Godly Influences that Affect Our Direction

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And I want to talk to you about influences, some of the influences we face. we as humans are subject to outside influences no matter how hard we try not to be we’re subject to outside influences that’s the reason why I’ve told you this story before that’s the reason why I have a child who at four years old is practically bilingual because she’s been influenced by dora the explorer right and so when uh when we try to figure out what she’s saying we first have to figure out what language it sounds like and then go from there. It’s because she’s been influenced.

It’s the reason why I have another child who I won’t name. We were talking about this this week. We were reminiscing because I’d forgotten about this.

But I had a child that several years ago had a legitimate British accent from watching copious amounts of Peppa Pig. And I see that we’re not alone in that. Daddy, we’re not alone in that because I’ve seen other people that have recently posted videos online of their children doing the same thing.

My child did it several years ago, so we were the first to be influenced, because we’re susceptible to influences. And you might think, well, that’s just children. I’m an adult.

Listen, I’m susceptible to influences, outside influences as well. Now, I’m stubborn enough that I try not to be, but I can tell you I drive differently with my wife in the car versus when I don’t have my wife in the car. And the reason for that is because when I’m by myself in the car, I don’t mind taking my own sweet time to get wherever I’m going.

We’re all just headed eventually to the cemetery anyway, and I’m in no hurry to get there, right? But when she’s in the car with me, I don’t necessarily like to hear, you know it’s 70 through here. Yeah?

You’re going 50. I don’t want to hear it. So I’m influenced in that direction, and I drive a little faster.

I drive a little more aggressively when my wife is in the vehicle. I could go through all sorts of examples, but if you think about it, you’re probably susceptible to someone else’s influences in your life as well, for better or for worse. And recognizing that there is that aspect of our humanity that we are influenced by others, the Apostle Paul wrote about how this takes place in our spiritual lives as well.

Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He pointed to this fact that we are susceptible to outside influences, and so we need to make sure that what influences us are the right kind of influences. And so we come to this point in the book of Philippians in chapter 4, where he writes about some of the godly influences that we need that are going to point us in the right direction. And that’s what I want to talk about with you this morning, are some of these godly influences that each of us need.

These are not the only influences that each of us need to live a godly life, but these are some of the ones that He lays out in Philippians chapter 4, the things that we should gravitate toward if we want to be influenced in a godly direction in our lives. And so if you would, turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4. If you don’t have a Bible, it’ll be on your screen, or if you’re using a device, there’s a link in your bulletin to get you right there.

And if you would, if you’re able to without too much trouble, if you’d stand with me as we read from God’s Word. Just this brief passage this morning. Philippians chapter 4, starting in verse 8.

Paul writes, 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.

And you may be seated. If you want to glorify God, one of the most important things you can do is to fill your life with godly influences. Can you glorify God on your own?

Sure. But God designed us to be together. God designed us for fellowship.

He designed us for community. If we were talking about any other of His creations, we would call ourselves pack animals or herd animals because we were created for fellowship. And I get it.

Some of you are saying, I don’t necessarily like big crowds. That’s not necessarily what we’re talking about. But we were created to have relationships with God, relationships with one another.

That’s just how this works. That’s what we were designed for. Now some of us find it more exhausting than others, but that’s what we were designed for.

And so one of the best things that we can do in order to live a life that glorifies God, in order to move in that direction, is to fill our lives with godly influences. And we’re going to go through what some of these are this morning. In Philippians 3, where we were just a few weeks ago, Paul talked about being committed to Jesus Christ. He talked about how important it was to strive to know Him.

He said he was concerned that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. He wanted to know His sufferings. He just wanted to know Jesus Christ and wanted to live in a way that brought Him glory.

Now that sounds like a tall order for you and me, because it is. To think from here on out, I’m going to live a life that just brings Him glory. That is an incredibly tall order, and it’s not one that you and I could ever do perfectly, even with a ton of godly influences.

It’s one that we are invariably going to fall short of, but it’s still the goal we aim toward. It’s still what our aim is. But he’s made the point.

Paul already has and does again. He’s made the point a few times that there are others who are trying. They’re imperfect, but they’re consistent.

And you probably know somebody like that in your life that you can look to. Are they perfect? No.

But they are consistently trying to live their lives for Jesus Christ. And he tells us that their examples show that it can be done. That’s why he said back in verse 17 of chapter 3, Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern. That’s not Paul saying, I’m so wonderful, be like me.

He says, follow the example I’m setting, along with so many others who are trying to follow the example of Jesus Christ. It’s not that Paul is saying, be like me. He’s saying, join me in trying to be like Jesus. But he’s pointing to himself and some other mature believers that he could say, they’re not perfect, but they are consistent in trying to walk in a way that pleases God.

And he’s come back to this same example in the passage that we read this morning, telling the Philippians in verse 9, the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. He’s saying the example that’s been set out in front of you, do those things. He’s challenging the Philippians to go and live that same life of dedication to Jesus Christ, to live a life that consistently glorifies Jesus Christ, if not perfectly glorifies Him.

And he addresses here some of the influences that are going to help them along the way. Now, kind of look at this backwards of the order that is given in the text. Because I think he builds from the least important, well, I don’t know that he builds from the least important, but he builds to the most important.

I’ll put it that way. Because the final influence he talks about is God himself. God himself is the most important influence on the direction of our lives.

Because our efforts depend on him. We are sinners. By nature, we sin and we fall short of his design for us.

Any good in us is because He put it there. Anything pleasing to Him is because of the change that He’s made in us. And so we are entirely dependent on Him.

And in the previous passage that we looked at last week, Paul wrote about the peace of God in verse 7. We talked about the peace of God that passes understanding and the influence that it has in our lives. But here in verse 9, he talks about the God of peace.

Verse 7 says the peace of God. Verse 9 says the God of peace. And so he’s making it clear here that we don’t just have the peace that God gives.

This is not from a distance that God is setting up there distant from us and, well, he’s just going to zap his peace down here, but he’s really not engaged. He’s really not involved with us. He says in verse 9, we not only have the peace of God, but we have the God of peace.

It’s not just the distant giving of his peace that we rely Him Himself. It’s God Himself. He says in verse 9, He will be with you.

The God of peace Himself will be with us. Now, when He says, do X, Y, and Z, and then He finishes up in verse 9, He says, the God of peace will be with you. This can be read in a couple of different ways.

It can be read like a transaction as though it was saying, if you glorify God, then God will be with you. Or it could be read as a reassurance, you can glorify God because God will be with you. And I think the latter interpretation is more consistent with what we know about the character of God as revealed in Scripture.

That God’s presence with us, God’s relationship with us is not dependent on our performance. Now that doesn’t mean that God has given us a license to just go out and live however we want to, but it does mean that God knows I’m going to fall short because that’s all I’ve done my entire life and my shortcomings, my sin, are the very reason why Jesus came to the cross in the first place. God was not surprised by this.

My failures are already baked into the cake. So I believe this is telling us, based on everything else we know about how that relationship with God functions, that we’re being told to go and try to live a life that glorifies God, knowing that the very God of peace who brings peace to our lives is going to be with us every step of the way. Because we’re looking at this incredibly tall order, go out and live a life that glorifies God.

How in the world can I do that? I am not capable of doing that. And Paul says the God of peace is going to be with you, that’s how.

And so a key part of a strong walk with God, a walk that glorifies Him, is just walking with God. I know that sounds obvious, like why would you even need to say that? but I think we think there’s some magical formula that’s going to get us a closer walk with God.

I just wish I had a closer relationship with God. And we’re looking for the right configuration of circumstances that’s going to make that happen. The best thing we can do to have a closer walk with God as a Christian, as somebody who’s already trusted Christ as their one and only Savior, the best thing we can do to have a close walk with God is just walk with God.

He’ll build that closeness. He’ll draw you to Himself. But if you’re sitting there waiting to walk with God until you have this experience of closeness, it’s not how it’s going to work.

He told them, go. Do these things. Follow this example.

Live this life knowing that God is going to be with you every step of the way. We go where He leads now. We follow His prompting now.

We don’t wait until we feel as close as we think we ought to. We do it now. And the closeness of the fellowship comes from the time that we spend together.

It’s hard to have a close walk with Him if you’re not walking with Him. And so we’re called to just walk with Him in obedience. Our walk today with God will influence where we go with God tomorrow.

And so we have this reassurance that the God of peace will be with us because we need that. That’s the ultimate influence we need and that’s the most important influence we can have because we cannot walk in a way that pleases God without walking with God. without that relationship.

We’re not going to wake up on our own one morning and just accidentally be spiritual giants that please God in everything that we do. Just figure it out on our own and go do it. We need God’s influence through every step of that.

And so we have that reassurance that He’s there with us. But if we go back a little earlier in verse 9, we also see that fellowship with godly believers influences the direction of our lives. Paul told them in verse 9, to do the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me.

Now all four of these words, learned, received, heard, saw, they point to something that we catch by experience. That these people received, that they learned, that they saw, that they heard because they spent time with Paul. Because they walked with Paul as Paul was walking with God.

Have you ever learned something by spending time with somebody? A lot of those lessons stick with us more than stuff we learned in a class. I am not an expert on cars by any stretch of the imagination.

I think I told you that last week. But I know a few things, and those things I learned, I learned from spending time with my papa. And he went to be with the Lord eight years ago, but every time I go out and open a hood on a vehicle, I think of stuff that he taught me.

On the contrary, I’ve spent a lot of time in classes and probably don’t remember the vast majority of the information I got from those. The things I remember, the things that have stuck with me, are largely the things that I associate with an experience. I’ve told you before, I didn’t start any kind of Bible college, any kind of seminary, any of that, until I’d already been pastoring for almost 10 years.

My training for ministry was hanging around with guys who were doing ministry. As I’ve told you before, as a teenager, You’re irritating the living daylights out of the pastoral staff at my church. Just wanting to be with them as they went and did hospital calls, as they went and knocked doors, as they mopped floors, as they prepared lessons.

Everything that’s entailed there. And I learned it by experience. And Paul’s telling them, you have this experience with other believers, namely Paul at this point, that is going to be a tremendous influence on your life.

they spent time with Paul they heard his teaching they saw his life they received his instruction and they learned what it means to live as a Christian and to be faithful to Jesus Christ they learned it by experience because they weren’t out there on their own they were with other believers in this case they were with Paul but they learned this from Paul when he came through and was ministering in the church in Philippi the fellowship of the church is designed to help us grow if we will get involved with one another, if we will get involved in ministry together, if we will get involved in learning together, if we will get involved in spending our lives together rather than just waving at each other on Sundays, we will learn and we will grow through that experience. And that’s how God designed it.

The church is not here because I need something to do on Sundays, and it’s not here because God takes attendance. We are here as a body to grow together and to influence one another. One about provoking one another, I believe it’s in Hebrews chapter 10, talks about provoking one another to love and to good works.

So they learned and they grew, each of them, because of their association with Paul and with others through the church at Philippi. And so that points us to the fact that a faithful, maturing church and its influence, it’s going to be a major help to believers seeking to live in a way that glorifies God. So if we want to live a life that glorifies God, we start by just walking with Him.

But also we add to that the fact that we are walking with others who are trying to do the same thing. Because we’re going to be influenced by something. I find it much easier to eat the right things when my wife is also trying to eat the right things.

Because when one of us wants to stress eat all of our feelings about our children at the end of the day, one of us can talk the other one out of it. Right? But when we both get on the wrong page, then we influence each other the other direction.

We are so susceptible to influences from others. You’re going to be influenced by somebody. And so in terms of your spiritual development, God’s Word encourages you to get involved and get invested in a maturing body of believers.

Some of you here this morning, or some of you watching online, may just be here as guests. You’re checking us out, or somebody dragged you here, and we’re glad you’re here. If you’re looking for a place where you can get involved, some place that’s going to teach you the Bible, and some place that’s going to teach you how to apply the Bible in your daily life, we’ve got a place for you.

And we would love to be that for you. But whether it’s here or someplace else, you need that in your life. Not just a church.

Not just a church, but a church that’s going to come alongside you and help you grow in Christ. We all need that. I need that. You need that.

God designed us to need that. And then we look back at verse 8, and we see how our way of thinking influences our way of living far more than we realize. There’s the influence that our own mind has on the way we live.

And I think the fact that our thoughts are so influential, and we so rarely realize that, is why I think Paul goes through this whole exercise of driving home in verse 8, the kinds of things that we’re supposed to think about. He puts so much focus here on disciplining our thoughts. He tells us in verse 8 to meditate on certain things.

And that is not the Eastern idea of meditation where you have a mantra or you focus on that and you empty your mind of everything else. Eastern meditation says empty your mind. Biblical meditation says fill your mind with a certain thing.

Fill your mind with God’s Word and think about it. Strive to understand it. Strive to apply it.

And the things that he tells us to meditate on here are things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report. Now there’s some overlap among these words. It’s hard to develop a list where they’re all distinct things because they overlap a little bit.

But in general, what he’s talking about with things that are true, things that are the truth. I mean, that’s not a hard word to figure out. Not things that are lies, not things that are speculation, not things that are false teaching, not things that are rumor, but things that God’s Word says are true.

To go to God’s Word and say, is it this teaching I’m hearing, is it true or not? And that’s why I tell you all the time, take out the book, listen to what I say, and compare the two. And if what I say doesn’t match up with the book, then ignore what I say.

And if it gets too far afield of this book, get rid of me. Right? Because this book is the authority of what’s true, not me.

He tells us to focus on things that are true. Because we can get our minds so wrapped up in things that are not true in rumors and speculation and false teaching. And before we know it, it starts to affect our way of living.

He says to think about things that are noble. That means things that are honorable, things that are worthy of reverence. As I was studying what this word meant, I thought it’s things that you would want others to see.

How many of your thoughts are things that you would be ashamed if we put them on the big screen? I’m not going to answer that question either. Now, to some extent, with our fallen nature, we can’t help some of that.

It just pops into our But how long do we sit and focus on it? And do we pursue those thoughts? If we don’t want it put on the big screen, we ought to cast it out on the little screen, right?

Things that we would want others to see are things that are noble. Things that are just, those are things that are righteous. Those are things that you would want God to see.

When I was little, I heard a pastor describe it. This goes to speculation. I don’t know if it’s going to be like this or not.

That at judgment, The Lord is going to put everything in your life, everything you’ve thought, done, said on a big movie screen. You’re going to have to watch it and give an answer. That was chilling to me.

I don’t know. Again, that’s speculation. I don’t know that that’s how it’s going to work.

I don’t know that God needs a world premiere screening to know what’s going on in your life. He knows, right? But how many things do we think about and focus on that we wish God didn’t know we thought and focused on?

Then those things are not just. And we should focus on things that we are fine with God knowing that we thought about. Things that are pure, that means things that provoke us or stir us up to holiness. To living a life of holiness.

There are certain things that we can put in our minds and certain things that we can cling to in our minds that are going to help us live holy lives. And there are certain things that are going to make it harder. And by the way, it’s gotten a lot easier in our world to find things that are going to make it harder.

But the things that are pure, he says, meditate on those things. Things that are lovely, that means things that provoke us to love. The things that, think about things that help us love others.

I have to do this. I have to work at this, I should say. I have to work at this from time to time.

Because people are not always lovable, are they? And so when somebody kind of acts like a jerk, you ever experience that in life, people acting like a jerk to you? I have to stop and think, what could be going on in their life that is making them act this way?

That doesn’t make it right, but I stop and think about that. I knew a man once who just raked me over the coals, over something that was not my fault, in front of a bunch of other people. And in the flesh, I wanted to say some things.

But I stopped and realized that man had been very sick for a very long time. And he probably felt miserable all the time. and that’s probably why he acted that way.

Didn’t make it right, didn’t make it feel good, but I just kept in my mind from then on every time I saw him, that poor man, the anguish he’s going through. And you know what? That thought helped me love him even when I didn’t want to, right?

And by the way, I’m not holding myself up as the example in saying I do this perfectly all the time. I’m just giving you an example. I could give you tons of examples of the times I have not done this well, but I think that’s the kind of thing that we’re talking about here.

Things that are lovely are the thoughts that provoke us to love others. Things that are of good report, those are things that are just generally commendable. And he summarizes all of these kinds of thoughts that come through our minds and says we should hang on to them if they’re virtuous and if they’re praiseworthy.

Now, virtuous was a common word in the language of his day that pagans used to mean things that the gods loved. And so when Paul uses it, he means things that are going to help us live in a God-honoring way. And when he says things are praiseworthy, he’s talking about our reputation with others.

And so he’s saying, hold on to the thoughts that help us develop a reputation that honors God. So we’re dealing with thoughts that help us honor God in our relationship to Him and in our relationship with others in our world. And he says, meditate on these things.

Your thoughts are going to influence you, for better or for worse. So meditate on these things. By the way, the wording and the verb tense and the word choice, they all remind us that what he’s talking about is a habit, not just something you do once and check it off the list. But this is a daily struggle.

This is a daily battle that we have to fight because our way of thinking has tremendous impact on the way we live. And now as believers, what this boils down to for us, as people who’ve trusted Christ as our Savior, what this boils down to is the fact that we cannot, we cannot deliberately surround ourselves with ungodly influences and expect that we are going to accidentally glorify God. Now, can God be glorified in our lives?

He’s God. He can do what He wants to. But if we want to live the kind of life that glorifies God, we cannot fill it up deliberately with ungodly influences and then expect that things are just going to magically turn around.

What you put in comes out. When I eat garbage, I feel like garbage. Spiritually, what I take in comes out.

Now, this does not mean to isolate ourselves. It does not mean, oh, stay away from the sinners out there. Stay away from the non-believers.

They’re a bad influence. It doesn’t mean isolate ourselves. How in the world are we going to reach people and show them the love of Jesus Christ if we’re not ever around them?

It’s not talking about isolating ourselves. It’s talking about guarding our influences. Using Holy Spirit-given wisdom about what we allow to influence us.

You and I are influenced day in and day out. So the question that we need to consider this morning as believers is, are we surrounding ourselves with influences that help or hinder our efforts to glorify God? And that’s not a question I expect you to answer this morning.

It’s a question that we each need to think about as we leave from this place and consider what God would have us to do in response. But I want to finish with one final observation, and that’s that living a life that glorifies God is not a recipe for earning God’s forgiveness or God’s acceptance. This is not something do to try to get right with God.

It’s something we do, something we desire to do because God has already forgiven and accepted us. And so this morning, if you feel distant from God, if you understand that God just doesn’t feel that close and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, it’s because you are separated from God by something called sin. Our disobedience separates us from a holy God.

And there’s nothing that you or I could ever do that is good enough to bring us back into fellowship with a holy God because that sin is still there. So the only option was for Jesus Christ, God’s Son, to come to earth, take responsibility for our sins and be punished in our place. And so he was nailed to the cross where he shed his blood and died, taking all the penalty that we deserved, making all the payment that we owed so that we could be forgiven.

That’s how we get the relationship with God in the first place.