From Discipline To Desire // Guest Speaker Pastor Cody

Special day.

We get to have family Sunday this morning.

We get the kids in the service with us to experience what church is like to watch their parents worship to see what we do to take communion with us to watch you guys as you take notes today so they can mimic you in taking notes in the sermon, right?

For our family Sunday, hey, I'll make a deal with you.

You brought your kids.

I'll try to preach quickly, okay?

Sound good?

Sound good?

Alright, hey, I'm excited.

Pastor Nate finally let me preach.

I've been begging them for months, dude.

I've been like, hey, like, when can I people been asking?

Like, when can I go preach?

No, I'm just joking.

I I get to preach this morning, super excited.

We're gonna be in Philippians chapter three.

If you've got your Bibles, how many of you brought a real, like a physical Bible, a paper Bible with you?

All right, like three of us.

Three of us, how many of you you got it on your phone, you got it on your iPad, something like that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How many of you are like, I'm just gonna read it from the screen because normally the verses are up there.

Hey, as long as you've got the word, we're gonna be in Philippians 3 this morning.

Now is March is coming to an end.

There was a holiday that happened back in February.

It's this holiday that's all about romance.

Or if you have a special someone or a spouse, you're supposed to do something fun, romantic with them.

You guys know what holiday I'm talking about?

Valentine's Day.

Some of you, some of you forgot it and you got in trouble for it, right?

How many of you did something for Valentine's Day?

Went out to dinner, hung out with people, did something, a couple of us.

How many of you said, I wanted to do something, but I didn't have a Valentine?

Any of us in the room?

Anyone?

Oh, there we go.

Hey, keep your hands up here.

The single people for you guys look around, alright?

Why'd you put your hand down?

Some of you wanted to.

What are you supposed to do on Valentine's Day?

Maybe do the romantic trip where you like go to Monterey, Santa Cruz, or at the very least, you go out to a special dinner and you do something special with that special someone.

Well, Kelsey and I, we did something fun for Valentine's Day, something a little different.

Started off the day like this.

I woke up super early in the morning.

I woke up real early, like 8 30.

Well, woke up at 8 30 in the morning, and I went to the grocery store.

Because you gotta go to the grocery store to get your flowers and to get the card.

And I bought this balloon of a bear, and it says, I love you very much.

One day I'll be.

Aww.

And something super fun about going to the grocery store on Valentine's Day morning is there's like a thousand dudes in there.

You know, and you all know, like, we're all doing the same thing, and you just kind of look at each other and you're like, What's up, bro?

You just give them the head nod, and you all we buy the flowers and again, and I bring it back home and I surprise her with it.

And she's like, Oh, that's so sweet.

You're so you're the best husband in the world, right?

And then we had these plans.

She actually made the fun plans for the day.

I made reservations for lunch, and then she made these plans.

We went to San Francisco.

How many guys love San Francisco?

How do you say I will never go to San Francisco?

I try my best not to go there.

She made these plans to go to San Francisco.

Have you guys ever heard of or been in an escape room?

You guys know what an escape room is?

All right.

We we didn't do an escape room, but we did something kind of similar to that.

It's this room where you pay for like an hour and you get there, and there's like 10, 15 different rooms that you can go into.

And it's rooms like if you've ever watched a spy movie, and they've got like the lasers going on, and you they're trying to rob the place and get the jewel.

It's like that.

So there's lasers going on, you have to get from one side of the room to the other without the laser hitting you.

Or there's other rooms, if you know what the floor is, lava is if you've ever seen that game, and there's like tiles on the floor that light up, and you can step on the blue ones, but if you step on the red ones, you're out, and it was just like a bunch of games like that, and we played for an hour, we had a ton of fun, then we grabbed lunch, and then we drove home.

Now that's a sweet, fun Valentine's Day, right?

Now I'm gonna tell you the story in a different way.

I'm gonna tell you the story in a different way, and I want you to be thinking what would you tell me if I told you the story like this?

Like, let's say you asked me, Dave, David, ask me what did I do for Valentine's Day?

Go ahead and go ahead and ask me.

I don't even know why we do Valentine's Day.

Like, Valentine's Day is just this made-up thing from the corporations to get us to spend our money.

Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day was on a Saturday.

I have to wake up early in the morning on a Saturday, dude.

I woke up at 8 30 in the morning when I'm trying to sleep in on Saturday.

Then I went to the grocery store and I spent like$50 on flowers that are gonna die.

Spent$10 on a balloon that after a couple weeks it just slowly dies and fades until you finally throw it away.

And then, David, we went all the way to San Francisco.

Yeah, dude, we drove for like an hour and a half.

We just like talked the whole time.

I don't even really remember like half of what she was saying because I was kind of thinking about other stuff.

Like I was really busy that day, I had a lot to do.

Then we had some food, that was good, it was pretty good.

Because I picked the restaurant and it was decent.

Then we did this game thing, like that part was cool, but then we had to drive all the way back, and we talked some more.

And we paid like$500 in toll fees to just to drive there and to drive that.

But I mean, you know, it was Valentine's Day.

I did all the stuff we're supposed to do for Valentine's Day.

Now that's a very different version of the story, isn't it?

Gas money.

He's doubling down.

He's like, yeah, that's a bad day, dude.

Now I told you, what would you be thinking if I told you the story that way?

I'm grateful.

You might say, hey man, every is everything okay?

Maybe you should talk to someone, like see a marriage counselor, or if I'm being real with you, dude, it kind of sounds like you don't like your wife very much.

Why?

What was the difference?

I told you the same exact story.

But the first time I told it, there was a desire there.

I enjoyed it, I had fun, I wanted to do all those things.

The second way I told it was I just did it because I had to.

Did it out of discipline.

I did it because I'm married, and this is what you're supposed to do when you're married on Valentine's Day.

See, one came from an actual deep desire.

One I was just doing for discipline.

And if we're being really honest with ourselves, sometimes that's how our lives can be spiritually.

Maybe you've been walking with God for a while and like you've got the disciplines down.

You read your Bible every day, you pray every day, you even serve on a serve team.

But you just kind of found yourself in a routine of like, this is what I'm supposed to do, this is what Christians do, so I do it.

Or maybe you're in a different camp where you're like, I've been trying to pray.

I've been trying to set those disciplines in my life to spend time in the word, but nah, I just get distracted.

Or like I'm good, I get like a seven-day plan, and like I'm good for like three days, and then I just kind of fall off.

And often when we have thoughts like that, we we make recommendations.

But hey, try a new Bible reading plan.

Hey, here's here's how you write out a prayer list so you don't get distracted, so your mind doesn't wander.

Here's how you can stay disciplined in your walk with God.

Well, I told that second story about my wife and I.

You didn't you didn't tell me like, hey, maybe you should have gone to like a better restaurant.

You didn't tell me maybe you should have just gone somewhere to close closer to home and it would have been a little more fun.

No, you immediately understood that there was something wrong with the relationship.

You understood that I didn't want to spend time with her, that it didn't seem like I liked her very much.

And I think sometimes in our relationship with God, we try to treat all the symptoms by putting all these disciplines in place to try to force ourselves to have a relationship with him, and instead of getting to the root issue of how do we actually have a desire for him?

Here's the question I want to ask this morning and hopefully try to answer is this how do we move from discipline to desire?

How do we move from Christianity just being disciplines that we practice out to me actually desiring God in my life?

We're gonna be in Philippians 3.

If you are ready, would you say amen?

Me in Philippians chapter 3 this morning to learn from the apostle Paul.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

How do we move from discipline to desire?

He says this in verse 4 although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.

I'm a Hebrew born of Hebrews.

Regarding the law, I'm a Pharisee, regarding zeal, persecuting the church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

What can we learn from this passage of scripture?

Number one is this discipline without desire leads to emptiness, rigid discipline, discipline without desire leads to emptiness.

In Philippians, Paul lays out his spiritual resume.

All of the qualifications of what makes him this awesome spiritual person.

He says, if anyone has a reason to be confident in their religious effort, it's him.

He was circumcised on the eighth day.

That means he followed the law since he was a baby.

He's like, bro, I was born into this.

He's from the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.

That means I'm the best of the best.

Like my family's been following God.

I come from the best family lineage.

He says I'm a Pharisee, which means he's incredibly disciplined at following the law.

He did all the right stuff.

He was zealous.

He was blameless under the law.

In other words, we can describe Paul this way: Paul wasn't casually religious, he was deeply disciplined.

He was not this casually religious person.

Paul was a deeply disciplined individual.

He had structure, he had consistency, he had commitment.

If anyone can say I've done this right, it was him.

But then everything changes in verse 7.

Verse 7 he says this, but everything that was a gain to me, I considered a loss.

Considered to be a loss because of Christ.

I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Paul is saying that all of the discipline, all of the effort, all of the achievement wasn't the end goal.

It didn't satisfy him, it didn't fulfill him the way he thought it would.

And I can resonate that with that, and maybe you can too.

Like sometimes I think if I just do the right things consistently, if I just read my Bible every day, if I just pray every single day, if I serve in the church, if I just show up every single week, that I'm gonna feel close to God.

But maybe you've been doing that and you still feel like something's missing.

Maybe you've been serving on empty, living on empty for a little while.

Why?

Here's why discipline without desire turns relationship into a routine.

Discipline without a desire for the person just turns that relationship into a routine.

Discipline is the pathway of how we carry out our desires.

We have to have certain disciplines in our lives so we can carry out the desires of our heart, but discipline in itself is not the end goal.

When all we have is rigid discipline, our Bible reading just becomes a checklist, our prayer list just becomes a little check-in with God, like I'm supposed to do this every day.

So, dear Lord, thank you for the food and please bless it and bless the hands that prepared it.

It's just a routine thing that we walk through.

Paul did all the right things, but he counted it all as loss because his desire was in the wrong place.

So then we have to ask ourselves, where does desire come from?

Well, Paul shows us, number two, desire comes from understanding the surpassing value of Jesus.

It comes from understanding the surpassing value of Jesus.

What changed for Paul?

He didn't become less disciplined, he didn't abandon the structure that he held to, he realized something.

Let's read verse eight again.

Verse eight says, It's more than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

Because of him I've suffered the loss of all things and considered them as dung, so that I may gain Christ.

That word dung in there, it's like this, it's this really fancy Greek word.

Means feces, or the kids are in the room, is poopoo.

I don't know if I can say that from stage, but hey.

What he's trying to say, what he's trying to express is all the stuff I was trying to achieve, everything I was trying to do, all of it is useless and meaningless compared to the surpassing value of knowing Jesus.

What does surpassing value mean?

Here's what Paul meant by that.

He means knowing Jesus is better than anything you could gain, better than anything you could ever achieve in this life, better than anything you could experience.

That just knowing Jesus is better than anything I could have.

There's nothing in this world that compares, there's nothing that comes close to knowing Jesus.

Jesus is more valuable than anything else in this world.

He's better than success, he's better than pursuing a career, he's better than religious achievement, he's better than being respected by people.

He said, I came to this knowledge, I came to this understanding that Jesus is better than everything.

How did he get there?

He didn't just wake up one day and decide that.

He lays it out for us in this passage.

How did Paul get there?

He realized this that Jesus was personal to Paul.

He says, Knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, God to him wasn't this distant figure.

God to him wasn't this being that existed somewhere, and I kind of like talk to him sometimes and hope that he hears me.

He said, No, I walk with God every day.

I have a true living relationship with Jesus.

I know him.

He's my friend, he's my savior, he gave his life for me.

I have a relationship with Jesus.

Paul realized this that Jesus was personal to Paul.

Jesus gave Paul what he could never earn on his own.

Acceptance and righteousness.

See, as a Pharisee, Paul's whole life was trying to gain righteousness by living up to the law.

By living up to this high standard, he was hoping he could achieve righteousness, but Paul realized that Jesus gave him what he could never earn.

He says, But that which comes through faith in Christ Jesus, not a righteousness of my own.

All of Paul's efforts couldn't make him right with God.

And then he realized this that Jesus gave Paul purpose for his life.

Verse 10 says, Know him and the power of his resurrection.

Paul realized this that my life is not about this earth, that there is a life to come, that there is a resurrection power, that there is an eternal life that I have to live for.

It's not about my accolades here on earth, but God has given me an eternal purpose to live for him.

The surpassing value of Jesus only comes when we realize that he's the only one able to fulfill the desires of our hearts.

All the stuff we're searching for, everything we're trying to achieve, everything we're trying to get out of life, the surpassing value of Jesus only comes from when we realize He is the one who fulfills all those things.

So if discipline leaves us alone and empty, and desire grows as we learn to value Jesus, and what's the real goal in all of this Christianity stuff?

What are we trying to do here?

What does Paul teach us?

Number three, the goal is to know Jesus.

That's it.

Not to try to learn something new all the time, not to try to feel this emotional response when we come to church or pray or read our Bibles.

The goal is to know Jesus.

Now you guys know the mission of our church here is to know Jesus and to make Jesus.

Okay, we're gonna try that again.

The mission of our church here is to know Jesus and to make Jesus no.

Why?

Everything we do flows from our relationship with him.

The desire that we have to serve him, the desire we have to pray to him, it only flows when we truly know him.

Paul says this in verse 10 of why Jesus is the center of it all.

He says, My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.

Paul's ultimate goal for his life was not to plant a bunch of churches.

His ultimate goal for his life was not to try to live this righteous life.

His ultimate goal and everything was just to know Jesus.

It was simple.

He said, I just want to know Jesus.

Because when we know him, it changes everything about how you approach God.

When I truly know Jesus, it changes everything about how I approach him.

It changes the way we worship.

Worship isn't me showing up and being like, I don't really like those songs today.

Or it's like, oh, that person's singing, oh, it's gonna be good today.

Oh, that person is uh worship is realizing the only reason I have breath in my lungs is because there's a God who created me, who's given me purpose for my life, and now's my opportunity to thank him for everything he's done for me.

Now's my chance to give him praise and to worship him.

It doesn't become about what I'm feeling or what I want, it becomes, man, God, I'm just so thankful that I can't help but worship out to you, that I want to give you this offering of praise, it changes how we worship.

When our goal is to know Jesus, it changes the way you pray.

When you realize that when you pray, you're talking to the God who created this universe.

You're talking to the all-powerful Alpha and Omega that he allows us to boldly enter into his throne room and talk to him.

How dare I take that for granted?

How dare I make prayer just this transactional relationship?

Where I just bring this list of like, hey God, I just kind of need a couple things from you today.

And you know, life's been kind of tough.

So if you could just fix that, that'd be great.

Or man, I could if I could just get this job promotion, that'd be awesome.

And look, God wants us to pray to him, he wants us to bring our request to him, but it's not this transactional time with him.

Prayer just becomes talking to God.

Let him know that you're having a rough day.

Processing your emotions out with him, talking to him like he's actually a real person listening because he is.

Hey, sometimes I go on prayer walks and I just look like a crazy person because I'm just talking to nobody.

And often it's not even asking God for something, it's just thanking him, it's just telling him about how my day was.

It changes how we approach prayer.

When our goal is to know Jesus, it changes how we read the Bible.

See, a lot of the reasons we struggle with reading scripture day in and day out is because we think that the goal is to apply something every single time.

And if we don't get something, we can apply to our lives that day.

We're kind of like, yeah, I didn't really get anything from reading my Bible.

That's not the purpose of reading your Bible.

There's this acronym for Bible that sometimes people use, and honestly, it's not my favorite.

You might have heard it before.

It says basic instructions before leaving earth.

Hey, the Bible is so much more than that.

If we want to know Jesus, know God, the Bible is where we learn about his character, we learn about who he is, we learn about his person.

It's not about what can I use today, what can I apply to my life today.

The Bible is showing God's heart and showing his goodness to us.

That's what it changes when we read his scripture.

We're just saying, God, show me who you are today as I dive into your word.

We let scripture lead us into knowing him, and knowing him leads to the desire to spend time with him.

Jesus says this in John 14, 15.

He says, If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

Sometimes we misunderstand this verse.

We think what this verse means that in order to prove to God that I love him, I've got to keep this religious structured life.

If I want to prove to God that I love him, I've got to go to church every week.

If I want to prove to God that I love him, I've got to read my Bible every day.

If I want to prove to God that I love him, I've got to give to the homeless.

And we think by doing all these things, we say, God, don't you see how much I love you?

Look at all the stuff I did for you.

That's not what this verse means.

This verse means that if you truly love God, you can't help but obey him.

If you truly love him, you can't help but spend time with him.

You can't help but read his word because you're so in love with him that you want to be with him every day, that you want to spend time with him.

Because when we love someone, we have a desire to serve them.

And it's out of our love for Jesus that causes us to have the desire to obey him.

It's like that story I told you earlier about Valentine's Day.

I didn't buy that stuff for Kelsey.

I didn't buy the flowers and the balloon so that I didn't get in trouble.

I didn't buy all that stuff because that's what you're supposed to do.

I bought her because I loved her.

I bought this stuff because I was like, man, I want to make her feel special.

I want to give this to her.

I want to see a smile on her face.

That's how a relationship with God is supposed to be.

Not out of this discipline, but God, I just love you so much.

I want to be with you and I want to spend time with you.

That's why the goal is to know Jesus, because when we know Jesus, we love Jesus, and when we love Jesus, we obey Jesus and we want to walk with him and we want to be with him every single day.

So then how do we actually do this?

How do we get to the point where we truly desire Jesus this much?

How do we value Jesus?

Paul says he considers everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

So I'm gonna give you guys some homework.

Is that all right?

Oh, she said she likes homework.

Kids are in the room, you got some homework for today, okay?

I want you to take out your notes on whether you take it on your phone or if you have a piece of paper.

And this is what I want you to do.

Take some time this week to do this.

Number one, determine where you're trying to find fulfillment.

What is it that you're always trying to find fulfillment in that your heart longs for, that you're searching for?

And it can be different for you.

It doesn't have to be this list.

These are just some of the things that I wrote down.

Maybe for you it's recognition.

But you just always want to be recognized.

Maybe for you it's success, it's job advancement, career advancement, getting the nice house.

For you, it's success that you're trying to find fulfillment in.

Maybe for you it's self-worth.

But you just want to feel good about yourself.

Hey, for some of us, it's security.

You just want to feel safe.

Maybe you're trying to find fulfillment in belonging.

Like you just don't feel like you belong anywhere and you're trying to find friends.

These aren't bad things.

A lot of these things we want to find fulfillment in are God-given things.

The problem is we don't look to God to fulfill them.

We try to find them in other areas, through other people, in other places.

So write down what is it that you're trying to find fulfillment in.

Then number two, right next to that, answer.

How does God fulfill this?

You wrote out all the stuff you've been trying to find fulfillment in, trying to search.

This is what Paul did.

Paul laid out all the stuff and all of his achievements.

Then you realize only Jesus can fulfill this.

If it's recognition, hey, in Christ you're fully known and cherished thy God, he sees you.

Maybe for you it's success.

Jesus gives you eternal significance and calls you his beloved child.

Maybe for you it's self-worth, you just wrestle with that.

Your value is anchored in being made in God's image and redeemed by Jesus.

You are valuable because there's a God who created you and gave you value.

You don't have to earn your value.

Maybe for you it's security.

In Jesus, you have a foundation that can't be shaken.

You have a God that will never fail you.

You have a God that will never let you down.

Maybe for you it's belonging.

In Christ, you are adopted into God's family, and that's what we all are here this morning.

How do we have this desire for Jesus?

What changed in Paul is he listed all of his accomplishments, all of the things he was striving for, came to the realization only Jesus could fulfill that.

There's this old hymn that I grew up singing, has these beautiful lyrics.

It's called Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.

It says this turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

When we pursue God, when we pursue a relationship with him, everything else pales in comparison.