Ten Traits of Self-Discipline

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  Self Discipline

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  Turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 12. We're going to start a mini-series for a few weeks on the subject...the matter of discipline. And in fact, a sweet Saint this morning just came up and saw as we emailed different, groups who serve here in advance what the sermon title/topic is for the week. And they saw it and they're like, you are in teacher mode. You've got ten things for us today. Indeed I do, only because a few weeks ago, when Lorin Bilhorn was preaching, one of the aspiring elders, he had like a 10 or 11 point sermon when I was out of town and I felt threatened that I've been going too easy on you guys with three point sermons, all you Baptists. And, you know, I needed to turn it up...my first sermon back. So here we go...ten things today. But, we're going to talk about the subject of discipline, not church discipline, just the broader subject matter of thinking about discipline in the Christian life, because I thought there could be no better way to discourage us all as we start a new year together. That's how I roll. This does come on the heels of just a wonderful two weeks of I was here for Kyle getting to preach. And then on the road when Kurtis was preaching last Sunday, coming back from up north. But both of those sermons were encouraging in their own right. Kyle's in particular, in 2 Peter chapter 1. If you missed it, I encourage you to go back and listen to be encouraged. Because his passion was evident in that sermon for you to pursue Christ and to know him more, and how that comes by means of growing in the strength that he provides, and the great goal for which our life exists, which is to know him more. And that was a great inspirational motivational sermon, because it does reset our thinking of what we're on planet Earth for, and it is to know Christ. And then Kurtis came in last week and came out of the gates with a means to that grace of knowing Christ more, which is being in the Word of God. And that was really the thrust of his sermon, the various ways in which we get access to the means of grace through the Word of God, the Word of Christ in our lives, and enhancing that. And so I was been thinking on those two things and just was on my heart then to say, you know, that that those are the great motivations and as in the great motivation is to know Christ more, as we heard a few weeks ago. And then, you know, you access that by okay, we know Word and prayer and fellowship get us there. But I'm coming at this from the same goal and motivation to know Christ as we start the new year together. But I guess to come at it from a different angle, which is what are the things that impede that. And that's why I say maybe this is a great, discouraging series, because a lack of discipline in our lives will impede or inhibit our progress in the faith. And it may not be that we lack motivation necessarily. We can all, as children of God and wanting to glorify God and live for Christ say like, yeah, I get that's my motivation. And I know that I need to be in the Word of God to do it. And sometimes those aren't the pieces that aren't in place. It's the thousand little things that we don't...I shouldn't say worry about, but pay attention to. The disciplines of life that actually can hold us back from achieving that great end is that we don't kind of take a circumspect view of our life and say, what are all those little things that add up to big hindrances? I guess Hebrews 12 would come to mind. You know those things that easily entangle us, that aren't always necessarily in the category of sin, but through a lack of discipline, they can lead to sin, for sure, or they can just slow us down in the race. And so what I'm getting at today, if you even want to just think about, Philippians 3:13 and 14, when Paul could say, brothers and sisters, I don't regard myself as laying hold of it yet, as in laying hold of Christ Jesus perfectly. But one thing I do, and just pausing on that thought and saying, wait a second, Paul, if I know anything about your life, you're doing a lot of things all the time. You're planting churches, you're raising up elders, you're preaching the gospel, you're getting beat down for the faith. You don't stop. So you read that and go, really? Your life's about one thing. Or for him to say, "one thing, I do". Well, he's saying I just have one great goal in life, and we have that one great goal. Going back to what Kyle talked about in 2 Peter 1. He says one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward THE goal for THE prize of THE upward call of God in Christ Jesus. See? So you can have that one goal in mind as you start this new year. And people could look at your life and see you doing a lot of different things. But what we're trying to do coming out of the gates in 2025, going back a few weeks, and then last week and now today is in talking about discipline to say, though, you have that one goal in mind, that one thing Paul is saying, I have one thing I do, even though I'm doing 100 other things, and you could see them in my life and you, you know, the churches knew of all of that which Paul was doing, but they were sure that it was all pointing in that same direction, which is to press on toward the goal of the call of Christ, to live for him, and let nothing get in your way of that. And so this series is not saying, hey, having that great motivation of living for Christ is not the most compelling thing to live for or what Kurtis talked about Word and prayer, daily devotions. I'm not saying those aren't important. Hopefully those pieces got in place the last two weeks for you. Now I want to do like, let's get into the weeds of some of the stuff that holds us back. And today we'll start with a lack of self discipline. And I just want for our text to think on a little bit. And Proverbs are designed to make us think so in Proverbs 12:1 it reads, "whoever loves discipline loves knowledge. But he who hates reproof is stupid". I mean, that's why I'm saying I have the gift of discouragement to start our year with like, hey, thanks, pastor. Your opening line to me today is don't be a dummy. Don't be stupid, don't be an ignoramus. But there is, you know, when you stop and let this one roll around on your tongue a little bit and savor the truth here, this antithesis between the positive...if you love discipline, you love knowledge. But if you hate being reproved and corrected, you're stupid. Just let that sit with you for a little bit here. There's a foundational piece to live by. Really, to understand your human nature versus your animal instinct. That's what he's juxtaposing here...us being created in the image of God. And yet, when we reject correction and discipline in our lives, we have resorted to animal instincts. If you see someone around you who embraces correction, instruction, reproof, again, all the things we love, don't we? The wise or the fool don't necessarily say like, oh, come on, I eat correction for breakfast. It's just there's an attitude the wise has toward it that knows there's some good that's going to come out of it. If you see someone who embraces correction, you're looking at someone, verse 12, who loves insight, growth and improvement. Really, this person wants to be all that God has designed them to be created in his image, a higher life form. On the other hand, one who hates reproof, who rejects it, who ignores instruction, who despises discipline, is....the English translation says stupid, but I don't like that. Because it misses what in the Hebrew word is is really there, which is this person is a brut. Because when we hear is stupid, we may import into that our understanding of stupid being a low IQ, right? If somebody calls you stupid, you tend to take offense because you think they're saying, I have a low IQ. It's about intelligence. And that's not what this is about. This isn't about your intelligence. This is about your foolishness. This is about you acting like a brute or an animal when someone tries to correct you. And again, proverbs are designed to make us think. So let that sit on you for a little bit. How am I like an animal when I hate reproof, despise discipline, ignore instruction? Well, you need to think no further than your pets. I'm going to tread on some thin ice here because I'm not a fan of pets. I'm not big on anything other than the creatures that are in my house currently. The ones I want there...the five that are belonging to me. There's other creatures that I try to keep out of my house having dominion. Shannon and I have owned a dog and it was not because we wanted the dog. We were tricked into the dog. The former senior pastor here just hoodwinked us. I was new in town and he asked me to watch the dog while they went on vacation. And then he never came and got the dog. And only having been employed one month here, back in the summer of 2011, I didn't feel I had the...I hadn't proven myself enough to say, take your dog.

  So just, you know, for those of you who feel like I'm about to go off on pets here, you can close your ears because you'll be offended by this. But your pet, no matter how brilliant, is not smart. The only tricks you teach it are those that appeal to what?...instant gratification. It will lay down, it will jump, it will flip and it will talk if you give it the biscuit. But if you said Fido. Milo, we got a Milo, right? A family that has a new dog named Milo. Milo, I have a deal for you. You could have this one treat right now. Or you could have ten treats tomorrow if you will do this thing for me. So, are you in or out? And he's going to just look at you with the look of a pet...a Look at a dog. He just wants that biscuit. And it's true in all the animal kingdom. I mean, no, as far as I know, there are no animals who have left a manifesto to their progeny. Hey, dogs, here's how we can take over the world. Our masters, they're the fools. They'll do anything for us. They'll even treat us like humans. Here's what we need to do to rise up and take over the world. No, they haven't done it yet. See, I've offended some of you. I'm okay with that. I'm just talking about truth. And here he's saying that the person who doesn't want correction because of the long term game of it. Because if I listen to instruction and discipline and I love it, I want the knowledge of God in my life, I want to live for his glory. If I reject that, what I'm doing is I'm acting like a brute animal who has no idea what good could lie ahead if I just listen in and submit myself to this correction right now. So that's why I'm coming out of the gates with this is is just to get this idea that our attitude towards discipline and instruction and correction is what marks us off as a higher life form created in the image of God. Nothing to do with our intelligence, our IQ, because really smart people can do what?...really dumb things. Proving the point here. They can act like animals. They can not hold themselves back from the immediate temptation and instant gratification that's going to ruin their life. That has nothing to do with somebody's IQ level. That's why I don't like the word stupid. That was a long walk for a short drink of water, he agrees. But our attitude towards discipline, instruction, correction reveals more than just habits. It reveals our heart. It reveals our desires. It reveals our motives. The motive of...do I really want to live in a world knowing more of myself and knowing more of God? And because of that, I'll love the discipline that's going to teach me that. Or am I going to like that animal be rebuffed by it?...be as stubborn as a mule, right? I was going to try to come up with another one, but I don't know any other analogies...thick headed as a rhino. Do rhinos have thick heads, Jameson? He knows about animals. Matthew Henry, famous Christian dead Puritan, says this about this verse. "He that hates reproof is not only foolish, but brutish, like the mule that has no understanding. Or the ox that kicks against the goads. Those that desire to live in loose societies, where they may be under no check, that stifle the convictions of their own consciences, and count those as enemies that tell them the truth are the brutish here meant."
  So, for the next few weeks, I want to look at the disciplines of a God-centered life. We're going to move from drawing a circle just around yourself this morning. This is just for you. This is not for you to think...the ten things that you wish the person next to you would do. That's not self-discipline. This is about self. This is about you being disciplined and applying these things. Not to say that hopefully the person next to you isn't listening to. And then next week we'll talk about societal discipline, which is a step outside, a slightly wider discipline, which is what do I do with people that are trying to instruct or correct me? And we'll talk about that next week. And then lastly, we'll look at in two weeks from now, sovereign discipline. And that's the hardest one to understand...the circumstances in my life that I am not loving as this alludes to, that I don't quite understand what God is up to right now. Why am I going through this? That would be God's sovereign discipline or chastening in our lives. And so I want to work from, I guess, the lesser to the greater. And the lesser today is a very simple ten point sermon on self-discipline. So if you find yourself in the weeds today, I want to help us get out of them. When I say that, I mean it's just these are small things, ten traits of a self-disciplined life that I think if we can clear some of this away, then we can get to the big thing which is...living for the glory of God, right? Living for all out for Christ, that these little things can get in our way if we don't pay attention to them. And just one caveat. I want you to know, and some of you who live closer to me see this. Um, some sermons are born out of when I choose a topic, what I'm actually trying to work on in my own life. So I'm not giving you this today as if you followed me around for the next week these ten things...I've got nailed down and thereby I can lord them over you. They're actually things I'm presently in the New Year starting working on myself. So work in progress here, as we all are. That said, let's jump in.
  First...#1 of ten traits of a self-disciplined life. Number 1 is to start small. And I think of a verse like Luke 16:10. Jesus is telling a parable about a shrewd manager, and he is not commending sin. He is not saying, be this, be this, cheat, this guy who cancels debts. This parable he tells in Luke 16:10. What he is commending comes in verse 10, where Jesus says, he who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. And in that Jesus teaches a very big lesson on discipleship with a principled word on stewardship. If you are going to be a faithful follower of Jesus and live for eternally valuable things, look around at the people who have nothing in eternity to live for. He's saying in this parable, look at the pagan. They at least try to be shrewd with their lives. More shrewd than a lot of you...disciples. And if you can't see the value in doing the small things well, how am I going to entrust you with something very large? And that's just this principle of starting small. What you're doing now, what you and I are doing right now with what we have, as little or as much as we have...the talents you have, what God has given you when it comes to giftedness, what he has given you when it comes to stewardship of finances or job. Whatever you're doing with it today, and sometimes in our prideful tendency, thinking we're just so bound for greater things that I'm just waiting around for the storehouses of heaven to open up and shower down on me and God saying no. Because actually, you have a lot around you right now you're not doing anything with. Why would I entrust you with more? It's just a simple idea Jesus brings out in Luke 16:10, faithful in a very little thing. Just take that in and roll that around in your mind. You who sit there and think you don't have much to be a steward of. Even a child in here today, a teenager who feels like you have no rights and responsibilities. No, you have been given much young person...the home that you're in, the parents that you've been given...that's a stewardship for you. And maybe you're getting in your teenage years and wish you would have way more freedoms. And you have to look at your life as a young person and say, what am I doing with what I have right now? The parents God gave me...am I taking and maximizing all I can from the wisdom they have to offer me? And so on and so forth. Wherever we are in life, no matter what age we're at, our tendency is to think small things are beneath us. That's why I mean the small things like the reading, the instructions on something. Loathed it growing up in school, I remember one time failing a test. It was a trick test. I remember my sixth grade teacher gave us because at the top where the instructions were, the last line was something about...and imagine this. I can't remember it today. But something about like, hey, actually, don't go and do any of the rest of the problems. Just go to the bottom and sign your name and turn it in right away. And that was the instruction to get the A. And of course I didn't read that. So I fill it all in and we all failed. It was it was like a start of a semester kind of thing, because we just want to blow by the simple and small things. But great things are built on small things. You don't look around and see anybody that achieves anything and does something great for God, and they just lucked into it. It just stumbled upon them. No, they got better one day at a time, one step at a time. That's happening in our home right now with instruments. We have attempted to move the needle in our home from sports, sports, sports to let's round them out with some, let's get a violin and we're getting there one note at a time...and a piano and a cajon.  And it's something right now.  But if I just expected Tchaikovsky to show up, you know, I paid for that violin. Come on, kid, get some skills. It's not going to happen. I've got to sit there and listen to the whatever sounds are being made and come in and be like, whoa, that was that was a violin. That wasn't a cat dying. Because it's one note at a time, one practice at a time. It's going to build and this is how life is. So, how about you right now? How's the small things in your life doing? I mean, even this sermon may be a good test. Maybe you came in expecting something super spiritual today, and you're like, I could have just listened to Tony Robbins this morning or Zig Ziglar. Adam, what happened to the expositor? Maybe it's this small thing, this practical sermon too little for you because you don't have small things to work on? You've got it all figured out. And maybe this is exactly what you needed. Point number one starting small.
  Now, that's just the opening principle. Here's nine more things to actually zero that in. Number 2 make a schedule. Proverbs 21:5...second thing for a self-disciplined life. And again, this is just arranging the furniture in your life right now so that you can sit down and enjoy where you're at. Making a schedule, number two, Proverbs 21:5, the plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage. But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty. Um, this diligent person, it's a word that meant a in its literal form a sharp cutting instrument like a thresher. This person, this diligent person, is associated with someone who's very sharp, not in a negative way, sharp tongue. But like when you say, oh man, that guy, that gal's got it all together. They are sharp. They're on top of it. That's a diligent person, someone who's on top of it. And this diligent person has what?...preceding that...a plan. It doesn't say the diligent have the advantage. It's that this diligent person has a plan. Diligent people have plans. And those plans help get them to where they want to be, their successes. The antithesis of this is the hasty in the second part of the verse. Everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty. Now the hasty person, interestingly enough, the hasty isn't equated with being lazy necessarily, because the hasty person who's trying to play catch up can appear to us on the outside as a very busy, busy, busy person, a hardworking guy. They had to stay late again, You know, I've learned a few things in the last 15 years of working, and it's that the guy that there's the latest isn't always the hardest worker, because he doesn't necessarily capitalize on the normal hours he's supposed to be working hard. And that's what this proverb is trying to teach. That when you're hasty, it's because maybe you came to work that day with no real plan of what, where your time was going to go and what you were going to do. And now all of a sudden, the urgency is here and you got to rush, rush, rush. So, if there is a word for the hasty person that's a hard worker, maybe it's that you're lazy in your planning. It's not that you're lazy in your work. You'll work hard, you'll stay late, you'll...but what are you doing in the hours actually allotted to your work? Are you diligent with them? Do you have a plan for where your time is going to go? Because it's not just the character quality in 21:5 that the Proverb is highlighting  It's that the diligent person has a plan and back to making a schedule one way to start having a plan in your life is to start small by making a schedule.  It's not hard.  There's these things called calendars.  And you can print them off...just type weekly calendar and Google will give you hundreds of options with all kinds of little things.  You can have them in different categories. It can look very planner like, but it's not hard to make a calendar these days. You don't even have to pay for it. You go to Barnes and Nobles. My mom calls it that. She adds the s, and you go there and they want to charge you 30 bucks for a nice, fancy calendar. You can print this. You can get a piece of paper and a ruler and draw one. Sometimes that tactile thing really gets the brainwaves going. Whatever it is, you can do it. You can have a calendar with a schedule, young person, even if it's just wake up, put clothes on, go to school, come home, do homework. Ta da! You've got a plan. May I just recommend first start with...if you've never tried this before, write down the stuff you have to do, like waking up and going to bed and the stuff you have to do in between. The HAVE TO and include in that as Kurtis' sermon mentioned last week, reading my Bible, that's a have to. And then whatever blank space you see in the in between is what you want to do. And that's simply how I run my life. I just make a schedule for my week of what I have to do, and anything that's blank is called what do you want to do? It simplifies it. It takes the guesswork out. And listen, all of this is just for us to be more useful to God, who gives us a set number of days. Psalm 90:12, so teach us to number our days. That's a form of organization, isn't it? I've taken account of the days you have. It's not numbering your days. He couldn't be meaning teach me to number my days. As in, I know when I'm going to die. So I've got to...no, bobody knows that day. He's saying the days you have. Are you counting them? Valuing them. Teach us to number our days. So that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. That's back to loving knowledge in Proverbs 12:1. My heart of wisdom is evidenced in the schedule that I keep because I'm not taking for granted I get anything that I'm not going to give an account for every single small thing in a schedule. An old proverb says, don't squander the minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves. I thought about this this past weekend in knowing, looking ahead, that we were going to get hit with a blizzard, and all of you people were going to freak out and steal all the milk and bread, and my kids are going to starve. No, you didn't do that. I mean, we all made it here today. Congratulations. But, you know, knowing the snow was coming, I knew in my "want to" category I want to have some time Friday afternoon and afternoon and evening and Saturday to sled ride. If I didn't squander the minutes Monday to Thursday when I knew the snow was coming, then I didn't have to worry about the hours when my kids said, dad, could you come sled ride? And I didn't have to say, oh, you know what? I've got a few other things I still got to finish right now. That's awful, because kids want dad to go sled ride with them. We get snow once in a million years here, and I'd have been stuck writing this ten point sermon. But when your minutes are accounted for, then you have those hours to say, God, what can I do with these? I have some freedom. So starting small, what's your schedule look like? Is there an order to your life?
  If you start right now thinking that through, here's point number 3. It's actually the largest amount of time that you have to give to something every day and it's sleeping. Point number 3 plan your rest. Psalm 4:8, in peace I will lie down and sleep for you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. When you start thinking about planning your rest and getting a schedule and even thinking about scheduling when you go to bed and when you rise, know that there's a theology underneath that. And the theology underneath that is right there in Psalm 4:8 that I can lie down and sleep in peace, because while I am sleeping, God is not. Isaiah 40:8 talks about that...our God does not slumber nor sleep. He does not become weary or tired. The everlasting God...you know, I always think of everlasting God in the realm of, you know, Alpha and Omega beginning to end. But this week, as I was thinking about why that connects to, he does not become weary or tired. He's the everlasting God and in that Everlastingness that beginning to endness he's never gone down in the in the battery life of God...1% in his power and his ability. He's just perfectly powerful all the time while I get my eight hours rest. Our tendency again is to think that sleep is beneath us and that this is a small thing. But really, the principle behind it is that if you can maximize the time you're resting, you can maximize the time you're doing what?...living. If you can really figure out how to get the most out of your sleep, then it gives you two thirds of the rest of your day to really get after it. So again, starting with small things. If you today say, you know what, I don't remember the last time I've tried to work on my sleep habits. Well, now's the time to think about that. Two dangers to fall into when it comes to sleep. One is the sluggard life, the sin of laziness. And those warnings are all over the Proverbs. You've heard them many a times. They're often accompanied with that phrase, a little folding of the hands to rest, a little sleep, a little slumber. Proverbs 6, how long will you lie down Oh, sluggard. Parents, you ever think of just walking into your kid's room and opening with that line like, rather than walk in like, come on, hurry up. We got to get to school or church.  You know, just stand there and even in the darkness, don't even turn the light on. Just call out to your teenager. How long will you lie there, Oh, sluggard. I know that changes it up. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And here's the warning. Your poverty will come in like a vagabond. And your need like an armed man. What's he talking about? Like somebody jumping you in an alley, a dark alley. You don't see it coming. And he's saying if you have that sin of lethargy, laziness, just always hitting the snooze button, you'll never get out from behind it, and then something's going to happen that you weren't prepared for that day and you couldn't make that time up, and you're just working from behind the whole time. And eventually it'll catch up to you to a point. Proverbs is warning that end game is that poverty being in need will catch up to you. If you haven't honed the discipline of less sleep. And then the other side of that warning is the hyperactive not entrusting to the Lord your rest. You know, in some ways spurning the gift of sleep. If you just feel like, you know, I don't need it. I'm the Energizer bunny, you know. Listen to Psalm 127. It is in vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors, because he gives to his beloved sleep. Do you realize if you think you're like Superman or Superwoman, I don't need as much sleep and I can just burn both ends of the candle? What you're doing there is you're spurning a gift God wants to give you, which is sleep. And he wants you to work hard in the time you're awake. But he says it's vain for you to keep going that hard. Um, because I want to give you a gift, and it's called rest. And it's called entrusting that I can run this planet, this universe, as I've been doing since the beginning, without your help for eight hours, I really can. So don't spurn the gift. Sleep is saying that, um. God, I trust you to whatever I think I need to stay up to do that it's okay. I can go to rest. D.A. Carson writing about this...he's a New Testament scholar, says...Sometimes the godliest thing you can do in the universe is to get a good night's sleep, not work all night, not pray all night, but go to bed. Enough said there...plan your rest.
  Number 4. Keep your word. Ten traits of a self-disciplined life. Proverbs 22:1, Keep your word. A good name is more desirable than great wealth. Favor, better than silver and gold. Just two things. Again, I love the Proverbs because they just. We don't rush past them, but we let them. We let them roll around in our thinking. That's what they were designed for. And this isn't antithetical. This is synonymous parallelism. It's saying the same thing twice to really get it through to you. But there is one difference between the first part of Proverbs 22:1 and the second. In the first part, it's a good name, as in your reputation. And then in the second part, it's favor. It's not just your reputation, it's the way people are going to treat you based on how they see you. And both of those things are better than great wealth. How you build a good name and then how that builds favor with man. This proverb makes it clear, and we see it in life that you can obtain money without virtue, but you can't obtain a good reputation without it. And there's the great divide. There's the great difference. You don't need virtue to make a ton of money today. You could be a crook. You could be a cheat. And you could have no favor and no respect and no integrity amongst men. And Proverbs is saying all that wealth isn't worth as much as having what?...a good name, a reputation. I saw this in a weird place this past week. I was laid up, sick for a little bit and one of those kind that, even in wanting to read my brain, is just like, no. So, I'm going to violate a principle later on about, you know, entertainment. And I watched a game show, a new game show out there, the Beast games. And naming this isn't an endorsement. So that Mr. Beast guy, he's been on YouTube a while, he makes a ton of money, and he brought 1000 people in to win $5 million. I think the thing was. And so he just has all these ways to try to eliminate the contestants. And at one point, I forget how many people were left in the thing, but they were divided into teams of like 100 each or something. And they had been doing some competitions. And then he said, hey, I want you to pick a captain to come up here and who you think is the most trustworthy and will not sell you out for a large amount of money. And so each team picked their captain and they sent them up and behind on a screen, and they're standing up above all these people, and they're all in it for themselves. They're all wanting to win $5 million. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's greed that's still motivating. But...so these four captains are up there and he puts on a screen that every second it was going up, this amount of money was going up $2,000. And at any moment any of those four team captains could hit a button, take the money and run, their team would be eliminated, but they get to stay. But they just had given those teams their word that they wouldn't sell them out for any amount of money. And so, you know, the time's going up and you're watching, going, okay, 1000 bucks, 5000, 20,000. And I'm sitting there watching this going, you know, if this person's doing the math, I mean, the chances of them making it all the way to the end of this show and winning the 5 million are now down to one in 400, and now it's up to 100,000. And then it was up to 250,000, and then it was up to 500,000. And they start one guy, you know, they all were just like looking at and they didn't want to see the number. And then they kind of start to peek. And then it got up to a million bucks. And you're just sitting there going, man, these people that they just gave their word to, they've only known for a few days at most. And it was crazy. It was the reason that it intrigued me. I was like, this is a real social experiment. How much money was their word worth? And surprisingly enough, none of them did it. To which I was like, knucklehead, no, I'm kidding. But truthfully, they had just...these people were strangers 2 or 3 days earlier. I don't know how long the competition was going on. But I was watching this and thinking of that Proverbs 22:1 saying, and they interviewed each person afterwards and said, hey, I gave them my word I wouldn't hit the button. And so they didn't, even though they could have walked away $1 million richer and still been in the competition, while all the people that were mad at them would have been gone. Now, you might say and the rest of the people left over would also, I don't know, go after them with pitchforks and torches. I don't know, but either way, it was it was a picture of this. That what what are you worth? Keeping your word in the littlest thing. Because we said at the beginning, the small things lead up to the big things. And if you're sometimes groused and busted over, like, how come people don't trust me with big things? And maybe you've never been trusted with the small thing. Maybe you're the person that they know. You know, anytime I tell you even that small thing or you make that small promise, you break it. Why would I trust you with something very important?...very big. How can you grow in this? Let me give you three questions you could ask a loved one this week a spouse. Parents you could ask your kid this because we're pretty good at least I am. And I only know this because I say things that I forget and then my kids say, but dad, you said. And I'm like, okay, what year can we at least rein it in here? Was it four years ago I promised ice cream sandwiches, infinite amounts that you could just always draw from. I don't know. But here's three questions you could ask people close to you this week. Generally speaking, do I do what I say I'll do? And no comebacks. No qualifiers. Second, do I do it how I said it would be done. So not just am I doing the thing I said I would do? Do I do it exactly the way I said it was going to be done? And then third, do I do it when I said it'd be done by. And again, this is in small things. So husbands be ready for your wives to be like yeah, you know you get that project done. It's just been on back order for three years, but thanks for finishing it because it's the small thing. It's saying, hey, if I said I was going to get that done by that point in time, work on keeping my word.
  Number 5 be on time. This relates to keeping your word, but it focuses more just on how you view time...particular other people's, not just yours. Proverbs 30:25 says the ants are not a strong people, but they do prepare their food in the summer.  I just thought about that because again you're supposed to think

  about those ants. They're timely...those ants are. They just keep to a structure. They know what work needs to get done when...they're on time. When it's time to work, they're working, and they operate on this innate sense of time. They're never behind, they're always ahead. And it makes me think about punctuality. And, you know, because those ants aren't just working hard, storing up stuff for themselves. It's a group effort. They're taking care of the whole crew by being about what they should be should be doing. So I think there's somewhat of a good picture of...we were in Philippians earlier. I'll turn back there...Chapter two, verses 3 and 4. Paul's arguing for unity in the church, and he says, "do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." Do you ever just get into the weeds of you being punctual with this verse, or is this verse reserved for really spiritual things? Or might you realize that when you're always showing up late for the meeting with that person, that you're not looking out for their interests above your own? If you struggle with being on time, I mean, the heart of it is you just think your time is more important than someone else's. And you know, they should just learn to adapt to your ways. But really, punctuality at its heart is about putting others preferences above yours. Because according to Philippians 2:3-4, as a Christian my time is no more important than yours. And if we all operated that way in that web of caring for others more than ourselves, I think we would all generally maybe not be as frustrated with the person that's always running late. And because it's just a hassle to keep telling that person, and most of us just eventually give up on it, or we eventually will write them off without probably telling them. But you just don't want to always be like, you know, I said I was going to disciple this person and they're not here. And you know, so think about being on time, because I think the theological lesson in it is it shows honor to God in redeeming the time he gives you and saying, I want to order my own little universe in a way that I can get to the place I need to be at when I'm supposed to be there by. And in some ways it's being created in God's image that you can order your own life just like God does with us. He's on time and everything happens in due season. It also shows honor to others in respecting the time they're giving to you, not just for the start of it, but also think about, again, if you're maybe you're the on time person, but do you honor the amount of time you said, as in you've kept that person longer than you might have led on to believe so that they can get to the next thing they need to get to. So again, back to point number four keeping your word. Point number five being on time. I think the only way to work on this and get the honest truth is to ask people around you, how am I at being on time? And again, I would say start in the home and then move into the church life. Life group leaders, you know, asking your people in your life group this question... life group members. Again, I'm sure your life group leader is loathe to be on top of you for showing up late for life group. I mean, the only one I'll not wade into is the person that just never leaves your life group and wants to hang out forever. I mean, because we love each other and there might be an exception to that rule, but, you know, just maybe be aware of that. So that's number five...be on time.
  Number 6, clean up, clean up. Proverbs 24:30-32, I passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense. And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles. So it says at the end of this, in Proverbs 24:32...I passed by, I saw, I reflected on it, I looked, and I received instruction. You know, one thing to note from this is a wise man does pay attention and learn from the fool...the bad example of a fool. It commends us to look around and to look at people's lives, and not in judgment, but to learn a lesson from somebody's life who just seems to be in disarray. Note that when he says at the at the beginning of Proverbs 24:30, I passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense. Notice the sluggard actually owns a field. The man lacking sense owns a vineyard. So this person the poverty hasn't come on them like a vagabond, yet jumping them in the alley.  For whatever reason, this person inherits it, or they had it and they've let it go to pot. But either way, it's now covered with nettles and thistles and the walls broken down. And the Proverbs says, I stopped and reflected on it, and I looked and received instruction. And the instruction is about somebody that doesn't keep their stuff in good shape. Somebody that's not a good steward of the possessions they have. And I think you can note this, that it's rare that a really successful individual has a home office, car, whatever, in disarray. Maybe there could be the exception to the rule for the nutty professor, the disheveled genius who probably has enough money to pay somebody to run their life. But maybe the rest of us just have to get back to this idea of having a schedule and, um, you know, the things you have to do. Put those in and then in those gaps at times, even start this week. What's that spot in your house or wherever your car that you're like, yeah, I just don't have time to clean it up. You have time. You just need to organize your life and say, you know what, I'm going to give it 15 minutes tomorrow, 15 minutes Tuesday, 15 minutes, if that's all you can. One of my favorite things to do. I shouldn't say favorite. It's a discipline...is in January, and I've already done it. It's my annual tradition where I begin January by cleaning my garage, and I clean it while I listen to a sermon on self-discipline. It kind of motivates me, and it's a mindless task to clean a garage. Even if you're like, but don't you have to organize all the screws into there? No I don't. They just go into this one big metal can because I don't fix stuff. You know, I don't know how to. So I can just put all the screws in one big metal can. But I organized my garage, so at least when somebody shows up, they're like, man, your garage is so organized. And I say, yeah, and the tools never get used, but yet somehow they get disorganized. Be discontent to live in the midst of a mess. You can make this one fun by maybe somebody in your life group...an accountability partner. Share this week. What's the one area in your life the place that needs cleaned up, and maybe be in a race to see who could do it faster. Who can get it done?
  Seven. Finish the job. Colossians 3:23, whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men. Some of our lives just we look around and they're a string of unfinished projects. It's much easier to start something than it is to finish. It takes perseverance and passion to finish work. Or, as Angela Duckworth wrote in her book, It Takes Grit. This is a good book if you want to learn about what makes certain people successful. And it's not necessarily IQ. She did her master's work, and it ended up being the New York Times bestseller called "Grit". And it's the perseverance and passion that separates the good from the great. That when she just dedicated, starting by, um, she was reporting on the cadets who show up to West Point. The ones who finish the seven week training program called the Barrack Beast, was not predicted when they went back and looked at their SATs and high school achievements and objective performances, physically and mentally. Out of the 1200 students a year who get into West Point and they have to go through this seven week initial test, the hundred or so that were weeded out during the beast was not reflected on their innate talents. It was on the lack of grit, the scale that she came up with. And the lesson in that for us is that you getting things together right this year again, isn't going to be a matter of your intelligence. The finished project that you need to get finished with...the unfinished product I should say...it's probably just a matter of perseverance, determination and passion.
  Number 8. One big thing that stands in the way of us finishing our work. Number 8 is limiting our entertainment. Psalm 119:37 writes, turn my eyes away from looking at vanity. And revive me in your ways. Psalm 119:37...limit your entertainment. Why? Because very few things in life make less of a contribution in contributing something to society, or doing something great than being entertained. I mean, you can learn an example from watching like I did this week, but that contributed very little. It was an illustration in a sermon. But I'm just saying looking at entertainment and not saying, it's sinful necessarily? I mean, that's maybe the easier question. What are you allowing your eyes to watch? But it's knowing that a constant connection to your phone, to the television, to the computer, to being entertained will contribute very little to achieving something of lasting effect. So, starting with your schedule. When you look at the things you have to do and the projects you need to finish, you can go back and then say, hey, where is it that I can fit in time to binge watch my favorite show, if that's what you like to call it. I mean, it's maybe difficult more now than ever because you have it at your fingertips, right? Whereas in days gone by, there's this idea that you actually had to be at your television a certain time of the week to watch the certain show, and then if you missed it and you didn't even have TiVo to record it, you waited five years for a rerun to come on. Um, those days are long gone. And so I think the temptation to be entertained constantly is all the more.
  Number nine relates...practice self-control. Proverbs 25:28, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls...lacking self-control. In the big scheme of things, it may seem like a little self-discipline, but it opens you up to all kinds of dangers, like an ancient city in Bible times, not having strong walls to protect its people. So when we think about practicing self-control, cultivating self-discipline, think about it. Of course, in the physical realm, I mean, usually that goes back to the two big ideas of diet and exercise and how hard it can be to stay to that. But, you know, sometimes it is just a small thing you have to start with. Rather than try to think you need to commit yourself to some big new eating program. I remember a pastor just saying how he cultivates self-discipline in the eating category is, most of the time, he will get to nearing the end of a good meal and just not finish it when it's delicious, especially a dessert. And he would say, I'm just going to leave that last piece of the cake there because I want to tell my stomach it's not in control, I am. I bet you can do that today. I mean, yeah, you've got a got a good plate of nachos in front of you. You're going to be watching some football or whatever and just leave a few out there, even when you're still getting hungry to eat them, throw them in the trash. Tell your body you're not in charge. I am. And it's a little self-discipline like that, you know? Now, I'm not saying be wasteful. You know, you go to somebody's house and you take one bite and then...Sorry, self discipline. It's like, you know, that's where you don't want to be too harsh with these things. But it's just it's just a way to tell yourself something is in more in control of me than just my physical animal instincts. Going back all the way to Proverbs 12:1.
  And last but not least, one of the reasons you want to do all this stuff weed your life, of all these different ideas is number 10...say yes to service. I Peter 4:10, as each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. One reason to try to get numbers 1 through 9 in order isn't so you lock yourself down into some rigid existence. It's so you can free yourself up to serve other people. That's really the great motivator to being a planned, scheduled person is to get the things done you have to so then you have this thing in your life called margin. And when you have that margin, then when people have a need, you can say yes to it because you're not the hasty person playing from behind. That's what I'm saying about it's a really fun and freeing way to live. If you'll do the self-discipline things that we just talked about, you can say yes to serving other people when they need help with something. That's one of the great goals of all this, is to have some margin and margin for me, my definition is it's the area in my life between my commitments and my capacity. So if you think of two boundaries, The inner boundary is my commitments. The things that I said I would do, that I should do, and then the next boundary outside of that is my capacity. What can I actually within my giftedness and time and ability, do? And if I don't have a schedule, if I don't have it locked in, that inner boundary gets pushed all the way to what?...the outer boundary, the capacity. And I don't have capacity to push that one further out without burning out. So what I'm trying to constantly do in life is let my capacity be what it is and just pull that commitment one in by doing those things, I have to do better. Because the gap in between those is the margin that I could then when somebody says, hey, Adam, could you come over and help me with this thing? And I could say, yeah, I actually can. What time? But when I'm pushing my commitments past my capacity, I'm probably having to say no a lot. And it's not because I want to say no because I'm so rigid with my time. It's just I really don't have time to be helpful, to be useful to others. So all this going back to even Kurtis talked about this last week, I Peter 4:7. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Because discipline is profitable, you know, for all things it says, not just the present life, but for the one to come. Verse 10, for this we labor and strive. So there's some effort in this, but listen to this ending in 1 Timothy 4:10, because we fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of all believers. Do you see where he took it? He took it to the highest extent. You know, I want to live a disciplined life for the purpose of godliness, because my hope is fixed on the living God. My life matters.
  I want to wrap this all up by saying, if somebody in here today isn't in Christ, I mean, hopefully you got some principles that can help pull in some loose ends of your life. But the biggest thing you need to think about this morning is, is your hope in the living God, who's the Savior of all men? Because you can't save yourself by being the most disciplined person on planet Earth. You can't work your way to heaven. Discipline won't earn you salvation. Actually, it's quite the opposite. It's realizing you know what? As hard as I try and as good as I can be, there's only one person who's done life perfectly in every aspect. And it's the one that was just mentioned here. Jesus Christ, the living God, the Savior of the world. Have you trusted in him today? Maybe a sermon like this, if you're not in Christ this morning, actually is discouraging because you feel like, man, my life is a mess. Well, you know what? The first step to getting anywhere today for you would be to lay it all down and say, I need forgiven of my sin. The sin of even thinking I'm self-reliant. I can do it on my own. And actually casting myself upon the Savior who did it all for me. And I pray you would come to Christ today.
  Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for today. We thank you for the opportunity to look at self-discipline, not as an end in and of itself, but all means to the great end of using our lives for your glory. I just pray however you want to use all ten of these things. A few of them. One of them to one, motivate and encourage all of us in here in various ways, to use our lives for your glory, because that's what they're for, and that we wouldn't get so boxed into a schedule and a discipline as to lose sight of that big picture that all of this is for you. It's not for us. It's not to us to have people look at our lives and say, oh, what a disciplined person. Lord, we would want people to look at our lives being salt and light and praise our Father who is in heaven. We know that this could easily turn prideful in us if it's about our own glory, but it's about yours. And so help us to be humble in our endeavors, even this week, to put some of this into practice. Not to us, but to your name be the glory we pray. Amen.