I like the story of one session at a children’s church camp where one of the counselors was leading a discussion on the purpose that God has for every thing in His Creation. The campers began to find good reasons for clouds, trees, rocks, rivers, animals and just about everything else in nature. Finally, one of the children asked, "If God has a good purpose for everything, then why did He create poison ivy?" This made the discussion leader gulp and as he struggled to answer the question, one of other children piped up and said, "The reason God made poison ivy is that He wanted us to know that there are certain things we should keep our cotton-pickin’ hands off of!"

When our daughters were little, they had a tape of Sunday school songs with a song on it that I had never heard before. One verse went, "Oh be careful little hands what you do! Oh be careful little hands what you do! For the Father up above is looking down in love. So be careful little hands what you do." Conference speaker, Tony Campolo once said, "That song ruined my dating life! You know, I’d be out there in a car and just when I’m ready to make the move, this voice from heaven says, ‘Be careful little hands, what you do.’" As useful as that song was for Campolo, it has other verses with equally important messages: "Be careful, little eyes what you see…" and "Be careful, little ears what you hear…." But my favorite verse is the one that goes, "Be careful little minds, what you think…."

You’re probably all familiar with the passage of Scripture in which Jesus made this point: "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him" (Matt. 12:35). In Jesus’ day, people believed that what you ate and what physical things you came into contact with - that these types of things determined whether you were a "good" or "bad" person. Jesus, however, pointed out that this was not true. He said that it is not what you eat or come into contact with, but what goes into you in a non-physical sense that makes you "good" or "bad." What you allow into your mind is largely what determines the kind of person you are.

In fact, a good case can be made that what we think is virtually synonymous with who we are. Proverbs 23:7 tells us, "For as [a man] thinks within himself, so he is." Paul emphasized the importance of controlling our thoughts in 2 Corinthians when said that we need to "… take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10: 5 NIV) in our struggle against worldliness. There are plenty of strong warnings in the Bible about the power of thoughts and what they can do when those thoughts manifest themselves in our actions.

I don’t think I need to work too hard at convincing any of you of the truth that our actions and speech are rooted in our thoughts; but I do want to take a look at exactly how this is done. This area of guarding our thoughts is often neglected; even to the point where many of us (myself included) at times act as if we’ve completely "sold out" on the issue. We don’t guard our thoughts, nor take them captive for Christ; we don’t filter what we allow inside of our minds. Sometimes it’s as if almost anything goes.

In Philippians 4:8, the apostle Paul encourages us to guard our thought lives: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Not everything we watch, read, or participate in is good for us. In fact, some of it is very detrimental to our spiritual health, our witness, and our relationship with God. And we need to get into the habit of being careful with our minds. So, I want to talk today about what putting this verse into practice should mean for us.

First of all, if we’re going to guard our minds and thoughts, we need to refuse to buy into the world’s lies.

The Bible tells us not to conform to the world’s standards, beliefs and practices; but to let God transform us and change us into people who are like His Son. The world lies to us and tells us that all sorts of things people do, believe, and say are "no big deal," but when we compare them to God’s standards as they are put forth in the Bible, we see that they fall very short. What are some of these lies the world tells us?

The first lie that the world tells us is, "It doesn’t affect me."

You know this lie - you may have even used it yourself. I know I have. "Yeah, I know that the language in this movie is a bit rough, but I’m not watching it for that. And besides, it doesn’t really affect me." Or, "I know that book has a lot of sex in it, but I just skip over those parts. I don’t read the book for those parts." If a man says he just reads Playboy for the articles, he’s laughed at - everybody knows that’s not true! Yet we do watch, listen to, and read all sorts of things all time that aren’t good for us spiritually. And we try to justify it by saying, "Yeah, I know the lyrics are explicit, the language is bad, or there’s nudity & sex, but I don’t watch it for that and besides, it doesn’t affect me." Who are we kidding when we say that kind of thing? Not God, certainly, and probably not even ourselves, if we’re honest.

When we willingly introduce temptation into our lives, we’ve already lost the battle. The temptation to sin comes to us quite readily enough on its own, so we need to be honest with ourselves and keep in mind that everything we take in has potential to affect us negatively. Don’t buy into the lie that you can take in all sorts of filth and it won’t affect you.

Another worldly lie is, "Everybody’s doing it/listening to it /watching it, etc." You don’t have to be a parent for very long at all before you repeat the sentiment that your parents tormented you with. "Mom, can I go here and to this or that?" "No," you say, "you may not." Your child says, "But, everybody’s parents are letting them!" And then you respond with the classic reply: "Well, if everybody’s parents let them jump off a cliff, would you jump off too?"

We parents like to think that this line of logic is convincing, but I suspect that many children would follow their friends off the cliff - if only because we adults use the same argument to justify doing what we know to be wrong. "Everybody’s seen that movie, I don’t want to be only one who hasn’t. Everybody’s reading this book…. Nobody I know sees any harm in this activity, so why shouldn’t I join in?" The problem with this logic is that majority vote, consensus, or even what year it is does not determine right and wrong. The appropriate question is not whether everybody else is doing it, but whether or not God approves, whether or not it brings us closer to Him or makes us less like His Son Jesus. The Bible says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 14:12). Whatever it is that you’re tempted to do that you shouldn’t do, the truth is that not everybody is doing it, and even if they were, that doesn’t make it right!

A third lie that we use: "Well, I know parts are bad, but parts are good, too." This is often applied to such things as movies, TV shows, reading materials, professional wrestling, and you name it. All I have to say to this line of reasoning is to offer to bake you a cake some time soon. I guarantee that 99% of the ingredients will be fresh, pure and wholesome. The other 1% will be tainted with botulism. Do you want a piece of that cake? Come on, only 1% is bad! I know that this is simplistic logic, but if we take seriously the Bible’s teachings on our thoughts being the gateway to souls, we’ll not risk being infected by a small amount of poison mixed into the whole.

There is one more lie I’d like to point out and it can be summed up in one word: "L’Oreal!" In the Sunday paper a few weeks back, I saw a short article on "this week’s new phrase: L’Oreal." It was defined as "you’re worth it" and it’s based upon the cosmetic company’s ads featuring famous, beautiful women telling us that we shouldn’t be ashamed to color our hair because "we’re worth it."

Let me give you an example of how this term might be used: Say you’ve put in some serious overtime on a recent project at work and you’re hoping that your boss will reward you with a raise. You tell a coworker that you hope to be "bumped up a tax bracket," if you know what I mean, and your coworker responds by saying, "Of course! Hello? You’re L’Oreal!"

There’s nothing wrong with getting rewards, or even with treating yourself to something special from time to time, but remember, sin is never a reward for doing good! God doesn’t say, "You’ve been so good, I’m going let you go out and sin a little! Tie one on, have a fling, watch a dirty movie!"

Sometimes I think we try to delude ourselves into believing that we deserve a little sin, but Psalm 119:14 portrays the godly person as saying, "I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches."

So, these are some of the lies that the world tells us in order to convince us that pretty much anything goes. These lies are not true. We do need to work at filtering our input.

I could encourage all of us to make a complete and total break with everything in our lives with the potential to lead us astray. Realistically though, probably very few of us are the type of people who would say, for example, "I know that TV is potentially very harmful to the spiritual well-being of my family and myself, so I’m going to take it out and shoot it." I know some people who don’t have or watch television for this reason and I respect them highly for that commitment. But, most of us need to take things a little slower. So, I challenge you to commit yourself to a realistic approach to guarding your minds. I have several suggestions along these lines.

First, completely cut the things that are blatantly unchristian and spiritually unproductive out of your life. I like the story of one session at a children’s church camp where one of the counselors was leading a discussion on the purpose that God has for every thing in His Creation. The campers began to find good reasons for clouds, trees, rocks, rivers, animals and just about everything else in nature. Finally, one of the children asked, "If God has a good purpose for everything, then why did He create poison ivy?" This made the discussion leader gulp and as he struggled to answer the question, one of other children piped up and said, "The reason God made poison ivy is that He wanted us to know that there are certain things we should keep our cotton-pickin’ hands off of!"

Christian adults should be able to see the truth in that statement. There are plenty of things in this world that really have no redeeming value whatsoever for the Christian. We ought to have the strength of our faith and our convictions to have areas and categories of potential experience where we simply say, "I’m just not going to be involved in that. I’m not going to view it, read it, or experience it. It doesn’t matter that I’ve never done it before, I just know that no good could possibly come from my involvement in it, therefore it’s off limits."

I’ve never done drugs before (unless you count cough syrup) but that doesn’t mean I’m going to run out and try marijuana, crack, or methamphetamine. Some of you have used some of those substances and told me how bad they are, so I don’t need to experience them to know that I want nothing to do with them. Some things should just automatically be "off-limits."

My second suggestion is, work at breaking out of your old habits. We visited some very dear friends in Michigan last summer. One thing we really appreciated about them was how disciplined they were about their TV watching. They were disciplined about the content of what they watched, of course, but I’m talking mainly about the amount of time they watched. The television didn’t just automatically come on at certain hour. Their kids had one hour of pre-approved shows in the afternoon, but that was pretty much it. John, the father, said, "We watch more TV when I’m tired, and that’s probably bad in itself."

The other night, it had been a long day and I didn’t want to do anything productive. I was in between books, so I was channel surfing for something to watch. All those channels and nothing even remotely interesting (!) So, the third or fourth time through the line-up, it finally hit me how ridiculous that was. To watch nothing, just to be watching something. So, I turned off the TV and turned on some music, which we kept on until bedtime.

I know that if you’re in the habit of having the TV on all the time - or reading books you shouldn’t be reading all the time - when you cut down or cut them out completely, you’ll feel like you’re missing something. However, if you do this just one time, through discipline or because you’re forced to, you’ll realize just how little you really miss the old activity, the old input, the unproductive entertainment, the thing that’s not influencing you for good. There is a lot of garbage we take into our minds that we let in just because we’re in the habit of doing it. "It’s after dinner, let’s see what’s on TV." "It’s Friday night, let’s go rent some movies." Nobody’s forcing us to open ourselves up to junk. Much of it is simply habit. So, choose a bad one and break out of it.

A third suggestion is, know the areas where you’re weak & prone to giving in and be prepared. One night at a weight loss clinic the instructor held up an apple and then a candy bar. "What is the nutritional value of this apple," she asked, "and how would it relate to your diet?" "Low in calories," "natural" and "lots of fiber" were among the answers. She then went on to explain what was wrong with candy, concluding, "Apples are not only more healthful but also less expensive. You can buy this apple for about 30 cents. I paid 85 cents for this candy bar." Everyone just stared at the forbidden treat and from the back of the room someone blurted out: "I’ll give you two dollars for it."

If you know you’re going to be tempted to watch something you shouldn’t at a certain hour, then make other plans for that hour. Tell someone you trust about your struggle and ask them to hold you accountable. Don’t tempt yourself. You know better than anyone does the areas where you fail, so plan ahead. Be smart.

My last suggestion is this: Actively fill your life with positive, godly influences. I know that in Alcoholics Anonymous, one thing they stress is that if someone has a problem with alcohol, they almost certainly have friends who have the same problem. So, when a person stops drinking, they’re going to need some new friends who don’t drink; otherwise their old, drinking friends will drag them back into their addiction.

Paul says in our text that we’re to focus on things that are good. I won’t take time to explain everything in Paul’s list here in Philippians 4:8 — there’s really no need. We instinctively know whether or not something is honorable, true, or if it is something that God approves of, and so forth. Likewise, we also know if it is something that influences us to sin, to neglect God, or be selfish or immoral.

A bit of warning at this point...

Sometimes Christians develop good discipline in this area, which is a good thing. As family or as individuals, they have firm rules about what they will read, watch, listen to, or participate in. This is productive for them and their faith is strengthened. At that point, they have to be especially careful that they don’t get haughty, self-righteous, or just plain weird about the guarding of their thoughts and minds.

I’ve known Christians who had admirable standards in these areas, but they sent the message to those around them that they were all either condemned, or at least a lot less spiritual than they were because they didn’t conform to those same standards.

Here’s a different approach. Imagine a brother or sister in Christ coming into your home, seeing what you watch and saying, "That looks pretty racy to me. I wouldn’t feel comfortable watching that, do you really think you should?" That is the type of thing we’re called to do, as Christians. That’s watching out for each other. We’re not doing it to manage another person’s life, but only to help them be strong in the faith.

That approach is entirely different from that of those who say, "Well, we don’t drink coffee/watch TV/go to movies, or do 100s of other things. In fact, we believe no ‘true Christians’ do those things." Implication is that if you choose to do any of their verboten activities, then you must not be a "true Christian." Only you can really decide what it is that you need to cut out of your life and make a commitment to follow through on it. Others can suggest, or make observations, but if you do not desire to clean up your thought life and choose what you let influence you, no one else will be able to help with that. Let’s not let uncritical devotion to subjective rules and standards of holiness become a substitute for true spirituality and a loving heart set upon God.

What do I hope you’ll do as a result of hearing this message? One good thing would be to take an honest look at your life and identify the major area where you’re exposed to things that don’t fit into Paul’s description of what we should be thinking about and meditating upon. Identify that area where you’re most influenced for evil and not for God, and then make a game plan for minimizing and eventually eliminating that influence from your life. It might be TV, what you read or look at on the Internet, the movies you see, the books you read, or what you do in your leisure time — you’ll be able to figure out what it is if you take bit of time thinking on it.

Develop a plan to cut it out and replace it with things that are a positive influence upon your thoughts. Most of us, I’d guess, could easily stand spending more time in prayer or reading and thinking about God’s Word. But, it doesn’t necessarily have to be something overtly religious or Christian. We’re not called be naïve simpletons who are blissfully ignorant of the world in which we live. It’s just that there is so much in our world that influences and steers our thoughts, and thereby our very selves, away from God. We need to be careful of our little minds and of what they think.

Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

 

The author of this sermon, Derek Helt,  may be reached at: derek-nfcc@charter.net

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