Stiff Competition: The Beauty of Discipline

 “Stiff Competition”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Sept 9, 2012

Text: Hebrews 12:11-15a // Series: “Stiff Competition”

Well good morning, friends.  I’m so glad you’re here.  If you are new or visiting with us, this is a fantastic time to jump into things here at Jericho Ridge because this morning, we begin our fall teaching series.  And as we begin, you may notice something different about the talk this morning… Some high-fluting preachers have big old pulpits, some have fancy glass ones, most of the time our teaching team uses the humble music stand, but today, to make a point, I’m preaching from an exercise bike.  Now I’m going to try to make it the whole time on here, but my cardio vascular health and endurance might not be what I estimate it is so you’ll have to bear with me if I start to huff and puff and trail off or fall off towards the end.  I also secretly think that this is Pastor Keith’s not-so-secret plot to keep my messages brief J.  So with that disclaimer, let me pray and I’ll then I’ll hop on the bike. 

During coffee and connection time, I asked you to write your answers up on the flip charts to 2 questions.  As we launch into the fall as a culture and as a community, often we have aspirations.  You might have found yourself all inspired and pumped up by the Olympics or Paralympics and you may have even said to yourself “yes! That could be me.  I could totally run that fast.  Or swim that quickly or jump that high or throw the shot put that far or pedal that long.”  But then reality sets in.  Because you realize that not a single one of those athletes woke up one morning and decided “I‘m going to be an Olympian” and then just showed up in London.  The road to being an Olympic athlete is filled with lots and lots and lots of hard work.  And so many things can trip you up along the way…  diet, exercise, lifestyle, superior and less detectable performance enhancing substances or technologies by other competitors.  A stall or fall at a critical moment. It takes hard work to perform at that level of athleticism.  You might be born with a modicum of athletic skill or talent, but you have to train hard and discipline yourself in order to compete because the competition is stiff. 

Maybe that’s why one of the more compelling images that the New Testament uses for our lives is that of a race.  Many of the descriptions that are used to paint a picture of what life with God can look like are drawn from the world of the athletic arena.  So let’s look at what you have written up here on the flip chart in response to question #1 - “What do you think are some similarities between getting in shape physically and growing spiritually?”

These are excellent comparisons.  I love what the Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 9:24-27, grab your Bibles and turn there for a minute or go there on your smart phone on youversion.com.  The text says: “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. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”  

If you want to grow in your spiritual life; if you want to make it to the end of you days with purpose and dignity and with an eye on eternity, then you practice self-discipline.  Just like an athlete pushes themselves.  They train hard.  You have to be willing not just to coast along with a little inspirational input here and there a nice dusting of religiosity or spirituality or Scripture intake or church attendance every now and then.  You have to be intentional and calculated in your approach to personal and spiritual growth. More on that in a few minutes (if I make it). 

Another text that highlights this same athletic theme is in I Timothy 6:11 where it says “Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight for the true faith.”

Pursue righteous, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.  And here’s the big deal for me personally about this verse: If I’m told to pursue it, it means I don’t have it yet.  It’s not something that is handed to me on a silver platter.  Any worthwhile characteristics and attitudes are not going to be built into my life easily or in a single moment.  Especially if I am told that one of the things I need to pursue is perseverance!

And here’s where we come up against our Stiff Competition, which is the title of our teaching series for September and October.  My fear for myself, and my fear for us as a church and for us as a culture is that we’ve gone soft.  We’re not willing to put in the work in order to experience the benefit.  We want to wake up tomorrow and have an awesome marriage but we’re not willing to put in the hard work of self-sacrifice and honest and open communication.  We want desperately to beat our secret addictions but we’re not willing to bring them out into the open and let a loving community of fellow addicts and sinners like everyone in this room speak hard truth and accountability into our lives.  We want to grow closer to God, to hear His voice and to walk in responsive obedience but every time He invites us to talk to our neighbours or our kids about faith, we say no.  We want to belong and want to find a place amongst the broken people who make up the church, but the first time someone hurts our feelings or the first scheduling conflict that comes up, we bail.  And then we gripe that people don’t call us anyone and that the church isn’t a true community. 

Our problem, no, my problem is that I want to grow, but I don’t want to put in the hard work.  There’s just too many things that are in stiff competition to God’s desires, dreams and plans for my life.  So often I take the easy way out instead of fighting the good fight and doing the hard work.    

Which brings us to our second question…  “What do you love about exercise?” /  “What do you hate about exercise?”

When I first started running, someone told me about this euphoric experience that they called “the Runners High”.  The way they described it, after running, they felt so energetic and full of life.  Endorphins were pumping, metal synapses were firing, their metabolism was burning up food for the rest of the day – it all sounded AMAZING!  So I went for my first run.  Like a real run.  And I have to tell you, I felt like crap afterward!  So naturally, I felt like calling the person who told me about this “runners high” up and saying to them “you are the biggest liar and hypocrite that I have ever known.  How could you do this to me?”  I didn’t, but I thought often of it!  But then I learned that this thing called the runners high doesn’t come on the first run.  Or the second run.  Or the third or 5^th or sometimes even the 15^th run.  It takes self-discipline and a significant investment before you reap the rewards of physical exercise of any type.  Maybe this is the reason for some of the content on our flip chart…  For some of us, the self-discipline involved in exercise is like eating those veggies that you despise.  You know it’s good for you but you avoid it at all costs.  Why?  Because it’s uncomfortable.  It takes time and hard work. 

Perhaps this is why the Scriptures remind us over and over and over again of the benefits and the parallels between physical and spiritual fitness.  And that’s why we’re doing this series this fall – the goal of these 6 weeks is to help you create a bit of a training plan which will hopefully bear some good fruit in your life.  We’re going to hit various Scriptures and various strategies that will help each of us put feet to our desires.  But just like getting in shape, there is stiff competition.  So these next several weeks, this is like your running group or your boot camp bunch.  We’re here as a community to help one another limp or sprint along toward becoming better and stronger followers of Jesus.  So to find out why this is such a challenge, let’s look at our text for this morning.  Turn with me to Hebrews 12:11-15.  Hebrews chapter 12 begins with the metaphor of running a race and carries the athletic images through to verse 11 where we’ll pick up our text for this morning which will be up on the side screens for you.     

“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God.

So what do we learn from this text practically about putting together a training plan?  As we dig a bit deeper here, I want you to begin to think about one area of your life that needs more discipline.  Perhaps it’s your temper.  Perhaps it’s your finances.  Perhaps it’s your priorities and your time.  Perhaps it’s your need for approval.  Perhaps it’s Scripture intake.  Before you leave here today I’m going to invite you to write down that one area of your life you want to invite God to work with you on as we develop your training plan.  So let’s look at how discipline can be beautiful:

The first thing that I think this text teaches us is to get into the right head-space.  In order to grow, we need to

1. 1.    Get ready for Stiff Competition: No pain, no gain (12:11)

Athletes know that if they want to increase their capacity, it’s going to be hard work.  Putting time and effort and energy into accomplishing the change they want to see.  They know it’s not going to be easy and that discipline is going to be required.  Our challenge, however, is that most of us don’t like discipline.  It’s painful.  It means saying NO to something that is easier like 4 more Oreos and saying yes to something that is more challenging and more work.  But like the old saying goes, “no pain, no gain”.  So the first thing we need to do is remind ourselves that growth always involves resistance training and this is always hard work.  The second thing you need if you want to grow is to

1. 2.    Get a Plan: “Mark out a straight path for your feet” (12:13)

If I want to increase cardio and all I ever do when I go to the gym is lift weights, I’m not going to accomplish my goal.  So many of us don’t grow in our spiritual lives or in any part of our lives because we don’t have a plan.  We want a strong grip and strong knees but we don’t have any idea as to how to get there.  That’s one of the reasons why this week and next we are having our Ministry Fair.  All around this room are people who want to partner with you to help you grow.  There might be some stuff that would be a helpful part of your plan.  If so, great.  If not, that’s OK too.  We aren’t under any illusion that the tools and training options that exist in our gym are the only or the best ones to help you accomplish your goal.  If we can help you make a plan that involves other things, fantastic!  We’re here to help and to walk with you.  But we’re also here to suggest that without some kind of intentionality, you may not get to where you want to go. 

The third training principle that we see in this text is something Pastor Keith is going to talk about at the end of this month so I’ll simply mention it here briefly.  That any kind of growth in your spiritual life takes work so 

1. 3.    Get into a Groove: Anything worthwhile takes work (12:14)

Work at living in peace.  Work at living a holy life.  These are not overnight or one-day kind of projects.  If you set your mind to training for godliness, you’re going to need to settle in for a life-long journey because you’re going to have to work at this and work at this and work at this.  That’s one thing I love about the Bible, that even the most mature people who’s stories we encounter there say “I have a long way to go in my training”.  So plan to settle into a groove and be prepared to train for the long haul. 

I’m running out of steam, so we’ll keep these final two short but I love how 12:15 emphasizes the role that others play in my training. We are invited to  

1. 4.    Get in a Group: “Look after each other” (12:15)

If I plan to go for a run on Tuesday morning and I look outside and it’s raining and I don’t feel like it, I am likely to hit the snooze button.  But if I’ve made arrangements to already meet someone for a run, I am less likely to skip out.  The same is true in your spiritual growth.  Being a part of a community that is training together means we can help and encourage and challenge one another along the way.  Later on in this series you’re going to hear the story of a family who really wondered if Jericho was the right community for them and who came to an intriguing conclusion.  But here in this text we are reminded to walk alongside each other as we grow together, making sure that things like bitterness and hardness of heart and ingratitude don’t stunt my growth and slow up my training regimen. 

The last encouragement from this text is from the first verse we read: An invitation for us to

1. 5.    Keep Going! “Afterward, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way” (12:11)

If I want to overcome an approval addiction, it’s likely that I won’t beat it on the first time I try.  If I want to try to learn to pray, I might not have a euphoric spiritual experience on my first attempt.  If I try to forgive those who have hurt me deeply, it’s likely a long and Holy Spirit supported process.  And so we have to learn perseverance in our training.  We have to keep after it and keep going in order to experience the benefits and beauty of self-discipline in partnership with the work of God the Holy Spirit.

So as we close this morning, Renee and Caroline and the team are going to come and they are going to sing a song you that might be familiar with.  This song expresses an aspirational desire to see God build something into your life that you can’t do simply by working harder at your life on your own terms.  That’s NOT what this series is all about.  This series is about you partnering with and submitting to God to allow Him to do a transforming work in your life by His grace.  His deepest desire for you is that you would share in His holiness and righteousness (right living).  That your grip would be strengthened and your knees would hold up to the stuff life throws at you.  His desire is that you would live at peace with others, that you would get rid of the crud that exists in the dark corners of your life.  And He is more than able and willing to partner with you as your lead Coach in your training plan.  So my challenge for each of us today is simple.  Pick ONE thing in your life that you want to work with God on, and then take the The “LACE UP” Challenge

Over the next 6 weeks, what worthwhile goal are you going to pursue? Not 15 goals, not I’m going to be the world’s most patient person;

I want you to take the time as the team sings to write it down in your MoJo.  Maybe for you it’s Scripture intake.  So you might write something like “I want read my Bible 3 times this week” so your plan might be "I will get up 10 minutes earlier Monday, Wednesday and Friday and use the Project 3:45 plan in the MoJo to get started”.  Maybe your goal is to “I want to get more connected at Jericho” so you might make it a part of your training plan to come to Group Connect or to step out of your comfort zone and say hello to someone during coffee and connection time.  Your goal might be “I want to yell at my kids less” and so you might want to visit the Men’s table and ask about Four Quarter groups that are beginning this fall where you can share your struggles and your goals with others along the journey. 

I don’t know what your plan is but I do know this: we’re here to help.  This is NOT a 6 week series of lectures of how undisciplined you all are and how you need to whip yourself into shape.  This is an invitation and a time to take stock of your life and to ask God and those around you if there is anything that is preventing you growing stronger and healthier as a person and as a child of God.   

I’m going to hop off this bike as we pray together as we worship in song and as you write down your one item for the “Lace Up” challenge and invite God into the very centre of that process of transformation.