 Pray with me, please Lord Jesus, please be here with us right now in this session Show us what you want us to learn Lord Teach us guide us draw us into your presence Show us areas that need change Lord But most of all father show us how much you love us in Jesus name Amen So they asked for a title and I came up with godly thoughts godly life And then I just looked at it been up there with that time. I don't even know where I came up with that that sounds very almost impossible Because I think that controlling our thoughts and Making our minds mind us Is such a difficult thing? But how important it is That you and I have this disciplined Mind would you turn once again to Philippians the fourth chapter and you've heard this before but I'm going to read it to you again starting In verse. Oh, it would be good if I wasn't in Colossians starting in verse 8 finally Brethren Whatever things are true Whatever things are noble, whatever things are just Whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely Whatever things are a good report if there be any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things Paul now in this these verses addresses a Subject that is so important as Jeanette showed us this morning He's already told us to be firm to be united to be Rejoicing to be gentle to be not anxious to be praying And now he tells us I want you to be thinking of these things If right now through some supernatural ability, I could up on these screens Put what each one of you is thinking. Oh Yes My dad always used to say to me when I was a little girl penny for your thoughts and then before I answered I would try to think of something really wonderful that I could say I was thinking when I probably wasn't Like when I was driving up here when I was supposed to be thinking about all these things from these verses I was thinking about what a terrible bad hair day. I was having You know, it looked good when I left the house, but then when I looked in the rear of your mirror It just looked horrible and it was consuming me as I was driving I had to really be careful and centered and think again and bring these things back to my remembrance and Choose to think on them What we think is so important Sometimes I'll say to my husband. What were you thinking? That's a whole different subject, but sometimes I'll just say to him What are you thinking? I want to know what's in there. I want to know What what he's dwelling on what he's contemplating. He still fascinates me after all these years But there was one time when I asked him what he was thinking when I was sorry I did and I'm just going to tell this to kind of wake you up because Jean and I were on this trip together that my husband had planned with all our best friends and we went river rafting on the Tuolumne River and It was they I don't know if you've ever been river rafting, but it was a class five Rapids which nobody's supposed to be on. We were the first run of the season We were the last run of the season because it was so treacherous and we ran into trouble. It was a three-day trip like on the second Second day many of our rafts went over. I went over I I saw my husband go over. I Hit the bottom of the rocks. I kept coming up. I couldn't catch my breath I couldn't seem to do you have no idea where you are. It's like being in a washing machine and And I really thought I was gonna die and I kept I kept I went down for what I thought was the very last time And when I came back up and took this big breath I looked over and there was my husband and our guide had him spread out on a rock He was pumping the water out of his out of his lungs and I thought we are in trouble then I went down again and finally I came up one last time and A raft was able to get to me and pull me in but but later when we all and it was traumatic and Your life doesn't pass in front of you when you think you're drowning just in case you wanted to know So we finally got all the rafts to a place where we could get out and we could all assess the damages and we could You know make sure that everybody was safe And so I found my husband and I said oh I said I was so afraid that you weren't gonna make it I saw you go off. I saw him pumping the water out of you I kept going up and down and up and down and I thought I was gonna die and and never see you again And and I looked at him and I said these words. What were you thinking that when you really thought it was? Your last breath and he looked at me in complete sincerity just very impromptu and he said I was just thinking Here I come Jesus So And I knew I was in trouble when he looked at me and he said what were you thinking and I knew I had to be honest Because I'd almost died so I didn't want God again to try and take my life. So I said well, you know You know last night when there were two desserts, and I only had one I was thinking I should have had them both because it really doesn't matter now but my mind is Personally my greatest my hardest my most continual battle my brain my thoughts I worry I Wonder about things I overthink everything. I try to fix everybody Was thinking the other morning with no sleep. I wonder if my kids really cared that I was up by half the night Trying to fix all their problems And and and I worry I'm a warrior. I Anybody else a warrior? I'm a warrior unlike any warrior. You have ever seen I'm a world-class warrior If there were a worrying Olympics, I would win every event that there was in fact You warriors if you're tired of worrying about something just give it to me and I will worry about it For you in my head in my thinking process. I even have conversations. I Replay conversations that I have already had With people replaying them in my mind about the way they should have gone anybody else do that Yes, and aren't you always brilliant in those replays and wise and Solid and authoritative I do that too. I can get anxious and worrisome and Full of anxiety. I have a terrible time turning off my head at night Anybody else I get into bed, and I think oh, I'm so tired. I can't wait to go to sleep and then And it just starts and it and it won't stop Pardon me. Oh, yes, and I'm still awake and I still have solved nothing and it's still going wrong K Smith told me something those of you who do this also Told me something years and years ago when I was telling her how difficult it was for me to fall asleep she said take the alphabet begin with a work your way all the way down and Ascribe one quality of God to each letter and So I will do that. He is all knowing he is beautiful. He is Christ my Lord He is divine. He is my friend He is holy and that just like switches me over into a time when I can just Concentrate on him and I will feel all my fears and worries Let go. I also have to be very careful of what I read or what I watch on TV or listen to It's like I'm over. I record everything and then I play it back. I Have to discipline my mind and my thoughts and that's why this passage in Philippians is so meaningful and Important to me and can be so youth useful to you and I of dealing with this Why is this area so important our minds and our thoughts? Let me give you four reasons that I see first of all it says in scripture Proverbs 23 7 As a man thinks so he is So I am actually becoming What I think about So what do you think about most of the time? What's your first thought in the morning? Mine's coffee. I know it should be Jesus, but it just is coffee Or what's your last thought before you go to bed tonight? You are becoming what you think about Your thoughts will eventually work their way out of your head Into your actions and into your life That's one reason second reason that I see is that sin begins in our minds in our thought process evil thoughts Come to us in our heads Lucifer his sin began in his head. It was the sin of pride Eve Her sin began thinking thinking thinking that maybe God hadn't really said what he meant and hadn't really meant what he said our Heads can be a reason for us to sin So do we can't even allow or entertain thoughts like that? Because once they're in there then there's a possibility that we will then commit them In our heads where no one can see or hear it can be a dangerous place Sin can begin there and I'm always very sobered by the fact that you may not be able to see my thoughts But God can the third reason is the mind is a battleground It is a battleground the world and its systems continually Bombard us television Hollywood the internet social media magazine books Politics just bombard us with their philosophies We need to make our minds Protected we need to build you know if there were ever time to build the wall This is the place where the wall should be built It should be built in protection around our minds We leave them unprotected We leave them vulnerable to the control and the work and the words of the enemy We need to be very very careful That we do not entertain ourselves With the very things that Jesus died for We need to be very very careful that we do not let in the things of the world that we protect our mind be careful be protective of Your brain of your thought In this day at time of internet and the social media We have immediate information at just a click or a swipe of our phones Good news bad news fake news Comes in comes in the gateway of our eyes into our minds where it can stay and replay I Am constantly cleaning out Clearing out washing out my brain my head my thoughts The devil battles for our minds, but so does our humanity and our human nature and our flesh You and I both still our flesh and spirit and whatever gets in your mind gets you If your mind is feeding on the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit will become less and less and less This is our job to protect our thoughts. No one else can do it for us The fourth reason is that we can have strongholds in our minds. I've mentioned some of mine worry anxiety fear Even guilt jealousy Resentment Bible says tear them down. Take them captive control them We have this divine power We have weapons at Paul said in 2nd Corinthians to destroy the strongholds. We destroy arguments And every opinion raised against the knowledge of God and we take every thought into captivity We can be in control We have all that we need in order to control our thoughts If you feel like you're spiraling out of control See and recognize and go after these thoughts and pull them and grab them into captivity Rain in your thoughts capture them We can demolish arguments We can take down every stronghold and most strongholds at least in my life are in my head And now finally I know I'm saying that because that's what Paul said and I know finally I am now to the verses, but I wanted you to see how important how vital your thoughts are Are and how dangerous it is not to protect them and control your thought life Tell Paul tells us now to think on these things He gave gives us this lovely beautiful list of what our thoughts should be We choose to think to dwell to reside to settle down in this list That Paul gives us and the first thing he says is where it all begins think on whatever is true Whatever is true It begins with the truth in my head. God's word is true. I need to steep myself in God's word Jesus himself is true. He says I am the way. I am the truth and I am the life It always begins there with me being a woman who fills my brain my thoughts with the truths of God In this time in this country in this world You need to know what God says because only God's word is true You need to be a woman who finds a way Morning noon night to be in God's word You need to ask God to give you a hunger and thirst for it like you've never had before It begins with the truth The second thing is the noble The honorable There is only one that I can think of who is noble and honorable and that is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I think about him How beyond compare he was How honorable he is And then there's also the next one just Think about those things that are just When I think about those things that are just I cannot think of anything else, but my Savior who justified me Because there's no nothing in me that makes me worthy of anything other than his work on the cross for me When I start going through this list, I think of what is true and honorable And then I want to think about the one who justified me. I like to think about that day That he accomplished that for me. I like to make my thoughts go To what he paid. I want to make my mind consider the cost of his sacrifice That I am justified by him and by nothing else Sometimes in my head I replay this little video that I've been playing since I got saved of the day when I finally stand before God the Father And whenever I replay it in my mind, it always makes me just a little Nervous that I'm going to be there and and and he's going to be so amazingly beautiful and holy and I'm going to be Just standing there so unworthy of even getting in and I and I used to think I think there's a really strong Possibility that he's going to take one look at me all revealed all my life all my mistakes all my sins all my thoughts and He's not going to let me in it used to just haunt me and then one day that was playing in my mind and into my thought process I had this amazing unbelievable beautiful vision. I'm standing there God standing there. He's looking at me. I'm Thinking that there's no way and then Jesus walks up right beside me and he puts his arms around me And he looks at God the Father and he says take her Take her she's mine That's all I needed to be justified. I like to think about that. I like to be grateful for that I like to fill my thoughts With the beautiful thing that he did for me that he reached down into the my repit that was my life And he picked me up and he gave me a place to stand. I love to think about that The next one is pure Paul warns us not to let any or immorality or impurity be named among us But there also can be no immorality or no impurity in our thought process in our lives and We live in an increasingly immoral evil world I have never felt So out of touch so out of sync With the world as I do the last couple of years. There's an evil There's a darkness. Do you see it? Do you sense it of which I have never seen or experienced in my life But not only do I look at the world and see that Lately I've also been seeing an immorality and an impurity and a liberty in the church itself My morals my values seem completely Out of date Within the church not this church not my church. There is a liberal attitude a lack of purity a Turning away from morality I See sadly a desire to see how much They can get away with How much can be added to their Christian doctrines and beliefs and behavior and still call themselves Christians and Trust me. This is a dangerous slippery slope It leads nowhere Destroys our witness It defeats our victories We need to rise above what we see going on and I know I'm old and you're probably looking at me and saying yeah, she's old but But this has nothing to do with my age But at this point in my life, which has been the point of my life life for the last almost 50 years I'm not looking for anything that I can add I'm not looking for anything that'll make me cool cooler or hipper or more modern or more relevant In fact, I'm asking God to take away Strip away from me anything and Everything that does not honor him or please him. I want it all out I want to be pure I Want to be pure like a like a little baby freshly cleansed washed and tucked into bed. I Want that in my life and That requires that I have a very sensitive attitude to sin It requires that I don't allow my thought process to make excuses for my sin or to give me reasons to get away with it It requires me being willing to allow God to look and see and cleanse me I Love repentance. I love the feeling of repentance. I Love the availability of repentance This is the greatest deal that there ever was We sin We ask God for forgiveness and he not only only forgives immediately he forgets forever What a deal is that why do we hold on to those things that we know don't please him even the little sins Even that what Amy Carmichael says the silken sins When this Cleansing this purity is so easily and readily available for us the Bible says that God's mercy is new every morning and I think of it as a like a Muffin like a mercy muffin And I wake up every morning Hungry for God's mercy. Do you ever read that quote by that that woman who's that little prayer that she said? Lord so far. I'm I'm doing really well. I haven't had any anger thoughts. I haven't yelled at my husband I haven't kicked the dog but pretty soon I'm gonna have to get out of bed and Doesn't it happen just that quickly Where I need God's forgiveness The fifth thing is that Paul mentions is to think on whatever is lovely That word means attractive Pleasing what are the lovely things about Jesus? What attracted me to him? What is so pleasing about him? I think on those things the sixth one is Whatever is of good report? I love this because thinking on the things of good report Let's me causes me to let go of the things that I am worried about Causes me to think about and concentrate on all the things of good report that God has done for me Over the years never once failed was never once late even though it looked like he was going to be he has been so Amazing I need to think on those things because those are the things of good report. I love lamentations work He's crying out. He says my soul is Berrift of peace I have forgotten what happiness is my endurance has perished So has my hope from the Lord and then he does this But this I called to mind and He calls to mind the things of good report and this is what he calls to mind the steadfast Love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end They are new every morning there. They are great is his faithfulness and then he writes and therefore I have hope Think on the things of good report. I love to even write them down Make a list keep a journal Get it out on paper the things that God has done for me. I love Psalm 51 David's crying out He says hear my cry. Oh Lord attendant to my prayer from the ends of the earth I'm crying out to you and then he prays lead me to the rock that is higher than I in David's thought he Thoughts he is be almost beyond help beyond being reached. He's crying out to the Lord He's gone from the ends of the earth and now he is so low He's asking God to come in and lift him up to the rock of Jesus Christ But then I love it after this cry for God's mercy then he does just what Paul is telling us to do He says for you have been now. He's gonna switch over from whatever it is He's worried about whatever and it was bad at that point in time in in David's life Whatever is he's fearful of and he's gonna think about those things of good report for you have been he says a shelter a strong tower Think on fill your mind with all the wonderful things that God has done for you his mercy his grace his power His coming again. I love to think about his coming again I think it's gonna be really soon that he's gonna come again and if he's not coming again soon I know that now that I'm old it gets sooner every day that I'm gonna go to where he is So I'm either either gonna come back with him or I'm gonna be go up with him when he comes I'm not sure but either way That is the most amazing thought to me that my God and and I love this You know what? He's not coming as The helpless babe in the manger. He's coming as the roaring lion of Judah He's coming in all his beauty and all his glory and all his justice and all his purity and all his Loveliness I like to think about that that is a thing of good report to me I like to think about all the times he's helped me and healed me all the times. He's held me all the times He's forgiven me things of good report think on these things Paul says What a menu for you and I write them down Memorize them true honorable just pure lovely good report and then you choose those things You choose those things to think about What a rich reservoir of thoughts that he gives us that we can choose That we can concentrate on and then he says if there be any virtue If there be anything praise worthy Is Jesus not the most virtuous one is he not worthy of our praise Then think of him feel your thoughts with him Whatever is true right pure lovely Jesus. He is the truth Jesus. He is just Jesus. He is honorable Jesus. He is the only pure one Jesus. He is lovely Think on thing those things fill your mind You and I need a renewed mind It's a promise of our salvation that Jesus would renew our mind that it would be controlled in order to be controlled it has to be full of God's word and God's Holy Spirit It requires what Romans 12 says it requires that we live a surrendered and a sacrificial life That we choose not to be conformed because there's one or the other we can be conformed to the world or we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds the mind of Christ Philippians 2 says have this mind in you Which was in Christ Jesus Be very very careful sweet women of God of The subtle process of the world influencing your life It may not seem dramatic It probably can be quite gradual But it comes into our thoughts and it erodes our lives We lower our standards we begin to think worldly thoughts and Soon the things of God become less appealing The things of the world more appealing and after a while we have no interest in the things of God at all No reason to go to church No call to prayer No hunger for God's word It is one or the other. There really is no middle ground. We can be conformed or transformed You and I choose To pursue godly thoughts To clean out our minds of things that do not please him God knows your mind. He knows your needs. He knows your thoughts. He knows you need and I need transformation The mind is the key to the Christian life our thinking must be changed the lives of the world Replaced with the truth of God's word fill your mind with it Read it meditate on it memorize it sing it study it more than ever before It's time for us to get our Faces out of Facebook and get our faces in this book. It is one or the other Guard it clean it renew it with God's words and Then this final thought and Connie I can't see that clock you pointed out to me. Where did it go and? What does it say Connie? And what am I what time am I supposed to be done? No, no, no, no really what time I supposed to be done and it's two o'clock's two oh four. Okay, good I have one more thing I wanted to think about this his thoughts towards you Outnumber all the sand on all the beaches and all the deserts in all of the earth That's how much he's thinking about you How often do you think about him? Set your mind on him Set your mind on things above not on the earth be lifted up in the heavenlies through your thoughts Choose these things Things that are true and noble and just and pure and lovely and of good report choose these thoughts It seems so simple. We all know the second of scripture. We all know these things But how often do we actually sit down and say okay now? I'm gonna think about what's true. I'm gonna think about what's noble I'm gonna think about what's just If there is any virtue if there is anything praiseworthy, we need to be meditating on those things and As you do this you will see a change you will re experience a relief in your worry a lift to your spirits and You will be returned to your first love because you will be thinking about him take these words take these lists Write it down somewhere today go home sit in a chair open up your Bible and think on the things that Paul tells you