Discipline and why I need it
10.30am 28 March 2004
Slide 1
Congratulations to
everyone for getting here today and having the self discipline to get up an
hour earlier.
I looked at the title I
had been given for this talk, “Discipline and why I need it” and thought. Er!
That sounds painful. The Bible agrees.
It is never fun to be
corrected. In fact, at the time it is always painful. But if we learn to obey
by being corrected, we will do right and live in peace.
(Hebrews 12:11 NLT)
Self discipline isn’t easy. Possibly
that’s one reason why slimmers’ clubs like Weight Watchers and Pound Shredders
are so popular? Slimmers make themselves accountable to the leaders for their
own benefit.
OK! I have lost weight recently. Having
the talk title “Discipline and why I need it”, has helped!
So why do we have a problem with self
discipline.
God created the whole of
the animal kingdom, and human beings. To every species in that he gave the
instinct of self survival.
But as Christians we have
to ask ourselves, (slide 2)
“Who am I living for?”
Are you living for God or
yourself, and do you really believe
that God knows what is best for you?
(slide 2a) It
takes DISCIPLINE in
our lives, to do what God wants, rather than what we want.
Maybe you believe Jesus
died so that you may have eternal life, and BELIEF is all there is to being a Christian. I am afraid you are
mistaken.
Many people claim to be
Christians but notice
The gate to {eternal} life is very
narrow.
The road that leads there is so hard
to follow that only a few people find it. (Mat 7:14)
Only a few people, who are allowing God to
change them, will have eternal life. A very good book to read is the best
selling book, (slide 3) “The
Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. It helps you to examine your relationship
with God and areas you need to change. Copies were given to some of those
confirmed recently.
(slide 4)
Let God change the way you think. Then
you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. Romans 12:2
May be you think you trust
God but really you are staying firmly in control of your life.
Are you letting God change
you? May be that sounds frightening. May be you think, change sounds painful.
If so you are right it is. That is why God also promises
(slide 5)
God’s Spirit doesn’t make cowards out
of us. the Spirit gives us power, love and self-control.
(Timothy 1:7)
Perhaps you have realised
that letting God control your life takes many prayers of the type, “God I want you to control my life. But help
me to actually allow you to”.
You may think you have
already wandered too far from the road of life. Well, you are still alive so God is giving you another
chance. Pray, keep praying and cooperate with God.
(slide 6)
Accept correction, and you will find
life; reject correction, and you will miss the road. (Prov10:17)
If God says, “No! do this
instead”. Then practice God’s way, until God’s way, becomes your way.
If God says, “That was
wrong”. Don’t just apologise but also ask God to show you how to avoid the same,
or similar mistake, and work hard at not making that mistake again.
Often we think of
discipline as something we receive after
doing something wrong. Correction by another, maybe by God, and maybe another
person. We think of it as the punishment and not guidance.
(slide 7)
But the discipline God
wants us to have in our lives isn’t punishment after we have sinned. He wants us to have the type of self
discipline that stops us before we
sin.
The problem is we are
greedy, and don’t like to be told, “No”.
(slide 8)
Eve in the garden of Eden
was tempted. God had given her the gift of hundreds of different types of food
to choose from. Just one food was banned, the fruit from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:17). They could have eaten from the tree
of life and lived forever! (Genesis 3:22)
Imagine being told you can
take and eat anything from Safeways for free; except one product. That would
make that product seem more tempting wouldn’t it. Eve should have disciplined herself and said “No”
to the temptation but she didn’t.
The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it
would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her
husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too.
(Genesis 3:6 NLT)
Adam also should have
looked at that fruit and disciplined himself and said “No, thank you!”
I’ll add before you men
get smug.
(slide 8a)
The devil wants us to do
things our way and not God’s way. Look at the consequences for Adam and Eve. They
lost the opportunity for eternal life and were thrown out of the garden, and
then feeling miserable, they had to face toil, hardship and death.
We should accept God’s
commands and discipline. If we go our way, after a short lived time of
pleasure, we will suffer the consequences.
We only have to look at our present culture to see that.
They are following the
belief of, “Everyone doing what they think is right in their own eyes.” So what
one person believes is right, another thinks is wrong, and visa versa. But also
they change their mind as to what is right or wrong as they watch their
culture. So they can’t trust anyone
to do what they believe is right because that may have changed there mind. In other words there is NO generally accepted
code of conduct.
(slide 9)
We must learn what the
Bible teaches and discipline ourselves to follow that. And as James teaches us
“Refuse
to let the world corrupt us.” (James 1:27)
Have you seen that series
of adverts for Yellow Pages? (slide 10)
Take the advert where a mother goes out
leaving her brother to look after her daughter. Before leaving she requests
that her brother take the girl to a hairdressers to have her hair cut, and he
agrees. The man for whatever reason decides to cut his nieces hair himself, and
makes a right mess of it. To cover up for the fact that he didn’t keep his
word. He lies, and blames a local
hairdresser, Why? To prevent the girls mother shouting at him. He is more afraid of the mother’s wrath
than upsetting God by LYING.
Even if this was a true
story, many would find it funny, and consider the man clever, wise and not an untrustworthy
liar. Refuse to let the world corrupt you. (slide 10a)
It is insulting to God when you are more afraid of
people than God. So that you
blatantly disobey God because of fear of man.
2 Timothy
1:7 God’s
Spirit doesn’t make cowards out of us...
(slide 10 b)
Some fear, we must
confront. We procrastinate because we dread something.
May be you know that there
is something you should do. It isn’t that you are disobedient. You just haven’t
got around to doing it yet, because of anxiety or fear. Well good intention
isn’t obedience. Your conscience may be soothed because it is on your list. You
will do it, but you aren’t doing it.
Remember what God said to
That sounds tough but
disciplining his children is as hard for God as it is for us disciplining our
own children. Have you ever told a child that they can not go out to play
because they have done something wrong? Then they drive you batty in the house
moaning? Without discipline and punishment they misbehave again and it may be
more serious. Probably everyone here, has seen the results of the actions of
the undisciplined. Vandals, some football fans, and speeding motorists.
God has to discipline us.
Overall it is less painful to listen to him, before you receive his
discipline. Sometimes because we don’t
listen to him and repent, he has to send those with authority to speak to us.
The Apostle Paul had to
discipline the people at
(slide 11)
I am no longer sorry that I sent
that letter to you, though I was sorry for a time, for I know that it was painful
to you for a little while.
Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt
you, but because the pain caused you to have remorse, and change your ways. It
was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by
us in any way. (2 Corinthians 7:8-9 NLT)
Paul said he was sorry he
had hurt his people but was glad he had ended up helping them. They accepted
his discipline.
We have to learn to be
truthful with God. Don’t play games with HIM. Apologise to God in a prayer
saying what you did was wrong eg “I am sorry I was envious and rude.” “I’m
sorry I was jealous.” or unforgiving, greedy, or just sorry for myself.
Not just a quick “sorry”
as a child does when made too. Ask God for the grace to face the truth. Think about exactly what you did wrong in that unpleasant situation. Then genuinely repent
before saying sorry. That way, you will then be able to ask God for help in
never repeating the same mistake.
Discipline also means
keeping yourself out of temptation.
(slide 12)
“If you think you can stand up to temptation,
be careful not to fall.” 1 Cor 10:12-13
If you think you can
handle temptation remember the phrase in the Lord’s prayer - Lead us -
not into temptation. (slide 12 a)
Jesus knew when giving us
the prayer that we can’t handle temptation. We need leading away
from it.
We lead ourselves into temptation. For
instance, Christian, unmarried couples go on holiday together, share a room, to
save money, and then wonder why it is hard not to commit sexual sin.
Maybe they do have sex, and lie to
themselves, to God and to friends about disobeying God.
(slide 13)
Blessed are those who wash their robes
so they can enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree
of life. Outside the city are the
sexually immoral, the murderers, and all who love to live a lie. (Revelation 22:14-15 abridged NLT)
Do you want to
enter the city of
(slide 14)
But if we examine ourselves, we will not be examined by God and
judged in this way. But when we are
judged and disciplined by the Lord, we will not be condemned with the world.
(1 Corinthians 11:31-32 NLT)
When God reveals your sin
to you then he gives you the power to deal with it. He wouldn’t reveal the sin
to you if you hadn’t got the strength to deal with it yet.
(slide 15)
He is disciplining you. Accept it and use the
power he is giving you. God’s
Spirit… gives us power, love and
self-control. (Timothy 1:7)
(slide 16)
Punishment
is not the same as discipline. Discipline comes when you admit and repent of doing
something wrong. Punishment is also for those who won’t admit to error,
or are not sorry. In their cases fear of punishment may stop them re-offending
and put others off the same sin.
Parents have authority to discipline children. At work you may have a line
manager, who has disciplinary authority over you. If you ignore the line
manager then you may be sent to see his boss.
Disciplining can, and should only be carried out by those with the
authority to do so. Sometimes people try to discipline friends. You can warn friends gently and lovingly that their actions are wrong but not discipline
them.
In a church congregation it is the
vicar or pastor who has authority.
(slide 16)
Preach the word of God. Be persistent, whether the time is
favourable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people
with good teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2 NLT)
Said Apostle
Paul to Timothy.
There
could be an occasion when
(slide 18)
Again, as
Paul says -
It is never fun to be corrected. In fact at the
time it is always painful. But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we will do
right and live in peace. (Hebrews
12:11 NLT)
(slide 19)
Neither is self discipline the same as will power. Someone may have the will
power not to steal something from work because of the fear of getting caught.
You may have the will power to give a charity a one off large donation, or to
give up chocolate or spend an extra half hour reading a spiritual book during
Lent. Self discipline takes a real belief that something is a priority and very
important.
(slide 20)
It takes intentional
commitment to mature in your faith, and become more like Christ. Having become
a Christian by accepting Jesus into your life. You must decide to grow and act
and this takes prayer, Bible study and self discipline.
My old vicar from Endon told me, he
knew when someone had made a real commitment because it was when they started
to tithe. (slide 21) Do you deliberately disobey God’s word on tithing? Jesus said we
should give 10% of all our income. Even the income that seems insignificant to you, to God. At the time he was pointing
out that the Pharisees mustn’t forget
justice, mercy and faith.
"You
are careful to tithe even the tiniest
part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the
law--justice, mercy, and faith. You
should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important
things. (Matthew 23:23 NLT)
Having seen the 2003 annual accounts,
and knowing that some people do
tithe, it is possible that many members don’t give anywhere near even half a tithe, 5% - to church. The
painful part of this discipline is getting started, and then reviewing your
giving in the light of pay increases.
Filling in those first standing order
or payroll giving forms can give your hands the shakes. But once the money
starts to leave, the joy and relief of doing God’s will, will, more than
compensates for less money to spend.
What about our time? Unfortunately, many Christians who say they want to follow
God, spend a couple of hours a night learning today’s cultural ideas from the
TV and only five minutes reading their Bibles.
They have never read the whole Bible.
If you really want to live your life God’s way, be disciplined, study the Bible.
Having read it do what it says and take an active part in God’s work both for
this congregation and in the world outside.
It would be wonderful if the church
warden’s or Sunday school or Rhema said they had new offers of help. Or Pauline
was inundated with people wanting to join the pastoral care team, or join, or
start new Real groups. The list goes on.
(slide 22)
Beware! Some of us can get on the
bathroom scales and think, “I am going on a diet to loose weight”, and then do
nothing about it. Or maybe change our mind when seeing that tempting food. May
be right now God is telling you to be
more disciplined. Act, starting today, don’t procrastinate, and don’t treat
God’s word like the bathroom scales.
I received an
email recently, by chance, about God’s undisciplined children. I will read it
to you.
+ + + +
ADAM AND EVE’S PUNISHMENT
After creating
heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And he said "DON'T!"
"Don't
what?" Adam replied.
"Don't
eat the forbidden fruit." God said.
"Forbidden
fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve...we have forbidden fruit!!!!!"
"
"Yes
way!"
"Do NOT
eat the fruit!" said God.
"Why"
"Because
I am your Father and I said so!" God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped
creation after making the elephants.
A few minutes
later, God saw His children having a “fruit break” and He was annoyed!
"Didn't I
tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.
"Uh
huh," Adam replied.
"Then why
did you?" said the Father.
"I don't
know," said Eve.
"She
started it!" Adam said
"Did
not!"
"Did
too!"
"DID
NOT!"
Having had
enough with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have
children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.
The email
continues
But there is
reassurance in this story.
If you, have
persistently and lovingly tried to give your children wisdom and discipline, and they
have rejected it, don't be too hard on yourself. If God had
trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake
for you?
+ + +
I don’t want to give my
Father a head ache, “Do you?”
So let us be determined to
be self disciplined.