Building Christian Discipline When Life Pulls You Off Course

If you’ve ever felt like you “should” be more consistent but can’t seem to stick with it, this message hits that exact tension. We start with Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”, and connect it to a very normal struggle for Christians: the battle of discipline. Not discipline as shame, but as a steady, life-shaping way to follow Jesus when your energy dips, your habits drift, or your priorities get crowded.

We look at Jesus as the ultimate model of spiritual discipline, not only in suffering but in choosing humility, routine obedience, and faithfulness under real temptation. From there we lean into 1 Corinthians 10:13, which reminds us that temptation is common, God is faithful, and there is always a way of escape. We also unpack how discipline ties to discipleship, why self-control shows up in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and what a disciplined believer looks like in everyday life.

Then we get practical and honest: living the same faith in public and private, building confidence through time in the Word, routine prayer, and surrounding yourself with believers who will actually check on you. We also talk about good things that quietly become idols and steal your attention, plus one unforgettable picture: Christ doesn’t want to be the “top shelf” of your life, he wants to be the whole shelf. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs traction, and leave a review with the habit you’re working on right now.

Transcript

Welcome And Why We Gather

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Uh I thank y'all for giving me the opportunity to come up here today. Um, and and and I I really appreciate y'all letting me go in there and do class. I was I was nervous about that, and not to say I'm not nervous about this, but uh I've done this a time or two that was new for me. And so uh I I really appreciate y'all giving me the opportunity to be here today. Um and so I'm gonna I'm kind of doing a rerun of a of a lesson that I gave a long, long while back that I really liked, and uh, and it was something that that I felt pretty confident about, and it's something that comes up in my everyday life. Uh, it's not something that that uh I gave once and never really thought of again. And and so this is I'm I'm really talking to myself when I'm up here preaching. So uh y'all are just getting to hear my inner thoughts.

Romans 8:31 And The Battle

SPEAKER_00 0:50

But um to today's main topic is going to be based off of uh of Romans 8 and 31. And that is, let me let me get turned there. So Romans 8 and 31 says, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? And that was uh that was the main verse for the the topic of Barton Bible Camp last year. And um, I was lucky enough to be able to do the the summer use series that night for the the junior high week. And so it's it's in this verse uh it's telling us that if God's force, who can be against us? And and so what do we think of when we think about that? And and the main topic for for what we said we think of was that the battle belongs to the Lord. And so I I kind of tried to branch out from what all the other lessons were about uh every Tuesday that summer. Um and I wanted to branch out what is something that we all battle with, that we, when we talk about letting the battle be with the Lord, something that we all probably battle with is the battle of discipline and the battle of being a disciplined person, disciplining children, uh, disciplining our bodies, our minds. There's there's a lot of different ways to imply that on our lives. And so that's the main topic of today is discipline and allowing in the battle that we have with that and how we can live our lives in a disciplined way.

Christ As The Model Of Discipline

SPEAKER_00 2:31

And so to before we even get into it, I think it's to be said that the greatest act of discipline is what Christ did for us. Is in not just in the sense of the pain and the agony that he suffered, but in the fact that he had the most comfortable heavenly home possible. He was he had something that none of us here have ever experienced, and hopefully all one day will, but to till that point, we'll never, we'll we have it. And so he gave up this beauty and comfort and amazing life in his heavenly home. And he came down here and he lived a humble, probably not just the greatest life. He lived uh the life of a carpenter, and he he didn't live in a big castle or in a kingdom. He lived in a humble home in a small town and lived uh a life similar to what we all live today. And so as Jesus goes through his life, he not he not only is faced with uh with he not only enacts that discipline when he comes down and as he uh goes through his younger life, but in his everyday life, in the temptations and in the trials and the different things that he would have gone through on a day-to-day basis. Because one thing is he was fully human, and that's I think sometimes forgotten, is that if we think about ourselves in the temptations and the different things that we go through on a daily basis, Christ would have gone through those exact same things, except for the fact that he was a whole lot stronger than we are, he was a whole lot more disciplined. And so I'm gonna turn to First Corinthians 10 and 13, if you want to turn there with me. Uh-oh, I lost my, I seem to have lost my spot. Here it is. All right, 1 Corinthians 10 and 13 says, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And so living a life of discipline is understanding that we're gonna face hardships, we're gonna face trials, but where we understand that there's nothing that we can't overcome. There's nothing that we can't say no to, and there's nothing that we can't uh how would I put this? There, there's there's nothing that we can't, well, there's nothing we can't do. We can always become better when it comes to maybe our eating habits, going to the gym. But what we're mainly talking about here today is we can always become better when it comes to disciplining ourselves within the word.

Discipline, Discipleship, And Self-Control

SPEAKER_00 5:27

And so that so we talked about uh we talked a little bit uh a little bit about discipline, but uh, where does the word discipline come from? It comes from the word discipleship. Being disciples means being disciplined ones and living a life of discipline. So Hebrews 2 and 11 tells us that um that for that all discipline is painful at the time, that it hurts, but it it brings out the good in us, it brings out the fruit in our lives, and and it shapes us into who God meant us to be. So, what is a person, what is it who is disciplined, a person who lives a life of discipline look like? It looks like somebody who can control their behaviors and emotions, looks like somebody who can control their actions, somebody who follows rules with integrity, whether somebody's looking or not, maintains a routine, and is willing to sacrifice for what's right and also practices self-control. Those are just a few qualities that I picked out that that are something that a person, person who lives a disciplined life will look like and do in their everyday life. And one thing that is that I think is uh good to mention is the fact that discipline is a lifestyle, self-control is an action. Discipline is the virtue that allows a person to exercise self-control. And if we turn uh no, that's not yet. I was gonna, I've got a verse coming up that I thought that's where it was, but it does tell us um that one of the key parts of being a Christian is having self-control. And so that that leads us into point

Biblical Examples Of Disciplined Faith

SPEAKER_00 7:12

two. So we talked about what is discipline, and now I want to give a couple examples of people in the Bible who live that lifestyle. And so um but before we do that, I want to turn to Galatians 5 and 12. Galatians 5 and 12. And that says, I could I could wish that those oh no, I'm in the I'm sorry, folks. I uh I marked the wrong verse this morning. Five and twenty two. I'm sorry. Um five and twenty two says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And so those attributes that we read in Galatians 5 and 22 are things that we see all throughout the Bible. Obviously, we see it in Jesus, and we've already talked about that. We also see it in John the Baptist, Abraham, Job, the disciples, Noah, David, Paul, Joseph, and countless others. John the Baptist lived a life of hardship. He lived in the wilderness. And for those of us who spend our time outdoors, we understand how hard it would be to live a life completely outdoors, taking modern technology, taking uh any sort of um safety and security out of the picture. That's the life that John the Baptist lived. And through it all, he maintained a disciplined faith in worshiping God. Abraham was so, he he loved God so much that he was willing to sacrifice his own son. He was willing to be disciplined enough in his faith to know that what God told him to do was what he needed to do. Job, not that he necessarily wanted the life that was given to him, but he was disciplined in his faith enough that when that hardship and the trial came to him and his life was wrecked, he didn't immediately throw his faith out the window. The disciples, uh, I did a sermon a little while back about endurance, and and I'm not gonna put y'all or or give y'all all the examples here, but um every single one of the disciples, except one, was killed for their faith. And a lot of a lot of people uh who who uh will claim that Christianity is false could look at these disciples and ask themselves, why did these men choose to die these gruesome, painful deaths for something that didn't matter, for something that they could have just gave up? But just a couple of the different ways that that the disciples uh were killed was you had one who was filleted alive, skinned alive, and cut in half. You had another one who you had multiple that were beheaded, multiple that were stabbed while preaching, um, multiple that were hung upside down because they felt that they weren't worthy to die in the same manner as their Lord. And then the one that survived, you only the only reason he survived was by the grace of God. He was boiled alive in oil and managed to escape, survive, and live out the rest of his life. And those are those are that's just a brief summary of the way that the apostles died, and that's not to mention their lives before that. But the the disciples are amazing examples of what it looks like to have a disciplined faith. You have Noah, who spent hundreds of years preaching and building the ark, because that's what he knew he had to do. David. David showed mercy to Saul and discipline and his faith when he when he knew that he could have had it all, he could have had the kingdom in his hands, but he he was disciplined in his faith by allowing God to give it to him instead of trying to take it for himself, Paul, and all the hardships that he went through from being standing side by side with folks one day and being completely against them the next. And Joseph, who was disciplined uh in the in the situation where his master was uh his master's wife tried to uh tried to sleep with him and and him fighting that lust, and then later on in his life to fight the temptation to retaliate against his brothers. And though though, again, those are just a few examples of of what a good Christian disciplined faith looks

Living The Same Public And Private

SPEAKER_00 11:53

like. So true discipline is discipline in our faith, not just being disciplined in the world. We can be a great uh, we have to do it publicly and privately. We can't just be a good, faithful Christian outside or at church or at work and then go home and be somebody completely separate. And that works vice versa. We also have to make sure and and not be the person who loves to study our Bible at home. But as soon as we get around our friends and our and and people outside of that, we we fall into this worldly uh version of ourself. And so first 1 Corinthians 11, 29, and 32, or no, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 10 and 31 talks about how you can only serve one master. That if you're gonna serve one, you're gonna hate the other. And if you're gonna be uh loyal to one, you're gonna despise the other. And so um that that brings us into to our third point that talks about we've we've given examples and we've talked about what it is, but how do we do it?

Habits That Build Confidence In Faith

SPEAKER_00 12:56

So we've and we've talked about how we have to live both publicly and privately. And oh, I might have read y'all the wrong verse there. Um that might not have been 1 Corinthians 10.31. I think that was Matthew 6 and 24 that uh talks about the the two masters. Um so I apologize about that. But when it comes to our faith, and kind of like we talked about in class this morning, one thing we have to make sure and do is be confident in our faith. And there were a lot of good things said this morning, but ultimately we have to believe in what we're trying to sell to those around us. If we're gonna live a disciplined, faithful life, we've got to be willing to die on that hill for our faith, that no matter what's thrown at us, that no matter what people push in our face, no matter how good it looks to not live for Christ, that we're gonna stand on that hill and that's where we're gonna stay. And and the when we when we talk about going out and spreading the gospel and and doing what we're called to do in Matthew chapter, Matthew, I think it's Matthew chapter 18, we're called to go out and spread the gospel. We're called to go out and make disciples of those around us. And in doing so, we're enacting discipline in our faith. And like we said this morning, you have to believe it. You have to be so confident in your faith that no matter what's thrown at you, you know what the truth is. And so, what are some ways that that we can actively gain that confidence? So, like we talked about this morning, actively being in the word. One thing that maybe didn't get mentioned a whole lot this morning, well, yeah, it did, is praying routinely and making sure that we have a good prayer life, surrounding ourselves with fellow believers, people who are like-minded, people who want to see us do good and not just want to see us at church and have some good social time. And after that, it's kind of things just die out. People who are willing to call and check on you, people who are willing to come to your house and help you out when you need something, people who, if you're in a rough time in your life, you can give them a call and they'll pick you up. Those are the kind of people that we have to surround ourselves with. And then one thing is sacrificing things that draw us away from God. Not all hobbies and and relationships and habits and things, uh, not all of them are bad towards maybe they're they're not necessarily bad in the sense that uh what we're doing while we're doing them draws us away, but maybe take less time in them, take less time away from watching football, watching baseball, playing golf, doing doing just different different things that aren't bad, but we idolize them. We make them too big of a part of our life. And and when we when we idolize them and we put them up top, God seems to not be in the picture anymore. But instead, allow those things to show your your faith. I heard a guy preach one time who said, Christ, we we always talk about how we have to we want Christ to be number one, right? But here's the thing Christ, if if we took Christianity or our faith and we looked at a shelf, Christ doesn't just want to be that first shelf. He doesn't just want to uh to be the most important shelf on on in this drawer. He wants to be the whole thing, the entirety of it. And every shelf that goes down through there is connected back to him. That's what he wants. He wants us to make him the entirety of everything we do. And I and I heard another thing yesterday that talked about how when in Proverbs, when it tells us to lean on him, the if you go back and you look at the Greek origin of the word, it quite literally means to fall, not just to use as somebody to to help you through a hard path. It literally means to take the weight off of yourself and put it onto something else entirely. That's what Christ wants out of us. He wants us to live a life of faith. He wants us to live a disciplined life and continuously go back to him when we don't live that life, when we fail, when we fall short, like it tells us we're gonna do. He wants us to go back to him. He wants us to make him everything. And so a faithful and disciplined life not only leads to a good Christian life, but it just leads to a joyful life. We talked about in class this morning, Christianity is one of those things that you can look at people and you can you can actively see the progress and the the help that you giving them the gospel did to their life. You see it on a day-to-day basis. When that person takes what you told them and applies it to their life, you're gonna actively see it. Versus maybe uh you're also maybe you're gonna see the opposite of when you try to teach them and you and they don't take it, maybe they they kind of throw it away, they don't agree with it. You can also see some of the things that might happen in their life due to the fact that they're not following in the right direction. And that's the truth is that when we live a Christian, a disciplined Christian life, even if it's hard, even if we face trials, we face hardships, we're gonna have overall a joyful life because we're gonna know that no matter what happens here, we're taken care of and we're gonna be, we're gonna be okay no matter what.

Joy, Goals, And Coming Back

SPEAKER_00 18:36

And so uh it's it's never too late to make a goal, to live as faithfully, as faithful, faithfully disciplined as we can. It's never too late in our life. It is something that um that we might feel that we're too far gone, we might feel that we're too separated. But like we talked about in class this morning, uh what was one of the stats was that um that when we are in our in our Bible over so many times a week, the feeling of spiritual disconnection falls by over 50%. It's never too late to turn back to the way that we know we need to be going. And it's never too late to start being disciplined in our faith and making sure that this is the entirety of our life, is that He is the entirety of our life, that He's the whole shelf, not just the top one.

Invitation And Closing

SPEAKER_00 19:28

And so uh if there's anybody here who has any needs, uh please join us as we stand and sing.