We open our Bibles together to the Memory Verse and the text for today's message, Philippians
4 verse 8.
We have already heard it sung to us, but listen as we read it from the New American Standard
Version.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if
anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
Medical science has learned how to transplant a number of the organs of the body, but there
is one organ that cannot be transplanted because it's the one that controls all of the rest
of them.
Of course, that's the brain.
The average weight of the human brain is three pounds, some of us a little more, some of
us a little less maybe.
The average human brain contains 12 billion cells.
Each cell is connected to 10,000 other brain cells, totaling in your brain 120 trillion
connections.
Now you don't have to wonder why you forget things every now and then, do you, with that
many connections?
And when you want to give somebody a piece of your mind, you've got some extra there,
don't you?
120 trillion connections.
Dr. Duane Gish, a scientist, has said that the human brain is the most complex arrangement
of matter in the universe.
Much of your brain is given to the functioning of your mind, the intellectual part of you.
The mind houses your memory, your intuition, your conscience, your reasoning ability, your
sexuality, and much more.
Everything you experience with your senses, and we now are told that there are some 17
senses that we have, everything recorded is recorded in your brain.
Most of that of course is in the subconscious mind, and it cannot be accessed simply by
your choosing to access it.
However it's interesting is that how one thought can trigger another thought which immediately
accesses a file in your brain in the subconscious so that you recall an experience long forgotten.
It's interesting how smells can do that.
You smell something baking perhaps and immediately your mind goes back to the childhood when
grandma or mom were making that same dish or something like it.
The brain oversees the involuntary functions of your body such as the beating of your heart.
They happen automatically.
You don't have to think about those things.
But it also of course controls the voluntary functions, those functions that you and I
can control.
Of those that we can control there are perhaps four major areas.
What we see, what we hear, what we communicate, and how we think.
A great deal of our lives is determined by those voluntary functions I just named.
What we see, hear, say, and how we think.
We choose all of those.
And what we allow our minds to dwell on, the sights, the sounds, the thought patterns.
Those determine the kind of people that you and I become.
It is no wonder that the mind is the battleground in our spiritual experience.
So we have an enemy who is determined to destroy us.
And if he can influence us in our thoughts, he knows that the victory will be his.
Our thinking ultimately determines our character.
Learning to control our thoughts and to fill our minds is essential to spiritual advance.
How do we do that?
How do we learn to control what fills our minds?
Well I believe that there are some defensive actions that we can take as well as some offensive
actions.
I'd like to talk about them this morning.
The mind and I can control what we dwell on, first of all by taking some defensive actions.
Now when I say that, the assumption is that we are under attack and of course we are.
Let's back up a few pages in the New Testament to Ephesians chapter 6.
We are told here the nature of the warfare that we are in.
We are under attack as the children of God.
That's why we are told in verse 11, put on the full armor of God that you may be able
to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly realm.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day
and having done everything to stand firm.
You and I are in a battle.
It is a battle that takes place in our minds.
It is pictured here as hand to hand combat.
We are told that we are to resist and to stand firm against the evil one in this warfare
that focuses on our minds.
He mentions in verse 16 the flaming missiles of the evil one.
The flaming missiles of the devil are thoughts that he puts into our minds.
There was a time many years ago when as a young Christian I thought that I should never
speak my prayers out loud.
I should only think them because then the devil wouldn't know what I was praying.
And how foolish I was because the thoughts are where the devil works.
That's his realm.
He knows the thoughts and that's where he shoots his flaming arrows or his flaming missiles.
The thoughts that he puts there, or any of our thoughts for that matter, become the door
to our soul.
What we think about opens the door to the innermost part of us, our intellect, our emotions
and our will.
Therefore we must stand guard at the door of our minds.
And when we sense a flaming missile or a temptation come, then we should immediately sound the
alarm system that we're under attack.
And when we're under attack there are some defensive actions that we can take.
He suggests a couple of them here in our Ephesians 6 text, verses 16 and 17.
Just picking out a couple of them because the whole armor of God is for our defense.
Let me point out to the shield of faith mentioned in verse 16.
Taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery missiles
of the evil one.
Not some of them, not a few of them, but all of them.
In other words, the shield of faith is so effective that with it you and I, if we learn
to wield it well, can extinguish all of the flaming missiles that Satan sends into our
minds.
In verse 17 he says, and take the helmet of salvation.
Remember the helmet fits over the head where we think.
He talks about the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.
When we're under attack what we should immediately do as soon as we're aware of the fact we're
under attack is to raise up the shield of faith which means what we believe to be true
about God.
The truth that we believe in the Bible, that becomes our shield.
It will quench those fiery darts of the evil one.
Let's suppose that your mind is filled with fear and anxiety.
Whatever the situation may be, you're just overcome with thoughts of worry and anxiety
about the future of what may happen or what if.
What kind of shield can you put up to protect you against those kinds of flaming missiles?
Well, one suggestion would be 1 Peter 5, 7.
Casting all your care, all of your anxieties upon him for he, what?
He cares for you.
What do I believe about God?
Excuse me, that should protect me from anxiety.
I believe that he cares for me and that whatever issues there are that I'm facing that are
uncertain and fearful.
But he's in the midst of those and because he cares for me, I don't have to be afraid.
I believe that God cares for me.
That becomes a shield of faith and though there are tempting thoughts that come to me
like arrows flaming with anxiety, when they hit that truth, he cares for me.
They're extinguished.
The shield of faith, the sword of the spirit.
What about thoughts of doubt?
We wonder if God really is coming through on this one.
We have prayed and prayed and prayed and it seems as though the answer is not coming,
at least the answer we were looking for.
And so we begin to doubt, begins to eat away at our joy and we wonder whether God really
has blown it this time.
What kind of a shield can you lift to that?
Well, one might be 1 Thessalonians 5.24, faithful is he that calls you who also will do it.
Faithful is he that has called you who also will do it.
And so when the doubts come flying into your minds, Satan draws back the bow and that flaming
arrow comes in to question God.
Faithful is he that calls you.
Faithful means that God doesn't fail, friend.
And it puts out the flaming arrow.
What about thoughts of lust?
What about proud thoughts or selfishness?
To each of those there are shields of faith that you and I can lift.
What we believe about God, what the truth is that the Bible teaches us, when we lift
that shield the thought is extinguished, it's defensive and it works.
The neat thing about it is that when we plug in the word of God, it acts as the sword of
the spirit too, which disarms the devil.
And so not only is that negative thought extinguished, but a positive thought is put in its place
and that's a very important principle.
Use the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, that's our first action.
Let me suggest a second action that's defensive in nature.
We're under attack, how do we defend ourselves?
Let me suggest secondly cry out to God for deliverance, prayer.
Ephesians 6, 18, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit.
That becomes our resource, our energy, of which we're able to stand against the enemy as he
puts pressure on us.
Every one of us is under some kind of pressure this morning.
Which of us is not in some kind of a battle, a battle that is focused on the mind, on the
way that we think, upon the thoughts that are there.
Prayer is our cry to God for deliverance.
With a couple of Psalms, turn back to Psalm 34, David feels pressure.
He is in the land of the Philistines, his enemies actually.
He has fled there out of fear of Saul and they have discovered who he is.
And he's afraid that he's going to be killed.
That's what's going on in his mind, anxiety and fear, fear of death.
He says in verse 4 of Psalm 34, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from
all my fears.
His thoughts that were filled with anxiety, they looked at him and were radiant and their
faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them.
You understand when you cry out to the Lord, God responds to that.
He sends an angel to deliver you from that spiritual warfare.
The angel of the Lord camps round about you and he delivers you from the pressure and
the presence of that enemy who is shooting those fiery arrows into your mind.
And over to Psalm 91.
Again the psalmist is afraid.
Verse 5 mentions that.
Destruction is at hand.
Psalm 91 verse 11, For he will give his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all
your ways.
They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and cobra.
The young lion and the serpent you will trample down, because he has loved me.
Therefore I will deliver him.
I will set him securely on high, because he has known my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and honor him.
Those are the words of the Lord.
You and I are under attack mentally.
When thoughts are flying through our minds that are negative and ungodly and destructive,
you and I can cry to the Lord, and the Lord hears us, and the Lord answers.
And the Lord sends his angels to guard us and to protect us against the enemy.
You and I can guard our minds by taking these defensive actions when we're under attack.
Do not allow your mind to be infiltrated by the enemy.
That's the basic rule of thumb.
That's the principle that we're to follow, but the fact is that Satan does infiltrate
our minds, and when he does, we need to take corrective actions.
I wish I had time to develop that.
I don't this morning, but let me just drop a couple of things into your thoughts about
it.
When Satan has infiltrated our minds, and when our thoughts have progressed down the
path toward negativism, toward sin, toward fear, toward doubt, when Satan has already
breached the wall and he's involved in our thinking process, what do we need to do to
correct it?
First of all, we need to reprogram our thoughts.
We need to isolate what we're thinking.
We need to step back and look at ourselves for just a moment and analyze our thoughts.
The apostle says in Philippians 4.8, think on these things.
Most of us just have to stop with that first word, first of all, think, because too often
we don't take the initiative in our thoughts.
We simply allow to come into our minds whatever we receive, and that is so dangerous.
Think on these things.
Reprogram your thoughts.
See what you're thinking that's wrong and correct it.
Say to yourself, that is a lie.
Instead of thinking that, I am now going to think this and put truth into your mind, and
then keep telling yourself the truth.
Talk with yourself.
Tell yourself what is true as opposed to what you have been thinking, what Satan has put
there.
Let me say this too, to all of us in the battle.
Do not be discouraged by the frequency of temptation.
Perhaps you feel that you've just been overcome and overcome and overcome in your thought
life.
Listen, when you begin to battle against patterns, especially long ingrained patterns, it takes
time.
It takes time for those patterns to be replaced by new and healthy and godly ones.
So don't be discouraged by temptation and don't be discouraged when you fall.
Acknowledge your failure, your sin, and then come right back strongly against the enemy,
telling yourself the truth, programming your thoughts according to what God would have
you think.
But let me talk about the offensive actions, because these are perhaps even more important
than what we've talked about.
Because you see, there are some things that we can do to avoid the battle.
That's better than being in it.
What can we do to diminish the battle, at least, if not avoid it?
Well, it's often said that a good offense is the best defense, and that's right.
What are the preventative actions that we can take?
The offensive actions.
So that we're not on the defenses, but we're taking the initiative.
Number one, establish a screen to sift your thoughts.
When you do that, you will begin accepting through that screen only the acceptable thoughts.
I'd like us to go back and look at Philippians 4.8 more closely.
What we have in Philippians 4.8 is really a system of filters.
The apostle says, think on these things.
The idea is let these things filter out the thoughts that you want to keep for your mind.
Let the others go on.
Whatever is true, he says.
Why is it we are so prone to jump on the lie and to believe that?
That's the humanist in us, I guess.
He says, sift out what is true and keep that.
Let the lies go on through.
He says, whatever is honorable, that is, whatever is respectable, whatever is dignified, whatever
is right, not what is wrong, let the wrong go on through.
Let the dishonorable go on through, but hang on to that which is right and pure.
Let the defiling thoughts pass on through.
Don't hang on to them.
Don't focus on them.
Hang on to the pure, the lovely, the ugly, do away with.
But that which is acceptable and graciously attractive, hang on to those things.
That which is of good repute or good report, which is fair speaking as the literal translation.
So often we tend to remember the negative reports, the bad reports, the unhappy things
that we hear about.
He says, don't keep those in your mind.
Don't waste garbage.
Let it go.
Hang on to the good reports and that which is excellent.
The word here is the most comprehensive of all the Greek words for that which is morally
excellent or is of a high moral quality.
He says, hang on to those things.
What are you programming into your mind?
He says, hang on to that which is praiseworthy, not that which is self-condemned by the very
nature of it, but that which is worth praise.
That which if you display to others, they will be uplifted by it.
Be praised for that.
Hang on to those things.
You go down the list of these eight filters and you will find that every one of them is
positive.
They are healthy both mentally and spiritually.
To disregard these filters and to think on the negative opposites, that is the untrue,
the dishonorable, the wrong, the impure, and so on.
To think on those things is unhealthy both mentally and spiritually.
There are many people who have mental problems today because they have programmed into their
minds the opposite of what is in verse 8 of Philippians 4.
By the way, if you take the opposite of every one of those things in verse 8, what you really
have is a description of our entertainment industry today.
You talk about television, you talk about movies, you talk about most comedians.
These are the kinds of things that they talk about, just the opposite of Philippians 4.8.
You look at the art world today.
You find that the subject of a lot of modern art is just the opposite of Philippians 4.8.
There are wonderful exceptions to that.
I'm speaking generally.
Isn't that true?
So what do we allow our minds to think about?
Well, we turn on the television and we just accept whatever comes over.
And when we do that, without a screen up there, we are programming our minds toward the negative
and toward the destructive, not only for our minds but for our spirits.
I am tempted to meddle, and I think I will.
I am just disgusted with the cable TV channels in our area.
I am disgusted with the kind of pornography that they are now putting into our homes.
You say, well, you don't have to watch it.
That's true.
If you've got the right kind of receiver, you can't even get it into your home.
But you know what concerns me?
I don't get it into my home, but my neighbor does.
And so he's been programmed with the kind of stuff that's coming over cable TV in our
community, the kind of stuff on some channels that is degrading to women, degrading to children.
And we should not be surprised when the crime rate in our area begins to go up in violent
crimes against women and against children because we are allowing it into our homes,
particularly through cable television.
But some people used to have to go downtown and pay for it in a booth.
They can now get it in their own living rooms.
It is so accessible and so private that there is no longer any qualm.
They think there's no shame.
They're not going to get caught watching it there.
The problem is, I mean, there are those who say, well, they're adults.
Let them do what they want to do, and I'll do what I want to do.
That's fine, except that it degrades the whole community.
It endangers the women and children of our whole community.
The quality of life in our whole community is brought lower.
If you've not yet called your cable company, if you get cable to complain about what they
have on their offerings, I hope you will do it this week.
In fact, I would like to see a movement get started, at least with North Central Cable
Company, a movement get started among some of God's people that will put pressure on
them to reduce, if not entirely remove, the kind of offerings they have.
I haven't yet found somebody willing to do that.
If there's somebody here willing who wants to get into that battle, drop me a note and
let me know.
Well, having got that off my chest, my point is very simple.
We need to establish a screen to assist our thoughts because we are constantly bombarded
in the society we live in with the negative and with the impure and with the lies and
with the evil reports.
If we don't have that screen up there, that's the way we're going to go too because our
thinking determines what we become.
The second offensive thing that you and I can do is to avoid places, people, and circumstances
that trigger temptation.
Those places that badly affect us in our thoughts.
At least twice, Paul told Timothy, flee.
There are some things that you and I are absolutely to stay away from.
Flee these things, O godly man, he says to Timothy.
He says, flee, youthful us.
There are some places that no Christian ought ever to be.
There are some places that some of us cannot go because if we go there, we are playing
with temptation.
And yet I've said to myself, and maybe you have too, well I think just this once and
the reason I'm going to go there is to test myself and show myself that these thoughts
won't ensue.
We deceive ourselves so easily, don't we?
Don't play with it.
Don't seek to test yourself.
There'd be enough tests without you testing yourself.
There are some people that we can't run around with.
Paul said to the Corinthians, and when he said it he was quoting a Greek poet, Menander.
He said bad morals, excuse me, bad company corrupts good morals.
There are some people that you and I simply cannot be around without being corrupted.
We ought not to be around them.
We have to stay away from them.
Sad to say there are some Christians, or professing Christians at least, that some of us can't
even be around.
Because to be around them is to be dragged into gossip or into criticism and bad reports.
I think of one person who had a Bible study and who was known for gossip and evil reports
and in the Bible study had occasions to intersperse those kinds of thoughts and the result was
everybody in the Bible study dropped out of that church.
Why?
Because bad company corrupts good morals.
Notice it doesn't say there that good morals correct bad company because that rarely, rarely
ever happens.
The natural process is the other way around.
A little love and leaveneth the whole lump.
And so we need to avoid places, people, and circumstances that trigger temptation in our
thought life.
And then a third offensive action that we can take and most important, meditate on the
Lord, on his word and his works.
The psalmist said, I will meditate on thy precepts and regard thy ways.
He said, even though princes sit and talk against me, thy servant meditates on thy statutes.
When somebody's talking against you, what do you tend to think about?
That person, what they're saying and why they're doing that and how we can defend ourselves.
The psalmist said, though they sit and talk against me, thy servant meditates on thy statutes.
He doesn't meditate on revenge.
He doesn't meditate on the negative, but the word of God.
Thy testimonies also are my delight, my counselors.
There ought to be a conversation going on inside of us with the word of God.
Oh, how I love thy law, he says, it is my meditation all the day.
Thy commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation.
We're going to talk more about this in a few weeks, but meditate on the Lord, his work
and his works.
The word of God will cause us to think right, so that then we are less susceptible to the
attacks to the lies of the enemy.
Meditating on the word of God renews our minds.
Romans 12, one and two.
The renewing of our minds, that's an offensive thing.
We take the initiative, and by that renewing process, then we avoid some battles and others
are diminished.
These are qualities that should characterize our thoughts, aren't they?
When you and I allow our minds to be filled with lies, we become gullible.
When we allow our minds to be filled with the unclean, we will become impure.
When we allow our minds to be filled with evil reports, we will become gossips.
When we allow our minds to be filled with anger, we will become vengeful.
When we allow our minds to be filled with hatred, we will become murderous.
When we allow our minds to be filled with covetousness, we will become miserly.
When we allow our minds to be filled with self-centeredness, we will become complaining
and ungrateful.
You see, what we think determines what we become.
Our thinking determines our character.
What's the old computer statement?
G-I-G-O?
Garbage in what?
What we think determines what we become and how we live.
When we allow our minds to be filled with truth, we become discerning.
When we allow our minds to be filled with that which is pure, we become loving, not
lusting.
When we allow our minds to be filled with good reports, then we become encouraging.
When we allow our minds to be filled with wisdom, we become understanding.
When we allow our minds to be filled with generosity, we become joyful.
When we allow our minds to be filled with humility, we become grateful.
When we allow our minds to be filled with faith, we become trusting.
When we allow our minds to be filled with hope, we become confident.
When we allow our minds to be filled with love, we are fulfilled.
And so it is important for each of us to look within, to determine what am I thinking about?
What fills my mind?
I would challenge you to stand back and look at your mind this morning as though you were
a third party.
Just step outside of yourself and look at your thought patterns.
See that portrait of yourself as exposed in your mind.
What do you see?
What are you thinking about?
What is your character?
What are you becoming?
Of course, where in any of that displeases God, it's also going to be destructive to
us, to our well-being, to our spiritual and mental health.
You see, when it displeases God, the reason it displeases God is because it hurts us,
because God loves us.
What we need to do is to determine to take action.
Whatever action is necessary, defensive or offensive, to lock the doors to the bad and
to open the doors to the good.
My challenge to you, as it is to myself on this Lord's Day, present your mind, your
conscious, your subconscious, your imagination.
Take that to God.
Surrender it to Him.
Begin a new thought pattern from this point on today.
A thought pattern that says, Jesus Christ is Lord, and to Him I yield up my mind, and
by His grace I will lock the doors to the bad, to the negative, to the destructive,
to the sinful.
I will lock the doors to those things, and I open the door of my mind to that which is
positive, and that which is healthy, and that which comes from God, and that which will
edify others, that which will pass the test.
Let's pray.
With our heads bowed and as our minds ponder what we've heard, I wonder right where you're
seated if you would say, Lord Jesus, wherein there are thought patterns in my mind that
I've allowed that displease you and destroy me.
Would you ask the Lord to show you how to apply the truth we've talked about this morning?
My fellow Christians, think on these things, and the peace of God that passes all understanding
shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Father speak with a voice that we cannot deny, and apply to our lives with a force that we
cannot resist, and renew us in our thinking in Jesus' name.
Amen.