Stand Firm

All right, good morning. It’s good to be with you if you’re joining us online, Thanks for joining us. It has been really fun. It’s been a pleasure to be working through Philippians and so today we’re gonna reach the last chapter we’re in, starting chapter four and this is really just been paul all throughout talking to the Philippians church as he is encouraging them, he is exhorting them to live a godly life in christ, jesus, right? That’s what he’s been calling them to do the whole time and they’re facing a lot of challenges, right? They got these external challenges. They have some internal challenges. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought to yourself, I believe I have at some point where it’s like, man, if I could have just lived in the time of jesus, with, you know, to see jesus, I mean, faith would be so much easier, or at least the time of the apostles and the disciples, it would just be so much easier, right, because the historical gap wouldn’t be there, and and it was just faith would be so much different. And then you look at some of the challenges and trials that these churches and the christians were going through, and you’re like, you know, but I would pass on that, I would, you know, so every epic of time, every period of time has its challenges, and there are external forces, there are internal forces that wage war against our soul. And so paul’s really talking to the church saying stand firm, right, if you get this chapter four in the first nine verses is what we’re covering. Chapter four, verses one through nine. It just seems kind of like a shotgun approach where he’s hitting this and then he’s hitting this and he pivots over here. And then it’s like, what draws this stuff together? How is this connected? And it’s really by verse one where he’s saying to stand firm, right, this is what’s gonna hold our topic together today, as he calls us, just as he called the Philippians to stand firm. And so we’re gonna work verse three verse. So if you have a bible, open your bible Philippians four, I’m gonna start right here in verse one Verse one says this. So then my dearly loved and long for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown in this manner, stand firm in the Lord Dear friends any time we see it, right? So then it’s very similar to a, therefore it’s connecting, it’s a connecting word where it’s saying, hey, I’ve been talking about all these things. So then right therefore do this. What did he tell us? He says stand firm. We’ve been talking about all these things and I’m gonna reiterate and I’m going to summarize all these things I was just talking about. But ultimately I need you to stand firm in the Lord, right? Not in your knowledge, not in your friends, not in this church, not in science and nothing else, but the Lord. Everything else is on shaky ground If it’s not firmly planted in the Lord. So he tells us to stand firm in the Lord. And this is a common phrase that’s going to get used throughout Philippians four. And if you’ve ever heard kind of a threefold attack on our faith would be, you know, they would say, hey there, the devil, the world in your flesh. But these these things are going to fight and wage war against living a faithful life. Just these are areas that we have to be engaged in the battle. Otherwise they will take us out. And he’s going back again to chapter one verse 27 says, as citizens of Heaven live your life worthy of the Gospel of christ, then whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending for the faith of the Gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents. And we talked about it a couple weeks ago about how paul uses this battle language, this war language. We have opponents that are waging war against our soul and they want to knock us off balance. They want to swipe our feet out from underneath of us. Are equilibrium is going to be thrown off by some of these forces that are opposing us. And I think about a rugby scrum, right? If you’ve ever, we’ve had some teammates, they play rugby and any sport really you engage in, you’re trying to get a good base if you’re playing basketball right, you gotta have a good base resting. You’ve got a good base. Rugby I think is a really interesting one because rugby, you’re not only getting a good base, but now you are linked arm in arm with the people right beside you and you are tightly held together and you are bent over and you have this firm base and you are now head to head with your opponent, waiting for the rugby ball to be thrown in between. And then boom, you cli right, quite a sport, but it’s uh but the strength comes not because the guys are just individually standing firm, which we are called to do as believers to individually stand firm. But then now they’re linked arm in arm with each other and there’s an additional strength as we’re trying to stand firm because there are things that are going to try to knock me off balance and you off balance. And when we’re connected with the body and were drawn together, we have an additional strength, which is why God calls us together as the church. But he says, ultimately, no matter what situation you’re in, we have to stand firm. And so I broke our section down into five areas and like I said, there’s external and there’s kind of more internal type of forces. And we’re gonna look at some of the ones that are, what I would say is a little bit more internal where we have some control over. There’s some things out there that I cannot control. There’s a lot of things out there I cannot control. But there are things within me that I can make choices about that. I have lots of control over. And paul is going to call out these believers here to say, hey, here’s these five areas. You need to contend for the faith in. You need to stand firm in these areas. And so, looking at the next verse here, Philippians for four versus 2 and three says, I urge you to and I urge synthes, e to agree in the Lord. Yes. I also ask you true partner to help these women who have contended for the Gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the Book of Life. So Unity, we need to fight for Unity at the opposite of that would be this unity and division. That’s not what we want, That is not what God wants for us. And so we have to fight for unity. How would you like to be these women? Right? They get this letter from paul, you know, he’s got this amazing relationship with the church, and they’re reading this letter and they get the chapter four and they’re like, you hear your name, and then it’s like, stop arguing. You’re like, oh, that’s me. I just got called out by an apostle just to stop in front of everyone. Like, this is not like you’re reading it in private, they’re reading it to everyone. It’s like, oh my goodness, if you’ve ever been called out in public in any way, shape or form, it is really uncomfortable. You you feel like you’re like an inch tall, you’re like, oh you just shrink back. But it’s that important that he would call out these women to stop arguing. And it’s not like it was some doctrinal issue. It would have been a doctrinal issue, paul would have been, he would have corrected the wrong, thinking he would have corrected the doctrinal issue, but it’s not, it must have been just something they had an opinion about and they were bumping heads and they are arguing and so he calls them to be united in the Lord. He’s saying whatever you’re arguing about. Somehow though right, it paul’s in prison in Rome and it reaches him and then it comes back in a letter like, this is not something that just happened overnight. This has been going on. It must have been some time to reach him and then make it back and he’s saying give it up like this is this is not worth it. What you’re fighting about is not worth it. Be united in the Lord. We’re trying to contend for the same faith, We have plenty of things to fight for outside of this. Last thing we need is internal contention. And what you’re fighting about is not even important to the faith. He’s telling him, stop it. Division and conflict will destroy and that end result. It will destroy things, it will destroy your marriage, it will destroy your family, it will destroy a church, you allow division and divisiveness and then where that will lead you mentally and physically, it will destroy things. Mark 3 25. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And this was talking about when jesus was casting out demons and they’re like, you know, is the king of demons, and like, it doesn’t work that way, why would I do that? Right? House divided against itself is not going to stand, and the church divided against itself is not going to stand. And so can you imagine how, how divisive and just how strategic it would be to be able to plant the seed within the church to cause division from within right? That would be the ultimate goal we’re saying can just divide churches, separate them because they don’t stand and they don’t stand a chance as a testimony to the world too. People look at that and they’re like that, like, you want me to accept jesus, and this is what I get. I don’t want none of that. That’s terrible. It ruins the testimony. It destroys all the things that God is working to do to for us to be living out a godly life and to be reflecting that in our community and our neighborhoods. And it destroys your testimony then to be able to share the gospel. Why would someone listen? Hey, come to my church. We hate each other. But you should come. It’s like that makes no sense, right? The unity is what attracts people. There’s plenty of device in this out there. Right? We did a, we did that. We call him LT’s our leadership training. Just this last monday. We brought in a guy, he’s uh, been serving churches for decades. His name is Mark Elliott. He’s a regional leader of the Heartland network and, and he just went over with our leaders, uh, some conflict resolution, some conflict identification. Where it was kind of cool. You could kind of go through these questions and you’d see how do you generally respond to you in conflict? You tend to get aggressive. Are you defensive or do you kind of get passive and evasive and you can see how you generally react and then well how does that, how do they interact with one another? And so we could take that and say, well we need to get better in these areas because conflict is something we need to understand how to resolve from a biblical perspective because the straight fact is you and I are sinners, there’s gonna be conflict, there’s gonna be conflict in your marriage, there’s gonna be conflict in your family, there’s gonna be conflict in the church that that’s sadly just part of human nature. But what we do with that God is very clear about and we need to resolve conflict in a Godly way. So many of you probably know with conflict Matthew 18 is a great place to go. But here’s a, here’s a couple of things that he asked. I just thought they were good nuggets of truth. We probably know these things, but it’s just a good reminder when it comes to conflict. And one of the questions you asked, whose responsibility is it to bring that to light right to if I’m the one who’s offended or the offender, whose responsibility is it to seek reconciliation to bring that forward. And a lot of times we can think, well of course the person who offended, but the bible says, no, no, it’s both, it’s both as a believer. It is everyone’s responsibility to seek restoration in conflict. Whether you are the one offended or you’re the one who offended somebody else. As the offender says. Therefore if you’re offering your gift on the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, you did something to them and they have something against you. Leave your gift there in front of the altar first. Go on being reconciled with your brother and coming off of your gift, It’s that important that you’re offering a gift to the Lord. He says, no, no, no. You stop right now and you go reconcile with your brother right now and then come back and offer your gift. And then on the flip side. So, as if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. So whether you’re the one of whose offended somebody or the one who is offended, we’re both called to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. On the one side, right? If you’re offended, you know you’re offended. If you’re the offenders, sometimes you don’t even know you offended somebody. So there’s both both need to play a part in this One thing he called out to is, well, who do I tell? If I’m offended? Who do I tell? It’s pretty clear, right? If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault between you and him alone, we kind of have this thing where we justify it by saying, well, I’m going to talk to this guy and then these other five guys about tell him what happened. And then, you know, they can give me counsel if I should go seek reconciliation. And it’s like, no, if you’re hurt, go seek reconciliation. I don’t need to tell 10 people and explain the story and then shed light on something, right? When I have half the side of the story as proverbs, 18 17 tells us, and then it just go to them in person, one on one and share that. And that is that is the best way to them be reconciled Other than telling 10 other people. Then all of a sudden the person who, who offended you doesn’t even know the bible is very clear on that. And yeah, there’s a process, right? They say no, I’m out, I’m not dealing with this Again, Matthew 18 says, Okay, well there’s a time to bring somebody else if you won’t listen, take one or two others with you. So that by the testimony of two or three witnesses, every fact may be established. This is why paul says, hey, you know, uh, my uh he says Clement and my true brother, which is actually a name. So we don’t know if it’s a name of a person, which could easily be, hey, you two guys step in, help resolve this, they’re butting heads and it’s not going anywhere. Help them out, paul calls out and flipping for guys, help him, don’t let this go on, it’s going to cause a problem a bigger problem. And I think about even, you know, in our, in our marriage hand and I like, hey, when there’s times when you’re just, you’re just butting heads and it just doesn’t seem like you’re going anywhere. We have an older couple has just been incredibly kind and generous to us and they’re Godly and we go sit with them and it’s like, you know, general at the end of the time, it’s not like, yep, she had to apologize usually, you know, I had to apologize and she had to apologize and were reconciled and it’s good. It’s sometimes you just need a godly older couple to help sit with you and help you move on, help you go forward again. That’s the strength of the body. That’s that’s the strength of believers who have been there and done that. So we need to strive for peace. Think about Ephesians four. I urge you to walk worthy of the calling you’ve received with all humility and gentleness, with patients bearing, with one another in love. Making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. That is a hard statement right there. I have to walk in humility and gentleness and patience. I have to fight for the unity, even if I’m the one who is offended, I’m going to fight for reconciliation and resolution in unity Romans 1218, if possible, as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone. I remember counseling someone where they’re like, I’ve been offended and they need to apologize. I’m not gonna apologize until they apologize. And I said, you don’t stand before God for their side of the story, for what they need to do. You’re going to stand before God for your portion of it, and you have to walk in humility, and you have to walk in gentleness, and you are going to stand before God one day, and he’s gonna say, no, it wasn’t. You apologize if he apologizes, you take care of your side, you can’t control the other side, but generally humility promotes additional humility. And so they may or may not ask for, ask for forgiveness, You can’t control that. But what I can control is my portion of it, and I’m gonna walk humbly before God, and I’m gonna fight for unity, in my family, in my church, in my relationships, and I’m going to own my side and that that is everything I can do. And then I can stand before God. And I can say at the end of that day, as far as it depended on me, I was striving for unity. I was striving to live at peace with everybody. It may not always happen. But that’s what I will strive for. The next one is joy. He moves on. He says, Hey, rejoice always right. The other side of that joy, right? If you don’t have joy, maybe it’s despair or depression. There’s this Weight on your heart. So Philippians four, rejoice in the Lord Always. I say it again, rejoice. This is a command. Right? So this is not like a suggestion. Hey, if things are going well, you should be really, you should be rejoicing. You should have joy of, you know, works good. Marriage is good. Life is good. There’s no heart aches, no hardships. That’s not what he says. He writes this from prison where he says to rejoice always. He writes to the Philippians who are being persecuted, who are dirt poor, like a poor. We don’t know poor. And he tells them he commands them to rejoice. So it’s not this circumstantial rejoice. If things are good, it’s rejoice always. And he says it in the Lord, it’s not based on your circumstances, it’s not based on how things are going. No, your joy comes from the Lord Second Corinthians paul is here telling about how he’s contrasting all these situations that he’s in and yet how he rejoices. He’s like we were grieving. And yet we’re always rejoicing were poor. Yet we’re enriching many having nothing, yet possessing everything right there. He knew how he was blessed and how he could rejoice because of his relationship with God. Here’s a quote from one commentator says, most people think that joy that you get joy when you get what you desire. But real joy comes from what you realize that you deserve. That is a picture of the Gospel when we understand that we deserve hell, we deserve judgment. That our sin has a penalty to it, that there’s a cost to it, that death is that cost. And then when we realize that we can’t cover that ourselves, that we can’t were not sufficient in any of our works to negate sin in the effects of it on our life. But that jesus came and died for us and that he paid that and that he knows what’s best for us and he loves us. This is an endless well of rejoicing and that’s what our joy hangs on, so life won’t be perfect. You know that I know that right? You might have disappointments many different disappointments throughout your life, you might have health issues, you might experience failure different kinds, You might have financial struggle, relationship struggles. But if these if these are like what life’s joy is derived from, then yeah, you will, you will experience that despair. You will experience a hopelessness, helplessness. If things are not going your way, you’ll probably experience uh super high high when they are, but all all these things come crashing down and it’s going to be the other side of that far worse. And so it’s just this roller coaster of how life is going and paul says no right, you got to stand firm and draw from the Well of Salvation, Isaiah says. It also says you will joyfully draw from the joyed, you will joyfully draw water from the Springs of Salvation. It is from my Salvation, the goodness of God that I recognize and draw out joy that I can rejoice in all circumstances. Because I remember my Salvation God self racing, brings that joy, that confidence, that strength to be able to stand firm. There’s also a graciousness that we’re called to in verse five. Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near the opposite of that graciousness would be an abrasive, contentious type of spirit. I don’t think that’s anyone’s, you know, motive is I would love to offend everyone I talked to. Okay, hopefully not. Wouldn’t be that fun to talk to you. Right? So we all desire to have that gracious spirit. It’s also translated kind of a gentleness. It has a has the idea of a patient, long bearing graciousness about it. But it’s hard if you’re offended if something’s not, you know, just have a bad attitude that day. Things aren’t going right, man. Things can go downhill real quick. But the way we treat others, whether it’s people we know or people we don’t even know, we just met them or interacted with them, whether it’s your family or enemies of the gospel, it does not matter the dichotomy there. People are gonna know you by the way you treat people and we’re called to treat people with graciousness and gentleness, everyone we’re called to treat everyone with that. I can think about situations in our marriage to where it’s like, you know, Hannah or I or are offended and we’re kind of butting heads and really had nothing about nothing to do with what was actually said, the words that were strung together. There was nothing wrong with them. But the way that they were said, I mean that that was what made the difference. You know, we all understand, you can say something and then you can say something with kind of a tone and in a way that stings and it’s like, oh, the way you say something can be very important. The graciousness, the gentleness of the way I say something may be very different than just the words that I use john 1 14. The word of flesh came and dwelt among us. We observed his glory and the glory as one and only son from the father full of grace and truth. Okay, so jesus perfectly exemplified this. He had the perfect balance of grace and truth because there are going to be many things we can say that are true and that we are called to say and we are called to speak and we are messengers of the gospel. And if people don’t like that, the truth, we’re not called the back off that the Pharisees didn’t like the truth, didn’t like what Jesus had to say. That’s tough, that’s that’s uh that’s again their problem. And they didn’t like it enough that they sought him out to kill him. But on the flip side, Jesus dealt with the woman at the well and he brought up some hard sin that she had in her life, some challenging situations. I would probably not feel super comfortable just talking to somebody that I don’t know very well about the topics of having multiple husbands and the sin that she had. And yet his graciousness and his gentleness had to be a parent where she I knew that this was not some guy just berating her, but that he had cared and he was gracious with her so much so that she ran back to the city and told all about Jesus and how he brought up all of her sin and that he is the messiah. There is a graciousness and a gentleness that we are called to speak the truth with right. The word of God is convicting alone. Like we don’t. Sometimes we feel like we need to be the hammer walking around like beating people with the Word of God to convict them. And it’s like no, the word of God is convicting in and of itself Hebrews four, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double edged sword penetrating, as far as the separation of the soul and the spirit joints and morrow, it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Word of God is sufficient, and the Holy Spirit is sufficient without us trying to beat people with it into conviction, The Word of God is going to convict people. The Holy Spirit’s gonna draw people in and convict them. Our job is to be gracious, gentle messengers of the Gospel. And again, some might not like what we have to say, but as long as we’re saying in a way that is kind and gentle and loving, that’s just gonna be part of it. But I can control that the way that I interact with people. We are called to be messengers interest and people will respond in a way to the grace and truth compared to a harsh word. The other one is piece. This one I think is really, I think this one really hits home for a lot of people. Uh, there are verses in the bible that you know, I just keep tucked away in my mind and it’s like I repeat many verses throughout the week where I engage in situations flipping is 46 and seven is one of them clauses 3 20 three’s another one romans 12 2 is another one. James 1 19. You know, you guys probably have I hope you have these verses that in situations you are drawing from that well of knowledge and truth and this is one of them right. This probably is really really resonates with a lot of us. So do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Present your requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in christ jesus. This versus for me. And I suppose this verse resonates well with you. Another battle we tend to engage in is this tendency to worry. Now this is more than just a general concern. We are called to be concerned and compassionate. That’s that is part of being a believer. Second Corinthians paul talks about, you know, he says not to mention these things. There’s the daily pressure on me, my concern for the churches. There’s a concern. Yeah, I have a concern for my family, have a concern for my church. I have a concern for my work. There’s a concern I’m concerned with it. But then there’s this anxiety and worry where it moves into this negative aspect and it and it moves to sin and we can sin in this way. God calls us not to be anxious about anything, not to worry about anything john piper is. He’s as he spoke about this anxiety seems to be an intense desire for something accompanied by the fear of the consequences of not receiving it right? It adds that component of fear and well, what if this doesn’t happen? What if it doesn’t turn out the way I want it and we have the weight of the world on our shoulders? I I do. I think it’s like that where proverbs 12 25 anxiety and a person’s heart weighs them down. Alright, figuratively, it’s like carrying this boulder around on your shoulder or this mental boulder that you have, and it’s like throughout your day, you’re carrying it, and it’s just eventually you’re just your beat down and your wore down. And it’s like, it has taken a toll on you. The funny thing is, it’s a figurative example of like carrying this boulder, right? But anxiety has a literal uh Impact on us. It makes a physical and mental impact on us. Like it displays itself in many ways that are negative in our life and we can see it where 40 million adults this year alone, 40 million adults per year suffer from anxiety disorders, which they would say many are preventable or treatable, right? It’s this weight that we are carrying around because we we desire things. I desire things just like you, right? But but we we turn it into this negative. We can let it go down this path where it’s like we play out this worst case scenario. There’s one quote says we worry when we imagine the future in the in a terrible way, and then this again goes back to rejoicing. How do you rejoice if you are mentally burdened with this anxiety and worry, it robs you of that joy. It actually increases, you know, your blood pressure, there’s high blood pressure, There’s nervous breakdowns, anxiety attacks, all kinds of mental and physical reactions to anxiety and to worry. I mean, I’ve I’ve been in situations where I’m right, I’m my mind is just consumed with something. I should not be dwelling on. Just a worry, uh fear or whatever it is and all right, I’m sitting there and my kids could be around me and you know, here Hannah Shane, your boys are talking to you. You know, I’m not even, I’m out of it. I just checked out. Oh, hey son. Yeah, yeah. Like it just removes you, it removes you from the present moment. It robs you of all these different things where where you can’t even be present, you can’t think because you’re just dwelling on that situation, right? He says, don’t worry about anything. It is a sinful practice. I know that can hit hard and some in some situations, but historical christian preachers would say it’s a it’s a pagan practice that exhibits a lack of faith in God’s sovereignty, right as sovereign control over all things and or his lack of concern and care for us. It is hard, there are things in my life that I could worry about, that that are on my mind that I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. And I am called to bring that to the foot of the cross and to give that up to God because he’s a good God. He knows what I need, he knows what I want And he also knows what to his own glory. I mean there’s a portion of Matthew six where he’s talking to his disciples and he’s like, guys, I know you’re concerned about what you eat and about what you drink and about the clothes, you’re gonna be aware. But he’s like, don’t worry about these things, look at the, look at the birds of the air and how God provides for them. He provides food for them. Look at the wild flowers out in the field and the grass out in these fields, they’re closed better than Solomon in his splendor. And God knows that you need these things. He says, God knows your needs, he knows what you can do, what you can take. He knows with faith what you can endure walking through these things and he cares for us. He loves us. And then he goes down and say, Plus Honestly, it’s pointless. What? What does worry? Get you write in verse 27, can any of you at a moment to his lifespan by worrying? No, you cannot. None of us can add a single moment to our life. But I would say, you can take away a lot of moments of your life, like like with my son. And it’s like if I’m if I’m not there mentally right now, I’m just worried that is a subtraction from a joy that I could be having a conversation with my son. That I could be having. I can take away from the present. I can’t add to the future, but I can definitely take away from the present. And then he tells them. Therefore, yeah. All right, this one. There we go. Okay. So He tells us in verse 34. Therefore, don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself every day. Each day has enough trouble at all. Is that not true? We have enough trouble of our own in this. President cannot be dwelling on what could be a problem in the future. But what did he tell us to do? He doesn’t he doesn’t just say don’t worry. And good luck note replace that with prayer says don’t worry about anything, but by prayer and petition right. We’re to pray to God were to petition God. Yes he knows those things that we want but yet we’re called to petition him to cry out to him. Lord jesus, Would you intervene here? Lord jesus? Would you in your will make this happen? I love one of the uh passer R. C. Sproul. What do they say? Does this prayer change God’s mind? No. Does prayer change things? Yes. You were called to cry out to God in that way. Lord jesus. If it be your will, would you do X. Y or Z. D. A. Carson had a good observation. He said I’ve yet to meet a chronic warrior who enjoys an excellent prayer life. Yeah, you’re right. If I’m in prayer it’s gonna it’s I can’t worry. But what I’m worrying, I’m definitely not in prayer. So the peace of God which transcends all understanding when we replaced our prayer, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. Guard your heart and mind in christ jesus. That’s the cool thing about faith is when I walk with God, it does not make sense, right? The foolishness of the gospel from what the world sees is just crazy. And our faith transcends understanding, how can you be calm in this situation? How can you trust God when this situation looks so bad? How can you still believe in God when these bad things happen when when life is not going as you want, It transcends all understanding that we could walk by faith and not worry and be anxious and fear. But then he also tells us which goes right into the next point. The fifth point of we have to have right thinking the opposite of that is Wrong, thinking right, but our mind is an area. It’s a battleground Philippians 4 8 Finally, Brothers and Sisters. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things. So when we think about worrying, when we think about maybe having a bad attitude, when we think about our conflict, just sin in general, um I could not imagine how much of that is traced back right here to your mind when something starts and then we let it go down this trail that is not beneficial. What we think about how we think about it, what we assume, what we kind of inject into that story project outward from that situation, what we think can radically change us. So paul tells us to think about things that are true, that our honorable, that are just pure, lovely, commendable, morally, excellent and praiseworthy, right? We look at the opposite again. And it’s like, well yeah, we should not think about things that are false, dishonorable, corrupt, tainted, ugly, reprehensible, immoral and disgraceful. And you’re like, yeah, yeah, I know that. But yet do we let our minds kind of go down that path and when they go down that path, they have negative consequences. Again. The way we treat people the way we react to a certain circumstance, the way we engage with others, what we think of others or we just don’t engage with them when we’re like I’m done, I’m out. That’s it robert Frost in his famous poem. I didn’t even know what the name of the poem is. I don’t even know the poem. I just know the one line. You probably know the one line to says, two roads diverge in the woods and I I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. I feel like that right here is that road that we’ve come come to as christians. We have two choices. We can go down that road that’s wide and easy or we can go down that road that’s more narrow and more difficult. That road is correct thinking thinking these things that paul just outlined things that are true and honorable and just and morally excellent. We’ve got on that road that’s the road less traveled but it’s gonna make all the difference when we live out our life and the way we interact with people romans. 12 2 like I said, this is one of the ones I keep in my pocket to says do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is good pleasing in the will of God. We have to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. What we think is important. Your mind is powerful, what you think is vitally important. And I’ll share some lyrics from this song. Um so one of my guilty pleasures is christian rap music. So uh I just thought out there real quick because you may or may not notice the lyrics but here’s what he says. I’m not wrapping them by the way, I’m just going to read them. So the point that I’m making is that the mind is a powerful place and what you feed it can affect you in a powerful way. It’s pretty cool, right? Yeah, but it’s not always safe. Just hang with me. This will only take a moment. Okay, just think about it for a second. If you look at your face every day when you get up and you think you’ll never be great, you’ll never be great. Not because you’re not, but because the hate will always find a way to cut you up and murder your faith. Okay, I’m not going to do a theological discord on that, but it’s just like that’s true. Your mind is a powerful place and what you feed it and what you allow it to dwell on and what you allow it to just meditate on is going to affect you what you, what you believe are, sorry, what you think is eventually going to be, what you believe, What you believe is going to be, eventually what you act on. It’s gonna go down that road. You can’t think trash and then produce something that’s really good. That’s not the way it works, right, garbage in garbage out. And so we need to think about these things and dwell on the word of God because then we will be acting on those things and we will be acting in the way that we are thinking if it’s true and honorable and just and loving and morally righteous, that’s the way we’ll act. Many of you probably know who simone biles is, right, plenty articles all over everywhere and I have no idea what’s going on to be honest with you. Like I do not understand like the twist ease or whatever she’s got like I’m not like commenting on her situation, but I will say right, what is what the comments have been has been prompting up this importance of this mental health. Mental health is important because what we think affects our whole life, it affects our outlook on life, it affects everything. But I would say it even differently than the rest of the world, right? Our mental health. I would say it would be a from a biblical perspective, having a biblical worldview with the christ oriented thinking that is what is going to bring peace, that is what is going to bring joy and rejoicing. You can do a lot of things and I’m so thankful for the help that we have, you know, where it’s biblical counseling and things of that nature that can help us and because it’s leading us back to the bible to think correctly, to look at the world correctly, to look at our life and our sin and our savior correctly. And from there we can enjoy the peace of God which transcends all understanding. And so yes, it is important what we think, and paul ends it and verse nine like this, he says, do what you have learned and received and heard from me and seeing me and the God of peace will be with you. You do these things. He says that you’ve seen me do, right? He’s not with him right now, he’s in prison. But he was with them. And if you go back to Chapter one, he outlines this incredible relationship he has with them and they have watched him live out his faith in persecution and hard times and good times. And he’s like, you know, those things that I said to you and then I followed them up with my actions and you watch me do them. He said, do those things right, copy me as I copy christ. And then as a result, the peace of God will be with you, right? And that’s why we need to fight for these things. When I think about the five things of being being unified with one another, it’s important. It’s important, right? So we need to fight for unity. We need to rejoice in the goodness of God. We have to be gracious to everyone. We have to replace worry with prayer and we have to fill our minds with the right thinking. And this will make all the difference when it comes to standing firm in our faith, right to stand firm. There’s these internal struggles that we talked about right there that we need to join arm and arm together and be willing to fight for willing to engage in and not just disengage and step away, but that will step into these situations and fight for one another, for our families, for our church, for our friends, for our faith. Amen. Amen. Lord readers, thank you. Help us Lord to fight. Help us Lord to engage in the battle. Help us not to just back away and be passive Lord. I just ask that as a result we would see the direct impact on our lives and the way we think on our families and our friends and our relationships on our church body and on our faith overall. And I pray that that would just be a uh so appealing to the people who look from the outside in and say that they have something that I want. They have something that I desire and that’s the relationship with christ and all these things flown from it. Lord. Again, just bless this body of believers encourages throughout our week and Lord help us to stand firm your name. We pray. Amen.