We continue our message series entitled “Choices” this morning. We said as we began this series that we are the sum total of all the choices we’ve made in our lives until today. Going forward, the choices we make will shape the person we become. We’ve looked at choosing purpose over popularity and surrender over control. This week we continue by looking at discipline over regret. This one is particularly challenging for me. I’ll admit that right up front.
One of the things they teach in preaching class in seminary is to never begin a message on a negative note, but I’m going to violate that guidance today by saying that in life we will encounter pain. We don’t like pain. We try to avoid it as much as possible, but not matter how much we try to avoid it, we will experience pain. There’s no way around it. Sometimes, that pain is not your fault. A freak accident or a friend or spouse or a child betrays your trust. Other times, it’s completely within your control. Either way, pain is inevitable. How’s that for beginning on a positive note?
We’re not going to focus on the pain that is out of our control. There’s little we can do about that. We’re going to focus on the pain we can control with the choices we make. Look at it this way: When we were growing up, we could choose the pain of obeying our parents now, or we would face the pain of the consequences later. We can choose the pain of not buying that boat now, or face the pain of not being able to pay for it later. We can choose the pain of studying for the exam now, or choose the pain of having to retake the class later. Those choices are ours. I want us to talk today about choosing the pain of discipline over the pain of regret. That choice, too, is ours.
It may be helpful to start with a definition of discipline. One of the best ones I’ve ever heard is that discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most. Discipline is being able to choose what you want most over what you want now. That’s a simple, but a working definition for our purpose today.
In our text today, we heard the words of a guy who struggled with this same choice in his life. The words were from the Apostle Paul, and he readily confessed to the Roman disciples that he struggled making the right choice in life. His summary statement is in verse 15: “I really don’t understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. I do the thing I hate.”
Seriously, this is the guy who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. He encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. He was healed of blindness. He traveled all over the ancient near east planting churches. He’s the giant among spiritual giants, and even he could confess that he didn’t always get it right. I’m glad Paul had that struggle! That only means there is hope for me, and it helps me know I’m not crazy!
I know what Paul was talking about. It’s like this. I was on the men’s retreat last weekend. I was the spiritual director. That makes me a spiritual guy, right. I’m supposed to be getting this spiritual thing all right. Now, here’s the thing. My wife and I started a low-carb diet. My clothes kept shrinking, and I really can’t afford a whole new wardrobe, so I’m all in on this diet. But, one of the things about this retreat is you eat…a lot! Which really isn’t too bad if you’re low-carbing it. Just eat the fruit and the protein. It’s all good.
The problem is for lunch on Saturday the cook team cooked fried catfish. Well, that’s like my favorite food in the world, but it is NOT low-carb. So, I think...“I’m just going to have a little. I’ll have a piece or two, and it won’t be too bad.” So, I go out to the cook team, and they offer me a little sample and it’s soooo good. I get another sample. I don’t really want to, but I do it because it’s there and it’s good. And then, Dustin James starts dropping homemade onion rings! Really? Homemade onion rings. No way! So, I have to sample those. Just one or two, right? I totally don’t understand what I’m doing. I don’t want to eat these onion rings and this fried catfish. I truly don’t. I mean, I’ve lost six pounds on this diet…in a week. But, I can’t help myself. I just gotta’ have that fish and onion rings. Totally blow the diet…not just on one day, but in one meal. I’m just grazing around the cook team “sampling” the cuisine. And, I’m full. Then, it comes time for the meal itself. What do I do? I go get me a plate and get more fish and onion rings. I don’t understand how I did that! I didn’t want to, but I did. I totally get what Paul is saying here.
How many of you can relate to Paul (and me)? “I can’t believe I did that! I didn’t want to. I knew I shouldn’t. I just don’t understand why I did. I’m just going crazy! Who in the world will help me?” I’m glad you asked! Paul answers that question for us. He says, “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25). Jesus really is the answer. This is the key to our whole message today. On our own we are prone to, over time, make wrong choices. With the power of Jesus Christ, he can enable us to choose not what we want now, but what we really want most. With the help of Jesus, we will choose discipline over regret.
How to do it? That’s the question, right? Let’s use Paul to see how he dealt with this issue. To do that, we have to go to another letter he wrote—his first letter to the Corinthian church. Look at 1 Corinthians 9…
24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. (1 Corinthians 9: 24 – 27a NLT)
Paul compares his journey (and ours) to a race. He says that athletes are disciplined in their training. How many of you believe we’re athletes in training? We are training as disciples of Jesus, and that’s the thing, the root of disciple and discipline are the same. To become a disciple takes discipline. If that’s the case, we have to do what Paul did…run with purpose in every step.
I gotta’ confess that I’m not the most disciplined person in the world. My natural desire is to sleep in and eat biscuits rather than get up and go to the gym, or out for a walk every morning. But, if I’m going to maintain this magnificent physique, I’ve got to do it. It’s a discipline. I have to choose what I want most over what I want now.
The writer to the Hebrews uses similar imagery in his letter. In Hebrews 12, he encourages the reader to “…strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (Hebrews 12: 1 NLT). Look, his readers would know what he meant. What runners in the first century would do is literally take their clothes off and run naked in hopes of winning the prize. They wanted nothing that would hold them back. That’s the way it’s got to be for us. We have to get rid of all those things that would hinder us in living fully for Jesus Christ. There must be purpose in every step we take on this journey of discipleship.
I want to help us have purpose in every step, so I’m going to ask you two questions. Write these down so you’ll remember them. First question: What do you want most? I can’t answer that question for you. For some, it may be to get closer to God. For others, it may be to lose 20 pounds. Still others, it may be to pay off your debt. There even might be some of you who are ready to work on your marriage. Whatever it is, name what you want most. Be careful. Name only one thing. If you start by trying to fix everything at once, you’ll end up fixing nothing.
Here’s the second question: What do you have to choose now to achieve what you want most? Do you want to be close to God most? Then you start by choosing a path to get there. Choose a bible reading plan. Get involved in a community of faith…a small group or a Sunday school class or a mission project. Make the commitment to attend worship every week.
Want to lose that 20 pounds? Choose to join a gym or hire a trainer. Choose to go for a walk every day instead of watching that extra hour of television. Choose to go on a diet and stick to it. It’s a discipline, right?
Is it your marriage? Choose to take a date night once a month. Choose to go to a counselor. Choose to go on a marriage retreat. We will choose what we want now or what we want most. We will live with the pain of discipline now, or the pain of regret later.
“You sure do make it sound simple, preacher.” Oh, it’s not! But we have a helper—Jesus Christ. There’s never a moment when we won’t need the strength and power of Jesus Christ. I asked you to write down what you want most as a means of accountability to yourself and to Jesus. We have to lift that “thing” up to Jesus every day. As we do it on a daily basis, we’ll discover that Christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me.
Here’s the bottom line. We all have a choice. For some of us today's the day everything changes. God is a redeeming God and I run with purpose in every single step. And, God begins renewing the places that have been trampled by my bad choices of the past. We can choose the path that always brings healing. I am a disciple of Jesus, disciplined. As a disciple, with his power we choose discipline over regret. Let me say again: Christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me. Amen.
