BECOMING: Discipline

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

We're in a series right now, uh as I said earlier, entitled Becoming.

How do how do I get there?

Because it's easy to kind of come to church and hear things, and you're kind of like that picture I've seen before, that little little bitty kid standing there, little fat kid, looking up at the refrigerator, and there's a pile on top of the refrigerator, and you're kind of like, how do I get that?

And so we want to just unpack in the Bible how we become who the Bible says we are.

And today I want to talk to you about something we don't talk about enough in the church, and it's a third part of this series, how do I get there?

And I want to talk to you today about discipline.

About discipline, what some people have considered the four-letter word of the faith.

Discipline.

First Corinthians chapter 9.

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

I'll start reading in verse 24.

The Bible says this.

Paul says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

So I do not run aimlessly.

I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.

Disqualified.

Now there's four statements that I want to make, but really I don't want to make, I think the Bible makes about this thing called discipline.

And I don't think I have a whole lot to say, but I think what I have to say is very uh blood earnest, is very serious today.

And that doesn't mean I'm gonna be somber and serious.

I'm serious, but if you're new to our church or you're visiting, I prescribe to what C.S.

Lewis said.

He said there's a kind of seriousness that makes you giddy.

And so I feel giddy today.

I haven't got to preach to my people in a couple of weeks.

And so I feel a little bit compressed and a little bit giddy, but I want you to hear what the Bible says.

And the first thing the Bible says about this thing called discipline is this that limitations call for discipline.

Look at verse 24, the first sentence.

He says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete or all the runners run?

If you're new to our church, I read from the ESV, the English Standard Version.

Uh he says, Don't you know that in a race that all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize?

Now, clearly, the Apostle Paul has not heard of fair, fun, positive soccer where everyone shows up and gets a trophy.

Uh and I'm not against that.

By the way, you may be the coordinator for that in your neighborhood or whatever, and I think that's great, okay?

But here's my concern is that that, hey, we're all winners, let's just play, we don't have to keep score.

You put that over here, and I think I've told you this before, I've told Lance and Wade before, because we laugh about it.

Put that over there and put this over here.

I grew up, I graduated high school in 1982.

My dad coached the league baseball, and my dad was old school, and I remember this happening.

My dad's team had not lost for two years, okay?

They were undefeated, they were like a machine.

They would go to tournaments.

We had so many trophies in our house.

My dad would give them to the players on the team, big first place trophies, because we didn't want anymore.

And so I'll never forget uh they lost a game.

And they lost the game, and they my dad said, You boys go down set in right field and grab a knee and they're all on one knee, and Mr.

Leonis, they called him, came down there, and he's talking to them, and he says, Now, boys, I'm not mad at you.

It's just you did not perform like you're capable of.

That's why you lost.

You didn't, you forgot the fundamentals.

You kind of rested on your reputation as being a great team.

That's why we lost.

So we're gonna practice on Monday at five o'clock.

We're gonna have a two-hour practice and we're gonna run and blah, blah, blah.

And then little Scott Bell, the only red-headed kid on the team, sticks out like a sore thumb.

He's over on his knee and he raised his hand and he said, In the middle of this little speech, my dad's giving him.

I might be seven years old when this happened, and I remembered as clear as a bell.

Scott Bell raised his hand and said, Mr.

Leon, are we still gonna get a snow cone?

And my dad snapped, okay?

He didn't start yelling or anything, but my dad said something that changed, really, it left an impression on me.

My dad looked at me and said, No, son, you're not getting a snow cone.

And you know why you're not getting a snow cone?

Because snow cones are for winners and you lost, okay?

You get a snow cone when you win.

Now, think about this in the age of fair, fun, positive soccer, okay?

We got to get you.

My dad would be in jail right now, okay?

And he looked at him.

He didn't yell, he didn't pull, he just said, No, son, snow cones are for winners, and you didn't win, so you're not gonna get a snow cone.

Matter of fact, all of you should drive home with the bitter taste of losing in your mouth, so you hate it and you never want to do it again.

And he had his hand up, and everybody was like, Put your hand down, dude, put your hand down.

And my dad said, No more questions, and no snow cones for you.

Snow cones are for winners.

Now just think about that.

If that happened out here at Sugarland Little League Park or at the softball complex, my dad would be on the news right now.

Child abuser gets five years in prison for telling kids no.

But here's my point.

The Bible says the same thing.

Look at it again.

1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 22.

1 Corinthians 9:22

See, limitations call for discipline because here's the bigger point in the bigger picture.

I'm gonna tell you that exertion is necessary for spiritual formation.

He says, Don't you know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize?

If only one receives the prize, then there's this little word that shows up twice in this in this little section of scripture, and it's that word so.

See, he says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run?

They all compete, but only one receives the prize.

The next word, so.

So, because this is true.

See, limitations, because not everyone's a winner, not everyone gets a snow cone, not everyone gets a trophy.

Then all of a sudden, because there's limitations, discipline becomes necessary.

That's why Paul says this little word, so, so, see, here's my fear.

This thing of, hey, if you show up, and it doesn't matter if you just sit on the bench and eat slow pokes, or if you score three goals a game, you're all winners.

It's kind of removed the incentive for exertion from American Christianity.

And I want to say to you, beloved, the reason some of you are stuck where you are in your spiritual life is because you subscribe to the fair, fun, positive soccer mantra of Christianity that just says, Well, I've been going to church for 20 years.

Then let me ask you a question out of the heart of a man that loves you and cares about you.

Why are you still the same person you've always been?

It was a high and holy moment when my dad said, and I was just standing there, and he said, No, no, you're not getting a snow cone.

You lost.

And all of a sudden, it was like, hey, you know, more than wanting a snow cone, I don't want to lose anymore.

I want to be somehow different.

I don't want to experience this over again.

So the first thing the Bible tells us is that because not everyone's gonna win, you don't just can you imagine Michael Phelps getting there and they do a little beep and him kind of going, All right, I'm ready for the medals.

No, in a race, everybody runs, but only one person, see the Bible narrows, only this one type of person receives the prize.

The first thing the Bible tells us this morning is that limitations call for discipline.

That's what makes it necessary.

Because if you don't believe that, if you don't believe that, hey, in a race everybody runs, probably one gets the prize, then why exert yourself?

Why, why put forth any kind of effort?

Why beat your body and make it your slave?

Why snipe, by the way, I can watch the Olympics, I can watch the whole thing from 7 o'clock to 11 o'clock in about 30 minutes.

We have a DVR and I'm just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

Oh, they're fixing a race.

Pause, play.

Not my wife.

We got to hear every backstory of every person.

Did you know Missy Franklin's a senior in high school?

You've only told me that seven times, woman set me on this couch.

I know.

And she's given up all this endorsement money, which by the way, I'd quit school and take the money, all right?

Thank you very much.

I won four gold medals in the Olympics.

Scoreboard losers, all right?

Put me on the Wheaties box, but instead she wants to go to high school.

I wasn't a Christian in high school.

I wouldn't have missed a bit of it, okay?

But I got to hear that story.

And then there's a story about the runner, and so every time I'm trying to fast forward through the Olympics and see how fast my Olympic sport is how long can I cut through all the fluff and get to the actual events?

Not when my wife's in the room.

We got to hear every backstory.

Oh, did you know that the world, the girl that won the golden all-around Olympics, she didn't live with her real mother?

Yes.

Yes, I know.

Gabby, whatever her name is, moved to Iowa so she could train with this guy.

And she has two mothers.

I know for the love of Pete, don't make me watch this again.

But because I'm married, I do.

And then my wife pauses it and says, Well, if you're not going to enjoy it, hey, you can make me watch this, but you can't make me enjoy it, okay?

Call me when they say swimmers to your blocks or runners on your mark, get said.

I don't care about all the whatever kind of stuff in the background.

But she does.

And so I watched the Olympics last night.

Why did I tell you that?

Because last night, after Michael Phelps won his final goal, I don't know if you've seen or not, they had the four by four to relay, and they're all standing there out of the pool.

My wife, my preacher wife, and my 14-year-old daughter sitting there with me, and my wife said, pauses it and said, now that's a set of six-pack abs because those boys have disciplined themselves.

And then she said, Michael Phelps' torso is so long, he's got a 12-pack.

And I just paused the TV and I said, I think the fires of hell are in danger of getting you, woman.

So at the end of the service, all you lusty women that enjoyed that, you need to be down here down front.

And I just, because, see, here's why we don't like that, ladies, because when you pause it, you look at that, and then you look at your husband's kind of like, hey, big boy, why don't you mix in a salad and a lap around the neighborhood or something?

You got a keg going over there.

And so I felt I need to defend my manhood, and so I just said to my daughter, I said, Yeah, but Michael Phelps can't preach.

Take that.

Michael Phelps, I bet he can't change a flat tire, man.

I bet he doesn't know where Home Depot is.

He ain't got no man skills.

The man wears tight pants for a living.

Give me a break.

He's got two options in life.

He can be a swimmer or he can be in a Christian band.

That's about it.

He can't do anything else.

Who cares if he's got 3% body fat?

Limitations call for discipline.

Secondly, the Bible tells us live with the goal in mind.

Look at verse 24 again.

He says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize?

Therefore, if only one receives the prize, then so.

Paul says, so.

Basically, my life is shaped by my understanding that only one receives the prize.

It's not just a free-for-all, a universalist.

Everybody's going to kind of get in.

Therefore, so.

Run that you may obtain it.

And that's where we get our second point where he says, live with the goal in mind.

So run that you may obtain it.

Live your life in such a way that you're you, it's obvious to everybody.

You're shaped by somebody.

Now, for example, I'm a preacher, pastor, and I love pastoring my people.

If you're visiting today, I love to preach to them.

Like some guy called me this past week and want me to come to Arizona or somewhere and do a men's retreat and blah, blah, blah, and we'll take you to play golf and da-da-da-da-da.

And I said, No.

I said, I'm honored you thought about me, and I would love that.

I was born there.

But but here's the reality.

I just don't want to be gone from my people for another Sunday.

I love preaching to my people.

Lance got to preach the past two Sundays, and I think that's great.

But I just, there's got to be somebody else out there.

But I love preaching to you, but more than that, I love pastoring you because in those pastoral moments, people realize, hey, I can be myself and be honest, and this guy's going to be honest with me.

I was having that kind of a conversation this past week with a guy who's kind of checking our church out.

And he says, Well, you know, I said, what makes you want to get interested in church?

And he said, Well, I've kind of made a hash of my marriage.

And I said, Tell me about that.

And he kind of, I said, I'm not going to judge you.

I don't have a scorecard or anything.

Tell me about what do you mean?

He said, Well, I've kind of been unfaithful from the beginning.

How long have you been married?

Nine years.

I just can't seem to get this area of my life under control.

Pause.

And then he looked at me and said, Have you ever committed adultery?

And in a weird way, I was kind of like, I've never been asked that question.

I was like, you probably should ask your preachers more often, hey, have you ever committed adultery?

And he said, Have you ever committed adultery?

And I was kind of like, I was like, you know, now that I think of it, no, I haven't.

And I said, but but here's the thing.

I said, it's not because I mean I have a very satisfying wife, and then this popped out of my mouth, and also I want to go to heaven.

And he said, What's that got to do with it?

And I said, Well, everything, because if you believe the Bible, and I don't know if you do or not, but if you believe the Bible, you cannot live a life of adultery and go to heaven when you die.

Now, listen very carefully, okay?

I'm not saying you can't cannot commit adultery.

Adultery is a sin.

Being an adulterer is a lifestyle.

You hear the difference in the two.

You say, What do you mean?

If you're in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, just turn a couple pages back to the left to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

I'll start reading in verse 9.

And see, here's my concern that adultery is such a part of the fabric of American culture, the church no longer says what the Bible says about it.

And so I just want to say what the Bible says about it to all of us this morning.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9.

1 Corinthians 6:9

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Just mark that.

Don't be deceived.

Don't be talked off the clear black and white boundaries of what the Bible says.

Do not be deceived.

Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

I.e., go to heaven when they die.

You stop right there and you think, man, that's that's pretty.

And so I had to say to the guy, I said, here's what I mean when I say because I want to go to heaven.

Because if I just live a life of adultery, I something, it's not that, hey, I was a Christian, and then God said, hey, you didn't you didn't behave well enough.

No, no, no.

That's contrary with the life of a Christian.

But look at the next verse, verse 11.

And such were some of you.

The church at Corinth was full of these people who had done all these things.

But what happened?

But they were washed.

You were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

And I said to the guy, I said, Adultery is a sin.

And it's a matter of fact, one of the holiest moments I've had in the past year.

I sat in the in my truck with a man, and we were just talking about our marriages and this, that, and the other.

And there had been a period in his life where he committed adultery.

And we were just talking all of a sudden, and he says, I don't know what I was thinking when I look at how great my wife is, and then he just began to sob uncontrollably.

I mean like to the ugly cry.

Just, I mean, just shoulders, just full body.

And for like a minute, and I was just kind of like I didn't know whether to touch him or talk to him.

I didn't know what to say.

It was so beautiful.

Here's a man that had been unfaithful.

And by the way, it's not an affair, it's adultery.

Let's call it what it is.

It's not, well, I had an indiscretion or I had an emotional uh discrepancy.

No, no, no, no.

No, no, no.

You committed, when you have sex with somebody that's not your husband or your wife, that is adultery.

And the Bible does not smile on that.

But here's the great thing: God has the power to forgive anybody who's committed adultery.

But I said to my friend, I said, here's the deal.

I said, You're more than welcome to come to my church, but I don't apologize for what the Bible says.

Matter of fact, what the Bible says ought to kind of sober you up in the way you you you conduct yourself morally.

He said, Whoa, wow, that sounds harsh.

Let me just say this, beloved.

See, that's how far we are from a disciplined life.

See, Paul says, so run that you may obtain it.

Live in such a way that you're one of those people that gets the prize.

Live with a goal in mind.

Live with a goal in mind.

The goal is not, I want to satisfy my most immediate appetite, I want to satisfy my most pressing need.

I want it's my right, it's my privilege.

Can we just stop right here?

Can you feel what's going on in this room right now?

Hello?

It's got real somber in here, didn't it?

I'm not gonna apologize for what the Bible says, but at the same time, I'm not gonna roll it up and beat you over the head with it, okay?

That's not my heart.

If you're living in adultery right now, repent.

Repent.

Live with the goal in mind.

The goal is, oh man, you say, what do you mean?

Maybe our third point will help us.

Third point is this from the text the prize informs the process.

The prize informs the process.

You say, What do you mean?

Look at the next verse, verse 25.

After he says, So run that you may obtain it.

He says, Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

By the way, if you're wondering what Michael Phelps eats for breakfast, ask my wife.

Because we watch every little thing.

He has pancakes and oatmeal and blah, blah, blah.

I don't trust any man that doesn't eat bacon, okay?

Something wrong with that.

Anyway, he says, every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

And then there's that word again, verse 26.

So.

So, so.

But let's just stop right there.

He says, hey, the prize informs the process.

What do you mean?

He says, hey, hey, every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

It's not okay that you excel at most things, but you got this one thing that you have no control over.

The Bible says, and God says, hey, you need to exercise discipline over that.

As a matter of fact, let's just think just for a moment.

If you would ask yourself, what is the one area of my life that is most out of control?

What would it be?

Because that's where God, that's where the Holy Spirit this morning is talking, saying, hello, okay, you're doing good over here, you're doing good over here, you're doing good over here.

You haven't earned a hall pass for over here.

An athlete that expects to win the prize, he he he exercises self-control in all things.

You say, Well, what do you mean when you say the prize informs the process?

Here's what it comes down to it's perishable versus imperishable.

I was shocked by this because I guess my wife has a point for watching everything.

By the way, even the commercials.

It's not the Super Bowl, okay?

The only good commercials are on during the Super Bowl.

Oh no.

No, we gotta watch those too.

I'm not bitter or anything.

Anyway, perishable versus imperishable.

I found this out while we were having like a historic tour of every minutiae detail about the Olympics.

The gold medal only has five dollars worth of gold on it.

How'd he make it and go buy myself a gold ring or something?

Perishable.

Perishable.

Now ask yourself this question this morning.

How much of what you value and you pursue and you want right now is gonna perish?

He says the goal, excuse me, the prize informs the process.

Lance talked to you last week about the process of progress.

One thing that allows you to move further down the road in Christian maturity and in the Christian life is you understand the prize.

It's not just five dollars worth of gold.

You say, What do you mean?

Keep that in mind.

Turn to the right, if you would, to the book of Revelation.

Revelation chapter 21.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

You still with me?

Hello?

If you get bored, you got your kid, but just pinch your baby, it's an automatic get-out-of-jail free card.

So Lisa Deal does every Sunday, got that grandkid with her.

She's like, ooh, time to go.

Lisa's my friend.

Until just now.

Anyway, Revelation chapter 21, I'll start reading verse 9.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

Let me just tell you this.

One of the things you see all through the Apostle Paul's life, like he says in Romans 8, verse 18, he says, For I consider that this present suffering is not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Romans 8:18

He's always comparing now against the glory of heaven.

And one of the spiritual disciplines that we need to practice is comparison.

It's comparison.

He says, Hey, we're suffering right now, but it pales in comparison to how great heaven's gonna be.

That's the prize that informs the process.

And so keep in mind that the Olympic athletes, they go into strict training to get a gold medal that has five dollars worth of gold in it.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's a very honorable thing.

They'll make millions of dollars of endorsements.

I'm telling you unequivocally, it pales in comparison to the prize that awaits you and me.

The Bible describes it like this: Revelation chapter 21, verse 9.

Revelation 21:9

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and he spoke to me saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb.

And he carried me away.

Now, John is John the Revelator of Revelation, he's writing down what God shows him.

And this is how he describes it.

He says, And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed Me, the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

It had a great high wall and twelve gates, and at the gates were twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the Son of Israel were inscribed, and on the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates, and the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and its walls, and the city lies four square, its length the same as its width.

And he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia, its length and width and height are equal.

He also measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement.

The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass.

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.

The first was jasper, the second, sapphire, the third, agate, the fourth, emerald, the fifth, onyx, the sixth, carnelian, the seventh, chrysalite, the eighth, barrel, the ninth, topaz, the tenth, chrysophrase, the eleventh, Jacinth, the twelfth, amethyst, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

And the city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

By its light will walk the nations, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no more night there.

And they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

Here's the reality.

Look at me, beloved.

We're just about done.

Most of you in this room, if you're like most average American churchgoers, at about 30 seconds into that long passage of scripture, you just checked out and said, Oh, I can't even picture that.

Oh my gosh.

It will be hard for you to use as a tool of sanctification what that which you cannot fathom.

And so you need to learn to discipline yourself to kind of go, you know what?

It's like I said to my friend, I said, you know, I got a very satisfying wife, but also I want to go to heaven.

That's the prize set before me.

That's the thing.

That's why, not because I'm better than you, I'm not, and I'm not any better than that guy who's committed adultery.

He said, He's cheated on his wife since they dated.

And I'm kind of scratching my head, going, why get married?

He said, I thought that would fix me.

And I told him, the only thing that's gonna fix you is you have something that's so much more glorious than your immediate appetite being satisfied, and you put it before you because that is what's gonna inform the process.

That's what Paul is saying to you and I.

Be careful that you don't waste your life for something that's worth about five dollars worth of gold.

The Bible says there's a city coming down.

He says, Come and I'll show you the bride.

It's coming down, this new heaven, this new Jerusalem.

And that's the prize that Paul talks about.

Don't trade that for$5 worth of gold.

See, here's the point, men and women.

See, our prize is eternal in nature.

It's not perishable, it's imperishable.

It's such value, it should affect the way we live in the present.

Here's my fear.

We've lost the glory of heaven, and the price we pay is manifest in our passionate pursuits of that which is perishable.

We have no frame of reference.

It's kind of like, oh, are you gonna read all that?

Are you kidding me?

I mean, don't you think that's allegorical?

Don't you think that?

I think that's as close as John could get with human speech to describing the glory of heaven.

And it makes a gold medal and the national anthem, and bite it, and getting your picture taken with all your other friends.

Great as that is, it pales in comparison.

And that's what informs the process.

Fourthly and finally, discipline prevents disqualification.

I'm back in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 as we close this morning.

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Verse 26.

So, there's that word again.

Paul is saying, Hey, my life is shaped by my understanding because this is true, I'm gonna do this.

So, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Hear that again.

So I do not run aimlessly, I don't run as a man without a goal.

I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

This is the Apostle Paul who wrote 13 books of the New Testament, and he says, Listen, I beat my body and make it my slave.

I discipline my body.

It says in the ESV.

By the way, that word discipline is the Greek word, hoopo peazzo.

Hoopo peazzo, and you say, Well, okay, thanks.

We don't speak Greek.

Well, I'll tell you that until you could get to the severity of what he's talking about.

It means to beat black and blue.

Paul says, I buffet my body.

If you got the King James this morning, I think it says, I buffet my body.

He's saying, I beat my body.

I I put myself under such discipline that he wasn't a cutter, he wasn't a self-hater, he's not one of these masochist people that he no.

He says, though, when hey, because I don't want to disqualify myself, I got to discipline myself.

Because here's why.

Beloved, don't miss this.

My body and your body, our natural tendency is away from discipline.

It just is.

It just is.

Our natural tendency, and Paul's saying, my natural tendency is away from self-discipline.

It is a way towards self-satisfaction and self-gratification.

I try to explain to my kids the principle of delayed gratification.

Have you tried to explain delayed gratification to a nine-year-old?

No, we can't go to Chick-fil-A on Wednesday because the world's gonna be there.

They got that banner taken up, okay?

The line's around the building three times.

We'll go tomorrow.

I want Chick-fil-A now.

And I look at my wife and she's like, You expect her to get that?

And by the way, you're the guy that had two desserts last night, mister.

I'm living, I'm eating clean.

Like, listen, zip it, woman.

I'm I'm teaching here.

And then I read here, and Paul says the same thing about himself.

He says, So I do not run aimlessly.

I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline.

I beat my body black and blue if necessary and keep it under control.

Why?

Lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Just a couple things as I close.

I've already said one of them.

The body requires discipline in order to function.

If you just live at the mercy of whatever you think, feel, and want, you'll disqualify yourself for the prize of heaven.

Let me say that again.

If you and I put myself in there, if we just live at the mercy of what I think, feel, and want, I will disqualify myself from the prize of heaven.

That's why discipline is so essential in you and I becoming, of you and not getting there, of just denying yourself, of just saying no, I don't need a snow cone today, okay?

Because I want to be obedient.

I want to win.

I want to stop giving in to the same sin and then rewarding myself as if to say, well, you know, the ground's level at the foot of the cross.

Well, Paul says, hey, yeah, I'm not sure what you mean by that, but here's what I mean.

In a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize.

So, therefore, because this is true, run in such a way that you may win.

Every athlete who competes in the games goes into strict training.

They do it to get a prize that will not last.

But you and I get it.

We discipline ourselves to get a prize that will last forever.

Matter of fact, it's imperishable, it's incapable of ever losing its value.

And then Paul says again, so I don't run like a man running aimlessly.

I don't box like a man just shadow punch, just shadow bite, just beating the air.

No, I I focus on my body.

Because if I just leave myself to myself, I'll destroy myself.

That's one of the reasons I love Johnny Cash.

He was in his 70s.

He was being interviewed, and somebody said to him, They said, Well, Johnny, you know, everybody knows you struggle with amphetamine addiction and blah, blah, blah, and you've overcome that.

And he reached out and said, No, no, no.

That monster's still in me.

And if I'm not careful, he'll get me.

And the reporter was like, Well, you know, that was a long time ago.

Yeah, it was a long time ago, and I've been sober for years, but I got I gotta keep an eye on that or he'll get me.

That's what Paul's saying.

Paul's saying, I beat my body, I make it my slave.

So that won't be, after preaching to others, I myself, the preacher, won't be disqualified from the prize of heaven.

Disqualifies the Greek word adokimos.

And it simply means not standing the test.

Not standing the test, not approved.

It's like the word picture behind us when they inspect coins and they reject them because they don't stand the test.

They don't have the right mix of alloy and they don't look like they're supposed to look to be considered currency.

And the Bible says it's not, God's not going around looking for people he can disqualify.

That's not what God's doing.

God's looking for people he can include.

And when he includes you, when he reveals himself to you, and you come to that point where you say, I want to give my life to Christ, part of you becoming who the Bible says you are, beloved, is that you is discipline.

It's discipline.

It's you, which here's the last thing I want to say.

Is is I said two things.

Number one, the body requires discipline.

Secondly, discipline is your responsibility.

Self-discipline.

I can't discipline you.

You can come and hear mediocre sermons like I preach all the time.

You can come hear great sermons like Lance and Wade preach all the time.

You can go to your Bible community or whatever.

You can do all that unless you take responsibility and go, you know what?

This is my responsibility.

I've got to exercise some discipline in my life.

It'll never happen for you.

You will appreciate things that you never experience.

Let me say that again and I'm done.

You'll appreciate things from a distance that you never experience.

It's like living next door to a bakery and never eating the bread.

That's not what God's about.

The Bible says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

And discipline, beloved, is the thing that allows you and I to taste what God says is good.

Okay, stand to your feet.

I'd like to speak a blessing over my people.

So if you just hold your hands out, your God loves you so much.

He has gone before you to prepare a room for you in a place called heaven.

Jesus said, if it were not so, would I have told you?

What he says is I'm not a liar.

I'm a truth telling God.

Depart now and be truth living people.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.