Rev. David Holwick C PHILIPPIANS
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 21, 2018
Philippians 4:8-9
WHATEVER IS LOVELY
I. What you take in matters.
A. The purity of Pineville.
Tammy Campbell lives in Pineville, Louisiana.
She noticed something unusual in her subdivision house.
She was seeing stringy white stuff in the filter of her
refrigerator ice-cube maker - and the filters in her
dishwasher and washing machine.
Some of her neighbors noticed it, too.
About 60 of them.
The stringy white stuff in the filters turned out to be used
toilet paper.
And the crud that was filling up their water heaters was
poop.
Apparently, three months earlier, city workers had mistakenly
connected a sewer line directly to a main water line.
For 90 days, these people had been drinking, bathing, and
cooking with sewage water.
They were dropping frozen sewage cubes into their extra-strong
iced tea.
They could take comfort in knowing the sewage was somewhat
diluted by the time it got to them.
And the city officials assured them there was enough chlorine
in line to kill most of the germs. Most of them...
#35262
Some of you may be grossed out by this true story.
Then it dawns on you that New Jersey water is about as pure.
But you may not realize you are ingesting sewage in many ways
that is not as obvious - through television, the internet,
some of the people you associate with...
B. What do you fill your mind with?
1) Christians are noted for our warnings about sin and impurity
- the dangerous and negative things we are against.
2) Another focus is just as important - we need to fill our
mind with things that are positive and beautiful.
3) We need the ability to discern what is best and brightest,
and then we need to choose those things.
4) In doing so, we will reflect what our God is all about.
II. An upward focus.
A. The word "finally" is a clue.
1) Pastors put their strongest thought in the summary and
this is the summary of Philippians.
2) Paul begins his conclusion by asking them to focus on
8 principles, and all of them are positive.
a) Life contains many negatives and the Bible reflects this
- our sinfulness and shortcomings fill every page.
b) But our goal is to rise above this, to focus on the
highest things in our nature, which are all positive.
B. Notice the emphasis on thinking.
1) Even ancient people recognized the importance of the mind.
2) What you train your thoughts on will mold who you are as
a person.
3) We are all born with different intellectual abilities, but
any of us can focus our minds on the right things.
Someone has figured out that the average person has
10,000 separate thoughts a day.
That works out to 3.5 million thoughts a year.
If you live to be 90, you will have had over 328 million
different thoughts.
That is why Goldy Weller is so amazing!
Every one of those 10,000 daily thoughts represents a
choice you make.
What will you use it for?
Look at it another way.
What if someone gave you $10,000 every morning and
said you could spend it on whatever you wanted, but
it had to be spent by midnight?
It would get your attention and focus your mind.
Don't let it go to waste.
Sermon #21727
C. Paul is the original positive-thinking preacher.
1) Norman Vincent Peale distilled it into a short book and
made a fortune.
a) President Trump had a pew in Peale's church and says
the man and his attitude had a deep impact on him.
b) Americans have made this attitude into a minor industry.
c) We often treat it as if it is what religion is all about.
2) There is more to Christianity than positive thinking.
a) Repentance from sin is always at the heart of the gospel.
1> Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming, "Repent
and believe!"
2> You cannot erase that, even if it is unpopular.
b) But being cleansed and pure and positive is our end goal.
III. Eight qualities of Godly thinking.
A. Whatever is True.
1) Has sense of valid, reliable, honest.
a) The opposite of false.
2) It characterizes God (Rom 3:4) and the gospel (Gal 2:5)
and should also characterize those who believe in Jesus.
B. Whatever is Noble.
1) Used only by Paul in the NT. 1 Tim 3:8,11; Tit 2:2
a) In other passages, refers to character of church leaders.
b) It is the quality that makes them worthy of respect.
2) Are you worthy of respect?
a) Do people see something in you that they admire?
b) Personal integrity matters.
C. Whatever is Right.
1) What is upright or just.
2) Conformable to God's standards and thus worthy of his
approval.
3) Not what is right in eyes of others, but in eyes of God.
D. Whatever is Pure.
1) Emphasizes moral purity.
2) There used to be a saying, "Get your mind out of the gutter."
a) Think of Pineville!
b) Doesn't purity matter to you?
E. Whatever is Lovely.
1) Occurs only here in the New Testament.
a) What is pleasing, agreeable, amiable.
2) It is not a moral term, but more of "high culture."
a) Modern society has an infatuation with the margins of
society, with violence and degradation.
b) It is a dangerous thing to cut yourself off from beauty.
In the German classic story, "Faust," the writer Goethe
describes a pact that Dr. Faust makes with the devil.
The pact allows Faust to satisfy his every human want
and desire except one.
Never, never under any circumstance, is he ever to
stop and say to the passing moment,
"Wait, you are so beautiful!"
#2304
c) Christians still believe there is beauty in God's good
creation, and we can - and should - appreciate it.
3) Consider the loveliness of God himself.
a) The Bible's description of God in heaven uses images
of rainbows and brilliant gems and intense light.
b) God's throne is overwhelming in its power and beauty.
1> Any beauty on earth is only a reflection of God's
eternal beauty. #30207
2> How well do you reflect that beauty in your own life?
4) But too often we don't focus on this.
a) Analysis of recent Christian movies.
Many of them, like "Facing the Giants" and "God Is Not
Dead," are panned by secular critics but loved by
Christians.
We like how these movies portray salvation and defend
the Christian way of looking at the world.
But are they good movies?
Some Christians suggest that we need to pay some
attention to the secular critics.
It is not enough for a movie to affirm what we believe
already, or attack those who believe differently.
Real art raises you above what you already are.
It should have quality and integrity so that even
non-believers will be attracted to it.
If we present God's truth in a lovely way, others will
notice.
#35408
b) A news article last summer said that one out of six
young people in the United Kingdom are Christians
because the beauty of church buildings inspired
them to convert.
Those who did the study were surprised so many young
people considered themselves Christians.
And they were even more surprised that the beauty of
churches was given the credit.
#65877
c) When I was at my first church in Ohio, I found a small
historic church in a run-down area of Zanesville.
It was definitely off the beaten trail.
But Putnam Presbyterian Church had a single Tiffany
window that was glorious.
It was a luminous angel speaking to a woman.
I would visit Zanesville just to stare at that window.
We have a beautiful church here in Ledgewood.
It takes a lot of time and treasure to keep up.
But I think it is worth it.
Beauty can bring glory to God!
F. Whatever is Admirable.
1) Also occurs only here in the New Testament.
2) What is praiseworthy, attractive, and what rings true to
the highest standards.
G. Whatever is Excellent or Praiseworthy.
1) Focus on the best.
2) When we continually center our minds on such thoughts as
these, we shall live like Christians.
IV. Aim high even when it costs you.
A. Integrity is important in "crunch time."
Terry Eastland was the press secretary for Attorney General
Edwin Meese during the Reagan Administration.
Meese had gotten into trouble for how he handled a case
against Panama's leader.
He felt that Eastland had not defended him enough and fired
him.
But Eastland, a Christian, felt he had to handle it truthfully.
He said Philippians 4:8 was a guiding verse for him.
"Paul wrote this, but it might as well have been written by
a moral philosopher from Athens.
There is nothing specifically Christian about the virtues
Paul lists, and indeed two of them don't appear anywhere
else in the New Testament.
"These are virtues apparently within the natural reach of
all men.
Still, God inspired Paul to include this advice in his letter.
When dealing with news stories that were not quite true or
fair, with people both in and out of government who were
not totally honest, with actions that lacked the best
motives, I often thought of Philippians 4:8.
"For me, it was a statement of a minimum standard.
It wasn't the highest ideal for a Christian, but one a
Christian should certainly live up to before striving to
fulfill the ultimate commandment to love one another.
Christianity Today, 1/13/89, p. 28
In our era of "Fake News," consider the wisdom of this...
B. Concern for truth and virtue is not limited to Christians.
1) Society as a whole recognizes a drift.
a) Our culture seems to be getting much more coarse.
b) Consider this: in 1939 my mother was forbidden to
see the movie "Gone With the Wind" because Clark
Gable uttered the word "damn."
2) God has given all of us a core of values.
a) Even non-religious people agree with us on much.
b) Embrace what is good, wherever you find it.
V. Just do it.
A. Positive thinking should end in actions.
1) Paul provides a living example for them.
a) "Learned and received" - basic Christian instruction.
b) "Heard and saw" - what they saw in his life, both in
his speech and conduct.
1> Like us, ancient Christians learned from examples.
2) Put it into practice yourself.
a) Many people think high moral thoughts, but don't live it.
b) Spend less time critiquing others and change yourself
to conform to Christ.
B. A result, not a basis.
1) Positive thinking is not salvation, but the fruit of it.
2) When I try to control my thought patterns I soon come to
the conclusion that I cannot do it on my own.
3) I find the sinful attitudes are deeper and more damaging
that I would care to admit.
4) Therefore, I recognize I need a Savior.
C. Ask God to renew your mind so you will be filled with his light.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
Sermon #21727 “Think On These Things,” by Rev. Dr. Ray Pritchard,
Calvary Memorial Church of Oak Park, Illinois; <link>;
Abe Kudra Collection.
# 2304 “What Faust Could Not Say,” Dynamic Preaching (www.sermons.com),
Spring 1992; original source is Rennan Manning’s “The Ragamuffin
Gospel” (Portland, Oregon: Multnomah 1990).
#30207 “A Christian Vision of Beauty, Part One,” by Dr. R. Albert
Mohler Jr., President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary;
November 16, 2005; <http://www.albertmohler.com>.
#35262 “Sewage Cubes,” from an unknown devotional, Abe Kudra Collection;
details of the original incident can be found in “Sewage Line
Feeds Into Louisiana Water Line For 3 Months,” by The
The Associate Press, May 17, 2000; <http:\\www.nobackflow.com/sewerage.htm>.
#35408 “C. S. Lewis at the Movies,” by Gina R. Dalfonzo, Breakpoint
Worldview Magazine, July 30, 2008.
#65877 “Beauty Can Bring People To God,” by Olivia Rudgard, Religious
Affairs Correspondent, July 17, 2017; <link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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