Well, Thursday, we looked at the pressures of living in a world obsessed with wealth, status, money, greed, gambling, and luxury.

Today, we look at the pressures of living in a world obsessed with cussing and crude joking.

We've studied this in the past, talking about cussing.

Well, the Christians can cuss to make a point or if using profanity makes us more

culturally irrelevant, much ground has been covered here, as you can see in the APJ book

on pages 133 to 138.

And the conversation is back on the table today because of one of the most asked

about Bible texts in our podcast's entire history.

This is one of the, I think it's in the top 10, Philippians 4-8. It's in our Bible

reading tomorrow in the Navigator's Bible Reading Plan, a text that looks at the flip side

of cussing and crude joking. Here's the email. Hello, Pastor John. I thank you for this

podcast. My name is Matt, and I'm a 25-year-old trying to navigate the tension between

living wisely in a broken world and being transformed by the

renewing of my mind, as Paul calls us too.

In Philippians 4-8, Paul urges us to focus on things that are true, honorable, just,

pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

But honestly, it's hard to keep my mind fixed on these qualities when I'm constantly

surrounded by dishonor. The news is filled with corruption. Entertainment glorifies immorality.

And conversations at work or online often celebrate deceit and impurity. I don't want to be

naive or disengaged from reality, but I also don't want my thoughts to be shaped by dishonorable

influences.

How can I protect my mind without becoming isolated or indifferent to the world around me?

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