Latest / St. Paul Podcast / Feeding Your Mind 10.11.26

Transcript

Feeding Your Mind 10.11.26 · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Needhammer, Senior Pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right here each week you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Love is amazing, steady and changing.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Love is the mountain beneath my feet.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: As we begin, I want to invite you to take a moment and notice what's been on your mind today.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: What have you been thinking about?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Your to-do list for the weekend, uh, the groceries you need to pick up at the store on the way home, maybe things of a bit more consequence, the doctor's appointment you still need to schedule, that phone call to a friend you've been avoiding.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Just pause for a moment.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Take stock of where your thoughts have led you today.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: As you might have guessed, uh, we're gonna spend a little time today thinking about our thoughts, in particular how what we think and what we think about shapes our own sense of faith, how we recognize God's presence in the middle of it all.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: And all this comes from these wonderful verses toward the end of Paul's letter to the Philippians, where Paul himself is talking to the reader about their thoughts.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the words might even be a little familiar to you.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: As you listen to this passage, notice where you hear Paul pointing to our thoughts, and see if it sticks out to you.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: So let's take a listen to Paul's words to the Philippians, chapter four, beginning with verse one.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: I urge Iodia and I urge Syntachi to be of the same mind and in the Lord.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I ask you also, my loyal companions, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Rejoice in the Lord always.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Again I will say, rejoice.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord is near.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, now that we've heard Paul name our anxieties and how we might begin to approach them, let's take a listen to this reflection.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, friends, you may or may not remember a documentary that caught a lot of attention about 20 years or so ago.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was a movie called Super Size Me, and the goal of the film was to try to shed some light on some of the potential negative effects of eating fast food.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: In case it doesn't ring a bell, I'll give you a little quick background.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: The producer, his name is Morgan Spurlock, he created this kind of self-imposed challenge to eat nothing but McDonald's food three times a day for a full month.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And on top of that, he could never refuse if the cashier asked him if he wanted to supersize his order.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So along the way, he's documenting his health challenges as he goes about this month-long challenge.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: As you might have guessed from simple common sense, eating McDonald's for three times, three meals a day for an entire month does not do great things to your body.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: The damaging effects started to show up actually pretty quickly.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: He gained something like 25 pounds over the course of the month.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Halfway through, his primary care doctor pleaded with him to just stop this challenge.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: His cholesterol went through the roof.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: He started showing signs of liver damage.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: In the documentary, he talked about his experiencing of sort of some mood swings and feelings of depression that were caused, he believed, far from his usual vegan diet that he usually had.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: We can all agree.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And more to the point, he offered this clear reminder that what we feed our bodies matters.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: The food we put in, it changes us for better or for worse.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, uh this is not a sermon about the dangers of McDonald's.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You go ahead, you enjoy your fast food, uh, however or whenever you want to.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: But more to the point, what I want us to consider this morning is this.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: If we know that it's important to care for our bodies, or in particular to consider the food we allow ourselves to consume and to fuel our bodies, if we can recognize that, then we should also know that it's equally as important to pay attention to what fills our minds.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: What we allow to consume our thoughts, our emotions, that's just as important.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, we spend a lot of time thinking about what we feed our bodies or how to care for our physical health.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: But today I want to spend a little bit of time, at least the next few moments, thinking about what we're putting into our minds, which is where Paul is leading us in those words we read just a moment ago to the Philippians.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Paul is wrapping up his letter, giving a few more final uh instructions or concluding words when he says, do not be anxious about anything, but whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just and pure and pleasing and commendable, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I read this passage, I get stuck on that word think.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: We might expect Paul to tell us go out into the world and do honorable things, act in just and commendable ways, figure out how you're going to live with truth and excellence and behaviors that are worthy of praise.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what Paul says.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: He offers this invitation to us to think about those things.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Some other translations say concentrate or focus on whatever is commendable and honorable and true.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: The message paraphrase says it this way fill your minds with such things as these.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, whatever we put into our minds matters.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: What we spend time dwelling on and thinking about and letting our minds wander to, what we fill our heads with, it shapes who we are and who we want to be as much as our actions do.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I remember having this poster up in some of one of my elementary school rooms.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you've heard or seen something like it.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: It said something like, Be careful of your thoughts because your thoughts become words.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Be careful of your words because your words become actions.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Be careful of your actions because actions become habits.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Be careful of your habits because those become your character.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: The point being, of course, that all of it is connected, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: All of it starts with what we feed our minds, whatever is true and honorable and just and commendable, just think about those things, Paul says.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Start there.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And what we're not talking about here today is the power of positive thinking, that if we just have happy thoughts or good vibes, that everything else just falls into place or will be okay.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: We know from reality, from our own lives, that that doesn't really work.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a reason.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: We turn to scripture, like we've heard today, some words that say, do not be anxious about anything, but let the peace of God that surpasses understanding guard your hearts and your minds.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: We look to something like those words because we are anxious or scared or worried or overwhelmed.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: We need something, anything, to tell us we have reason not to be.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so Paul says set your mind on the love and the truth and the goodness of God at all times.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that when you need that reassurance, that peace of God to come alongside you, you know how and where to find it.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're already training our minds on where to look.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was reading an op-ed piece in the New York Times earlier this week by author and activist Bill McKibben, where he was writing about all the things that have us simply exhausted right now.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Some days just feel like an avalanche of bad news.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's not the economy in the news or the constant attack ads on TV of the awful things that are gonna happen if the other person wins, if it's not the exhaustion of our work or health concerns or lingering grief, then it's worry about people we love or packed calendars.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So McKibben continued on.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote, There is a kind of overwhelming weariness and even sadness that is increasingly the default state of people who had been optimistic.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Get up and go, sort of Americans.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: He continued on, I think if we had some way of surveying Americans at 3 a.m., we'd find huge numbers of them awake, wondering what new strain might be in store for them come morning.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: We might think of Philippians chapter 4 then as presenting a different way to live.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Admittedly, uh, when I feel anxious, I want to open up to a verse like this one, Philippians 4.6.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Do not be anxious about anything and immediately feel the peace of God surround me.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: I want the quickest way to get from A to B, from anxious to not, to mentally place myself as far away from stress or worry as possible.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: But unfortunately, that's not usually our reality.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: The quickest and most effective way to face our anxieties, our worries, is to place our hope in something bigger than ourselves, well before those worries start to take hold, to root ourselves in that peace and love of God that will form our foundation when life starts to feel a little bit shaky.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Paul wants us to focus on our thinking because he knows that our thoughts matter.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: What we're thinking affects our relationships, our choices, our ability to face difficult situations.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: As Christian people, we get to think about hope beyond what's right in front of us.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And a God who loves us, who is near to us, who Paul says is right here.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Our thoughts shape our very lives of faith.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: As the author Max Lucato once wrote, for Christ followers, the presence of anxiety is unavoidable.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's there.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: But the prison of anxiety is optional.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: I read earlier this week that the typical emotion or feeling that we feel lasts for about 90 seconds.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then we decide where we're going to take it from there.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: So if, as an example, we get cut off by someone on the road and we might feel anger for a moment, that anger lasts for about maybe 90 seconds.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And somewhere in that time, our thoughts determine what's going to happen next.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Are we going to tailgate that person for the next few miles?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Are we going to yell something at them inside our car even if they can't hear it?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or do we slow down, turn up the radio, enjoy the rest of our drive?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a pretty benign example, but we could draw the same parallel to any emotion.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: When we are worried or overwhelmed, exhausted, we get to decide carefully what we'll think about next.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we think about the right things, we do the right things.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm convinced these words from Paul this morning aren't so much about wanting us to just feel good or happy, as much as they are about cultivating an inner faith of the soul.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Peace and joy and contentment aren't these emotions that we can just conjure up for ourselves, actually.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: They come from God, from grounding ourselves in the presence of God each and every day.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: So as much as we might want to think about how we care for our bodies, as much time as we spend focusing on that, my hope is we might spend some time tending to our minds this week to think about these things that Paul says.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: May our thoughts become words, become actions so that eventually, hopefully, they might become a whole life of faith.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Give us today our daily bread.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sometime in the near future, you will sit down to have something to eat.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And when you do, may you not only consider what you're feeding your body, but also what you're feeding your mind, feeding your soul.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And in the coming days, may you set your thoughts on God's presence and see where it leads you.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the St.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.