027 Core Beliefs: Discipline

Everyone can have good intentions, but good intentions are nothing more than: Excuses, Empty words, Self-deception, Unrealized potential, Delayed obedience, A false sense of progress, or Disobedience in disguise IF NEVER ACTEDUPON!!! If I can break this down into the simplest words I can, I would say this: Discipline is Becoming the Man Who DoesWhat Must Be Done

 Most men don’t fail because they lack desire—they fail because they lack discipline.

Discipline is the bridge between who you are and who God has called you to be.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Most men don't fail because they lack desire. The truth is, most men have a lot of desire. The reason they fail is because they lack discipline. You see, discipline is the bridge between who you are and who you are called by God to be. So what do you say? What if we take a little time? What if we talk about that? Welcome to the Iron Pursuit Podcast, where men are forged by the truth of God's word. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. This podcast is a call to biblical manhood. Here, we challenge men to rise above comfort, reject passivity, and live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Each episode is designed to strengthen your faith, sharpen your character, and equip you to lead with integrity, growth, and growth. So whether you're a husband, a father, a brother, or a friend, this is your invitation to pursue the kind of manhood that honors God and changes generations. This is the Iron Pursuit. All right, gentlemen, thank you for coming back to the podcast once again. We are on episode number 27, and we are continuing on in our um series of core beliefs. And we have gotten down to the end of our core beliefs. We're either at the end or we have maybe one more to go. I'll just kind of see how that goes from here. But we are going to talk about discipline today. And I think uh just I know last time I said that I was really uh interested in the core belief of leadership because I I really like leadership. But over the last year, I would say that this core belief of discipline has done something to me. I have learned a lot uh in the in the area of discipline. And um and I and I've always I've always liked discipline. I've taught discipline, but I I'll be the first one to tell you, I've not always been the best one to speak about discipline. I've I've had to work on discipline in my life, um, as every man has. Everybody's not just gifted with discipline. They're not, they don't just come out of the womb disciplined. They have to actually work at it and and get better at it. But you know, discipline is one of those core beliefs that separates intention from transformation. As a boy, I grew up in the 80s and in the 90s, and I remember Randy Travis's song, Good Intentions. Have you ever heard that song? Uh I was an old Randy Travis fan back in the day. But let me read you just a few lines from the lyrics of Randy's song called Good Intentions. He says this, and I quote, Mama always prayed that I'd be a better man than daddy, and I determined not to let her down. Deserted by the man she loved and left to raise four children, we were the local gossip of the town. I promised her that I'd live right and not like all the others, but I wound up in jail on Christmas Day, and I told her I'd be home and not to worry about my brothers. When I got home, my mom had passed away. And I hear the tale of the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But mama, my intentions were the best. There's lots of things in my life I just as soon not mention. Looks like I turned out like all the rest. But Mama, my intentions were the best. You see, guys, what I want to drive home to you with this core belief episode is that everyone can have good intentions, but good intentions are nothing more than excuses. Good intentions are nothing more than empty words. Good intentions are nothing more than self-deception or unrealized potential or delayed obedience or a false sense of progress. Good intentions is simply disobedience in disguise if it's never acted on. And you see, you can have all the good intentions in the world, but if you don't act upon it, it just becomes a whole bunch of meaninglessness. And if I can break this down into the simplest words that I can, I would say this discipline is becoming the man who does what must be done. I want to repeat that on purpose. Discipline is becoming the man who does what must be done. And I guess I could add to that, no matter what the cost, a man who's disciplined is going to do what is required of him to do. Because, like I said in the introduction, most men do not fail because they lack desire. Most men have an abundance of desire. They desire so many things. And a lot of times what gets us in trouble is because we desire the wrong things and we chase after those things for so long and for the wrong reasons. So it's it's not because, you know, men don't fail because they lack desire. They fail because they lack discipline. They don't know how to do the right things when they should and when they shouldn't be doing the wrong things, or how to decipher what's right, what's wrong, because they've not disciplined themselves in hardly any way at all. Discipline is that bridge between the person you are right now and the man that God has called you to be. So I want to jump into this and I want to try to build a foundation on this core belief of discipline that will help you, hopefully, to get the wheels moving, so to speak, on the on the discipline train in your life. So let's just jump into it with number one. Discipline is a decision. It's not a feeling. It has to be a decision that you make day after day after day. Most people, unfortunately, treat discipline like a mood. They say something like, Well, I just don't feel like it today. But you know, discipline isn't something that should be emotional. It needs to be directional. If you only do things when you feel like it, I'm gonna just tell you right now, there's not gonna be too much that gets done. Think about what I'm telling you. If if your discipline is based on emotion, it's not gonna be based on direction. I want you to think about this. What if you only went to work when you felt like it? How many, be honest with me. How many days would you get up and go to work during the week? It wouldn't be very many because we don't wake up every morning just feeling like, man, I'm ready to go and I'm ready to tackle the world, and I love my job, and I want to go put up with all those idiots that I work with or whatever it might be. You don't wake up in the morning and just have this idea that I just love this life that I get to live because I get to go to this job. Unfortunately, our jobs most of the time have bad days. And if you only went off of emotion to get up and go to work, you wouldn't get up and go to work very much at all. How would your bank account look if you went to work based on your emotions? But the reason that you don't get up and go on your emotions, you get up and go on your own direction is because you know your family depends on you as a provider. You are disciplined in this regard to go to work because of the direction that it takes you. It pays the bills, it provides essential necessities for living, it provides a home, it puts the groceries on the table, it puts the uh clothes on your back, et cetera, on and on, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I could go on and on and on with that, but let me just back up away from that just for a moment, and let's look at it from a biblical perspective, and let's think about what Paul told Young Timothy over in 2 Timothy 1, verse number 7. Paul's, I mean, yeah, Paul wrote this. He said, God gave us a spirit not of fear. Okay, listen to that. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but he gave us a spirit of power, love, and listen to this one self-control. He gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power, of love, and self-control. Think about that for just a moment. A lot of times we are not very disciplined because there is a sense of fear in us, and we we don't we don't operate off of what God wants us to operate off of. You know, the power, the power of the Holy Spirit within us, the love of God within us, and especially the self-control that He's given us. Unfortunately, um, for most of us, because most of us guys have have dads, unfortunately, most of our dads didn't teach us about self-control. It didn't teach us how to be a person, how to be a man who could control the self. You see, our dads probably, if you're if your dad was like my dad, your dad taught you how to change the oil. He probably taught you how to turn some wrenches on a few things, maybe taught you how to run the lawnmower, the weed eaters, how to take the trash out, blah, blah, blah. He probably taught you how to do all those things. But when it came to self-control, my dad was not a very good teacher because he didn't have self-control himself. Therefore, he couldn't teach me. But when it comes to discipline, this scripture is very powerful because we understand that God didn't give us this spirit of fear, but he wants us to have a spirit of self-control. Discipline takes self-control. All right. So keep that in mind. First, uh 2 Timothy 1, verse number 7. Secondly, there, uh, as far as the scripture goes, 1 Corinthians 9 27, Paul wrote again, and this this is a this is a really good one, the way that he wrote this, because he said, I discipline my body to keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. So Paul is telling us that it takes discipline to keep the body under control. So self-control, discipline, they go hand in hand. The core belief I want to drive home with you here in this very in this first point is this disciplined men do what needs to be done, whether they feel like it or not. You need to understand that. I want to put this into application for you, okay? Disciplined men do what needs to be done, whether they feel like it or not. Think about it this way: you need to show up even when it's inconvenient. A disciplined man doesn't only show up when he feels like it. Just like the example of going to work, you don't just go to work when you feel like it. You go to work because no one else is gonna pay your bills for you, right? Unless you're somebody that's just letting the government pay for your way. You're a guy that's like, all right, I am gonna get up and I'm going to work and I'm gonna pay my bills and I'm gonna make my way. I'm going to be a good person in our community, and I'm gonna be a good contributor to society. So you get up, you, you, you have been, you have disciplined yourself to get up, and you show up even when you don't feel like it. A good, disciplined man shows up even when it's inconvenient. You see, discipline and commitment, they're siblings. They they are intertwined because you you you could say, well, I'm disciplined, and you you could say, well, I'm committed, and those two things are gonna go hand in hand. Doing things when it's inconvenient takes commitment to the work uh at hand. Things are just going to be inconvenient, guys. You you just you just need to understand that. There are going to be lots of inconveniences in life, but you can't let those inconveniences just shut you down and not allow you to keep moving forward. Um, next, I want to tell you that you need to stay consistent even when it's boring. Consistency uh is the key. I would say it is the key to the long game. Discipline is key to the long game. Ask anyone uh who has tried to lose weight, build muscle, grow stronger, run further, last longer. It takes showing up day after day after day, even when it's boring. And you might not like me saying this, but children get bored, okay? You might not like me saying that. And I know um, I know there's a there's uh a younger generation out there, uh younger than me, and and maybe you get bored, maybe, maybe you're a gamer, maybe you're a guy that's inside a lot, whatever. I I've never been uh really one of those guys. So I don't I don't really know um I don't know how to think along the lines of, well, I get bored. I don't I don't think alone that way. I can always find something to do. I have a home, I have, I have things outside, I I can go work on things, I can get up, I can go mow a yard. I mean, I can get up and clean things up outside my home. I can get up and build podcasts like this here. I can prep and study for a sermon that I have coming up and on and on and on. Now, uh I I I believe that that uh if if you if you get bored in life, I believe there needs to be some some discipline in your life. I I just I just feel that way. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. That's just the way that I see it. I think that a man uh ought to be able to apply himself in in certain ways, and being bored is a man, in my opinion, get mad at me if you want to, but I believe a man that's getting bored is not applying himself very much. He's just not applying himself. You're not you're not working towards any goals, you're not trying to do anything because I'm here today to tell you that if you have goals and you have success in your mind and you want to achieve something, there's going to be very few and far between opportunities for you to get bored. If you are bored, I'm repeating myself on purpose, you need discipline in your life. You need to find a hobby, you need to get outside, you need to do something productive. Stay consistent, stay consistent, even when things seem quote unquote boring, all right? And follow through even when it gets hard. I remember when I was playing football, and my football coach uh he was talking to the whole crew. He had us, uh it was right after practice. It had been a tough day. Um, a lot of a lot of hard lessons learned in that practice. Man, I remember it just like it was yesterday. And coach had us all huddled up and we were all taking a knee, had our helmets off, and we were catching our breath, and we were about to go in for the day, and coach said this, and I quote, he says, if this were an easy game, everyone would be playing it. It's not easy. It's hard. This takes guts. And he was right. You know, if uh if football was an easy game, if it was if it was a game where everybody got rewarded, then everybody would be out there playing it. But it's simply just not that way. Uh I this is what I believe. Anything that's worth doing, anything that's worth having, anything that's worth loving will take discipline for you to keep it. I'm gonna I'm gonna say I'm repeating myself a lot on this one, but I I'm just gonna say it again because I think it needs to be said. I thought that's a pretty good idea. Anything that's worth doing, anything worth having, anything or anyone worth loving will take discipline for you to keep. I want you to get ready because I want you to think about this, because anything that's worth having, doing, and loving will come with hard days. It's gonna come with hard days. I don't care if it's if it's if you're saying, okay, something worth having, okay, my home. My home is worth having. But you know what? I've been working myself like a dog lately trying to keep keep my home up. Just little things, you know. Like right now, I've got something I've got to go and do. The commode is leaking in my daughter's bathroom. I've got to go put a new wax seal on it. Do you think I want to do it? No. It would be easier for me to call somebody and say, hey, can you come over here? Let me pay you to do that. But why in the world uh should I pay somebody, pay a plumber 200 bucks to come out here for an hour and put a wax ring on the commode when I can do it myself, you know? And I know some guys will, um, some guys would rather, you know, hire that out because maybe you don't know how to do it. Again, the days that you're bored, you need to find out how to change a wax ring on a commode. You need to start doing those things. What I'm trying to tell you is that if the house, if my home is worth having, there are gonna have some crappy days in it. Crappy days like changing the wax ring on a commode. There are gonna be days like right now out in the front part of my home. I've got vinyl siding on the front of my home. I have a piece of vinyl siding that's trying to come down. I've got to get up there. I've got to put that back in place. My wife and my daughter, they just finished this past weekend putting pine straw back in the flower beds. You might say, well, all that's just a waste of money. Why do all those things? Because I believe it's worth having. We as a family, we believe it's worth having. And because we believe it's worth having, it comes with some hard days. We don't just throw our hands up in the air and say, all the heck with it. No, we suck it up even in the hard days, and we go out there and we work on our home because we believe it's worth having. What is what is worth doing? I believe this podcast is worth doing, and that's why I get up here and I and I do it every week. I try to record one, put one out for you, because this podcast is growing, guys. It's growing. There are people, new people every week watching the podcast, and the number of downloads are going up and up and up and up. And I keep getting emails from Spotify and BuzzSprout and Apple Podcasts, all these people, and they're telling me, or all these platforms rather, and they're telling me how much the podcast is growing. And I appreciate all of that, guys. Trust me, um I it's very humbling for me, but it's worth doing. But there are some hard days uh that comes along with this. Like just like right now, I'm recording this podcast late because I had a lot going on during the day, and it took me a little while to get ready for this because I had some other things that were pressing and I had to get it done. So it's worth doing, but it's hard. What about loving somebody? You think you think loving somebody is easy? I've been married to Miss Katrina now for 25 years, and loving her has probably been one of the easiest things that I've ever done. But what I would tell you is that there have been hard days that have come along with it because children have come along, and children put a strain on your marriage. Children put a strain on your life, and the hard days come along, but you love them too. And even with those hard days, you keep plugging along because they are worth it. The relationship is worth it, the marriage is worth it, the friendship is worth it, and you keep doing it. You don't give up just because it's hard. A disciplined man is not gonna run away from the hard stuff. A disciplined man's gonna pull his boots up and he's gonna trudge through the mud even when it's hard. Here's the truth of biblical manhood. Boys are ruled by feelings. If your feelings get in the way, you man, I'm I I I really I really have I'm really being tempted right now to hurt some some people's feelings. I want to call, I want to call them snowflakes. Well, that just just came out. I just want to say, you know, if if you're if you're all the time ruled by your feelings, you need to man up because men are ruled by conviction, okay? Men are ruled by conviction. They're not ruled by their feelings. I'm not saying that men shouldn't have feelings, men shouldn't have emotion. They should. Those things are good. God gave us that side too. He gave us that as well. But we can't be ruled by our feelings. God created men to do things differently. God gave us a logical brain. He gave us convictions. And he wants us to live by those convictions. So don't let your emotions and your feelings rob you of what you know to be right because you are convicted by the things that are right. Okay? So boys will be ruled by feelings. Men are going to be ruled by convictions. Be ruled by your convictions and let discipline shape the convictions of your life. Let's move on to number two before I get in trouble. Let's move on. Let me wipe that off my forehead. I feel like I'm trying to start sweating in here. Number two. I hope y'all still love me. Let's move on. Discipline builds identity, not just results. Man, let me tell you what. I really want to talk to you on this one. Most guys chase outcomes. They chase weight loss, they chase money, they chase success. But discipline, I think, is deeper than that. I think discipline is deeper than outcomes because I believe that discipline forms an identity. If you only do what you do because you're chasing the goal, you're chasing the outcome, you're chasing the success, let me ask you this what happens once you grasp that? What happens when you reach the goal, whenever you have accomplished the thing that you wanted to do? What happens when you get to the point and you've reached the goal and now you've just grown bored with it. You see true discipline becomes a way of life. It's not just a goal that you reach. Listen to what Hebrews 1211 says it says for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later the discipline yields peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. That's in the ESV. It says right now at the moment I'm paraphrasing okay right now at the moment discipline may seem very painful. If you're if your childhood was anything like mine, discipline uh often kind of times came in the form of a 44-inch leather belt that my dad wore around his waist and when he pulled it off you know when he pulled it off you heard that coming through those belt loops and and it it wasn't it wasn't good. And it it was one of those things where you were like this is going to this is going to suck. Like this is not going to be good. Daddy would grab me by one arm and we would start dancing boy because I couldn't stand still whenever Daddy put that belt on me. But that was that was discipline growing up in the in the 80s guys. That's what discipline was like and uh and parents had a better control of their kids back in the at that day too. Discipline as the scripture says it seems painful rather than pleasant but what we know is that as time goes on we look back as adults and we say you know my dad was right for doing that. And thank God that my dad or my mom did that because it trained me and it helped me and it formed me into the person that I needed to be. Jesus actually said this over in Luke 16 verse 10 he said one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much and the one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. And when we put this into the concept of the core belief of discipline Jesus is actually telling us is that if if if God has entrusted you with a little bit and you are faithful with that little bit you will be able to be entrusted with a little more and then a little more and then a little more but if you cannot be disciplined if you cannot be a good steward of what what you have now the little bit that you have now what makes you think that God is going to just give you more? What makes you think that he's going to dump a whole lot more wealth or a whole lot more success or or whatever it might be in your lap whenever you can't control or you can't be disciplined or you can't be a good steward with what you have. It's just simply not going to happen. Here's the core belief I want you to get from this one. Every disciplined action is shaping the man I am becoming every action that I take is shaping the man that I'm becoming. You see you don't just work out you become a disciplined man. I've been I've been becoming very disciplined lately with my health and fitness those of you that know me uh in a in a more personal way you know that um I've I've lost a lot of weight over the last I'd say um I think today I looked at it and it's been um been right at 40 weeks since since I started my my weight loss program. I I'd have to really look to see if that's accurate. It's somewhere around there but I'm down about 75 pounds, okay? I was at 314 pounds when I started this time and now I'm down about 240 um something like that. But this time uh that I I've I lost 100 pounds before when my dad died back in 2014 um something just clicked in me and I was like okay I've I have got to do something I was 320 at that time and I lost almost 100 pounds. I lost like 97 pounds. It took me 10 years to gain 90 of those pounds back. I did a whole lot I don't I can't go into all of it right now, but I did a whole lot of things the wrong way. I did not lose the weight the right way. I actually went on a starvation diet. My body lost a lot of muscle I did lose some fat but my metabolism was it it was struggling. My metabolism uh did what it was supposed to do and because I was only feeding it a certain amount of um protein a day well it it just adjusted and it and it did what it was supposed to do. It was it was making my it was making me survive off of what I was feeding it. But over the last year or so I've become disciplined in what I eat and the way I go to the gym and work out the the steps that I take the walking that I do every day. I try to do this on a on a on a daily basis. I was listening or I think Katrina was listening to Craig Groschell uh not too long ago and he said that uh one of the things that a successful leader will always do is prioritize his health his or her health he will always prioritize his health and I've always tried to uh do healthy things I have probably dieted uh more of my life than I've done anything else but I never really knew what I was doing. I always had this idea well if I if I eat less and uh run more or work out more then then I I'll I'll I'll lose weight and I'll be stronger. And but it it just doesn't work out that way. You know I've told you guys about my friend uh Colby Bouillon and Colby has helped me so much learn and understand macros and how to eat and how to work out and how to put all this stuff together, the science behind it. And man, it we just found a program we found a a setting I'll say for me and now old Jojo is working working this thing out. A lot of people have come up to me and they said man I would have sworn you got on the old weight loss shot and you've been taking this shot and all and you're losing all this weight. And I said no I'm I'm not I'm not doing that. I mean I'm actually going to the gym I'm strength training so that I build muscle but I'm in a caloric deficit as well so that my body will burn fat but not eat up the muscle and I'm and I'm gaining muscle which is turning my metabolism around and I'm telling you all of this because it has taken discipline for me to do this. Now I know that everybody can't do what what I've done in the way that I've done it over the last seven months or so however long it's been but I have literally eaten the same thing almost every day since I started this weight loss. And when I say eating the same thing I'm talking about every meal I eat the same thing from one day to the next and I don't change it because it's easy. And whenever I get in and that's the way I lost weight with with the hundred pounds I I found what I what I wanted to eat. I found it I stuck with it and man just it made it easy for me and I'm just gonna be real crude with you right here. I was the kind of guy that was just like man look all it's got to do is just I just got to swallow it and and my body's going to use it and the rest of it's gonna become a turd. It's gonna just be over and and hey it it's done. And so that's how that's how I look at it. Now it's like I'm just gonna I'm gonna eat the right foods I'm gonna eat the right amounts of foods and now I'm starting to do different recipes and things like it. Man I'm running down a rabbit trail and I don't mean to be doing that. What I'm trying to tell you is is that I've become very disciplined with my health and my fitness over this past year. I've gone through um these many different phases of weight loss and weight gain I've probably lost a thousand pounds here and there and I picked them all up over the years. But never before have I been as disciplined as I am today. Now I do not simply go to the gym to work out I I actually go to the gym to shape the man that I want to be that's that's what I do. I want to shape the man that I want to be and this has not only changed my body guys this has changed my mind and my goodness has it's changed it has strengthened my spirit like and Colby told me he said look whenever we get into this he said you're going to see some change on the scale you're gonna see the numbers go down you're gonna see all this stuff he said but brother Joe he knew I was a pastor he said but brother Joey I'm telling you you are going to get closer to God because you're disciplining disciplining your body to do the things that God wants it to do. And so it's just like what Paul said back there in Corinthians whenever he said hey I am disciplining my body so that I can bring it under control. And so that's how that's how God wants us to be as well. So that's what I'm doing. I don't just work out I am actually in my mind I am becoming a disciplined man because I don't plan on going back and doing the things that I did whenever I was over 300 pounds. I just simply do not intend to go back and do that. And I'm here today to tell you that this works what I'm doing is working because I introduced my daughter to it and now just yesterday man we took a picture it was Easter Sunday this past Sunday and we we took a family picture together and me and Kylie were standing and we didn't mean to do this but we were standing um in in the same spot as we were the previous Easter and we were standing right beside each other and to hold those two pictures up side by side and see the weight loss that the two of us have have accomplished over the last year it is it is almost mind-boggling. I wish I had that picture to throw up on the screen for you guys um just to show you but my daughter is down 30 pounds and she's a 15 year old girl who who don't have a lot of discipline. I mean most teenagers don't have a lot of discipline but just the other day she said Daddy really once you get into it this isn't that hard and I'm here today to tell you that once you start disciplining your body and start bringing it under control, it really isn't hard to do the right things. And so I don't want you to just think about this from a physical standpoint, you know, because I just said I don't just go and work out I don't just go to the gym to work out. I'm actually disciplining the man inside me. Think about it this way you don't just read your Bible you become a consistent man. You know you can just you can just you could read your Bible just to read your Bible and you won't you won't get too much out of it. But if you keep reading your Bible even if you're just reading your Bible the consistency of it will eventually help you see a great difference because you got up and did it day after day after day after day. You might not think too much about it but man before long you're gonna be in a conversation at church with your brothers uh with your with your man church guys whoever it might be and then all of a sudden you're gonna be these things are going to start coming back to your mind and you're gonna remember what what even what David said he said I hide these words in my heart why so that I might not sin against God because all of a sudden these temptations are going to start coming into your mind and all and and now this defense of scripture is going to come up and you're gonna start battling against the enemy with the sword of the spirit and you're gonna be like where did that come from and the answer is well I wasn't just reading my Bible I was becoming a consistent man. I was becoming a disciplined man. My mentor uh Mr Charles McGee he told me this he said Joey reading your Bible in the beginning is your duty you do it because it is a duty you do it because you know that that's what you need to do. The Bible says study and show yourself approved right and so you do it as a duty and in the beginning it is your duty but then it becomes your desire and before long it transforms into your delight. Now I'll just go ahead and tell you I'll be honest with you that reading my Bible has not always been the highlight of my day. Not even has it always been a highlight of my day. I would say that for a long time as I was a pastor reading my Bible was a have to and not necessarily a want to I don't I don't want you to take that the wrong way I'm trying to tell you that it became such a thing as it it was it was work. It was the job and I was having to man I was having to get in the Bible to get a sermon and man it just it was turning into it it it literally was a duty but the longer that I did it the consistency began to pay off and that consistency of reading my Bible day after day going through the Bible year after year and on and on and on doing these different things it became a desire it became a desire and and it's it's becoming I will I don't want to say that it is the delight right now but it is becoming a delight in my life because now I get up early in the mornings you know Katrina and I if we we'll get up around five five o'clock and uh coffee pot's going and we'll do our thing you know and get our get our wash our face or whatever and make our way into the living room we find our recliners and we we wrap ourselves up in our in our blanket you know and it's just cozy and the dog wraps up in there with us and and then man we get into our Bible we read it and it it just kickstarts our day and I have found that the consistency of reading that Bible every day it takes my sermon prep and it makes it squeeze down to a shorter period of time because I'm using all this other time reading the Bible I'm not prepping for sermons. I'm just reading the Bible to hear what the Lord wants to say to me in my quiet, in my quiet time my devotion time and I find how much of that stuff comes over into my sermon prep and it has become a great great desire in my life so be consistent even when you don't want to boy I got to I got to move along I've I've already been talking 40 minutes. Next you don't you don't want to just lead your family you want to become a dependable man. You see you lead your family because it's what men do it's what that's that's what men do but the more you do it the more dependable you become with other things in life. I want you to consider again what Paul wrote whenever Paul wrote about the qualifications of the elder in the church he was writing it to Timothy over in 1 Timothy 3 verse 4 he gave us qualifications of elders or pastors okay he talks about these men who are supposed to be elders and pastors and he says he must manage his household well qualification of an elder manage his household well why he goes on into verse number five and he says this and I quote if he cannot manage his own house how will he be able to manage the household of God end quote leading well at home prepares you to lead well in other areas of the marketplace whether it be at church whether it be a supervisor at your job whether it be the headman whatever whatever it may be if you are a good leader at home you lead well at home it's going to turn you into a good disciplined and dependable man across the board discipline brings about an identity shift a disciplined man will not stop asking he I mean he will he'll stop asking what do I want right now that's what that's what undisciplined men do. They say what do I want right now? Instead a disciplined man is going to start asking who am I becoming this that I'm going through right now is making me a better person, making me a better man, making me a disciplined man, a consistent man, a good leader in my home. So what am I becoming it's not about what I have right now because right now if you if you're loving and doing and uh and you're having these different things, remember hard times come and there's going to be some days where it's inconvenient. There's going to be some days whenever you just don't want to but you're not worried about the right now you're worried about the what am I becoming because remember what I told you a while ago consistency is the name of the long game. So who you're becoming is more important more important than who you are or what you have right now. So just keep pushing it. Let's get on down to number three here and we'll we'll wrap this up discipline is stewardship of what God gave you, okay? Discipline uh is stewardship. So you have your time, you have your body you have your mind you have your calling and they all belong to God. God has given you all of these things. So discipline is how you steward all these things that God has given you your time your body your mind your calling you have to be disciplined or you're going to be a poor steward. Proverbs 2528 it says that a man without self-control, there's that self-control again, right? We've already talked about that a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Think about that. A man who does not have self-control is just like a man who is unguarded. He's unprotected and he is going to be vulnerable to whatever comes in and attacks him. Self-control is the defense. Self-control is the discipline it is what is protecting you because that discipline and that self-control is going to say uh-uh-uh-uh-uh we don't we don't go there we don't do that we have to stay away from that bring my kids back here wife can't go over there and so discipline is what helps us do that. Discipline is even what says uh-uh you can't put that in your mouth because that is bad for you if you are a man without self-control you are like a city without walls of defense. Colossians 3 23 says whatever you do all right whatever it doesn't matter what it is whatever you do work heartily as unto the Lord and not for men. So in other words everything that God has given you your time your mind your body your calling all of that is from God the question is are you stewarding it well? Here's your core belief I am responsible for managing what God has entrusted to me. So if you're gonna manage what God has entrusted to you guard your time like it matters because it does. If you are not Disciplined with your time, you will not be disciplined in many other things because you have to set time aside for what matters. And if you do not set time aside, then you're not saying that very much matters to you. You've got to block out your time. You just have to, okay? You, you've you've just you just got to do it. Uh, I have had people, uh, I don't I don't want to say, it's not like it's a bunch of people, but I've had people uh ask me, like, hey, can we can we get together at such and such time? And I'll say, well, no, I can't. I'll be available at this time. And they'll and they're like, well, man, I can't do it at that time. Can you do it? Can you can you bump your schedule? I'm like, well, I'm not gonna bump mine around. You can bump yours around. Because ever since I've gotten to the place to where I'm taking care of my health, I'm taking care of my body, um, I'm gonna go to the gym, I'm going to exercise first thing in the morning. The reason why is because I know that if I don't, if I don't get up early, take care of my business, get to the gym and do my thing, I'm gonna get busy during the day and I'm not gonna go. I'll, I'll just, I'll just not doing it. That, or I'm not gonna do it. I'm not disciplined in that area. I found myself uh making up the time and going later on, but first thing in the morning is is my thing. That's where I'm disciplined myself at. So you've got to you've got to guard your time because you're nobody else is gonna guard it for you. Next, you have to train your body instead of neglecting it. So let's be honest. How many of us actually train our bodies, forcing it to do what is uncomfortable? Not many of us. And and if you're willing to actually do this and you're willing to bring your body into submission, you're doing something that the majority of the population never thinks about. People do not think about doing the hard things. They do not think about doing the uncomfortable things. People are not thinking about disciplining their body and bringing it under submission. Discipline is more than doing the extra stuff, okay? It's more than going to the gym. Uh yeah, it is it is about eating right. It is about training your body. Um, it is about exercising regularly. It is about getting out of bed at a good time, reading your Bible, etc., doing all that. But discipline is more than just doing all the extra stuff, okay? Discipline's more than that. And as God leads you, do what he's telling you to do, okay? Do what he's telling you to do. So train your body instead of neglecting it. And I promise you, as you think about training your body, uh, you're thinking about whether whether that looks like um at the gym, or maybe you go for a run, or maybe you're just going for a walk or or or whatever, whatever that might be, um, you're training your body. Uh you're eating right. That's those things are disciplines. Exercising regularly, that's a discipline. Um, and getting out of bed at a good time, man, it's a discipline. It takes discipline to do that. And guess what? Even reading your Bible is a discipline. Praying, all these things, it's a discipline. And uh as you do this more and more and more, the consistency of it helps you uh be better at it. So, next, lead your home with intentionality. There's a lot of ways for you to lead your home intentionally. Um, if you go over to Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, it is the definition of intentionality when it comes to a dad and his family. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9. Go read it right now. Go read it. Uh, stick your stick your thumb in it. Uh, put a marker in it so you can read it as soon as this podcast is over. You can be intentional if you if you read that scripture, you can be intentional with so many things at home. It can be prayer, it can be devotion. I want you to think about this. Be intentional about dinner around the table with your family without electronics. Did you hear me? Without electronics. Everybody, including you, put your phone down and we're going to eat together and we are going to talk. I remember Brother John McGregor telling me that dinner around the table every night was the day that his, was the time rather, that his dad took the temperature of the family. That's how he took the temperature of the family. And as Brother John told me that I never forgot, he would always hold his hands out like this, and he says, Dad took the temperature of the family. And he would, he would do, he would pull his his fingers in and out. He would be like he's touching the hands of the of the kids and of the wife, and he's taking the temperature. Think about movie night with your family. You know, that's intentionality. Just sitting down in the living room, popping some popcorn, drinking a coke, whatever it might be. And um don't let the kids come between you and the wife. Don't let them do that. They're their place is not between you. They can sit on the other end of the couch. Um, you and mama have a little bit of a little bit of squeeze time as well. Here's some hard truths, okay? Undisciplined living is not just weakness, it is poor stewardship. If you are refusing to be disciplined in any way, if you're you have to start somewhere. So don't think that you can just jump into this and it's all just going to be okay. You have to start somewhere. But if you're not being a good steward of what God is giving you, um you you're not you're not doing the right thing as a Christian man. An undisciplined man and living an undisciplined life, it is not just the exposure of weakness. It is the exposure of poor stewardship. So be a good steward of what God has given you. Take care of it. And the way that you do that is step number one, grow discipline in your life. Here's my closing for you. Discipline is not punishment, it's alignment. God is not trying to punish you by disciplining you. He don't, he, and I, and I'm not calling you to discipline um because of an idea of punishment or anything like this. This core belief of discipline is a realignment. It aligns your actions with your values, it aligns your habits with your calling, and it aligns your life with God's design. And I want you to think about that in a powerful way here. To think about how that when you when you discipline yourself, you are realigning your life with God's design for who he made you to be. So a disciplined man simply doesn't hope for a better life. You're not sitting around hoping for a better life. A disciplined man builds a better life. One decision at a time, one obedient decision at a time. My prayer is that you'll start, you'll start right here and say, Today, I choose to be a disciplined man. Find out what it is you need to do. Go back and listen to this podcast again, but let discipline take root in your life. God bless. Hey guys, thanks again for listening. Remember, share, like, and subscribe. If you think this podcast could help someone else, please share it with them. Check us out on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook at the IronPursuit. If you're interested in my personal or marriage coaching, send me an email at theironpursuit79 at gmail.com. Thanks again for listening. And remember, never run from the clashing because that is where the iron is sharpened.