Welcome to from the pulpit and classic sermons
each week We bring you a different message
from some of today's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers,
too This week we have George Verver with
part two of his message discipline Can begin
talking with someone else about this and saying
can you give me some help on this?
I can't figure out just where to use
so-and-so and see me maybe here's
so many things wrong with him This is
how Satan gets you just with the tongue
Tearing us down, but I think there's another
area that's even greater and that's foolish talking
and Worthless talking talking about so many things
that that means so little in the light
of eternity And I think every one of
us Stand condemned this morning.
I certainly do for the many times that
I've said words that have had no power
It hasn't edified someone else.
It hasn't been a loving encouragement to another
brother It hasn't been perhaps an exhortation or
rebuke in the spirit of love to another
person, but it's just been about nothing We
mention it and then we mention it 15
more times when once would have been enough.
Oh How easy it is just to get
occupied with trivialities While we can find ourselves
talking all day long just about the food
and planning menus We said about the Lord
and we get to meal time and we
joke and we banter and we do everything
else But really talk about the Lord Jesus
Christ Why is it it's so difficult.
Oh Yes in a service we talk about
the Lord.
But why is it then when we eat
it's so hard to talk about the Lord
Jesus Christ Why is it when we're out
working?
We don't seem to want to talk about
the Lord Jesus Christ so much And I
knew this back in Bible school I talked
with some fellas and they said we're afraid
to talk about spiritual things because they'll blame
us as a holy Joe and a hypocrite
in a Bible school in United States, I
heard them say this How tragic it is
when we as Christians can't get together and
talk about the thing that is to mean
the most in our lives.
Oh Yes, we can get together and especially
around here.
We can talk vehicles can't we?
Why we can talk about vans and motors
and problems that come up with vehicles we
can talk about that all day long But
it's another thing just to talk about the
Lord Jesus Christ Instead of just vehicles Or
we can talk about the tent and think
of how we praise God for the way
he supplied it But then we can spend
the next half hour talking about this tent
and just how it should be When it's
already up And it should be done and
over with In other words things which really
don't count for eternity.
Oh may God search our hearts May God
control our tongues.
This is discipline a Tongue that speaks to
the praise of his Lord a tongue that
edifies let your speech be seasoned with salt
Does your speech edify one another Tell me
or rather.
Let's tell God or ask ourselves Has everything
we've said in the last two days really
been to the glory of God Every word
we've uttered Has it really been for some
real purpose Or has it been foolish talking
or senseless chatter?
James says that if you control the tongue
you control the body And if you can
control your tongue by God's power you're doing
something that mankind cannot do You're doing something
that's far greater Because mankind can control in
so many ways nature man has taken the
powers of nature They've taken the atomic power
and they can they don't always do it
But they can use it for good purposes
and they can take it and harness it
and control it But they can't control the
time Therefore let us yield our tongues as
members of righteousness Unto God as we are
commanded to do so in Romans 6 Well,
there are other areas too To talk about
the body The natural desires of our body
in all how we need to have this
under the control of the Spirit of God
The desire for food it's a good one,
isn't it?
But how we need to have it controlled
so that we try to eat what's good
for us So we try to drink what's
good for us So that we eat and
drink to the glory of God So that
our bodies might be the strongest possible Some
of us especially those of us who sit
behind the desk need to exercise I'll be
frank.
I don't like doing push-ups.
I don't like doing setups But it's good
for me in all how I need to
discipline myself to exercise my body I Went
out for a bicycle ride about a week
ago.
I came back pooped My legs are weak,
of course, I was cycling with someone that
used to be a cyclist that didn't help
matters, but He set a pretty good pace.
Well, maybe it wasn't too fast It was
for me when I hadn't been on a
bicycle for some time But all how we
let our bodies just get out of shape
We let our bodies just go to pot
and yet they're the temple of the Holy
Spirit of God And we are not our
own this body isn't ours that means my
little finger is to be God It means
my hair is to be God and it's
to be treated as such Of course we
could talk about our sexual desires, too And
probably this is one of the realms where
Satan hits Christians harder than any other We
all know it don't we?
The desire for a wife or the desire
for a husband It's in us all Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness I've said this sometimes in a joking
way and yet I think there's a lot
of truth in it Fellas are good and
girls are good.
But when you get them together Unless they're
brought together by God and Only then Does
it become something that's really of glory to
God?
when God brings two together and unites them
in Jesus Christ And they're meant for each
other.
Then it becomes a great thing and a
wonderful thing I'm speaking not from personal experience,
but from observation of other Christians And I've
lived in enough homes with married couples to
know that unless God gives me a wife
Who has only one passion and that's for
Jesus Christ.
Well, I don't want to be married Because
it isn't too happy a scene in a
lot of homes It's just heartache and grief
and I've met too many people that have
come from broken homes or unhappy homes And
I see the problems it's caused And I
tell you just to show you what it's
like here in Britain of the 30 or
so who have been working here at Chigwell
I don't think there's more than three or
four that have a full Christian home of
both the mother and dad who are Christians
All the rest either one is dead or
they're divorced or they don't even know where
they are or they're not Christians or they
hate them chaos And all we can't afford
it and if you read the history of
missions and if you If you read about
Christian workers, you know, how many times whole
works of God have just been plowed under
because of sex because of lust And I'm
speaking because I believe this is a real
danger In each one of our lives take
heed lest ye fall That's why God says
not only pray but watch and pray And
I'd like to give an illustration from Scripture
and the man is Joseph I was really
struck by this if you remember the story
of Joseph when he was working for Potiphar
You remember how he was tempted by Potiphar's
wife To commit immorality and you remember how
he didn't fall but he fled from her
presence but before that She had tried to
tempt Joseph before and she had tried to
rule him to commit fornication and He refused
and we read a little phrase Over in
let me read it for you.
It's in Genesis chapter 39 Verse
10 Now notice this and it came to
pass as she that's Potiphar's wife Spoke to
Joseph day by day that he hearkened not
unto her And to hearken means to hear
and do he hearkened not unto her to
lie by her or to be with her
and he refused even to be in her
presence and I believe that's the reason he
had the victory of a while later When
he was caught unawares and it was something
he couldn't help He was in her presence
and he couldn't help it.
But then was the time that he fled
But you see if you give in a
little bit If you give in a little
bit in the realm of thoughts, you're gonna
fall sooner or later in action And that's
the way it works Satan gets you to
do it first in your mind and then
you do it in action But you see
Joseph took the steps before and he refused
to be caught in her presence And then
when the great crisis came he was able
to get out of there There are some
times when the Bible says we're to stand
and resist the devil But boy, there's a
lot of times when it says to just
get running and get out of it And
I don't mean as some people have said
some men run from temptation hoping it's going
to catch up with them And you know
that happens a lot we run but we
still have that secret desire Hurry up and
catch up with me.
No, but to flee Oh If we would
have that same zeal that Dave Prosser had
for planting corn and in getting those crops
if we'd have that same zeal for a
holy life and for a pure mind And
to be utterly rich of sin in our
lives and to flee temptation We have the
promise that no temptation has taken us but
such as is common to everybody else But
God is faithful he'll first not suffer you
to be tempted above that you're able but
will with the temptation Also made make a
way to escape.
You know, I found that sometimes I just
don't want to take the way of escape
And that's why I may fall Simply I
know the way of escape is there So
it's because I don't want to take it
You see we actually do like to sin
though It's our nature to desire that's why
the mind and the attitude needs to be
renewed and Changed from ourselves to God from
the world to Jesus Christ And so we
need to have bodies that are disciplined another
thing.
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you discipline in another area.
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in another discipline in time more discipline in
my own bodily desires in natural appetites and
I think we'll find that if we're disciplined
in the realm of food it'll help us
to be disciplined in the realm of sex
and if we're disciplined in the realm of
sex it'll help us be disciplined in other
realms you see they all get tied in
together and so even if it's a little
thing I suggested to our group here one
day last week something that came to me
that during this day choose something that you
know is good but you don't want to
do it and do it something that perhaps
you don't ordinarily do but you know it's
a good thing but do it just for
the sake of discipline not something that's just
kind of neutral but something that you know
is good and on the other hand don't
do something that you know really isn't the
best for you even though you like to
do it I think it helps you discipline
our whole lives wholly disciplined or controlled by
God himself then there's the discipline of actions
and of course this could be amplified I
mentioned so I mentioned study study to show
thyself approved unto God give all diligence were
to meditate upon the Word of God day
and night and it's a discipline if you
wait until you have just a great desire
to go and study the Word of God
you probably won't get in it too much
praise God he does give us that hunger
and thirst doesn't but sometimes you know we
have to go because we know it's good
for us and as we study then our
thirst and our hunger is built up it's
that way with eating sometimes perhaps you don't
feel like eating probably not very often but
yet you eat anyway because you know you
need it it's good for you there's the
discipline of prayer this is a lot of
it a lot of times we don't pray
because of an undisciplined life we know we
should pray we know we should get along
with God but somehow well there's people to
see there's decisions to be made there's little
items to take care of and people have
told me that instead of saying in my
office I should go off and feel where
people can't reach me but I insist on
saying the office and therefore I get a
lot of interruptions it's just this is not
common sense it's not discipline sometimes you have
to just walk out of everything and get
clear away then people can't call you then
if the phone rings and it's the Queen
of England you can't answer it because they
don't know where you are and it's a
help to get clear away from it this
is what I need this is perhaps what
you need you just have to walk completely
out of it and discipline your life to
get along with God denial of self this
is another thing we have some desire we
realize it's selfish deny it cut it out
even though perhaps it's not really so bad
after all there's a lot of things that
I wish I could get kind of a
group of men together I'd like to call
I really would like to have tiny snow
and Dave Hunt come up here for all
the drivers and boy I'd love to give
them turn them loose for about two hours
and tell you how you should be disciplined
as a driver on OM I'd love for
us to take a long time just to
discuss how we can be practical after all
what good is a great time of worship
with God if it isn't evidenced in our
daily lives what good is meeting together before
God and having a great sense of his
presence if it never makes any difference in
the way we live and so we need
to be disciplined we need to every morning
before you go out and drive a van
you need to check the water in the
oil and I'm so ignorant I don't I
don't know what all you're supposed to check
that's why I need to be disciplined that's
why I get other people to drive because
I know I'm not that good a driver
myself how we need to to use our
heads in these little things let me just
quote some examples we have a car over
in Chateau we hope that it might be
repaired but somebody left the water in it
over the winter it's got a cracked block
and needs a new engine now beside another
example here there's a comer down there now
we're hoping that we can get it fixed
but somebody left water there and it cracked
the block slightly there are other times when
engines get blown up because somebody doesn't think
and they aren't disciplined in the way they
drive other times perhaps an accident occurs now
I had one last summer and it was
simply because I was careless I came out
of the road Avenue de Ligue you that
were in Chateau and I thought the fellow
was going to go straight but he turned
and I didn't wait to see far enough
and so I smacked up his front door
see it's just a little thing like that
another time I remember tell you all my
accidents you never want me to drive again
when I was out in Montana while I
was on the way to Montana and I
was driving it was about midnight I'd had
about two hours sleep the night before about
four the night before that and I went
to sleep cost me $100 about 30 pounds
because I knocked a windshield out hit a
mailbox don't know where the mailbox went if
I had been sensible I would have turned
it over a lot sooner than that to
someone who was awake and I remember driving
up from Spain you see God's going to
teach me this lesson I don't drive when
you're sleepy it's worse than driving when you're
drunk and I was sleepy so I said
I can't drive someone else drove a little
bit and they were sleepy and all of
us were sleepy and so I went to
sleep stayed by the side of the road
and then when we were awake enough then
we went on and it's a lot smarter
than having about six dead bodies in the
ditch and I was telling some people just
think just think of what people would think
of OM and all our transport system if
one of those vans cracked up and yet
about 15 people who are wounded and dying
along a highway I can't think of any
faster way to see OM go right out
the window than to see a van crack
up like that now fortunately if you hit
a little car with a van the van
doesn't get hurt quite so much but you
can get into real trouble with whoever's in
the other little car but it's actually just
discipline always obeying the orders given to you
if you're told not to drive over 40
miles per hour don't drive over 40 miles
per hour and obeying the speed limits if
it says 20 miles per hour then go
20 miles per hour if it says don't
pass don't pass and if it's raining again
extra precaution discipline in driving now for you
that ride in the back of the van
of course you need to be disciplined too
and not always keep bothering the driver now
it's good to have one person to keep
the driver awake but if everybody's chattering and
you know another thing it's good not to
jump around in the back of a van
somebody shared with me that one of the
vans down there what all's wrong with it
Lou give us the word this is important
it's inside oh
in other words the whole inside is quite
a quite a quite a mess and I
think it's not only on the seats that
we put in not only the top part
not only the top boards are broken with
some of the two by two inch beams
that we put in to hold up the
seats were broken I don't know what somebody
was doing I don't I haven't seen any
people that heavy here yet but discipline it's
so easy to treat God's property as nobody's
property and so we don't take care of
it oh that's an OM van so what
and so we don't take care of it
and we waste God's money we probably spend
more money in OM on correcting mistakes that
have been made then we do feeding the
whole lot sometimes I wonder I think we
pay more money on vans just correcting careless
mistakes that have been made then we paid
for the vans to begin with because we're
not disciplined we don't know what how to
do as we're told there's so many little
things I would say this learn to be
neat learn to pick up after yourself and
learn to pick up after other people too
you know if everybody took it upon their
responsibility to pick up stray paper that was
around you'd have a clean campground instead of
walking down and seeing everything in a big
mess if everybody took it upon themselves not
only take their own plates but any other
plates they saw laying around you wouldn't see
anything around the campground but you go in
the registration office and see three cups of
coffee you can go another place and you
see a plate you can see rubbish here
and rubbish there now fortunately most people put
it in the boxes now but it's so
easy just to think well it doesn't matter
these things aren't important but it is I
tell you you live in a van for
a month and you live sloppily and you
just see what it's like to live in
that some of these vans after one night
it's like a pig pen now we're trying
to take some steps to correct this and
some good healthy reminders but all how we
need to be disciplined just in the everyday
realm of these things little things well there's
other things that we'll be learning as we
go along but if we've been told once
let's learn it let's not have to learn
the same lesson fifty dozen times that's the
tragedy if you make one mistake and confess
it and learn from it that shows wisdom
but boy if you make it the same
mistake another five times then we begin to
wonder what's happening and begin to wonder what's
happened to us either the teachers bad or
the pupils bad one of the two speaking
about the mind maybe we should say it's
good to have a mind to work you
know the scriptures full of this this discipline
of working some of you have never done
door-to-door work I want to tell
you it's hard I have to confess that
it wasn't much fun going door-to-
Mexico with only 20 phrases and in my
broken Spanish and they gave me some argument
all I could do was come out and
was repeat my little my few phrases again
and it was hard it got hot and
the book bag got heavy as George mentioned
yesterday very heavy and a lot of times
people didn't sell didn't didn't buy and many
times well they just weren't too friendly sometimes
they tore track right up in your face
it wasn't it wasn't a pleasant experience wasn't
pleasant at all it's just plain old hard
work boy I tell you that's when you
begin to find out if you're steadfast or
not then you find out whether you've been
blessed with the perseverance or not after 50
doors turn you down to go to the
51st one and keep going we read about
the people the children of Israel and Moses
day when they built the tabernacle that they
had a mind to work and in Nehemiah's
day the people had a mind to work
and tremendous things were accomplished they had more
than enough it's the first time I've ever
heard of an offering being given where they
had to give it back to the people
but when the people gave for the tabernacle
because they have such a mind to work
in a mind to give they had too
much and they had to give it back
you ever heard of that today no a
mind to work yes this is what we
need God says let him that stole steal
no more but rather let him labor working
with his hands why that he may give
to those that don't have and this is
the whole purpose of working whether it's in
a secular job or a so-called sacred
job is that we might give to others
either maybe we're giving directly of our work
or we work and we give directly of
what we make from our work but that's
how we need to do it's for a
purpose you see this brings me to another
point that I feel is so important is
discipline in purpose because if there's no overall
purpose how can you have discipline if we
have this great purpose of glorifying Christ then
this affects everything we do and we can
be disciplined but why be disciplined if life
doesn't matter if I have nothing to live
for well why should I mess around exercising
my body let me sit in the chair
and die there it doesn't make any difference
unless there's a real purpose there's no point
for discipline but when we've got a purpose
such as we have in Jesus Christ there's
all every reason in eternity to live discipline
and this is what we need discipline of
purpose think of Jesus Christ we read in
Isaiah that he set his face like a
pin we read that he set his face
steadfastly towards Jerusalem now don't tell me that
he really felt by going to the cross
we don't go by feelings but he went
because he loved because he knew this was
right and he had this great purpose and
he accomplished it and we too have a
great purpose and how we need to discipline
our bodies our minds our thoughts every imagination
all that we have we need to discipline
towards this great purpose of first knowing Christ
himself in our own lives pleasing him and
making him known to the ends of the
earth as he's commanded us you see there's
a purpose for discipline it's not just to
go around saying I'm a disciplined one no
but it's that we might accomplish the purpose
and if we aren't disciplined we're not going
to see the purpose accomplished this summer if
we aren't disciplined in the back of vans
we're going to have chaos and you won't
get the job done instead of seeing 250
tons of literature be given forth you'll see
a hundred tons of it wrecked in the
back of vans camped on and torn up
and gotten dirty and thrown in mud puddles
and hundreds of pounds worth of literature just
thrown down the drains because we don't know
how to take care of literature it wasn't
quite so bad last year with just trash
but when you come with two books they
cost a little more money oh how we
need to be disciplined in the way we
treat literature instead of taking a book and
just jumping it up like this on a
table we fold it and take good care
of it now you're looking at my Bible
it's a poor binding it's been used for
two or three years now so it's beginning
to wear out but how we need to
treat with respect books in my family I
was brought up right from the ground up
to to treat a book with great respect
not to worship it but to treat it
as something valuable my parents didn't have enough
money just go out and buy me a
new copy of the book every time and
we were to take care of it and
take good care and oh I pray that
God will give you a real vision for
learning how to take care of literature this
summer because it's the Word of God it's
the message of God and it needs to
be treated right and preserved so that might
reach hungry hearts we have a real discipline
and purpose we'll have a discipline and perseverance
then that we might reach that purpose therefore
my beloved brethren be steadfast unmovable always abounding
in the work of the Lord why because
you know your labor is not in vain
in the Lord see there's your purpose therefore
be steadfast unmovable always abounding discipline and perseverance
oh this is so important I tell you
this is I think of all the truth
maybe I shouldn't say of all but one
of the greatest truths that keeps me going
is this matter of don't give up don't
be a quitter put your hand to the
plow and don't look back but keep on
what do you feel like it or not
when the problems come and you wonder well
how everything's gonna work out don't give up
but keep going on and I believe that
God wants us to be persevering saints yes
we have all the promises of God at
our disposal but we need to act upon
them and trust them but we need to
take heed and watch at the same time
lest we fall I'd like to close with
five vows that were written by A.W.
Tozer I don't know if they tie in
exactly with discipline but I think they do
he says these are five vows that will
really make your spiritual life something in the
practical realm I like to read them the
first one he says is deal thoroughly with
sin for undisciplined it's sin deal thoroughly with
sin confess it and forsake it the next
one is never own anything if all that
we have is God's and we don't own
it then if something happens to it how
can we get upset it's not ours it's
God's and how can we take care of
what we wear better than we take care
of someone else's because it's not ours never
own anything number three never defend yourself
never defend yourself oh you never defend
yourself really help a lot wouldn't it the
fourth one never pass anything on about anybody
else that would hurt them never pass anything
on about anybody else that would hurt them
and the last one never accept any glory
it all belongs to God never accept one
ounce of glory it belongs only to God
and if we take it we're robbing God
if we take too much time we're robbing
God if we misuse what God has given
us we're robbing God and one of the
great commandments is thou shalt not steal and
so it really boils down again discipline is
simply obedience to the Word of God yes
we need the faith oh how we need
it we need believing hearts and at the
same time we need hearts that will obey
they go together trust and obey you've got
to have both and discipline is simply obedience
to the Word of God oh that God
will enable us for it's not by might
it's not by power it's not by our
feelings it's not by our emotions it's not
just by our desires it's not by our
striving but it's by my spirit sayeth the
Lord God is the one who has to
discipline our lives it may take rebuking it
may take chastising but oh I pray that
in my own life God will bring whatever
it takes to make me disciplined for him
that the world might hear let's pray oh
father we have to confess our undisciplined lives
Lord we lay them before thee and we
realize that we cannot we cannot remember what
you taught us we cannot do the things
you've told us to do but we're glad
that you've said it's not by might or
by power but it's by thy Holy Spirit
who indwells us and so Lord we believe
thee that you'll enable us to obey thee
in everything you tell us to do oh
God discipline our lives not for our sake
but for your sake because you died that
we might be disciplined for Jesus Christ we
ask it in your name you've been listening
to from the pulpit and classic sermon series
this week you heard George Berwer part two
of his message discipline tune in next week
to hear John Piper talk about are you
wasting your life I'm from the pulpit and
classic sermons