The Disciplined Life

What discipline can do

I have never been a huge fan of car racing…Growing up all of my uncles were into it and I never really understood it...

See when I was a kid I never saw race car drivers as athletes the same way that a football player is or a baseball player

That is until I saw Netflix’s Documentary on F1 Racing...

Not only do these guys need to be in absolute peak physical condition to handle a car going as fast as they go but they need to have split second reaction times.

This documentary showed some of their workout routines, I mean you need to be in shape to withstand 4-5 G’s of force for 300KM

For these guys though, F1 Completely consumes their lives...

What they eat, how long they sleep, which exercises they are doing, how their mental health is doing...

What you have to do to get on the podium of an F1 Race is all consuming

These men who race F1 have their entire existence organized around standing on a Podium one day

The athletes who wake up and say, “I am going to have a cheat day” or “I don’t feel like working out today”

They don’t get podiums and they will actually lose their seat in F1

They have to get out there and keep up their routine even if they don’t want to do it

This is what it means to have discipline in your life. To get out there and do something even if you don’t want to do it

I have come to really respect the sport for the physical effort needed to be a driver but also all of the metal focus it takes to compete at such a high level

There are 20 Men at a time who have made it onto the seat of an F1 car.

That’s it…Just 20 people in the world with the skill and the discipline to compete at that level

If you want to be the best at something then you need an extraordinary amount of discipline in that area

A discipline is any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we can not do by direct effort.

Here is what I mean by that

None of us here could actually get into an F1 Car and drive it

Probably no one here can get suited up, suit up and sit in an F1 car and even drive the thing, let alone race it…

In fact none of us would be able to turn on an F1 car…You need a team of engineers to do that

It takes intentional training to be able drive one of these cars, to turn in on and to be able to perform in it.

Now if it takes a lifetime of training just to be able to handle a special car...

What does it take in our lives to become like God?

This is what we are created for right?

We were made in his likeness? In his image?

The Apostle Paul reminds us that God wants to make us new…Its called Christ-likeness

Now just to be clear it takes no effort or discipline can save you. Thats because salvation only comes from the blood of Jesus on the cross.

How much more does it take in our lives with God to become the sort of person who lives and acts like Jesus?

What I have noticed about all of these drivers is that all of their training affects their character...

They put so much time and effort into driving fast…what happens with their character?

The driving training shapes their character whether or not they like it or not...

But we as people of God need to be primarily concerned with who God is making us to be

and how do our disciplines help shape that or hurt it?

What we do by default can either help or hinder our walk with God...

We could either live by default or by discipline…And living by default can be disastrous

So today is going to be a bit different in our sermon on the mount series...

I want to look at two things that the structure of the sermon on the mount reveals

1. Jesus gives an invitation to his righteousness

2. but then embedded within the sermon Jesus talks about three disciplines…and he just sort of assumes that we are all doing these three disciplines

So first: Jesus talks about righteousness

Structure

So what I want to do is show you some of the structure of what is happening in the sermon on the mount and hopefully you will see one of the overall points of why Jesus gave this sermon

Matthew 5:6 NIV

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:10 NIV

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So right in the opening of the sermon on the mount Jesus praised people who hunger and thirst for righteousness and who want it so bad that they are willing to endure suffering for it

Then in the next big section Jesus says this

Matthew 5:20 NIV

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:48 NIV

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

So then in the rest of Chapter 5, Jesus says that he expects that our righteousness would surpass that of the most religious people

All through the sermon on the mount Jesus is confronting these systems of old righteousness

Like the scribes and the Pharisees were just focused on not doing wrong things

They were focused on the specific actions that would make them good people

It is much the same way that we think today by default about being a good person

When I was a kid my mom trained us to do a good deed for the day

and that is great, there is nothing wrong with that, we should all do good deeds every day

But the pharisees taught that righteousness was all about doing good deeds whereas Jesus taught that this all came from a renovated heart

See what Jesus actually taught was the gospel that God’s life is available to you today, this is called the kingdom of God

And if God’s life is available to you today then that means his righteousness is available to you today too

It means that God wants to renovate your heart and make you into the sort of person who he can extend his righteousness through

This is the gospel…That Jesus’ life is available to you today and he wants to transform you

Matthew 6:1 NIV

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So then Jesus tells us to practice righteousness but just not “to be seen’

so in this sentence there is an expectation that we ought to be doing righteous things...

The people of God ought to do good!

Matthew 6:33 NIV

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Don’t seek after false sources of righteousness…Seek after God’s righteousness

The sermon on the mount is all about righteousness and what it does is sort of confront the old way of righteousness

The old system of righteousness was all about not doing bad things

Don’t murder

Don’t commit adultery

Don’t lie

And what Jesus was saying is that we can not experience true righteousness without a full heart renovation.

See following Jesus is all about reorganizing your life around his life…and how do we do that?

But how do we get to that?

On some level we are all at church today because we want more of God...

Many of you are here every week out of habit and that is a great thing…you’ve built a discipline of coming to church....

But I think the main question is how do we reorganize our lives around Jesus in such a way that it

So in just the same way that a formula one driver has to train just to get in the car…They need to lead a disciplined life

We also need to discipline ourselves for righteousness...

So in the middle of the sermon on the mount Jesus then talks about 3 disciplines

Matthew 6:2 (NIV)

“So when you give to the needy...

Matthew 6:5 (NIV)

“And when you pray.....

Matthew 6:16

“When you fast....

disciplines shape us for righteousness

The assumption of Jesus is that his listeners were already doing these activities and Jesus was simply shaping the way that they did them

Giving, praying and fasting were merely part of public life

These were disciplines that were practiced carefully and under the watchful eye of the pharisees

But Jesus just slightly tweaked these activities....

Where everyone at the time was practicing their religiousness publically…they were doing it for some kind of religious clout...

Jesus said…do it in secret…Because the secrecy of practicing giving, prayer and fasting shapes your heart

What these disciplines do is that they slowly and over time re-organize your life around Jesus

So lets finally get to our sermon on the mount text for this morning shall we?

So Jesus first and foremost calls us to practice our “religious” efforts with him in secret

So then he says this about fasting

Matthew 6:16–18 NIV

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

and again you see here that the discipline of fasting is to be done in secret but I wanted to spend a few minutes this morning talking about the importance of fasting

The discipline of fasting

The discipline of fasting is essentially abstaining from food or some kind of drink in a significant way

Here is what fasting does practically for you

Fasting reveals how much your peace depends on the pleasures of food.

Fasting also reveals how much we use food to comfort ourselves during stressful times.

If nothing else, fasting demonstrates how powerful and clever our body is at getting its own way against our strongest desires...

Have you ever been “Hangry?”

You know Hungry+Angry?

If you get Hangry it actually reveals how much peace in your life depends on food and has nothing to do with Jesus.

See this is why sometimes experiencing hunger is a good thing…it reveals your inner character!

See the point of fasting is the point that Jesus made in Matthew 4:4

Matthew 4:4 NIV

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

After fasting for 40 days, Jesus is tempted by the Devil in the dessert by turning a rock to bread and Jesus tells the devil that there is substance beyond food that matters...

The substance of God himself will sustain me through being hungry

Fasting has so many values in the kingdom of God

It teaches us the value of self-control

It teaches moderation and restraint with regard to our fundamental drives

Here is a great example…If you are trying to follow Jesus but you still get hung up on sexual sin like pornography and masterbation…Try fasting…Fasting will teach you that you are in control and not your desires

If I can be really candid about an example a few years back I was 50 pounds heaver than I was today...

I had heard about Intermittent fasting and I really wanted to lose the weight

For me there was nothing spiritual about it…It was scientific…If you don’t eat for a stretch of time then your body burns stored energy rather than what is in your stomach...

For me this wasn’t spiritual…It was purely about losing weight

So every single day I would stop eating by 6 pm and start eating again at around noon the next day

At first I hated every second of it but I was seeing results…so I kept at it…I did this for months and again, it was was nothing spiritual…it was just physical

But about 6 months in to this fasting project I began to realize something that I didn’t expect.

My prayer life God infinitely more focused and powerful

I started to get more disciplined and focused in my study time

I started to have power over things that I didn’t have power over before

For example I was in control of my food…it want in control of me

I controlled when I played on my phone…my phone didn’t control me

I even controlled when I spoke and didn’t speak

I wasn’t a slave to every whim and desire

The point is that even though I was doing this for health purposes I experienced huge growth in my walk with God...

why?

Fasting is a practice of denying yourself

I really think if you have never tried fasting for any stretch of time it is something that you ought to try.

Why?

Jesus says this

Matthew 16:24 NIV

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

If you want to follow Jesus...

You have to deny yourself

This is so un-natural and so hard to do

The natural way of living is to indulge yourself…and we are trained to do that every time we are hungry.

So fasting helps break the power of indulgence and gluttony

But the chief call of Jesus is to deny yourself and to follow Jesus

With the help of God, discipline help us to reorganize our lives around Jesus so that its not about us…It’s about Jesus

Challenge

God created your for Righteousness

Disciplines take us there

Disciplines help us to organize our lives around Jesus. What disciplines do you need to practice?

Just as formula one drivers discipline themselves to be able to race a car and win...

In our walk with God we need to cultivate disciplines that help us to reorganize our lives around Jesus

Maybe your here today and you are thinking…Wow I need to practice fasting....yes try it

Or maybe it is a discipline of prayer or giving or something else…Yes cultivate these disciplines and you will be amazed at what God does in your life