Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, April sixth. Do you realize that the things you do now chart the course for where you will be in the future? Here's a challenge to believers to live disciplined lives for the glory of God.
As followers of Jesus Christ, it's on the right that you and I would want to look our best, do our best, be our best, and fulfill His purpose for our life. It's not easy. God has a purpose and a plan for our life.
It's the best plan possible. And people who are willing to walk in that plan always come out better. But as we said, it's not easy. It demands something of us. It demands discipline.
And so, what I want to suggest to you today is that you do not have to do that. But as we said, it's not easy. It demands something of us. It demands discipline. And so, what I want us to talk about in this message is simply this, that discipline determines destiny.
Let me settle one thing right up front. I'm not talking about your eternal destiny, which was settled the day you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. You trusted Him as the atoning death for all your sins. You trusted Him as the product of your life. You trusted Him as the product of your life. You trusted Him as the product of your future.
You trusted Him as the power that saved you, saved you, saved you, saved you, saved you, going to heaven. But I'm talking about life here and now. And that is life here and now is a life that demands discipline of us. If we're to fulfill God's purpose, do the things that He would have us to do, achieve the goals that He set for all of our lives. So, I want you to turn, if you will, to First Corinthians, chapter nine. And in this passage, the apostle Paul is referring to the Greek games and their participants and the necessity of discipline in running those games. And he begins in this twenty-third verse by saying, I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
And I say, I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Do you not know that those who run in a race, all of them run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control, discipline in all things.
They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim, I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. And Paul is simply taking a sports illustration here to say, in order to run a race and run it well, I have to discipline myself. He says, I'm not running with that aim. I'm not running just to be running aimlessly. I'm running with the goal in mind, and my goal is to win.
And the truth is that every single believer should run the same way. Live out our life, listen, to win. To win what?
To win all that God has laid out before us, all the things that He's promised to bless us with. God is there willing and ready to bless us in every single area of our life if we'll simply walk obediently before Him. And that requires discipline. It's not easy, it's required, but it works. When a person lives a disciplined life, you're going to be able to look your best, do your best, be your best, and reach the goals that God has set for you. We look for an easy way, it's not easy. It's not easy if you're a Christian.
It's not easy if you're not a Christian. It's just a whole lot better when you know Jesus Christ is your Savior, and you know you have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you to enable you to reach those goals, whatever they may be. So in thinking about that, what I'd like for us to do is I'd like for us to consider this whole issue of discipline in our personal life. And I want to give you a number of things that I want to encourage you to jot down.
So what I'd like to do, I'd like to clarify a couple of terms. And first of all, let's look at self-discipline. Self-discipline is personal training that develops self-control and character and results in an orderly and efficient life.
Self-discipline, personal training that develops self-control and character and results in an orderly and efficient life. So that demands something of us. As somebody says, well now, what about what the Bible says about discipline? So turn to Hebrews chapter twelve. We oftentimes think about God's discipline and what He's up to in our life. And so there's another kind of discipline, that is there's divine discipline. And divine discipline is simply this. This is God's corrective measures in our life. We step out of His will, fail to do what He happens to do.
Listen to what He says in His twelfth chapter. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved of Him. So for example, when you and I disobey God, He does discipline us. That is, He wants to get us back in line doing what He would have us to do to accomplish what He would have us to accomplish in life. Self-discipline is something we do. In other words, God does not practice self-discipline on us.
He practices divine discipline. It is up to us to practice self-discipline, that is to be in control of our lives through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life in order to be the persons He would have us to be. And so, discipline is a practice. You don't suddenly know how to discipline.
You learn discipline. We practice because we're not perfect. And the fact that we practice it means that we'll make mistakes.
We'll falter and fall at times, but we don't give up and we don't quit and we move on. The second thing I want us to notice here is the necessity of self-discipline when it comes to living a Christian life. And if you'll look in First Peter for a moment, and I want you to notice a couple of verses here. In this first chapter, look, if you will, in the, let's start with verse fifteen.
And listen to what he says. He says, But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. So, it is the will of God that you and I live a godly life. And living a godly life demands discipline of us. And in First Timothy chapter four, I want you to notice a verse here. Look, if you will, in verse seven.
He says, But have nothing to do with the worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourselves for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of little profit. Now, for you who do not like exercise, that's your verse. He says, For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the one to come. So, he says, if we're going to live a godly life, you're going to be an obedient person, you're going to live a Christian life, it demands discipline, which means I have to make choices in life.
And so, as you think about that in your life, and if I were to ask you today, in what area of your life can you say, I am really disciplined in this life? Do you go to bed every night at ten o'clock? Do you watch the news every night? Or do you stay up till about midnight?
In other words, do you eat three meals a day? Do you go to bed every night at ten o'clock? Do you go to bed every night at ten o'clock?
Do you go to bed every night at ten o'clock? In other words, what are you disciplined about? Or would you say, well, I never thought about having, that I had to be disciplined about anything. Well, think about it.
No, you don't have to. Now, I can tell you what the results will be in a moment. But let's think about it this way. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, He came into your life through the Holy Spirit to live in you and to abide in you and to enable you to become everything that you want to be. And so, when you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you came into your life through the Holy Spirit to live in you. Now, one of them we know is the devil. One we know is the worldly system around us.
And the third one we know, we call it different things. Paul, on the one hand, called it the flesh or our carnal nature or our naturalness. And our naturalness is a good word for it, which means there are desires within every single one of us that do not fit the will and purpose and plan that we have to live in. And so, when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we have to bring it under control. He gave us the Holy Spirit to enable us. Now, when we talk about carnality or flesh or our naturalness, what are we talking about? Talking about those legitimate desires that God has placed in our life that we have to bring under control. Just because we have the Holy Spirit doesn't mean we're going to be perfect. Just because we're saved doesn't mean we're going to live apart from all sin. And so, that's what we're trying to do.
We're trying to find a way to make sure that we're not disciplined in the circumstances. And so, we're trying to build the world in the way that we have been, made mistakes in our lives, made mistakes in our life. And so, what happens? God forgives. He teaches us. We move on and we keep growing as a Christian. You see, if when a believer is not growing, it's because they're not being disciplined in one or more areas of their life.
All right, let's look at this. Another, for example, is rest. If you're undisciplined that, you're going to get lethargic and lazy and slothful. Another one, for example, is companionship. If you're undisciplined about that, you'll become dependent, or someone will become dependent upon you. And that's no good relationship. And there is sex. And sex within marriage and the way God has provided is good. When you break out of that and become undisciplined, what happens?
It's like poison in your system and ultimately will destroy you. So, all of those are good things, but they must be controlled by us. In other words, God isn't going to control how much you eat. He will give you wisdom. He'll give you direction. He'll give you challenges in life. He may let you get sick to show you or whatever it might be. But you and I are the ones who must practice discipline.
So, in all these areas, God has given us many, many good things, but we have to practice discipline. Because, you remember when you were a kid, if you could just eat all the candy you wanted to, and I can remember, my mother knew that I liked chocolate cherries. And so, she brought me a box of chocolate cherries home one afternoon from work, I'll never forget this, and she said, Well, you just like them, don't you?
I said, Yes, ma'am. And I thanked her for them, and I ate chocolate cherries till I was sick as a dog. I don't know that I've ever eaten them ever since. There was nothing wrong with chocolate cherries. But I was totally undisciplined. I just wanted them, wanted them, wanted them.
Well, I got them. There are many things in life that people want. That there's nothing wrong with it except the fact that too much of some things will kill you.
Just a little bit of some things will kill you. And so, discipline is a vital part of the Christian's life. It's a vital part of anybody's life who wants to accomplish anything in life. So, with that in mind, I want us to think about, first of all, I want us to think about what we can expect when we fail to practice discipline. So, let's begin. You're going to follow your fleshly, carnal naturalness.
You're going to follow that, and you're going to step outside the will of God, and you're going to suffer the consequences. Listen, look around at all the things that tempt and try us. All the things that would bring us down. All the things that are so absolutely, totally, totally ungodly.
They're everywhere. No discipline, you're going down. Secondly, usually when a person is undisciplined, they defend what they're doing.
And so, we will begin to defend our wrong actions and so forth. And then, of course, one of the effects of it is not only our health, but think about finances. Think about people who are undisciplined in their finances. If you don't control your money. And see, the credit card people love the undisciplined folks because they've got your interests. Before long, they've got your life. And oftentimes today, children are growing up and their parents give them a credit card.
Total disaster. They don't have to work for it. They don't even have to hardly give an account for it.
They've all got telephones, they've all got TVs, they've all got computers, they've all got all this, all these things. Where's the discipline? How much of that should you have?
And how much time should you spend on it? Discipline begins very early in life, and that's why godly parents, godly parents are parents who are looking out, listen, not only for how their children look and how they do in school, well, they can be proud of them. They're looking out for their adulthood.
Is their life going to count? What difference is it going to make that you brought that son or that daughter into the world? Before the child is born, those parents ought to have wisdom enough to say, now if we're going to have a child, what's our responsibility?
What disciplines do we demand of ourselves to be the kind of parents we ought to be so when they grow up, they'll be like us and we'll be grateful for them to be so. We fail many, many times in many ways simply by lack of discipline. Of course, they're oftentimes overlooked. When jobs come along, they pass them by.
Why? Because their record shows they didn't show up on time. They had to be questioned about a number of things.
Sometimes it was maybe their honesty or whatever it might be. Discipline fits you for the next opportunity. Discipline is God's way of getting us ready to move along in life and to move ahead in life. And of course, a person who is undisciplined is going to develop slothful habits.
And a slothful person is not going to do very well. This is why children need to be trained very early in life. In their room, you make up your bed. You hang up your clothes, whatever it might be. A little bit of discipline goes a long ways, but you have to start somewhere.
And then after you've done those, what? God gives us goals that demand something of us. And part of that demand is to discipline ourselves so that we give Him our full, our best.
Look your best, do your best, be your best, fulfill the purpose and plan of God for your life. Not easy, it demands discipline, but at the same time, something good is happening to you while that's going on. Discipline is very, very, very important. Because look, if I'm undisciplined about my household, more than likely I'm undisciplined about something about my life. In other words, you're just not going to be just wonderfully disciplined over here and sloppy over there.
Just not going to be that way. But we are probably all more disciplined in some areas than we are in others, but if you're going to live a godly life, discipline is a vital part of that. Then of course, I think sometimes a person who is undisciplined is reckless in their speech. They say things that they wish they had not said. They say things that are true that should not have been said at that moment. Or they say things that are true that should not have been said to that particular person.
We have to be careful that the lips, the tongue, what we say in such a fashion that should either build up someone else, but never to tear them down. Then of course, a person who's always late. A person who's always late, what it says is, I don't respect your time. Sometime it's difficult to always be on time. Nobody's probably always on time.
But it says something about us. And then of course, a person is going to waste time and energy when they're undisciplined. Because you see, we said in the very beginning, self-discipline talks about self-control and orderliness. That is, how many of you have a schedule every day? And do you live by that schedule? What do you try to accomplish every day? And I learned a long time ago, if I'm going to accomplish anything, before I go to bed at night, I need to make a list of all the things that I intend to do the next day. And it's real simple.
You're putting on a three-by-five card. And when you get them done, you check them off. At the end of the day, which you couldn't check off, you put on the next day. It's a simple thing I learned many, many, many times. It's a simple thing I learned many, many, many, many years ago, very early in life, because I had many responsibilities. And I thought, well, how am I going to get it all done? You only get it done if you program it into your life and work at it diligently. And you have to discipline yourself. If you have certain things that have to be done, here's what that means.
There's certain other things I cannot do. And so, when a person just sort of lives aimlessly, well, do this and do that and get whatever done I can and not fret about it, and I'm going to have to do it. So, what's the thing you want to do in life? What do you want to accomplish? What kind of trail you're leaving? What kind of influence? What kind of impact? What's going on in your life if you're not disciplined?
A lot of things that should not be there, no doubt. There are many people in life who don't have what they'd like to have because they're not disciplined enough to remove the things out of their life that drain their energy, their attainability, their ability to know that they're not disciplined enough to get what they need. But that's not something that we're going to want if you're going to succeed at anything in life. And then, of course, Paul talked about, he said, lest he become a castaway. And what he was saying is this. He was going to live a godly life lest after all he may have done, his witness, his testimony, may have put him on the shelf. And we all have to remember this. There's some things that should not exist in the life of a believer.
And so, if that's one of those things, I don't have to name anything. You know, if there's something in your life that shouldn't be there, you know what it is. You have to decide. God isn't going to make you do it. You have to decide, do I value my Christian testimony enough? Do I value my relationship to God enough? Do I value the goals and the principles and the things that I want to accomplish enough to eliminate the stuff in my life that's going to keep me from getting there? You can't have everything. You can't be everything in all things to all people.
You have to decide who is it you want to be. What is it that God wants in your life? What's His desire? What's His plan?
What does He have in store for you? It is costly not to live a disciplined life. It can cost you in many ways. We just mentioned body and finances and things like that. Many, many things you have to pay the price for.
If there's no discipline. Thank you for listening to Discipline Determines Destiny. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
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