Discipline Determines Destiny

In touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, next on In Touch, discipline determines destiny. 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. Reach the goals that He would have for us. But that's not always easy. Because there are always things out there to hinder us if we allow them. But as you think about your life, it's not easy either way you look at it. And 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 talk about in this message is simply this. That discipline, listen, 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 their toning death for all your sins. We're not talking about that. You're saved. You're 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 had a full field of God's purpose, do the things that He would have us to do, achieve the goals that He's set for all of our lives. So the issue is this. Where does discipline fit in your life? Because discipline does determine your destiny. Not your desires. You can desire many things and miss it all. But discipline determines your destiny. So I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 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 23rd verse by saying, 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. That is, in your Christian life, it's a race. And I think that's a race in two ways. It's a race, bibliocles, we're talking about here. And then we talk about life being a rat race. It's fast. He says, 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 sleeve so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. And Paul has been taking a sports illustration here to say, in order to run a race and to 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 a 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 to win. To win what? To win? All that God has laid out before us? All the things that he's promised the blessers 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, not easy. It's required, but it works. When a person lives a disciplined life, you're gonna 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 wanna give you a number of things that I want to encourage you to jot down. And it's so very important. That's why I'm placing this many notes on the screen so you can write them down. If you're a parent, you need to get them down for your children. If you're a student, you need to get them down for yourself. If you're grandparent, you need to get them down for your family. But I want to encourage you to take it seriously because listen, your discipline or lack of it is going to determine your destiny, what you do, what you achieve, what you accomplish, So what I'd like to do, I'd like to clarify a couple of terms, and let's begin with those 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 I'll give you a second to write that down, and then turn to Hebrews, chapter 12, and we oftentimes think about God's discipline and what He's up to in our life. And so there's another kind of discipline, and 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. They have to do what He has to do. Listen to what He says in His 12th 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 person 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 He comes to living a Christian life. And if you're looking 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 15, 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 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 4, I want you to notice a verse here. Look, if you will, in verse 7. He says, "But have nothing to do with the worldly fables fit only for all 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, "Butterly 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 as we said, it's not easy. It's not easy for anybody. If you want to live a godly life, if you want to live a discipline life, it's not easy. And nowhere in the Bible, in fact Paul talks about running, and he talks about one winning, and that means others lose. And so in your life, if you began to live a discipline life, what area of your life would you first choose? Would it be the time you get up in the morning? Would it be something about your relationship to the Lord? Would it be your finances? Would it be your relationships to each other? You see, if you live a discipline life, you may have to say no to some folks who'd like to be your friends. Because you see, the Bible says and warns us about having the wrong kind of relationships. Wrong kind of friends who drag us down. So you have to ask yourself the question, "Where do my values lie?" What matters most, that I live a godly life, walk the ways of the Lord, accomplish His purpose and plan on my life. Or do I want a lot of accolades and a lot of achievements and a lot of this and a lot of that and a lot of that.

Where's God and all of that? So what are the requirements? And I would simply say this. First of all, you've got to have a definite purpose and a definite goal. If you have no definite goal, you want to accomplish much in life. If you don't have a definite purpose. Now, by the way, I ask you, what is your purpose today? You said, "Well, I just want to enjoy life. "Well, what else? "Well, I want to have enough. "How much is enough?" Well, I'm not sure. And we can ask you a lot of questions, but the issue is this. What are you living for? What is your purpose for being alive and staying alive? You want to live a long time? You want to be healthy? For what reason? Do you have anything that's so demanding of you that it takes discipline to accomplish it? Name me something that is of great value, that it does not demand and require discipline in order to achieve it. That's the way God made it. He wants us to grow. He wants us to, he wants, he says, "He predestined you and me to be conformed "to the likeness of his son." And when you read the Gospels and the way Jesus spent his life,

he didn't spend it, he invested it, and believe me, he was a very disciplined person. The same thing would be true of the apostle Paul. You're not no disciplined people. This is when people are encouragement to us. But you're going to have a goal. And then you have to pursue it with diligence. And for example, somebody says, "I'm gone on and died." Listen, if we understood what real, true discipline was all about, and people practice it, you wouldn't have 49 different programs on the television every week had to lose weight. And every single one of them says the same thing, the secret. How many secrets are there to lose and weight? I can tell you what the secret is. Just walk away. That's what the secret is. And that doesn't cost you anything. Doesn't cost you anything. But it goes back to the whole issue. How much value do I place on losing weight? If I place enough value on it, I'll walk away. I'll discipline myself. But if I say, well, I think I'm going to. And so you exercise, let's say, for example, you exercise for a week. And I mean, you're just doing fantastic. And you wake up in the morning and say, "Oh, I don't think I'm going to do that today."

And the next thing you know, you're also working on your diet. And somebody says, "Let's go to lunch." And I want them big burgers. I can hardly wait. You know what? Diligent says, "I may want to." Remember what we said in the beginning? Listen, discipline not desire determines our destiny. And I may want to do a lot of right things, but if I'm not willing to be disciplined, it's not going to happen. And so you got to proceed with diligence and you got to be consistent. You can't do it one day and forget the other. And I think probably, and I'm not really a harping on diet necessarily. I have that in mind except to say it's a good example. It's easy to start, but you're going to be consistent. You're going to be diligent. You're going to be working. You're going to really work at it. And are you going to practice self-control? Now you say, "Well, that's what discipline's all about." Right. The reason I said practice, because that's what it is. You won't succeed the first time. There are times you're going to fail, but here's the issue. Just because, watch this. Just because I failed today doesn't mean I'm a failure. It means I start tomorrow.

But I'm not going to quit starting. I'm going to have to start again and again and again and again. And so you have to decide what is the value of this thing that you want to get under control in your life. You want to get your finances under control? Well, to what degree do you want to get them under control? How much real value do you place on that? Well, it gets you out of debt. You can sleep better at night. You won't be worried about them calling you over. There are lots and lots of things. You can say, the value I place on controlling my finances is I will feel free. Because the Bible says, the bar is a slave to the lender. And we have a whole nation of slaves, people who financially enslaved because they did not practice discipline. And we say, well, why do you start? You start today. You say, I'm thinking about starting. You'll never get it that way. You make a decision. You say, today, on this day, I'm starting. I'm going to practice discipline in the way I handle my money. Otherwise, you get deeper and deeper in debt. And the lack of that causes problem, not to problem, not to problem. And causes people to do things, say things, things happen in their life that never would have happened if they hadn't gotten themselves there.

Is it difficult to practice discipline? Yes, it is. I've said that over and over again. But what's the value you place on the thing you want to be disciplined about? And then you have to just say, no, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now watch this. You say, well, it is very difficult. I know what it is, but watch this. He says, he sent the Holy Spirit to live within us. call us to do or achieve the goals that God would have us to achieve. So we have a helper. So that means we have within us one who will empower us to look at a situation and say no when we need to say no. I think about parents who can't say no to their children because they themselves are so undisciplined. In other words they can't stand the rejection of their children. So they said well okay and they allow them to go to parties with us drinking. They allow them to dress in ways they should not dress as young people. And all the things that go on because they're so undisciplined themselves. What do they do? They just pass that lack of discipline under their children. Then when their kids really mess up they want to blame them because the parents are too lazy themselves to make a decision so afraid they're going to suffer a rejection by their kids they don't have the courage to discipline their children. Forget it. Listen I go back to what I said what value do you place on that child? Is that child a valuable person to you going to grow up being an adult one of these days? The value you place on the child the discipline you will listen and remember what we say we're

not talking about spanking them we're talking about teaching them self-control it's only going to learn that it's only going to happen in a family where mom and dad practice self-control. So you have to ask yourself the question what are the requirements and there they are. Then thank the Lord their rewards many many rewards for discipline remember we're talking about controlling ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit which builds character in our life and enables us to live a life that is fulfilling in which we achieve and which is orderly and so then what about the rewards well I just say first of all like on the screen the reward number one is a lifestyle that is more orderly and less stressful and I hear people oftentimes say you know our stress is getting me down and it would be interesting to know if we could if we could trace it how much depression can be traced back to less like a discipline that creates this is because of disorder no ordinance in their life lots of confusion nothing's out of control just aimlessly living their life listen you live an aimless life you're going to get depressed and lots of things are making depressed God doesn't want his children being depressed he wants us living a godly order in life and there's going to be peace there's going to be confidence there's going to be happiness there's going to be a joy in a person's life and you're going to feel good about yourself you'll be happier you feel a sense of accomplishment achievement in life and all the time this is going on you know what's going to be happening you're going to be growing in your Christian life you're going to be growing in your relationship to Christ you're going to be growing and you're going to walk with God and living a listen the more disciplined you are in other things the more you understand and recognize the importance of being disciplined to live a godly life it's it means I say no to this and yes to that and that discipline life is going to affect every single aspect of your life if you will allow it now remember this all of us are where we are because of what we've been thinking it's a choice has nothing to do with age has nothing to do with talents and skills and abilities because some people have this skill this ability that talent whatever it might be it's where God has called you what he wants you to do what he has in mind for you and I can tell you he has the best in mind but you and I have to practice discipline so you're going to be more productive for example and it's going to contribute to your good health a person who's disciplined usually that affects their rest it affects what they eat it affects their relationships it affects

everything in their life then of course it's going to make a positive impact on others when you meet somebody who's very disciplined now I don't mean they're so legalistic they don't even know how to have fun and that's not what we're talking about but a person who is disciplined there's something contagious about that because you see them accomplishing things you see them going somewhere you see them having a sense of direction it's contagious and what you certainly want to happen in your among your children your grandchildren you want them to see in you those qualities that will help them become the persons God wants them to be and the truth is all of it. Listen, it isn't how perfect a parent is. Believe me, that's not it. It's seeing us work at it. We may fail about many, many things, but seeing us work at it and seeing that we don't give up and that we don't quit and that we're diligent and we're persistent. And no matter what happens, if we fall down, we get up. If we get knocked down, we get back up. We don't quit. That builds within a child a sense of determination and builds within them a sense of accomplishment. But if my dad did it, if my mother did it, whatever it might be, I can do it. When my kids came along, they thought that I was a little tough on them, but it worked. And that's what matters. It worked. One of the good things that happens is it opens doors of opportunity. If you were going to hire somebody, if you were going to hire somebody, would you hire somebody who came in and said, "Well, I've been sort of looking for something to do." I don't know. If you got a job, I'll take it. If somebody came in and said, "I'm looking for a job. I've got some goals for my life. I want to do my best. I promise you, I'll be honest. You can count on me to do a good job. Which one are you going to hire?" You know which one it would be. Well, then we should be an example of all that. Then of course, it's going to enable you to reach your goals in life. A person who is disciplined, they will be diligent and persistent and consistent and determined no matter what. The Holy Spirit will actively enable you to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish because that's his will for you. You can't lose. Think about this. If we could get 10 seconds standing before Jesus and looking at the reward, that would be possible for us. Nobody ever talked to you about being disciplined again. See, what we don't realize is we have no idea what we are missing when we do not do what God wants us to do and do the things He'd have us to do. Now, when I think about the real contribution

it makes, think about this. We're diligent in life. We discipline our life to be consistent. And one day we stand before Him and He says, "Well done. It's worth it. It'll be worth it for all eternity." You see, we're living too much in the temple instead of eternal. Now you say, "Well, how do you start being disciplined?" You want those amen? Real simple. You decide today, the beginning today, I'm going to read a portion of the Word of God every day. Is there anybody here who could not do that? Right. Every single one of us can read the Bible every day. That's going to teach me, I'm going to start with that. Second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to pray and talk to God every day. Not just about all my needs, but I'm going to talk to him about what he says in his Word, but I'm going to read his Word and I'm going to pray every day. That's two steps I can take to becoming, listen, disciplined. That means watch this now. That means I'm going to control my time. If I have to get up early to do it, then I'll get up early. If that means I can't do something else to read the Bible and pray, I'm like, I'm going to get rid of that. But you can. The third thing I'm going to do is this, and you can do is you can tie your income. He's all nice. He's talking about money though. I'm getting around talking about your success. I'm talking about how you can become the person God wants you to be because watch this. When you're disciplined with your finances and you give God what he says, what you're doing is you're giving God an opportunity to build your faith, which is one of the most powerful things you have. How do you start learning to build your faith? You count to 10, and you lay aside one penny out of every 10. You say, well, you mean if I give him one penny out of every 10 and a dime out of every dollar and $10 out of every 100, is that right? We keep going. Here's the amazing thing. People make very little the time. Start making other money. Oh, I couldn't give or don't do it much. They forget how to add and subtract. It's just that simple. If God gives me a thousand and I give him a hundred, I'm grateful. If he gave me 10,000, I give him a thousand. He's still doing the same thing. Watch this. I'm If you were to learn discipline, you start with reading the Word of God, praying, giving, and a good way to start discipline also is this. And that is attend worship every Sunday. Discipline says, you know when Sunday comes, I'm going to be there, why? Because I'm going to meet with the people of God to fellowship and to sing and to listen

to the Word of God. And I want to grow every single week. I have an opportunity to grow to learn something that will deepen my relationship with him and make me more valuable to God and help me to make an impact and make a difference in somebody's life. Well, I can just go down a long list, but I just started with the first two. Everybody read the Bible and everybody pray. So when you walk out of here today, or if you're listening, watching, and you don't start being disciplined, those two areas, you go suffer the consequences. I'll tell you why. The Word of God is our guidebook for life. It's our guidebook for life. And all I'm saying to you is if you want to learn to be disciplined, read a poem every day, where? We're starting the Psalms, starting the Gospel. It's wherever you want to start, it's up to you, and talk to God every day. You say, when, watch this, whenever you choose, but choose the time that if it's all possible you do the same time, then you develop the wonderful habit. Now, you say, well, suppose I'm not a Christian. Well, this is not going to work, but I can tell you how it will work. It's so wonderful. If you ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you for your sins, and you ask Him to forgive you and to cleanse you because you want to become the person God wants you to be, you want your life to count, and you want it fulfilled. You ask the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from your sins by His death and Calread took care of your sin dead and full. Once you ask Him to forgive you, cleanse you, surrender your life to Him. He seals you as one of His children, comes into your life in the Holy Spirit, and at that point will enable you to become the person God wants you to be. You've all heard the truth.

Now, the question is this, what are you going to do about it? Do you practice discipline in your relationship to the Lord, His Word? Do you practice discipline, for example, the way you dress? Do you practice discipline the way you handle your money? Do you practice discipline in the friends you choose, the places you go, the music you listen to, or the message you listen to, or the magazines you read, or the books you read, you practice discipline, some things, no. Some things, yes, doesn't fit who I am, really fits who I am, will help me grow in my Christian life, will not help me grow. Listen, only because I love you and I care. Don't do, don't get into anything that is not going to grow you up, build you up, and make you a God-lippers. Don't get into that. Whatever it might be, it's wrecking people's lives every day. You have to make a choice. And I'm saying to you that God is offering you a choice to be your best, if you'll take it. Amen? Father, how grateful we are that you love us enough to be patient, I pray the Holy Spirit this morning, has spoken to every single person who's listening. I pray the Spirit of God will just entrench this message so deeply that it cannot be removed, and that discipline will become a major part of our thinking every day, not some days, and that you will grow us faster, and more thoroughly than ever before, making each and every one of us a valuable servant of God. We love you, Father, and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. [MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING]