A Terrible Thing To Waste

Bible Book: Philippians 4 : 1-9

Subject: Mind; Christian Thinking; The Spiritual Mind

Introduction

A terrible thing to waste? — a mind. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Rev. James S. Hewett (1930-2006), editor and publisher of Parables Etc. and The Pastors Story File, shares, “A man had bought a new gadget-unassembled, of course--and after reading and rereading the instructions he couldn't figure out how it went together. Finally, he sought the help of an old handyman who was working in the backyard. The old fellow picked up the pieces, studied them, then began assembling the gadget. In a short time, he had it put together. ‘That’s amazing,’ said the man. ‘And you did it without even looking at the instructions!’

‘Fact is,’ said the old man, ‘I can't read, and when a fellow can’t read, he’s got to think.’”1 Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) explains, “To think is an effort; to think rightly is a great effort; and to think as a Christian ought to think is the greatest effort of a human soul.”2

Philippians 4:1-9 reads, “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Note what your mind needs to be.

I. First, your mind needs to be spiritually founded.

Philippians 4:1-5 reads, “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.”

To “be of the same mind in the Lord” is to have a spiritually founded mind. Romans 8:9b reads, “. . . Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” Galatians 6:1 reads, “. . . you who are spiritual . . . .” 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 reads, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal?” Ephesians 4:1-6 reads, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” 1 John 4:20-12 reads, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

Have you heard the statement, “A house divided against itself will not stand”? It came from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ in the following exchange recorded in Matthew 12:22-28: “Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’ Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’ But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.’”

Dr. O. A. Newlin (1875-1943) of Winona Lake, Indiana, writes, “Of all the people to be pitied those who try to keep step with God on Sunday and flirt with the devil the remaining six days of the week come first. They remind me of an old apple-tree near my boyhood home, which stood at the fence line by the roadside. Its branches spread both into the field and out over the highway. There was always a contention as to whether the fruit of this tree belonged to the farmer or to the public. An unwritten law said it belonged to the one first to club it down. Every boy, big and little, watched to see when the apples were beginning to turn red and then the battle was on. I do not remember ever getting a ripe apple from that old tree and I was careful to see that everybody else was treated likewise. I never passed but what I saw lodged in its branches a lot of broom handles, gambrel sticks, and old wagon spokes. That tree got more clubbing than a whole orchard. There are many professing Christians who hang out on both sides of the fence, and they receive clubs from every direction. The world doesn’t believe in their religion and the Gospel is a goad to the conscience every time they hear a sermon.”3

The following is an excerpt from an address by Dr. Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention (1996) in Indianapolis, Indiana: “It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills. It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. It is impossible to find anyone in the Bible who was a power for God who did not have enemies and was not hated. It's better to stand alone with the truth than to be wrong with a multitude. It is better ultimately to succeed with truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie.”4

We are told to “stand fast in the Lord” in Philippians 4:1. Dr. Bob Utley explains, “This is another biblical paradox in the relationship between God's sovereignty and humanity's free will (compare Ezek. 18:31 with Ezek. 36:26-27). In this verse believers are commanded to ‘stand firm,’ while in Jude 1:24 it is God who keeps them standing. Somehow, both are true.”5

Having a spiritually founded mind prevents us from being divided against the Lord’s peculiar people.

II. Second, your mind needs to be supernaturally fortified.

Philippians 4:6-7 reads, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Dr. Adam Clarke (1760-1832) writes, “Shall keep them as in a strong place or castle. Your hearts—the seat of all your affections and passions, and minds—your understanding, judgment, and conscience through Christ Jesus; by whom ye were brought into this state of favor, through whom ye are preserved in it, and in whom ye possess it; for Christ keeps that heart in peace in which he dwells and rules. This peace passeth all understanding; it is of a very different nature from all that can arise from human occurrences; it is a peace which Christ has purchased, and which God dispenses; it is felt by all the truly godly, but can be explained by none; it is communion with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, by the power and influence of the Holy Ghost.”6 Someone shares, “A bassoon player came up to his conductor, Arturo Toscanini, and nervously said that he could not reach the high E flat. Toscanini just smiled and replied, ‘Don't worry. There is no E flat in your music tonight.’ Many of our worries are like that-- unfounded and unnecessary.”7 Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) confessed, “When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his death bed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.”8 Roy Lessin observes, “When an anxious thought comes knocking on the door of your mind, you can refuse it entrance. If you invite it in, it will have dinner with you, and if it has dinner with you, it will quickly move in and want to spend the night.”9 Matthew 6:25-34 reads, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? ‘So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ‘Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

You must have “peace with God” (Romans 5:1) before you can have “the peace of God” (Philippians 4:7). Dr. A. T. Pierson (1837-1911) explains, “There is what is called the ‘cushion of the sea.’ Down beneath the surface that is agitated by storms, and driven about with winds, there is a part of the sea that is never stirred. When we dredge the bottom and bring up the remains of animal and vegetable life we find that they give evidence of not having been disturbed in the least, for hundreds and thousands of years. The peace of God is that eternal calm which, like the cushion of the sea, lies far too deep down to be reached by any external trouble and disturbance; and he who enters into the presence of God, becomes partaker of that undisturbed and undisturbable calm.”10

Having a supernaturally fortified mind prevents us from being divested of the Lord’s perfect peace.

III. Third, your mind needs to be scripturally focused.

Philippians 4: 8-9 reads, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Dr. Adrian Rogers writes, “Fifteen college professors who taught human motivation were asked to write a concise statement on human motivation. After hours of study, they said: ‘What the mind attends to, it considers. What the mind does not attend to, it dismisses. What the mind attends to continually, it believes. What the mind believes, it eventually does.’”11

Dr. Jim L. Wilson shares, “I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, ‘Don't believe everything you think.’”12 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 reads, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” Dr. Tim LaHaye (1926-2016) wrote a book titled, The Battle for the Mind: A Subtle Warfare, and Mind Siege: The Battle for Truth in the New Millennium.

Romans 12:1-2 reads, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer warns, “The difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind.”13

Harry Blamires, former head of the English department at King Alfred’s College in Winchester, England, laments, “The Christian mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness and nervelessness unmatched in Christian history. It is difficult to do justice in words to the complete loss of intellectual morale in the twentieth-century Church. One cannot characterize it without having recourse to language which will sound hysterical and melodramatic.

There is no longer a Christian mind. There is still, of course, a Christian ethic, a Christian practice, and a Christian spirituality. As a moral being, the modern Christian subscribes to a code other than that of the non-Christian. As a member of the Church, he undertakes obligations and observations ignored by the non-Christian. As a spiritual being, in prayer and meditation, he strives to cultivate a dimension of life unexplored by the non- Christian. But as a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion - its morality, its worship, its spiritual culture; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal view which relates all human problems - social, political, cultural - to the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Faith, the view which sees all things here below in terms of God’s supremacy and earth’s transitoriness, in terms of Heaven and Hell.”14

Having a scripturally focused mind prevents us from being diverted from the Lord’s perceivable parameters.

Conclusion

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918) recounts, “I was preaching in the Lansing Theatre in London, Nebr., some years ago on the subject of eternity when one of the professors in the State University stood beside me to say, ‘Let me give you a definition of eternity,’ and I said, ‘Give it to me, and I will give it to the audience’; and he quoted, ‘Eternity begins where computation ends’; and I said to him, ‘Professor, tell me just what that means’; and then he replied, ‘If you should take a man possessed of the greatest mind that the world has ever known, and let him think his way out into the future until his mind would break down, then put your stake there; you would have the beginning of eternity,’ and alas, alas! it has no end. God save us from being without God and without hope not only in this world, but in the world to come.”15 Rev. H. O. Mackey recounts, “Daniel Webster [1782-1852] was present one day at a dinner party given at Astor House by some New York friends, and, in order to draw him out, one of the company put to him the following question: ‘Would you please tell us, Mr. Webster, what was the most important thought that ever occupied your mind?’ Mr. Webster merely raised his head, and passing his hand slowly over his forehead, said, ‘Is there anyone here who doesn't know me?’ ‘No, sir,’ was the reply; ‘we all know you, and are your friends.’ ‘Then,’ said he, looking over the table, ‘the most important thought that ever occupied my mind was that of my individual responsibility to God.’ Upon which subject he then spoke for twenty minutes.”16

Is your mind spiritually founded, supernaturally fortified, and scripturally focused? Remember, a mind is a terrible thing to waste!

1James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988), 230.

3O. A. Newliln, Great Things of the Bible: Sunday Morning Messages (Winona Lake, IN: Pastor’s Library Association, 1919), 125.

4Adrian Rogers, National Religious Broadcasters, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1996.

5Dr. Bob Utley, New Testament Commentary, Philippians, Accessed: 03/08/17 http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/new_testament_studies/VOL08/VOL08D_04.html

7Precept Austin, ed. Bruce Hurt, M.D., “Many of Our Worries are Unfounded and Unnecessary” Source Unknown, Accessed: http://www.preceptaustin.org/anxiety-worry-quotes-devotionals-Illustrations .

8Life magazine, “The War Memoirs of Winston Churchill: Their Finest Hour: Part 1, March 7, 1949, Vol. 26, No. 10, Published by Time Inc., 61.

9Roy Lessin, Fret Busters: God’s Peace for Your Problems Today (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2015), 92.

11Adrian Rogers, Love Worth Finding, “What You Really Believe, You Will Act Upon” February 12, 2012. Accessed: 03/09/17 http://www.christianity.com/devotionals/love-worth-finding-adrian-rogers/love-worth-finding-february-17-2012.html .

14Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind: How Should A Christian Think? (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1963), 3-4.

15Aquilla Webb, One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations (New York, NY: George H. Doran Company, 1921), 114.

16H. O. Mackey, One Thousand New Illustrations for the Pulpit, Platform, and Class (New York, NY: James Pott and Company, 1890), 241.

Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort 30775 Jay Drive Spanish Fort, Alabama 36527

Author of Don’t Miss the Revival! Messages for Revival and Spiritual Awakening from Isaiah and

Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice [Both available on Amazon.com in hardcover, paperback and eBook]