The Battle For The Mind

What this episode covers

Phil. 4:8-9 Blank Outline Completed Outline Philippians 4:8-9 All right, if you remain standing, we’re going to read just a couple verses of scripture from Philippians chapter 4. This is verses 8 and 9. And Paul’s beginning to wrap up his letter. And let me read the words on the screen and you can follow along. Paul writes, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if there’s anything that is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. And whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice, and here’s the promise, and the God of peace will be with you. All right, well, we’re in the homestretch of the book of Philippians and were in chapter 4. Last week we looked at the first seven verses and thought about the three areas of peace that God wants us to have. And I call it the triad of peace. It’s the peace with God, Romans 5:1, the peace of God that Paul talks about in Philippians 4. And then we talked about peace with others. This morning, we get to verses 8 and 9, and we’re just going to spend about 30 minutes on these two verses. And Paul begins to wrap up his letter. In fact, he begins this section with the word finally. And we’re going to think about the battle for the mind that he talks about in verses 8 and 9. When we move down to the next section, 10 through 20, Paul’s giving them a thanks, because you know that this letter is really a thank you note. The church at Philippi, and Paul was the founding pastor, they sent a gift through Epaphroditus, traveled 800 miles to bring Paul that gift. Where’s Paul? He’s in prison, isn’t he? He’s in a Roman prison. He’s awaiting trial. And so, Paul’s really saying, thank you for the gift that you sent. In fact, if you remember back in chapter 2, Paul says he’s sending Epaphras back. In fact, it says that he got sick on this trip and he almost died making this journey, this 800-mile journey to take this gift to the church at Philippi. And then the last couple of verses, Paul gives greetings from Caesar’s household. So, what happened when Paul was in prison? He made wise use of his time. Then he wrote four prison epistles and he’s sharing the gospel. And some of Caesar’s household comes to faith in Christ. Well, this morning we’re going to look at verses 8 and 9. And I’ve called it two pleas, P-L-E-A-S, and a promise. We need to be aware of the ongoing spiritual battle in our lives And we’re going to think about the battle for the mind. And just an introductory thought here as we think about the battle for the mind is this, we this morning need to be aware of the ongoing spiritual battle in our lives. We need to be aware that as a follower of Jesus, there is an ongoing spiritual battle that goes on in our lives. The Bible talks about three enemies that we have. Enemy number one, the world. By that, the Bible means the world system. And we live in a world whose system is opposed to God, anti-God, and opposed to the truth. That was true in Paul’s day as well. Enemy number two is the flesh, Romans chapter 7. Even though we come to faith in Christ, our sin nature is not eradicated. And so, we still struggle with the pull of sin and temptation in our lives. Paul talks about it in Romans 7. He says, the things I want to do, I don’t do. And the things that I don’t want to do, I end up doing. Oh, wretched man that I am. Though Paul struggled with sin, probably you and I do as well. That’s part of the sanctification process. But the third enemy in our life is very clear from Ephesians chapter 6, and it’s Satan. Years ago, a book was written, Satan is alive and well on planet earth by Hal Lindsey. And Paul talks about our enemy in the Ephesians chapter 6. Let me just remind you of these verses. Verse 10, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you may be a

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.