Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness

All right, so we are here to talk about the faithful life this morning.

We're talking about the, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

Pop quiz, how many more are there after this one?

Two!

Abe, welcome back, Abe.

We're glad to have you back.

You made it back from the land of fruits and nuts.

Yep, you got it.

Yeah, so we got two more.

Gentleness and self control.

But this morning we're here to talk about faithfulness.

This week in preparation for this, actually last week in preparation

for this, because I thought we were meeting last Saturday.

Um, I was reading about the Paris Olympics coming up, and

there's something that the U.

S.

team is bringing with them that you might not think that they would have

to bring with them to the Olympics.

They're bringing, Air conditioning units.

Because Paris, as part of their efforts to save the world, has decided that

air conditioning pollutes too much, and so they're not going to have any

air conditioning within the Olympic Village there for their athletes.

It's also supposed to be the hottest summer Olympics

on record in recent memory.

So, the United States team said, we're not doing that, so they're bringing their

own air conditioning units with them.

Which I, I think is probably a good call.

So hopefully that pays off, and we see a few more Americans on

the podium, uh, in the events.

But, think about all of those, those athletes.

All the preparation, all the work, all the, the sweat equity.

All the, the hard work.

not knowing whether or not this is going to pay off or succeed mentality that

goes into becoming an Olympic athlete.

Uh, there was a family back at our church in, in California, whose daughter

was just a superb figure skater.

Uh, but they have no guarantee that all of their effort, all of

their early morning skate, Lessons.

All of the money that they invest in this all of the time traveling around

to these different arenas for these ice skating tournaments is going to pay off.

That's her dream is to go to the Olympics, but there's no

guarantee that that will happen.

But the reason all of these athletes put it in and put in the sweat equity

is that they want to make Olympics.

And so what you're gonna watch in in the coming weeks here, uh, is you're gonna

watch for some, what's the culmination of years of hard work payoff for the

first time you're gonna watch for others?

The, the last shot that they're gonna have at being at the top of

their field, at being, uh, in a, a position to win an Olympic medal.

But regardless for any of them, uh, the journey to get there was a long.

sometimes arduous pursuit that led them to where they are now.

Growing older reminds me of the fleeting nature of life.

That all of us are looking at a time in the future when we're going to be called

to account for the life that we've lived.

Much like these athletes are going to be called to account for the life that

they've lived when they go to compete.

What's their life going to look like?

How are they going to measure up?

What's that going to be like?

And I don't know who you want to be in this room when you hit 80, or if the

Lord lets you live that long, or 90.

But what we need to understand, men, is who we want to be then

involves who we are right now.

Uh, just like For those Olympic athletes, if they want to win a gold medal, it

involves who they are at 10, 11, 12 years old and what they're doing at that age.

All of that pays off when they're standing on the podium.

All of that feeds into what it is at the podium.

And so if you want to be a faithful man of God, when you're filling

the blank years old, you need to be a faithful man of God right now.

And all of us have room to grow in that.

The bottom line is we look at our passage this morning is this

faithfulness breeds faithfulness.

If you want to be faithful start being faithful Faithfulness breeds faithfulness

faithful in small things faithful in big things Those of you who have been involved

in the military you understand that right?

Because one of the reasons why they're so obsessive about the way that you

make your bed Is because if you are faithful and doing that Well, there's

something that's small then you're going to be faithful in the bigger things as

they're entrusted to you Our passage is first corinthians chapter 9 verses

1 Corinthians 9:24–27

24 through 27 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, the Apostle Paul says this, Do you

1 Corinthians 9:24

not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

He says, So run, that you may obtain it.

Run, that you may obtain it.

So Paul's writing this or, or visiting Corinth around AD 57.

During this time, there was a set of games that took place in

Corinth called the Isthmian Games, which is really hard to say.

The Isthmian Games was really kind of second tier only to the Olympics.

It was a similar sporting event where there would have been races, there would

have been wrestling competitions, there would have been all kinds of other things.

So as Paul writes back to Corinth, He's writing to a group of people that would

have been very familiar with this imagery.

This would have been something that they could hold on to.

Much like today, in our sports obsessed culture, we can hold on to this imagery

as well and understand it and say, Okay, yeah, in a race, only one is going to win,

so I need to run as though I might win.

And so Paul begins his address here by appealing to his reader's sense of logic.

His sense of logic, and the reader's sense of logic is meant to go this way.

In a race, there are multiple competitors.

So you think about the Olympics, you think about the 100 yard dash.

There's multiple men that line up on that line.

And they get in their starting blocks, and they take their stance.

So there are multiple competitors.

Second point he makes, though, is yet, the reality is in a race, only one of

all of those is going to win the race.

And we know that to be true.

We know that when, in the past, Usain Bolt lined up for that

race, He was going to win, right?

The gun was going to sound and he was going to blow

everyone else out of the water.

So there may have been multiple men on that line, but there was

only one that was going to win.

So Paul's conclusion then, again logically, is then if you're going

to be in the race, if you're going to be in the race of the Christian life,

run in such a way to be that victor.

Run in such a way that you might be the one that wins.

If you talk to serious runners, they will let you know that there are different

running styles that exist out there.

In fact, if you are a jogger, And you tell a serious runner that

you're a runner, buckle up, man.

You're about to be lectured.

They're going to talk to you about how there's, you're not a runner

cause you don't know what you're doing and your form's all messed up.

I've been on that side of the equation multiple times.

There are different ways to run.

Even just think about Usain Bolt for a second.

Brought him up a minute ago.

He was more than just fast.

There are a lot of people that are just fast that don't win Olympic gold.

Usain Bolt had an entire team.

That their job was to analyze every single facet of his race.

Their job was to watch his stride.

To analyze how he was holding his hands.

To, to look at his foot strike on the track.

To look at the launch from his starting block.

To look at where his chest was positioned.

To consider wind resistance.

To consider the clothing that he was wearing.

The spikes that he had on.

He had an entire team of people whose sole purpose was simply to make him faster.

On top of that, he had an entire team of people that had a, the job of

just giving him his training regimen.

That, that this is what he was supposed to do.

This is what he was supposed to eat.

This is the number of times he was supposed to run.

This was how far he was supposed to run on certain days.

This is his recovery program.

This is his weightlifting program.

All of that went into making Usain Bolt the athlete that he was.

All of that went into making Usain Bolt the fastest man in the world.

It's not just that he was fast.

It's that he was faithful in the pursuit of running well,

that he might win the race.

Otherwise, he's just somebody who's fast.

But Usain Bolt runs in such a way as to win the race, and that goes

again, beyond just being fast.

And so, here's the thing, men.

God, in writing through Paul, wants us to live the Christian life that way.

It's not just about knowing your Bible.

It's not just about showing up at church.

It's not just about, having a general sense of godliness about you.

That's like just being fast and taking your spot on the line at the

starting blocks in the Olympics.

No, it's about being intentional about how we're running, being

focused on how we're running.

And so if we want to run the race in such a way as to win,

it involves two primary things.

Number one, it involves our training and discipline in life.

And then number two, it involves an abstinence from those things

that would hinder our performance.

Usain Bolt is not eating the same things that I eat, I guarantee it.

And that's okay, I'm good with that.

I enjoy the food that I eat.

I had a spicy chicken sandwich this morning, it was delicious.

Usain Bolt didn't, and that's his loss, not mine.

But he's going to abstain from certain things that he knows are

not going to help him win the race.

So it's the discipline and in the abstinence.

So too in Christianity, we have to train ourselves from godliness while we abstain

From the fleshly lusts, as Peter calls them, which wage war against our soul.

That's what it looks like to run so as to win the prize.

We want to be faithful again.

Faithfulness breeds faithfulness.

We have to be faithful to run in the right way, which starts by

examining how we're running right now.

Point number one this morning is this.

Assess your current relationship with God.

Assess your current relationship with God.

Anyone who wants to compete at the highest level has to start

by saying, where am I right now?

Where am I right now?

I know where I want to be.

I want to be standing on the podium.

I want the medal around my neck.

But first I need to understand where I'm at right now, so that I know

what I have to do to get there.

So the first thing that we have to do, men, is we want to

run our race well, faithfully.

It is to assess where we're at in that right now.

As men, society places certain expectations on us.

To be protectors, to be providers, to be leaders, to be teachers.

God has expectations of us as well.

Expectations that we need to assess to see are we fulfilling those?

Each one of you who are here and who would say, I'm a follower of Jesus that

I've surrendered my life to Christ.

You are responsible for how you're running your race this morning.

It's not your wife.

It's not your kids.

It's not your spouse.

It's not your, your boss.

It's not your neighbors, it's not the guy that cut you off on the road.

You are responsible for how you're running your race this morning.

You are responsible for the current state of your walk with Christ this morning.

That rests with you.

It's not, well, I'm not doing too well and it's, it's this person's fault over here.

It's not, well, I've, I would be further than I am right now, but, you

know, I've been really busy at work.

It's not, you know, I, I wish I was, was more godly than I am right now, but it's

just super hard because the environment that I find myself in on a regular

basis, there's so many unbelievers there that it's just hard to be a believer.

It's nobody's fault where you're at spiritually other than your own if

you're dissatisfied with where you're at.

Just like for me to say, you know what, I want to win, to go run a marathon.

Well, if I assess where I'm at right now to go run a marathon, it's not

little Debbie's fault that I'm not ready to go run a marathon, right?

It's mine.

I need to have an accurate understanding of where I'm at

spiritually and own that for myself.

I need to own my spiritual standing and that's going to help me

understand where I need to get.

We can't be self deceived into thinking that we're further along in our

training regimen than we really are.

That's not going to help anybody.

We need to understand where we are, assess appropriately where we are, and

figure out where we need to go from there.

So as we assess our current relationship with God, some of the things to

think about for us, some of the ways that we might not be running

in the way that God wants us to, let's think through some of these.

Our low hanging fruit, right?

God's Word, the Bible.

We have at Compass Bible Church something we refer to as the Daily Bible Reading.

Now, we call it the Daily Bible Reading because we think that it's important

for you to be in the Bible, what?

Daily, right?

We don't call it the 3 out of 7 days a week Bible reading program.

Not just because that's a mouthful, but because we think that it's important

and imperative for us as Christian men to be in God's Word every single day.

Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word

that comes from the mouth of God.

So as you assess your current standing with the Lord, where you're at

right now in your relationship with the Lord, where you're at in your

faithfulness with Him, are you faithful in just picking up your Bible daily?

Faithfulness breeds faithfulness.

Begin there, right?

How about prayer?

Again, this is an area, I've shared this from the pulpit, shared it

again with you guys this morning.

This is an area I want to improve on.

This is an area I want our church, corporately, to improve on this year.

That we need to be praying, and we need to be praying men.

We need that, that communication open between us and the Lord.

And so the question for us as we assess our current relationship with

God, how's our prayer life doing?

Another area to think about just is, is godliness.

Godliness in general.

Pastor Rod preached a couple weeks ago from Titus chapter 2 for the

Titus 2 · chapter mention

grace of God, verses 11 and 12.

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training

us, right, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and

to live self controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.

Man, how are we doing in that?

What does our current relationship with the Lord look like as

far as our godliness, our holiness, our Christ likeness?

This whole series that we're in right now in the Fruit of the

Spirit from Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

When we look at the Fruit of the Spirit, as we assess our current

walk with Christ, how do we see the Fruit of the Spirit in our life?

Where do we see it showing up?

Where do we need to bolster?

Where do we need to strengthen that?

Where do we need to grow in the Fruit of the Spirit?

You know, church, being there, being present, uh, I would say in another area

is, is just generally reading, right?

Reading outside of, of scripture, challenging yourself to, to pick up

a, a book on theology or a book on doctrine and, and diving into that.

Those are all good ways for us to move forward in our relationship with the Lord.

But assess where you're at right now.

Assess your current, present relationship with the Lord.

Amen.

Here's what I know for a fact.

I'm sure all of us in this room, myself included, would tell you

that we wish we had made better use of our time when we were younger.

I know that to be true of myself.

But there's two things I also know to be true about everyone in this room.

First, yes, we all have regrets about wasted time, but here's the

second thing I know to be true of us.

You're not going to regret making the changes today that you wish you had

already made when you were younger.

And so as you assess your current relationship with Christ, this is not

meant to be an exercise in discouragement.

Yeah, we may sit there and say, man, I wish I was further along.

And I think again, that's going to be true of every single person,

myself included in this room.

I think we're going to sit there and go, man, I wish I was a little bit

further along or maybe for some, a lot further along than I am right now,

but it's not meant to discourage you.

It's meant to say, okay, so what do I need to change to get there?

That's what we're talking about.

What do I need to do right now?

What are some of the small baby steps, faithfulness, breeds, faithfulness?

What are some of the small things I can do right now to begin to grow in my faith?

And if you will do that, I promise you, the other thing I know to be true is

no one ever regrets time spent with the Lord when they're on their deathbed.

Plenty of regret about time not spent with Him, but I, I've never heard of

a person dying saying, I wish I hadn't spent so much time pursuing Christ.

Assess your current relationship with the Lord.

Paul continues in verse 25.

He says this.

He says every athlete exercises self control in all things They do it to

receive a perishable wreath, but we an Imperishable we're gonna have a

whole lesson on on self control in the future But there's a lot of overlap in

that and certainly Self control, self discipline is a key part of faithfulness.

As we think about being faithful men of God.

Again, faithfulness breeds faithfulness.

That's not something that comes naturally to us.

It involves self control.

It involves self discipline.

Much like an athlete has to have that as they're getting ready to compete.

As you think about, again, everything that goes into Usain Bolt's training regimen.

He's got to have self control to get out of bed and go do the trials, go do the

training, go run the race, go practice.

He's got to have self control to put the fork down sometimes.

He's got to have that self discipline to be able to live differently

because of what he's pursuing.

And that bleeds over into Christianity as well.

No athlete trains without goals in mind, right?

That's what they're doing.

That's why they're going to exercise self control.

Olympic athletes.

What are they training for?

What are their goals?

Well, first they want to qualify.

That's goal number one.

Well, then after they qualify, then they're going to think

about what's my next goal.

Well, my next goal is I want to win.

I want a medal, right?

So they're training with these goals and sometimes these goals are going to move

as they move along in their pursuit, as they move along in their training.

Think about a basketball player.

A basketball player is training all the time.

Why?

Well, he wants a better shot or better ball handling.

A baseball player.

I want a higher batting average.

I want fewer errors in the field.

A golfer.

I want to hit the ball and have it stay in bounds.

That's a good goal.

That's my goal for this round, right?

And they're going to practice towards that end.

They're going to train towards that end.

But they're not training aimlessly.

They're training with that goal in mind.

And that's what Paul's talking about here.

And he says they're doing it.

They're exercising self control for a perishable wreath, which we're

going to get to in just a second.

But in what areas are they exercising self control?

What does he say there?

Every athlete exercises self control in what?

All things.

All things.

Again, faithfulness breeds faithfulness.

Your faithfulness in the small things in your life, like going out on a Saturday

morning with your lawn mower, after men's Bible study, and mowing your lawn, because

you need to be faithful to do that.

Or being faithful to say, you know what, those of you who are married,

I'm going to get a date night on the counter with my wife because

I need to be faithful to do that.

Or to be faithful to the expectations your employer has.

I'm going to be faithful to do that.

You know, those may seem like they're disconnected from

your relationship with Christ.

They're not at all disconnected with your relationship with Christ.

And that's why every athlete has to have self control in all things.

Because if we get slack in one area, man, that's like cancer.

to our growth.

That's like cancer to our faithfulness because it's going

to bleed over into other areas.

And so we need to be like the athlete that's focused, that's, that's committed.

That's going to be self controlled, self disciplined in every area with the goal of

being a more faithful follower of Christ.

Dustin Johnson, a professional golfer.

This is his regimen on a daily basis here.

It says his breakfast is usually oatmeal and blueberries,

raspberries or strawberries.

It can also be an egg white omelet, maybe with some quinoa.

Which is, is crazy.

That's, that's, that's out of bounds there on, on Destin's part.

Before the golf course, he says, I eat an almond butter and jelly sandwich.

Again, pass on that.

I have a sports drink on the course, and if I eat out there,

it's usually a protein bar.

After golf, if I have my chef with me, I have a bowl of quinoa,

veggies, chicken, or fish.

That would be my snack afterwards.

For dinner, it's always fish, veggies, brown rice, or quinoa.

And you think to yourself, why?

Why would you torture yourself that way?

The answer is because he realizes that faithfulness in his diet impacts

the product on the golf course.

So does he need to be faithful to hit the range and hit 200, 300 balls a day

on the range to fine tune his game?

Yes.

But he also needs to be faithful over here in his diet.

He needs to be faithful in the kitchen.

He needs to be faithful in what he's eating.

Self control, self discipline.

It's often listed in the New Testament in association with godliness,

those passages with godliness.

Titus 2, I quoted it earlier, Pastor Rod preached on it a couple weeks ago.

Self control is in there.

Galatians 5.

Self control, part of the fruit of the Spirit, part of the pursuit of godliness.

1 Timothy 3, it's supposed to be a quality, Qualification for an elder.

Same thing in Titus chapter one, also for, for deacons.

Uh, Titus chapter two, again, I, I, I mentioned that earlier.

It's mentioned four times there, though, in those 12 verses, not just in the, the

text that that pastor Rod preached, but it's mentioned four times in Titus chapter

two, applying to men, women, young women, old women, old men, young men, and then

in one Peter four, seven, were encouraged and admonished to be self-controlled

in light of the impending judgment that's about to come upon the earth.

Self control is imperative to our faithfulness as Christians.

Self discipline is imperative to our faithfulness.

You cannot be a faithful man of God if you are lacking in self control.

It has to be there.

If you want to be faithful, and running well, and running so as

to win the race, discipline, self discipline has to be a part of it.

It's just like you don't see many professional athletes just

gorging themselves on junk food because they know it's going to

impact the product on the field.

Man, we cannot as believers gorge ourselves on fleshly junk food of

this world for the same reason.

It's going to impact your relationship with Christ.

It's going to impact your faithfulness.

But this is not an easy thing, is it?

And so why again do these athletes do this?

They do it with the goal of what?

Achieving and winning a wreath.

But what kind of a wreath?

A perishable wreath.

A perishable wreath.

In, in ancient times, this was a wreath made of celery or, or

pine needles or other plants.

It would have dried out and eventually crumbled and disintegrate.

It would have become fragile.

It would have broken it down.

And so that's, that's what causes all of these athletes in, in the ancient

Olympics to give up Oreos and peanut butter ice cream from Tillamook.

Is a perishable wreath.

And yet they put so much worth there that they were willing to

do all that they did to gain them.

But still, it's, it's perishable.

I want you to think back to the 2016 Summer Olympics for a second.

Summer Olympics, again, the pinnacle of athletic competition.

The height of the field.

The, the winner of the Olympic medals is the best in the world at what

they do, more so than, than, than anyone else that exists out there.

Let me ask you a question, men.

Who remembers who won the 400 meter race at the 2016 Summer Olympics?

Anybody got that one?

The best 400 meter runner in the world.

Yeah, Wade Van Niekerk.

Wade Van Niekerk.

I know you had that.

I know it was on the tip of your tongue.

But I'll just remind you.

Of course we would remember that though.

Why?

Because he's the best at what he does.

He's the best in the world at what he does.

How many of you remember who won the Olympic Marathon in 2016?

This is probably the most famous name of all of them that maybe you've heard of.

A guy named Eliud Kipchoge.

Eliud Kipchoge.

He, I think, until recently held the world record in the Olympic Marathon,

or in the marathon in general.

How many of you remember who won, here we go, women's 100 meter race 2016?

Elaine Thompson.

Elaine Thompson.

I knew that one, didn't, didn't I?

How about the women's shot put?

Anybody got that one in their back pocket?

You don't know the one who is the best female shot putter in the entire world?

And we're talking about less than 10 years ago, and we've already

forgotten about Michelle Carter.

What's my point in all that?

I think you get it right.

All of the discipline, all of the training, all of the hard

work for whatever it may have been, and then they're forgotten.

Their accomplishments are lost.

Their accomplishments don't matter anymore because nobody outside

of maybe their family remembers.

Nobody remembers.

They do all of this for a perishable wreath.

Here's the question, men.

How much more should we be pursuing our relationship with Christ and faithfulness

and self control and discipline in those regards for what we have in

front of us, which is not perishable?

And that's what Paul says next.

But we, an imperishable.

They're pursuing an imperishable.

They're, they're willing to, or a perishable.

They're willing to exercise self control in all things.

For something that fades and for a podium that nobody's going to

remember within the next decade.

I'm sure if I went even went back to the 2020 Olympics, we wouldn't

remember those people either.

But we do this or were called to do this or we should be doing

this because what awaits us is not Perishable, but imperishable.

Paul says this to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, 7 through 8.

He says this towards the end of his life.

I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith.

Now there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which

the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.

And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing men.

That's the imperishable crown that we have.

That's what makes it worth it for us to say no to the flesh and yes to the spirit.

That's what makes it worth it.

We have this imperishable wreath.

In 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter refers to our future inheritance as imperishable,

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

unfading, being kept in heaven for us.

Or 1 Corinthians 15, 52, Paul says that in the future we're going

to have an imperishable body.

How about that one?

We're going to have our glorified body and that body is going to be imperishable.

What is sown, perishable, is raised.

Imperishable.

What exactly is it about this imperishable future that should motivate us?

We don't have time to go there, but Revelation 21 and 22.

That's what motivates us.

The new heavens and the new earth, where there's no more sickness, no more sorrow,

no more disease, no more breaking down of the body, no more creaking bones, no

more exhaustion, no more frustration, no more angst, no more anxiety.

No more fear, no more concern, no more weighing, feeling the weight of carrying

the, the responsibilities of your family on your shoulders and say, man, I don't

know how I'm going to make this work, but I don't want to let my wife know that

things aren't good right now because I don't want her to be worried about things.

It's gone.

No more frustration with your boss, no more losing your job, no more

financial constraints, all of it gone.

But even better than all of that.

is being with Christ.

There's no temple there because Jesus is there.

We get to be with Him.

That's what makes the Christian life of sacrifice worth it.

Yes, it's a life that involves self control and discipline

that the world doesn't require.

But here's the thing, y'all.

If you and I don't have an eye towards the goal of that

imperishable wreath, we won't last.

And so along those lines, as we're pursuing faithfulness on a daily

basis, like the Olympic athlete that says, you know, at first I want to

make sure I qualify for the race.

Then I'm focused on getting better.

And then ultimately I'm going to compete.

I want to win the race.

Men in our pursuit of faithfulness, we need to have goals as well in the process.

And so our second point this morning along those lines is this set daily goals

to stay faithful in your walk, set daily goals to stay faithful in your walk.

The athlete doesn't wake up one day and go from zero to a million miles an hour.

Nobody wakes up one day and is like, okay, uh, my goal for next

month is to win the Olympic gold.

There's a, a, a, there's a lot of goals along the way to get us from

where we're at to where we want to be.

And so likewise, man, in, in our pursuit of Christlikeness, in our pursuit of

faithfulness, if you say, you know, when I think about the man of God I

want to be, Okay, what are the goals that, We need to set for ourselves in

between now and then, and that's why it's important to set daily goals.

A key to success in Christian life is to get specific, because how many

times have we said things like this?

Well, yeah.

You know what?

I really wanna grow in my faith.

I, I, I, I wanna read my Bible more.

I wanna be a better Christian.

I wanna pray more.

I wanna work this on this sin, or get this sin outta my life.

Or, or, or that sin here, right?

These are common phrases, but left alone, they're not helpful for us.

They suffice in small groups.

And they sound really great on Sunday mornings when we're having a conversation

with them, but really they're not super helpful because if I say, you know what?

I want to grow in my faith.

Cool.

What do you mean by that?

How are you going to measure that?

A lot of you come out of the business world where you talk about smart

goals, having goals that are, I don't know what the S is specific.

There it is.

Hello.

That's my whole point right now.

Measurable attainable, right?

Are what is our somebody help me out.

Realistic.

Thank you.

And then T.

What?

Time bound, yes.

You guys didn't give me time to say that.

Yeah.

That needs to apply in our walk with Christ too.

Take that out of the business world and bring it home with you.

Right?

If you want to say, I want to grow in my faith, what are your

smart goals to grow in your faith?

What is that going to look like?

How are you going to do that?

Or maybe you're going to say, man, I really want to read my Bible more.

That's great.

What's your plans to do that?

What are your goals?

What's that going to look like?

Let's get it out of the superficial, the facade that sounds good.

And let's get down to the nitty gritty, because if I tell you, man,

I want to run a marathon, you might be impressed by that on the surface,

but then if I never do anything for that, that's never going to happen.

I want to read my Bible more.

I want to pray more.

Okay.

What's that look like?

I want to be a better Christian.

How are you going to measure that?

What does it mean to work on that sin?

So let me give you a couple of examples.

Maybe you're going to say, you know, I don't read my Bible more.

So I'm going to set a timer.

I'm going to set my alarm for 30 minutes earlier every morning

and wake up and spend 30 minutes in the Bible each morning.

And I'm going to have my brother in Christ here in my community group,

in my small group, I'm going to have him hold me accountable to that.

Okay.

That's, that's better.

Now we're talking.

Now we're setting goals that are going to move the ball forward in

our pursuit of faithfulness and our pursuit of Christ likeness.

You go, man, that's hard.

It is hard.

But every athlete exercises self control and all things to achieve

or to win a perishable wreath.

We're doing this for what again?

What kind of wreath?

An imperishable.

Is that imperishable wreath worth you losing 30 minutes of sleep each morning

to get 30 minutes of time in the work?

Or maybe it's, you know what?

I'm going to spend 30 minutes a day this week praying.

And maybe that's not all at once.

Cause maybe that sounds daunting to sit down and just be quiet before the Lord

and pray before the Lord for 30 minutes.

But maybe you're going to say, I'm going to set a timer on my phone.

That's going to go off.

I'm going to set a reminder on my phone.

That's going to go off six times a day.

I'm going to spend five minutes a day, five minutes on each of those

timers praying throughout my day.

At the end of the day, I will have prayed 30 minutes and maybe right

now I'm praying about two minutes because I'm praying right before I

eat and right before I go to bed.

That seems like an achievable way to increase our prayer time, right?

Or maybe it's, you know what, for sin, maybe it's, you know what, I

know exactly what my triggers are for that sin, I know where I tend to fall

prey to that sin, so I'm going to put a plan in place to avoid that place.

I'm going to put a plan in place that I'm not going to be alone during that time.

I'm not going to pursue that during that time.

And we get specific with this.

I want to memorize more scripture.

Great.

Okay, so our specific goal is I'm going to download the Bible Memory app, I'm

going to commit to memorizing the first chapter of the book of Philippians.

I'm going to ask my brother in Christ to hold me accountable to that.

I'm going to give myself a month and a half to do that.

These are specific goals that we can set that give us some, some

traction in growing in faithfulness.

Otherwise we can desire faithfulness all we want, but it's like me

desiring to go out and win a marathon race tomorrow and not training

for it, but just talking about it.

Or maybe I go out and buy the clothes for it and I buy the, you know, the, the, the.

Drinks and protein supplements to have while you're out on the race course.

But if I'm not training and setting goals for myself, I'm never going to get there.

Some of, for some of you men in the room, the only thing keeping

you from the man of God you want to be is this point right here.

Is, is not setting these specific, measurable, achievable goals.

So that you can begin to gain some traction.

And again, is this hard?

Yes.

Does it cost?

Yes.

Why do we do it?

We do it.

because the imperishable wreath that awaits us.

There's an undeniable link, though, between our actions in our profession.

Look down in verse 26.

Paul says this.

So I don't run aimlessly.

By the way, my third point is my shortest point.

Just to give you guys a heads up on the front.

I just encourage you a little bit there.

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.

And so Paul here is basically saying, I have a purpose behind everything.

And I don't want to disqualify myself through living a life inconsistent

with the gospel I have preached.

Therefore, what does Paul say?

He says, I'm going to keep myself under strict discipline.

I'm going to make my body my slave in order to achieve my goals.

This doesn't sound super appealing.

Right?

Just like the idea of training for a marathon doesn't sound super appealing.

Just like the idea of, of, of maybe setting some of these goals,

waking up earlier, so forth and so on, doesn't sound super appealing.

But man, not only is it going to pay off in the end, it's going

to pay off in the short term too.

And that's what I want to talk to you about in this third point here.

As, as we pursue faithfulness, it's not just about the future.

It's not just about, well, sacrifice pleasures now so that in

the future things will be great.

If you will pursue godliness and faithfulness right now, there is a great

benefit that comes to you presently.

In fact, one of the greatest, most tangible benefits of our faithfulness

is the confidence it instills in us about our standing with God.

The confidence that you will enjoy about the destination, so that you

don't have to fear the diagnosis that might come from the doctor.

You don't have to fear what might happen with the economy.

You know.

Where you're at, and you know where your stand if you're faithful and

running your waist, your race, well, if you're faithful and running in such

a way as to to win the prize, you're not going to waver in the confidence.

You're going to be like Paul at the end of his life, saying, You know what?

I fought the good fight.

I finished the race, and now the crown of righteousness awaits for me.

Don't forget who wrote that.

Paul, who was Saul, who was murdering Christians, is the one

who wrote at the end of his life, Man, I fought the good fight.

I finished the race.

Now, I can't wait for the crown of righteousness.

Be encouraged by that, men, because there's no one in this room that

it's too late for, for you to gain that level of confidence in

your relationship with Christ.

The final point I want you to think about this morning is this.

The call to faithfulness is worth it.

Committing to a life of faithful self discipline and

obedience to Christ is worth it.

And again, not just for the future.

The future reward, yes, it will come.

And it is what our ultimate goal is.

But in the meantime, there's a, a, a, a component of the, of our confidence in

Christ that makes it worth it as well.

Point number three this, this morning is this, enjoy the present

confidence of a faithful life.

Man, I don't know if, if you struggle in this area.

My, my guess is at least some in the room do.

You struggle with your, your confidence in your relationship with Christ.

You doubt.

Maybe you're standing with Christ.

You feel distant.

You feel dry in your walk with Christ.

Many times the answer to that lies in a deficiency in what we've

been addressing this morning.

The reason you feel that way is because you haven't been running

in such a way as to win the prize.

If you want to enjoy more confidence in your walk, look for ways

to increase that faithfulness.

Again, that goes back to our first point about Honestly, assessing

where you're at right now in your relationship with Christ.

Your time in the Word, your prayer life, your memorization of the Word,

your purity, your fellowship with other believers, and if you will lean

into those things, the confidence you feel in your relationship with

Christ, the closeness, the intimacy you feel in your walk with the Lord is

going to go up, by leaps and bounds.

Let me ask you this, when Usain Bolt was competing on a regular

basis, at the top of his field.

Do you think he woke up in the morning worried that he wasn't

gonna be able to compete in the race that he was about to run?

Do you think Usain Bolt woke up worried that he wasn't gonna be

the fastest one on the track?

Probably not.

How about Scotty Scheffler?

Do you think he goes to sleep at night, fearful that he's not

gonna be able to play well in the next tournament that he plays

unless he gets arrested?

My guess is again, probably not.

Why?

Because these men enjoy a confidence that comes from the faithfulness in

the discipline that they've already exercised to get themselves to where

they're at at the top of their field.

It doesn't mean that they're not still disciplined.

They've got to stay disciplined, otherwise that confidence is going to go away.

But they know because they've been doing what they're supposed to do

to be the fastest one on the track.

They've been doing what they're supposed to do to be the

best golfer out on the field.

That, that when they go out there to compete, there's a confidence that they

have that they're going to be okay.

They're not sitting there worried, what if I'm not good enough?

Because why?

They know they've worked harder and sacrificed more and fine tuned their

craft to be at the top of their respective fields and there's an

abiding confidence in that status that accompanies that life of faithfulness.

So I meant, this morning, this third point, just basic

and simple in its concept.

If you commit yourself to that life and stay committed to that life, your

abiding confidence in your standing with the Lord is going to continue to

grow more and more and more every day.

If you ever think about somebody in your life that you look at and say,

man, that, that guy has such a dynamic relationship with Christ, and you think

to yourself, maybe I, I desire that, I want that, I long for that relationship

with Christ, that type of relationship.

It doesn't come because he went to bed at night saying, Lord,

I want to be closer to you.

I pray that you, you just grow me and my, my closeness to you and close his

eyes and wake up in the morning and bam, he's, he's on fire for Christ.

And I think sometimes we can fall prey to the mindset that the solution to our

distance from the Lord is thinking, if I just pray the right prayer, if I say the

right things, if I, then I'll be close with the Lord, he'll answer that prayer.

The answer to that prayer is picking up our Bible.

It's going before him in prayer.

It's spending time with other believers in Christ.

It's memorizing God's word.

It's, these are the things that the faithful pursuits, the self control, the

discipline of life that produces that kind of a relationship with the Lord.

If you look at somebody and say, how can you be so close to Christ?

How can you have such a strong relationship with the Lord?

The answer is because they put in countless hours pursuing

that relationship with the Lord.

They're living the life that, that, that demonstrates that

faithfulness breeds faithfulness.

And they can't let up on that.

Between now and the time we die, man, that the bad news is there is no period of

life that we kick it into cruise control.

There's no vacation or sabbatical from faithfulness in the Christian life.

As soon as you move into that, then you're going to, you're going to drift.

You're going to slide.

You're going to fall away from where you've been.

Um, so we have to stay vigilant.

And that's why Paul, as he's writing to Timothy, uses the language that

he does, it's language of exhaustion.

I have fought the fight.

I have finished the race.

If you think about a, a, a boxer, most of the time, at least in, unless it's a

first round KO, but if you think of a, of a, of a boxer that goes multiple rounds,

when that fight ends, he's not like, let's go, uh, let's go run a marathon.

Let's go.

Let's do this.

Or if you think a guy that finishes a race, a marathon.

And crosses the finish line.

He's not ready right afterwards for another one, is he?

What is he?

He's exhausted.

There's a reason why Paul says that to Timothy.

I fought the fight.

I finished the race.

You can hear the exhaustion.

Why?

Because of what we've read in this passage.

Because Paul has said, You know what?

I've disciplined my body.

I've made it my slave, lest after preaching Christ to others, I

myself should be disqualified.

That's a life of exhaustion.

But man, it's worth it.

It's worth it.

There is one way, if I can take issue with Paul, that the athletic

imagery does fall short for us.

Athletes who compete at the highest level of the Olympic Games,

they have to qualify themselves.

All of us in this room have been qualified by somebody else.

We've been qualified for the race of our Christian life by Christ.

In fact, he's qualified us, he's put us in the starting blocks, and

there's a guarantee from him that we are going to finish the race.

But now he's left it to us and said, run well.

Run well.

Run so as to win the prize.

The thing that I desire for this room full of men more than anything

is for you to be men who are faithful to run your race well.

Again, no sabbaticals, no vacations from running our race, no vacations

from faithfulness to Christ.

Right now, this morning, wherever you're at in your walk with Christ.

You're there because that's what your life has produced.

The question is, where do you want to be and how are we going to get there?

Let's pray.

God, thanks for this morning.

Thanks for your word.

Thanks for these men.

Thanks for the reality that at least presently we have an hour in front

of us, perhaps maybe even less than that, but we have right now at least

to even think about, okay, what are the areas of my life that God,

maybe I just need to to strengthen.

Maybe there's some areas of my life I need to repent because

there's sin in my life there.

Maybe there's some areas of my life that I've just neglected and I

need to pick back up and lean into.

God, I just pray that we would be truthful and honest with ourselves if

not with one another so that we could get an accurate picture of where we're

at and understand where we want to be and begin to say, okay, how do we get there?

What does it look like for me to start running in such a way as to win the prize?

Father, I know that there are men who are running that way in this room.

Many of them.

And God, for them, I just pray that you would encourage them to keep going.

That they would get their second win, their third, fourth, fifth

win, whatever it may be for them.

That they would feel the encouragement to say, Oh, that's right, I'm

going to press on, I'm going to keep going because it's worth it.

Lord, faithfulness breeds faithfulness.

Help us to be faithful men in the small things.

And not let any area slack in our lives, but realize that

there's significance to all of it.

That everything impacts our relationship with you.

So God, thank you for this morning.

Thank for your kindness, your patience with us, to allow us to have moments like

this, to drive a stake in the ground, to change direction if we need to and to keep

moving forward in our pursuit of Jesus.

So that we will run with endurance, the race that I said before

is fixing our eyes on him, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Until you call us home, we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen.