Speaker 1: Hi and welcome to the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.
Speaker 1: We hope God will use this week's message to both inspire and challenge you as you seek to walk closer with the Lord.
Speaker 1: Now join me as we listen into this week's sermon.
Speaker 2: Well, good morning.
Speaker 2: It is good to be with you this morning.
Speaker 2: Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to come and to spend this Sunday with you.
Speaker 2: I want to invite you, if you would take your Bibles, be making your way to 1 Timothy, chapter 4.
Speaker 2: We're going to be looking in 1 Timothy, chapter 4.
Speaker 2: It is good for us to be able to declare the holiness of God, the goodness of God and the fact that we acknowledge what a great God it is that we serve, and thankful for the choir and thankful for their helping lead us in worship this morning.
Speaker 2: Y'all are blessed with some great musicians and with a great choir and I'm very thankful for that.
Speaker 2: I've been blessed by that personally, thankful for Dustin as he leads in this time, so just thankful for how they help us to focus our attention on the Lord.
Speaker 2: In a moment we're going to be looking here in 1 Timothy, chapter 4.
Speaker 2: Before we do that, I just want to say a brief word about Easter.
Speaker 2: I know Easter, as Dustin mentioned just a moment ago, it's just not long in the future at all.
Speaker 2: It's going to be the last Sunday of the month and I'm going to be here with you preaching and I want to give you a preacher commitment this morning.
Speaker 2: Okay, Because you may have some people that you're thinking about inviting and they might be willing to come on Easter Sunday morning.
Speaker 2: You're not exactly sure, and I've sat where you sit before because sometimes you think, well, if I only get one chance to invite them and if they come, then I want to make sure it's a good one.
Speaker 2: Well, it is my intention, on Easter Sunday morning, to preach a gospel-focused message.
Speaker 2: I want you to know, if you bring friends, it's going to be about the resurrection of the Lord, jesus Christ, and the difference Jesus Christ can make in their lives and the best way.
Speaker 2: I know how.
Speaker 2: It's going to be brief.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's going to be brief.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to define brief, but it's not going to be long.
Speaker 2: We'll put it that way.
Speaker 2: So I want you to be able to think in terms of, and be praying about, who might be able to come and be a part of this Easter Sunday resurrection celebration that we have, because the Lord has transformed us.
Speaker 2: As I was driving down this morning, I was thinking to myself on some level.
Speaker 2: Here we have this great message.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about this.
Speaker 2: I'll mention this a little bit more.
Speaker 2: But we have this great life-giving message and we know it and we read about it on the pages of Scripture, and our lives have been transformed by it, and we just want people around us to be able to enjoy that same life-giving power that Jesus Christ can give to us, and so it's just a privilege for us to interact with people for the purposes of advancing the kingdom.
Speaker 2: With that said, we're going to be looking here today.
Speaker 2: First Timothy, chapter 4, if you would follow along with me, we're going to read the first ten verses of this chapter, and it says Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth, for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is to be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God in prayer.
Speaker 2: If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed, not reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness, for bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things.
Speaker 2: Having promise of the life that now is and that which is to come.
Speaker 2: This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance, for to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
Speaker 2: Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Speaker 2: Father, we very simply this morning want to call on you and acknowledge today you are indeed a holy God worthy of our worship, and we acknowledge today that the Bible is your revelation to us and we recognize its authority on our lives this day.
Speaker 2: And so let us surrender to your authority, let us learn this morning in ways that allow us to enjoy continued transformation that comes about through the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is in Jesus' name that I pray Amen.
Speaker 2: I think when I first preached several weeks ago, I mentioned that I was from Mansfield Mansfield, arkansas, just south of Fort Smith and when I lived there, graduated high school there.
Speaker 2: I loved playing football.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many of you played high school football but I loved that.
Speaker 2: That was about my favorite thing in high school.
Speaker 2: But I don't know how much you know about Mansfield.
Speaker 2: But although it's improved in recent years, we have a storied tradition of Mansfield athletics from the past and that is we were terrible.
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean we were terrible when I say we were terrible, for all the seasons.
Speaker 2: I could remember we would go out and we would win the first football game of the season, usually by a large margin, and we would be convinced this is the year we're making state this year and we would lose the other nine games of the season.
Speaker 2: I'm not exaggerating that, it happened every year.
Speaker 2: We were everybody's homecoming If they ever wanted to know they were going to win a game schedule.
Speaker 2: Mansfield, you're guaranteed it's going to be great.
Speaker 2: And then I can remember the coach really wanting to put an emphasis on, you know, winning and creating a winning culture.
Speaker 2: And so, sophomore, year one in nine Excuse me, junior year, we go out, we win five of our 10 games.
Speaker 2: We were five and five.
Speaker 2: Now I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they dropped us a classification.
Speaker 2: I want to attribute it all to the hard work and perseverance.
Speaker 2: But one of the things the coach wanted us to do to create this winning culture was, he said all right, mansfield was of a size that a lot of the football players played basketball.
Speaker 2: But he said, if you're not playing basketball, you have to run track.
Speaker 2: Well, I'd never run track in my life, I had never run much of any.
Speaker 2: That's probably speaks to Mansfield athletics.
Speaker 2: But he said, yeah, you're running track.
Speaker 2: And so he just assigned us things we were going to do on the track team, and I was assigned a leg of the four by 400 meter relay.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I was the center at the time.
Speaker 2: If your center is a leg of the four by 400 meter relay, you have a problem, okay, so.
Speaker 2: So I remember that we went to our first track meet and four by 400.
Speaker 2: For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a four man team and they each run one full lap around the track, so it's 1600 total meters and so so.
Speaker 2: So the race starts, and I was the third leg of that.
Speaker 2: And long story short, by the time the race was over, when there were only three teams running, by the time the race was over, we had been lapped.
Speaker 2: Okay, now let that soak in.
Speaker 2: You're not familiar with track.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that means that means four of their men ran four laps quicker than the guys from Mancefield, three of them quicker than three of them could run three laps.
Speaker 2: It was a low point in Mancefield athletics and that's saying something.
Speaker 2: It was embarrassing Like we were legitimately embarrassed.
Speaker 2: We walked away thinking this is probably never happened in track and field, and so we thought we need to start training so this doesn't happen again.
Speaker 2: And so we got back home and we started running more and building up our endurance and working on the handoff of the baton and all those kind of things.
Speaker 2: And would you believe it if I told you that, by the by the conference meet at the end of the season, we won the four by 400 meter relay race that day, which was about the pinnacle of yeah, thank you, that was about the pinnacle of Mancefield athletics.
Speaker 2: So, but no, this year the men's and women's basketball team is doing great, though the football team this past year was one win away from making it to the state championship.
Speaker 2: So I'd like to think they built on the foundation we laid back.
Speaker 2: You know, all those decades ago.
Speaker 2: We did go seven and three the next year, incidentally, but I digress we look at this passage of scripture in 1st Timothy, chapter four, and, as we do, I want to very simply this morning.
Speaker 2: I want to simply ask the question in terms of the effort we put forth in the Christian life, in the Christian faith.
Speaker 2: Let's think about that this morning, the amount of effort we put forth toward following Jesus.
Speaker 2: Now, this morning we've sung about the greatness of God, how holy he is, how wonderful he is.
Speaker 2: I've read from the Bible this morning if you sit in this room and you're not necessarily familiar with the teachings of Christianity, you may be watching online and just tuning in just to see what Christianity is about.
Speaker 2: The message of the Bible is this God created everything that is.
Speaker 2: He created it perfectly.
Speaker 2: As a result of our sinfulness, sinnered the world and that relationship God created us to have, that relationship has been severed because of our sin.
Speaker 2: So everyone that's ever been created, with the exception of Jesus of Nazareth, everyone is a sinner and we've been separated by God as a result of the sin of human beings.
Speaker 2: And what a terrible condition we find ourselves in, because the Bible says as a result of our sin, we're separated from Him and deserve condemnation in a place called hell.
Speaker 2: But God loved us so much he did not want that for us and for that to be our fate, and so he made a way for us to be rescued from that fate, and that is he sent His Son, jesus Christ, to live a sinless life.
Speaker 2: Jesus didn't just set a good example for people to follow.
Speaker 2: That wasn't His mission.
Speaker 2: His mission was he went to the cross to pay the price for our sins.
Speaker 2: He rose from the dead three days later.
Speaker 2: He demonstrated His ability to defeat sin and death.
Speaker 2: And the invitation is for us today, sinful human beings, that if we turn from our sin and we profess Jesus as Lord of our lives, surrendering control to Him, he will come in and take away our sin.
Speaker 2: He cleanses us and he saves us and he allows us to enjoy that relationship with Him.
Speaker 2: Then it never is going to end.
Speaker 2: We're going to declare the greatness and the glory and the splendor of the God who created us forever and ever and ever.
Speaker 2: And it is going to be wonderful and if you think that sounds terrible, you don't know the God of the Bible and all that he's done for you.
Speaker 2: Because it is going to be wonderful.
Speaker 2: He's going to have a great future for the people that he has created.
Speaker 2: And so we realize that's the teaching, the message of the Bible, that is the gospel message, and so Jesus has provided a way for us to have this great relationship with God.
Speaker 2: What a privilege it is for us to be able to do this.
Speaker 2: And so what does that look like today?
Speaker 2: Let's say you made a profession of faith as a child and you followed the Lord in the best way you knew how, and that's been years ago.
Speaker 2: It may have been decades ago.
Speaker 2: What does it look like for you to follow Jesus today and the relationship that you have with Him?
Speaker 2: And I would like for you to consider for just a moment this question.
Speaker 2: Think about how close you are to the Lord today.
Speaker 2: Let's think of it in terms of a scale of one to ten.
Speaker 2: If ten is over here and ten is, I can't imagine it getting any better this side of heaven.
Speaker 2: That is how close I feel to God today, and down here is a one, and a one is well, it's been a long time since I've reached out to the Lord.
Speaker 2: It's been a long time since I've prayed, been a long time since I've read scripture.
Speaker 2: Really, don't even think about it much anymore.
Speaker 2: Think about where you are in terms of your relationship with the Lord on that spectrum.
Speaker 2: And that leads us back to this passage of scripture that we read a moment ago, because I want us to really focus on one verse, and we'll expand it out to another couple of verses in this passage.
Speaker 2: Go back here with me to verse seven for just a moment, because what we find here is verse seven says this it says reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness.
Speaker 2: Exercise yourself toward godliness.
Speaker 2: You may be looking at a translation that translates it as train yourself to be godly.
Speaker 2: This word for train or this word for exercise here the word from which we get the term gymnasium or going to the gym.
Speaker 2: And so it's important for us to acknowledge that the apostle Paul, as he writes to Timothy here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what he is saying is he is telling followers of Jesus Christ to train themselves spiritually.
Speaker 2: Now, think about that.
Speaker 2: We're supposed to go to the gym spiritually.
Speaker 2: We're to get spiritual exercise.
Speaker 2: Now, before we go any further this morning, because we have some things I want to observe about this passage of Scripture, I want to make a very clear point of clarification and that is this I cannot make myself good.
Speaker 2: I cannot make myself good.
Speaker 2: I'm incapable of doing that.
Speaker 2: Try as I might, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: That is the work of the Holy Spirit of God in my life.
Speaker 2: Philippians, chapter one, verse six.
Speaker 2: The apostle Paul says he who began a good work in me is going to carry it onto completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2: And so it is God who saves, it is God who continues to work to make me into the person I need to be as I follow the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 2: But with that said, the message it's not try harder, but I want to draw a distinction between trying harder and being disciplined spiritually.
Speaker 2: If I leave and head back to central Arkansas this afternoon and on my way get out on 167 and have a flat tire, I can kneel down beside the tire, realizing I've got to change it.
Speaker 2: And I can reach out with my fingers and grab a lug nut and begin to try to turn that lug nut.
Speaker 2: And I can try as hard as I possibly can, I can grasp it as hard as my hands will allow, turn it with all my might and guess what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Nothing is going to happen Absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2: However, I can evaluate the situation and I can understand that I'm not able to do this on my own ability, and instead, with wisdom and discernment, even if I don't know how to change a tire, go to the glove compartment, pull out the owner's manual, turn to the table of contents and look in the book how I'm supposed to change a tire, and it allows me instruction on using the lug wrench and the jack, and I'm able to change this tire, even if I've never done it before.
Speaker 2: That's the distinction we're talking about here.
Speaker 2: The Holy Spirit is the one who changes you, but I don't know anyone who is becoming more like Jesus, who is not actively seeking the work and the transformation of God in our lives.
Speaker 2: I can't sit on the spiritual couch and eat spiritual potato chips and hope to become like Jesus.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2: We should be seeking the Lord and doing so with all our might.
Speaker 2: We need to position ourself for God to transform us.
Speaker 2: Dallas Willard once said God is opposed to earning, but he's not opposed to effort, and that's the distinction for us.
Speaker 2: We don't earn our salvation.
Speaker 2: I'll never be good enough.
Speaker 2: I can't grit myself and make myself good enough, but I do put myself in a position where God can begin to transform me into who I need to be.
Speaker 2: Effort should be present in the Christian life.
Speaker 2: So as we look at this passage of Scripture again we focus on verse seven for a moment I want us to recognize two contrasts that are present, related to this idea of spiritual exercise Again.
Speaker 2: The first one is found in verse seven of chapter four, and it again says reject profane and old wives' fables.
Speaker 2: Exercise yourself toward godliness.
Speaker 2: This contrast between getting spiritual exercise and what Paul refers to here as it's translated profane and old wives' fables, old wives' tales you may have heard referenced before, and that's these things that are of no use whatsoever.
Speaker 2: When Paul references these things, they are that which is worthless, that which is untrue, it is unbiblical, it is sinful.
Speaker 2: And for him to reference that which is profane, that which is false, points back to how the chapter began.
Speaker 2: Look here with me at these first three verses of chapter four where Paul talks about some things that will be happening in the latter times.
Speaker 2: Now, the spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
Speaker 2: In this passage of Scripture, paul is describing those who apparently even were present Timothy lived in Ephesus, present in Ephesus at the time and as he teaches this, he identifies those who have corrupted the message of the gospel, these false teachers, these people who are making up things about how to follow Jesus and what it means to have a relationship with God.
Speaker 2: And that's what Paul is talking about here.
Speaker 2: They're contradictory to the message of the gospel, they stand in opposition to the message of following Jesus.
Speaker 2: And so that's the contrast with the second half of verse seven, where it again says exercise yourself toward godliness.
Speaker 2: If I get in spiritual exercise, if I'm going to the gym spiritually, then that is going to position me to enjoy this life of godliness that God created us to live and to enjoy.
Speaker 2: And we look at our culture today and so many people are standing that on their head.
Speaker 2: They have abandoned the pursuit of godliness and instead their conscience is seared, as that passage just mentioned, and they are only living in pursuit of that which is contradictory to the Word of God and pursuit of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: In Galatians, chapter 5, there's a reference to what it means to live in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: It refers to the fruit of the Spirit, and you know the list Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
Speaker 2: And in that same passage it talks about what a life looks like if it's lived in the flesh, not in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: And the list is the exact opposite.
Speaker 2: It is a list of those things which are unbiblical practices.
Speaker 2: And that's the contrast.
Speaker 2: The Apostle Paul says not.
Speaker 2: So, the people of God, we must reject that way of life, reject that which is false and wicked and ungodly, and pursue godliness.
Speaker 2: So that's the first contrast, that's which is wicked, that which is evil, versus that which is good and positions us to be transformed by God.
Speaker 2: And then we look at a second contrast in verse 8, and this one is the contrast of spiritual exercise versus physical exercise.
Speaker 2: Did you notice this?
Speaker 2: As we read it a moment ago?
Speaker 2: Paul says bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come.
Speaker 2: Bodily exercise profits a little.
Speaker 2: Now you're not going to hear me say we don't need to be focusing on bodily exercise.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, though it doesn't look like it, it would look like the kind of thing I might say, but we find in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, paul himself addresses taking care of the body.
Speaker 2: God says in that passage of Scripture, beginning in verse 19,.
Speaker 2: It says do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who's in you, whom you have from God, and that you're not your own?
Speaker 2: You were bought with a price.
Speaker 2: Therefore, honor God or glorify God in your body, that is our responsibility.
Speaker 2: God has given us this body.
Speaker 2: It is a gift and we're supposed to honor the Lord with it.
Speaker 2: But we see the contrast that the apostle Paul gives in verse 8.
Speaker 2: It profits a little, he says, but godliness is profitable for all things.
Speaker 2: Spiritual exercise I can get into shape.
Speaker 2: Excuse me.
Speaker 2: Physical exercise I can get into shape.
Speaker 2: Spiritual exercise it positions me to enjoy the relationship that I have with God in this life and it positions me for an eternity by his side in the future.
Speaker 2: Paul drives this point home in verse 9, where he says this is a faithful saying it's worthy of all acceptance.
Speaker 2: Godliness is profitable for all things.
Speaker 2: Now, if I wanted to get into peak physical condition and I set up an appointment with my doctor, what would he say?
Speaker 2: We know what he'd say.
Speaker 2: He would say start exercising and eat right.
Speaker 2: We know that.
Speaker 2: All right, that's what the answer always is.
Speaker 2: I wish there was a better solution, but it's not so.
Speaker 2: This January I didn't do it for a New Year's resolution, but this January I invested in something.
Speaker 2: I found this program and it's for pudgy middle-aged men, and I invested some money in it.
Speaker 2: All right, not a lot of money, because I didn't know how it's going to work, but it's called the Fit Father Project.
Speaker 2: I don't know if anybody's ever heard of that before.
Speaker 2: Brian, you've heard of that.
Speaker 2: Okay, brian, you don't need it, brian, but okay.
Speaker 2: But so I invested some money in this, just a little.
Speaker 2: And the idea is, if you exercise and do their diet, in 30 days you'll have lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 2: And so I rushed out and I bought a bunch of asparagus and broccoli, crowns and salmon and all that kind of thing Blueberries, you know, I did all that and that's a lot more.
Speaker 2: That's a lot more expensive than Cheetos.
Speaker 2: Incidentally, I'll tell you that's where the breakdown is.
Speaker 2: I'm starting to identify where the problem comes, but it is a 30-day plan and I'm still excited about starting it.
Speaker 2: One of these days Haven't gotten around to it, but there are more extreme plans that are out there.
Speaker 2: Some of y'all may have heard of P90X.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've read about this and you can tell I've never embraced it, but I've read about this and the idea is that if you devote an hour of your day to this intense workout for 90 days, you're going to be in the best condition you've ever been in your whole life, and I'm certain that's true.
Speaker 2: You see the results and it's quite impressive what we find.
Speaker 2: How valuable will P90X and the results of it be in 100 years?
Speaker 2: In 100 years?
Speaker 2: I bought Fitfather Project 30 days.
Speaker 2: Okay, if y'all go out and do that, they need to give me some sort of kickback for though I'm just advertised but I'm not a testimonial because I don't really know how it works.
Speaker 2: I bought this get in better shape 30 days.
Speaker 2: P90x get in better shape 90 days.
Speaker 2: You got these plans where you're going to get into physical shape and I think I'm going to do it, and after this passage of time it's going to be great.
Speaker 2: But what about 100 years?
Speaker 2: What's the 100 year plan?
Speaker 2: None of those are going to address the 100 year plan.
Speaker 2: Godliness and getting spiritual exercise positions us not only for this life but in the life that is to come, and therein lies the need.
Speaker 2: The hundred year plan calls us for us to be really close to the Lord and to enjoy the work God wants to bring about in our lives.
Speaker 2: And so, as we think about this passage of Scripture, exercising ourselves toward godliness, what does that mean?
Speaker 2: It doesn't just mean coming to church more.
Speaker 2: If you walk away going, I'm just going to come to church more.
Speaker 2: That would be great.
Speaker 2: I encourage that, but y'all are already here so I assume that's not as big of an issue for you.
Speaker 2: It goes deeper than that.
Speaker 2: Again, it's positioning ourselves for God to do a great work in us, to become more like Christ, so we represent the character and the ministry of Jesus in our lives.
Speaker 2: And so, with that said, I've come to realize I need spiritual discipline.
Speaker 2: I need to be disciplined spiritually.
Speaker 2: I need to do that which is going to position me to hear from the Lord and to enjoy his work in my life.
Speaker 2: And I can remember as a young man I struggled with this.
Speaker 2: I knew I was supposed to be reading the Bible, I knew I was supposed to be praying and I had the best of intentions and I'd usually try to do it at night and I'd be about three sentences in and I'd start to doze off, you know, and you're having to pick the Bible up off your chest and you're trying to pray and you're losing focus.
Speaker 2: And then I read a little book and I read this quote, and here was the quote of this very godly man.
Speaker 2: He said a desire for God that cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do little good for God.
Speaker 2: Whoa, a desire for God that cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do little good for God.
Speaker 2: You know what I did with that.
Speaker 2: I was a teenager.
Speaker 2: I took an eight and a half by eleven sheet of paper and a Sharpie marker and wrote that quote out.
Speaker 2: And you know what I did with it.
Speaker 2: I pinned it above my bed, literally on the ceiling, so that when I would wake up in the morning, that would be the first thing that I would see and I would have to make the decision Am I satisfied doing weak things for the Lord?
Speaker 2: I need spiritual discipline.
Speaker 2: That's the bottom line.
Speaker 2: I still need it desperately.
Speaker 2: On my best days, I rise early and pray and read Scripture, study Now you know.
Speaker 2: Then you get out on the road and the traffic, and, boy, sometimes my best devotional times are eroded immediately in the midst of traffic there in Little Rock, headed to work.
Speaker 2: But I come to realize that on our best days, if we're going to be in tune with the Lord, in position for Him to do work, it requires effort on our end, not earning, but it requires effort.
Speaker 2: When I do not do these things, I'm not as close as I should be.
Speaker 2: And so what needs to change in your daily routine?
Speaker 2: To position you, to allow the Holy Spirit of God to bring about this changing work in your life, to make us more like Jesus Christ, to train yourself to be godly.
Speaker 2: And I would encourage you and this isn't for everybody and I'm not saying that I'm not about to read a passage of Scripture, although Scripture does imply it in some places.
Speaker 2: But again, for me it was getting up early and making it a priority at the start of the day, and I would encourage you, if you do not have a dedicated time to spend with the Lord, then make meeting with the Lord the top priority of your day, your most important meeting, your most important conversation.
Speaker 2: Have a Scripture reading plan, get up and really stick to it in the best way that you can and I had to come to terms with the fact that I struggled with getting up early, and you may do that as well.
Speaker 2: You know I have found there is a trick to it, and this is very important for you to realize.
Speaker 2: You know the best way, the most important thing to take into consideration, the most important thing to do to get out of bed early in the morning.
Speaker 2: Go to bed early.
Speaker 2: That is the best, and I'm serious.
Speaker 2: You know what that takes Discipline.
Speaker 2: It takes discipline.
Speaker 2: It takes discipline to put the phone down.
Speaker 2: It takes discipline to turn the TV off.
Speaker 2: It takes discipline to get the kids in bed, and so whether or not I'm going to be successful in spending time with the Lord the next morning, that decision is largely made the night before concerning how I spend that time.
Speaker 2: It requires discipline.
Speaker 2: Again, that may not be the one that you need to focus your attention on, but I want to encourage you.
Speaker 2: The Bible speaks of spiritual disciplines and we could spend we're not going to take the time this morning but I mean we don't hear much about fasting.
Speaker 2: I mean, when's the last time you heard about fasting?
Speaker 2: I am genuinely convinced that when we want the Lord to do a great work in our life, fasting is one of the ways in Scripture we see that that is how we demonstrate how badly we want God to work in the situation we're praying about.
Speaker 2: It's spiritual discipline, it's a focus on Him, it's this intentionality that positions us to be transformed.
Speaker 2: And so this morning I just ask you what's one thing, what is one thing that can change in your life that's going to move you in a position, get you closer to the Lord, so that over time he begins to change your values, your perspective.
Speaker 2: He begins to change your view of how you use your money and how you interact with people related to sharing the gospel and what you can do in the life of the church.
Speaker 2: As far as ministry is concerned, that happens as we get spiritual exercise.
Speaker 2: Back in 1917, in little town in Kansas, there were a couple of boys that brothers who went into this one-room schoolhouse.
Speaker 2: They were dead a winter.
Speaker 2: Their job was to go in and get the fire started every morning, and on this particular morning, the older brother.
Speaker 2: He went over to the old stove and began to light the fire and as he did, an explosion happened.
Speaker 2: He had this little can that held kerosene in it and it was used to start the fire.
Speaker 2: But at some point, in some way that no one will ever know, somebody put gasoline in it instead of kerosene.
Speaker 2: And on that particular morning an explosion happens.
Speaker 2: The schoolhouse is caught on fire.
Speaker 2: They dragged these two little brothers out, the youngest of which was seven years old.
Speaker 2: The older brother, who was 13 at the time he died.
Speaker 2: The seven-year-old brother.
Speaker 2: They took to the doctor.
Speaker 2: His legs had been burned terribly.
Speaker 2: Much of the muscle was burned off of one of the legs.
Speaker 2: He lost pretty much the toes of his left foot.
Speaker 2: The arch of his left foot was destroyed and they didn't think he was going to live.
Speaker 2: But after they realized he was going to live, the doctor told the parents we might as well go ahead and amputate his legs because he's not ever going to really regain much of any use in them.
Speaker 2: And the parents begged please don't do that.
Speaker 2: And so they sent him home and he was bound to a wheelchair and for the next couple of years lived in a wheelchair and parents did all they could.
Speaker 2: They massaged his legs and they stretched him in the hopes that somehow muscle would begin to regrow After a couple of years.
Speaker 2: The mom one day looked to see that the wheelchair had been rolled out into the backyard.
Speaker 2: There was a fence around the yard and this young man.
Speaker 2: He had crawled out of the wheelchair over to the fence and had pulled himself up by the fence and was making his way around the yard trying to use his legs in the best way he knew.
Speaker 2: How Would you believe me if I told you that same young man in 1934 ran a mile faster than anyone had ever run it in the history of humanity?
Speaker 2: Glenn Cunningham, the Kansas Flyer, set the world record in 1934 at the mile and he had been told you might as well amputate his legs.
Speaker 2: He will never again walk and I've been told it's my understanding that in those years, as he crawled out of that wheelchair and made his way over to the fence, that in that season of his life eventually a path was.
Speaker 2: It was created just a dirt path around the fence to show all those times he made it around that fence, trying to regain some use of his legs so that one day, not only could he walk again, but run faster than anyone else.
Speaker 2: As followers of Jesus Christ, we're not called to break world records and track and field.
Speaker 2: We are called to follow Jesus.
Speaker 2: Where's the dirt path in our life showing just how much we long to chase after the God that has saved us from our sins and is transforming our lives?
Speaker 2: Let me ask you if you would please bow your head and close your eyes.
Speaker 2: With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, very simply, this morning, for those of you who are followers of the Lord Jesus, he has done so much for us.
Speaker 2: He's the one who has pursued us and saved us and wants to transform our lives, and so you need to get into spiritual shape.
Speaker 2: You need to get close to the Lord.
Speaker 2: The question for you this morning is what needs to change?
Speaker 2: It may be a sin you need to repeat of and you need to commit to the Lord that you're going to turn from that sin.
Speaker 2: It may be some practice you need to bring into your life that is going to position you.
Speaker 2: You may want to commit to reading Scripture every day, because you need to be doing that, praying every day.
Speaker 2: What is one thing that needs to change in your life to put you in a position that the Holy Spirit can do a great work in you?
Speaker 2: I want to invite you this morning, as believers right now, to be committing in that, to think about that, to pray about that and commit that to the Lord.
Speaker 2: If you find yourself in this room or watching online and you do not have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says that, for those who are His, we're going to spend eternity in His presence, and he's inviting you today to enjoy a relationship with Him that, once it's begun, you're going to be able to have this relationship forever and ever and ever.
Speaker 2: He is going to.
Speaker 2: He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth.
Speaker 2: We're going to dwell with Him there and it is going to be wonderful and we want that for you.
Speaker 2: Today, you can have your sin forgiven.
Speaker 2: You can have your life transformed through the power of Jesus and what he did on the death of the cross and the resurrection from the dead.
Speaker 2: You need to come this day and surrender your life to Him.
Speaker 2: In a moment, brian and I will be standing down here at the front, we'd love to pray with you and talk with you about how you can give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Father, we call on you this day.
Speaker 2: We thank you for the invitation that you place on us.
Speaker 2: We, as your people who are saved by your grace, lord, we acknowledge that today you invite us to engage in that, to be disciplined in that, to get spiritual exercise in that which is going to position us to allow you to do the work you need to do, to make us more like you, lord, that human, sinful nature.
Speaker 2: I resist that.
Speaker 2: I want to do that which pleases me, which I think is going to make me happy, but at the end of the day, by faith, we acknowledge that our Creator, you know everything there is about us, you know what it is that is going to satisfy, and let us surrender ourselves to you and trust you completely.
Speaker 2: Give us the willingness to change what needs to be changed in our lives to enjoy the growth you want to bring about.
Speaker 2: Lord, I pray for those in this room this morning, those listening today, that, if they are held captive by an uncertain future or by despair, by hopelessness, open their eyes to their need for Jesus, you have provided a way to rescue them, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Please save this day.
Speaker 2: Give them the desire to seek out the truth and understand what it means to follow you, and it is in Jesus' name that I pray.
Speaker 2: Amen.