Transcription
Well, this is your day to showing as what Paul says to the church at Philippi. And uh he gives an instruction today that we're going to live with today. It's one of my favorites. There's great beauty to it. It will involve shining in a place that nobody can see, only you, but you can shine there all day long. And if you do, actually, it will become uh evident in our bodies and our words and our actions, everything else.
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And it's in our mind. John Milton, Paradise Lost, author said, "The mind is a world unto itself, a place unto itself, and it can make a heaven out of a hell or a hell out of heaven." It's an interesting thing. Awful lot of our um thinking these days, we kind of outsource to our phones and there's a little app on a phone and if you want it will track where your body is. It will let other people know where your bodies are and sometimes families or so use those apps quite a lot. Wouldn't it be interesting if there was an app that could track where our mind is? Is my mind right now located in envy or greed or fear or ego or unsatisfied desire? That's a much more important issue than where my body might happen to be. But we get pretty careless about it. When we talk to each other, we'll ask questions like, "How are you feeling today?" Rarely do we ask, "How are you thinking today?" or "What do you want to do today?" But rarely, "How would you like to think today?"
And when Paul gets to this one command, it's Philippians chapter 4:8. He starts with the word finally. Not because he's at the end of the letter. Nope. Nope. Not yet. Preachers will sometimes say finally, and people misunderstand us. Not done yet. Is coming at the end of a series of commands of instructions on how to live a flourishing life. And the reason it's at the end of that is because really whether or not I'll be able to live the kind of life God wants me to, a life that is free of worry, a life that is filled with joy, a life that is gentle, is it will reflect what's going on in my mind, the nature of the thoughts in my mind. And when I have problems, uh, they can be traced ultimately to that. Otherwise, I'm just doing behavior modification. Try really hard to control my acts. Try really hard to control my words. Now, it's God, would you transform me by the renewing of my mind? Would you help me to escape the human condition Paul writes about in Romans 1. Although people knew God, they neither glorified him. There was no praise um uh joy worship in life nor gave thanks to him, not gratitude. But their thinking became feudal and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Now what's the alternative? And here it is. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. And then he goes on to talk about doing. But right now, that little word for think is a terribly important word. The word that Paul uses there is used I think about 40 times in the New Testament, 34 times by the Apostle Paul because he realizes that really how we live, how we feel, what we do, how we act, what we say will reflect the kind of things that we're thinking. And uh when he says to the church at Rome, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Is because there's all kinds of pressures to keep our minds on the wrong track.
There's a philosopher Alend Baton I think is how his name is pronounced and uh he wrote a book called status anxiety and he talks about how certain kinds of literature were written in order to enlare Greek tragedy characters like Lear McBth the idea of them is that they are to enable us we're to read those stories and recognize this is a person just as I'm a person a mixture combination of uh good and bad and it would not be difficult for me to go down the wrong road that they did and so I ought to be chasened and instead of being judgmental towards other people I should approach them with compassion and have humility and seek help and he contrasts this with uh in his day he lives in England I think um the tabloids now this is a little bit before the online world became so predominant. So, it's even much more true online where very often the tone that is taken is we're not like them. They're weird. They're strange. They're losers. They're failures. And so, it's easy to dismiss them and be grateful that I'm not like one of them. And he actually gave tabloid headline writers these tragic stories and asked what headlines that they would come up with. So for Athell um love crazed immigrant kills senator's daughter uh which is you know not a good summary of the story for Madame Bovery shopaholics uh shopaholic adulteress swallows arsenic after credit fraud for Edipus sex with mom was blinding and and uh it's it's a whole way of getting people to think that's filled with judgmentalism and superiority and contempt and that's rife in our world.
So here's the question. How will you think today? And Paul's inventory is his little list is real broad. What I'd like you to do right now and then I'll say a little bit more about these kind of thoughts, but is to become aware of my mind. For you to become aware of your mind for a moment. So, I want to give you uh a little bit of time to sit and watch your mind like a scientist, like a naturalist who's in a setting. I got a video today of a little deer going by the house of somebody that I love. And just imagine that you're now watching in that way kind of curious and and see what's the next thought that comes. Don't try to judge it. Don't try to force it. Just be aware of your mind. So, take a moment right now. I'll be still and you watch what's the next thought that comes and the invitation today as we reflect on what Paul tells us about our thinking is to begin by simply becoming aware of what kind of things do I think most people do not do this most people our minds are full of all kinds of thoughts often quite toxic ones, but we're never actually aware of them or aware of the impact that they're having on us. And then to move from that to being intentional about what actually is taking place in my mind. And here it's so interesting. Paul doesn't even say you have to think about the Bible the whole time. Here's the invitation.
And I I'll note a few of the things that Jerry says about these wonderful words. Whatever is true, you know, truth uh actual knowledge about reality is such a great gift. And lots of the people that we read are around uh do not speak truth to us. When I first started preaching, Nancy felt like I would sometimes distort things when I would tell stories about her or our family and she would literally raise her hand during a sermon uh to do that. And of course, sometimes you get to exaggerate, but then there are times when those of us who are preach uh instead of speaking the truth may say things uh that are hype or shaded. I uh I'm very capable of doing that, very capable of doing that in meetings with people when I want to get my way. Try to use words to persuade. So Paul says just to love truth. If anything is true, think about it. And then if anything is honorable and again could be a story from scripture that's a wonderful thing much about Jesus is could be uh if you've ever seen the movie saving private Ryan there are some stories where someone sacrifices themsself for the sake of another and when we look at that we just think uh that is an honorable way to act or to live and to think about that is good if anything is Right. Uh this has to do with um uh treating things. Nicholas Walter said that the the ultimate principle of justice which is another translation for that word right is to treat all things according to their worth. All people to think about people and what they are worth. But then creation everything that God has made. And then uh if anything is pure and this meaning Jerry says is not to be restricted to the idea of chasteed in the sense of freedom from bodily sins. Uh it certainly embraces the idea of purity in motives and actions. Pure in every part of life. Where have I seen that? Another wonderful book is called Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. And it's the story of a little village lo Shambone and a group of people mostly hugenauts who had experienced centuries of persecution for their own faith and during the second world war they're basically the only community in Vishy France Nazic controlled France where the people who were there who followed Jesus risked their own lives to help Jewish people who were fleeing from the Nazis escape to safety. And the author of that book writes about how what's so striking in it is when he would interview the people years and years later. They didn't look at it like, "Oh, what amazing things we did." They didn't do it in order to be heroic. It was just that's what you do. These are people. They knock on your door. You say, "Yes, come in. Come in." And that's a purity of motive. Think about that. Paul says if anything is lovely. Um this is kind of the opposite of a trait that Jonathan height the social psychologist studied of disgust. Psychologists would look at disgust a long time. What produces that? Then he said the opposite of that is something that produces a sense of elevation just kind of an uplifting. You feel it in your chest when you see it. And he wanted to promote that. In fact, he started telling people then uh although his name is spelled h ai dt t, pronounce it height, not hate because he didn't want to communicate hate to people. And then uh if anything is admirable, if anything is of good report, if anything is uh uh likely to excite people's sense of virtue or I want to be that way. I was at a restaurant a couple days ago and the woman behind the counter, probably not her dream job, she served each person with so much attentiveness and joy and presence that it made me think, man, if she can be that while she's in this job, I admire that deeply. So, we can find these words, we can find these traits in creation, in people, in scripture, in story, in art, in our work, all over the place.
Here's the invitation today. Don't let your mind go on default. Be a scientist. Take a look at it closely. And then uh whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent, and it is. If anything is praiseworthy, and it is. Think about these things. Why would I not do that? Shine.
Hey, thanks for tuning in here at Become New. We hope that you make taking in this teaching whether on YouTube or podcast or the website a part of your daily habit of reorienting your thoughts, your mind on things above. And in so doing that, that helps you grow spiritually one day at a time. One thing I wanted to let you know about is that we're developing something new at Become New and uh it's actually a um spiritual formation newsletter and we're in the beta development stages right now. But if you'd be interested in checking that out, it's really geared for ministry leaders or people who are interested in spiritual formation. If you want to check that out, you can go to becomenew.com/formationation and sign up to be a part of the beta test group. Uh it's something John's really excited about and um we think that it's going to be really helpful for people that are interested in spiritual formation. So go take a look, check it out if you want to.
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