Discipline | Part 2

Proverbs 6:6-9 | Part 2 | 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_02 0:03

Denying your flesh is denying your desires in order to do what is right and good and what God is calling you to. And sometimes that looks like missing out on something else. Sometimes that feels like falling behind a little bit. But that's where we trust God with the results.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

You're listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler. Junior's elite teaching pastor at the bridge in Chicagoland. And we are picking back up in Proverbs and continuing this conversation on discipline. And I think this is where it gets a little more personal for us today. Because discipline isn't just about working harder or adding more to your plate. It's more about those everyday moments where you have to choose am I going to do the easy thing or am I going to do what's right? It's the alarm clock going off in the morning. It's what you reach for when you first get out of bed. It's the breakfast you choose. It's the reaction you choose when something doesn't go your way. It's all of these small, tiny decisions that don't feel like a big deal in the moment, but over time they start to shape everything. Today we're gonna see how discipline isn't really about performance, it's about formation. It's about God using your habits to shape you into the man and woman he's destined you to become. Buckle up, we are in for a good one today. Here's Junior.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

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. Whether it's budgeting, finances, or diets, workout plan, using a 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 not going home alone at there, not being home alone at this time, because nothing good happens after this time. Accountability, people checking in, like, you have to have a plan. I'll 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 got to 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 of 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 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 up 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, 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 was 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 about 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 it says. His name was less old alive. He says 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? It's one of the greatest yet overlooked sins of today. It's 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 is 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. It's been studied that how you start your day, how you spend those first few moments, actually affects how you spend the rest of your day. For example, the the moment that you wake up, you push a snowball, so to speak. So if you wake up and you hit the snooze button, I'm just gonna put off getting up, I'm gonna hit the snooze button, you tend to put things off the rest of your day. You push the snowball when you hit the snooze button. If you wake up and this has been studied like um, this has been studied scientifically, if you wake up and you eat bad food, let's say sugar or whatever, it's been studied that your body will then crave sugar the rest of the day, because that's how you woke your body up. You just push the snowball. If you wake up and you allow lustful thoughts, your mind will naturally veer toward lust the rest of the day because you push the snowball. When you wake up and deny your flesh, so this works in good ways too. When you wake up and deny your flesh, you get into God's word, you pursue God, your heart naturally goes that way as well because you push the snowball. Uh last year we rounded up all the guys on our uh church staff, it was right before Christmas break, and uh girls had their circle. Not sure what was said in there because I'm not a girl. I was not invited to their circle. But I'll tell you what what we talked about as guys, many of us guys, we were all going out of town. It was, you know, we had uh done our Christmas, uh, our Christmas services that we ran really hard. And then there's like a finish line. We're all gonna take a couple days off and and uh maybe go visit, go back home or whatever. And so we gathered all the guys up in a room and we said, guys, temptation loves to hit you when you're bored. And so, yes, go recoup, re recoup, rest, all of that recharge, but don't recharge lying in bed, sitting and scrolling, enjoying cheap dopamine. Get out of bed, read, be active. Because when you start saying yes to your flesh to be lazy, temptation is going to be worse. And it's crouching at the door. Like I love what Bob said. Bob's one of our counselors on staff. He said, Gentlemen, some of us are about to say yes to our flesh all day long. Flesh says, hit the snooze, we hit the snooze. Flesh says to scroll on your phone, you're gonna scroll on your phone. Fresh, uh, flesh says, go have a second helping, go have your second helping. You will get so used to saying yes to your flesh when it tells you to look at something you shouldn't, you're just you're not used to saying no to it. That's what you're gonna do. Discipline starts with a small little nose to our flesh. No, you get up and attack the day, you snowball it. Like, may we not forget it was Jesus who said, if you want to follow me, here's what it looks like to follow me. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. To follow Jesus is to be disciplined, denying your flesh. But here's where there can be some damaging, damaging, damaging confusion. It's easy to look at this and think, uh, yeah, I deny my flesh because I work a lot. That's great, but denying your flesh doesn't always mean working more. See, my dad argues, he confused me when he first said this, but I get it. My dad argues that uh workaholics are actually lazy people. When he said that, I was like, what are you talking about? They're working. Workaholics are working. He said, No, workaholics are doing what they want: work. They love the metrics of work, they love the chase of success. They're not, they're doing what they want, not what they should. They should be going home and dating their wife and investing in the home and being with the kids. Workaholics are actually woefully undisciplined. They're doing what they want, work, instead of denying their flesh and doing what they should, owning their responsibility at home. See, that's the problem with our modern view of discipline, is we we can picture, we can picture discipline almost as like our middle school gym coach, you know, blowing his whistle saying, try harder, run faster, sweat more. And maybe for some of us, that's might be good advice to take, you know, get out there and bust it. But there's a whole other layer to this. Many people today are up early, they're, I don't know, they're they're going for runs, they're they're building a solid career, which is fantastic, but that can give us this full sense of discipline. It's like, are you in God's word? Are you in prayer? Are you being as creative at home as you are in the office? Are you pursuing your spouse like you did when you were dating? Are you serving God in this church? And if the answer is nah, well then we have to face a reality in many ways you're not disciplined. Sometimes denying your flesh looks like turning the lights off in your office, leaving some work for tomorrow, going home, making a meal, washing dishes, and playing with your kids. Denying your flesh is denying your desires in order to do what is right and good and what God is calling you to. And sometimes that looks like missing out on something else. Sometimes that feels like falling behind a little bit. But that's where we trust God with the results. I'm gonna deny what I want to do here, even if even if it feels like I would be making progress to do what I should do, my responsibility that maybe isn't so fun and so exciting.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

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, 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 juniorz-i e-g L E R dot com. Now let's get back to Junior's message.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

It's a discipline, biblical discipline, the framework of this biblical discipline is a responsibility to own, a plan to follow, flesh to deny, and then look at Proverbs 28-20. It says a faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished. Faithful man, the faithful man, the man who sticks with things, deepens his roots, he draws blessing from life. You ever meet someone who likes to bounce around a lot? Or is on like some sort of new venture, you know, or and and they feel like they just found gold wherever their new place that they found, you know, their big break, their happiness. You like call them, you'll talk to them on the phone, be like, hey, how's it going? Be like, dude, bro, I'm so good. Like, got this, got this job. It's my dream job, man. This is what I've been looking for like my entire life. Life is so good. And then you call them up like three months later, you're like, hey man, how's that job? And like, yeah, okay. Well, it didn't work out. But my buddy's business, you know, has an opening and it sounds perfect for what I'm looking for. And they're just like bouncing around because they're hunting for happiness instead of farming it in their own life. They're just kind of hunting it. Or maybe it's a relationship. This happens all the time. You talk to a friend and they're feeling the fields of a new relationship, which I know some people think is cute. I find it so often annoying. I call it the infatuation stage. And you're like, this person is a godsend. We're just a perfect couple, posting all these pictures. You know, then three months later, you see them delete that picture with them on their on their uh Facebook, you know, and then they start sharing all these inspirational quotes of how, you know, they're good enough on their own or whatever. It's like, oh, telltale signs of a breakup. But then not long after that, like they met the next person of their dreams, they're back in the infatuation stage, you know? And then once again, once they get to know each other, they're not as fun anymore, and then they they break up. This is exactly what Solomon is getting at. The person who craves happiness, just kind of bouncing around from one place to another, bouncing around from one person to another, from one church to another, never really planting roots and sticking to something, they reap the consequences of misery. That's what he's saying. Their craving is never satisfied. But the faithful person who is disciplined enough to stick through some difficulties, stick through some annoyances, plant some roots, draws blessing, and it gives us number four on what is biblical discipline, it's faithfulness to exercise. I sat with a young dad a few uh a few months ago, and um he wanted to sit down because he's he's struggling, and and for I guess for good reason. He just had a kid, his first kid, and he's transitioning from parenthood or two parenthood from not, and that can be tricky and hard. And so he told me, sat down, he just like plops down in the chair across my desk. He's like, Man, I used to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. Hobbies, work, hang out, like you know, I felt like I was making really great strides at work because I was able to work longer, have more fun. And now I have a baby, and bro, I love this baby so much, but my goodness, I feel like my whole life is now work and diapers and feeding. And I was like, Yeah, yeah. You know what that is? You're tasting faithfulness, my friend. That's what faithfulness tastes like. Because the good life is somewhat monotonous. The good life is no flashy lights, it's just faithfully showing up over and over and over, nose to the grindstone, with little to no reward. Faithfulness isn't sexy, there's no dopamine on the front end. It's just showing up, and it's discipline. But each day you show up, your roots go a little bit deeper and then a little bit deeper. And it's those roots that begin to draw out blessing. And some of us we're undisciplined because we don't stick with anything for very long. Last one, number five, biblical discipline. It's a responsibility to own, it's a plan to follow, flesh and eyes, faithfulness to exercise, and then last one, number five, it's a person to become. Biblical discipline is aiming for every aspect of our life to reflect Jesus Christ. So in the mornings, I try to read Proverbs uh to my kids before they leave for school, and that sounds more holy than it often is. It maybe happens maybe twice a week, and it's quick and somewhat chaotic. You know, you ask a seven-year-old what a proverb means, and you get some really, really interesting um answers. But we we still stick with it and in and uh get into Proverbs and kind of wrestle with it here and there. But a while back I read this proverb to him and said, uh Proverbs 21, 4 says, Remove the purities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith. And I asked my girls, like, all right, so what does that mean? And usually they have guesses, wild guesses, and they looked at that like, we have no idea. Kind of a weird verse. But the meaning behind this is actually quite beautiful. So in the ancient times, even today, but especially in the ancient times, a silversmith would take a raw clump of silver. And in that raw clump of silver, I don't know if you ever seen like a raw clump of silver, but it's not very pretty. There's a lot of impurities, pieces of rock in there. Um, it's just not pretty. And so the silversmith would heat it up in a fire, and the the impurities would rise to the top, and then the silversmith would scrape it off. And you know, heat up the silver again, scrape off the impurities. He would keep doing this over and over and over until the silversmith could see his reflection in the silver. This is what God is doing with us. So, this is the goal of Proverbs. You know, for a summer, we've been we've been looking at so many different aspects in Proverbs. Like, okay, what does Proverbs say about work? What does Proverbs say about marriage? What does Proverbs say about sex? What does Proverbs say about making decisions? And and it's great, like following it legitimately can lead to a wiser, better life. But that's not our main goal here. The main goal in all of this is that as God convicts us, the impurities rise to the top and he scrapes off the undisciplined parts of us. And that hurts. If you're actually applying scripture, it's gonna hurt. It hurts to deny our flesh. It's gonna hurt to be faithful sometimes, miss out on some stuff. It hurts to have a plan instead of just kind of winging it like a hippie, which is what I like to do. But in all of that, God is scraping off the undisciplined parts of us, scraping off the impurities in us. And just like a silversmith is doing this until he can see himself, so God does this with us until he sees Jesus in us, until our career reflects Jesus, until our marriage reflects Jesus, until our parenting reflects Jesus, until our purity reflects Jesus, until our use of time reflects Jesus. Like, yes, God calls us to live disciplined lives, but make no mistake, God is not our middle school coach, gym teacher blowing his heavenly whistle saying, Can you just try harder? No, God's invite is into something greater, to become more like Jesus. And I believe our desire to be more like Jesus is there. That's why we're here. But come on, there's areas of your life you're lacking discipline. There's areas of your life you're really being held back from what God wants from you. You're not reflecting Jesus. And so, like a silversmith heating up that clump of silver, so God convicts us through his word, kind of puts us in the fire a little bit, puts his finger on a few areas of our life, and that does not feel good. But that's the heat. And pending our response, it's in that heat that that conviction that the impurities, the undisciplined parts of us rise to the top and he scrapes us off by the silversmith. And then we come back for more, and we come back for more, and we come back for more, and we come back for more. Because the goal is not to lead these earthly successful lives. Like, who cares about that? This is all gonna pass away. The goal is to reflect Jesus Christ. And the more we get there, the more our lives become this faithful life with deep roots. And so the big question is where is God putting his finger in your life? Where would you say, I'm not disciplined? Where have you been neglecting to lean into responsibility? Where you know God has put that responsibility in your plate, and yeah, you don't like it. But you can't shake the conviction that God's put that on your own plate. Where have you been neglecting a responsibility? Where have you been operating without a plan, just kind of winging it? Where have you been saying yes to your flesh a lot? Where have you been bouncing around? God's like, no, come on, we need some faithfulness here, let's let's dig in, let's deepen our roots.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

You're listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler. That was part two of Junior Sermon Discipline, part of our Proverbs series. Now we could camp out on every one of these points, but I know a major area of frustration for many of us is just how long discipline takes to actually get results. I started going to the gym more consistently over the last couple years. And I remember after the first month, I looked in the mirror and I looked down and I thought, where's the six-pack? Come on, this whole this whole working out thing doesn't even work. And maybe you feel that in your own right. You're trying to get more discipline with the budget. But even after a couple months, you're thinking, Why isn't there more in my account? Or maybe you're praying more and you think, shouldn't I be way less anxious by now? Junior pointed out in Proverbs that discipline is all about the long game. Consistent faithfulness over time produces massive results. But you gotta be consistent. You gotta be faithful. To those of you who are listening to this and you're inspired to be more disciplined, good. Be inspired, but also ready to be faithful day in and day out. What God wants to do in you, it's more than just create a new habit. As Junior said, God wants to create you into a new person, the kind of person who looks more and more like Jesus. To those listening, before you move on with your day, maybe just take a moment and identify what is one area where where God is calling you to be faithful once again. Maybe it was an area that you've tried before, but you fell off. Maybe it's an area that you've yet to have the courage to tackle. Whatever it is, deny your flesh. Be faithful. Let the silversmith refine you. If you still have breath in those lungs, God still has plans for your future. Let's go after it. As always, thanks for taking time to tune in. I pray this was a blessing for you. We'll see you next time. Well, you have been listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler, a listener-supported broadcast. Junior is the 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, 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.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

The Bridge with Junior Ziggler is a production of the Bridge Community Church, a multicampus church in Chicago.