Stinkin’ Thinkin’ – Part 4
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 564 aired on June 18, 2016
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes you are cordially invited to stay tuned for 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, some
education and we always do it without any manipulation. That’s right, no games, no gimmicks,
no appeals for money. We’re not asking you to join up, fess up, give it up, nothing like that. This
show is simply about educating you, giving you your options, showing you what your choices
are, hopefully giving you accurate information that will help you verify as well as identify God’s
plan for your life. If you’re able to do this, then you can decide what you want to do. You can
orient and adjust to the plan if you wish. My prayer is that you will, but not everyone will. Many
people have negative volition. They know the truth, they hear the truth, but they choose to ignore
the truth and this may be you, I don’t know. My job is not to judge you, not to be critical of you
but to just give you the facts. This is between you and God. It’s between me and God because to
tell you the truth, I don’t always obey Him either. Sometimes I sin, I do dumb things just like you
do. Paul said it himself in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand myself at all because sometimes I
want to do what is right and it’s inevitable that I wind up doing what is wrong.” That’s because
inside there are two of you in there. If you are a Christian, there’s the flesh, your sin nature, and
there’s the Holy Spirit. The decisions in your life boil down to who’s going to run the show.
Are
you going to let your sin nature drag you back into carnality and living under the control of
the flesh or will you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you into the fruit of the Spirit and live
the supernatural life God intends for you?
This is the importance of having a FLOT line,
having this invisible barrier protection in your soul that stops the outside sources of adversity
before they ever become the inside sources of stress. The unique problem-solving devices taught
in the Word of God are nothing new. They have been there for centuries. We may have a little
different spin on our terminology but it’s not some new discovery. This is in fact the life that our
Savior lived while He walked on this earth as a man. That’s right, He was undiminished deity and
true humanity in one body forever. The man Jesus Christ came into this world, God’s anointed
uniquely born Son, lived a perfect life and never sinned, never. He went to the cross as the Lamb
of God without spot and without blemish. Only He was qualified to pay the penalty for my sin
and for your sin. He was the only one that could take away the punishment that we faced and He
took it upon Himself. This is why 1 Corinthians 5:21 says,
“He who knew no sin was made sin
for us so we could be made the righteousness of God through Him.”
Once we believe in Christ
and receive Him as our Savior, this is just the beginning of the journey.
The rest of the
journey from phase 2 into phase 3 is growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, studying to show ourselves approved unto Him, acquiring the mind of Christ
so that we begin to replicate His lifestyle and re-presenting Him to our friends during our time on
this earth. See, there are three phases to your life. Phase 1, this is when you believe in Jesus
Christ. Phase 2, this is your time on earth after you make this decision. Phase 3, this is your time
564-Stinkin-Thinkin-p4-transcript.pdf
in eternity where
“The eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, the heart hath not known”
(1
Corinthians 2:9). There’s no way for you to even comprehend what eternity is like. We live on a
clock. We live on a time basis. We live on sun up and sun down. This time is not in eternity.
There are colors in eternity you’ve never seen. There are sounds in eternity you’ve never heard.
There are things that will blow you away to use a technical term the kids use today. It’s there and
it’s waiting for you and for me but right now we are in the devil’s world. Right now we are here,
we are sojourners, we are passing through 1 Peter 2:11 says. As you pass through Paul the
apostle himself sets out a pattern of thinking for us, a way that he thinks that we should think in
our own personal lives. You are what you think, this is the key here.
You are not what you
think you are. You are what you think.
This mandate in Philippians 4:8 is for us to avoid
stinkin’ thinkin’ a little play on words. Listen to what Paul says, he gives six good points.
“Finally brethren
[those that are believers in Philippi, this is review from the last three shows],
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think on
these things.”
We started out with the mandate
“think on these things.”
The Greek word
logizomai
means to concentrate, to take account of, to consider and this verb is the imperative
mood in the Greek New Testament, it is not a mood of request, this is a mandate. This is how you
must think. Why? Because Proverbs 23:7 says, whatever you think, that’s what you are.
“As a
man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”
The real you, the invisible you are your desires, your
motivations, your intentions. God can see all of this. He understands this. Paul mandates these
believers in Philippi to think about certain things, think in a certain way. He is in fact
encouraging them to renovate their thinking, change the way they think with the mind of Christ
and he gives them six areas. What I’ve been describing to you in these last three radio shows with
more to come today is the believer’s mindset. I’ve said to you there is no magic button to push
that will give you this mindset. It can only come through constant renovation of your thinking by
means of you acquiring the mind of Christ.
The only way you can renovate your thinking, the
only way you can acquire the mind of Christ, is to hear and apply the Word of God.
Jesus
Himself said in Luke 11:28, a verse I’ve given you many times,
“Happiness belongs to those who
hear My Father’s Word and keep it.”
If you’re going to grow to spiritual maturity there are four
things you must do. You must assemble to hear. You must concentrate to listen. You must recall
to remember. You must use your volition to apply.
If you don’t use your volition to obey the
mandate
“think on these things”
then what you heard does you no good. It’s just
information. But information believed and acted upon becomes wisdom.
This is what God is
wanting you to have, some wisdom in your soul so that you are a maturing believer, so that He
can use you to glorify Him to the maximum because that’s the objective, to give maximum
glorification to God. We went through all of these things. By the way, if you didn’t get this, just
contact me I’ll send you the radio shows free of charge, no charge ever. We’ll be glad to send it to
you on an MP3 and you can have all of these radio shows on stinkin’ thinkin’.
“Whatever is
true,”
he started out with this and we covered this with you.
“Whatever is honorable”
and
564-Stinkin-Thinkin-p4-transcript.pdf
“Whatever is right,”
we covered with you. On the last show we covered
“Whatever is pure”
and
today we’re going to move on to
“Whatever is lovely.” Prosphiles
is the word lovely and it
comes from two words, it’s a compound
pros
which means face-to-face and
phileo
which means
love. There are three different words for love in the Bible and
phileo
is one of them. Love is one
of the most critical thinking skills in the protocol plan of God. I said thinking skills, not emotion.
This is where we mess up. If you think love is an emotion then you don’t understand what the
Bible is talking about.
Love is a thinking skill, a thinking skill of appreciation, devotion,
dedication and motivation.
This is what love is in the protocol plan of God. Motivational
virtue, personal love for God is in fact what motivates us to seek Him and obey Him. Where
would I get something like this? I got it from 1 John 5:3, here’s what it says,
“For this is the love
of God.”
All right, here is your test. Do you say “I love God?” I bet you would if the preacher
asked you on Sunday morning. “Everybody who loves God, raise your hand” and I bet you
would raise your hand. Listen to this verse,
“This is the love of God, that we keep His mandates
and His mandates are not hard.”
What did I tell you awhile ago? Four mandates: assemble,
listen, recall, and apply. If you love God, this is the greatest motivation to obey God because you
appreciate what He’s done for you, you understand what He’s done for you and you have a love
for Him that is reciprocal. This love is the strongest motivation in the world. Reciprocal love
motivation is the strongest of all virtues in the entire world. Where did I get something like this?
1 John 4:19,
“We love Him because
[here’s the reciprocity]
He first loved us,”
and how do I
know He first loved us? John 3:16,
“God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely born Son,
so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”
This is the single most
significant decision you could ever make in your entire life, the decision to believe that Jesus
Christ is the anointed Son of God and to believe that faith alone in Christ alone is all that’s
required for you to have eternal life. To put your trust in His finished work on the cross, in His
substitutionary death for you, this is what being saved means. You express this in prayer because
Romans 10:13 says,
“Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
There is
nothing wrong with praying and asking God to save you, praying and telling God you would like
to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. This is how you express your faith to God.
“Whatever is
lovely,”
this is the most lovely thing in the world, to have a love for God that is not based on any
sort of desire to gain something or get something but based on the fact that He loved you first
and He provided for you an amazing thing called eternal life. This is just part of the deal. We
have motivational virtue, this is a love. Then there’s another type of virtue and this is all part of
the tremendous problem-solving devices.
Functional virtue is the believer using impersonal
love when he loves the unlovable person. You have to love people that are not very lovely.
You have to love people that you don’t even like. How would I get this? 1 John 4:21,
“He who
loves God must love his brother also.”
There it is. Listen to 1 John 4:20, back up a verse,
“If
someone says, ‘I love God,’ and he hates his brother, he is a liar. He who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”
If you’re going to have
love for a jerk, for a weirdo, it doesn’t mean you run up, throw your arms around him, hug him,
564-Stinkin-Thinkin-p4-transcript.pdf
and say, “I love you brother.” What it means is that you have a relaxed mental attitude in their
presence, that you forgive them for any wrong they may have done to you, that you assist them
in anything they need assisting with, but this does not mean you approve of their lifestyle, no.
This doesn’t mean that you pat him on the back for being rude, for being a jerk, for being
obnoxious and immoral. That’s not what this means. It means that if God loved them first, and
He did John 3:16, then you can love them second. You cannot love them based on who they are,
they are not lovely. Does God love you based on your character? Does God love you based on
who and what you are? No, He does not, you know this. He loves you based on who and what
He is, His essence not yours. This is the same way that impersonal love works.
You love an
unlovable person based on your character not his or hers. It is your spiritual life that gives
you the opportunity to love
. Galatians 5:22 tells you
“The fruit of the Spirit is love.”
This is
only accomplished by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have the filling of the
Holy Spirit, you can’t do this. Here is a key principle. Love is divided into several categories.
Love for God is one of them. Love for your spouse is another, love for your friends, and finally
the unlovable ones. In 1 Corinthians 16:22 we have a challenge.
“If anyone does not love the
Lord Jesus Christ, he is to be accursed.”
Here’s where it starts, personal love for Jesus Christ, the
anointed Son of God. How could you not love someone who gave His life as a ransom for you?
How could you not appreciate someone who justifies you before a just and holy God? How could
you not love someone who redeemed you out of the slave market of sin and set you free from the
penalty of sin and death? How could you not love someone who lived His life as an example so
that you might follow Him? Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is your Lord and your Savior and He
lives in you if you are a Christian. If you do not love Him, if you do not respect Him, the
unbeliever who rejects everything that God provides for him,
“Let him be accursed,”
Paul said.
The enemy of love is always jealousy, a terrible mental attitude sin you cannot afford to get
involved with. It is an act of arrogance and a lack of humility to be jealous and possessive
of an individual or thing.
If you have a problem with jealousy, you have a problem with love
because love is trusting. Love is forgiving. Love is longsuffering. These are all characteristics of
God and if you don’t have them, it means that you don’t have the spiritual life that provides these
things. A jealous believer is an immature believer. He’s a believer that hasn’t grown to any
spiritual maturity yet. He doesn’t understand the spiritual life. He can’t grow to be a mature
believer because jealousy conquers him, controls him, manipulates him, and it’s a terrible mental
attitude sin. When you are talking about loving your friends, people that are not part of your
family, this sort of friendship love is very relaxing. I have friends like this. It’s very relaxing to
be around these friends. We think alike. We think the same thoughts. We think Bible doctrine.
I’ve had friends, close friends in the past who quit thinking like I think. They decided to change
the way they think and they moved off in another direction. When we come together, we don’t
have anything to talk about because we don’t think alike. If we talked about anything, it would be
something very shallow like, “How are the children? How is your new house? How is your car?
How’s your tan? How’s your whatever?” We don’t have anything to appreciate between one
564-Stinkin-Thinkin-p4-transcript.pdf
another. We don’t think alike anymore. Our thoughts are different and there goes the fellowship,
but with true friendship love, there’s always mutual thinking, relaxation and pleasant
circumstances. These sorts of friends don’t compete with you. They would guard your privacy
and always protect your back. I think the truth about this is you may only have one or two true
friends like this in your whole life and I hope one of them is your spouse.
“Whatever is lovely,”
prosphiles.
Then the last thing Paul encourages, he says,
“Whatever is of good repute.”
Let’s
examine this one just a little bit.
Euphemos
is the Greek word. This is a root word,
eu
meaning
well and
pheme,
to report, to report well, to report good, whatever things are of a good report
which means whatever things promote peace and not division. That’s the first point. The second
point, what is positive and constructive, whatever is of good repute. Things that are not divisive,
things that are positive and are constructive. Point three, here is the danger.
Do not ever allow
Satan to use your tongue to start a fire.
James 1:26 says,
“If anyone thinks himself to be
religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is
worthless.”
Sins of the tongue are often overlooked and not often talked about but in today’s
society with talk radio, with reality TV, it’s rampant. I like to listen to a sports talk radio show
and sometimes I get so turned off because they quit talking about the athletics that I want to hear
about and they start talking about those they can’t stand, they don’t like, and they begin to
malign, criticize and gossip. It’s always the tongue that starts the fire. They’ll complain, “You
said something about me. You ran me down. You don’t appreciate me.” Listen, I remember when
I was just a kid someone set me up one time. I was in a grocery store. The guy in the grocery
store knew that this certain fellow was behind me and he asked me, “What do you think about so
and so?” I told him what I thought. His face turned a little white. I turned around and looked and
there was the guy standing behind me. I learned a lesson, never answer the question, “What do
you think about somebody?” You can always answer that with the question, “Oh, I don’t know.
Tell me what do you think about him?” This is a way to handle it. James 3:5-6 says,
“So also the
tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest fire is
set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is
set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our
life, and is set on fire by hell.”
This refers to the sins of the tongue. A lot of people never
consider sins of the tongue to be worthy of even confessing, but they are.
Ill-spoken words are
the root of many problems in the body of Christ.
All verbal sins originate with a mental
attitude sin such as jealousy or bitterness or vindictiveness and when that mental attitude sin
motivates you to destroy the target of your hatred, you will assault them verbally. The blindness
of arrogance is this, that you are actually committing the worst sin when you malign or slander
another believer who has sinned, you do the worst. What’s funny about it, it’s not funny, it’s
actually pitiful, but his discipline will be taken off of him and given to you because you stuck
your nose in God’s business. Matthew 7:1-7, read it for yourself. A Christian in a competitive
world must be very careful not to impugn the name of another Christian or not to impugn the
name of another person who is beating them in a competition or making them look bad at work
564-Stinkin-Thinkin-p4-transcript.pdf
about his or her performance. This is what people do, they use their tongue to put other people
down. Romans 2:1 says,
“Therefore you are without excuse, every person who keeps on judging
others, for in that you judge another person you actually condemn yourself because you who are
judging are actually practicing the same thing.”
There you have it.
“Whatever is of good
repute,”
whatever promotes peace not division, whatever is positive and constructive, this is
what you think and talk about.
Not who you don’t like, not what you don’t like. This is how
churches get destroyed. This is how families get destroyed because people cannot keep their
mouth shut. If you’re this sort of person and you can’t keep your mouth shut and you say, “Well I
just have to let people know where I stand,” you are out of line. You are wrong and you are
sinning. God will judge you for this.
You must learn to keep your mouth shut and let the
Lord handle the circumstances.
You cannot afford to pop off, malign, and run people down.
Here’s what Paul said,
“Whatever is true,”
concentrate on these things.
“Whatever is honorable”
concentrate on this, the dignified things worthy of respect.
“Whatever is right,”
conform to these
things, such as the laws of morality and divine establishment.
“Whatever is lovely and whatever
is of good repute,”
whatever things are of love and positive you concentrate on, not on anything
else.
If you’re going to live a life that glorifies Jesus Christ, you must learn to think
differently.
Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to The
FLOT Line