Discipline | Part 1

Proverbs 6:6-9 | Part 1 | What's the key to getting the life you've always dreamed of and becoming the person you desire to be? The answer is one word: discipline. What will you do to attain it?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Because I wonder how often Jesus looks at us and just wants to say, Hey, I didn't die for you to coast. I died that you would have life and life to the fullest is pretty clear on that. I died for you to break free, to give you power to go after my mission.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

You're listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler. Junior's the lead teaching pastor at the bridge in Chicagoland. And today we are looking at what Proverbs has to say about everyone's favorite and least favorite word, discipline. And let's be honest, we all know that discipline matters. No one's arguing that. Everyone wants the results of discipline. We all want the stronger marriage, the deeper walk with God, the better health, the more focused life. But where it gets fuzzy is what it actually looks like in real life. Because most of us feel busy. We feel stretched. We feel like we're doing a lot. Running from one thing to the next. We're checking boxes, answering emails, showing up. But if we're honest, there's often a gap between how full our schedule is and what we're actually producing. A gap between intention and follow-through, between knowing what matters and actually doing what matters. And Proverbs steps right into that tension. Not with some complicated system, but with a simple, almost surprising picture. Solomon's going to point us to an ant. And this little creature, we're going to learn some practical lessons on living the disciplined life that we all want. Wherever you are, thanks for joining us. Now here's Junior.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

I'm not sure we know what it means, but it does not stop us from plastering it everywhere. It's one word written on the walls of gyms, it's hung in locker rooms, it's framed in corporate offices. Social media influencers love to like, or influencer wannabes love to hashtag it. Trainers put it on their cutouts. Coaches bark it all the time. It's this word right here, discipline. It's everywhere. And maybe for good reason. You know, if we're gonna do anything worthwhile in life, it's gonna require discipline. You know, if you're gonna have a healthy home, it's gonna require discipline in marriage, to make marriage fun, and discipline in parenting, to raise good kids. I mean, same can be said with work and finances, not to mention spiritual discipline of growing closer to God, becoming more like Jesus Christ. It takes spiritual discipline. We're not quite sure really what to do with this word. Like if I were to throw this question at you, are you disciplined? Like it'd be kind of a tough question to answer. Like, I will what do you mean? And then what we'll start doing is we'll start cherry-picking parts of our life. We'll go, you know what, I don't sleep in. Uh, I try not to sit on my phone too much. And then the second thought that will have maybe you've had this thought is, well, I'm not lazy though, if that's what you're asking. Because nobody thinks they're lazy. Like, even your cousin right now, who's still sleeping, addicted to video games and cheese balls, he doesn't think he's lazy, you know, because his mom made him pick up his socks last week. So he's doing, he's doing pretty good. Nobody thinks they're lazy. So does that mean then that we're just we're all disciplined? See, there's this natural tension that comes with this word. And so what we're gonna do today, we're gonna have some fun. We're gonna build this biblical framework for what does discipline actually look like biblically? What is biblical discipline? And who knows? Maybe after unpacking this, we'll leave here with a very different approach to our day, our week, and really our life. Well, as the lens of scripture zooms into Proverbs chapter 6, we're back where we've been really all summer, and that is Jerusalem, about 950-ish BC. The open windows of the palace provide this cooling breeze that sweeps through the corridors. It's so welcomed in this climate right here. But this fresh air comes at a price. See, these open windows in the palace, they invite little invaders, bugs, lizards, critters, ants. And as Solomon sits on his throne pondering economic, military, political strategies. We have to imagine a little ant scurries by. There's nothing, nothing like an ant that'll remind a boy of childhood. His mind wanders to childhood. As his dad used to sit on this very throne that he now sits, little Solly, I call him Solly, Solomon. Little Solly would run around the palace exploring inside and out, and his curious mind would follow the ants, watching them carry little palace crumbs to their home. And he remembers following them as a little boy, wishing he could almost follow them into their home. There must be a big storage of food in there. Now a grown man, king of Israel's golden age, his boyhood curiosity has now grown into wisdom. And his pen writes these words right here. He writes, go to the ant. Sluggard. Now we don't really use that word much today, sluggard, kind of an old school word. What does sluggard mean? Sluggard just means somebody who's slow. Not like cognitively, but just like slow to work, slow to exert themselves, slow to get up, slow to get involved, slow to do anything. You know anyone like that? Or maybe you work with somebody like that, you work with a whole team of people like that. They're just slow to really do anything. It kind of takes a lot to get them moving. Sluggards to me are very funny creatures. They love to act overwhelmed, but they do very little. So they'll talk about how very busy. I'm very busy, very stressed, I'm exhausted. But it's just kind of like this mask for the little that they do. It kind of reminds me of when my my middle child Nora, when she was two years old, this is her when she was two. Um, she's now much, much taller than this. But she would do the funniest thing when she was two. So Nicole and I, we uh, her and I, we worked really hard to train the girls to pick up after themselves, to be responsible, pick up after yourself. Like we function best when things are organized. So, like we believe, not saying like this is just like from scripture, but we believe in our house that if the house is cluttered, life just feels more chaotic. And so we intentionally taught them to value being tidy and having organized spaces. And so when Nora was two, I would I told her one time I was like doing the dishes in the kitchen. She came in and out of the playroom, and I knew she'd not pick up in the playroom. So I said, Nora, go clean the playroom. And she looked at me, big sigh, two years old. She says, Oh, dad, I'm so busy though. I just, I can't. I'm so busy. It's like you're two, what do you got going on? You're gonna be busy. But this isn't something that we outgrow. We can do the same things like so busy, very loud about all of our stresses. I'm so busy. But sometimes it's just a mask over our laziness. Our society has confused being busy with being important. And so a lot of times we'll act busy. In fact, it it I'm I think of like those. You ever see those like annoying cars in the road with the loud mufflers? You ever see those? You know, like you're sitting at a stoplight and then up pulls like this car next to you, and it's like some fast and furious wannabe in the driver's seat, and they're vaping cotton candy, machine gun Kelly's like blaring, you know, and he's just like revving his engines, like super loud car, but the car's a piece of crap. So it's just like it's about to fall apart right there because if he's you know rev revving his engine, it's like, bro, you can like rev it all you want, but you're driving a dodge neon, like you're not gonna go very far. This is a lot of people, they're just very loud at all. They're just look what I'm doing! I'm revving my engines, look at my I'm so busy. They're not going anywhere though, they're not really doing much. The results aren't there. But it's like, oh my goodness, I'm so busy. And Solomon says, Stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop revving your engines, stop for a second. Look at the ant, consider her ways, and be wise. Now, I find this fascinating. If you have your Bible in front, and I'll pull it up here in just a second, but if you have your Bible in front of you, look at the very first characteristics that Solomon points to at the ant. Now, Solomon could have pointed out a lot of different characteristics of the ant. I find ants very fascinating. Ant can carry a thousand times its own weight. He doesn't point to that. It's not that the ant shares his food, very communal. He doesn't point to that. It's not that the ant is always quietly working. It's not that the ant um works as a team. Look at the very first characteristic that Solomon points to when it says we should consider the ant. He says, without having any chief, officer, or ruler. It's like the ant's got no boss. I think Solomon must have watched ants for quite a while to observe this. But in this, he's he's giving us this biblical framework for what discipline is. A sign that you're disciplined is you can produce a lot without someone on your back. You don't need mama waking you up. You don't need someone pushing you outside your comfort. You do it on your own. You lead yourself, you push yourself, you discipline yourself. See, I love, I love the picture that Solomon is painting. He's like, all right, just consider the ant. It scurries outside of its nest. It leaves its comfort. Nobody pushes it outside, it leaves its comfort on its own to get to work. It heads out into the danger where everything is bigger than it, predators all around, easily get stepped on. You remember like a honey I shrunk the kids a long time ago? I mean, being an ant's pretty being the size of an ant is pretty dangerous. Ants will wander 100 yards from its nest, working 100 yards. And you're like, well, that doesn't seem like very far. It's tiny. An ant walking 100 yards would be like us the equivalent of us walking 11 miles and then having to walk back. Like these little guys working hard, facing danger, nobody pushing them outside the nest. Why? Because the ant has a responsibility to own, and that's what Solomon is getting at. Biblical discipline is a responsibility to own. The ant isn't out there just facing danger, walking 11 miles out because its commander is such a brute. No, the ant is out there because God designed this little thing with an instinct to own responsibility. How much more did God design us with that? See, this is where Solomon starts. Discipline is I'm not doing what I'm doing because someone is making me. Oh, I'll I'll work for a boss or parent, I'll honor them because honoring them is honoring God. But I'm I'm doing this not because they told me, I'm doing this because I'm owning the responsibility of it. I'm invested into this. I just heard an interview. I've been podcasting a lot because I've been driving up back and forth from uh our camp all summer, and uh been trying to find some good podcasts. And I recently listened to a podcast where they were interviewing uh a multi-billionaire, billionaire with a B. And he said something that confused the host and really confused me at first, but I found it uh I found it fascinating. Multi-billionaire said this. He said, I made, when my kids went to college, I made them get jobs while they were in college. Like, yeah, I had the money to pay for everything and more, but they needed to own responsibility. And then he said that four years of added stress conditioned them to own greater stress once they got out of school. That's why I love the the picture that Solomon's painting here of the ant. The ant, on its own accord, without a commander, goes off, stresses itself and danger and distance and hard work and responsibility. It's not allergic to stress, it's not making, it's not waiting for someone else, it just goes. Is that you? They call me old school, but I think a big part of the problems that we face right now as a society, whether it's lack of happiness, even mental health, is our aversion to stress. But like the ant, God designed us to own a healthy, but own stress and responsibility.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

You're listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler. We'll get back to Junior in a moment. We want to tell you about one of his books, The Manual. If you're a man or raising a man, or married to a man, maybe dating a man, there's a lot of confusion around what real manhood actually is. In the manual, Junior cuts through the noise. Both the over-the-top macho stuff and the politically correct definitions, and he gets to the raw core of manhood. He exposes the toxic masculinity for what it really is. Not manhood at all. This book is simple, honest, powerful, and it might just change how you view men, strength, and leadership. We'd love to send you a copy of the manual. Just visit juniorziglar.com and give a gift of any amount towards this show, and we'll send it to you. That's junior at z Ig.com. Now let's get back to Junior's message.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

The key simple, have you ever noticed that some people can handle more stress than other people? It's kind of funny how that works. Like somebody will, for example, somebody will adopt a dog, and like, boom, they're like, stress is all good. It's like, oh my goodness, I gotta like walk this thing. You know, like I gotta like take it, you know, I gotta like feed it. You know, this is a lot of work having this new dog. And then you'll meet other people, it's like they got two dogs and three kids and a full-time job. They're like volunteering, you know, they got these different side projects going on, and they have a lot of stress, but they just don't look like it. You know, anyone like that? They just carry stress really well. What is it about them? Are they just built very different? Well, no, they're human. They've just slowly built their way to be able to shoulder, just little by little, walking toward more, walking toward more. It's a little bit like going to the gym. Some guys are like, they're stacking plates in a bar like a like plates in a dishwasher. You know, they're just like lifting insane amounts. And then there's others, me, it's like half the amount. And you're like, what gifts? It's like, well, those guys doing more, they just like walk in one day. It's like, I'm just gonna do this insane. No, they built their way up slowly over time. One plate, let's add another plate, let's add another plate. It's the same with stress and responsibility. Like the ant, you and I were created to walk towards stress, to own responsibility, to bring on a little more, and then a little more, and then a little more, and then over time you look back and it's like, man, I'm managing far more than I used to be able to manage. Whereas the sluggard will distance themselves from stress and discomfort. I'm so busy. And the ant leans into it on its own. Which one are you? He continues on. Here's another characteristic of the ant. She prepares her bread in the summer, gathers her food and harvest. I love Solomon's imagery. You can tell Solomon is so wise just in the way he's able to paint these mental pictures. Ant in the nest, bacon bread. It's kind of a funny thing to imagine. Almost sounds like a children's book. Bacon bread and ant. My goodness, my wife just started baking sourdough bread. Anyone else get into that? Like, don't get me wrong, it's it's it's good bread, but like, shoot, our kitchen looks like a chemistry lab. Like all these like starter jars. I don't even know what a starter jar is. Like, why are what are these jars? Are they? They're starter jars. I don't know. All of a sudden, like she just started turning this bread maker, which is fine. Like, it's good bread, but it's near impossible to clean those jars. Like running through the dishwasher like three times. You gotta get like a chisel out to like chisel. I didn't know concrete was like a key ingredient for sourdough bread. But back to this, though. More than this image of like an ant baking bread, he's communicating the ant has look at this plan. There's a time when she does this, there's a time when the ant does that. Baking the bread in summer, gathering the food in the fall. And like this is our second point that biblical discipline is a plan to follow. Biblical discipline, a responsibility to own and champion, take on, shoulder, and then it's a plan. Discipline is having a plan and following the plan. There is no discipline without a plan. Whether it's reading God's word, which is, by the way, why we have a bridge reading program in between the lines. Like we want to encourage spiritual discipline. If there's a plan here, we're not just opening up the Bible like roulette style, like let's just read the first verse that we see. No, there's a plan that we're following. Uh, whether it's budgeting, finances, or diets, workout plan, using the calendar. There is no discipline without a plan to stick to. You want to be disciplined in a certain area of life. You have to have a plan. This is why some people meal plan. I need to get into that. I've been trying to get into that. But like, you guys know what it's like, right? You like, you're like, all right, this week I'm gonna do better with eating, but you don't like meal plan, and then and then Monday or Tuesday rolls around, it's like 11:30. It's like, oh my goodness, I'm so hungry. Let's just hit up McDonald's. Like, let's just, and it's not that you didn't try hard enough, it's that you did not have a plan going into it. If you want to have a, if you want to be disciplined in your purity, you must have a plan. Sometimes I'll talk with dating couples. They want to stay pure, you know, which is great. Like purity is crucial. But I'll ask them to be like, what's your plan to stay pure then? Like, uh, not have sex. It's like, all right. Well, there has to be a plan to accompany that. Not going home alone at there, not being home alone at this time, because nothing good happens after this time. Accountability, people check in. Like, you have to have a plan. I talk to too many guys who are just woefully indisciplined in their in their like lust. They want to be pure, they have the desire, but there's like no plan. So their plan's like, I just gotta try hard. We'll try hard to do what? We'll try hard not to look at something that I shouldn't. Well, by the time that you're offered an image or a video, you're really deep into the battle. You have to have a plan beforehand to keep you from getting in that position. Be disciplined financially, you have to have a plan. It's a budget. In Proverbs 21.5, this is all over scripture. Proverbs 21.5, this is good planning and hard work, they lead to prosperity. Have a plan, stick to the plan. Nobody wakes up one day and just goes, wow, would you look at that? I just, without even trying, I've made a bunch of wise purchases, saved a bunch of money, invested well, super healthy, all by accident. Like, no, no, no. Anybody who gets there, there's a plan to get them there. Like, I'll go as far as to say, and so with Solomon, that the areas of life we don't have a plan are areas that we aren't disciplined. Like one of my favorite uh times during the week will be tonight, Sunday night. Sundays are my Sabbath, and so it's like worship in the morning and then you know, rest with the family in the afternoon. And come evening, uh, Sabbath ends for me. And as evening rolls in, I'll sit down and I'll create a this week's plan. So I'll look at my calendar, kind of plan things out. Girls need rides this time, got meetings this time, got appointments at these times. So kind of plan out the plan out the calendar, create some goals, uh, you know, plan date night. That way, come Monday morning, tomorrow morning, I'm like driving to work, I got a plan for the week. Doesn't mean like I never, you know, that I've got to you know divert and do some different things, but like at least I've got a plan that I'm gonna try to stick to. Because for too long, I wanted to be disciplined, just trying harder to get into God's word, trying harder with time management, trying harder with eating healthier. And and and uh I just wish I would have, and I never was able to succeed. I wish I would have taken Solomon's advice here. Instead of just trying harder, no, you gotta have a plan that you stick to. Have a plan. This is why Jesus said in John 6.38, he said, For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, not to do my own plan, but to do the plan of the Father, the one who sent me, to do his will. Like this is over and over and out throughout scripture. Jesus came to earth with a plan. And that plan was Jesus living a sinless life and then shouldering your sin and my sin, taking it to the cross, dying a death. That was his plan. Jesus stuck to the plan. And from Jesus' discipline, we're offered salvation. Now, if we claim to follow Jesus Christ, that means we've got to do the same. We've got to be people who live with these plans, stick to the plans. That's biblical discipline. This uh this last week, I was in uh just for a couple days, I was in Madison, Wisconsin, uh, which is where I grew up. And my wife is in Honduras, and so uh it's just me and me and my three daughters. And I love going up to Madison, just kind of swimming around in nostalgia. So it's I was taking them on some country roads, kind of showing them like this is where daddy grew up, this is where daddy went to school. And and then I drove by this old church out in the country, and it reminded me, I'd forgotten about this, but it reminded me when I was a kid, my dad had taken me there when I was uh nine years old. And uh it was to go hear the chaplain of the Packers speech. I I know, I know, dangerous to bring up the Packers in Bears Country, but just go with me here for a second. So I'm at nine years old, it was right after the Packers beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. And so as a nine-year-old, like I am all hopped up, you know, Super Bowl champs, you know. I'm I went out and bought like a hat that had like champions, Super Bowl champions on the hat. But I'll I'll never forget what the chaplain had had said. His name was less old alive. He said in his 80s or 90s now. He said, champions don't dream of hoisting a trophy. Now I'm sitting there, I'm I'm like nine years old, I'm like, what are you talking about? Like it's all we're celebrating right now is our team just lifted up the Super Bowl trophy, you know, hoisting the Super Bowl. And as a kid, I'd like to imagine hoisting the Super Bowl trophy, putting it on the ring, you know. He said, No, no, champions don't dream of hoisting a trophy. You know what champions dream about? Champions dream about the plays that get them the trophy. Champions don't dream about enjoying the W. Champions dream of the plans to get them the W. This is why many people will uh pick up a guitar as a kid, and it takes about three months for them to quit. You know, they'll pick up a guitar and at first, like, I'm gonna be the next bono on stage. You know, they're just imagining standing on a stage. But the real artist dreamt of the chords and the progressions, the plan. So you want to be disciplined in the area of your life. You have to have a plan. The ant had a plan. Solomon continues. He says, How long are you gonna lie there, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? Fairly confident my dad quoted this to me when I was a teenager growing up. You could you could read this differently, though. You could read this differently. How long will you sit there, oh sluggard? When you get up off the couch, when you get up, stop staring at the TV, when you stop scrolling on your phone, sluggard, and attack your next responsibility. When will you stop procrastinating on that project? Because one of the greatest yet overlooked sins of today is the sin of inactivity, the gluttony of comfort. And it seems harmless, but from God's perspective, if you think about it, the sin of inactivity is quite offensive to God. Because I wonder how often Jesus looks at us and just wants to say, Hey, I didn't die for you to coast. I died that you would have life and life to the fullest. It's pretty clear on that. Why are you wasting this life to the fullest? I died for you to break free, to give you power, to go after my mission. But it's your flesh that screams, we'll do that tomorrow. We'll sit on my phone. We'll just gotta, we just gotta rest. Ah, come on. Biblical discipline is flesh to deny.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

You were listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler. That was part one of Junior's sermon discipline. Part of our Proverbs series. He made a rule for his life. He said, I will not lie to myself, even when the truth makes me feel bad about myself. And this is what Junior was pointing out in Proverbs. The first step to becoming more disciplined is by owning our lack of discipline. And that's extremely difficult to do. It's humbling because sometimes the truth really does make us feel bad about ourselves. But owning our lack of discipline is the first step to overcoming it. To those of you listening right now, I think one of the most important things you can do before moving on to your next task is to stop and take an inventory of your discipline. If you were to think of an area of your life that lacks discipline, what comes to mind right now? Your health, your finances, your purity, your spiritual habits. Identify that area. Even if it makes you feel bad about yourself, identify that and then start to make a plan. Years ago I struggled with inconsistency in my Bible reading. Yes, I know. Even as a pastor. And it w I felt terrible. I was always up and down, and I remember thinking, why can't I just get a good hold on that? I I have the desire to read the scripture. I want to be in God's Word, but I can't always find the motivation to do it. And that's the problem, as Junior pointed out, with discipline. You don't always have the motivation. And so what I needed was a plan. It didn't change until what we talked about today. I I made a plan. I had to pick a time to read every single day. I had to pick a location. I had to pick a place and say, This is the place I was gonna read out. And then lastly, I had to pick a a reading plan. This is what I'm going to study. And once I had this plan in motion, that is when the consistency and the discipline and the fall of through started. What is it for you? Where do you lack discipline? And what can you do to make a plan that has started to change it? Don't sleep on it. Don't say, you know what, tomorrow I'm gonna come up with a plan that will take some time right now to set up a plan that completely changed your habits and eventually your future. What a needed message. Thanks for joining us today, and we will see you next time. You have been listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler, a listener-supported broadcaster. Junior is a lead teaching pastor at the bridge in Chicagoland, and we're so glad that you joined us today. As we told you earlier, we would love to send you a copy of Junior's book, the manual. Whether you're a man, you're raising a man, or married to a man, dating a man, this book cuts through the noise and gets to the raw core of manhood itself. All you have to do is jump on Junior's website, juniorziggler.com, and give a gift of any amount towards this show, and we'll send it right to you. While you're there, you'll also find great resources like today's message, all of Junior's books and podcasts, plus a link to our church, The Bridge. If you're in the Chicagoland area, we'd love to see you at one of our services. Again, that's juniorziggler.com, junior z-i e-g L E R dot com. Thanks for listening. See you next time. The Bridge with Junior Ziggler is a production of the Bridge Community Church, a multicampus church in Chicagoland.