your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2 and in that scripture in the church Bible page 1 2 2 3 1 2 2 3 if you're using the church Bible or Philippians chapter 4 and verses 2 through 9 is our text this morning. As we've already observed two minutes silence we want to express our gratitude to those that are in the military and certainly those that have suffered and being in the military and honor those that died for the liberties that we have and certainly thank God for them and for those even today that are protecting us and our nation. Our text is Philippians chapter 4 verses 2 through 9. The topic is a hot topic in the news. In fact, Prince William, especially Kate, advocates for this and it is mental health and I think it's appropriate to coming into some of the darker times here in Scotland to consider a topic like this. And I don't really like the term mental health because our world labels a lot of things that are not truly mental health as mental health. And obviously there are very real mental health issues there. My father passed away this past year from dementia, Alzheimer's. And certainly there's memory loss and things like that. There are handicaps. There are other mental handicaps that somebody might be born as Down syndrome or something like that and or have a brain injury from an accident, things like that. However, in our day, again, there's a lot of things that are getting labels and things like bipolar, schizophrenia, ADHD, autism. These things are not infrequent and these things are very much being labeled population of even Scotland here or of the world. Sadly some of that is suspect. We've got parents that know that in our in our government system you get more if your child is diagnosed with a disease like this or something like that. There are parents sadly that seek those labels and seek to apply those labels to their kids because of that. Our humanistic world is quick to label things being mental health issues or just the way somebody somebody is so for instance ADHD can at times be just a lack of parenting that that child has not had a proper discipline in their life to help them to sit and be still and to focus and or at of a child with a rod of correction will drive it far from him. Okay, so the Bible does teach that the nature of a child is rebellious and that there has to be proper discipline that is given. And our world we know makes excuse for sinful behavior by making the criminal, the victim, temporary insanity. They weren't thinking right. Well, obviously, they weren't thinking right. They took the life of somebody else, but the world defends it with this idea that they were temporarily insane. Of course, the world makes sinful thinking a disease. A sinner is a victim, and they're just born that way. We've got the homosexuality and lesbianism, and the excuse is they can't help it. That's the way that they were born, or somebody that, even anxiety disorder, mood disorder, eating disorder, personality disorder, and the world is very quick to step in medically and say the problem is not sin, the problem is the way that the person is, and we know that God created us, and we also know this, this morning, we were born that way, if we're speaking about sin, because we're all born what? And so that's reality. So I just want to be careful this morning that we think right as believers about some of these things that are very quick to get a label out there. And if you think about it, sin is poor mental health, and it leads to poor mental health. Let me give you some examples. Worry is sin. Fear is sin. Anger is sin. And so, you think about, again, some of those things in our world we label as mental health, and we're speaking about some of them when we speak about sin. You think about, as well, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, sin abuse leads to guilt, covetousness, and depression. So I'm just pointing out to us as a church that these things are connected, and we realize that they're connected. We think biblically and recognize that much of what thinking. Okay, so what is sinful in my life has its root in the way that I think and so for instance, Proverbs 23 verse 7 says, for as he thinketh in his heart, diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. So those things that the world says is a disorder or they label, we gotta step back from that and say, well, wait a second, is there a root cause that is a sinful cause that I'm not thinking right, instead of thinking has got intensity to think? Or as you think it in its heart, so is he. Romans 7.23, Paul said in his battle against the flesh, I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my member." So Paul said, where does that battle takes place? That battle takes place in my mind, in the way that I think. The word of God says in 2 Corinthians 10 5, it says, casting down imaginations, where imaginations take place, in my mind, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God. Where does the knowledge of God take place? in my mind, and bringing into captivity every thought, where did my thoughts take place? In my mind, to the obedience of Christ. You see what I'm saying? Bible, it's very clear that the battle is there, that we gotta win the battle there, and that the Spirit of God's gotta give us grace to do it. Now, without me, he can't do what? Nothing. We've gotta have the help of the Holy Spirit in these areas of our not, depending upon God as I should, being right in my thinking, but by the grace of God I can fix a lot of that when I go to the Word of God and get the truth of God to help me with that. If anyone in God's Word should have what our world labels as PTSD, it's the Apostle Paul, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Think about the Apostle Paul. He's been shipwrecked, he's stoned, he's whipped, he's in prison, he's hated, he's despised. And yet we don't see him in the book of Philippians speaking negatively, we don't see him speaking depressedly, he is speaking confidently, though he's writing this epistle, a letter from prison to the church at Philippi, and you know the theme of this book is joy. You look at that and think, how can he do that? Well, the Apostle Paul had really good mental health. 1 to 27 it says only let your conversation be as my joy, that ye be like-minded the way ye think, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. And verse 3 of that chapter, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Our world, again, speaks about pride, your mind pride, and Paul says Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This is what Paul is saying, they are not thinking right, they mind-earthly think. So you see, Paul in prison, he is strong, but he is thinking right, and he is challenging the church. We're going to get there today, but as I looked at the text, I looked at it and I go, you know, this whole passage is speaking about the way that we think and that we need to think right. And if we think right, we can have good mental health as a result of that, of obeying God. And so I want you to know this this morning. You must think right to have good mental health. And so is your mind in a godly place? And then are you disciplining your mind? But I encourage you at times, on the back of the bulletin, it's got a place for taking notes. You can jot things down, because what I'm gonna go through this morning, you may not be able to remember all of it, but we're speaking of mine, and so it might help sometimes to jot things down, because what we're gonna look at, I think, is exceedingly practical, and I pray, God, it'd be helpful to us to think right and to have good mental health. Let's pray. Father, just ask that the Spirit of God would help us this morning as we come to the Word of God. And Father, give us grace And that's a topic that I suppose we could kind of be like politics or religion. Now, don't go there. But Father, give us grace as Christians to think biblically and to really evaluate, is it really a mental health disorder or is it sinful thinking that's not right? And is the solution rather than psychological, is it relational, our relationship with God? And so, Spirit of God, give some illumination into these things that we're gonna consider from your word this morning. I can't speak without your enablement. I do ask that Spirit of God would help me to speak vividly, practically, lovingly, and powerfully the truth of the word of God. And I pray that we really have the ears to hear this morning and take on board this truth, which is so meaningful in our day. It's in Christ and you pray, amen. Lord. Now I would point out first of all that none of what I'm going to say is of any benefit to anybody that's not saved. To anybody that's not born again. Notice Paul's instruction is to those that are saved. He said that they be of the same mind what? In the Lord. So if you're not in the Lord that doesn't make sense. You can't be of the same mind. You can't have the mind of God this morning if you're not a child of God. If you've not been saved. 1 Corinthians 2 but he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judge of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. If I'm a child of God, all of a sudden, where did God make sense? And I'm thinking biblically. I'm not thinking like the world anymore. I see it for what it is. I see sin for what it is. I see truth for what it is. There is a clarity that's there, a biblical way of thinking that is not in the heart of somebody that's not saved. And so they cannot think like this because they're not in the Lord. In fact, they have no ability to do what is right. They have no ability to please God because their thoughts are not in accordance with the truth of the Word of God. Romans 8, verses five through nine. It says, for they that are after the flesh do mind. Think about that statement with regard to our thinking. They do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, For to be carnally minded, fleshly minded, is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Okay, we're talking about good mental health. Where is it? It's in a right relationship with God. Okay? Thinking right is where it's at. Because the carnal mind, fleshly mind, is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But then it goes on to say, but you're not in the flesh but in the Spirit. If so be it that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man am not in the Spirit of God, he is none of his. Okay, so notice how those truths about if I am saved I can think right, but if I'm not saved I can't think right because I'm in my fleshly mind and my fleshly mind have a spiritual mind the Bible says is life and peace now again talking about mental health we're talking about life and peace that we're talking about good mental health okay so these things go together how we think and in that what we gotta be a believer so that we could have this so only if you have the spirit can you please God and do these things and know the mind of God now to go back to our text It doesn't say what the difficulty was. If it was modern times, I would suggest maybe they disagreed about the church carpet. Maybe they disagreed about some ministry. They wanted to do it a different way than something else or something like that. But Paul said, I want you to zero in and think about what does God want. what pleases God, and agree together that we're gonna obey God, and if you do that, guess what? If you're both gonna do what is gonna obey God and please God, it's gonna unite you together. And so they had a disagreement, but if they thought biblically, that would be a blessing to them and to the church. Psalm 133.1 says, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's such a blessing, and I'm just saying for mental health, it's great when people get on, right? We're thinking together and we're united together. That's why a Christian marriage where the husband and the wife are both following Jesus Christ is such a strong marriage because there is that unity of thought as they agree together. Paul uses the term true yoke fellow in verse three. The idea of a yoke is that being harnessed together. There's an old TV show, Black and White, that we watch and kind of enjoy, and some old movies. They're called Ma and Pa Kettle. And this couple lives in the Ozarks with their, I forget, 16 kids or something like that. And Pa drives this old wagon. He's got this big horse and this little horse. And it's funny, because you look at it and go, that's ludicrous, right? That's an unequal yoke. And it doesn't work today. If somebody is thinking like the world and somebody is thinking like Christ, those things don't go together. The Bible says in Corinthians, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What concord or agreement hath Christ with Belial Satan? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, I will be their guide, and they shall be my people. In other words, how can we expect there to be peace if somebody's thinking like Christ and somebody's thinking like the world? These are unequal yokes, and that's why the Bible warns us, don't enter into those close unions with somebody but I think through these things. And so this morning, if we can join easily with unbelievers, we need to really wonder if we have the mind of Christ. Are we truly saved? I mean, if we just get on with somebody that's completely ungodly and in the world, and that's fine, then we ought to evaluate and say, am I truly saved? Because if I have a mind of Christ, the mind of Christ is absolutely against that. And so am I thinking biblically? And so, just to help us with our mental health, the first thing is, think as God does. We've got the mind of Christ, and so, to bring our thinking into subjection to what God says in his word, you must think right to have good mental health, so think biblically. Secondly, think helpfully. Think helpfully. Verse three says, I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labor with me, Now, Paul doesn't specify what women he's speaking about, but they're godly, and they helped Paul in the ministry that Paul had, whether providing, you know, food or ministering to the women that were there in his outreaches, but they were godly women, they needed some assistance, and Paul says to help them. Now again, we're speaking about mental health, and this is a very, I friendships. It can promote, they say, physiological changes, hard to say, in the brain linked with happiness. I don't know what that's about, but I guess they can sense something good happens when you're helping others. They say it strengthens the immune system, so you're going to be healthier, okay? Again, I don't know, I haven't studied this, but that's what they say when you ask the question, is helping others good for you when it comes to mental health? and teaches us obedience and following God. For instance, Jesus was asked the question, what's the greatest commandment that has been given? And he answered it in Matthew 22, 37, Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, now get this, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. Now that goes along with what we just looked at, So you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. So you're not pleased God in the way that you think, and that's going to reflect in what you do. But the second is like unto it, thou shalt what? love thy neighbor as thyself. Okay, so the second commandment is to care for others like you care for yourself. On these two commandments, name all the law and the prophets. Now, the Good Samaritan story was an example that Jesus gave when somebody said, well, who's my neighbor? And Jesus said, well, I mean, it could be somebody that you completely don't know, and you're passing by just like that Good Samaritan. He saw the need, he had compassion, and he met the need. And so we help others when we look around and go, there's a need, how do I help? And I get it done. And so there's an acrostic, that acrostic is joy, and it's Jesus, others, and you. And that's what we're speaking about, the idea that I'm aware of what the needs are there in somebody's life, and I seek to help them. So am I thinking helpfully? I'll speak at the local church and say, look around, see the need. We looked at it in Sunday school this morning, and that there were needs rising up in the local church, and how that church needed to come together and meet the need. I'll tell you, there's great delight in serving God and being a blessing. I think biblically, think helpfully. And then think joyfully, joyfully. Verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. You know, what does rejoicing look like? I mean, it looks like, I suppose, happiness, but also praising God and thanking God. There is that, I'm rejoicing in God today. It doesn't matter my circumstances. It doesn't matter what's going on. That's not the Paul speaking about. I met some men, ministers up at Blair Athol. We have a day of prayer and we spent some time there together and we shared prayer requests and then we go to prayer in the morning. We pray in the afternoon as well for about a total of three to four hours. and I took them to 1 Timothy 2 verse 1. It says, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who hath all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. And I said to them, I said, When's the last time that you thanked God for John Swinney, Keir Starmer, President Biden? And you might say, Donald Trump. Whatever we say there, it doesn't matter, but the Bible says give thanks. Are there ever things in your life that you look at and say, the last thing I wanna do right now is thank God? That's the way our hearts are so many times. I don't wanna be thankful in this situation, but Paul says, good mental health, the guy that's in prison, There are times in life, again, when you look at it and think, man, I just can't thank God for this, but why is it important that I do? The Bible says in Nehemiah 8.10, neither be sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Somebody that's depressed, self-focused, complaining, griping, bitter, what don't they have? Thankfulness. Joy to God, it's the ability a good therapy would be to go to God and say, God, I'm just going to thank you. Okay, it's tough. I feel depressed. I feel discouraged. I don't like November. I got a friend, he can't, I mean, once he gets past November, he's okay, but he doesn't like November. That could be it for you, but to be able to go to God and say, God, I thank you for this. As a college student at Botkins University, I was depressed really for the first time in my life. I don't remember in my a Bible conference or preaching services three four times a day and you think you would not be depressed I was depressed I've been ill as well I'm sitting I'm sitting there and I'm thinking I don't want to be depressed I wish I wasn't depressed the preachers preaching something like this he said I challenge you go home if you're depressed and take a piece of paper and write on it thankfulness to God and God will take it away take away a burden I thought okay we'll see and I went home and I started writing out thank you unjust, it's unfair, he's suffering for the Lord, but he's rejoicing in God. What does he have? Good mental health. I mean, if we evaluate, if we look at Paul, we say, man, you are resilient. How do you do that? Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. You know, one of the special things about a midweek service is is that we praise God. Every service we get together, when we sing, we're praising God. That's great, we're rejoicing in the Lord. So think about these things, these times, these are uplifting times and encouraging times for us and good for our mental health. And so think biblically, think helpfully, think joyfully, and then think patiently, patiently. It says, let your moderation be known unto all men, is great gain. Again, Paul's in prison, and I'm sure it was a nice environment, I'm sure it was dank and awful and all the things that he's experiencing in there, but you know that Paul had the ability to say, I am content even here in prison. In chapter four, in verses 12 and 13, we're in chapter four, but if you look down in verses 12 and 13, it says, I know both how to be a base, and I know how to abound everywhere, and in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." Then he says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Paul says I've got a lot or I've got little. It's okay. Because everywhere in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Paul was He wasn't focused on this world, but he's focused on the world to come. Notice what he said. I let your moderation be known unto all men. He's instructing them. The Lord is with them. Look out, there's something more important than this life, and that is that Christ is coming again. Annie Johnson Flint is an M writer. to write those precious hands that we sing and we love and we enjoy. Annie Johnson Flipp was one of these. She had crippling arthritis. She was orphaned, and I'm talking crippling arthritis in her 20s. In fact, so crippling that she would write with a piece of chalk in her hand, gripped like that, on a chalkboard that was over the bed. I mean, that's, she was debilitatingly crippled. But she wrote these words. God hath not promised skies always blue, unfailing sympathy, undying love. Annie Johnson Flint, I mean, she's going through it, and that would be very, very difficult, what she endured. But she was looking up, she was enduring patiently what God had for her. You know, are you letting yourself be frustrated with difficulties, or do you take it patiently? Part of our mental health is, I can do all things through Christ who has strengthened me. God's gonna give me the grace I need. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. and so to think patiently. So you must think right to have good mental health. Think biblically, helpfully, joyfully, patiently, and let's add prayerfully. Think prayerfully. Here we are to the verses that God put on my heart this year, verses six and seven. Be careful for nothing. That means be anxious about nothing, full of care, full of worry for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication, Let your requests be known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Again, we're speaking about good mental health, peace, that passeth understanding. That's where it's at, but how do I get there? Right thinking that's not anxious, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer. Pray about it. There's a similar, We've talked about rejoicing the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice. It says patient in tribulation. We just talked about let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. But then it says continuing instant in prayer. And so those three ideas are joined together there in another passage of the Bible, saying rejoice, be patient, and continue instant in prayer. And guess what? If you're praying about it, you can be patient and you can be joyful, because you've committed it to the Lord. You know, he prayed and prayed for this facility that we got. And he and his wife came on a trip last year over here, and it was so good. They got to walk into the building, walk around the building. He got to preach at a youth activity that we had. That was a Friday. Saturday morning, I was out doing my drive, cleaning my drive, and Martha came out and said, you need to come to the office. I said, well, I got just this little bit. She said, you need to come down. I went into the office, and Brother Steve is sitting there. His face is kind of sloped a little bit. He picks up his hand. I was like, okay. So we called 99. And they said, ambulance is delayed to your area. So we actually got him in the car. He had a stroke. His whole inside was paralyzed. We got him to the hospital at Royal. And it was interesting. His stroke, he would come out of it and back into it. In fact, we got there, he actually stood up, walked around. We think he's totally fine. him for whatever reason, it would come, it would go, it would come, it would go. When it would come, he'd come back out of it and he said, I have such sympathy for stroke victims. I never understood, you know, until now he's experiencing it, he's speaking in those ways, like I have such sympathy for a stroke victim. We went to eat that night, he had come out of it, we came back and the hour after that, it was just, it stayed six weeks and then they got on a medical flight you know doctor came and flew with him back to the United States. You know what, I got to sit with the man as he took this in. I was with him the first week about 50 hours to the hospital. You know I heard him do, that day, you know I heard him to be faithful. What am I listening to? I'm listening to exactly what we're speaking about in this message. That is, he's going to be patient, he's going to be joyful, he's going to commit it to God, and he's going to send it in God's hands. And he did. I mean, he's still got a stellar testimony. God's allowed him to regain some of his abilities. He's able to walk. He's still superior How much of what is troubling you have you taken to the Lord in faith? You know, we can get wrapped up in it and, ah, you know, hold on to it, or we can look at it and say what the Bible says, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. And we're trying to carry the burden. A lot of people today that are struggling with so many of the mental health things, they've got things that they refuse to let go of and maybe they don't understand that they can let go of that and put it on God and say, God, take care of it. You know, it says there, the peace of God which passeth understanding. There's an old chorus from my childhood, why worry when you can pray? Trust Jesus, he'll be your Savior. Don't be a doubting Thomas, just rest upon his promise. Why worry, worry, worry, worry when you can pray, when you can be relieved of that burden and take it to the Lord. The peace of God that passeth understanding, really? You might say, I don't believe in the pastor, that doesn't make sense, how can you have that he could actually go through something like Brother Steve and experience peace. Well, our family, when Logan was born, he had craniosynostosis. His back soft spot and suture was fused prematurely. At six months of age, he came to diagnosis. And it's so neat how God worked out the details, allowed him to have that surgery. But my wife, when our kids were born, we stopped dating. And because she, well, we took the kids with us, but she didn't really want a babysitter. She didn't really feel comfortable, you know, the kids that are there. She'd be worried. She'd want to be on the phone, find out what's going on. When we had the surgery, Logan, We had a great season in prayer. We had Jim Van Gelder was there. We had John Van Gelder, the preacher. His brother was there. He prayed with us at the hospital. We had, my dad was there praying with us at the hospital. He and my youth pastor was there. And we go up to see Logan afterwards, and you know that when you have the surgery, a lot of times there's swelling and things, and the baby's eyes will even be swelled shut and things like that. So the nurse was like, oh, you know, are you prepared? You know, she was real fearful, if you remember. And I said to her, I said, look, I said, I'm a minister. And I said, I've got these other ministers with me. We've prayed, we've trusted, we're trusting God with mine. Other than God, the peace of God was passed upon our skin. We're talking about mental health again. You look at it and say, but I can't get over that. Well, casting all your care upon him will care for you. You must think right to have good mental health. Think biblically, think healthfully, think joyfully, think patiently, think prayerfully. And then let's add again, think obediently, think obediently. Finally, brethren, What sort of things are lovely? What sort of things are a good report? If they're being virtuous, if they're being grace, think on these things. You know, sometimes in life we get so busy that we kind of let things go. And we might start eating late. We might start eating kind of whatever, you know, what's convenient. You can grab that and we might stop exercising. And all of a sudden you realize, you know, I'm really not doing well to my body here, okay? And things aren't going well. I'm not feeling well. I don't have energy. And so I start thinking about it. What am I putting in? Be careful when I'm eating, what I'm eating, and then start to exercise. And all of a sudden, what happens is our physical strength changes because we've begun to address what was going in. The same is true with our mind. We can't just put whatever into our mind and think, oh, that's not going to impact me. And so what impacts our thinking impacts our mental health. because this is how God says that we are to exercise our minds. So first of all, think about true things. True things. What sort of things are true? Just come past US elections. in seeing things from a different perspective I often see Now we pray against that, we ask God, God help us to counteract that as Godly parents and spend time where? In the Word of God. And say, well what does God say about that? Let's think, let's think right about that. Let's think true about that. What does God say about creation? What does God say about marriage and purity? What does God say about lifestyles? What does God say about life? And begin to throw our mind with that. True things. Honest men. And so our thinking ought to be honorable, it ought to be a loving approach, it ought to be something that is not afraid. things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even, listen, their mind and their conscience is defiled. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about thinking right and thinking in a purer way. And in Simulation 6-5, God saw the wickedness of man who was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only what? Evil continually. We think we are thinking in society that is wicked in what they do. In the list of things that God hates, Proverbs 6 verse 18, a heart that devises wicked imagination, somebody that's impure in their thought life. Job said about his mind, his righteous man, that I made a covenant with my eyes, why then should I think upon me? And so he acts that impact my mental health? Okay and actually it does according to studies about viewing pornography and things like that. Taken together these findings show that anxiety and depression are strongly related to pornography consumption. Again in a very ungodly society why do we have such depression? Those things can be related at times. So as a believer what I do, guard my mind. young person, my brother and I would annually do an overnight canoe trip down the Kinnikinick, or Kinnikinick, however you want to say it, river that was by our house and we would plastic wrap everything because inevitably my brother would, well somebody would tip the canoe. It's very cold and I mean, we'd tip one time and we'd put my jacket over the canoe overnight name on a piece of paper and our address and our phone number and plastic wrap it you know why so they found the body let's think let's think positively I'll say thankfully normally my mom is very positive person but you know we can get what we think negatively that I mean it's just always morbid always dark I mean I've been around people it's like everything two people going on a safari and you know it's been it's relatively safe a safari they thought planned it through one person could be paranoid about poisonous snakes and the carnivores have no fun whatsoever the other person could just enjoy the beauty excitement because their mindset is different you know are you glass half-empty or glass half-full person do you think about loving things I mean think about good things yes there's bad things in life But exercising our minds and obedience to say, but I'm not going to focus on anything. I'm going to focus on the things that are lovely, reputable things. What sort of things are of good report? And I don't have a lot of time this morning. There's one more point I want to get to. But these are things that are of good report. In other words, people who look at that say that's good. Defending doctrine is good. Attacking the doctrine of creation, attacking the doctrine of inspiration. In our day, I'm there with you. There's some things I look at and go, I don't know what's going on. But I'll tell you this, when we go beyond that to the remarkable and the incredible and what is inconceivable, we gotta be very careful because those things would not be reputable things, not a place that our mind should be. And so Satan can lead believers away from truth. How? Getting us to think incorrectly. And so, God help us fortify our mind, think obediently about these things. So Paul says, think of these things, things that are true, things that are honest, things that are pure, things that are lovely, things that are reputable. Why? Because I can't fill my life with filth and have good mental health. Does that make sense? So think obediently, it's very important. Then lastly, and we end here and it's a quick point, think practically, think practically. and the God of peace shall be with you. Okay, God of peace shall be with you. Where are we? Good mental health, right? I mean, if the God of peace is with you, you're in good mental health. Why? Because you have a mental response to what Paul just said, and your mental response got you where you needed to be. Think about it. Look at the verse. Your brain learns it, that which you have both learned. Your brain receives it. Your brain processes what you hear. that's all your brain. You learn it, you hear it, you see it, you do it. And that do it is the key. It's a key to say, okay, I've gotta apply it. Everything that we looked at this morning, you could be someone here this morning and you could just let this go and go, I don't really buy that idea that spiritually there's something I can do and I can exercise myself like this, and so I'm not gonna apply the teaching of the word of God today to my life. And it won't benefit you. Or somebody could look at it Again, that's good mental health. And so I agree there's a mental health crisis in our day. But I want to go on record as saying much of it is self-inflicted. And very little of it helps a person really to get to the point where they can get what they need. Because what they need is the line of God. What they need is Jesus. So much of what is called poor mental health is rooted in sin and sinful thinking. And so you must think right. Is your mind in a godly place? Are you disciplining your mind to think right? And so to consider the points this morning, are you thinking biblically? Do you really have the right reward about that? Are you thinking helpfully? In other words, you're engaging Are you thinking joyfully? So that you look at it and go, okay, it's tough, but in every link of thanks, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Are you thinking patiently? You know, that sense that I'm gonna just wait on God. Yes, it's tough, but God's faithful. Are you thinking prayerfully? Okay, God, it's a burden, so I'm coming to you. And God, here it is. I'm just gonna lay it out. It's tough, but God, take it from me. I don't wanna carry this burden. Are you thinking obediently? Obedient carries all those other things. True, honest, being open to the light, pure, lovely, and these are positive things. Reputable, in other words, there's no, man, that's not really reputable. No, it's reputable. This is good thinking. And then are you thinking practically? Okay, I see it. evaluating it with our brain, thinking about it, taking it in, taking it on board, and applying it to our lives, because it's our brain that decides, I'm going to do that. That's where good mental health is. Let's pray. Father, may the Spirit of God help us, and I'll just say, this has helped me this week, and I've seen the application of this in my life, church family and Satan attacks our minds and the battle is there, it's true, but Father the answer is not to run to psychology or to medicine or to self-help or to hobbies or whatever. The answer we see is really to get the mind of God and to begin to apply the truth of the Word of God to our minds. And Laura, I'm not gonna do an invitation this morning. I think many of us would raise our hand and say, you know, God spoke to me about that, because I am thinking right about that. I haven't disciplined my mind like I should or things like that, but I do pray right now, Father, that with the Spirit of God has spoken to hearts that a definite decision will be made. And Father, I pray that our church will be very godly in the way that we think. We will get on best as a church family, when we have the mind of the Lord. And Father, we're gonna encourage each other, but we can't help somebody that isn't gonna cast her burdens on you, isn't going to exercise her mind to think positively, to rejoice in God, to be patient in tribulation. So we pray for that, we pray for that person, God help them. I haven't really taken this to God. I've been unwilling to let go of it. Sometimes bitterness is that unwillingness to cast it on the Lord. And so I pray, Father, for victory this morning. And Lord, as a church, we've got to pray and encourage each other to the Lord. It's in Christ that we pray.