May 20, 2026 • 27 mins
Learn God’s divine prescription for peaceful thinking in every situation.
This episode looks at Philippians 4:7–9 and explains how focusing your thoughts on God’s truth produces stability, clarity, and inner calm. You’ll discover how fixing your thoughts on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good repute strengthens your mind and protects your soul. Rick explains how divine viewpoint replaces worry, frustration, and bitterness, and how the peace of God can guard your heart and mind every day.
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(00:08):
Welcome to the Flat Line with your host Rick Hughes.
For the next 30 minutes you'll be inspired, motivated, educated
but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
Good morning and welcome to the Flat Line.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes. And for the next few minutes,
(00:28):
stick around. It won't be long.
Only about 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration,
education, all done without any type of manipulation.
That means we don't try to sell you something.
We're not going to ask you for money.
We're not going to try to ask you to join up, give it up,
fetch it up. Nothing like that.
But I will ask you to listen. Listen up.
(00:49):
Listen as I try to verify and identify God's plan for your
life. And if I can do that and you
agree with that, then you can Orient and adjust to the plan.
That's up to you. But my job is to come here every
every Sunday, bring you this Floodline radio show, and this
makes 1060 Sundays. We've been on the air.
(01:15):
Scare me for a minute. I had to take a take a swallow.
1060 Sundays, we've been broadcasting the Floodline Radio
Show, a reminder of our website,rickhughesministries.org,
rickhughesministries.org, and you can go there and see the
latest books we have to offer for you.
(01:36):
We've come out with a new book now called Understanding Your
Soul, and I hope you take the opportunity to order that book.
It's free like all the other products.
We don't charge for anything andit's always the grace of God
that makes it available to you. So thank you for listening.
A lot to talk about, a lot to say, lots and lots going on in
(01:57):
the world today. But I want to talk to you this
morning about having peace in your life, having genuine, real,
true peace in your life. You know, we come out from the
holiday season and a lot of people be frustrated.
A lot of people don't have peacebecause of family issues.
But is there a way that you can live with peace in your brain,
in your head, you know, where you're not frustrated, where
(02:20):
you're not angry, where you're not jealous, whatever you want
to say? Is there a way to live where you
can actually have peace in your life?
Paul said in Philippians 47 there is a way to live with
peace. He said this and the peace of
God, that's where it comes from.It's not something you
(02:41):
manufacture. The peace of God, which passes
all comprehension will keep yourhearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. Now he wrote this to a church
that wasn't having much peace. There was something going on in
the church at Philippi between 2ladies and it had spilt over
(03:03):
into the congregation. We'll talk about that shortly.
And what was going on was reallydividing and splitting the
church. And if it if they didn't stop
it, it would probably split the whole church all together.
And so the the verses that I want to read to you are poet
Paul wrote in Philippians 4/8 through 9 to that congregation
(03:24):
to show them how to deal with the frustration they may have
and how to have peace over everything he said in
Philippians 48. Finally, brethren, whatever
things are true, that's the first key truth.
I mean, if you can't think truth, you never have peace.
That's the number one key, learning to think truth.
(03:47):
Then he said whatsoever things are honest.
We'll see what that word is in just a minute.
And whatever things are just, and by the way, this is not
something you do all at one time.
You can pick one of these out and if you're having a certain
issue, you can just focus on that one.
Whatever things are just, there's another one.
Justice, Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
(04:09):
lovely, whatever things are good, report.
If there's any virtue, if there's any praise, then think
about these things, these thingswhen he just gave them there
true, honest, just, pure, lovely.
These things you have both learned.
In other words, they've been taught the, the, they've been
taught these doctrines and you received them and you heard them
(04:33):
and you saw them in me. So now you do them and the God
of peace shall be with you. So he wasn't telling them
something they didn't already know.
He's already been taught, taughtthis to this congregation.
They've seen him use the same attitudes in his own life.
And he's telling them, if you'veseen me do it, you can do it
also. They've learned this information
(04:54):
from Paul and they have applied what they learned in the past as
well as watching Paul's behavior.
And now it's a different time. There's a turmoil going on in
the church. This is how the Apostle Paul's
closing words to the church at Philippi are written.
He communicates how to purge your thoughts from worry and
(05:18):
from other stress related sins. self-centered thinking.
Listen to what I just said. self-centered thinking, You must
avoid that. And that comes from having an
unrealistic self-image about whoyou are and what you're what
you're really worth. Do you have an unrealistic
self-image? Do you look in the mirror and do
(05:39):
the person you see, is that the real you?
No, the person you see is what everybody else sees with the
real you. It's what you think.
So the arrogant individual's always trying to straighten you
out. You know some person with
arrogance going to tell you how the you're supposed to live your
life. And once that person assumes you
(05:59):
don't have all the facts, they'll be glad to tell them to
you. In fact, they go to great
efforts to correct the way you're thinking.
And that's an arrogant individual with an arrogant
mindset. You cannot afford to get like
that. None of this will work if you
have. If you're full of unrealistic
self-image, you won't recognize truth.
You won't understand how to be honest.
(06:20):
You never, never will treat people justly.
You won't live pure. You won't live lovely.
So for the mature Christian, there's a better way to think
than what the world offers you. Instead of worrying about
something or being bitter about something, you can stuff those
sins back in the box. You hear me stuff those sins
(06:42):
back in the box. How do you do that?
By using the divine prescriptionthat God has given to you and
the verses that I just read to you.
A divine prescription is how youthink.
If you use what I'm about to tell you, then you'll find a
great way to live. And Paul tells you that in
Philippians 47. The priest of God will rule your
(07:05):
hearts. It's, it goes beyond
understanding and it will keep you.
So here we go. Let's look at the at the divine
prescription. You know, it's the time of year
when you have to go to the doctor and get a shot and get
some antibiotics. Well, this is the divine
prescription. I call it spiritual antibiotics
for living with a relaxed mentalattitude, or shall we say,
(07:29):
having a healthy mindset. He starts off by writing to the
church and he remember he had left.
Now he's on the road, he's goingto have to send back
Epaphroditus to go back and reteach some of these things so
the church doesn't split. But he says here, whatever
things are true, that original Greek word for true is aletheis
(07:53):
aletheis Aletheis ALETHES, and that's a descriptive adjective
from the root word alethea. It is the most common use of
this noun, and it refers to something that's accurate.
Whatever is accurate, whatever is truth, whatever is correct.
One thing that will destroy a local church is when inaccurate
(08:16):
doctrine is taught. And you, you must understand,
Satan will never tell you the truth.
But Jesus, our Lord and Savior said he's a liar from the
beginning. He's not going to tell you the
truth. I mean, he told, he told Eve, go
ahead and eat that fruit. God didn't really mean that.
You can't trust what God said. Trust what I said.
Eat the fruit, it'll help you. He's a liar.
(08:39):
One thing that would destroy a local church is when inaccurate
Bible doctrine is taught and howdoes it get in there.
It is brought into the congregation by some well
meaning member, a lot of times afemale member as it is here.
If that individual can rally a following, then they wind up
(09:00):
having a church within a church.So you have the pastor trying to
teach the Word of God, and you have another individual trying
to teach the Word of God on the other side of the building and
getting a bunch of people aroundthem.
And then you have a church within a church.
And that's a disaster because there can only be one authority
in a local church. And I wonder if it's like this
(09:22):
in your church, Does your pastorhave authority to teach the Word
of God? And do people listen to him?
Or are there other people in thecongregation teaching what they
want to teach? And if there's a question comes
up, which, which one do you go to?
Do you go to the pastor or do you go to this other person?
Because it's the pastor teacher's job to be the
(09:44):
authority of the local church. And that authority is
established by teaching what is true, what is accurate.
That's what this passage says. Things that are true.
Think about these things, thingsthat are honest.
Think about these things. There can only be one authority
in a local church, and that's the pastor.
(10:05):
You know our Lord Jesus Christ prayed this prayer in John 117.
Sanctify them through thy truth,because thy word is truth.
Here. Our Lord Jesus Christ is praying
for His converts and for their protection from satanic forces.
The great enemy of those early converts was organized religion
(10:27):
or legalism. The scribes and the Pharisees
were very legalistic and the same is very true today.
Unless you get accurate Bible instructions regarding the
Christian life, you will be captured by the lie that Satan
throws out, which is one of two things.
(10:49):
It's either going to be salvation by works.
In other words, you can save yourself by being a good little
boy, or it's going to be spirituality by works.
In other words, you're you're a great Christian because you
don't cuss and you don't drink and you don't smoke and you
don't do bad things. So spirituality by works and
salvation by works is the big lie that's that filters into a
(11:11):
congregation. Unless the pastor stomps that
out, unless the pastor stuffs that stuff back in the box,
people will be captured by this false doctrine.
So according to Paul, every member must be grounded in true
doctrinal concepts, every personin that church.
(11:33):
So the next word he used was what?
Whatsoever things are true and whatsoever things are honest.
The Greek word semnos comes fromthe from the verb sibo and it
means to be revered, honorable, and this implies a clear
thinking. It means individuals who respect
(11:53):
God and are trustworthy. The same word is used in First
Timothy 38 and 311 and referringto deacons and their wives in
the church. The same word honest.
Lying to other people is a sin, but lying to yourself is a
character flaw. It's a character flaw of
(12:15):
arrogance and unrealistic self-image.
So if you want to, if you want to have peace in the middle of a
turmoil situation, you have to what have to think about those
things that are true. You have to be honest.
Think about those things that are honest and think about those
(12:35):
things that are just. The Greek word to chaos, just
that's a descriptive adjective meaning things that are fully
conformed to the will of God. Think about the justice of God.
God is absolutely just. Man is absolutely unjust.
God has what we call plus R and you and I have what we call
(12:56):
minus R. He's positive righteousness and
we're minus righteousness. There are none that are
righteous. No, not one.
The Bible says so. The perfect righteousness of God
rejects all of our righteousnessas a filthy rag, and the justice
of God judges us. So what Paul is saying here, If
(13:18):
you want to deal with things in your life and have peace,
concentrate on things that are true.
Concentrate on things that are honest.
Concentrate on things that are just.
You don't have to do it all at one time.
You can do it one at a time, as I said, so it's very clear.
You have to be careful. Whatever things are just to
(13:42):
chaos, righteous, fully conformed to the will of God.
Think about the justice of God. What the justice of God rejects
the righteousness of God judges.And then he said whatever things
are pure, pure. What's that mean?
It's the Greek word hagnos meanssacred, free of carnality,
innocent, clean, impure thoughts.
(14:07):
Don't let sin reign in your mortal body any longer.
Romans 612 Mortal bodies, mortalthoughts are not pure.
So you have to learn how not to let your sin nature have
domination over you. And it's in your mind.
That's where he operates. That's where the sin nature
takes charge. The sin nature will plant a
(14:28):
seed, a thought in your mind, and that thought will grow and
mature into a desire, and that desire becomes an action.
And that action is going to be sin.
So either you're going to sin oryou're not going to sin.
Either you're going to respond to the thought or quench the
thought and put it out, stuff itback in the box.
And if you want to do that, you have to learn how to think about
(14:50):
whatever things are pure, free of carnality, innocent, clean.
That's a wonderful mind free of lust.
You know, there's a lot of different lust patterns.
We talked about this before. There's power lust, politicians
demonstrate that. There's sexual lust, we know
about that. There's approbation lust that's
(15:11):
yearning for attention. There's power lust.
It's not just, it's financial lust, It's not just sex lust.
It's a lot of different lust. So you have to think about the
things that are pure, not the lust pattern.
Then he goes on to say whatever things are lovely, whatever
(15:33):
things are lovely, What does that mean?
Prosphales is the Greek word prosphales, and it means
whatever things are acceptable and pleasing to look at, to
observe. You know, the thoughts of a
person can be real ugly, but Godwants you to have clean, pure,
(15:53):
truthful, just thoughts in your brain.
If you don't want to have worry,if you don't want to have
bitterness, if you don't don't want to have frustration, this
is the way you have to think. And Paul is giving them the
divine prescription, which is a spiritual antibody that Satan.
So you can combat what Satan's trying to do, capture your
(16:16):
thoughts. So he said, if there's any good
report about these things, any virtue, any praise, and think
about these things, that's whereyour mind needs to concentrate.
You might wonder why Paul would mandate that the church members
focus their attention on the things that he's prescribed
here. Listen to Isaiah 26.
(16:38):
Three, You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has
stayed on thee because he trustseth in thee.
Right there you have positive volition.
Whose mind has stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.
That's the faith rest drill standing on the promises of God.
(17:00):
So if you want to have peace in your life, that's to be positive
volition and you have to concentrate on what God is
giving you in the scriptures. And this is the verse you need
to read this over and over and over again this week.
If you're in a church where there's frustration, where
there's competition, where there's inorderate ambition, you
(17:22):
need to read this. Whatever things are true,
honest, just, pure, lovely, goodreport, virtuous, these are the
things you think about. Perhaps Paul is advising them to
ignore the conflict going on in the church between these two
ladies and instead focus on correct doctrinal application.
(17:45):
Listen to Philippians 3. Two, I beseech the odious and I
beseech Sintechi that they have the same mind in the Lord,
Prepositional phrase in the Lord.
In other words, they what they need to think alike.
And obviously they are not thinking alike right now.
Well, what's, what are they thinking about?
(18:07):
Well, one of them is thinking about false doctrine, I assure
you, and they're trying to rallyothers to be with them and be on
their side. It's obvious these two ladies
are not on the same page doctrinally, maybe not on the
same page emotionally either, but their differences may be
threatening the whole church. And this is often how churches
(18:30):
split. And it's how it happens because
two women in the congregation cannot agree and unfortunately
their husbands can't control them.
Now you see, Satan is seeking touse this fractured relationship
to destroy the the Philippine church.
And This is why it's so important.
(18:50):
Paul had to get Epaphroditus back down there to teach them
the things they should remember.So let's go through some
principles this morning before we wrap it up.
Here's the first principle. Your approach to life and the
effectiveness of your biblical standards are dependent on what
(19:10):
you think. Your approach to life and your
effectiveness of biblical standards is dependent on what
you think. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so he is. The Bible says remember, listen
to his play of words I'm about to give you now listen.
You are what you think you are, not what you think you are.
(19:34):
You are what you think you are, not what you think you are.
In Proverbs 23, seven, the versesaid as I just quoted, for as he
thinks in his heart, so is he. The interesting thing about it
is that God can read your mind. He knows what you're thinking
and you're not going to pull thewool over God's eyes.
(19:55):
So your physical health is the third principle.
Your physical health can be affected by what you think, it's
called psychostomatics. Your physical health can be
affected by what you think, it'scalled psychosomatics.
What is psychosomatics? Well, it it means this, that you
(20:19):
can actually wear yourself sick.Mental tension will eventually
overflow into your physical body.
That's the true thing. Doctors can tell you that.
So if you don't want to get sick, then don't think about
things that are not true. Don't think about things that
are not honest. Don't think about things that
(20:42):
are not pure. Don't think about things that
are not virtuous. Where how do you stop doing
that? Because when they pop up in your
brain, that is your sin nature, planting a seed, trying to get
it to grow into a lust. If you don't stop it, if you
don't stuff it back in the box, it'll grow into a lust and you
(21:02):
will fulfill that lust and you'll break fellowship with God
by sinning. So what the apostle Paul is
saying is that in part 4 here, the readers of his letter he's
writing back need to stabilize their thoughts.
They need to stabilize their mentality.
Quit thinking like they're thinking.
(21:23):
So here's another point .5 The effective Christian life
requires you and I to think divine viewpoint, not human
viewpoint. Human viewpoint is is the
emotional highs and lows that people go through.
But we don't live by our emotions.
Emotions are always reactionary,but we don't live reactionary.
(21:46):
We live by responding. We respond to the truth and it
gives us the peace that passes all understanding.
So if you want to have the kind of life God is talking about
here, you have to learn how to think divine viewpoint.
And that's the true virtuous just things that we're talking
about in verses 8:00 and 9:00. And here's another thing, you
(22:09):
need to understand another principle that's critical for
you to learn. A new Christian must undergo a
renovation of his thinking. When I got saved, I had to learn
how to think a different way. And it didn't happen overnight.
It happened over a period of years.
But Romans 12/2 says do not be conformed to this world, but be
(22:30):
transformed by the renewing of your mind, changing the way you
think so that you can prove now what is the good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. So that's the job of the
believer is to learn how to think accurate Bible doctrine.
It's called divine viewpoint, and that's part of that.
(22:51):
Whatever is pure, whatever is true, whatever is just, that's
what it is, exactly what it is. And that's your secret to having
peace in your life. If you want to have it, if, if
your thinking does it line up with the biblical attitude, a
divine viewpoint, then you're going to need to rebound,
(23:12):
confess the sin first, John 19 and recover very quickly.
Or else you'll be certain to do something very dumb, very
stupid. As you know, you've done it
before. So you know what I'm talking
about. So when you've when that seed
gets planted in your brain, it wants to sprout up into a lust,
(23:33):
then you need to put it back in the box, confess it to God,
rebound, carry on a stable mindset.
Next principle is free from fear, replacing it with faith,
rest. In second Timothy 17, the Bible
clearly says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of
(23:53):
power and of love and of a soundmind.
The word sound mind is sophronismos, sophronismos in
the Greek and it means self-control, a stable mindset,
a sign. Sound mind is a steadfast
attitude in the face of adversity.
(24:16):
So if you want to replace the way you think with your
emotions, which is not thinking but rather reacting, then you
have to learn to think divine viewpoint.
And how do you think divine viewpoint?
Well, I just gave it to you in Philippians chapter 4, verse 8
and 9, whatever things are pure,whatever things are honest,
whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, the
(24:38):
good report, things that are virtuous, that's divine
viewpoint. The greatest freedom in your
life, it's secret. Here I want to give you is
understanding grace orientation because grace orientation frees
you from trying to earn your salvation by a system of good
deeds. And grace orientation gives you
(24:58):
the ability to blot, to grace out other people that you choose
to grace out. It could be a pertinent person
who's an antagonist. It could be a person who has a
need. But if you will use some
personal love, which is a problem solving device that we
have under the 10 problem solving devices, then you can
(25:18):
provide grace for both of them. See, what is grace?
Grace means all things that God is free to do for you, including
salvation through faith. And it's absolutely free, a free
gift. So isn't that a wonderful thing?
Apart from any human merit, any system, human works that are
(25:40):
never merited, never earned by mankind, it's grace.
If you're bitter, that's a lack of grace because bitterness is
the number one system of self deception.
It results from reaction to people, situations,
circumstances. It's a sign of you having your
eyes on people rather than on the Lord.
(26:00):
Because grace orientation simplyimplies that you treat others
the way God treats you. For example, you do not have to
learn earn God's love. He loves you just like you are
because first John 410 says herein is the love, not that we
love God, but He loved us first and He sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. The very power that sustains
(26:25):
grace orientation in your life is virtue love.
John 47. Beloved, let us love one
another, for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of
God and knoweth God. This virtue love is phenomenal.
So when you use grace orientation towards someone who
doesn't deserve it, then you arein effect using virtue love.
(26:46):
You don't have time for the other stuff because the Bible
says let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
So when you can live your life not being distracted by people,
when you can live your life thinking the right way, then you
will enjoy grace orientation, grace thinking.
All of it comes from the truth of the Word of God and
(27:08):
subsequent grace actions in yourlife.
Did you get it? I hope so.
I had a lot more to cover, but Ijust don't have the time.
Please come back next week, sametime, same place.
Until then, this is your host Rick Hughes, saying thank you
for listening to The Flood Lion.Thank you for listening to The
(27:28):
Flood Lion with your host, Rick Hughes.
If you'd like to contact Rick, please write to him at PO Box
100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or online at
www.rickhughesministries.org.
Welcome to the Flat Line with your host Rick Hughes.
For the next 30 minutes you'll be inspired, motivated, educated
but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
Good morning and welcome to the Flat Line.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes. And for the next few minutes,
(00:28):
stick around. It won't be long.
Only about 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration,
education, all done without any type of manipulation.
That means we don't try to sell you something.
We're not going to ask you for money.
We're not going to try to ask you to join up, give it up,
fetch it up. Nothing like that.
But I will ask you to listen. Listen up.
(00:49):
Listen as I try to verify and identify God's plan for your
life. And if I can do that and you
agree with that, then you can Orient and adjust to the plan.
That's up to you. But my job is to come here every
every Sunday, bring you this Floodline radio show, and this
makes 1060 Sundays. We've been on the air.
(01:15):
Scare me for a minute. I had to take a take a swallow.
1060 Sundays, we've been broadcasting the Floodline Radio
Show, a reminder of our website,rickhughesministries.org,
rickhughesministries.org, and you can go there and see the
latest books we have to offer for you.
(01:36):
We've come out with a new book now called Understanding Your
Soul, and I hope you take the opportunity to order that book.
It's free like all the other products.
We don't charge for anything andit's always the grace of God
that makes it available to you. So thank you for listening.
A lot to talk about, a lot to say, lots and lots going on in
(01:57):
the world today. But I want to talk to you this
morning about having peace in your life, having genuine, real,
true peace in your life. You know, we come out from the
holiday season and a lot of people be frustrated.
A lot of people don't have peacebecause of family issues.
But is there a way that you can live with peace in your brain,
in your head, you know, where you're not frustrated, where
(02:20):
you're not angry, where you're not jealous, whatever you want
to say? Is there a way to live where you
can actually have peace in your life?
Paul said in Philippians 47 there is a way to live with
peace. He said this and the peace of
God, that's where it comes from.It's not something you
(02:41):
manufacture. The peace of God, which passes
all comprehension will keep yourhearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. Now he wrote this to a church
that wasn't having much peace. There was something going on in
the church at Philippi between 2ladies and it had spilt over
(03:03):
into the congregation. We'll talk about that shortly.
And what was going on was reallydividing and splitting the
church. And if it if they didn't stop
it, it would probably split the whole church all together.
And so the the verses that I want to read to you are poet
Paul wrote in Philippians 4/8 through 9 to that congregation
(03:24):
to show them how to deal with the frustration they may have
and how to have peace over everything he said in
Philippians 48. Finally, brethren, whatever
things are true, that's the first key truth.
I mean, if you can't think truth, you never have peace.
That's the number one key, learning to think truth.
(03:47):
Then he said whatsoever things are honest.
We'll see what that word is in just a minute.
And whatever things are just, and by the way, this is not
something you do all at one time.
You can pick one of these out and if you're having a certain
issue, you can just focus on that one.
Whatever things are just, there's another one.
Justice, Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
(04:09):
lovely, whatever things are good, report.
If there's any virtue, if there's any praise, then think
about these things, these thingswhen he just gave them there
true, honest, just, pure, lovely.
These things you have both learned.
In other words, they've been taught the, the, they've been
taught these doctrines and you received them and you heard them
(04:33):
and you saw them in me. So now you do them and the God
of peace shall be with you. So he wasn't telling them
something they didn't already know.
He's already been taught, taughtthis to this congregation.
They've seen him use the same attitudes in his own life.
And he's telling them, if you'veseen me do it, you can do it
also. They've learned this information
(04:54):
from Paul and they have applied what they learned in the past as
well as watching Paul's behavior.
And now it's a different time. There's a turmoil going on in
the church. This is how the Apostle Paul's
closing words to the church at Philippi are written.
He communicates how to purge your thoughts from worry and
(05:18):
from other stress related sins. self-centered thinking.
Listen to what I just said. self-centered thinking, You must
avoid that. And that comes from having an
unrealistic self-image about whoyou are and what you're what
you're really worth. Do you have an unrealistic
self-image? Do you look in the mirror and do
(05:39):
the person you see, is that the real you?
No, the person you see is what everybody else sees with the
real you. It's what you think.
So the arrogant individual's always trying to straighten you
out. You know some person with
arrogance going to tell you how the you're supposed to live your
life. And once that person assumes you
(05:59):
don't have all the facts, they'll be glad to tell them to
you. In fact, they go to great
efforts to correct the way you're thinking.
And that's an arrogant individual with an arrogant
mindset. You cannot afford to get like
that. None of this will work if you
have. If you're full of unrealistic
self-image, you won't recognize truth.
You won't understand how to be honest.
(06:20):
You never, never will treat people justly.
You won't live pure. You won't live lovely.
So for the mature Christian, there's a better way to think
than what the world offers you. Instead of worrying about
something or being bitter about something, you can stuff those
sins back in the box. You hear me stuff those sins
(06:42):
back in the box. How do you do that?
By using the divine prescriptionthat God has given to you and
the verses that I just read to you.
A divine prescription is how youthink.
If you use what I'm about to tell you, then you'll find a
great way to live. And Paul tells you that in
Philippians 47. The priest of God will rule your
(07:05):
hearts. It's, it goes beyond
understanding and it will keep you.
So here we go. Let's look at the at the divine
prescription. You know, it's the time of year
when you have to go to the doctor and get a shot and get
some antibiotics. Well, this is the divine
prescription. I call it spiritual antibiotics
for living with a relaxed mentalattitude, or shall we say,
(07:29):
having a healthy mindset. He starts off by writing to the
church and he remember he had left.
Now he's on the road, he's goingto have to send back
Epaphroditus to go back and reteach some of these things so
the church doesn't split. But he says here, whatever
things are true, that original Greek word for true is aletheis
(07:53):
aletheis Aletheis ALETHES, and that's a descriptive adjective
from the root word alethea. It is the most common use of
this noun, and it refers to something that's accurate.
Whatever is accurate, whatever is truth, whatever is correct.
One thing that will destroy a local church is when inaccurate
(08:16):
doctrine is taught. And you, you must understand,
Satan will never tell you the truth.
But Jesus, our Lord and Savior said he's a liar from the
beginning. He's not going to tell you the
truth. I mean, he told, he told Eve, go
ahead and eat that fruit. God didn't really mean that.
You can't trust what God said. Trust what I said.
Eat the fruit, it'll help you. He's a liar.
(08:39):
One thing that would destroy a local church is when inaccurate
Bible doctrine is taught and howdoes it get in there.
It is brought into the congregation by some well
meaning member, a lot of times afemale member as it is here.
If that individual can rally a following, then they wind up
(09:00):
having a church within a church.So you have the pastor trying to
teach the Word of God, and you have another individual trying
to teach the Word of God on the other side of the building and
getting a bunch of people aroundthem.
And then you have a church within a church.
And that's a disaster because there can only be one authority
in a local church. And I wonder if it's like this
(09:22):
in your church, Does your pastorhave authority to teach the Word
of God? And do people listen to him?
Or are there other people in thecongregation teaching what they
want to teach? And if there's a question comes
up, which, which one do you go to?
Do you go to the pastor or do you go to this other person?
Because it's the pastor teacher's job to be the
(09:44):
authority of the local church. And that authority is
established by teaching what is true, what is accurate.
That's what this passage says. Things that are true.
Think about these things, thingsthat are honest.
Think about these things. There can only be one authority
in a local church, and that's the pastor.
(10:05):
You know our Lord Jesus Christ prayed this prayer in John 117.
Sanctify them through thy truth,because thy word is truth.
Here. Our Lord Jesus Christ is praying
for His converts and for their protection from satanic forces.
The great enemy of those early converts was organized religion
(10:27):
or legalism. The scribes and the Pharisees
were very legalistic and the same is very true today.
Unless you get accurate Bible instructions regarding the
Christian life, you will be captured by the lie that Satan
throws out, which is one of two things.
(10:49):
It's either going to be salvation by works.
In other words, you can save yourself by being a good little
boy, or it's going to be spirituality by works.
In other words, you're you're a great Christian because you
don't cuss and you don't drink and you don't smoke and you
don't do bad things. So spirituality by works and
salvation by works is the big lie that's that filters into a
(11:11):
congregation. Unless the pastor stomps that
out, unless the pastor stuffs that stuff back in the box,
people will be captured by this false doctrine.
So according to Paul, every member must be grounded in true
doctrinal concepts, every personin that church.
(11:33):
So the next word he used was what?
Whatsoever things are true and whatsoever things are honest.
The Greek word semnos comes fromthe from the verb sibo and it
means to be revered, honorable, and this implies a clear
thinking. It means individuals who respect
(11:53):
God and are trustworthy. The same word is used in First
Timothy 38 and 311 and referringto deacons and their wives in
the church. The same word honest.
Lying to other people is a sin, but lying to yourself is a
character flaw. It's a character flaw of
(12:15):
arrogance and unrealistic self-image.
So if you want to, if you want to have peace in the middle of a
turmoil situation, you have to what have to think about those
things that are true. You have to be honest.
Think about those things that are honest and think about those
(12:35):
things that are just. The Greek word to chaos, just
that's a descriptive adjective meaning things that are fully
conformed to the will of God. Think about the justice of God.
God is absolutely just. Man is absolutely unjust.
God has what we call plus R and you and I have what we call
(12:56):
minus R. He's positive righteousness and
we're minus righteousness. There are none that are
righteous. No, not one.
The Bible says so. The perfect righteousness of God
rejects all of our righteousnessas a filthy rag, and the justice
of God judges us. So what Paul is saying here, If
(13:18):
you want to deal with things in your life and have peace,
concentrate on things that are true.
Concentrate on things that are honest.
Concentrate on things that are just.
You don't have to do it all at one time.
You can do it one at a time, as I said, so it's very clear.
You have to be careful. Whatever things are just to
(13:42):
chaos, righteous, fully conformed to the will of God.
Think about the justice of God. What the justice of God rejects
the righteousness of God judges.And then he said whatever things
are pure, pure. What's that mean?
It's the Greek word hagnos meanssacred, free of carnality,
innocent, clean, impure thoughts.
(14:07):
Don't let sin reign in your mortal body any longer.
Romans 612 Mortal bodies, mortalthoughts are not pure.
So you have to learn how not to let your sin nature have
domination over you. And it's in your mind.
That's where he operates. That's where the sin nature
takes charge. The sin nature will plant a
(14:28):
seed, a thought in your mind, and that thought will grow and
mature into a desire, and that desire becomes an action.
And that action is going to be sin.
So either you're going to sin oryou're not going to sin.
Either you're going to respond to the thought or quench the
thought and put it out, stuff itback in the box.
And if you want to do that, you have to learn how to think about
(14:50):
whatever things are pure, free of carnality, innocent, clean.
That's a wonderful mind free of lust.
You know, there's a lot of different lust patterns.
We talked about this before. There's power lust, politicians
demonstrate that. There's sexual lust, we know
about that. There's approbation lust that's
(15:11):
yearning for attention. There's power lust.
It's not just, it's financial lust, It's not just sex lust.
It's a lot of different lust. So you have to think about the
things that are pure, not the lust pattern.
Then he goes on to say whatever things are lovely, whatever
(15:33):
things are lovely, What does that mean?
Prosphales is the Greek word prosphales, and it means
whatever things are acceptable and pleasing to look at, to
observe. You know, the thoughts of a
person can be real ugly, but Godwants you to have clean, pure,
(15:53):
truthful, just thoughts in your brain.
If you don't want to have worry,if you don't want to have
bitterness, if you don't don't want to have frustration, this
is the way you have to think. And Paul is giving them the
divine prescription, which is a spiritual antibody that Satan.
So you can combat what Satan's trying to do, capture your
(16:16):
thoughts. So he said, if there's any good
report about these things, any virtue, any praise, and think
about these things, that's whereyour mind needs to concentrate.
You might wonder why Paul would mandate that the church members
focus their attention on the things that he's prescribed
here. Listen to Isaiah 26.
(16:38):
Three, You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has
stayed on thee because he trustseth in thee.
Right there you have positive volition.
Whose mind has stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.
That's the faith rest drill standing on the promises of God.
(17:00):
So if you want to have peace in your life, that's to be positive
volition and you have to concentrate on what God is
giving you in the scriptures. And this is the verse you need
to read this over and over and over again this week.
If you're in a church where there's frustration, where
there's competition, where there's inorderate ambition, you
(17:22):
need to read this. Whatever things are true,
honest, just, pure, lovely, goodreport, virtuous, these are the
things you think about. Perhaps Paul is advising them to
ignore the conflict going on in the church between these two
ladies and instead focus on correct doctrinal application.
(17:45):
Listen to Philippians 3. Two, I beseech the odious and I
beseech Sintechi that they have the same mind in the Lord,
Prepositional phrase in the Lord.
In other words, they what they need to think alike.
And obviously they are not thinking alike right now.
Well, what's, what are they thinking about?
(18:07):
Well, one of them is thinking about false doctrine, I assure
you, and they're trying to rallyothers to be with them and be on
their side. It's obvious these two ladies
are not on the same page doctrinally, maybe not on the
same page emotionally either, but their differences may be
threatening the whole church. And this is often how churches
(18:30):
split. And it's how it happens because
two women in the congregation cannot agree and unfortunately
their husbands can't control them.
Now you see, Satan is seeking touse this fractured relationship
to destroy the the Philippine church.
And This is why it's so important.
(18:50):
Paul had to get Epaphroditus back down there to teach them
the things they should remember.So let's go through some
principles this morning before we wrap it up.
Here's the first principle. Your approach to life and the
effectiveness of your biblical standards are dependent on what
(19:10):
you think. Your approach to life and your
effectiveness of biblical standards is dependent on what
you think. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so he is. The Bible says remember, listen
to his play of words I'm about to give you now listen.
You are what you think you are, not what you think you are.
(19:34):
You are what you think you are, not what you think you are.
In Proverbs 23, seven, the versesaid as I just quoted, for as he
thinks in his heart, so is he. The interesting thing about it
is that God can read your mind. He knows what you're thinking
and you're not going to pull thewool over God's eyes.
(19:55):
So your physical health is the third principle.
Your physical health can be affected by what you think, it's
called psychostomatics. Your physical health can be
affected by what you think, it'scalled psychosomatics.
What is psychosomatics? Well, it it means this, that you
(20:19):
can actually wear yourself sick.Mental tension will eventually
overflow into your physical body.
That's the true thing. Doctors can tell you that.
So if you don't want to get sick, then don't think about
things that are not true. Don't think about things that
are not honest. Don't think about things that
(20:42):
are not pure. Don't think about things that
are not virtuous. Where how do you stop doing
that? Because when they pop up in your
brain, that is your sin nature, planting a seed, trying to get
it to grow into a lust. If you don't stop it, if you
don't stuff it back in the box, it'll grow into a lust and you
(21:02):
will fulfill that lust and you'll break fellowship with God
by sinning. So what the apostle Paul is
saying is that in part 4 here, the readers of his letter he's
writing back need to stabilize their thoughts.
They need to stabilize their mentality.
Quit thinking like they're thinking.
(21:23):
So here's another point .5 The effective Christian life
requires you and I to think divine viewpoint, not human
viewpoint. Human viewpoint is is the
emotional highs and lows that people go through.
But we don't live by our emotions.
Emotions are always reactionary,but we don't live reactionary.
(21:46):
We live by responding. We respond to the truth and it
gives us the peace that passes all understanding.
So if you want to have the kind of life God is talking about
here, you have to learn how to think divine viewpoint.
And that's the true virtuous just things that we're talking
about in verses 8:00 and 9:00. And here's another thing, you
(22:09):
need to understand another principle that's critical for
you to learn. A new Christian must undergo a
renovation of his thinking. When I got saved, I had to learn
how to think a different way. And it didn't happen overnight.
It happened over a period of years.
But Romans 12/2 says do not be conformed to this world, but be
(22:30):
transformed by the renewing of your mind, changing the way you
think so that you can prove now what is the good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. So that's the job of the
believer is to learn how to think accurate Bible doctrine.
It's called divine viewpoint, and that's part of that.
(22:51):
Whatever is pure, whatever is true, whatever is just, that's
what it is, exactly what it is. And that's your secret to having
peace in your life. If you want to have it, if, if
your thinking does it line up with the biblical attitude, a
divine viewpoint, then you're going to need to rebound,
(23:12):
confess the sin first, John 19 and recover very quickly.
Or else you'll be certain to do something very dumb, very
stupid. As you know, you've done it
before. So you know what I'm talking
about. So when you've when that seed
gets planted in your brain, it wants to sprout up into a lust,
(23:33):
then you need to put it back in the box, confess it to God,
rebound, carry on a stable mindset.
Next principle is free from fear, replacing it with faith,
rest. In second Timothy 17, the Bible
clearly says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of
(23:53):
power and of love and of a soundmind.
The word sound mind is sophronismos, sophronismos in
the Greek and it means self-control, a stable mindset,
a sign. Sound mind is a steadfast
attitude in the face of adversity.
(24:16):
So if you want to replace the way you think with your
emotions, which is not thinking but rather reacting, then you
have to learn to think divine viewpoint.
And how do you think divine viewpoint?
Well, I just gave it to you in Philippians chapter 4, verse 8
and 9, whatever things are pure,whatever things are honest,
whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, the
(24:38):
good report, things that are virtuous, that's divine
viewpoint. The greatest freedom in your
life, it's secret. Here I want to give you is
understanding grace orientation because grace orientation frees
you from trying to earn your salvation by a system of good
deeds. And grace orientation gives you
(24:58):
the ability to blot, to grace out other people that you choose
to grace out. It could be a pertinent person
who's an antagonist. It could be a person who has a
need. But if you will use some
personal love, which is a problem solving device that we
have under the 10 problem solving devices, then you can
(25:18):
provide grace for both of them. See, what is grace?
Grace means all things that God is free to do for you, including
salvation through faith. And it's absolutely free, a free
gift. So isn't that a wonderful thing?
Apart from any human merit, any system, human works that are
(25:40):
never merited, never earned by mankind, it's grace.
If you're bitter, that's a lack of grace because bitterness is
the number one system of self deception.
It results from reaction to people, situations,
circumstances. It's a sign of you having your
eyes on people rather than on the Lord.
(26:00):
Because grace orientation simplyimplies that you treat others
the way God treats you. For example, you do not have to
learn earn God's love. He loves you just like you are
because first John 410 says herein is the love, not that we
love God, but He loved us first and He sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. The very power that sustains
(26:25):
grace orientation in your life is virtue love.
John 47. Beloved, let us love one
another, for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of
God and knoweth God. This virtue love is phenomenal.
So when you use grace orientation towards someone who
doesn't deserve it, then you arein effect using virtue love.
(26:46):
You don't have time for the other stuff because the Bible
says let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
So when you can live your life not being distracted by people,
when you can live your life thinking the right way, then you
will enjoy grace orientation, grace thinking.
All of it comes from the truth of the Word of God and
(27:08):
subsequent grace actions in yourlife.
Did you get it? I hope so.
I had a lot more to cover, but Ijust don't have the time.
Please come back next week, sametime, same place.
Until then, this is your host Rick Hughes, saying thank you
for listening to The Flood Lion.Thank you for listening to The
(27:28):
Flood Lion with your host, Rick Hughes.
If you'd like to contact Rick, please write to him at PO Box
100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or online at
www.rickhughesministries.org.
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