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Perseverance of the Saints - Philippians 4:8-9 - What You Think About Matters · Mount Eaton Church

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Good morning, family.
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Good morning.
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Good job, good job.
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A couple things.
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First things first.
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I want to encourage you, especially parents with young ones,
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to be more open to the world.
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I want to encourage you, especially parents with young ones, okay?
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There's a beautiful little, I want to say it's a poem, is it a poem?
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It's a poem that's written to parents who bring their little ones to church.
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And as Mount Eaton family, we encourage and absolutely love them being here.
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So I want you to know, it's obvious that they're here, that we are so thankful that they are here with us
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and that you are here with us.
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As they learn to grow and as they learn these things, things change over time.
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And I just want to encourage you with those words.
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I think it's important that as it was in the early days of the church before Sunday school
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and quote unquote children's church, kids sat in church with their parents.
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And it's important that they hear and learn and develop and to grow in the faith with us together.
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So thank you, family, for being so gracious and understanding.
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And I want them to know that this is their home as well as it is ours.
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And they mean a whole lot to us.
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So if you would please stand as we read the Apostles Creed.
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Read with me.
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I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ,
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his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
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suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.
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He ascended into Hades.
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The third day he rose again from the dead.
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He ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
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From hence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
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I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,
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the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
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Amen. You may be seated.
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It's important that we continue to think about these orthodoxies.
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And orthodoxies are vitally important to continue to maintain the doctrines
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that are passed down from generation to generation.
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It was crucial for me, even in my life as a young boy, when I go to my dad's church,
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which would be once in a while, that I heard these things on a regular basis.
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And for some reason the church has, some churches have run away from orthodoxy
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because they're considered ritualistic or old.
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But when you hear the truths of that statement that the Apostles brought to us
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as a creed, as something to share from generation to generation,
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it gets instilled in the hearts and in the minds of our young people and they carry it.
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And in many cases it's like the beginning that causes a thirst and a hunger for God's Word
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because we hear the doctrines and truths that are in it.
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So we're going to be dealing with some of that today and dealing with what we think about,
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what we think about matters, what we think about matters.
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So before we get started I want to pray.
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Father, I want to thank you so much for your faithfulness and goodness.
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Thank you for your Word. Your Word is true. You are truth.
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We thank you that in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation
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you have given us everything for life and godliness to clearly show and to live out
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and to set our minds on things above, not on things of the earth.
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So Lord I pray that you would guide us that the full counsel of your Word is spoken.
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The Holy Spirit, you would implant your Word deep in our minds and our hearts
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and that it would produce fruit beyond measure.
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Lord we thank you, we praise you for your faithfulness and goodness
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and thank you Lord for your Word in Jesus' name, Amen.
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So I'm going to read Philippians 4, 4-7 and then we'll go right into verse 8.
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As you guys remember in Philippians 4-6 at the very end
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he says concerning the people of Philippi that your names are written in the book of life.
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So your names are written in the book of life.
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Therefore rejoice in the Lord always.
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Again I say, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
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Why? Because the Lord is at hand. He is near.
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And if He is near then do not be anxious about anything
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but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
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let your requests be known to God.
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And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding
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will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
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whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
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whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence,
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if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
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The question is how much of our mind, how much time and space and thought do we give to God?
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The reality is I think for many of us our minds get distracted
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because we are worried about everything else that is around us.
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We are not worried about thinking about Him
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regardless of what is happening in our lives.
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We are human and as a result we worry and we think and we ponder
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on all the things you can't control.
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And that is very similar to what was happening among Iorio and Suntuke.
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They were too worried about their battle with each other,
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their lack of peace with each other
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and not committed to the unity of the body.
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And so God reminds us again of what really matters.
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What happens to the mind when it gets distracted?
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When it thinks about everything else but Him?
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Well, Justin Peters calls it the disengaged mind.
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And here is a statement, the disengaged mind is the enemy of the Christian.
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It is not engaged in the things that matter,
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it is disengaged from the things that matter.
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It is disengaged from the truth of the Word of God,
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it is disengaged from the doctrine,
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it is disengaged from Christ Himself.
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We are too worried about other things
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and so our minds and our energy and our thoughts
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and all the things that matter that don't matter we think about
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but everything that does matter is an afterthought.
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Jesus reminds us of the importance of where our minds should be.
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In Matthew 22, 37 He says,
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And He said to them,
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
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with all your soul, and with all your mind.
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And in Luke it says,
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And with all your strength, with all your heart,
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the deepest part of man, with all our soul,
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with our inner being, with all our mind,
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with every thought set upon Christ,
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and with all our strength, with our physical body.
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What He is saying is that you shall love God
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with every single ounce of your being,
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material and immaterial.
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And so Paul reminds us this in Philippians 4, 8.
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He says, Finally.
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What's interesting about this word,
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finally means remaining the rest,
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or the rest of things that remain.
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In other words, out of everything I've just told you,
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along with all of these other remaining things.
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Brothers, whatever is true.
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What is the word true?
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The word true is literally true,
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loving the truth, speaking the truth, or truthfulness.
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Christ is truth.
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So whatever is true, whatever is of Christ,
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how much of Him is your mind occupied with?
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How important is He to you?
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How much time?
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Do people really look at the reality
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that you are totally, completely sold out for Jesus,
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and the main person that you think about most of the time is Him?
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Many would say, but you should also be thinking about your wife.
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If I'm thinking about Jesus,
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then I'm thinking about Jesus and my wife.
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Think about that.
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I don't think my wife's going to argue with that point.
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Whatever is honorable.
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The word honorable is respected or impressive,
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greatly respected.
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How much of God's things, His word, Him,
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do you look at as impressive or greatly respected?
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See, when you respect something, you think about it.
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You spend time pondering these things.
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Whatever is just.
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Now, many would think that this idea of justice, social justice,
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that's not what this word is.
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Actually, it's not a very good translation.
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This is one of the words in ESV that I'm like,
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eh, it could have picked a better word.
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But understanding what God is talking about here,
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this idea of just means righteous.
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Whatever is right, virtuous, upright.
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Only Christ is righteous.
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There's no one righteous, no, not one.
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He alone is righteous.
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And He alone is respected and should be respected.
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So whatever is righteous, do you think about these things?
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When I think about righteousness,
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I think about the ways of God.
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Which should be produced in our lives on a regular basis.
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Are we living righteously?
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I would say probably not because we don't think righteously.
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Whatever is pure.
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Actually, yeah, whatever is pure.
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And let me give you one more thing on the issue of righteous.
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It's also the idea of whatever is approved of or acceptable of God,
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holy, is Christ holy to you?
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Have you set apart Christ in your heart as holy?
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So whatever is pure.
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This word pure is the idea of sacred or perfect.
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The most holy thing.
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That's probably one of the reasons why as men,
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this is probably the one thing we struggle with the most as men.
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Because men think about other things.
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We don't think like women think.
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We're easily distracted just by vision.
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Easily distracted by our own desires.
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And I shared this in early service also.
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When we look at the reality of things being sacred or perfect or holy,
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have we really sanctified, have we really looked at the reality
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that Christ is the most holy thing?
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I think for us as men it's difficult.
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Then he says whatever is lovely, whatever is acceptable or pleasing.
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So if Christ is the sacred one, do I look at him as the lovely one?
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As he is acceptable and pleasing.
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And are my thoughts and my deeds acceptable and pleasing to him?
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Or do I just find things wrong?
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Whatever is commendable.
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Commendable is this idea of sounding well, well spoken of or reputable.
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Are our lives, do our thoughts reflect our lives?
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Do our thoughts in reality talk about what is well spoken of of my life?
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Am I above reproach?
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It's sort of like this idea of what a man thinks so he is.
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I like what Vodi Bakum says, a man doesn't do what he thinks,
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he does what he believes.
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Because eventually what you think about becomes what you believe.
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If you think little of Christ, then Christ will be little.
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But if you think great of Christ, the God of all creation,
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he will be the God of your life.
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We've talked about this before where we look at these things
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and we look at our lives as completely defeated.
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It's like everything I do I just never get by, it's never enough.
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I can never finish.
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Why do bad things always happen to me?
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How much time and thought does Christ leave with you?
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How much time do you give to him?
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And how much time do you spend listening or reading his word?
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How much time do you love him?
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Or do you only love him when you're in need?
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Is your life a life of a sacrifice to him as a fragrant offering?
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Is your life reputable?
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That's one of the things I think about, let my kids carry my name.
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And I want my name to be looked upon as a name that reflects Christ.
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That when they remember Cain, they don't remember me,
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but they remember Christ.
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The Cain family loves Jesus.
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That's what it means that we would be commendable, well spoken of.
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The second is, the last two is, if there is any excellence, any excellence,
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the word excellence here is virtuous course of thought,
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moral excellence, praise, or virtue.
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You notice it's not by accident that this idea of excellence is what you think about.
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You will do what you think about, I mean what you believe.
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What you believe is what you think about.
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How much time do you put on these thoughts?
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Because eventually you will believe it.
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If there's any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,
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this word praise is commendable,
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approbation, a very important word, this idea of worthy of all praise and glory.
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It's just worthy of everything that you have in you to bring.
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Because in reality if you don't praise, the rocks will praise.
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I think when we think about earthquakes, we look at them as a bad thing.
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I look at them really as the earth is praising God.
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If you're not going to do it, it's going to do it.
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So much so it shakes.
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When you think about the ocean and the ocean's roar, it praises God.
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When you think about the birds, the birds praise God.
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When you think about every animal that goes about and makes noise,
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whether it's the fox at night, it praises God.
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The earth and everything in it will praise God, even if God's people will not.
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Sadly I think that God's people complain more than they praise.
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How can we miss this moment of praise and glory to the only God of all creation?
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Well, because our minds are too focused on our problems
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and we miss the awesome, amazing, living God of all creation,
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the beautiful and lovely Christ.
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Colossians 3, 1-3 says this,
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If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
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where Christ is seated at the right hand of God,
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and set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
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For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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So not only should your minds be completely saturated with the reality of who Christ is,
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but you should be thinking about it all the time.
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You're probably like, but that's a Jesus freak.
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Exactly.
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You wonder why Christians live defeated lives.
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Because their mind isn't on the king.
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That doesn't mean that in our lives we're not going to struggle.
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In reality, if we reset our minds back on Christ, this is what it says.
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Here it is, last principle.
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Live in such a way that when others watch your life,
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they don't see you, they see Christ in you.
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Live in such a way that when others watch your life,
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they don't see you, they see Christ in you.
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That's what it says in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 21,
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for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you,
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leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.
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Philippians 4.9, what you have learned.
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And what you have learned, you have received.
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And what you have received, you have heard.
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And what you have heard, you have seen.
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And be careful in this when you have learned, and received,
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and heard, and seen in me, practice these things.
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It's interesting that Paul tells Timothy,
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Timothy follow me as I follow Christ.
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The Christian life is meant to be modeled.
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learned and received and heard but seen and not only seen but modeled practiced
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lived out why so that you will follow you have godly men who love Christ who
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live above reproach before you all the time we are here as examples for you to
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follow not only follow but you have learned and not only are you learning
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but you're receiving and not only are you see receiving you are hearing now
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all the time and not only have you heard but you have seen you can live the life
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that Christ has called you to live even in the midst of difficult and suffering
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times and so this is what Paul ends with that when you practice these things
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when you when you practice what when you practice whatever isn't true whatever is
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honorable whatever is righteous whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is
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commendable if there's any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise set
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your mind on these things think about these things why because the peace of
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God the God of peace will be with you it's an imperative not that he's maybe
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he will and what does he what else does he say what else does he say in verse
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seven he says and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard
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your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus you notice the continual far here
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if our minds are on Christ we don't have to be anxious if we think about Christ
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we don't have to be anxious that doesn't mean life's not gonna happen it means I
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don't have to be anxious about it why because he's near he is with me he is
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literally in me and with me all the time I can call upon him anytime I need him
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the problem is we want the answer now we want the fast food Jesus and that's not
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the way God works why well he doesn't work that way because he has predestined
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you to be conformed into the image of his son God doesn't take away your stuff
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because it's difficult because he has a bigger plan in your life than your
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comfort his plan is to conform you into the image of Jesus without those things
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you won't know and learn and develop the tools that are necessary in your mind
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to think about him all the time learning to suffer well is the reality of the
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character of surrender but learning to praise him in the midst of the good and
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the bad is the reality of honor and peace
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Christ is all you need he has given you everything you need for life and
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godliness you need nothing but what's occupying your mind is it the things
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that are true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable are you
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seeking to do all things in excellence is is your life filled with the worthy
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things of praise what do you think about it's one thing that think about these
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things it's another to literally live them so whatever you have learned
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whatever you've received and whatever you've heard and whatever you have seen
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in me Paul says and as as your pastor my greatest passion is to live out Christ
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and I'm not perfect at it but man when he has the heart of the men of your
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church follow and practice these things test them out prove us to be true and if
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you prove us to be false then run but the men of God when they are living
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according to the truth of the Word of God when you get that you hold on to it
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practice these things and the God of peace will be with you father I want to
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thank you so much for your faithfulness and goodness thank you for your holiness
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thank you that you have given us everything for life and godliness thank
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you that you have you have called us implored us and treated us to think
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about whatever is true and honorable just and pure and lovely and commendable
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that you have called us to excellence and to be to be thinking about the things
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that are worthy of praise help us to walk intimately with you in all things to
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love you supremely more than we love anything and anyone else help us to be a
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light in a very dark dark generation or do we praise you and thank you in Jesus
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name amen