Man, it's kind of hard to be in a bad mood after that kind of stuff. Philippians chapter 4, again this morning, I won't keep you long, I hardly ever do. Hardly ever keep you long. I really don't. And I knew that I was going to read the text, and so I actually took out a song or two of the Sunday morning worship just to be a blessing to you this morning. I am totally a vessel of mercy. I really, really am. You don't recognize and realize what a vessel of mercy Pastor Hoffer really is. One day, probably in glory, you'll appreciate how good I've been to you. Amen. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, aren't we? You know, and we have this amazing part of us cradled inside our skull, this three pound mass of nerve cells that is made up of 60% fat, carbohydrates, proteins, water, and other enzymes called the human brain. Between 12 and 14 billion brain cells per human being. 12 to 14 billion cells in each human brain. Each cell having multiple connections may be reaching out to 10,000 other cells within that enclosed mass. And our brains process data at hypersonic speeds. They control emotions. They bring back memories. They fire our senses. They drive our motor skills. They keep us breathing at night. They keep our heart beating all of our life long. They keep our body temperature regulated. They tell us that we're hungry, the brain does, that we're thirsty, that we're in pain, that we're grieving. It also has the ability to control our thoughts. It has been said that one human brain, I love this thought, this analogy, this comparison. It has been said that one human brain has the same electronic processing capacity, get this, Saints, than all of the radio and TV stations on the planet combined. Your brain, even though you think it's broken this morning, has more electronic capacity than all of the TV stations and the radio stations on the planet combined. That is a wow thought that the Creator has put that into our heads. Amen? And I've learned this, you know, in life. There's only three types of people in the world. There's only three types. Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. Amen? processes data in a capacity that is absolutely staggering and, excuse the pun, mind-boggling. You know, science has been trying to figure out the brain and psychiatry and psychology is trying to dissect the brain and how it works and how thoughts are produced and how memories are evoked and all these different things. And we're seeing in our age, the day that we're living in, we're seeing the rise and the rapid increase of something called artificial intelligence. Have you heard about that? AI is referred to often and one thing I want to I want to remind you about artificial intelligence It will always be artificial It will always be man-made and computer generated and all those different things. I believe we'll see a great increase of it I think it'll become almost frightening as to what artificial intelligence can do in our lifetimes and in our future and But I'm reminded of this, the best intelligence is the intelligence that God has given you and that God has given me. The natural intelligence of our brain, our brain power, our capacity, our memories, our emotions, our feelings, our urges, our desires were given to us by God himself. Somebody say amen to that. The brain power of humanity has produced wonderful classic literature, captivating works of art, amazing scientific discoveries. The brain power of mankind was even used by God to prophesy and declare his perfect truth and declare God himself to a lost and dying world. The mind, though, is capable of coming up and conjuring up all kinds of ideas that can quickly derail, that can get off course in a very quick fashion, a very undone kind of way. In Genesis chapter 6, we've been studying Genesis in our Wednesday night study, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination, and that every imagination, I'll read it again, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Our minds are powerful, our minds can go places that we didn't even know that it could go, and it could explore darkness that we did not know, or depth that we did not know that it was capable of plumbing or plunging into, and so we have that truth about us. I was reading this statistic that every person, excuse me, the average person, the average human being in 2024 experiences about 200 negative thoughts per day. 200 negative thoughts per day. Those who are battling with depression and things of that nature will see that number as many as three times high. 600 negative thoughts per day. I was trying to do the math in my head knowing that we're not awake for 24 hours, only about 16 hours or so per day. That's gonna be reduced down to almost one negative thought per minute. About 40 negative thoughts per hour can plague our minds. And so our thoughts are very powerful and they can be very overcoming and at times very overwhelming. But as a believer in Christ Jesus, as one who's accepted the completed work of Christ on Calvary's cross, that belief in his heart that God hath raised him from the dead, You are saved and you know you are on your way to heaven the holy spirit moved into you on the day of salvation The holy spirit came into your soul. He empowers the believer. He enables the believer. He illuminates the believer He also gives us the ability. I love this. He gives us the ability to press the reboot button Amen if you've ever owned a windows computer Control Alt Delete so I don't need to say anything else because the blue screen of death has come up on your computer and you need to get a reboot. And the reboot is done through the renewing of our mind. And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. By the renewing of your what Saints? Your mind. That ye may prove what is that good. and acceptable and perfect will of God. We have been told in the word of God that we are able to take the mind of Christ and make it our own, to show ownership to it and show affinity towards the mind of God. For who have known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ We saw Paul admonish the the believers in Philippi But let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus this mind is able to be shaped It's able to be formed. We're able to rework our thinking our thought life the things that plague us, the things that drive us, the things that determine how we're going to behave, because as a man thinketh, or as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Amen. You know, in Philippians chapter four, it talks about how important it is that we reprogram or we reboot or restructure our thinking. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me do. And the God of peace shall be with you. And all God's people said, Thank you, Father, for this time to look into your word this morning. I pray that you would give us understanding, that the Holy Spirit I just spoke of a moment ago would illuminate every heart to the truth of this inspired word, that we would learn things from it, that we would glean truths that we can apply to our own walk with you. Father, I was thinking maybe there's somebody here today who's never even seen these truths, not even heard these truths. never even heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Father, I do pray that you would show that wanderer more here this morning, the importance of coming to the Savior, of securing their place in heaven, of making their reservation for eternity before it is eternally too late. And Father, for the believer, I pray that we'll be changed and challenged by the words that we look at and we hear about this morning from your inspired word. We ask these things and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Tell you, the human mind can get real dark real quick. Depravity, perverseness, all kinds of confusion and chaos reign in our day-to-day, in our world today, excuse me, and a lot of it is based on the thought of the heart, the intent of mankind who has allowed his or her thoughts to be on evil continually. Amen? You know, but we get this opportunity again to reboot our minds and to restructure our thinking and to be transformed to what the Holy Ghost has for us. And, you know, this church, we don't do anything by force around here. We don't manipulate people. We're not brainwashers. We believe it has to come to the individual being persuaded in his or her own mind. We believe in individual soul liberty. Romans 14 verse 5 talks about this. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Let every woman be fully persuaded in her own mind. We don't force things on people. We're not making you believe what we believe. We're telling you what we believe, and we're telling you why you believe it, but it's up to you to make it yours. It's up to you to make it your belief and make it a part of your spiritual existence. You know, God is a God who's a spirit. And because of the spirit, a lot of what we know about God and how we approach God and how we even declare and describe God, it comes from a spiritual sense. It comes from the mind, from the thoughts and the intents of our heart. And even when God was telling the Jews or Israel how to behave toward Him and how to shape their minds toward Him, He gave them a command over a Deuteronomy. And part of this is part of the Jewish prayer called the Shema. This is just one half of it, but it says in the second half of the Shema, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, And with all thy might, the heart is inside, it's the seat of the emotion, the soul would encompass what we call our personality, and we have different personalities, and we've seen kind souls in our lifetime, and we've come across, no doubt, troubled souls in our lifetime. Haven't we, saints? And then it says, with all thy might, and that word might means all of our inner being, our inner strength, that we're putting everything that we have within us and inside of us toward loving God with all of our heart and with all of our soul and with all of our might. And then Christ even added something to the Shema when he was teaching in his lifetime. Over in Mark chapter 12 and verse 30, he adds the mind to the Shema. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy what, saints? Say it again. Mind. And with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. God wants our minds. He wants us to think about him. He wants us to control what we think and to filter what we think through him and by his word. I want to talk this morning about good thinking. about good thinking because I've learned this about life. You can think one of two ways. You can be accused of good thinking or be guilty of stinking thinking. Those are those are really the two options. I want you to to really be focused on good Thinking this morning God wants our minds. He wants us to bring every thought Into the captivity of the Lord and Savior at Jesus Christ So we're not doing stinking thinking but we're doing much more good thinking in our Christian lives. Amen Amen, so we're told of certain ways to think and there's a whole list here of things that are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and are of good report if they've got virtue if they've got praise and then think all those things you know and And as you go back and you read the context, and you go back to the beginning of chapter 4 where Paul broaches this issue between the two ladies there at the church of Philippi, you know, this thinking, this way of thinking was designed to repair the breach or to cover the trouble that was going on between Euodias and Scythica because it was harming the unity of the assembly there at Philippi. It's also intended or made to prepare the heart for rejoicing. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around the idea of rejoicing in the Lord always because there's times in our life when we don't feel like rejoicing. There's things that happen in our life that bring us down and that make us have questions and worries and doubts and everything else like that. And so this way of thinking helps to prepare our heart for rejoicing in the Lord always. And it also reminds us to be moderate. To let your moderation be known unto all men. For the Lord is at hand. That word moderation means to be gentle. Be gentle towards other people. Not everybody who's doing wrong needs to be hammered about it. Sometimes you've got to hammer them. Amen, but sometimes they just need to be they need to be corrected and instructed with God's perfect word And be reminded by the Holy Spirit that they're doing wrong and God will bring them along by his good timing and in his perfect will somebody say amen to that and so you're you're you show your moderation be known and that says be careful for nothing and You know, and we talked about worry and anxiety last Sunday morning, you know, quite a bit in detail at points. And you know, one of the ways of getting that worry and that anxiety out of our mind is to reprogram, reboot our mind to be transformed. by thinking about new things, things you haven't maybe thought about much lately because our minds are overwhelmed, they're overtaxed with the various thoughts of life. We've got thoughts as married couples, we have thoughts about being better husbands or better fathers for the man. and wives have thoughts about the home, and they have thoughts about motherhood and those kind of things. We have thoughts about the work and the job, whether we like our job or not, whether we're looking for a new job or not, or whether we're looking to retire or not. We've got all kinds of things on our mind that way. We've got the things about finances and making the bills and getting the tuitions and everything. the braces, the orthodontics cover, and all those different things will come into our mind. Then we have vehicle woes. Somebody said, man, to that. And we have, we have, we've got church issues too. And you know, those are going on and boy, you got the political environment. That's kind of fun right now. Sure. So you got a whole lot of things that come into our mind, but a lot of the things that we allow to come into our mind actually are defeating. they're deflating and they're damaging to us. And so the Holy Spirit through Paul's here saying, you need to rethink how you think. You need to reprogram your brain and to push the reboot button and to think about some different things. And we covered a little bit of this last Sunday morning a little bit, but I want to remind you that we're supposed to be thinking about true things. Things that are true, you know, there's a, I talk about this in sense, go a little bit, you know, things that are true. We have this buzzword or buzz phrase in our society. I don't know if it's how widespread it is, if it's a global or not, but I know that it's in our world right now. And it's been there from the beginning. I'm telling you that the cane had the same philosophy, but we've given it a new label in the 21st century. This is the buzz phrase. This is my truth. You know, and Cain had his truth. It was all that got Cain. It was all that happened with Cain because of him possessing his truth and the way that he thought he could approach God and the way that he thought he could handle a dispute in the family and he thought he could handle hurt and being disgusted and discouraged and all different things. And he went the wrong way, didn't he, saints? You know, and now we're, here we are, we're 6,000 years later and we're still kind of embracing our truth. Like this is my truth, it's my personal truth. And I've kind of taken this and I've looked at it sideways and inside and out and up and down and right and left and I've kind of come to this conclusion, this is my own personal definition of what my truth is. My truth is simply this, I think that my conclusion is more better than your conclusion. I think that what I've determined to be true for me is better than what you've determined to be true for you. Or we can say, well, I'll compromise. I'll say, this is true for me and I don't care whether it's true for you or not. Somebody say amen. So that's the world that we're living in and we're defining our truth and we're clinging to our truth. And when we do that, we're really discarding and minimizing God's truth. We are. My opinion is more important than your opinion. My conclusions are more just than your conclusions are. I've learned this. You know this. One of the great aspects of Christianity is humility. It's humbling ourselves. It's yielding ourselves. It's letting go of something that we have thought to be so important for our lives or for our makeup. For all of this time, we have to let go of these things and understand there's a greater truth than my truth. If I could get one more, and then I'll move on. As Christians, we must yield ourselves first and foremost to divine truth. And divine truth comes from God. And we see that Christ Jesus, in John chapter 1 and verse 14, He was actually the physical manifestation of the truth. And the word, that capital W word, is pointing to Christ Jesus. You can go back to verse number 1 and 2 and 3 and read all about that. And the word was made flesh. and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." And what was he full of? He was full of grace and what saints? Truth. Then he preached this to his disciples. He explained to them the importance of accepting him as truth. In John 14 and verse 6, a very familiar verse of scripture for many of you this morning. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. We have been exposed to divine truth. We are to yield ourselves to divine truth. We have to understand that he is the only way to the Father. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And everybody said, you know, in his word, This word becomes our standard for truth. It becomes the truth that we compare everything else that we've ever called or considered or thought to be truth, we compare it to this. We run it through this filter. That's what I like to do when I think that something is true, I run it through the filter. If it comes all the way out the bottom okay, then it was true. If it gets hung up there somewhere, I don't take it to death. Somebody say amen until it comes out. I got to accept it that what I believe to be true wasn't exactly true. It was true for me, but not true according to the character and the nature of God. Christ said this, and this is so overwhelming. As God the Son was praying to God the Father, Christ said this, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. This is our divine truth. We talk about it as being Baptist, but the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice. The Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice. We don't get caught up in creeds and catechisms and declarations of faith. We get caught up in thus saith the Lord. Amen. I thought I would get one more amen, but I guess I was wrong this morning. I'm going to move on. We gotta reject all that, that it does not make it to the filter of God's word. It's not true, even though we thought it was true, even though we invested our life in it being true. We have to reject it and let it go. So next time, so next time it comes into our mind, it doesn't even get a moment of meditation or attention because I'm starting to think about true things now. I'm starting to dispense with or discard irrational thinking. Amen. Irrational thought plagues man's mind. We're very, very capable and culpable of irrational thought. The second thing is honest things, things that are honorable. You know, we show honor in our society toward Elders though those who have lived on earth longer than we have we so honor to those who have experienced Some things and I I think about in the church context the church setting of those who have gone through the storms of life and have weathered them very well and they've carried themselves with dignity in this life. We look to them and we honor them because of how they carry themselves. And we also have to have that same mindset, that same mentality in our thought life and determine how we're going to be either more dignified or less dignified by our behavior. Right, Saints? because much of that that comes out as behavior manifests itself first as a thought. We've talked about this quote many, many times. Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, Reap a character. So a character, reap a legacy or reap a destiny. And that's the truth. It all starts with a solitary thought and how we act upon that thought or whether or not we choose to bring that thought into the captivity of our Savior, Christ Jesus. And again, somebody said, thank you, amen. I'm getting lonely up here this morning. Things that are just. Just things. Things that are right, as defined by the character of God. Things that line up with God's character, with God's way of thinking. And we're living in a world that more and more we're starting to see the expression of what is right in our own eyes. And we're heading backwards when it comes to these things. We're digressing. We're heading back to the days of the judges in Israel's history where it was a 400-year period of darkness, where it was dark spiritually, it was dark in the realm of authority, it was dark in the well of societal connectivity, all those different things. And this was the commentary during the days of the judges, 400 years of this. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Do I need to read again? Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. So it wasn't just a smattering here and there. It wasn't just a little bit of chaos being shown. Everybody was doing right which was in his own eyes. And that created great chaos and very deep darkness during that period. And I fear that that's where the human population is trending toward again. Just things. How about pure things? Things that are holy. Things that are sacred. You know, this is so important, you know. When we're thinking about things in a pure way, then we're not going to be assigning motive. We're not going to say, well, I know why they did that. You know, it's like with Euodias and Syntyche here. It was bad enough they got called out by name in chapter 4. They didn't need the congregation saying, well, I'm taking her side. Or, I know what Euodias did. I know what she's up to. I know what her life is and what it amounts up to. That's not how we're supposed to think. Well, we do that, we take sides. Boy, I tell you what, we even take up the offense of another because we feel like they didn't get offended enough, I'll be offended for them. Well, God bless your peeping heart, amen? That is not a ministry. That's a mess. Pure things, holy things, sacred things. Psalm 19.6. Psalm 19, 8. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. How about the beatitude and the sermon on the mount? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. When our thoughts are pure, we're seeing God in all things. We're not seeing motive. We're not thinking, well, I bet they did it intentionally. Well, you don't know whether they did or not. We're not in their mind. We're not walking in their shoes. We don't know those things. Just hang on. Let God work. Somebody say amen. You know, and so these things are happening. So they're pure things lovely things. I like lovely things lovely things Evoke the emotion that caused us to declare something beautiful that calls us to to say I love that Kathy and I we love sunsets and sunrises. We like to walk in the morning and watch the Sun come up We've been doing that now for for several months on end and we're just enjoy watching the Sun come up every day We know that that's a indication that God is still on his throne. Amen But, you know, we see some beautiful sunrises and sunsets out here in Arizona. Maybe you're more of the musical bent and you have some music over time that you say, well, that was beautiful, a beautiful piece of music or a beautiful work of art or, you know, a beautiful, whatever it might be. I like mountains, landscape photography, all those different things. It's the beauty and the majesty. We think on those things. If you're thinking about lovely things, then eventually your mind's going to come to the altogether lovely one, who is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. About things of a good report. A good report. These are thoughts that are gracious or commendable. They build up and do not break down. They build up and do not break down. Good reporters do not engage in gossip. Good reporters are not engaging in lies or backbiting. Whenever somebody comes to me backbiting, you know what I first think about them is, what did I say about me behind my back? Amen. And you've learned the hard way, some of you, that when you bring gospel to me, it ends with me, and it's never a fun ending. Somebody say amen to that too. You're learning. You're learning. I don't like that stuff. It destroys churches. It destroys homes. It destroys communities. And so we've got to watch for those things and just think about things that are of good or poor. And things that contain virtue. Virtue is simply moral excellence. And morality, saints, is not subjective. Morality has been inspired and preserved for us by God himself, and we have this as our moral standard. You know, there's all kinds of moral lists in here, like not stealing, and not coveting, and not committing adultery. We can go on and on and on with the thou shalt nots. They're a standard of morality. And God's just saying this, if there's something that you can think about that was more towards morality and less towards immorality, that would help you too. That would help you too. Praise, if there'd be any praise. Anything that's praiseworthy is worth sharing with someone else. Because if it's praiseworthy, it makes God look good. And we make God look good by seeing the work that he is doing in our lives and in the lives that we come into contact with. Amen. I think one of the easier ways to really understand this verse is to consider it in its opposite form. Whatsoever things are untrue, dishonorable, unjust, impure, unlovely, of poor report, void of moral excellence, unworthy of praise, don't even bother thinking on those things. Amen. Last point, we're almost done. Last point is a short point. Good thinking determines the destination. Good thinking determines the destination. Verse number nine in our reading this morning says this, those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. And the God of peace shall be with you. I want that. I want the God of peace with me. I know I have it because of salvation. I know I'm on my way to heaven, but I want that God of peace thing to be with me all of the time, to be a part of my existence. I want it to be one of those things that makes Mark Hoffer tick. being driven towards God's peace in my life. Good thinking leads to good living. And you know, Paul was used to write about half of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit used him in that great way. You know, and you read the words of Paul. I'm telling you, when you just dissect them and you look at them, even at just face value, there's some really challenging thoughts that the Holy Spirit gave Paul to put down on paper for us. He wrote some things that kind of prick our hearts or they get a hold of our conscience from time to time. And that's a good thing. It draws us closer to God. It makes us more Christ-like. We can go on and on all this morning. But Paul didn't just write those things and then not do those things. The Holy Spirit used Paul to write those things because Paul was already actively doing these things. right thinking leads to right living. And Paul was already exercising humility, and Paul had already let go of the past that he had, and he had a very glorious past in the human realm. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, stock of Benjamin, a Pharisee. He was pursing the infant church, and he had a lot of accolades, and a lot of glory came his way. But he said, You know, all those things that were once very important and very dear to me, now I count those things as dung. And when you see the word dung in the Bible, what Paul is saying is this, those things are less than worthless to me. They are less than nothing to me. I don't even care about those things any longer in my life. So he doesn't go back and glorify his past or go back to the glory days as it were But he's talking about his life in Christ now, and he was that kind of a person He'd become he had become a detour to the gospel here He said things like woe unto me if I preached off the gospel And he he lived out what the Holy Spirit inspired him to write down. We would say this way he practiced what he preached and He says, you've seen me do it. You know me, you've met me, you've come across me, you've heard me preach, yes, but you've also seen me live out the preaching. He said, not only that, you've also learned it. You've learned it by instruction, by repetition, by reading it for yourself, by having it rehearsed in your ears week upon week or day upon day, whatever it was. And because that is true, it's actively working in you. And the best thing you can do with something of God that's actively working in you is to get it actively working out of you. to make it a part of your practice. We call that in our way of preaching here at Liberty Baptist Church, we call that life application. Like you've learned what the Bible means, you understand what it means, and now you're working on putting that into practice in your own individual walk with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We're becoming more like Him. We're looking to be more spiritually mature today than we were yesterday. One man said this, maturity in the Christian life is not measured by what a man knows, but by what a man does. Maturity in the Christian life is not measured by what a man knows, but by what a man does. What do you do with what you've learned from the word of God? What do you do with it? First, Thessalonians 2.13, for this cause, also thank we God without ceasing because When ye receive the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. We need to purpose in our hearts, you know as God's people to revamp our thinking to press the reboot button And to begin to practice good thinking because good thinking leads to good living I want to rehearse in your ears this morning the story of a fourth century monk named Telemachus Telemachus was in a monastery in Italy and And he seemed to be a devout man of faith. He just really seems to be when you read about his life. And he said he was reading through the scriptures one day and he felt very purposefully and very visibly sure that God wanted him to go to Rome. So he packed up his stuff. He began to walk to Rome. I mean, when I say walk to Rome, he walked out of the Italian mountains down to the city of Rome. And when he got to Rome, there was a great commotion. There was a lot of bustling and movement around the Roman Colosseum. And he heard the chanting and the fever pitch of the people. They were all in the Colosseum. They were cheering about this, that, or the other. And he walked in and he sat down in the Colosseum seat there. And he saw, for the first time in his life, he saw two men who were gladiators fighting to the death. And it absolutely appalled this man that he was seeing one life being taken by another, that he was seeing the cheapening of human life. Because Telemachus believed like you believe. He believed in the sanctity of life. He believed that God was the giver and also can be the taker of life. But we are not to be the takers of life ourselves as humans. And so he was appalled and he was like overwhelmed with this spirit of God kind of movement in his life. And he climbed over the wall of the Colosseum and onto the floor of the Colosseum and walked between these two giant men. Two huge mountain of men who were carrying swords and shields and had armor on from head to toe. And he was a short man, about five foot nothing. put his hands up between them and said, in the name of Christ, forbear. And they looked at him like, we don't even speak your language, dude. And he said, no, in the name of Christ, forbear. Well, that made the audience absolutely rabid with passion and with violence. And they began to cheer in unison, run him through! Run him through! And one of the gladiators took his sword and took a butt in, and went right in the Talmachus gut, knocked the wind out of him, knocked him down to the ground. He's an older man now in his 60s. And he coughs, he gasps for air, he's sputtering, he's stammering, he stands back up, and he says, in the name of Christ, forbear. And the other gladiator took his sword, And he ran it right into the belly of Telemachus, pulled it up, pulled it out, and Telemachus went dead on the ground. And all the crowd could hear was the echo of his last words, in the name of Christ forbear. And the whole crowd went silent. A hush came over the Coliseum. And the history says this, that one by one, every man, woman, and child filed out silently, and they never came back to another gladiator fight ever. right thinking leads to right living. Here's a man who basically gave it all because he was inspired in his thought life to go to Rome and when he saw what is happening he said something about it. You think sometimes you feel so helpless because of how the world is going and it seems like it's careening out of control. Anybody with me or not? It never hurts to say something. It never hurts to remind folks that Jesus saves and that God is still on the throne and He's coming again. If you believe that, say Amen. Let's all stand. Father, we thank You for this time together this morning. I thank You for the Word of God and for what it means to us, how it speaks to us. It's challenging, Lord, no doubt about it. We've been challenged today in our thought life. And I know I need work and I'm assuming others could use some work also in that realm of their life. and just to reboot and reprogram our thinking and not be caught up in everything that we see, but be caught up in everything that we know to be true, and especially the things we know to be true about you. And Father, you are our Savior, and you are our blessed hope, and we believe that you are still in control, and you are coming again. We look forward to all those truths about you. And God, again, I pray if there be somebody here today who does not yet know Christ as their Savior, that they'll realize and recognize they need to come to you for salvation before it is eternally too late. Father, we believe there's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, and Father, help us to be men and women of God who proclaim that message to those that we come into contact with day after day. Father, we pray your blessings on the remainder of our time this morning. Thank you for your word, for what it means to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing I'd Rather Have Jesus as our hymn of response today. If God is speaking to you, would you please take some time and speak back to Him? If you don't know Christ as your Savior, would you come this morning? Let's take the Bible and show you some great truths about salvation, what it means to make Christ your Savior, and to know you're on your way to His glorious heaven. Brother Matt, lead us in song. I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be his than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather be led by his nail-pierced hands. than to be the king of a vast domain, or be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than any I'd rather have Jesus than men's applause. I'd rather be faithful to his dear cause. I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I'd rather be true to his holy name. ♪ Than to be the king of a vast domain ♪ ♪ Or be held in sin's dread sway ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than any other thing ♪ ♪ He's fairer than lilies ♪ ♪ Of rarest bloom ♪ ♪ He's sweeter than honey from out the corn ♪ ♪ He's all that my hunger in spirit needs ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus ♪ of a vast domain, or be held in sin's dread sway, I'd rather have Jesus than ever. of you think about things that you know you shouldn't think about. My hands up. Amen. God help us. Amen. And he's given us some substitutes to think along those lines.