As I was praying about where we wanted to go for this fall as a church, because we just came out of our summer series, I was thinking about the month of August. The month of August, for a lot of us, it's a routine month, right? I think throughout the calendar, it is as close to January as any other month in the way that we view routines. Getting back to normal, especially if you're a parent with kids that are in school, you know all about this. The next few weeks, you're going to be jumping back into routine.
Schedules are going to start. We're going to be back into having homework at night with our kids, right? We're going to have a lot of responsibilities. I mean, if your kids play school sports. Right.
We had a little bit of a break in the summer, and now we're going to be going back into, man, we're at the ball field, or we're in the gym, or we just have a lot of responsibilities and different things like that. And so, although routines are good, I love routines. But here's what I know: as we approach this season. Routines are good, but we know that there's some things coming because it always does. There's some storms, whether that be in your classroom, whether that be in your family, your ball team, whatever.
There's some things on the horizon that it is easy for us to kind of lose our way and to drift back into what is chaotic and things like that, because our world is chaotic. And so, over these weeks, here's what we're going to talk about: how do we. remain steady As we step into a new school year, a new academic year, and also the responsibilities that we have. And I have a big idea that I'm going to mention every single week. That's really the purpose of the series.
It's this. You'll see it up on the screen. The goal of this series is not to build a life where nothing ever goes wrong for you. The goal is to become the kind of people who aren't easily shaken when it does. And so, if you're in here and you think over these next several weeks, We're going to be talking about a list of things that will help you, you know, that will prevent wrong or that will prevent chaos or that will prevent busyness or exhaustion or anything like that.
No, I mean, we can't do that. We all know those things are coming. There's storms in our lives, there's chaos, there's things that happen in our life. That's just a part of life. The goal is not to build a life without problems, the goal is to build a life.
As a Christian, as a Christ follower, that's not easily shaken when problems come. And that's the idea for the series. And so we're going to look at a specific thing each and every week. And today it is this: it is discipline. Over Chaos.
Discipline. Over Over chaos. And so we're going to talk about the importance of discipline, specifically spiritual disciplines and the importance that they are in the life of a believer.
Now, as we talk about discipline, nobody likes discipline, right? When we mention the word discipline, it sounds rather restrictive. Right? It sounds like rules. It sounds like what we're going to talk about are things that we really don't want to do.
But the idea is, and what the question that I want to pose in your life today is what if Discipline. is one of the ways that God wants to bring stability to your life. What if discipline, the word that we don't care for a lot, what if discipline is one of the ways that God wants to bring stability in your life? You see, discipline is choosing, is choosing ahead of time. What matters most to you, and instead of allowing each moment to decide that for you.
Here's what I mean. We are better at reacting than living proactively, a lot of times. Would you agree? We react to the schedule. We react to things around us.
We react to the chaos. And sometimes we forget that what we're called to do is to live proactively, not reactively. Right. And so think about it this way. Without discipline.
Without spiritual disciplines, life naturally drifts towards chaos. Right? I mean, think about it this way. You don't have to work. Uh at being out of shape, right?
You have to work at staying in shape.
Okay. Would you agree? It's discipline. It takes work. It takes effort.
Don't you wish that you could just show up and drift into being an in-shape person? Doesn't work that way. Or think about this: if you have kids in your house or whatever, you don't have to work at your house staying messy. Right? It just happens.
I mean, it just happens. Each and every day, it happens. What you have to work at is keeping your house clean. And in your spiritual life, here's what I want you to understand. And every single person that's been a follower of Jesus for any length of time, you would probably agree with this, and you've seen it even in your own life, is you don't have to try to drift far from God.
It can happen naturally and it can happen quickly. You have to work at staying really close to him. And that's where discipline comes in. We have to work at staying close to him. And so, as we talk about this idea of spiritual disciplines, here's what it is here today.
And this is one of the ways that you can stay steady when the chaos of this life comes in. Spiritual disciplines are habits. That you build in your life that keep you stable. When life is chaotic. Spiritual disciplines are habits that you build in your life.
That keeps you stable when life is chaotic. What you need to understand when we talk about spiritual disciplines, disciplines is like, think about it like what we're gonna talk about today as building a house or building your life. Right? Your life is like you're building a house. And so, what happens is, as you build, every nail that you nail into the wall, all these different things when you go into building a house, whatever, it's there so that when storms come, when chaos comes, when difficulty comes, when the unexpected comes, when those kinds of things show up in your life, you have taken the time to build the structure of your life in such a way.
That you can remain stable even though everything around you is chaotic. And that's what we're talking about here.
So, if you have your Bible, go with me to Matthew chapter number 6. Jesus is is teaching his famous Sermon on the Mount. And we did a whole series on the Sermon of the Mount a couple of years ago. And I said often as I dug deep into this and we slowly worked through it, it's really, it should be called a mountain of a sermon. Because Jesus tackles so many practical things that you and I face.
And in chapter number six, he's talking about the idea of spiritual disciplines. He's going to talk about three spiritual disciplines that should be a part of every Christ follower. He's going to talk about giving. He's going to talk about praying. And he's going to talk about fasting.
All in 18 verses, as he's sitting on a hillside teaching a multitude of people, he's going to talk about the importance of disciplines and why these specific disciplines can help build you a life that stays steady when life is chaotic. And by the way, disciplines are. Are nothing like in our secular world, they understand the importance of daily habits, right? You know, Todd Warner in the Harvard Business Review, I've mentioned this here in our church before. He wrote an article in 2011 and he wrote this statement.
They found in their research and in their study that our best leaders. Were defined by the execution of a collection of very discrete day-to-day routines. Let me say this again. He said, Our best leaders were defined by the execution of a collection of very discreet, day-to-day routines.
So, if you spiritualize that, what does it look like in the life of a Christian, of a Christ follower? Here's what I would say: the most Christ-like Christians. are defined by the execution of a collection of very discrete day-to-day routines. I mean, think about it. We've all, you know, in our journey with Christ, we might see somebody that has walked with the Lord for.
Years and they've gone through valleys and they've gone through difficulties and trials and stuff. And they've always remained so faithful and so stable and their eyes fixed upon Christ in the worst of times. And, you know, we always take note of that and we watch it. And if you ever go to them on the side and say, How do you do it? I feel like one bad thing goes wrong with me.
I'm like, you know, I drift towards chaos way better than faithfulness and stability. How do you do it? And here's probably what they're going to say. They're probably going to say, well, one day, way back when I was first starting my journey with Christ, somebody taught me the importance of praying every single day. Or they're going to go all the way back and say, Somebody taught me the importance of reading my Bible every single day, and I started small and I stayed with it, and that's what led me to where I am today.
You see, there's all these different things that are happening behind closed doors of the most godliest people that you know that happen. They're day-to-day disciplines, day-to-day routines that lead to the outward life that you want. The stable life in the midst of chaos is what we all want. But a lot of times, the thing that you see that you want the most usually happens because of some discrete day-to-day things that nobody sees that leads to the one thing that everybody sees on the outside. And that's what we learn with discipline.
So Jesus is teaching here in Matthew 6. And I'm going to read 18 verses. We're going to read them straight through, then give you some thoughts and commentary on them.
So bear with me. Here we go. He says: take heed, verse 1. Take heed or beware that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. And so he's talking about giving.
He's talking specifically and culturally, probably giving more to the poor or giving to the temple and that kind of thing. And so, verse 2: Therefore, when thou doest alms or when you give, do not sound a trumpet before thee. As the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, That they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when you give, let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth.
That thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Verse 5. And when you pray. Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues. and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut the door, pray to your father, which is in secret, and your father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Verse seven. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions. As the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before you ask him. Verse 9. After this manner, therefore pray ye. And he's going to go into the Lord's Prayer, what we know, and so I'm not going to take all the time to dissect. I'm going to read it straight through.
He says, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.
Amen. Verse 14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when ye, here's the third discipline, when ye fast.
Be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces. That they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, Anoint your head and wash your face. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret.
shall reward thee openly.
So, Jesus is teaching here. And first of all, I want to point out before we look at the discipline of giving, the discipline of praying, and the discipline of fasting. I want to mention just three common thoughts or themes. About these three spiritual disciplines that are true for each one of them, that Jesus mentions for each one of them. The first one is this.
Spiritual disciplines Are expected of every believer. Spiritual disciplines are expected of every believer. Specifically, Jesus here in Matthew 6, he mentions only three, and he specifically says in verse 2. Verse five and verse sixteen. He says, when you give.
Verse 5, when you pray. In verse 16, when you fight. Yeah. You see, Jesus, he bypasses the idea of if we are to do these things or should we do these things, and he goes straight to the assumption that you should be doing these things. He says, when you do these things, in other words, it's expected of you.
If you call yourself a Christian. Call yourself a Christ follower, someone who follows the ways of Christ. You've trusted in Him, you've been born again. Here's what He's saying: you should be giving. You should be praying.
And you should be... Fasting. Because remember, these things are like, remember, your life is like a house, it's a structure. And every time you sit down to pray. It's like another, you know, part of the foundation is going on to your life.
Every time you fast, It's like another piece of the foundation is being laid so that when life gets chaotic, you're going to be stable. Every time you give, even during those times when you're like, man, it's tough, and I don't want to, but I'm going to discipline myself because everything I have is a gift from him. And so I'm going to trust him with the rest, and I'm going to give, and I'm going to be faithful to give, and I'm going to show up. It's like another piece of the foundation of your life is being laid. And so what he's saying is these things are expected.
And if you do those things and you stay with those things, not as spiritual rituals, but as just remaining faithful, recognizing that these things are building you up and strengthening your faith. then you're going to be stable when the storms of life come your way. It's like if you've been in Sunday school growing up, do you remember the song? We used to sing. I'm assuming they still sing these songs, but the song, Read Your Bible.
Pray every day. Angel what? Grow, grow, grow. You know, I thought about adding that to the worship set today because we could have like all stood. You remember the, we would go real low, and then it's like as you do these things, you grow, and those kind of things.
And so we're not doing that today, so you don't have to get nervous, okay? But it's it's a simple song, but it's true. It's true. That's the idea of what Jesus is saying about spiritual disciplines. He's saying that when you do those things, when you stay at those things, when you kind of buckle down, because there's days you're not going to feel like reading your Bible.
There's not days we're not going to feel like praying. There's moments and seasons where you're not going to feel like fasting. There's moments and weeks and months where you're not going to feel like giving. What he's saying is if you discipline yourself, it's going to strengthen you so that you can remain stable. when life gets chaotic.
So he says, spiritual disciplines, they're expected of every believer. Every follower of Christ should be giving, every follower of Christ should be praying, every follower of Christ should be fasting. But the second thing is this, spiritual disciplines are to be practiced discreetly. You get the idea, verses 4, verse 6, verse 18. We see that these disciplines are to be done in secret.
These disciplines, you know, what Jesus is saying is they're an opportunity, there are ways that we connect deeper with God. We connect deeper with Him when we pray, when we fast, and when we give. They're not intended to draw attention to yourself. They're not intended to impress people with how spiritual you are. Right.
You ever been around somebody like that that just wants everybody around them to know how long they read their Bible that day, right? It's not that way because that's what the Pharisees used to do, literally. And I know culturally this is a little bit different. I don't think you saw this on the way in, but Pharisees, here's what they would do: they'd literally go out into the streets. And they'd go outside of the synagogue and they would just start right there in the middle of the street and they'd start just saying, Oh, God.
And then they'd kind of look around them, you know, and hope everybody's watching them. Anybody see anybody out on the street corner this morning? Anybody? You see, the point is, is like what they would do, and I know that's a cultural example that Jesus gives us, but I still think in our culture today, we got to be careful that we don't show up to do certain things so that everybody around us can think we're something.
So that everybody around us can be impressed. with how much we really love the Lord. No, these things are to be done in secret. These disciplines, they're between you. And God.
No one else So Jesus says, don't sound the trumpet. Right. Don't be in the streets. Don't be in the synagogue. In other words, he's saying, don't.
Don't brag. Don't brag about your spiritual disciplines. You know, he mentions in our text, he talks specifically and says, Don't even let your left hand know what the right hand Does, you know, and those are, you know, far-fetched examples. We would call those like idioms. That's not exactly what he means.
What we would say today in our culture is this: keep it on the down low. Keep it on the DL. Like, it's not something that you have to publicize every single day about how much you prayed, how much you spent time with the Lord, how much you gave, how much you serve, how much you, you know, those kinds of things. It's something between you and God that you are choosing to do. deciding now something that will help you be built up.
When chaos comes. The third thing is this: spiritual disciplines. will be rewarded by the Lord. Will be rewarded by the Lord. In verses 4, verse 6, and verse 18, it states that Jesus will reward thee openly for practicing these disciplines.
Now, Jesus doesn't go in on what the reward is. He doesn't mention if that reward's going to be a heavenly reward, if that reward is going to be an earthly reward. It doesn't mention. For me, here's what I think the reward is. Because this is what I've seen in periods of my life where I've really done these things.
Here's what I find. I think he's our reward. I think Jesus is our ultimate treasure. We don't spend time with God through prayer to get stuff from Him. We spend time in prayer to get Him.
to get more of him. And so when I look at this reward, don't get caught up in, oh man, is this a financial reward? Is this a crown? Is this whatever? We don't really know, but here's what I'll tell you: is that the more that you discipline yourself through praying and through fasting and giving and serving and attending and all these days, studying God's word, when you do those things, here's the reward that you get: you get more of Him, and that's enough.
That's enough for what we need.
So these disciplines, they're going to be rewarded. And so he mentions these three common thoughts or themes. Spiritual disciplines are expected of every follower of Jesus. Spiritual disciplines are to be practiced discreetly. Number three, spiritual disciplines will be rewarded.
So let's look at them real brief. I did a deep dive on this, and you can go to our website and tune in from recent years on each one of these. But we're going to just kind of summarize all three of them today.
So let's look first at the discipline of giving. When you look at this, you know, almsgiving, he's specifically talking about, you know, to the church, to Christ's followers, about the importance of giving to the poor, giving to the temple, and giving to those in need. And here's what I'll tell you. He's really getting at a life of generosity. A life of generosity.
Now, when we talk about giving, depending on your church background, people don't like... Preachers to talk a lot about giving, and I get that. I try not to talk about it a whole lot, but here's what I'll tell you: if you get uncomfortable sitting in a sermon on giving. You would have been really uncomfortable listening to Jesus' teaching. Because he talks about it a lot.
And so here, I mean, he talks directly to him. And here's what I've learned. Is that when we realize That ultimately nothing Belongs to us in the first place, and that everything we have is ultimately a gift from him. You're not going to struggle with generosity. You want to know the foundation of generosity?
It's recognizing that everything we have is a gift from our Lord. Everything, the house you have, gift from God. The car you drive, a gift from God. Your bank account, a gift from God. Everything you have is a gift from Him.
Every dime you have, it is a gift from Him. And when you recognize and see everything in your life that way, you don't have to struggle with generosity. You want to be generous back to him because he's been so generous to you. You see, biblical giving is when you use your money for the glory of God and to advance the kingdom of God. You know, Jesus would also say, lay up for yourselves' treasures in heaven, right?
In other words, don't be living for this life. We can't take anything with us. You can't take all the toys and all the fun things. You can't take all those things, right? And so why spend your whole life here living for that?
Why not spend your life here investing in the things that are going to last forever? And that's what he's saying.
So that's the discipline of giving. The second discipline he talks about is the discipline of prayer. Listen, if he is ultimately your reward and you see him as such. You will want to pray and spend time with him, right? Listen, we make time for those we love.
If you're married. You know this, right? You make time for the one that you love.
Okay. You make time for the phone call. You make time for the text. You make dates a priority, all those kinds of things, right? Because we make time for those that we love.
If you have children, You work around it. You figure it out. You're going to be there when they're playing a sport or when they're performing or when they're doing something. We figure those things out. Why is that?
It's because we make time. for those that matter most to us. We make time for what we value. And so here's what I want you to know. If you ultimately view Christ your Savior as your reward, your eternal reward, and he is why you love him and you value him in your life.
Then you're not going to have to struggle to sit down and pray. It's going to be something that you want to do because of your love for him, because you value him. Yeah. You see, here in verses 5 through 15, Jesus talks about the Lord's Prayer, and I'm not going to dive deep into all of this. We're very familiar with it.
But in our prayer time, we learn that our prayer time should be about adoration. It should be about confession. It should be about submission. It should be about provision. And ultimately, it should be about protection.
Deliver us from evil. And when we pray, I'd encourage you: does your prayer time look anything like that? If we're if we're honest. We all have work to do when it comes to our prayer time because Jesus gave us the model here in Matthew 6. Here's what a lot of our prayer times can look like.
God, give me this. God fix this. God, do this. God, work this out. God, provide.
God, do this. And there's nothing wrong with sharing your heart with the Lord because everything you care about, He cares about. And so we understand that He wants to hear from you or whatever. But your prayer time should not be a to-do list for your Lord. It should be a time where we praise him.
Hallowed be thy name. It should be a time of surrender. Your kingdom come, your will be done, not mine. But let your will come. It should be a time of provision.
Give us this day our daily bread. It should be a time of confession. Forgive us. Examine us. See if there be any wicked way in us.
And then it should be a time of deliverance and protection. Lead us not into temptation. Abraham Lincoln, I love this statement that he made. He said, I have been driven. Don't miss this.
I've been driven many times to my knees. By the conviction. that I have no other place to go. Rick Warren said it this way: the more you pray, the less you panic. And isn't that true?
Because what prayer is, it's an opportunity for us to release things over to the Lord. It's an opportunity for us to grow closer to Him and to see Him as our reward. And it's like everything else kind of diminishes. In our minds, when we see how great he is. The third discipline is the discipline of fasting.
Now, fasting is probably the one. In fact, when I look at this passage, it's the one that convicts me the most. It's the one that many of us probably practice the least. Right. Out of the other ones.
Fasting, you say, what is fasting? A fast, if you look throughout scripture, a fast was a time found throughout the Old and New Testament where God's people. Would deny Physical food. And they would replace it. with something spiritual.
And so I want to be very clear, fasting can be. A moment in your life where you say, I'm going to fast from meals, I'm going to fast from a meal, and you're going to replace it with something spiritual, but it doesn't have to be about food. You can fast from a number of things. You could fast from... Uh you can fast from social media.
You can fast from a hobby that you feel like you're spending a ton of time in, or you can fast from video games. Right. You can fast from something, you can fast from any of those things. And the goal is is that you take those things out of your life for a moment and you replace it with something spiritual. You replace it with more time with the Lord.
That's what fasting really was. Because when you take something out of your life, here's what it ultimately means: fasting says the spiritual. It's more important than the physical. Fasting says that the supernatural. is more important than the natural.
When you take something out, fasting says, I need heaven more than I need whatever it is on earth that you crave doing. You see, that's what fasting is. And Jesus even specifically mentions fasting should be a part of every single one of our lives. When was the last time you fasted from something? Biblically.
Fasting is more than a diet. Right? Fasting is an opportunity for you to show that, God, you mean more to me than something that this earth has to offer me. And Jesus mentions fasting's not to manipulate God either. It's not like, hey, I'm going to fast this week so that, you know.
This situation can be done the exact way that I want. Fasting is not to manipulate God. Fasting is to learn to delight in Him. It's not to manipulate him. It is an opportunity for you to learn what it means to delight in him.
You see, fasting, it isn't for you to get God to do what you want. It's to prepare you for what God wants. You see, fasting, it doesn't break our will or break God down to our will. Fasting breaks us down so that we're fully surrendered to whatever He wants. That's what fasting is.
And here, Jesus, he's talking about disciplines, a structure of your life. You want to be steady. When the world seems chaotic, don't you want to be that way? I think all of you do, right? You're here on a Sunday morning.
The day before many of you start school, right? You want to be steady. Here's how you do it: Jesus is saying: you want to build your life so that you can remain steady. Fast. Pray.
Give. There's so many disciplines that he mentions here. And remember this: the goal is not to eliminate. Every bit of chaos from your life. The goal is to develop daily spiritual disciplines to keep you steady in the middle of the chaos.
of your Life.
So I ask you this question as we kind of land the plane here. What... Discipline out of those three specific, because that's the text today. What discipline do you need to build in your life to keep you stable? Is it giving?
Is it fasting? As your pastor, that's the one that I would choose here. Like, we give. I don't really have an issue with that. You know, the praying, I pray, it's the fasting.
It's like when Jesus commands us, I'm always convicted about this passage because I go way too often in between times where I fast from something so that I can get more of Him. And that might be your story as well in here. And here's what I'll tell you: when we think about our life, and you think about it like a building or a structure. When you think about your life and you're trying to build your life into a certain thing, I want you to know that every time you give, it's like an extra piece of the foundation is being laid. Every time that you pray, it's like an extra piece of the foundations laid.
I can remember, you know, if you've been a part of our church for the last couple of years, we built a building a couple of years ago here, and it's right down the road, and we built an educational building, this 25,000 square foot building. And I watched every day as this building went up. And when we started the project, the one thing, and I know we need rain all the time and stuff, but the one thing that could really delay a building project. It's weather. Yeah.
And, you know, when I was studying this, I was thinking about that, and when I was studying this, one writer. He said this: when it's talking about spiritual disciplines and it's talking about these daily habits that we need to engage in so that we can prepare ourselves to stay steady and remain steady, here's what the writer said, and this is so true. When it comes to spiritual disciplines, you build. On sunny days So that you can stand. on the stormy ones.
You build On the sunny days, right, so that You can stand on the stormy ones. Because here's what I can tell you as your pastor: stormy days are coming to all of us. We know it. Like, that's not the goal. The goal's not the...
Build a life that storms don't come. That's not possible. Nobody would tell you that's possible. Storms are going to come. The goal is that you've prepared yourself and built yourself up so that when a storm comes, when a doctor comes in and says something that you weren't expecting.
When a family member goes through a traumatic experience and you're watching. When a child comes home and something at school happened and you're so disappointed. When all of these things, it's easy for us to drift into chaos. But what Jesus is saying is: if you want to remain stable no matter what comes into your life, here's what it takes: today and tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, discipline yourself with these things. Listen, you're not going to feel like praying every day, do it anyway.
You're not going to feel like giving every time. Do it anyway. You're not going to feel like fasting a lot. Do it. You're not going to feel like attending every week.
Do it. You're not going to feel like, you know, attending a community group or being a part of a Bible fellowship group every single week. But do it. Here's why. Because every time you show up and you discipline yourself, it's like an extra piece of the foundation is laid.
So that when the storms of life come into your life, You can remain. Stable.
