Good to Great in God's Eyes - Think Great Thoughts, Part 1

You know it's true. We are what we eat, both in our bodies and in our minds. Whatever you feed your mind and your soul will determine your personal spiritual health. If you want to experience real spiritual vitality, then you need a new diet.

And I've got a diet plan that's not about food, and you are going to love it. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

I'm Dave Drouy. Have you ever wondered, how do I take my faith to the next level, or what can I do to break out of the ordinary Christian life? Well, today we begin Chip's popular series Good to Great in God's Eyes to answer those critical questions. Over the next several programs you're going to learn some specific practices that have the potential to change your life, not just for the better, but for the absolute best. With that said, if you have a Bible handy, turn now to Philippians Chapter 4, and let's join Chip as he kicks off this series with his message, Think Great Thoughts. I've got a little word association game I'd like to play with you very briefly. Tell me what these words have in common. Atkins, South Beach, low carb, high carb, high protein, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers.

Are we there? It's diets, right? It's what you put in your body. You know, if someone has said, you are, and we are, what we eat. And we know it's true physically. I mean, it's absolutely scientifically proven. If you want to change your cholesterol, you got to change your diet.

If you want to change your body, if you want to lose weight, I mean, if you want your heart, your body, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, to change, you have to change, and I have to change, what I put in my mouth. But often what we forget, it is just as true psychologically as it is physically. University of Tennessee did a 12 year study trying to measure in some way the impact of what people put into their minds. They had a control group and a non-control group listen to a five minute daily radio program every day, and then they tested them. The results were, if there were four negative items in the five minute radio program, the listeners were one, more depressed, two, believe the world was a negative place to live, three, were less likely to help others, and four, began to believe that what they heard would actually happen to them. Empirical research. Five minutes, five little minutes of listening to four negative things impacted them that much.

Imagine what, in the average home, six to seven hours a day of TV is doing to the average person in America. You are what you eat. I am what I eat. It is true physically. It is true psychologically. The scripture says, what, Proverbs 23? As a man thinks or as a woman thinks in her heart, so is he.

In fact, Ralph Waldo Emerson even gets in. He says, life consists of what a man is thinking about all day. Your life consists merely of what you're thinking about all day. But it's also true spiritually. And Romans 8, you might jot this down, verses five to eight, when you have some time or worth looking at, talks about this deliverance we have, the spirit being in us, the law and the spirit of life, the law and spirit of death, and then after talking about having been delivered by what God has done, it says, for the mind set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

For the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God and it is not able even to please God. I'm gonna become physically what I put in my body. I'm going to become psychologically and spiritually what I put into my mind. I'd suggest that the most important decision you make and the most important decision your children make and your grandchildren make every single day is this, what they allow to go into their mind.

Because you'll notice there's a little graphic on the bottom of your notes. And the idea is wrong thinking leads to negative emotions that leads to unwise behavior that leads to devastating consequences. Often what happens in our lives when we want to change, we usually start at the wrong place.

We often start with the behavior. I'm eating too much. I'm eating too much. I want to stop eating. I wish I was eating.

I'm drinking too much. I'm not doing enough of this. And we start with the behavior and we go through cycles and we can't figure out. Some people get a little smarter and they start with the emotions like, why am I feeling this way? I notice that I eat when I feel this way. I notice I have these outbursts of anger when I feel this way. That's still not starting far back enough.

You have to start, it all begins with your thinking. Wrong thinking produces negative emotions. Negative emotions will produce behavior that is unwise and a pattern of unwise behavior. What's the scripture say? If you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption.

A man or a woman, don't be deceived my beloved brother and you're going to reap. I'm going to reap what I sow. By contrast, right thinking produces positive emotions. Positive emotions produce wise behavior and wise behavior sowing over time produce fruitful consequences. We are a product of our thought life. And the point I want to make is change.

All change, all lasting change begins with how you think. And the scripture is filled with it. I gave you Romans 8, 5 to 8. Study sometimes Ephesians 4, 22 to 24. Take off the old, have your mind renewed, put on.

I mean it's everywhere. Colossians 3, set your mind on the things that are above, on the things that are earth. Set your mind where your life is hidden with Christ.

Over and over and over and over. Just get out your concordance and look up the word mind or look up the word metamorphosis or transformation or change and just watch how it is peppered all through scripture. Change begins with your thinking. And that's why the second practice to go from good to great in God's eyes is to think great thoughts. We are a product of our thinking. Our emotions flow from our thoughts and what we allow to enter our mind is the most important decision we make every day. That's the net net.

That's the summary. Now notice since we're a product of our thought life, God commands us. I didn't just make this up. He commands us to think great thoughts. And you say well where do you get that?

Well follow along. Let's look together at Philippians chapter four. Look at verse eight. Finally brethren, verse six, don't be anxious for anything. Verse seven, how God's going to work as you learn to pray, give thanks and the peace of God.

Verse eight he says finally brethren whatever is true, that means objectively true, conforms to reality. Whatever is honorable, that has the idea of that which is worthy of respect or dignity. Whatever is right has the idea of justice or righteousness. Whatever is pure, that's the idea of moral purity, free from defilement.

Whatever is lovely, that has the idea of something that is winsome and attractive and beautiful. Or whatever is good, and the idea here is admirable, of good report, worthy of passing on to another. And whatever is of any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. A great little biblical exercise is to go through and circle all of those words and just do a little mini Bible study on what they mean.

And then they can become a little grid for what I allow to come into my mind. Whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is good repute. And then Paul kind of thinks, in case I left something out, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, notice what he says, dwell on these things. That's the first command. Then notice the second command is the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, then what do you do? Those are all recepting type words, aren't they? Learned, received, heard, seen.

Take all this data, practice these things and what's the promise? The God of peace will be with you. You see, when we're anxious, really, you know what anxiety is? Anxiety is just dwelling on something. Anxiety is negative meditation. I mean, some people say, well, I don't know how to meditate on scripture. Well, just try worrying and reverse it.

It works, right? I mean, anxiety is, I wonder what's going to happen. I don't know. Well, the economy is going kind of south a little bit and I've got some money put away over here and if that doesn't come through, then I might have to come out of retirement or, you know, I had planning to do with this and what happened?

Well, one of my grandchildren and if that happens and they could meet one of those kids at one of those colleges and I wouldn't have enough money, I wouldn't have enough money, I have one of my kids with one of those kids and then I think I'm hyperventilating, you know? And what do you do? We take one little thing and we dwell on it and then we pull it apart and then we factor out all the possible negative things that could happen. What happens to your emotions?

Tightening of the chest, start to get depressed, a little panic attack, depression. See, you are a product and I'm a product of my thinking and when my thinking begins to go south, my emotions begin to really go in a bad direction and I'd like to tell you I'm real, you know, real objective and I make all my decisions, you know, just based on good thinking and objective criteria. I've got good news for you, most of us make our decisions in an emotional state and we are swayed by how we're feeling and what we do and what the apostle Paul is saying is that in the area of anxiety, come to God and learn to offer it, recognize what's happening. He uses three or four different words for prayer. He says come in general, give thanksgiving, take the specific issue, get it before the Lord and the promises that the God of peace will be with you and the peace of God will reign in your hearts and then he says now let's get rid of that as a lifestyle. Finally, brethren, what I need you to do is I'm gonna go back beyond the emotions, beyond the anxiety, beyond the behavior, I'm gonna go back to your thinking. So finally, brethren, he gives us six or seven things and then scrapes the Milky Way, basically think godly, pure, righteous, honorable, winsome, lovely, God-honoring thoughts and the promise is what?

The God of peace will be with you. The word dwell there, the command is to dwell, write that word in, will you? It's to dwell.

I actually put the word in Greek, it's logizmae. It means to consider the word dwell, to think on, to reckon, to deduce, to reason, to calculate, to ponder. To dwell means to deliberate upon through protracted analysis and thought. When he says purity, honorable, justice, righteousness, lovely, beauty, he says I want you to get your mind focused in and with a protracted, energetic, intentional ability, think on these things, meditate on these things, analyze these things. It's not casual thinking, it's not passive thinking, it's intentionally focused, protracted thought on what is right, pure, good, lovely and righteous.

Colin Brown's dictionary of the New Testament of this word says it's not an unemotional or an unphilosophical word. This is not just like an accountant going through but by contrast, it's the very process of reasoning and deduction that separates good from evil. So it's thinking on what is right and pondering what's right and thinking the implications and like looking at situations and looking what's true and then analyzing in such a way and say I wonder how that would play out in this relationship. I wonder how that plays out in how God looks at me. I wonder if that over time, it's an analytical dwelling on truth, on God for who he is, on you for who you are, on other people for who they are, looking at the future, the past circumstances through the lens of truth, of God's word. And it's powerful. It's powerful, powerful. I mean there's a reason why people paid, do you remember what it was for what, 30 seconds at the Super Bowl?

Huh? How many millions, billions dollars for what, 2.5 million dollars for 30 seconds I believe was the cost. Why would anyone pay that much money to have people's attentions for 30 seconds?

I'll tell you why. Cause I'll tell you what, whatever they see, whatever they hear, whatever you put in their mind, that's what they go out and buy. It's to influence you. Why do companies spend billions in advertisement?

The drug companies recently, I read a statistic, the number of billions in advertisement, why? Cause when something hurts and it's not working and I'm gonna say, hey doc, you know, you see that commercial? You know, what about this?

You think that would help me? Because it influences, we're a product of our thought life. Let me show you how powerful this is. This is not a made up story.

You know, sometimes you have one of those illustrations that is so over the top, you just think, you know what, this guy, he just, he makes these up. His name is George. In fact, I'll give you his full name because if he ever hears this, cause he's heard it once, it'll just encourage him.

George Desindre. I was involved in campus ministry, young Christian. I'm now a couple years old in the Lord and this campus goes from three or four or five kids.

Now we've got about 40, 50, 60, 70 kids and we're meeting this guy's basement and we're starting to grow. And you know, I'm really a believer and I'm walking with God, but I'm also on the basketball team. And some of the believers were really love God, but were very uncool.

You kind of know what I mean? They didn't dress cool. They didn't talk cool. Some of the girls were not the prettiest girls on campus, but over here on the basketball team, they were cool guys. You know, we had the, we had the big hats and the platforms that had the full length leather coat walking in, you know, Hey, what's that and the dude, you know, you know, we were cool. And when I went on Thursday night to Bible study, I love being around this group, but when I went on road trips and I was with the basketball team, I had to be cool. But I had this bad situation where I would be with the basketball team in the cafeteria and someone that I'm supposed to love and enjoy and be a good friend and be a Christian like I treated him on Thursday night would come up to me and George would come up to me and George had a little bit of a lisp. And George, I don't know about you and you know, God bless those who have hair. God bless those who do not have hair.

But when you're like 19 and have no hair, it's not really good in college. And George had already, he had like three strands, you know, going over to the left and, and he came from a Slavic background, came over from this country, grew up in a new hardcore New York city in a neighborhood. His childhood basically was getting up, walking to school, getting beat up on the way, coming home, getting beat up on the way home. The guy had a self image that was about that big, more negative, had a little bit of a lisp, had zero confidence, how he ever made it into college.

I'll never know. And I'm going, you know what I'm saying? Now none of you have ever done this because you're spiritual and you love everybody all the time and you can't identify with this, but just maybe on a bad day once.

And I mean, it was like, you know, oh hey good George, hey man, I really got to go, right? This guy is socially, mentally, spiritually, I mean, you know those extra grace required people. You know those people that you, you see them coming and there's another stairway, you use it. This is one of those where you pretend not to see them, you know, no eye contact.

And you say to the person, let's act like we're really talking right now because I do not want to talk to that guy. He was that kind of guy. But there's a guy named Jerry on our campus, a little bit older, came to help out and Jerry saw something in George. And Jerry allowed him to get involved in an investigative Bible study. George wasn't a Christian and little by little, George got interested and he began to investigate the scriptures. And for him, are you ready for a thought?

What a thought that someone would love him. What a thought that he mattered to someone, not just someone but God. What an amazing thought that he had valued, not because of what he looked like on the outside, not because of what he had done or hadn't done or what he'd accomplished or how well in school, but just because he was George, he was valued and loved and important. And this message of the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ finally gave birth to the new life in George. And I saw George at the end of the school year and I headed off and he headed off and we came back and I met George about four or five months later and without exception, I mean, he was like very different.

And he was like cogent in his thinking and some of the wackiness was sort of gone and I was trying to figure out what was going on. He went somewhere with Jerry and I cannot tell you all the details, but he went to some seminar or some conference where someone was teaching about scripture memory and he like went ballistic. And so by about Christmas time, I happened to be talking to George and he had these three by five cards about this thick in his pocket. George had the book of James memorized. George had the book of John memorized. George had the book of Colossians memorized. George was finishing up the book of Matthew and it was like, George, what are you doing?

And it was literally, you know those extreme makeover shows? I mean, it was like into, I mean, it was like, is this the same guy? And you talk with him and I could make it a long story and it would really be fun because it is so amazing. But all I can tell you is George ended up on the floor with all the fraternity guys and he was one of those kind of nerdy type guys that everyone would like to make fun of. George's life changed so much and George had such wisdom and God changed him as he continued to memorize the scripture that soon the fraternity guys, I mean the super cool dudes guys going out and doing all this stuff, they were lining up at his door because George had this sense of what God was doing. And he was counseling them about their girlfriends and counseling about issues when your parents break up. And pretty soon, and this is gospel truth, about another six or eight months I remember talking with George and I was not only not embarrassed, it was like, George, you think like you and I could get a little time? I mean, you kind of, you know, just hang time, you and me.

We'll let you up, you know, and I would go and I'd meet with George and I would just ask him questions. And it was like I have never in my life ever seen a transformation in about a nine to 18 month period of time that revolutionized a man's life. And he was so, can I say this?

Beautiful. He was so beautiful on the inside. I no longer saw the features and I no longer saw the loss of hair.

And the little accent became almost sort of attractive and drawing instead of a repellent. George Zentra's life, he became one of the key people in this entire ministry and he became someone that we wanted to be around. Because he renewed his mind at a level like no one I've ever met. I was teaching that illustration with another passage about three years ago. And I got an email.

Hi, my name is Zentra and my husband, his name is George. And you can't be that same Chip Ingram from West Liberty State College, can you? Because George was saying that he was involved in a college ministry with some Chip Ingram, but you're on the radio and well, my husband's a pastor now. And you know what?

I just, man, I just, I can't even type. Dear, I'm the same Chip Ingram and you gotta know I had no idea what happened to George after graduation. Your husband has inspired me to walk with God, memorize scripture and take seriously what I put in my mind like no other human being I've ever met. Here's what I want to tell you. Your life can change. All that baggage, all those struggles, all those thoughts, you are a product of your thought life. Wherever you are today is a product of how you have been thinking. And here's the deal, wherever you're going to be next week, next month, next year, next decade is going to be about how you start thinking right now.

Chip will be back in just a minute with his application. You've been listening to the first part of his message, Think Great Thoughts from his series, Good to Great in God's Eyes. Are you tired of living the status quo Christian life? Are you looking to get a fresh infusion of faith and spiritual passion? We'll join Chip in this 10 part series as he shares 10 specific practices every great Christian has in common and how you can put these attitudes and routines into action. If you're ready for a genuine spiritual breakthrough, then don't miss a single message. For more information about this series or our resources, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org, the Chip Ingram app, or call us at 888-333-6003. Well, Chip's joined me in studio now, and Chip, we're just getting started in your series, Good to Great in God's Eyes. Take a minute, if you would, and share why the 10 practices you're going to be highlighting in the coming programs are so applicable to all of us. Well, Dave, I developed this series a number of years ago, and the world has become more and more volatile. And I think people are trying very hard, and Christians are under real pressure to live the life. And theology is so important, and truth is so important, and listening to podcasts, and we've got all kind of resources. But this series is about how do you live out your faith like Monday through Saturday?

What do you do on Monday morning? The Bible is very clear that it's impossible to live the Christian life. Let me restate that. It's not hard. It's impossible to live the Christian life. It's a life where the Holy Spirit manifests or grows the life of Christ within us, and that plays out into every relationship, and our work, and our attitudes, our struggles with temptation. But the way that happens is we get positioned for God's grace in our life. And this is about the 10 practices that great Christians have in common.

As you study the Bible, as you study world history and church history, in my own life as I've met great Christians who've really transformed the world, or in small and big ways, what you find is these practices are ones that they have in common. What I wanted to do was be very, very practical and say, yes, we know the truth that's all by grace. How then does that grace become a part of your life, little by little, month by month, year by year? And of all the things I've ever written, this is my go-to resource when I'm going to meet one-on-one or with a small group of people, because we're really going to talk about how do you become more and more like Jesus? How do you stay missional? How do you actually live a life that brings great joy to you, great honor to God, and actually changes the world around you?

Because I think that's what being a great Christian is all about. Thanks, Chip. Well, I hope you'll make the time to be with us for this entire series, and let me also encourage you to get your hands on Chip's book, Good to Great in God's Eyes. Whether it's for you personally or for mentoring others, this tool will help all of us live a more purposeful faith.

To order your copy of Good to Great in God's Eyes, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or give us a call at 888-333-6003. Well, Chip, you ended your message today with a great story about a man named George DeZindra, who you met many years ago. Have you heard anything about him since?

Yes, Dave. Matter of fact, George's wife called me, and she said, you know, do you ever wonder what ever happened to George? And I said, absolutely. Well, you know, that transformation in his life that you saw that was so amazing, well, it's continued. And George is now a pastor and I got to see George.

And I mean, it was just like so amazing. And I guess what I want people to hear as we start this series, obviously they're listening and thinking, let's see, Good to Great in God's Eyes, Good to Great. Isn't that like the Jim Collins book?

And yes, of course, that's where I got the idea. But this whole series is not about what businesses do to go from good to great. This entire series is about what practically Christians do.

And I wish people could see, you know, like the before and after of George. I mean, God changes people. Most people don't know how change happens. Most people try hard. Most people go to programs. Most people are desperate.

Most people just have all kind of struggles. And we're going to teach people the practices, what you actually do for change to occur. And this first one is the most fundamental. Thinking great thoughts is the core. I mean, we are the product of our thinking. As we shared at the very beginning of the program, you are what you eat and people are what they eat mentally. And we're going to give people very practical ways to put great things into their mind. And little by little over time, there's no quick fixes here, but little by little over time, we're going to help people experience dynamic change as they stop putting some things in their mind, start putting truth in their mind. I just want to challenge everyone, go on the journey with us.

Great word, Chip. As we close, if you're looking for a way to get more out of the teaching, let me encourage you to download our message notes. This helpful tool is available for every program. These notes include a clear outline, all of the scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. You can get them at livingontheedge.org. Under the broadcasts tab, app listeners just tap fill-in notes. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.