holy spirit. teaching them to observe all that i've commanded you. and i'm with you always, even to the end of the age. [music] i am the lord. i'm the almighty god. i am the one for whom nothing is too hard. i am the shepherd. i am the door. i am the good news to the bound and the poor. i am, i am. i am, i am. i am the righteous one and i

am the lamb. i am the ram in the bush for abraham. i am the ultimate sacrifice for sin. i am your redeemer, beginning and the end. i am, i am. i am, i am. i am jehovah and i am the king. i am messiah, david's offspring. i am your high priest, and i am the christ. i am the resurrection. i am the life. i am, i am. i am, i am.

i am the bread, i am the wine, i am your future so leave your past behind. i am the one in the midst of two or three. i am your tabernacle. i am your jubilee. i am, i am. i am, i am. i am the bread, i am the wine. i am your future so leave your past behind. i am the one in the midst of two or three. i am your tabernacle. i am your jubilee. i am. he is the great i am.

i am hope, i am peace. i am joy, i am rest. i am your comfort and release from your strength. i am faith, power, today i am your freedom this very hour. i am, i am. jesus said, i am. i am hope, i am peace. i am joy, i am rest. i am your comfort and relief from your stress. i am strength, faith, love, i am power. and today i am your freedom this very hour. i am hope, i am peace. i am joy. i am rest. i am your comfort and relief from your stress. i am strength, faith, love, power.

today i'm your freedom from this very hour. i am, i am. i am. he is the great i am. [applauding] >> as followers of jesus christ, it's only right you and i would want to look our best, do our best, be our best and fulfill his purpose for our life. reach the goals he would have for us. but that's not always easy. because there's always things out there to hinder us if we let them. but as you think about your life

it's not easy anyway you look at it. god has a purpose and plan for our life, the best plan possible. and people willing to walk in that plan always come out better. it's not easy. it demands something of us. it demands discipline. now, i want you to think about. it is discipline not desire that determines your destiny. discipline not destiny that determines your destiny. and if you look around, it's pretty evident many people are not living a disciplined life. look at the hospitals, for example, running over with people sick for all different kinds of reasons oftentimes because they have no discipline in their body activities. look at prisons for example, they too are overflowing because somewhere along the way they didn't learn to live by the rules and live a disciplined life. look at the indebtedness we have today. it's the same story. people spend their money recklessly, foolishly

without discipline whatsoever look how many high schoolers drop out before they finish, lack of discipline. we could go on and on and on in our society. so discipline is not something we like. that is the truth is, we don't really like somebody telling us what we can do and cannot do, should do and should not do. we like to be free. we boast of the fact we live in a free country and we're free people. but we're not free from the laws of god. and for a person who does not like any kind of discipline, they set their course for disaster ultimately in their life. and so i want us to talk about in this message is simply this. that discipline, listen, determines destiny. let me settle one thing right up front. i'm not talking about your eternal destiny which was settled the day you trusted jesus as your personal savior. you trusted him for atoning death for all your sins. i'm not talking about that. you're saved.

going to heaven. i'm talking about life here and now. life here and now is a life that demands discipline of us if we're to fulfill god's purpose, do the things he would have us do, achieve the goals he set for all of our lives. so the issue is this. where does discipline fit in your life? because discipline does determine your destiny. not your desires. you can desire many things and miss it all. but discipline determines your destiny. so i want you to turn, if you will, to 1 corinthians 9 and in this passage the apostle paul is referring to the greek games and their participants and necessary discipline of running those games. he begins in this 23rd verse by saying, i do all things for the sake of the gospel so i may become a fellow partaker of it. do you not know that those who run in a race all of them run,

but only one receives the prize. run in such a way that you may win. that is in your christian life, it's a race. i think it's a race in two ways. a race biblically as we're talking about here. we talk about life being a rat race. it's fast. he says, run in such a way you may win. everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control, discipline. in all things. they then do it to receive a perishable but we imperishable. therefore, i run in such a way as not without aim. i box in such a way that not beating the air. but i discipline my body and make it my slave. so that after i have preached to others, i myself will not be disqualified. paul is simply taking a sports illustration here to say, in order to run a race and run it

well i have to discipline myself. i'm not running with that aim. i'm not running just to be running aimlessly. i'm running with a goal to win. and truth is every single believer should run the same way. live out our life, listen, to win. to win what? to win, listen, to win all that god has laid out before us. all things he's promised to bless us with. god is there willing and ready to bless us in every single area of our life if we'll simply walk obediently before him. and that requires discipline. not easy. it's required, but it works. when a person lives a disciplined life, you're going to be able to look your best, do your best, and reach goals god set for you. we look for an easy way. it's not easy. it's not easy if you are a christian or not a christian. it's just a whole lot better when you know jesus christ as your savior and you know you have the holy spirit living on the inside of you to enable you

to reach those goals whatever they may be. in thinking about that. what i would like for us to do, i would like for us to consider this whole issue of discipline in our personal life. and i want to give you a number of things i want to encourage you to jot down. we'll put them on the meg screens. there's lots of it. it's very important. that's why i'm placing this many notes on the screen so you can write them down. if you're a parent, get them down for your children. if you're a student, get them down for yourself. if you're a grandparent, you need to get them down for your family. i want to encourage you to take it seriously, your discipline or lack of it is going to determine your destiny. what you do. what you accomplish. where you go. how you get there in this life whether it's good, bad or indifferent. or whether you fail in your life. so i would like to do, i would like to clarify a couple of terms.

let's begin with those terms. first of all, let's look at self-discipline. self-discipline is personal training that develops self-control and character and results in an orderly and efficient life. self-discipline, personal training that develops self-control and character and results in an orderly and efficient life. so that demands something of us. as somebody says, what about what the bible says about discipline? i'll give you a second to write that down. then turn to hebrews chapter 12. and we oftentimes think about god's discipline and what he's up to in our life. and so there's another kind of discipline. that is there's divine discipline. and divine discipline is simply this. this is god's corrective measures in our life. we step out of his will, fail to do what he would have us do. listen to what he says in the

12th chapter. my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord or faint when you're approved of him. for example, when you and i disobey god, he disciplines us. gets us back in line to do what he would have us do to accomplish in life. self-discipline is something we do. in other words, god doesn't practice self-discipline on us. he practices divine discipline. it's up to us to practice self-discipline, to be in control of our lives through the power and presence of the holy spirit in our lives in order to be the persons he would have us to be. so discipline is a practice. you don't suddenly know how to discipline. you learn discipline. we practice because we're not perfect. and the reason we practice it means we'll make mistakes and falter at times but we don't give up and quit. we move on.

second thing to notice necessity of self-discipline living a christian life. look in 1 peter for a moment. i want you to notice a couple of verses here. in this first chapter, look if you will, in the, let's start with verse 15. and listen to what he says. he says, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, so it is the will of god you and i live a godly life. and living a godly life demands discipline of us. in 1 timothy chapter four, i want you to notice a verse here. look if you will in verse seven. he says, but have nothing to do with the worldly fables fit only for old women. on the other hand, discipline yourselves for the purpose of godliness.

for bodily discipline is only of little profit. for you who don't like exercise, that's your verse. for bodily discipline is of little profit. but godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise for the present life and also for the one to come. he says if we're going to live a godly life, obedient person, christian life, it demands discipline. which means, i have to make choices in life, the right thing, the best time, the best thing in life. so as you think about that in your life, if i were to ask you today, in what area of your life can you say i am really disciplined in this life? do you go to bed every night at ten o'clock? do you watch the news every night? or do you stay up to midnight? do you eat three meals a day? what are you disciplined about? would you say, i never thought i had to be disciplined about anything. think about it.

no, you don't have to. i can tell you what the results will be in a moment. let's think about it this way. when you trusted jesus christ as your personal savior, he came into your life through the holy spirit, to live in you and abide in you and to enable you to become everything he requires of you. achieve everything he wants you to achieve in life. but we have three enemies. one of them we know is the devil. one we know as the worldly system around us. the third one we know we call it different things. paul, on the one hand called it the flesh, our carnalness or naturalness. naturalness is a good word for it which means there's desires within every single one of us that does not fit the will and purpose and plan of god for our life. we come into this world with that bent away from it. so our naturalness is what we have to bring under discipline and control. he gave us holy spirit to enable us. when we talk about carnality or

flesh or our naturalness, what are we talking about? those legitimate desires that god has placed in our life that we have to bring under control. just because we have the holy spirit doesn't mean we'll be perfect and live apart from all sin. we have to learn to live the christian life. all of us have stumbled and fallen and made mistakes in our life. what happened? god forgives. we move on and keep growing as a christian. you see, when a believer is not growing, it's because they're not being disciplined in one or more areas of their life. for example, one area of discipline is to read the word of god every day. most anybody can do it if they chose to if they recognize how very important it is. watch this. you don't place much value on a particular goal, won't work hard at it and discipline yourself. if you buy a new automobile or

dishwasher whatever it might be, that's my goal. you go to the shopping centers, wait a minute now i need the car or i won't get to the shopping center. you have to set a value on something. for example, if i ask you, how many of you would like to live a long life? the rest of you want to die? in other words, how many of you want to live a long life? how many of you want to live a healthy long life? right? absolutely. now let me ask you this. is that a goal in your life? man, it's quiet. is that a goal in your life? would you say that you're living the kind of life that will make it possible for you to live a long, healthy life? it's getting pretty bad. all right. let's look at this. let me just name four natural desires. one of them is food.

if i'm undisciplined. you can preach the rest of the sermon, couldn't you? if you are undisciplined in what you eat, you'll suffer the consequences. another, for example, is rest. if you're undisciplined that, you'll get lethargic and lazy and slothful. another one, for example, is companionship. if you're undisciplined about that, you'll become dependent or someone will be dependent on you. that's not a good relationship. and there's sex and sex within marriage and the way god provided is good. when you break out of that and become undisciplined, what is that? it's poison to your system and ultimately destroy you. all of those are good things. they must be controlled by us. so with that in mind i want us to think about what we can

expect when we fail to practice discipline. let's begin. you're going to follow your fleshly, carnal, naturalness. you're going to follow that. and you're going to step outside the will of god. and you're going to suffer the consequences. no discipline. listen. look around at all the things that tempt and try us. all the things that would bring us down. all the things that are so absolutely ungodly. they're everywhere. no discipline, you're going down. secondly, usually when a person is undisciplined they defend what they're doing. so we will begin to defend our wrong actions and so forth. of course, one of the affects of it is not only our health but think about finances. think about people who are undisciplined in their finances. if you don't control your money. see the credit card people love

undisciplined folks because they got your interest. before long, they've got your life. if a person doesn't learn discipline, and this is why, and i've said it many times. this is why a person has to learn to count to ten. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. anybody can do that. scripture says one out of every ten belongs to him. if i practice that. if i am disciplined in my finances, then i'll be blessed. if i'm not disciplined, if i don't count right, if i don't understand that i just can't spend all i want on anything and everything i want, and realize there's limitations, and oftentimes today children are growing up and their parents give them a credit card. total disaster. they don't have to work for it. they don't have to hardly give an account for it. all got telephones and tvs and computers and all these things. where it is discipline? how much of that should you have?

and how much time should you spend at it? discipline begins very early in life. that's why godly parents, godly parents are parents looking out, listen, not only for how their children look, how they do in school, how they can be proud of them. they're looking out for their adulthood. is there life going to count? what difference will it make you brought that son or daughter into the world? the parents should have wisdom enough to say if we'll have a child, what is our responsibility? what disciplines do we demand of ourselves to be kind of parents we ought to be so when they grow up they'll be like us and grateful that they're so. we fail many, many times in many ways simply by lack of discipline. of course, they'll be a poor performance on your job. if you're not disciplined in your work whatever that work may be, you are going to suffer the consequences of it. many people don't have a job because they don't perform.

there's no discipline. they don't arrive on time. they don't do a good job. they don't expend their energy, giving their all to the work to which they've been called. then, of course, they're oftentimes overlooked. when jobs come along, they pass them by. why? because their record shows they didn't show up on time. they had to be questioned about a number of things. sometimes it was maybe their honesty whatever it might be. discipline fits you for the next opportunity. discipline is god's way of getting us ready to move along in life and get ahead in life. of course, a person who is undisciplined is going to develop slothful habits. a slothful person, for example, isn't going to do very well. children need to be trained very early in life. make up your bed. hang up your clothes, whatever it might be. a little bit of discipline goes

a long ways, but you have to start somewhere. and probably a mother understands what happens when there's no discipline at home as much as anybody does. if everybody does their job, mom doesn't have quite as much to do. if you have children who are sloppy and negligent probably that way because you allowed it. excuse me, you allowed it. having allowed it you have things you have to do you shouldn't have to do. discipline is very, very, very important. then i think a person who is undisciplined is reckless in their speech. they say things they wish they had not said. they said things that are true that shouldn't be said at that moment or they say things that are true that shouldn't be said to that particular person. we have to be careful lips the tongues, what we say should build up someone else but never tear them down. of course a person who is always late.

a person who is always late, what it says is i don't respect your time. and discipline, sometimes it's difficult to always be on time. nobody is probably always on time. but it says something about us. and then, of course, a person is going to waste time and energy when they're undisciplined. because you see, we said in the very beginning, self-discipline talks about self-control and orderliness. that is, if i work my schedule, it would be interesting to know for example, how many of you have a schedule every day. and do you live by that schedule? what are you trying to accomplish every day? i learned a long time ago if i'm going ght, i need to make a list of all the things i intend to do the next day. it's real simple. put on three by five card. when you get them done, check them off. what you don't check off, put on the next day. a simple thing i learned many, many years ago very early in life.

i have many responsibilities and i thought how will i get it all done? you only get it done if you program it into your life and work at it diligently. you have to discipline yourself. if you have certain things that have to be done, certain things i cannot do. so when a person just sort of lives aimlessly, do this, do that, do whatever i can and not fret about it, where are you headed in life? what do you want to accomplish? what kind of trail are you leaving? what kind of impact? many people in life don't have what they would like to have because they're not disciplined enough to remove the things out of their life that drain their energy, their strength, their finances, their time. discipline is absolutely essential if you'll succeed at anything in life. and then, of course, paul talked about here. he said lest he become a cast away. what he says is this.

he'll live a godly life after all he might have done his witness, his testimony might have put him on the shelf. we have to remember this. there's things in life that do not fit a christian. you say, o now, that's getting legalistic. no. that's getting biblical. there's some things that should not exist in the life of a believer. and so, if that's one of those things, i don't have to name anything. something in your life that shouldn't be there, you know what it is. you have to decide. god won't make you do it. you have to decide do i value my christian testimony enough? do i value my relationship to god enough? do i value the goals and the principles and the things i want to accomplish enough to eliminate the stuff in my life that's going to keep me from getting there? you cannot have it, you can't have everything. you can't be everything and all things to all people. you have to decide who is it you want to be? what is it god wants in your life? what is his desire?

what is his plan? it's costly not to live a disciplined life. now, with that in mind, i want us to think about something else. what are the requirements for living a disciplined life? as we said, it's not easy. it's not easy for anybody. if you want to live a godly life, if you want to live a disciplined life, it's not easy. nowhere in the bible, paul talks about running and talks about one winning, that means others lose. so in your life, if you begin to live a disciplined life, what area of your life would you first choose? what time you get up in the morning? something about your relationship with the lord? would it be your finances? would it be your relationships to each other? if you live a disciplined life, you may have to say no to folks who would like to be your friends. because you see, bible says and warns us about having the wrong kind of relationships, wrong

kind of friends who will drag us down. you have to ask yourself the question, where do my values lie? what matters most, that i live a godly life, walk the ways of the lord, accomplish his purpose and plan in my life, or do i want a lot of accolades and achievements and a lot of this and that and the other, where is god in all that? what are the requirements? i would simply say this. first of all you need to have a definite purpose and goal. if you do not have a definite goal you won't accomplish much in life. if i ask you, what is your purpose today for living? what is your purpose? you say well, i just want to enjoy life. what else? i want to have enough. how much is enough? i'm not sure. we could ask you a lot of questions, but the issue is this. what are you living for? what is your purpose for being alive and staying alive. you want to live a long time and be healthy, for what reason? do you have anything that's so

demanding of you that it takes discipline to accomplish it? name me something that is of great value that it does not demand and require discipline in order to achieve it. that's the way god made us. he wants us to grow. he predestined you and i to be conformed to the likeness of his son. when you read the gospels and the way god spent his life, he invested it and believe me, he was a very disciplined person. the same thing would be true of apostle paul. you and i know disciplined people. they are encouragement to us. you have to have a goal. then, you have to pursue with diligence. for example, somebody says , i'm going on the a diet. listen. if we understood what real true discipline was all about, and people practice it, you wouldn't have 49 different programs on the television each week to lose weight and everyone says the

same thing. the secret. how many secrets are there to losing weight? i can tell you what the secret is. walk away. that's what the secret is. and that doesn't cost you anything. doesn't cost you anything. but, it goes back to the whole issue. how much value do i place on losing weight? if i place enough value on it, i'll walk away. i'll discipline myself. but if i say, i think i'm going to, you exercise, for example, you exercise for a week. you're doing fantastic. and you wake up in the morning, i don't think i want to do that today. next thing you know, you're also working on your diet and someone says, let's go to lunch. i want one of them big burgers, i can hardly wait. do you know what? diligence says, i may want to. remember what we said in the

beginning? listen. discipline, not desire determines our destiny. and i may want to do a lot of right things, but if i'm not willing to be disciplined, it's not going to happen. you have to pursue it with diligence, you have to be consistent. can't do it one day and forget the other. i think probably, i'm not harping on diet necessarily but to say it's a good example. it's easy to start. will you be consistent and diligent and work on it and practice self-control? isn't that what discipline is all about? the reason i said practice because that's what it is. you won't succeed the first time. there's times you're going to fail. here's the issue. watch this. just because i failed today doesn't mean i'm a failure. it means i start tomorrow. but i'm not going to quit starting. i'll have to start again and again and again and again.

so you have to decide, what is the value of this thing that you want to get under control in your life? you want to get your finances under control? well how much, to what degree do you want to get it under control? will it get you out of get? you can sleep better at night. there's lots of things you can say the valley place on controlling my finances is i'll feel free. because the bible says, the borrower is slave to the lender. and we have a whole nation of slaves. people who are financially enslaved because they did not practice discipline. when you say, where do you start? you start today. you say, i'm thinking about starting. you'll never get it that way. make a decision. today on this day i'm starting, i'll practice discipline in the way i handle my money.

otherwise you get deeper and deeper in debt. and the lack of that causes problem after problem after problem and causing people to do things, say things, things happen in their life that never would have happened if they hadn't gotten themselves there. is it difficult to practice discipline? yes, it is. i said it over and over again. but what's the value you place on the thing you want to be disciplined about? then you just have to say no in the power of the holy spirit. now watch this. you say it is very difficult. i know it is. but watch this. he said he sent the holy spirit to live within us, he called him the helper to enable us to do everything and anything god called us to do and achieve the goals god would have us achieve. we have a helper. that means we have within us one who will empower us to look at a situation and say, no. when we need to say no. i think about parents who can't

say no to their children because they themselves is so undisciplined. they can't stand the rejection of their children. they say, well, okay. and they allow them to go to parties where there's drinking. they allow them to dress in ways they shouldn't dress as young people. all the things that go on because they're so undisciplined themselves. they just pass the lack of discipline on to their children. when their kids really mess up they want to blame them because their parents are lazy themselves, afraid to suffer rejection by their kids. they don't have the courage to discipline their children. what value do you place on that child? is that child a valuable person to you going to grow up and be an adult one of these days? the value you place on the child, the discipline, listen, remember what we said. we're not talking about spanking them, we're talking about teaching them self-control.

it's only going to happen in a family where mom and dad practice self-control. so, you have to ask yourself the question, what are the requirements? there they are. then, thank the lord there's rewards. many, many rewards. for discipline. remember we're talking about controlling ourselves. in the power of the holy spirit. which builds character in our life. enables us to live a life that is fulfilling, which we achieve and which is orderly. so then, what about the rewards? i would just say, first of all, look on the screen. the reward number one, is a lifestyle that's more orderly and less stressful. and i hear people oftentimes say, my stress is getting me down. it would be interesting to know how much depression could be traced back to lack of

discipline that creates, because of disorder. no orderly in their life. lots of confusion. nothing is out of control. aimlessly living their life. listen. you live an aimless life you'll get depressed. a lot of things make you depressed. god doesn't want his children being depressed. he wants us living a godly, orderly life. they'll be peace, happiness, a joy in a person's life. and you'll feel good about yourself. you'll be happier. you'll feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement in life. all the time this is going on, do you know what will be happening? you'll be growing in your christian life and you'll be growing in your walk with god. living, listen, the more disciplined you are in other things, the more you understand and recognize the importance of being disciplined to live a godly life. it means i say no to this and yes to that. and disciplined life is going to

affect every single aspect of your life if you allow it. it's a choice. it has nothing to do with age and talents and skills and abilities because some people have this skill, this ability, that talent, whatever it might be. it's where god has called you. what he wants you to do. what he has in mind for you. i can tell you, he has the best in mind. but you and i have to practice discipline. so, you're going to be more productive for example and it will attribute to your good health. a person who is disciplined usually that affects their rest, it affects what they eat, it affects their relationships, it affects everything in their life. it will make a positive impact on others. when you meet somebody who is disciplined, not talking about so legalistic they don't know how to have fun.

that's not what we're talking about. a person who is disciplined, there's something contagious about that. you see them accomplishing things. you see them going somewhere. you see them having a sense of direction. it's contagious. what you certainly want to have happen among your children and grandchildren, you want them to see in you those qualities that will help them become the persons god wants them to be. the truth is, all of us should want our children to do better than we do. how will they do better? only by seeing, listen, it isn't how perfect a parent is, believe me. that's not it. it's seeing us work at it. we may fail about many, many things. seeing us work at it. seeing we don't give up and we don't quit and we're diligent and persistent. no matter what happens, we fall down, we get back up. we don't quit. that builds within a child a

sense of determination, and builds within them a sense of accomplishment. if my dad did it, my mother did it, whatever it might be, i can do it. my mother left me a lot of great, great, great qualities that i wish i can live up to. she didn't drill it into my head. she lived it in front of me. and orderliness and self-control and diligence and persistence and all those things. see how it helped me? when i saw how she operated i got my first job taking newspapers and the second group i had i had a to get up every morning and take them 5:30 and spend friday and saturday collecting. i didn't have time to date much. couldn't play sports. couldn't do any of that. but she taught me diligence. then i got the paper route and that taught me diligence and taught me determination and taught me to be disciplined. because i woke up many mornings and i didn't want to get up.

i woke up mornings when snow was up to right here in virginia at that time. i woke up it was pouring down rain. i didn't want to do that. then come home, get dressed and go to school and come home and run the same route again. i know something about diligence and determination and discipline. i had to. i thank god for it. i thank god my mother didn't have all the money you could give them anything they wanted. worse thing you can do to children give them everything they want. when my kids came along, they thought i was a little tough on them. but, it worked. and that's what matters. it worked. you heard andy preach, you know it worked at least a little bit. anyway. [laughing] one of the good things that happens is, it opens doors of opportunity. if you're willing to hire somebody, would you hire somebody that came in and said i've been looking for something

to do. i don't know. i figure out a job and take it. somebody comes in, looking for a job and i want to do my best, i can be honest. you can count on me to do a good job. which one would you hire? you know which one it would be. we should be an example of all that. then, of course, it will enable you to reach your goals in life. a person who is disciplined, they will be diligent and persistent and consistent and determined no matter what. the holy spirit will actively enable you to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish, because that's his will for you. you can't lose. ask yourself, think about this. if you and i could get one, if we could get ten seconds standing before jesus and looking at the reward, that would be possible for us, nobody would ever have to talk to you about being disciplined again. what we don't realize, we have

no idea what we're missing when we do not do what god wants us to do and do the things he would have us do. now, when i think about the real contribution it makes, think about this. we're diligent in life. we discipline our life to be consistent and one day we stand before him and he says, well done. it's worth it. it will be worth it for all eternity. you see, we're living too much in temporal instead of eternal. how do you live disciplined? you want to know, say amen. real simple. you decide today that beginning today i'm going to read a portion of the word of god every day. is there anybody here who could not do that? right.

every single one of us can read the bible every single day. that will teach me discipline. i'll start with that. second thing i'll do, i'll pray and talk to god every day. not just on my knees, i'm talk about what he says in his word. but i'll read his word and pray every day. that's two steps i can take to becoming, listen, disciplined. i'm going to, that means, watch this now. that means i'll control my time. if i have to get up early to do it, i'll get up early. if that means i can do something else, i'll get rid of that. but you can. third thing i can do is this, and you can. you can tithe your income. now he's getting around to talking about money. no. i'm talking about your success. i'm talking about how you can become the person god wants you to be. watch this.

when you are disciplined in your finances and you give god what he says, what you are doing is you're giving god an opportunity to build your faith. which is one of the most powerful things you have. and how do you start learning to build your faith? you count to ten. then you lay aside one penny out of every ten. you mean, if i give him one penny out of every ten and a dime out of every circular and ten dollars out of every hundred. is that right? we keep going. people make little tithe. make more, i can't give god that much. they forget how to add and subtract. it's just that simple. if god gives me a thousand and i give him a hundred. i'm grateful. if he gave me ten thousand and i give him a thousand, he's still doing the same thing.

watch this. i'm still in the same category and he's blessed me that much more. if you want to learn discipline, start reading the word of god, praying, giving. the good way to start disciplining is this. attend worship every sunday. discipline says, you know when sunday comes, i'm going to be there. why? i'm going to meet with the people of god to fellowship and sing and listen to the word of god. i want to grow, every single week i have an opportunity to learn something that will deepen my relationship with him and make me more valuable to god and make an impact and difference somebody's life. i could go down a long list but i just started with the first two. everybody can read the bible. everybody can pray. so when you walk out of here today or if you're listening, watching, and you don't start being disciplined in those two areas, you're going to suffer the consequences.

i'll tell you why. the word of god is our guide book for life. it's our guide book for life. all i'm saying to you is, if you want to learn to be disciplined, read a portion of it every day. where? start in the psalms, start in the gospel, wherever you start it's up to you. talk to god every day. you say, when? watch this. whenever you choose. but choose a time that if it's all possible, you do the same time. then you develop the wonderful habit. now, you say, well suppose i'm not a christian. this will not work. i tell you how it will work. it's so wonderful. if you ask the lord jesus christ to forgive you for your sins and you ask him to forgive you and cleanse you because you want to be the person god wants you to be you want your life to count. you want it fulfilled. you ask the lord jesus christ to save you from your sins, by his

death at calvary, took care of your sin debt in full. once you ask him to forgive you, cleanse you, seals you as one of his children, comes into your life as the holy spirit and at that point enables you to become the person god wants you to be. you've all heard the truth. the question is this. what are you going to do about it? do you practice discipline? in your relationship to the lord, his word? do you practice discipline, for example, in the way you dress? do you practice discipline in the way you handle your money? do you practice discipline in the friends you choose, the places you go, the music you listen to or the messages you listen to or the magazines you read or the books you read? you practice discipline, some things, no. some things, yes. doesn't fit who i am. really fits who i am.

will help me grow in my christian life. will not help me grow. listen. only because i love you and i care. don't do, don't get into anything that is not going to grow you up, build you up and make you a godly person. don't get into that. whatever it might be. it's wrecking people's lives every day. you have to make a choice. and i'm saying to you, god is offering you a choice to be your best if you'll take it. amen. father, how grateful we are that you love us enough to be patient. i pray the holy spirit this morning has spoken to every single person who is listening. i pray the spirit of god will just entrench this message so deeply that it cannot be removed. and that discipline will become a major part of our thinking

every day not some days. and that you will grow us faster and more thoroughly than ever before making each and everyone of us a valuable servant of god. we love you, father. and we praise you, in jesus' name, amen. >> announcer: when we make a commitment to pursue godly discipline, we discover the very best, most productive way to live our lives. visit intouch.org to see how trusting in jesus christ gives you peace with god and the power to overcome life's challenges. you'll also find today's message, discipline determines destiny. and a library of faith building sermons from dr. stanley, life principles notes and tools to help you develop godly discipline and make the most of your time with god. download the in touch ap and take the teaching of dr. stanley wherever you go. or follow us on you tube,

facebook and twitter. >> when i go to college, you can come with me. and we can learn about math and turtles. always remember to brush your teeth, turn off the light and share your toys. look your best, be your best, do your best. dear god, can you be my best friend when i go to college? >> i love to tell the story is a celebration of the creator through decades of dr. stanley's photography. this large format book captures god's creative work in wide vistas and exquisite details. >> only god could create this kind of scenery. [music] >> i love to tell the story is a tribute you'll treasure.

order your copy at intouch.org. >> in the next in touch magazine, if your circumstances seem more than you can handle, that's by design. dr. stanley shares why we are never meant to walk through our challenges alone. then do you see this woman? author mark tells the story of a first century party crasher and the love jesus demonstrated to her. what is he asking of you? this and more in june in touch magazine. start your free subscription at intouch.org slash magazine. [music]

[music] >> have you ever felt like a spiritual failure? well most of us probably have at some time or other. god is holy and he calls each of us to be holy. and this high standard is clearly shown throughout the bible and god's written it on the hearts of believers. we know god's expectations, the trouble we have is living up to them. if you look at your life and wonder how it can pass god's expectations, i know you'll identify with this e-mail. for the person writes, i try to be holy by doing things i thought are good like reading my bible, praying and inviting god into my life over and over. then i heard you say god does the work when we ask jesus to come into our heart and save us. i wanted to cry.

because my efforts never seem enough. can i really trust that god himself will clean me up and make me pleasing to him? i'm confused about my responsibility in this relationship. well, let me say first of all you're to be commended for your efforts, no question about that. then i want to ask you a few questions. what is your motive? why do you keep praying for god to clean you up? i'm not being critical. but i want you to think about your actions. you say you've been saved by his grace and love and mercy. are these actions for his acceptance? are you trying to get acceptance by working so hard? are you trying to measure up to something? maybe to compare to some other christian? do you think if you work harder nd harder you'll stay saved, remain saved, you could lose it and gain it back? or you say your efforts never seem enough.

i can understand that. god never intended for me to work and work and work in order to remained saved. and when we ask the question, enough for what, struggle enough for what? we're saved once and for all by faith in jesus christ and his awesome work at the cross. our daily walk in grace is not going to lead us to perfection. no such thing as living a perfect life. doesn't excuse sin. he says in 1 john chapter one seventh verse. he says, the blood of jesus christ his son is continually cleansing us from all sin. so what is my responsibility? my responsibility is to live a godly life. does that mean perfect? no. but it means that when i do fail, i quickly acknowledge it, confess it which means i agree with him. i sinned against it. i repent of it. turn around walk the other way.

it doesn't mean you'll never do it again. god knows your heart. he doesn't want you struggling and trying to measure up to something. and living under this burden that you're not going to be perfect. remember this. we are cleansed by the blood of jesus. not by crying out to him. so the answer is this, yes, you can trust god to cleanse you. that is his promise. he says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. and, listen, and to make our life right. to change whatever needs to be changed. it is our responsibility to live godly. it's also our responsibility when we fail to confess, repent and accept his forgiveness and be encouraged by his forgiveness. and thank god he's there to forgive us. remember, it's the blood of jesus christ his son that brings about forgiveness of our sins. so i want to encourage you. the holy spirit of god living within you will convict you of

your sin. also convicts you of the forgiveness god's provided for you. be assured of this one thing. he's not expecting perfection. he just wants your heart bent towards him, leaning towards him. and sometimes they'll be struggles. but you ask him to forgive you. thank him for his forgiveness and you move on. god will encourage you, if you'll just remember this. you can't measure up. because more than likely whatever standard you set will not be sufficient. that's not what the christian life is about measuring up. it's about walking in forgiveness and love and obedience and confession and repentance and growing. and listen. developing a stronger relationship with him. that's what it's all about. and that is your gift from god. well, thank you for joining us today for in touch. and until next time, fight your battles on your knees. and you will win every single

time. >> announcer: touching the world with a passion for god and compassion for people. in touch with dr. charles stanley is a presentation of in touch ministries. this program is made possible by the grace of god and your faithful prayers and gifts.

♪

♪ >> i hold in my hand the divinely inspired word of god. i'm going to hide this word in my heart so i might not sin against him. in christ's name. you may be seated while you take your bibles. open them up, if you will, please. to the book of romans, the 15th chapter. i was in my office late one night. they had the choir practicing out here. when it was all over