Amen. So I want to speak this morning on the topic of motivation versus discipline, motivation
versus discipline. And these are two things that work in tandem in our lives that we can use,
but I believe that the greater of these things is discipline. There's a lot of things that you
could go on YouTube this morning and you could put in whatever motivation, and some video would pop
up that would get you motivated about whatever the topic is. You might put in even a subject like
soul winning. People have made soul winning motivation videos, and they're really well
edited, and they have the preaching that gets us all worked up to go out and win souls for Christ.
And you could do that with any topic. For example, you could probably put in ping pong motivation,
like we were just talking about. And you would see some well edited video of a guy doing the slow-mo
and the close-up shots, and it would be the synth music, and it would just be this inspiring
video that would make you want to become a better ping pong player.
Or it might be something more serious, obviously, but I'm just using that as an example. And there's
a lot of things that we could get motivated about today in our lives, and there are things that we
should be motivated about. But the greater of these, I believe, is discipline. Motivation
versus discipline. That's what I want to talk to us about this morning. Because here's the thing,
you think about people who have become very accomplished at something. People who have
achieved something in their life. If you're involved in some kind of a hobby or some kind
of a skill or maybe a job, there's certain people in that niche, certain people in that category
that have excelled at that skill, whatever it might be. And here's the thing, those people
that have become that by just staying motivated all the time. Obviously, they were motivated
people, but what got them to the top or what caused them to excel was not the fact that they
were motivated, it was the fact that they were disciplined people. Discipline is what's going
to carry us through when motivation fails. It's a great thing to get motivated. It's a great thing
to be inspired. It's a great thing to be excited and want to do something, for God or to excel at
something in our lives. But here's the thing, motivation can be fleeting. It's an emotion.
It's something that can wax strong, but it can also wane. It can go away. And what's going to
see us through those low points is the fact, or not see us through, is whether or not we are
disciplined people. If we're undisciplined, when the motivation goes away, we're going to stop
doing whatever it is. And I don't care what it is in life, you might start out motivated,
wanting to do something that's noble and worthy and just and a good thing to try and do.
For example, learning a language. Very hard work. Learning another language is serious business.
It's not something that comes easy. You have to put a lot of effort into making that happen.
It's great to start out motivated. We think about, I'm going to learn Spanish. I'm going to
be able to give the gospel in Spanish. I'm going to win Spanish speakers. Lord, we're going to go
knock these doors in Nogales. We're going to go to have conferences in Mexico City. We're going to
do this great work, and we can get all inspired. We can get all motivated. But what's actually
going to get us to the finish line of becoming fluent in a language? It's discipline, not
motivation. You know, motivation kind of gets the ball rolling, but it's discipline that keeps it
rolling, that keeps us going all the way. You know, so both motivation and discipline play a
very big part in our lives, but if we're going to really focus on what matters most, it's discipline.
You know, we shouldn't always be seeking the motivation in our life. Discipline is what we
should be seeking, and that's what we see here with Paul. You know, Paul as a preacher,
he understood this. You want to inspire people. You want to exhort, I believe is the Bible word
that we would use. You want to exhort people, motivate them, but really what's going to make
them stick by the stuff is discipline. That discipline is something that has to be in our
life. If you notice there in Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse 1. He says,
Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. What is he trying? He's trying
to inspire. He's trying to exhort us. He's trying to motivate us with these words. He's saying,
look, there's a great cloud of witnesses. People are watching. You know, there's the throng in
heaven. There are those that have gone on before us. You know, we just, you know, Hebrews chapter
12, he just came out of Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, where we talked about all those great
saints of old and all the things that they accomplished by faith, and he's saying, well,
look, we're compassed about by these great cloud of witnesses. We have these spiritual forefathers.
We have these people that have gone on before us that have set the example. What's he trying to do?
Motivate us. To do what? To lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us,
and run with patience the race that is set before us. He wants us to finish strong.
He wants us to be able to do like he did. When he got to the end of his life, Paul said,
what? I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. That's what he's trying to do here. He's
trying to motivate. He's trying to get us to be inspired. Again, verse 2, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, right? There's our supreme example. Using the example
of Jesus Christ who endured what? Endured the cross and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. After what? Despise the shame for the joy that was set before him. He did all these
things. He's using him as an example, verse 3, for consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. He's trying to say, hey,
you want to stay motivated? Think about what Jesus went through. We do need motivation in the
Christian life. There's no doubt about it. Sometimes the Christian life can become a chore.
It can be just a matter of having you just stick by the stuff and get through it. It's not going
to just be this rocket ship to heaven. It can have its ups and downs. The Christian life
is measured not in years, but in decades. Some of those years can be low points in our lives.
We're going to have struggles. We're going to go through things. It's good to stay motivated,
isn't it? That's what Paul's trying to do. I'm just pointing it out that he uses both motivation
and discipline. These are two components that we want to use in our lives, that we want to
allow into our lives and also exercise in the lives of others, as we'll see in a minute.
That's what Paul's doing. He's exercising this in other people's lives. He goes on. He's talking
about the motivation there. He's trying to inspire them, exhort them, but then he also
goes on and reminds us about the fact that there's discipline involved too. If the motivation isn't
enough, hey, maybe the discipline will do it for you. That's always the fail safe. Our preference
is always just to be motivated all the time. That makes it easy to do the hard thing. We're excited
to do it, but when that wanes, it's the discipline that's going to keep us going through those
difficult things. That's what Paul is pointing out here. He says, verse five, and you have forgotten
the exhortation. You say, look, you forgot all this. You forgot what? The exhortation. You've
become uninspired. You're no longer motivated. What's the next step? It's the chastening.
You have forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourges. What's a chastening? It's a scourging.
What's a scourging? It's basically a whipping. We call it a spanking. That's bringing into the
modern vernacular here. He says, he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, and if he endure
chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. If you want to forget the exhortation, if you want
to become unmotivated, there's always the chastening that's there that'll help keep you
motivated. And of course, chastening, the discipline is really a form of motivation,
isn't it? We would prefer rather to not have to go through that. We'd rather just stay inspired,
stay exhorted, stay motivated, and not have to have God motivate us in other ways through
chastening in our lives. But that's what Paul does here. He exercises both motivation
and discipline in our lives. He does that through his preaching. He motivates them
through the warning about being disciplined. He also exhorts. Paul did a lot of exhorting.
There's a lot of exhortation in the Scripture. If you would, go over to 1 Thessalonians 4.
I'll read to you some other verses. It says in Acts 2, then Peter said unto them,
speaking to Jews on the day of Pentecost, repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And he shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. So he's preaching to these people, and he's trying to get them to do something.
And is he doing it by beating them over the head and telling them how wicked they are? No,
he's trying to exhort them. That's why it says in verse 40, and with many other words,
did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation.
So you need to be saved. How did he do that? He did that through exhortation, through motivation,
through trying to inspire people to get saved and to live for the Lord.
He said in Acts 27, this is of course when Paul is going to Rome on the ship,
and they get into that, you know, they run to that storm called Urokledon. Look, when a storm
has a name, that's pretty serious. You know, they're like naming the storm. This isn't,
you know, they do that today, don't they? You know, Hurricane Katrina and all the other ones
that we've had. They actually, so you know, whenever they name a storm, it's, you know,
it's a significant storm. And so he said in verse 20, and when neither sun nor stars,
and many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved
was then taken away. And of course he gets up and speaks to the people on the ship, and he says,
now I exhort you to be of good cheer. So again, to be exhorted is to what? To, you know, instill
hope in somebody. It's to bring that hope back. You know, they had lost all hope. And then he
gets up and says, I exhort you to be of good cheer. He's trying to motivate them. He's trying
to inspire them. So I don't want to come across and just say, it's all about discipline this
morning. Obviously in our lives, we want to be exhorted. We want to be inspired. We want to be
motivated to do the things that we should, but I'm just here to tell you that that is not always
going to be the case. That often in our life, what we really need is, you know, we need another form
of exhortation called discipline or chastening. Okay. You're there in 1 Thessalonians. Are you
in chapter four? He said in verse one, further more than we beseech you brethren and exhort you
by the Lord Jesus Christ, that as you've received of us, how you ought to walk and to please God,
so you would abound more and more. Right? This is a very positive verse. This is Paul being very,
you know, he's exhorting them. Right? That's what he's saying. We beseech you brethren and exhort
you by the Lord Jesus. He's trying to inspire these people to do what? That they would walk
to please God. You know, that's the preferable method, isn't it? When you want people to do
things that they ought to do. You know, it's for ourselves or for other people. You know,
we want to inspire them. We want to lead by example. We want to show them how it's the good
and right way wherein we ought to walk, you know, and inspire them to do that through exhortation,
through motivation. Right? But that motivation, you know, sometimes has to come in a negative
fashion, doesn't it? Because that doesn't always work. You know, sometimes we as human beings,
we just need somebody to crack down on us. And, you know, that's, again, that's why I think,
you know, that this is the paradox of hard preaching. You know, the world today,
churches today, a lot of churches today say you shouldn't preach like that. You shouldn't preach
hard. You shouldn't get up and say, Thus saith the Lord, and preach these hard sermons. You're
going to turn people away. It's actually the opposite. Now, of course, some people are going
to get turned away by it. But the people that are sincere, that love the Lord, you know, they want
the hard preaching. They want someone to get up and to exhort them, whether it's in a negative way
or whether it's in a positive way. They just want to be told, you know, what the Lord wants,
you know, whether it's good or bad. Because sometimes that exhortation, that motivation,
does come in the negative form of discipline. Right? There in 1 Thessalonians, go over to
chapter 5. Chapter 5, it says in verse 14, Now we exhort you, brethren. Oh, great, more exhortation.
I love it when Paul exhorts. Right? We exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly.
Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, and be patient toward all men.
So he's exhorting them to do what? To warn others. Warn them that are unruly. And he's saying,
Look, let me exhort you to do something negative. Okay? So sometimes that motivation,
that exhortation, is either to do something negative, and sometimes it even comes in the,
you know, we receive it, you know, it's given to us in a negative way. You know, we call it negative,
meaning, you know, it's against, it's not what we would prefer. That's what I'm saying. Okay?
Go over to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1. The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3,
For even when we were with you, this we commanded, that if any would not work,
neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly,
working not at all, but are busybodies. Now, then which are such, we command and exhort.
Right? So here's that exhortation coming in a negative way.
Saying, Look, there's these busybodies, they're working not at all. And what is he saying? We
command them and exhort them by the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work,
and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing.
So how we receive that exhortation is really based upon how we're behaving, isn't it? You know,
if he's saying, Look, there's some among you that are working at all, they're busybodies.
We, you know, warn them. Warn the unruly. Them that are disordered. You need to warn,
that's negative. Then he says, But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing. You know, you're doing
well. Keep that up. So you can see how Paul, when it comes to exhorting people, or motivating
people, you know, he can do that in a positive way, or he can do that in a negative way.
And it's, you know, positive or negative based on, you know, on our behavior. What we're doing.
You know, sometimes people get mad at the preacher, because he said something that stepped
on their toes, and you have to say, Well, is it really his fault, though? You know, he got
out and preached the Bible, what it actually says, and somebody gets offended, and they want
to get mad at the messenger. It's like, well, you know, if you weren't guilty, you wouldn't feel so
bad. You know, it's like the saying, you know, if I throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one
that yelps is the one I hit. Right? That's usually how it works with preaching. We don't like having
our toes stepped on, but sometimes it's necessary, what? To cause us to stay motivated, to correct
something that's wrong, to do something that's right, so on and so forth. So exhortation or
motivation can be given in a negative way, and a lot of times that's determined by what we're
doing, not necessarily what's being said. Are you in Titus? I'll read to you from 2 Timothy 4. It
says, Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke. Exhort with all long
suffering and doctrine. That's how a lot of preachers would like to read that today. They
don't. They would like to read over those parts. You know, preach the word. Be instant in season,
out of season. I mean, preach what the Bible says, whether it's popular or not. And look,
we're going to get into this morning. I'm going to preach something that's not popular,
that's fallen out of fashion today in America, you know, at least in the culture. All right?
And I'm just going to leave you. I'm going to let that hang there for a minute. Okay? Keep you on
the edge of your seat. Right? But he's saying, look, preach it in season or out of season.
Whether people like it or not, you need to preach this. Reprove and rebuke and exhort. That's two
negatives and then a positive. You know, the reproof, reproving, that's telling somebody
that they're wrong. Right? Rebuking is telling them they're wrong in a really strong way.
You know, it's one thing to just, you know, disagree with somebody and correct someone
and just say, hey, well, this is what the Bible says. Or, no, this is actually the facts of the
matter. And just, you know, just do that in a nice way. You know, that's kind of like a reproof.
Right? Hey, you need to change that. You need to work on this. That's a very, you know,
something that's more easily received. You know, the rebuke comes when people kind of stiffen up.
You know, when you come to them and you got to talk to them about something. And
anyone who has kids that does this, they know that's how it is. Right?
When you tell the kids to do something, the eyes begin to roll, you know, and the shoulders begin
to slump. And it's like, oh, you didn't like that? Well, let me try something else. Let me go ahead
and try to motivate you. No, that's when the rebuke comes. Now it's not just about what you
need to do. You need to work on that attitude too. Right? So that's kind of what this is. You know,
reproof, and then there's the next level of rebuke, and then there's exhort with all long
suffering and doctrine. You know, we don't want to turn into these, you know, dictators either
in our lives. We don't want to just be these bullies that go around clubbing everybody over
the head and trying to get them to do what they ought to do. You know, there is a time
to exhort with all long suffering, you know, with patience and with doctrine. You know,
convince people with what the Bible says. Not just my opinion, not just what I think,
but when I can reprove and rebuke and exhort with what all long suffering and doctrine.
You know, because if you disagree with the book, then you're disagreeing with God,
and you don't have a leg to stand on. He says in Titus chapter 1 verse 9,
holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine,
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. You know, this is a really important verse.
And I think we need to think about what he's saying here. Because, you know, there are a lot
of gainsayers in the world today, aren't there? There's a lot of people, especially if you go out
door to door and try to preach the gospel like we do here and try to, you know, present the gospel
to people and talk to them about spiritual things. You know, there's going to be a lot of people that
gainsay, you know, that speak contrary to what the Word of God says, that are going to argue with you,
right? Or going to say, no, that's wrong. And, you know, a lot of times our initial reaction is
to, you know, we go right to rebuke phase where I'm just, you know, I'm just going to go ahead
and just rebuke this person and tell them how foolish they are and just, you know, whatever.
And I've seen that, you know, but what the Bible's showing us here is that, you know, we want to exhort
these people. Why? So that we can convince them. The goal is to convince people. To get them to
come around to your side and see things. I mean, what good is it if I just tell somebody they're
wrong and they just go off in a huff? You know, if we just tell people, hey, you're wrong. This
is what the Bible says. Or, you know, whatever the situation. You know, our desire should be
that that person gets that right and changes. That's what we want. We want people to change.
And we do that through what? Convincing. And how do you convince? By exhortation.
So there is a place for exhortation too. We don't want to become imbalanced in this area.
He said in chapter 2 verse 15, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no man despise thee. So again, these things speak. You know, he's saying this is what you
need to preach. These are the things you need to get up and talk about. And how are you supposed
to do it? You're supposed to exhort, you know, motivate, inspire, get people to do what's right.
And when necessary, rebuke with all authority. Meaning stand your ground and let no man despise
thee. So exhortation, motivation, you know, is very important. But so is discipline. You know,
so is the chastening. So is the rebuke. So is the reproof. It's every bit as important as the
exhortation. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. You know, Paul was one, as we just read,
who did a lot of exhorting. He's somebody who did a lot of motivation in his preaching,
didn't he? He encouraged other preachers like Titus and Timothy to do a lot of exhortation,
to do a lot of convincing, to do a lot of, you know, trying to bring people around,
you know, and to do with long suffering and doctrine. Okay. So there is a balance there.
But we don't want to go all, you know, again, it's a balance. We don't want to go all the
other side where we're just never going to talk about anything negative. We're never going to,
we're never going to, we're never going to rebuke anybody. We're never going to,
you know, stand, you know, say these things with all authority in season or out of season.
You know, we don't want to go there either. We need to be able to stand our ground. That's why
he also brings up a lot of the negative things too, right? He wants to motivate people. He wants
to inspire them. But when necessary, discipline has its place. Discipline plays its part.
1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17, he said, For this cause I have sent unto you Timotheus,
who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring unto you remembrance of my ways
which be in Christ as I teach in everywhere and every church. And that sounds nice. He's going
to come and teach you of my ways. You know, but let's not forget what Paul's ways were like.
You know, Paul, yeah, did a lot. He was very long suffering, did a lot of exhorted,
but he also knew when to, you know, bring the hammer down and start to reprove and rebuke and
to chasten. He said, But I will come unto you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the
speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. Because remember what's going on in 1 Corinthians
in the next chapter, he gets into it. There's this gross sin in the church, you know, that there's
sin that is so much not even named as among the Gentiles, right? There's fornication. There's all
kinds of sin in this church. This is not a good example of a church, the Corinthian church,
at least in this instance. And he's saying, Look, I'm going to, I'm sending Timothy ahead
to remind you of my ways to, you know, he's going to come and exhort you. But if you can't take that
and you want to stay puffed up and stiff neck, you know, I'll show up and we'll see not the speech of
them that are puffed up, but the power. We'll see how you handle it when I show up and start to,
you know, start to really bring the hammer down. That's what Paul's saying. You know,
he's basically threatening. Look at verse 20. For the kingdom of God is not in a word of power,
what will ye? He's saying, the choice is yours. You know, what will ye? Shall I come unto you with
a rod? Now what's the rod for? It's not because he's got a limp, you know, it's there because
he's going to, you know, he's going to crack some skulls, as they say, right? He's going to show up
and he's speaking, you know, this is an illustration, right? He's going to come and do this
verbally. He's going to show up and reprove people and rebuke people, right? He's going to
chasten. He's saying, look, what will you? Shall I come unto you with a rod or in love? So again,
it goes back to what I was saying earlier. You know, whether we're going to be motivated by
somebody or we're going to be chastened and disciplined by someone, it's really our decision
to make, right? It's really up to us how we're going to receive. Our behavior is what's going
to determine that. You know, if they hear Timothy and what Timothy has to say, and we know it is
actually what happened if you read 2 Corinthians, you know, his letter and Timothy's coming unto
them was enough for them to get the situation straightened out. And Paul was very pleased with
that and writes 2 Corinthians, you can read that on your own. And he's saying, look, I'll come to
you with a rod or in love. You know, I can come to you with the spirit of power and exercise my
authority that is given to me, or I can come into you with what? The spirit of meekness,
right? That's what he wanted. Okay. You know, people prefer to do things in meekness,
you know, as somebody who's overseeing the body of the church down here, as somebody who is a
father, you know, and whether you're, you know, maybe even you yourself are, you know, with your
mother at home, you know, and you have children under your authority, or you're in the workplace
and you have people that are subject unto you in terms of authority, you know, we probably all
prefer to do things with meekness. We'd rather just motivate people and inspire them and just
encourage them to do the right thing through in love, you know, and not have to say things more
than once and remind them or repeat ourselves. You know, we would rather just be able to encourage
people to do the right thing, but is that always how it works? Often that's not the case at all.
Often we find ourselves having to be, to come what? With the rod. To not come with meekness,
but to come with the power and to come with authority and straighten things out. You know,
that's usually how it goes. When there's, you know, an issue, you know, when people are,
are misbehaving, when things are going bad, people are not doing the things that they should,
motivation usually doesn't work. You know, it's the discipline, it's the chasing that's necessary
to get us back on the right path, you know, because, and why is that? Why is it that way?
It's because discipline is more effective than motivation. Discipline is more efficient,
it's more effective, it has longer lasting effects than motivating, right? You know,
we could apply this to ourselves, maybe not necessarily, you know, exercising this in other
people's lives or, you know, having it exercised upon us. We could, we could take this and use it
on our own selves by being what? Self-motivated or self-disciplined, okay? But, you know,
if you would go over to, where did I have you go last? You're in,
uh, we'll just go over to Proverbs chapter six, Proverbs chapter six. Actually go to Proverbs 13,
Proverbs chapter 13. I gotta hurry along here, I'm running out of time.
Discipline is more effective than motivation. The Bible says,
who so loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish.
He that hateth reproof is brutish. You know, if someone comes to us and it has to come with
the rod, so to speak, or maybe literally, you know, children, you know, if we literally have
to have that, we know we shouldn't hate that. You know, if we despise people for that, the
Bible says we're brutish. What is brutish? It's, you know, let me just again bring it back into
the modern immaculate. It means stupid. It means you're dumb. That's what it means to be brutish,
to be a brute, to be a brute beast, right? To be a dumb animal, okay? And he says that the,
you know, who so loveth instruction loveth knowledge. You know, we got, it's, again,
it goes back to what Paul was saying, you know, what will you? You want me to come in a spirit
of meekness or with the rod? Do we want to love instruction? You know, are we going to, are we
going to love instruction? Because if you love instruction, you love knowledge. How is knowledge
received? Do people just plug your head into a computer? Do you just download it? You know, no,
it becomes through instruction, right? Even if it is through some, you know,
piece of technology. Even if it is, you know, let's say, oh, I don't know, your AC blower goes
out at home. Whatever that happened to, I don't know. You know, you try to, you want to diagnose
that and figure out what the problem is and fix it, you know, you might find yourself on YouTube.
Right, getting instruction through somebody showing you how it's done,
right? And that, that's you what? Loving knowledge. You know, a parent might come to a child and say,
let me instruct you. Let me show you how this is supposed to be done. Let me show you what needs
to be done. Well, I just hate that. Well, then you don't love knowledge because that's how knowledge
is received through instruction. But he that hateth reproof is brutish. Sometimes that instruction
comes through the form of reproof. Hey, you're doing this wrong. Let me show you how to do it
right. You messed up. I mean, I, I know I've been on, you know, let me just confess my faults. I,
I had bosses in the past come to me and say, hey, that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen
anybody do. I've literally heard those words. And I was so proud of myself. You know, I was sent out
to, we were doing siding and there was a piece I had to, I had to, there was a piece that was
like concrete. We had to fold the metal around it, put this metal, this real thin tin on it.
And he said, take this tin, get those measurements, go over to the supply house to let you use the
brake machine and you can fold that metal just so you can come back and just put it right on there.
And I'm telling you, it fit like a glove. I mean, I spent like two or three hours over there. I had
all my measurements just right. I folded it. I put it on there and I'm just, I'm just thinking,
he's going to come, my boss is going to come see this and he's going to be so happy. And all of a
sudden I've got it on there and I'm just, I'm looking at it and I just hear this voice from
behind me. That is the stupidest thing I've ever seen anybody do on a job site. I'm thinking,
who's he talking to? Man, someone's about to get it and turn around. He's talking to me.
Let me tell you, those dimensions were dead on. It fit like a glove. Problem was it was inside out.
The wrong color was facing out, right? And I, you know what I didn't do? I didn't like,
you know, take off my tool belt and throw on the ground so I could see you do any better. You know
what? I felt really bad. Why? Because I, that instruction was coming in the form of reproof.
You know what? But I didn't, I hated the fact that I messed up, you know, but guess what? I learned
a lesson. How did I learn that lesson? Through reproof, through being told,
hey, what you did was wrong. And if I had just, you know, thrown a fit, you know, and just gotten
stiff necked and puffed up and tried to blame somebody else, you know what the Bible says is
that I'm actually stupid, that I'm brutish. That would be the dumb thing to do, wouldn't it?
Where'd I have you go? You're in Proverbs? You know, self-discipline is something that's
important in our lives. Being disciplined by others and disciplining our own selves.
Paul said, I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Paul did that himself.
You know, we should grow to the place where we don't need somebody else standing over us and
watching us and making sure we do the right thing. And we should get to the place where we
keep ourselves under. We bring ourselves into subjection. The Bible says in Proverbs 6, where
you are, verse 23, for the commandment is a lamp. You know, instruction is knowledge.
Instruction is a lamp. The commandment is a lamp. And law is light. And reproofs of instruction
are the way of life. You see how motivation's nice? We prefer that. We would prefer to be told,
oh, you did such a good job. You know, do that again. Just keep it up. You know, and there is
a time and place for that when we do do well. But, you know, I'm just reading a few verses
here in Proverbs, and it seems to me, you know, he says it's the reproofs of instruction. It's the
whosoever hateth reproof is brutish. A lot of times that instruction, that knowledge,
that motivation that we need in life comes through reproof, comes through being told that
what we're doing is wrong. Reproofs of our instruction are the way of life. You know,
those people that love us, they'll come to us and tell us when we're doing something wrong.
You know, newsflash, you know, kids, your parents don't hate you when they tell you you're doing
something wrong, when they correct you, when they chase you. They're actually doing that
because they love you, because they want you to do the right thing, because they're looking out
for you. And, you know, it might, you might not understand that now, but you will when you get
older if you don't already. You know, the reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Go over to
Proverbs chapter 13, because here's the thing about discipline. It doesn't, why is it better?
Why is it more effective? Because it doesn't rely on emotion. It doesn't rely on feeling. Well,
it does rely on feeling sometimes, but not that kind of feeling. The feeling is a painful
sensation, right? It's the rod of instruction on the seat of learning, you know. That kind,
that is the feeling you might get, but it's not, it doesn't rely on this emotional feeling,
right, where we're just trying to inspire you all the time. Because you can't always inspire
people. You know, that's what I've, I've noticed. You know, sometimes you'll do something or you'll
get into something and say, man, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
you know, I'm hoping to, to inspire other people, you know. Let me just use myself as an example,
you know. I was, I got to a point, I know this is hard to believe, but I decided, you know,
I need to lose some weight. And I did. Now, I think it's kind of creeping back up on me,
to be honest, ever since camp, but, you know, I got to get back, I got to get, I got to get,
what, more disciplined, right? And I, but as I was going through that, and I lost about 20 pounds,
you know, and people started to notice, hey, you're losing weight, you know. I'm like,
well, I'm sure it's here somewhere. Don't worry, I'll find it, you know. It didn't get far.
But, you know, I was thinking like, hey, if I do this, you know, I was thinking about other
people who were kind of in that same boat that I was, that could stand to lose about 20, 30,
50 pounds, whatever, you know. And, you know, why for their health, you know, because I want them to
do well. But you know what, those people didn't get inspired. Those people didn't even notice.
But it was other people who, who, who I noticed did get inspired. They say, wow, that makes me
want to try another diet. That makes me want to get back on the bandwagon. And those were not the
people that I had in mind. All I'm saying is, you know, you, it's, and it just goes to show you that
trying to motivate or inspire certain people is an ineffective way of doing things. Because you
can't always motivate people. It's up to the person involved. That's what, that's what that
illustration is, you know. I'm saying, look, I wanted, I had this person in mind. It didn't work
at all. But this person who just came out of the blue and they started losing weight because they
saw what I was doing, okay. That's why discipline is, is more effective because it doesn't rely on
emotion. It doesn't rely on feeling. And, you know, that, and I'm gonna get real specific when
it comes to, you know, when it comes to training our children. You know, when it comes to, to
raising our children, motivation is not the way to go. It, you know, it's, it's not, and especially
when they're young. They don't, they don't under, they don't, what do they have to be inspired
about? They're just living day by day, you know. They're living for the moment. They're not thinking
long term often, you know. So trying to inspire them, hey, if you're good now, 20 years from now,
you're going to reap the benefits. They, that's like an eternity away, right. So, you know, trying
to inspire them about, you know, do, hey, do this for the, the 15 year old you. Do this for the 20
year old you. I mean, is that somehow how adults try to motivate themselves? You know, what am I,
what is the 40 year old Corbin going to do for the 50 year old Corbin? That's something I tell
myself. That's something I think often. What will the 50 year old Corbin thank me for 10, you know,
10 years from now? What can I do today that would make me better off, you know, 10, 20, 30 years from
now? You know, that's, that's, you know, motivating myself. That's inspiring myself, right. That
doesn't work on a five year old. That doesn't work on a 10 year old. That doesn't work on young
people, okay. They don't often think that way. As we get older, we begin to think that way,
but you can't go to the five year old and say, hey, you know, if you don't eat that next piece
of candy, like I told you to, you know, the eight year old you is not going to have a cavity.
It's going to go right in there. They're like, cavity, what?
What's that? You know, it sounds like fun. Their brains don't think like that. What do they need?
They need discipline, right? They need a motivation in the form of discipline,
because that's immediate. The consequences are now, right? That's why it's more effective. You
say, well, I don't know, and we're going to go somewhere. Again, that's not popular,
but I'm going to preach it, whether it's popular or not, because that's my job.
And you say, I don't know that we should, you know, that's the way of doing things,
but let me just remind you that God disciplines us, that we are following the pattern of the Lord.
He said in Revelation, as many as I love, I never tell them that they're wrong,
and I never correct them. You know, I always just try to inspire them and motivate them
and just, and just use words of affirmation to get people to do it. Is that how the Lord works?
You know, when He's flooding the entire earth? When He's just like burning cities to the ground?
When He's just judging the whole, when, you know, when Egypt is just having, you know, plagues
poured out upon it? Not to mention everything that's going to take place in the book of
Revelation. Is that how God works? God would never do anything mean? No. He says, as many as I love,
the people that I love, I rebuke and chasten. So look, I rebuke and chasten the people I love.
Why? Because that's what works. Because that's what's effective. That's what's going to get
them to do the things that they need to do. Not so that, you know, He can feel good about Himself,
because they can spare themselves the suffering that comes with disobedience, okay?
And effective training, you know, if we're going to, if we're going to train children,
if we're going to bring them up, this is the practical application of the sermon, okay?
It relies on discipline more than motivation. If you're going to bring up children, as it says in
Ephesians chapter 6, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that sounds real nice on the surface,
doesn't it? Bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
right? That we want to nourish them. That's, you know, the nurturing. That's a very,
you know, easy word to use, right? That's very, oh, I could do that. And the admonition, right?
But when we start to actually look what that entails, you know, that nurturing and that
admonition, it comes in the form of discipline often, okay? Did I have you go to Proverbs 13?
Are you there? You know, and I'm going to use this as an example of child-rearing. You know,
our children, they don't need time out. They don't need, you know, they don't need to be grounded.
They don't need to have something taken away. They need the rod. They need a spanking, okay?
They need physical corporal punishment. They say, well, I don't know about this. Well,
let's look at what the Scripture says and let's, you know, let's compare what the Bible says with
the world's philosophy and see what, you know, who's right. It says in Proverbs chapter 13 verse
24, he that spareth his rod hateth his son. Now again, what's that use of the rod? That's what
Paul said to the Corinthians. I'll come with a rod. Would you rather I come with the rod
or in love, right? You'd rather have me come lay out a whooping, you know, or would you rather
me come in meekness and long suffering? He's saying he that spareth his rod hateth his son.
You say, oh, I'd never spank my children. I would never, you know, correct my children physically
like that because I love them too much. The Bible says you actually hate them.
That's what it says. It says that if you, I mean, let's read it again. He that spareth his rod,
right? It says, oh, I've got the rod. I have the authority. It's God given. And by the way,
it's legal in the United States, okay? Don't let the liberal media scare you into not doing this.
And it might not be popular. You say, well, it's not popular. I'm not going to do this. I wouldn't
want, you know, my relatives to find out. You know, I wouldn't want somebody to get after me
about this. He's going to spare the rod. You know what? The Bible says you hate your son.
You actually hate your child. That's what it says. But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
I mean, early, often. He chasteneth him betimes. You know, as often as that child needs it,
he or she gets it, okay? That's the person that loves them. Why? Because that's what's effective.
That's what works. That's what works. And you know, and anyone who's been around children
who have not had this form of discipline, especially those that really, and look,
some kids have more spunk than others. I get it, okay? Some kids have more, you know,
are a little more rebellious than others. But I remember watching somebody raise kids before I had
them. And just every time you went over the house, it was another horror story. It was just like,
how did that, it looks like somebody just took an entire box of crayons and just, you know,
all between all their fingers and just, oh yeah, that's exactly what they did. And it's just like
the whole wall's like that. Well, what'd you do about it? Well, I just, yeah, I took the crayons
away. Oh, okay. And then you go over the next time and just like, oh, I came downstairs and
he had climbed up on the gas stove to get the, he saw me put the cake sprinkles up above the
stove in the cupboard. And the two-year-old, the three-year-old goes, oh, that's where the
sprinkles are. I like sprinkles. So he climbs up the stove on a gas stove, could have turned it on
on his way up, okay? And starts pulling all the condiments out of the top cupboard onto the floor.
It filled up the stove with olive oil, like the whole bottle poured into a gas stove, folks.
And he had the sprinkles. The problem is he had everything else. You know, that could have gone
horribly wrong. Well, what happened? Did, was there any kind of a punishment? No. We just,
we just don't have sprinkles anymore. It's like, okay. Same kid, you know, it's just like, and you,
I don't fault the child. You know, I fault the parent. You know, and why? Because I love him
too much. I just can't, I wouldn't want to make him cry. So then the next time you go over and
it's like, these are true stories, folks. We're having a little story time. Folks like stories.
You know, he apparently thought the house dog was a literal hot dog and poured every
condiment in the fridge on the dog. I mean, I don't know who puts Tabasco and Tapatio on a
hot dog. Maybe that's, maybe that's a Tucson thing. I don't know. But where I'm from, in,
in the, in the, you know, upper, you know, lower northern Michigan, that's not a topping you put
on a dog, any kind of dog. Edible or, you know, of the canine variety, you know. Every, it comes
downstairs, every condiment has been poured on the dog, just bottle after bottle. I mean,
is it any surprise? You know, my kids would never even dream of doing that.
They would never even think it, it wouldn't even enter their mind. Because the Bible says that the
rod, you know, the rod and reproof, you know, it gives, it gives wisdom. Okay. It, it, go to
Proverbs 22, Proverbs chapter 20. You know what? No, we're going to look at them all. Proverbs 23.
We got to look at all these. Because this isn't popular. Now, why is it some kids that, you know,
they hear that, they think it's funny, they just think, what? That's crazy. Kids actually do that?
Yeah, they do. Not in my house, they don't do that. Because there would be serious consequences,
right? Why? Because we don't spare the rod there. You know, and my wife, she goes out with my kids,
and I have very well-behaved children. They're not perfect, no kids are. And there's, they're happy
that's not, they don't walk around like, like little robots. You know, I remember saying this
about this, this, this, you know, this, this artist, you know, slash, you know, appliance climbing,
slash, you know, dog decorating child. I remember saying this about them, you know, like, like, why
don't you discipline this kid? Because I just don't want him to be a little robot. You know, there's a
time and place for a kid to be like a robot, you know. How about just not lighting himself on fire?
You know, how about just not, you know, wasting all of the, the, the food and, you know, so you
don't have to spend an hour bathing the dog? How about sparing yourself a little heartache, a little
grief, or maybe some serious tragedy by actually disciplining your child? Maybe you do want him to
be a robot. Look, if my kid's running towards the, towards the, a busy street, I want him to act like
a robot when I say, come here. I want him to think, oh, when he says that, I come here, or I get a spanking.
That, I want him to think like that, wouldn't you? I mean, I'd prefer that rather than running off into
traffic and having some tragedy take place. You know, that's an extreme version, but you know, you
could boil that down to, you know, you see parents just going, every day is just, you know, like a hell
on earth with their kids, practically, because they don't discipline. You see them at the grocery store
all the time, kids just throwing a fit, screaming its head off. Why? Because they don't discipline,
because that's, that's what he's been trained to do. That's what that child knows to do.
Say, well, I don't know about this. Is that really what the Bible says? Proverbs 23, verse 13,
withhold not correction from the child. You know, the Bible's very practical about raising children.
It has some real, real just boiled, you know, just brass tacks when it comes down to children, just
simple instruction. Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod,
he shall not die. Whoa. Right? That's what it says though, doesn't it? If thou beatest him with the
rod. Now, I think that's important that there is an implement involved here. You know, if you're going
to follow the biblical model of actually disciplining your children, it's important that
you use an implement. I believe that. Whether it's a literal rod or a paint stick or a, you know,
the wooden spoon or a belt, you know, something that stings but doesn't leave a bruise, you know,
but here's what I'm getting at. You make your mind up about that. Not your hand though. Not your
hand. Don't use your hand. And then look at the Bible saying that. It's saying over and over again,
the rod, the rod, the rod, it's an implement that's involved. It's not the hand, because I
don't want my kids to be afraid of this, but that, you know, paddle that's hanging from the fridge
door, the spoon that's in mom's bag, I want them to see that and be reminded just by looking at it,
oh, that's a part of my life right now. If I do something, there's a chance that's coming out and
getting used on me, but not my hand. You know, they're never going to flinch when I move or
something like that. And look, you know, my mother's passed on and I don't, you know,
want to dishonor anything like that, but that's not what we got. We got hands growing up. Okay.
You know, and there's a time and place for the toddler, the no, I get that,
but when it's just like the back of the head, you know, across the face with the, you know,
that's not good. Okay. Because now it's, I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid every time you move,
you know, next thing you know, you're going to ask for the check at the, at the restaurant and
I'm ducking under the table. Right. That's not what we want. We don't want our kids to fear us.
We want to fear what happens if they disobey. Okay. I mean, obviously they should have a
healthy fear of their parents and disappointing them and all that, but the Bible is very clear.
It's saying, look, a rod, if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. What's the worst
that's going to happen? He's going to cry. And then you might have to do it over and over and
over, but it's not going to kill him. He's not going to die. Look, if he climbs up a gas stove
and lights himself on fire, he's going to die. Right. You say, well, that's just one example.
Look, kids do foolish things all the time. You know, they, they climb into abandoned refrigerators.
They, they, they do, you know, tragedies happen all the time because kids haven't been taught
not to do things or that there's consequences with bad actions. Maybe they don't have some
horrible thing to happen as a child, but they never get reproof. They never get corruption.
They never get instruction as a child. Then they grow up to be criminals. And then the world takes
over and says, oh, you don't want to discipline your kid? Well, we'll do it for you. You know,
and they're going to lock them up in a cage. They're going to go ahead and throw them in a
prison. They're going to, you know, put them on some kind of, you know, probation. They're going
to find them thousands and thousands of dollars. They're going to make life miserable. You know,
I'd rather just go ahead and take care of that for my kids. You know, I'd rather be the one that
does that and spare them a lifetime of suffering by teaching them what? That there's consequences
for your actions. And how do you do that? If thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Proverbs 29 verse 15, the Bible says, Proverbs 29 verse 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom.
What's the wisdom that the rod and reproof give? That there's consequences for your actions.
And look, those of us that didn't get this growing up, we learned this the hard way,
hopefully. You know, unfortunately, but hopefully we got it through our head. Oh, you know, but we
had to go through some unnecessary suffering to figure this out. That actions have consequences.
It's so basic, but you know what? A lot of people don't get it today. You know, kids don't get it.
That's what they need. They need the rod. They need to be told no, reproof, no. Every parent,
you know, that word needs to be part of your vocabulary. No. That's what that, you know,
that alone is, even that is lacking in so many parents today. They just, they refuse to use that
word with their children. No. Can I have? No. Can we go? No. You know, and that's the thing.
People need to learn to be told no. You don't always get your way. You don't always get what
you want. It says the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother
to shame. Bringeth his mother to shame. Now, I believe it's mentioning the mother because this,
for the most part, falls upon the mother. You know, the Bible, if we believe what the Bible says
about how the wife is to, you know, keep house and, you know, guide the house and to bear
children and all that, you know, she's the one, she's the one that's, you know, a homekeeper.
You know, she's the one that's raising the children. Obviously, she's the one that's
spending the vast majority of the time. Dad's off learning a living or earning a living. You know,
she's spending the most time with them. A lot of this falls on her shoulders, you know, and it's
hard work, you know, and it doesn't surprise me that there's people out there that don't want to
do it because it is difficult. It is hard. You think, oh, I'm going to do this one time. They're
going to get it. No, that's not how it works with kids. It's, you know, it gets in there for a
little while and then it fades away, okay. Go over to Proverbs 22. We'll see why that is. Proverbs 22.
He's saying, look, a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
We've all seen, you know, the daytime talk show clip where the kid's slapping his mom in the face,
talking back to their parents, you know, the catch me outside girl, whatever her name was,
disrespecting her mother, talking back to her parents, no respect for authority.
That one little kid who literally slapped his mom in his face. The Bible says, you know,
that's, there's some severe consequences for that.
Correct thy son, the Bible says in Proverbs 29, and he shall give thee rest. I should have had you
go there, but I'll just read it to you. Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest. You ever
meet parents who just pull in their, you know, I know when we have five kids and, you know,
some, you tell people you have five kids, which I know people with twice that many,
you know, and they go, wow, five kids. How do you do it? You must just be, you just must pull your
hair out. You might, nope. No, we have a nice quiet evening every night. Kids go to bed. They
stay in bed. Why? Because there's correction there. We've corrected the children. We've
taught them. This is what's expected of you. If you don't meet up the standard, if you don't do it,
there's consequences, you know, and it's called, it comes in the form of a spanking,
you know, with an implement. Okay. And it says, you know, he shall give the rest.
Yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. So the Bible is saying that, you know, if we just leave
our children to themselves, just do whatever they want and not correct them the way the Bible says
we should, you know, we're going to have shame. You know, the Bible says that a foolish son,
you know, is a grief to his father, you know, but if we correct them, you know,
if we do the things the way the Bible says, they're going to give us rest. They're actually
going to be a delight unto thy soul. See, oh, you punish your children because you hate them. No,
I punish them and I correct them and they give, they bring delight unto my soul.
They're my favorite people in the world. I love spending time with them. You know,
I began to say it earlier, my wife, she goes places in public and she gets compliments
all the time. And that's to her credit, you know, because she's the one that, and people go,
oh, I love how well behaved they are. Yeah, you, you like the fruit, but you don't like the root.
You like how they behave, but you don't like what it takes to get them there.
You don't like how they're not throwing a fit where, where they go to the toy section and they
go, mom, can I have this? She says, no, they just go and put it back and they,
and they're not pouting about it. They just go, okay, no big deal.
Are you in Proverbs 22 verse 15? You say, well, why the rod though? Why do you have to use the rod?
Why do you have to, why do you, why is it talking about, you know, correcting, beating? Why is it
using this, you know, the strong language when it comes to raising children? It says foolishness is
bound in the heart of a child. It's bound in there, you know, and it's not this little,
it's not this dainty little bow, like on a little package. It's not this little slipknot where you
just pull one little string and boop and the foolishness departs. It says it's bound in there.
You know, it's like, it's like some kind of a sailor knot. It's like something that, you know,
if you're going to get this thing apart, you're going to have to pry it open and get it started.
You have to run it over with a truck to loosen it up, right? That's the illustration I always
think of when I worked in construction. We had those toe straps that we would lift up,
like heavy items with, move them around with heavy equipment. And you would, sometimes you
would tie two of those straps together. You know, you'd run the loops through each other,
make a knot out of it, and you would lift up something that's, you know, thousands of pounds
with it. And then when you're done with it and you had to take them apart and put them away,
you didn't just walk up and go whoop and pull it apart and put it away because it had so much
tension. It was, it was bound so tight that if you want, I remember hitting them with hammers,
trying to loosen them up, and then you got the bright idea of putting it under a truck tire and
just rolling over it and loosening up. And then you could finally get it started and it would
come apart. That's the illustration I always think of when I think of this verse. When I read this
verse, it says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. It's like that knot. It's in there.
And look, some knots are tighter than others, aren't they? Some kids, that knot, it's a little
bit harder. It's a little bit more bound than others. Some kids, you know, it's, it's a little
bit easier to get that knot loosened up and pulled apart. But that's what foolishness is in a child.
That's why kids don't have to be told how to lie, how to do what's wrong, how to misbehave. It's,
it's in our hearts. We're all that way. We're born sinners, you know, and foolishness is bound
in the heart of a child, you know, and you can reason that away through time out. You know,
you can, you can, you can through words of affirmation, you can get your kids to come
around and see, oh, this is foolishness in my heart. You're right. I shouldn't, you know,
pinch my sister all the time or whatever. You know, I shouldn't take toys that things
don't belong to me. You're right. That's very foolish of me, Dad. Mom, thank you for pointing
that out. Is that how it works with kids? There's no reasoning there. You know, they just, they have
little one-track minds, and the foolishness is bound in there, and it's what the rod of
correction that shall drive it far from him. Again, you got to get the language with the
Bible saying it's talking about driving like a cattle drive. You know, cowboys didn't just snap
their fingers once and the, and the curd was, oh, it's time to leave, you know, and it's, you know,
a hundred mile trek all on their own. It was a cattle drive, right? They're constantly there,
bringing the ones back that are astray up the mountains, down, you know, weeks, days on end,
go by, you know, on the dusty trail, trying to get them to where they belong. That's the way it is
with foolishness in a child's heart. You got to drive it out. It's constant day in, day out, day
in for years working on that foolishness, and just when you think it's there, when it's gone,
it pops up over here again in some other form. It's, oh, let's drive it out of there,
and what do you use to do it? You use the rod of correction. That's what's going to drive it far
from them. You know, that's why when we, if we raise them up in the nurture and the admonition
of the Lord, you know, raise up a child the way he had to go, and when he is older, he will not
depart from it. If you raise them, if you do what? If you drive it from them, okay?
So you say, well, why, why discipline? Because it's better than motivation, because motivation
deals with feelings. It's dealing about trying to inspire people. Discipline is better than
motivation, because it's more effective, and even, even the threat of discipline is a powerful
motivator. You know, when your kids know you mean business, sometimes you can show a little grace.
Sometimes you can show a little mercy, rather, and say, hey, this is your one warning. If you
do it again, you're going to get it, and then that alone, because they know you mean business,
right? But that's after the fact. Sometimes just the threat of discipline is a powerful motivator.
You know, we talked about kids, but what about all of us as Christians? You know, the threat of God's
chastening and discipline in our lives should be a powerful motivator for us to do the right thing,
to get the sin out, to live righteously, to live godly, to do the things that we ought to do,
right? That, you know, because the Bible says, we read it this morning in Hebrews 12,
if ye be without chastening, then are you bastards and not sons, for he chasteneth every son whom he
receiveth. You know, people say, oh, you teach that you can get saved and live however you want
and go to heaven. Yeah, that's called salvation by grace through faith, not of works, okay? But
people want to misconstrue that in their minds and saying, and make it sound like we're saying
you can live however you want without consequences. That's not what we're saying. That's not what the
Bible teaches. The Bible says he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, that if we be without
chastisement, meaning if we can get saved and live a wicked life and not be chastened for it,
then we're bastards and not sons. You probably never believed to begin with. You never really
were saved. And so what is he saying, though, that for the Christian, discipline is guaranteed,
that if our disobedience will be punished as Christians. And that should be a powerful
motivator for us, shouldn't it? To do the right thing. It's one thing to get a spanking from mom
or dad. It's another thing when God does it. External discipline is guaranteed for the
Christian. You know, and I've got to wrap up. I know I've gone long this morning, but
the Bible says, are you still in Proverbs? Just go over 25. We'll close here. You know,
this is why it's important for us as Christians to be what? Self-disciplined. Self-disciplined.
Isn't that what we want our children to grow into? Self-disciplined people.
We don't want our kids calling us up in their 20s being like,
hey, I got to come over and get another spank, and I just can't figure this out.
You know what I mean? By then we're going to, you know, and hey, if that's what they need,
you know, it's probably going to take more than a wooden spoon at that point, you know.
It's not going to come to that, though.
Right? What am I saying? But we want them to be self-disciplined people,
right? And that's what we should want for ourselves as Christians. Just the threat,
the looming threat of God's chastening hand should be enough for us to straighten up and fly right.
To get on the straight and narrow and stay on it. And hey, it's great to be motivated to do that.
It's great to watch, you know, to hear the sermon that moves us. It's great to read some passage in
the scripture and just be just moved in your spirit and say, oh, I just want to live for God.
But you know what? We still have the flesh to deal with. We still have the old man to deal with.
We got to bring him into subjection. We got to keep our bodies under. We got to crucify.
We have to do what Paul did and die daily, he said. I die daily, right? That's a chastening,
right? That's a working, and it's done by who? By himself. That's what we want to get to in our
Christian life. Self-disciplined people. Not just self-motivated. Self-disciplined people.
He said in Titus that a bishop had to be a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just,
holy, what? Temperate. Temperate. You know, he had to be even-keeled. He had to be a self-disciplined
person. He can't be somebody who doesn't have any discipline. The Bible says in Proverbs 20,
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied.
Saying, look, get yourself up out of bed and do what you need to do. Be a self-disciplined person.
Here in Proverbs 25, look at verse 28. He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city
that is broken down and without walls. You know, we need to learn to rule our own spirits. That's
what he's saying. That if we don't learn to rule our own spirit, we're like, what? A city that is
broken down and without walls. Meaning, you know, think about back then they had, they would build
walls around their cities to protect from the enemies, to protect from attackers, to keep them
at bay, to keep them out. It was a form of defense. And saying, that's what we need to do with our
spirits. We can't just be people who have no rule over our spirit. Every little thing is going to
make us mad. Every little thing is going to make us trip up. You know, every little temptation,
every little, you know, impulse is just going to attack us. It's just going to walk right into our
lives and have its way with us. If we don't learn to, what? Rule our own spirit. And we need to get
to the place in our Christian lives as adults where we rule our own spirit. You know, and that
training begins as a child in the form of discipline. We should be disciplined people,
and then we should be, you know, self-disciplined people as we grow older in life.
You know, an external discipline should motivate us to be self-disciplined.
You know, the chasing that we receive as children, that we give to our children as children,
the chasing that we give to them, that external discipline, you know, that should not only correct
the problem right then and there, but it should also motivate them as they get older to what? To
be a self-disciplined people. You know, that's the goal. That's what's going to give us rest.
That's the favor that you're doing your children. That's why if you don't do it, you hate them,
the Bible says. That's why if you do do it, you're going to give, they're going to give you rest,
especially in your old age. They're going to be a delight unto you as they become adults themselves.
So hopefully we can see this morning the importance of discipline. You know,
the important, not just in our own lives, you know, not just in our children's lives,
and how it ought to be done, and how it ought not to be done, and the consequences for doing it or
not doing it, but hopefully we also see the importance of being self-disciplined people.
Motivation is great, but you know what? Discipline is better. Let's go ahead and pray.