Exercise Thyself Unto Godliness - Leland Zehr

Good morning. I too want to welcome you, greet you in Jesus name,

welcome the visitors and some of our own people that have been gone for

a while. It's good to see you back as well. Appreciated those of

you that have shared this morning so far devotional Sunday School and this last devotional,

and my desire this morning is hopefully to not quench your smoking flax,

if it's smoking, but rather through God's word, that it could be kindled

and strengthened and encouraged in some way. In the recent month or two,

there's been a few of our young people that have committed their life to Christ.

And that's a happy thing. That's a good thing, a good choice,

it's a blessing, and it's an encouragement to us as well. And

I just want to acknowledge and encourage you in that. We sometimes call that

becoming a Christian. He became a Christian or she became a Christian. What

does it mean to become a Christian? Well, the Bible doesn't use the

word Christian very much, maybe a couple times. A more common word that

I think would fit a little bit more of what we're trying to say is

to become a disciple. The Bible uses the word disciple quite a bit.

Of disciple is the definition of the word disciple is a follower, a pupil,

a student, a learner, and discipleship does start with a choice at

some time. It might be at night when you're feeling guilty, might be

at revival meetings, it might be just when you're by yourself and God speaks

to you. So that's important. But disciple, a disciple or discipleship is

when a person chooses to follow, and then they learn and they become like

something or someone, like a rabbi. That was what it was used in

the Bible. Time a disciple would follow a rabbi was an older man,

an older godly man in the church, and a young disciple would follow him

and listen to him and watch him and learn his ways and words and responses,

and and in the process of time as a disciple would follow him,

and he would not just follow in physically, but in his actions he would

grow and the character in the way of that rabbi. And so it is

with you and I and the process of time. As we choose to follow

Christ, Jesus Christ, we begin the lifelong walk the lifelong journey of trying

to be like Jesus Christ would have us to be. And so to become

a Christian is not is more than repentance and a choice in the middle of

the night. And then we put on a covering or we join the church.

But becoming a Christian or a disciple was a process. It's a life

long journey of learning and following and growing. Second Peter three eighteen says,

but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus

Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen, think

about growth a little bit. That's not my subject directly, but indirectly it

is. At our house, we have a little spot in the wall that's

not you can't see unless you go to the back part of the house.

And I've liked you over the years with my children, maybe on their birthday

or a certain time, back them up to the wall and get a stick

and make a mark on the wall and measure them. And then we leave

that mark, and the next birthday, well, if we remember, we'll

do it again. And so we have these these little marks with their initials,

the date and how and the lion and so then you can measure exactly

how tall they grew from one year to the next. In certain spurts,

it's quite a bit, and other times it's not very much. And so

my question and my thought for us is what what about our spiritual growth?

What about some of us that have chosen to be a disciple many years ago?

If somehow we could put a tape measure on our spiritual stature, has

it has it increased, has it shrunk because it stayed the same, what

would we find The topic that I want to talk about this morning that it's

been on my mind for quite some time. I talked some and taught about

it at Bible School a little bit. And it's a topic that I feel

is important, but it's so easily misunderstood. It is misused, and it

is sometimes viewed as unnecessary and maybe even down upon at times. And yet

I believe it's essential in both our physical world and in the spiritual world for

growth and discipleship. And that is the subject of spiritual disciplines. I don't

know if you've heard much about spiritual disciplines or even what that is or what

that means to you. When I say the words spiritual disciplines like. They

sound pretty heavy, they sound maybe unattractive. But the title for the message

that I have, I chose from First Timothy four. And we'll get there

in a little bit. The book of one Timothy four Exercise thyself unto Godliness.

That's the title of the message. We'll read that after a bit.

But I want to read something else. And I don't think I read this

here. I know I have this. I just want to read this.

Maybe it fits into the message this morning somewhat, but maybe for well,

for all of us. It's called the Carpenter's House. An elderly carpenter was

ready to retire. He told his employer contractor of his plans to leave the

house building business and live a more leisure life with his wife, enjoying his

extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire.

They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go

and ask if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.

The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his

heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior

materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career. When the carpenter

finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed

the front door key to the carpenter and said, this is your house,

gift to you. What a shock, What a shame. If he had

only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all

so differently. Now he had to live in the house that he had built

none too well. So it is with us we build our lives in a

distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the

best. At important points, we do not give the job of our best

effort. Then with a shock, with a shock, we look at the

situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we

have built. If we had realized that we would have If we had realized

that, we would have done it differently. Think of yourself as a carpenter.

Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a

board, erect a wall, build it wisely. It is the only life

you ever build. Even if you live it for only one day. The

day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall

says life is a do it yourself project. Your life tomorrow will be the

result of your attitudes and choices you make today. We're living a life day

by day. We're making choices, We're building a life, and the question

is what are you building? What kind of a house do you want to

live in? Exercise thyself into godliness. So what is discipline? Just a

little bit here before we read a passage or two. Discipline is a word

that is used in different ways in the English language, but maybe just a

few here. Discipline is to train and act in a certain way. If

we discipline someone or something or ourselves, we are training it. It's an

activity, an exercise, a regimen that develops or improves a skill or character.

So it is exercise, it is doing it. And then we can

think of discipline also as corrective discipline, maybe punishment. We can do that.

We do that with our children at times, and God does that sometimes

with us to correct us. It's not something we enjoy, but it's part

of growing at times. And this morning, I guess the focus of the

type of discipline that I'm thinking about this morning is probably the second one.

The active training activity exercise that develops or improves skills or character. Now it

seems like there is, at least to me and in society at large,

maybe both inside and outside the church, a negative connotation or maybe almost a

reaction against the thought of spiritual discipline in some people's minds. The more you

can deconstruct and take away and get rid of godly disciplines, godly values,

structure culture, the more free and spiritual you become, you get rid of

that encumberment. And I suppose in some ways that that can be true.

Some of that can get in the way, but I'd just say beware of

that spirit which is all over our society and in our churches. That we'll

get into that more. Maybe some of this comes comes from bad experience,

personal experiences that you have had. Maybe an authoritarian father, he was a

disciplinary and you don't like that word. You see the negative severity of an

unloving authority, harsh, heavy on law and order, weak on love and

relationships. Or maybe it's bad church experience where now everything was about exterior,

everything was about practical applications and making everything just right. Maybe you're excommunicated.

There's lots of experiences that we can face, and if this has been your

experience. I'd say that's not right. I'm sorry, but I still want

us to remember that it still does not invalidate the importance of discipleship and discipline

in our lives. I would just say this, very little good in life

can be accomplished without discipline, and that is across the board, from work

to skills to spiritual life. And we as I don't say this in a

derogatory way. I say this in a I think it's a strong point,

or a side of it is a strong point. We as conservative people,

I would say, are probably on the average of fairly disciplined people compared to

a lot of society. We have schedules, we have a certain amount of

order. We promoted good work ethic, holding down a job, cooking,

sowing, farming. We have clean houses, clean vehicles. You know,

things are fairly disciplined. And I think that's good. But what about spiritually

and that is our focus this morning. Is not about being good citizens of

straight fence rows and mode lawns and clean houses primarily, but spiritual discipline,

the things that maybe don't meet the eye on the outside, at least directly.

You know, maybe I could ask the question I won't waste the time.

But we could discuss if if it's accurate that living the Christian life takes

practice, Does it take discipline, does it take effort and skill? Well,

I'll just say the short version is I believe it does. I think

some people would would would differ with with that, but I believe the Bible

more importantly would say that. I don't know if you have ever you think

about it. Have you ever met a strong man or a woman of faith

that was undisciplined in their life? Lazy? Someone said it this way ours

ours is an undisciplined age. The old disciples excuse me, the old disciplines

are breaking down. Above all, the divine grace is derided as legalism or

is entirely unknown to a generation that is largely illiterate in the scriptures. We

need their the strength of Christian character that can come only from discipline. You

know, Christian men who are selfless and disciplined are the exception in life,

not the rule. It's becoming a rarer thing. Now. I want to

clarify another thing here, and you listen to this. I'll say it twice.

Discipline does not automatically equal godliness, but a godly person will live a

spiritually disciplined life. You get that. I think that trips up a lot

of people. Discipline does not automatically equal a godly life. You see that

very disciplined, selfish people at times. But a godly person will live a

spiritually disciplined life. There's the idea in the belief that effort and spiritual discipline

is legalism and and and and I'll admit it's very It can be very close

and near even in our own hearts, let alone trying to desern in the

lives of other people. But legalism, I believe in the in the spiritual

sense, is a doctrine that salvation can be gained through the merits of my

own works. If I work and perform hard enough, then I can attain

salvation. Legalism is kind of a self focused mentality, whereas spiritual disciplines is

for the purpose of godly growth. It is not a means of earning salvation,

but it is God using God's grace and the plan that he provided and

the and the Bible that he has given us to follow that when we follow

those directives and those disciplines, it leads to growth in the character and and

likeness of Jesus Christ. Now I want to keep that in focus, because

we can go way out on a limb about how good it is to be

disciplined, and it is, and it's attractive. I like, I admire

discipline people that even aren't spiritual, but that are on a schedule and they

run and they're fit, and they're disciplined in all areas of life. But

the reality of that is that can be very carnal, that can be very

prideful and very ungodly and very selfish. So discipline does not equal automatically godliness.

But we need to not throw that away. We need to remember that

godliness still requires disciplined living Ephesians two tens is for we are His workmanship created

in Christ Jesus, unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should

walk in them. And so this is a this is a lifelong journey of

discipleship, spiritual discipline. We could think of it this way is our ways

in which we can spiritually place ourselves in the path of God's grace and to

seek him. And you could think of zychaos. Zychaos ran ahead of Jesus

and he climbed up a tree. You know, did that save Zchaos running

and climbing a tree? No, it didn't, but it put him in

the path of Jesus. And it was through his part in that that he

met Jesus, and Jesus took him home, and Zychias found repentance and became

a disciple of Jesus. Okay, let's read on Timothy four. Now,

the first part of this chapter. I'm focused a little bit more on from

about verse six on, but we'll just read the whole chapter here. The

text is taken from verse seven. Now, the Spirit expressly, The Spirit

speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving

heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having

their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to

abstain from meats which God hath created, to be received with thanksgiving of them

that believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and

nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is

sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in

remembrance of these things. Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ,

nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast

attained. But refuse profane an old wives fables, and exercise thyself rather unto

godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things.

Having promise, having promise of the life which now is, and of

that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all

expectation. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in

the Living God, who is the savior of all men, specially of those

that believe these things, command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth,

but be thy example of the believers in word, in conversation, and

charity, and spirit, in faith, in purity, till I come give

attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that

is in them, which was given thee by the prophecy, which with the

laying on of the hands of the presbytery, meditate upon these things. Give

thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all, take heed

into thyself, and, unto the doctrine, continue in them, For in

doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. I like

to look at the word a little bit exercise. In verse seven, Paul,

the older brother is instructing Timothy here, and I'm not going to necessarily

do an expository on this chapter, but I will want to point out a

few things here and maybe read another passage or so. But we're talking about

discipline this morning, spiritual discipline, and Paul says in verse seven, exercise

thyself rather unto godliness. Word exercise and a lot of the other translations is

to train. But if you dig into that word a little bit more,

the Greek word exercise, I don't know that I'm saying it right, but

it's gumos, which means naked, and it is a word from also which

the word we get from our English word gymnasium. So this word exercise gumos,

and in the Greek culture and traditions of Greek Greek athletes, that the

participants competed with very minimal clothing. They were they were basically stripped, so

they would not be encumbered from any anything in their in their competitions. So

this, this word exercise, in their original meaning, would have kind of

had the thought to exercise and to train without clothes. So Paul is giving

this word picture here to Timothy and to us, a visual the of the

athletes of that day, the intense focus and training stripped of all encumberments,

exercising to one's fullest potential and effort, focus, straining, glistening with sweat.

And that is the picture that that the meaning of that word. But

like I said before, he says in verse eight, he makes it clear

that his main point to us is not bodily exercise, not physical exercise,

but it is rather for godliness. For the purpose of godliness, bodily exercised

prophets little and so spiritual disciplines we need to hang on to. That point

is for the purpose of godliness to grow more and more. In one Corinthians

nine five twenty seven, few verses here says, and every man that striveth

for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain

a corruptible crown, But we an incorruptible I therefore, so run not as

uncertain, so fight. I not as one that beateth the air, but

I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Less that by any

means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Spiritual disciplines involve both eliminating things out of our life, things that we

don't do, as well as disciplines that we bring into our life that we

and that we strive to do to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And

you can think about that in a diet. Anybody that goes on a diet

has both both sides of that. They first of all, they cut out

all these certain foods, whatever it is in this particular diet, maybe sugar,

starches, carbs, and then they cut that out because that's harmful to

them. And then they focus on the things the intake, the things that

they're going to and both are important. You can't you can't be successful with

one without the other. And the principle is true in the Christian life and

in spiritual disciplines. He says, temperate self control and keeping our bodies under

subjection. And I think we just need to remember that and settle that in

our minds that the body that we live in and get up with every morning

and live with throughout the day, is not our our best spiritual guide and

counselor it is it is it is usually pulling us our appetites left unsanctified away

and in the wrong direction. So he is just reminding them to keep your

bodies, your physical bodies, five senses, and how they affect us in

subjection, and subjection is slavery, like let your body be in subjection to

a different master. It isn't your master. It's something we live with.

And we like our bodies, of course, and we use them. But

don't let our body and its appetites be the master of our decisions that we

make in life. We need to enslave it. Hebrews twelve one to two

says, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud

of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so

easily beset us, and let us run with patients the race that is set

before us, looking under Jesus, the author and the finish of our faith,

who for the joy was set before him, and during the cross,

despising the shame and set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And so in these two verses we see especially this principle of the things

that need to be put off, and that seems to be a principle that

is eroding in in our societies and maybe in our own lives and churches,

the necessity to say no to certain things in our life. There's there's a

reaction about that. There's something that we don't we don't want to say no.

It doesn't sound spiritual, we we it's legalism. And I'll talk about

that in a little bit. But he says, here, lay aside every

weight and the sin, and so weights are could be a lot of things

spiritual weights. Weights may not be sins in and of themselves. Weights may

not be wrong depending on how they use them. A weight might not be

a sin to you. But it's weighing me down for whatever reason. It

just it just hinders my walk. And we could talk about a lot of

weights. I'll mention maybe just a few weights slow us down, They weaken

us, They distract us, They pull our attention and our they sap our

energy, and I just I'll mention a few briefly. This isn't my main

focus here this morning, but I think it's important to remember that things in

our lives need to be laid aside. And this takes honesty of our own

heart, because I you know, we can come like the Sunday School lesson

said and get counsel from each other. And I think that is good.

I think we need that. That's part of it. But then there's a

side when a brother you come for counsel and he gives the best counsel he

can. That you know your heart and you know the place, the music,

the app that he doesn't know, and you know what is causing you

to fail, and so you and I are responsible for those little weights that

are behind the scenes that nobody else can see, and to lay them aside

if they are hindering us. We could talk about the weight of things,

just material things in life, and we all need to live with things.

Some are very necessary, but this desire and coveting after a thing, a

new thing, just constantly, it becomes a mindset that it's hard to be

content and interested, especially with spiritual things, when we're always got our eye

on some physical thing, the next shiny gadget, the next convenient whatever it

is, and we all use things, and I'm no better than you.

All of these things are just as real for me. But we need to

sometimes check ourselves on that. You know, is this constant thing that I'm

after a weight? Is it distracting me? The weight of constant pleasure seeking

and there again looking for the next fun and exciting thing. And I'm an

advocate of recreation and pastimes and hobbies. They all that they're good. Some

of us need to do them more probably, but you know, we can

get into this mindset of constant pleasure seeking where we just go from one hobby

to the next. There's one or two for each season, and we just

stay busy chasing the next hobby and then we do a couple of years and

that's all we get done. We're just focusing getting really good at it.

But what about spiritually, what's happening? Are you even aware of where you're

out spiritually? The weight of Yeah, need to mention it. It's our

revelant thing. Social media Internet again, a thing that we all or most

of us use. I have heard and I've experienced from youth here and other

places and older people personal testimonies of how Instagram Snapchat, YouTube, other sites

have proven to be weights and sins in your Christian life. Over and over

again. You get into that and what do you know, it happens again,

but we go back. Why Well, I think when we're in our

honest moment, when we have failed and we're desperate and we're sick of it,

you know, those are the moments when we say clearly that yes,

I know there's almost no good in it. It's just nothing but a drag

on my spiritual life, and I'm going to delete it. But then there's

other times our mindset is more justify, well, there's some good on it.

There's some things that I interest, hobbies I kind of like, but

you know, good and well from past experience, what it does to you,

where it has led you. And if it's a spiritual weight, be

a disciplined man or woman, godly woman and get rid of it. Cut

it off. You cannot we cannot grow with this intermittent cycle of sin and

victory. We just can't take root and grow. And here again I would

say, it just seems like some for I don't know if it's what it

is for sure, but there's just this allergic idea reaction against the idea of

legalism and cutting things off that aren't necessary, and that somehow that is carnal,

that is works, and this is just not the case. Jesus said.

And if Jesus said, if you're right, hand offend thee cut it

off, and if you're right, I offend thee, pluck it out.

And if anybody else would have said that, that would have been very legalistic.

But it's what Jesus said. And I think his point was it is

not carnal to get rid of the things of this life that are hindering us,

spiritually dragging us down. Take them serious, get rid of them,

cut them off. Those are weights, the weight of chasing fads and fashions

of the world. And I'm not into this, but I used to be.

And oh, hairstyles, I would just say, youth, consider what

drummer you are drumming to. Who are you falling? Who is calling the

shots in your life? Who is telling you how to dress and how to

comb your hair? Just think about that? Is is it God or is

it godless people? The weight of help about good food? And that's I

guess pun intended. But we really enjoy good food. And it might sound

silly to you, But I believe that an inordinate affection and ihlight good food,

but an inordinate affection and a lack of self control in the areas of

bodily appetites does affect us spiritually. It just has an impact. It drags

us down. If we're excessive in the things of the flesh, we need

to bring them under subjection and then the weight of wealth and prosperity. And

we could read a lot of verses about this. But you know, I've

you know, I know the Lamate Valley is known. We have a mutation

in this community, in this whole valley as it being a beautiful place where

there's people that are wealthy. But I also know that there's a lot of

people that live in the Allawma Valley that struggle to make ends meet. That

is a fact as well. And so there's people at different places in life,

and some have more than we need and others don't have enough. But

we do live in a land of plenty, is the bottom line. And

in Deuteronomy eight ten and fourteen, I won't read that, but God warned

the children of Israel. He said, when your vineyards increase and you got

your houses and everything gets comfortable. Beware, don't forget because it is so

easy when life is going good and the bills are paid and that's extra in

the bank to just kind of get lazy spiritually to our dependency on God isn't

there. And I don't have an answer to all of that. But besides,

beware and be careful and try to be diligent and use the things that

we have in a way that is godly that we can help our own needs

and the needs of others. Matthew thirteen, God talks about the Jesus talked

about the wealth choking the word, and then again I would just say,

if we get just focused on whatever we're doing in our business or gaining money,

it does choke the word. I felt that in my own heart when

I get honed in on the financial things in my mind is just to spin

in on that every day. You know, the spiritual things and the things

of God and people tend to get choked out. They're not a priority,

and so it's just something we must reckon with. Okay, I want to

talk about a few disciplines, spiritual disciplines, and let's remember the purpose of

spiritual discipline. Exercise, the gymnasium. That picture I didn't go into that

very much, but that picture of gymnasium was a place is still a place

today of intense activity and training and sweat and effort, and that is part

of the Christian life. I'll say another thing that I think is important.

Discipline without purpose or vision is drudgery. If you just try to be disciplined

with no end goal, no purpose, don't know why I'm doing it,

fast, just fast for the sake of fasting. It is miserable, it's

uncomfortable. But when we have discipline with a vision, we have discipline for

a purpose. We were willing to sacrifice our time to become good at something.

Then there's purpose, and then there's it's not drudgery. Timothy. Back

to the chapter of chapter four of Timothy, he mentions the word in verse

six nourished up, and so nourished up what we feed on, what nourishes

our soul, what comes into our mouth and ears, and what we read.

And so the first one you'd probably expect it the discipline of reading your

Bible, and we could Verse thirteen says, give it till I come give

attendance to reading, to exhortation to doctrine, and we could look at other

references. I'll maybe quickly read one and second Timothy three because it encapsulates it

well three, sixteen, and seventeen. All scripture is given by inspiration of

God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction

in righteousness, that the Man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto

all good works scripture. And I realized that Bibles are a dime a dozen.

We have them all over that we can easily take them for granted,

but we need to remember that having a Bible, the written word that we

have today, is a tremendous blessing. We we live in a small and

a privileged time and history and place on the globe. With this privilege,

and God's inspired word gives us direction, It gives us instruction, It gives

us counsel and wisdom and warning and encouragement and nutrients for our spiritual life.

You know, there's people people in organize zations that are spending millions of dollars

trying to get one of these into the hands of other people all over the

world that don't have one, and we have ten or twenty maybe in our

houses, I suppose, And so it's easy to how it is when we

have things to forget, and yet all these efforts to get a Bible into

somebody's hands for the first time, and yet we can't find time to read

our bibles. All kinds of excuses are made, but you know, the

bottom line is we find time for the things that are important to us.

We just do The things that you get done in a day are important to

you, and you make them happen. It takes you and I are personally

respond to discipline ourselves and to feed and to eat and to grow. And

we've been raising to think of this. We've been raising four bummer lambs the

last month or two. And when we first got them, we've got formula,

mixed it up, give them their bottles. We'd feed them three times

a day morning, middle of the day, in the evening. As time

went on, they got bigger, stronger, and we started feeding them two

times a day morning and evening, and now recently in the last week or

so, we went down to one time a day. Making sure that they

have some kind of food hay, grass grain along with them. We'd mix

this powder up and water make it creamy. And we would even give them

warm water and fill their bottles and take it out and they just plunging into

the fence to get at this milk. And we would feed them. Well,

now they're weaned. We ran out of formula this last week, so

but as we cut back to once a day and now none, they're done

with milk. They got to eat what's there, Gotta find their own food.

They're just balling out in the barn. And if we'd go walking out

there, they're just balling for milk, and we'd go into the barn and

they just lunge against the fence and sticking their noses out through the fence.

But there's plenty of food out there. All they need to just go find

it and bite it off and chew it and swallow it. It's all there.

There's grain, there's grass, there's hay. They're not starving, but

you know, they want a bottle that is stuck in front of their nose

where they can just sit there and just suck it down and just digest it

liquid. This is how we are sometimes Hebrews five twelve thirteen fourteen. For

when the time for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you

have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the

oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not

strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness,

for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are

of foy age. Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercise

to desern both good and evil. And you know, there is a time

and a place for bottles. There's a time and a place for milk,

New Christians, new Lands. But there is a time and a place to

put those bottles away and to go on and to be weaned and to grow

and to be responsible and to find your own food during the day. And

I know that there's a lot of people in our society that go to church

and get a good emotional worship service in on a Sunday, singing in a

message, and they just lift up their mouth and drink it in and then

they go home and hope that it lasts till the next Sunday. And I

would just say that if we live that way, don't be surprised if if

we got stunted growth. We need to be responsible to as we grow,

to eat the word of God, to mature and to grow. So that's

a discipline. And to remember you're not unique. You might think you're unique

that it's kind of hard to get the job done, but that is our

carnality and it's across the board. People struggle with getting their Bibles read.

That's common. That you're not unique if you struggle that, But it is

a discipline. And time and time again the failures and that are connected with

a lack of spiritual discipline and food. Another one is spiritual is the discipline

of prayer. And I won't say a lot about these. I got a

list of them. I'm just going to mention them. But prayer is another

one that is just easy to Maybe I'll say a prayer on my way to

work for efficiency, say, but to get down on our knees before God,

and to remember that we are needy creatures, and to thank Him and

to put our fears and our requests before Him so that we don't have to

carry those things around each day or to complain to other people about Him.

Go to God, get rid of your burdens, ask for help, find

strength. That's what he asks us to do discipline of meditation. And it

says out here in for Timothy four as well verse fifteen, to meditate on

these things. And there again it's hard in this busy life for me to

find time to meditate. But it is so effective. If I would just

say this, meditation without filling our minds with good things is just circular thinking.

It doesn't get you real far. But if we fill our minds with

godly things and good things and then meditate upon those things, digest them,

that it helps us. It strengthens us, and it helps it to stick

in our minds. The discipline we can talk about fasting not a popular one.

I don't know if you fast or not. I don't need to know.

But Jesus said when you fast in Matthew six. And that's that one

is really easy to skip because it is uncomfortable and miserable unless you have a

focus and a reason for doing it. But we should fast. We should

fast once in a while, lay aside the carnal things of our life,

food or pleasures, and just focus on the spiritual things of God. You

might be surprised how how much you're in bondage things that you didn't know you

were, how much your body screams for whatever it might be that you're fasting

from discipline and purity. He mentions that in verse twelve, the battle of

purity, the discipline of purity is won and lost in our minds, a

place where only you and God really knows. Nobody else knows what you're thinking.

But it is vitally important and far reaching socially and spiritually emotionally. It's

a very important discipline. Discipline of forgiveness. I don't know about you.

Remember, forgiveness discipline is to train and to exercise. It's not something we

are just naturally born to do. And we need to extend forgiveness to our

fellow brethren. The discipline of hospitality one Peter four nine says use hospitality one

to another without grudging. And maybe you in view, I don't know how

you feel. Hospitality is a gift. Some of the ladies that just well,

I'll hear names that are good at hospitality, and they are. But

I would encourage us that hospitality there's a level of gift to it. But

hospitality is something that should be a discipline all of us can do that.

All of us can be hospitable. We don't need to be an extrovert.

We don't need to be a people person, so to speak. But Jesus

said, if you give a cup of cold water, it is a blessing

to people. Practice it. Try it. If you're lonely, have someone

over, just make them a cup of tea. And if you have some

botton cookies, that's fine. That's not the point. Hospitality something that takes

work. It's a discipline. It's not something we just love to do.

We don't feel like spending our saturdays or evenings sometimes discipline of ministry and serving.

It's cultivating the heart. And there again I just simply say, it's

a focus on the other person and their needs and not on mind. Because

when I start focusing on all the things I don't like and all the needs

and what they're not doing for me, we become very fussy. But when

we minister and serve to the needs of others, discipline of witnessing and this

can be hard, but I think again, one of the things that can

prepas for that is if we pray about it. Pray to God as I

go through this day, is there someone that I come in contact, Should

I say something or my eyes open for an opportunity. Sometimes it doesn't take

much, It takes discernment, but to try to exercise that when we have

opportunity to a needy heart. Discipline of supporting your church. And I don't

know what this means to you. A healthy, good church life has many

blessings, but it also takes people to have commitment and that are disciplined.

We're willing to sacrifice and put effort into it. Being a part of a

church was not meant to be a costco membership where just whenever you feel like

it, you bring your groat, your card in here and you fill it

up with the good that you like and then you go back home and you'll

be back when you're hungry again. That takes a toll on a church if

we have that mentality. Being part of a church is something you know,

somebody's got to keep the lights on, the shelves supplied, and I think

when everyone does that, it's what makes good church life. Showing up at

church functions when only I feel like it's frankly selfish, it's what I can

get out of it when it's a speaker that I want to listen to,

and if it's not, I'll just stay home. Or when it's an event

that's worthy of what I think is a good idea. Parents, how can

we expect our children to be church supporters when we are hit and miss on

everything, whatever we feel like it, it will come to and support.

One time I heard a child say lamenting that they wish they could come to

prayer meeting that the parents don't take them. I think that's too bad.

Showing up at your church and services and functions is a way that we all

can support and encourage one another. Does it take a little commitment and self

discipline? Yeah, it does. I don't feel like coming all the time.

There's days that I don't and I don't always. I want to be

clear on that that we all miss We all have reasons and there's times to

take a break. Understand, but I'm talking about a pattern of being a

supporter takes discipline. Well, it's time to close. We could talk about

many other disciplines, but remember that sometimes spiritual. Remember we're talking about spiritual

disciplines. Things that we exercise, we decide to do, we trained to

do for our spiritual well being and growth, and for the spiritual and well

being and growth of the rest of us around us. Sometimes spiritual discipline feels

restrictive. It's like it's holding me back. But I'd like to just say

that growth and true freedom in Christianity does not come from the freedom to sin

and to be undisciplined, but rather godly discipline brings freedom. It is just.

It is just a fact. We are all in a battle. Life

is a battle. We can't get out of that battle as long as we're

live, but we can choose which side will be on, and with God's

help, we can be disciplined to become more like Him and to be an

overcomer. Revelations one. I'll just read this verse in closing excuse me,

Revelation twenty one, verse seven, He that overcometh, and that word gives

like there was some effort put into that. That wasn't just a ride on

an escalator. But he that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will

be his God, and he shall be my son. God. Bless you,

Thank you for your attention. I have a closing song