INTRODUCTION: Philippians 4:8-9<\/p>\n
A. To live the Christian life, one must think clearly and act correctly.<\/p>\n
1. One who thinks without acting is like a hunter who aims his gun but never fires it<\/p>\n
2. One who acts without thinking is like a hunter who fires his gun without aiming.<\/p>\n
B. Both thinking and acting are addressed in our present text<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
DISCUSSION:<\/p>\n
1. Philippians 4:8a<\/p>\n
a. Paul begins this verse with the word “finally”<\/p>\n
b. This could mean that Paul is drawing his letter to a close, or it could mean that these are the final observations concerning his line of thought began in verse 4<\/p>\n
2. Rights Traits<\/p>\n
a. To thing like a Christian we must be thinking on the correct traits<\/p>\n
1) “True” – signifies that which is genuine or real<\/p>\n
2) “Honorable” (honest – KJV; noble – NKJ) – refers to lofty things, majestic things, things that lift the mind from the cheap and crude to that which is noble and good and of moral worth<\/p>\n
3) “Just” (right – NAS) – refers to doing what is right, whether God or man<\/p>\n
4) “Pure” – translated from the same root word as the word for holy (hogios), morally undefiled<\/p>\n
5) “Lovely” – is from a compound word (pros\/phileo) meaning toward love, it refers to that which evokes a response of love<\/p>\n
6) “Good report” (commendable – ESV; gracious – RSV) – that which is well-spoken of; from a compound word – lit. good saying<\/p>\n
b. This list of qualities is followed by two conditional phrases:<\/p>\n
1) Philippians 4:8b<\/p>\n
2) “Virtue” (excellence – ESV, RSV) refers to the excellence that the righteous are to maintain, and “praise,” that is anything worthy of praise<\/p>\n
3) The thought here is “if there is anything excellent – and there is, and if there be anything worthy praise – and there is, then we should respond in a certain way<\/p>\n
4) What is the proper response?…<\/p>\n
3. Right Thinking<\/p>\n
a. Philippians 4:8<\/p>\n
1) We are to think carefully, we are to make the afore mentioned traits the subject of our thoughtful consideration<\/p>\n
2) We must focus on them<\/p>\n
b. Look again at the words true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and good report<\/p>\n
1) What is important is not so much the definitions of these words, but the general impression left by the combination of words: that which is good and uplifting, in contrast with that which is dirty and degrading<\/p>\n
2) Paul’s admonition viewed negatively might read: Do not let you mind dwell on things that are false, dishonorable, immoral, etc.<\/p>\n
a) The mind naturally dwells on something<\/p>\n
b) Paul instructs us to fix our thoughts on good things, not bad things – on positive things, not negative things – on things that build us up, not tear us down<\/p>\n
c. Two great discoveries of modern psychology are that our lives are governed by our thoughts and we can control our thoughts<\/p>\n
1) Thus, every individual has the power, in one sense, to control their lives<\/p>\n
2) Proverbs 23:7<\/p>\n
3) “Think on these things” (Phil. 4:8)<\/p>\n
4) “A man is what he thinks about all day long” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)<\/p>\n
5) “The soul is dyed the color of its thinking”<\/p>\n
d. By now, someone is probably protesting: “But I can’t control my thoughts. From time to time, bad thoughts slip into my mind – there is noting I can do about it.<\/p>\n
1) There is an old saying, “You can’t keep the birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from building nests in your hair.”<\/p>\n
2) We all have thoughts we should not have.<\/p>\n
a) The question is not “will we have them?” but “will be dwell on them?”<\/p>\n
b) When bad thoughts come into our heard – think on those things that are true, honorable, just, and etc.<\/p>\n
e. The more we control our thoughts the easier it will be to…<\/p>\n
1. Philippians 4:9a<\/p>\n
a. Why does Paul want us to concentrate our thoughts on edifying things?<\/p>\n
1) Is it a mere mental exercise?<\/p>\n
2) No – he knew that those thoughts would shape our actions<\/p>\n
b. It is insufficient to think like Christians and not act like Christians. In acting like Christians, we need…<\/p>\n
2. Right Teaching<\/p>\n
a. They had “heard” Paul teach and preach<\/p>\n
1) Acts 20:20, 27<\/p>\n
2) 2 Timothy 4:2<\/p>\n
b. They had “learned” God’s word from Paul<\/p>\n
1) Comprehended what he taught and remembered it<\/p>\n
2) John 6:45<\/p>\n
c. They “saw” the example of Paul<\/p>\n
1) Unlike the Pharisees (Mt. 23:3), Paul not only “said,” but he also “did”<\/p>\n
2) Nothing helps understanding like an appropriate example<\/p>\n
a) 1 Timothy 4:12<\/p>\n
b) Titus 2:7<\/p>\n
d. They “received” what Paul had instructed<\/p>\n
1) It is vital that we “receive” the instruction<\/p>\n
2) We must accept and abide by the teaching<\/p>\n
3) Matthew 7:21<\/p>\n
e. Not only do we need the right teaching, we need the…<\/p>\n
3. Right Training<\/p>\n
a. “These things do” [practice – ESV] (4:9b)<\/p>\n
1) “Do” or “practice” comes from prasso and denotes a habit – it stresses the process leading to a certain accomplishment<\/p>\n
2) The word suggests repeating an action until it becomes natural<\/p>\n
b. What limits our capabilities is our aversion to practice<\/p>\n
1) Some want to excel in certain sports – but they hate to practice, so they will not excel<\/p>\n
2) There are many Christians who are unwilling to develop their skills of Christian living through practice<\/p>\n
CONCLUSION:<\/p>\n
A. Philippians 4:9c<\/p>\n
1. Here we return to the theme of peace<\/p>\n
2. Paul is saying that if you will think as you should and act as you should you will have peace<\/p>\n
B. To become a Christian and have access to the peace of God we must<\/p>\n
1. Think Clearly<\/p>\n
a. Jesus is the personification of all the virtues mentioned in verse 8<\/p>\n
b. John 14:1<\/p>\n
2. Act Appropriately<\/p>\n
a. Plan of Salvation<\/p>\n
b. Will you act appropriately?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INTRODUCTION: Philippians 4:8-9 A. To live the Christian life, one must think clearly and act correctly. 1. One who thinks without acting is like a hunter who aims his gun but never fires it 2. One who acts without thinking is like a hunter who fires his gun without aiming. B. Both thinking and acting … Continue reading “Thinking and Acting Like a Christian – Bible Outlines”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}