink,” saith he to thee, “but his heart is not with thee.” Now that rich man, if he says, “Eat and drink,” he had to somewhat think that with his mind in order to say it. But with the very core of him, however he’s thinking there, that’s what he is. See, thinketh in his heart, so is he.
So how are you thinking? What thoughts have you let all the way into your heart? Are you bringing into captivity every thought? Or is it just going straight on down to your heart, and that’s what you are? As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Your thoughts are so vital. So very important what you say in your heart.
David, remember David, he was running from Saul. Now, God had already reassured David. Look, David, I’m going to take care of you. I’ve already anointed you to be king. Had David been king yet? No, so we know he’s going to live long enough to be king. We know that. At 1 Samuel 27:1, David said in his heart, “I shall not perish one day by the hand of Saul.” There’s nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. By the way, I think that was about a year or so of David’s life where he just was very backward, a very sad time for David. And it started when he said in his heart. It wasn’t true. David knew that. He was already anointed king. The fool hath said in his heart, “There is no God.” He knows from Romans 1:20. He knows from creation. He knows there’s a God.
You let that same fool who’s been saying in his heart, “There’s no God,” no God. You let him get run over by a car. First thing he says, “Oh, God, help me.” Same guy’s been saying in his heart for years, “There’s no God.” Let him get in the military. You’ve heard stories about it. They get in a firefight and say, “God help us.” Where’s your atheist? You know, it’s gone out. Mr. Jackson used to say there’s no atheist in a foxhole. But they’ll say that in their heart and they’ll think that, and they’ll let that thought get in their heart. And as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Our thoughts are so vital.
By the way, none of us have total victory over our thoughts. None of us do. Christ did. It’s amazing. Christ did. We all have to work at this thing. I’ll just try to give you some very practical, simple helps. Just trying to challenge us all, myself included. Let’s just work at our thoughts. Five helps for our thoughts.
Number one: Get the Bible in your mind. Work at it. Work at it. I got a couple subpoints. Remember the “finally” and “finally”—he closed more than once, all right? Let me give a couple of thoughts. Read the Bible. Jesus said seven times, “Have you not read?” Have you not read? Have you not read? Seven times Jesus, God in flesh, said, “Have you not read?” Haven’t you read that? Talking to those Jewish people in the Old Testament. Jesus will read your Bible. Read the Bible. Read it through every year or whatever plan you’ve got. Just read the Bible. Get the Bible in.
Number two: Just trying to get the Bible in your mind. Memorize the Bible. Memorize the Bible. “Thy word have I hid in my”—what is it?—“heart.” He wants you to get all of those thoughts about the Bible. He wants to get it all the way down in your heart. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” And memorize the Bible. I’m shocked how many verses I’ll memorize, and I think I know a little bit about that verse. But after I memorized it and it gets in there, then I thought, “Wow, I never saw that.” And there are so many truths that I never saw until I memorized it, and it got to my heart. And it’s part of meditating on it and chewing the cud. You’ve heard that old saying. Just trying to get the Bible in our thoughts and our mind, get our mind full of the Bible.
Talk about the Bible. Joshua 1:8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.” Talk about the Bible. I liked it a couple of Saturday mornings ago. We were eating breakfast in here for soul winning. Usually, we’ll talk—and there’s nothing wrong with this—we’ll talk about sports and who’s winning and what, you know, March Madness or whatever it is. And I like that too. I like sports. And my old brother Bill, he’s reading through his Bible this year, and he started talking about—I’m not sure what it was—some parts of the Bible. And before long, everybody at that table in our corner of their section over there, we were all talking about the Bible. And I thought, “Wow, this is awesome.” It doesn’t happen probably as much as it should. And at a time, somebody knew in the church, and they’re getting into the Bible. And I thought, “This is great.” Just a bunch of men sitting around and talking about the Bible. Talked about the Bible. Talk about the Bible. Talk about the Bible. Husbands and wives sit around and talk about the Bible. That’s a great thing to do. Friends, talking about the Bible is a great thing. Just talk about the Bible. Try to get the Bible in your thoughts, trying to get your mind full of the Bible.
Listen to preaching. “In due time He manifested His word through preaching.” The Bible opens up through preaching. Listen to preaching. With all the modern-day apps and everything else we’ve got, you know, you can listen to preaching 24/7 pretty much. It’s great, great opportunities.
Another thought about getting your mind on the Bible: write down what you got out of the Bible that day. You know the verse, Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We mentioned a while back. It doesn’t say faith cometh by the Word of God eventually; it does, but it doesn’t say that. It says faith comes by hearing. What does that mean? Well, it’s when you’re reading the Bible and God speaks to you out of the Bible and you hear something from the Bible, “Wow,” faith comes about hearing. Now, what does hearing come from? The Bible, the Word of God. When God gives you a passion, you’re reading through it and, “Wow, that spoke to me this morning,” journal it. Write it down. Put it in your phone so I can tell somebody about it. Maybe you read your Bible first and then later on you pray, and then in your prayer time saying, “Lord, what was this supposed to get out of the Old Testament today? What was I supposed to get out of the New Testament today? What am I supposed to get out of Proverbs and Psalms?” But try to take those truths that God’s given you. The Romans word—Logos is often the Greek word translated word—but that one there is not Logos. It’s Rhema, and it has to do with when God gives you a word from the Word that gives you faith. But when God speaks to you from His Word, man, get that in your mind. Think about it all day long. Write it on a 3x5 card. “I’m going to carry this with me all day long because that’s the word God gave me this morning.” It’s trying to get your mind full of the Bible.
Finally, five helps with your thoughts. Number one: Get your mind on the Bible. It’s not going to happen by chance. You’re going to have to work at it. But like great things, they don’t demand your attention. TV will demand your attention. I said last night, “I’m going to catch the last two minutes of this ball game.” If I just pull it up, I won’t watch it. I need to go to bed because Sunday’s tomorrow. But it grabbed my attention. It was a good game. I had to watch the end of the game. Not really that important. You don’t want to [do that with] the Bible. The Bible just won’t grab you. It may be once in a great while, however, for the most part, you have to say, “I’m going to read that book on purpose. And I’m going to get in the Bible on purpose. I’m going to get into my mind on purpose.” Satan’s going to bombard it. You’re going to battle and get it full of the Bible.
Number two: We have to hear a little. Number two: Sing. Just practical helps. Sing godly songs. Listen to them, yes, but more than that, sing them. Speaking of Ephesians 5:19: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Notice that. Your heart to the Lord. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. You’re just singing. Brother Howes, my old preacher, he used to pick a song every day, and that was the song. He’d sing all day, and he’d do it on purpose.
We had a man in our church years ago that he cannot sing. In fact, there were jokes around about how he could not sing. He used to work in a ministry, and they would do a skit, and part of the skit was he was supposed to sing, and everybody was like, “Oh no,” he was going to sing, you know, that type of thing. He was involved in that. But he was in our church for years and years and years. And finally, towards the end, before they moved away, he called or texted—I don’t know, maybe told me face to face—but he said, “You know, I tried that thing you’re always on us about singing.” And I think he was in the car alone, nobody around. And he said, “It really works.” He said, “I was really surprised.” You know, I never really did that all these years. He’d been saved forever and all that. And he said, “It’s amazing.” Now, the guy couldn’t sing, but there’s something about you singing to the Lord. It’ll do something to you. And you sing these good, godly songs. By the way, sing Bible verses. It’s a great thing. We used to have a cassette tape probably somewhere around. Maybe Ms. Tammy’s got it on the computer. I have 101 Bible verses put to song. I think Brother Anthony’s got some of that. It’s great. It’s a great thing to do. Put the Bible in the songs. Sing them. Singing godly songs is a great, great thing to do.
Number one: Get the Bible in your mind. Number two: Sing godly songs. Sing them. Even if you’re not singing out loud, in your heart, you’re singing a song. Pick a song every day, whatever works for you, but singing good, godly songs.
Number three, excuse me, number three: Get a partner to help you with your thoughts. Typically, it’s going to be your spouse. If you don’t have a spouse, it might be your friend. “Hey, would you help me? I’m trying to work at my thoughts.” Would you help me? And maybe if our conversation is going downhill or just negative, don’t point your finger at me and yell at me every time, all right? I say, “Hey, we got to turn our conversation back right.” I don’t use it. All right, good. I got an opportunity to correct them every time. “Oh, you messed up! Oh, you!” Don’t do that. I say, “Hey, let’s work at it together.” It may look like, “Oh, man, it’s my fault. I started this going down this track.” Let’s get our thoughts—let’s get our conversation going right. But get you someone that’s kind of your partner. “Hey, let’s get our thoughts better.” And work at it together. It’ll help you be aware of maybe critical or negative or just wrong thoughts. Sometimes we’re just not conscious of what’s going on in our mind. We put it in neutral. We’ve already mentioned Satan loves that. Sometimes, all right, I’ve got a partner; all right, I better straighten up a little bit because we’re working at this together. And that helps us be aware of what we’re thinking about.
By the way, sometimes we have bad patterns, patterns from the past, whatever. And it’s going to take some extra work to get out of that rut of wrong thinking. And it’s going to take some—it’s going to be a battle. And Satan’s going to fight that because he knows that’s the battle. If he can take that right there, man, he’ll get in your heart, and that’s the center. The issues of life come out of that right there. So you’ve got to battle that thing, especially if you have bad patterns. Work at it.
Number one was said: Get the Bible in your thoughts, work in it, get your mind full of the Bible. Number two: Sing good, godly songs. Number three: Get a partner.
Number four: Number four, keep filling your mind with good things. That’s Philippians 4:8 in a nutshell. True, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report—all those things. Think on these things. Work at it. This may be the whole message. It’s great if you get anything; get this thing. Have your mind full of thoughts of gratitude. Gratitude changes everything. Everywhere you go, everything goes on, be thankful. It’ll change the spirit of your life. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. It’s crucial. And if you work it, “I want to be thankful. I want to have gratitude.” “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.” That’s so critical. And work at that. Everywhere you go, everything’s going on, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” Work at that. Not just with people, but with the Lord. And I want to have my mind full of good things.
First, just paramount thing: Have it full of gratitude. Someone said being thankful comes from being thoughtful. I got to work at that. Just keep your mind full of good things. Listen to good things. Good books. I mean, praise the Lord for audiobooks. Somebody say amen right there, you know. Yeah, I know I should read more, but praise the Lord for audiobooks. A good biography or autobiography does me so good. I don’t read or listen like I should, but when I do, it just helps me so much. And good books. Good sermons. I’ve already mentioned that. You can pull them up anytime. These blogs—I go to this app, and I’ll pull up Scott Polly on that a lot of times. You can listen to good, pretty much a good devotion, good preaching, anytime, anytime.
Promises of the Bible. I’ve been finding myself sometimes, you can go to YouTube, actually, and you can put in there “KJV Bible promises,” and it’ll pull up just eight hours of just straight Bible promises. And boy, the devil stops bombarding your thought life with the negativity, or maybe you’re in a great battle over something, you need some faith somewhere. I just—I don’t do it like I ought to sometimes. I’ll just, you know, I got a little cord and plug into my truck, plug into my phone, and I’ll put that on, and I’ll just listen to Bible verse after Bible verse, the promises of God, or KJV faith verses. There are several of them out there. And some of them—I always look for shorter ones—but most of them are like 8, 10 hours. I think they repeat once they get through these 100 verses or whatnot. But you’re just filling your mind with good Bible promises. But working it. In our day and time, there are so many tools we can use to fill our mind with good stuff. You have to. Well, there’s no room for all this bad stuff. And Satan’s going to be dumping the bad stuff in, so have it overflow them with good stuff, so part of the overflow is the junk getting out of there. Because he’ll do that, and it’s a battle.
Number one: For your mind, with the Bible. Number two: Sing good, godly songs. Number three: Get a partner, get someone to help you in this thing. Number four: Keep your mind filled with good things. Just keep good things traveling in there all the time. Work at it, working it, work at it, work at it. And it may be—it may be just light, lovely—what sort of things are lovely? It may be you need to go back and watch Andy Griffith. You never heard a pastor say, “Go back and listen to something,” you know, Andy Griffith or The Rifleman or Lucille Ball or whatever it may be, some of these old decent ones, you know, but that instead of all the junk all the time. But work at it. You’re getting good thoughts coming into your mind, and be full of those things.
Number five: Number five, talk, talk about the right things. Would you look over in First Peter? First Peter chapter number three. Years ago, I learned this verse that was so convicting to me. I mean, it’s so good, and I need to rememorize it, but it’s such a vital verse. I say this often: I don’t want to grow old and be a mean, grouchy preacher. Anybody ever heard or seen—don’t raise your hand—but a mean old grouchy old preacher, just mad at the world? He’s been battling all those years, and he’s just mad at everybody over, you know. And you get like that. I don’t want to be like that. I want to have the joy. I want to stand, but I want to have the joy of the Lord. And this verse was so convicting. First Peter chapter number three, would you look at verse number 10? 1 Peter 3:10:
“For he that will love life, and see good days…”
I want to love life. He that will love life and see good days. Well, then let him make sure he’s got a lot of money and everything’s working out right his way? That’s not what it says. By the way, Paul was in prison, and he had some good days, you know that? Some of these martyrs, they said it was a glorious day when they could lay their life down for the Lord. So good days doesn’t necessarily mean your circumstances. But he says, “For he that will love life and see good days,” what do you got to do? “…let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.” Wow.
Talk. Talk about the right things. If I’m going to love life and just see good days or just enjoy life, my tongue, I’m going to have to, whoa, pull back the reins. “No, we’re not going there.” Refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile.
See, here’s what happens. If I talk about that, my ears hear that, and it goes into my mind. Keep talking about it. Pretty soon it gets down to my heart. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. By the way, the Bible, Hebrews 4:12: “Sharp, quicker than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit… and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Bible, it’s down the very center of it. But if I’m going to just love life, I have to work at these things because of my mind and my tongue’s part of that.
Let’s just kind of reset. “Hey, I’m going to work at my thoughts. Keep my thoughts right.” Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please?
Heads bowed, eyes closed. Let’s just as a church, let’s just say, “Hey, you know what? None of us are perfect. None of us are. We’re going to work at this thing. We’re going to try to keep our thoughts right, and we’re willing to battle. We’re going to try to bring into captivity every thought by God’s grace. I’m going to work at this thing, my thoughts.” God spoke to your heart tonight about that. If you slip your hand up, God spoke to my heart tonight about that. Oh, me too. Me too. I’m with you, friend. Me too, for sure. Me too. Let’s just work at this thing.
Would you please stand? Would you please stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. And would you just—Lord, help us in this thing. Help us. Would you let him know of that? Would you cry out to do that? Just, “Lord, help me in this thing.” Father, thank you, Lord, for the challenge from your Word. Lord, help me, help us with the thoughts. Lord, we sure would love to just love life and see good days. Lord, help us with the tongue. We realize it’ll go into mind and venture to our hearts. Help us to battle. Keep our thoughts right, Lord, please. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
Would you come as we sing? Don’t wait for anybody else. Would you come? Help with this thing. Let’s just say, “I’m going to work at this thing. I’m going to work at it.” Would you let him know that? Lord, help him with this thing. Let me just put a last thought on that. If we’re going to be people of faith, we’re going to have to work at our thoughts. Satan will just destroy our faith with our thoughts. And if we’re going to be men and women of faith, we’ve got to—we’ve got to work at our thoughts. It’s amazing. I decide I’m going to have thoughts of faith. I’m going to believe God. It’s a huge difference, and you’ve got to work with your thoughts on that. Got to, got to.
Original File: Think on these things-Having the right thoughts - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 04032022