The Cure For Falling Away – Discipline Yourself

I'm doing once a month. To go back many years ago, I felt a call to speak primarily to men. And that's what I did for many years. 2004, five, six, seven, eight, a lot of men's conferences, men's gatherings. We had some powerful times with God. But every time that happened, we were not in a hurry. We were waiting on God. Many times up in a cabin or a retreat or a conference, no watches, no cell phones. And God, it doesn't move in five minutes or 20. Sometimes it takes some time to get our hearts ready. And so I wanted to do that with the men here at the church. However, I was still working when we planted the church. Many of you know that. And then we had something called a baby and then another baby and another baby. And responsibilities have been, you know, pulling me in a lot of different directions. But finally got to a point now with Pastor Abram here, and we can preach on this topic of discipling yourself or disciplines of a godly man. So what we're gonna be doing is going through the book, Disciplines of a Godly Man. If you can't afford it, let us know. You can have one on your way out. Each chapter talks about discipline and how important certain disciplines are. Discipline towards godliness, towards marriage, towards purity, and the list is fairly long. And you know, guys, just shooting you straight this morning, I mean, I always do, but this can be a little bit more real. If you don't incorporate spiritual disciplines into your life, you will not succeed. That's how important this is. Your marriage may not last. Your walk with the Lord will peter out. Your devotional time will be minimized. You'll just drift from God. Disciplines are so important. Why? Because that helps us stay the course even when we don't feel like it. Discipline is everything. Ask an athlete, how important is discipline? Ask a Olympic gold medalist. And now I just kind of, I just wing it. How much more should we discipline ourselves towards godliness? Ask a Navy SEAL, how was boot camp? How was Hell Week? It's interesting, those guys, I'm reading a book written by one, and they go from 173 guys down to 13 by the time they graduate. And the training is so incredible. But how much more for godliness? How much more? Because here's what happens, you can't just walk this, sit on the fence, and hope that you get spiritual any more than you can try to lose weight and sit on the couch and eat donuts. It doesn't happen. There has to be spiritual disciplines. So again, we're not gonna be in a hurry. We're gonna look at the Word. We're gonna worship. We're gonna saturate our hearts with both. And we're going to apply the Word of God. And there's gonna be times for prayer and discipleship. So next store, we're gonna eat afterwards. But if you need discipleship, you need to get plugged in with some of the guys, we can point you in the right direction. And it's really that iron sharpening iron and building those relationships. And I'm not sure if I'm gonna do this, but I'm just throwing it out there. We might even have a Q&A next store. So if you wanna ask questions, yeah, but what about this? How do you deal with this? We might wanna set that stage for Q&A where guys can kind of open up while you're eating next store. Upcoming topics, marriage, fatherhood, singles for singleness. There's be a lot in there for you as well. Friendship, purity, integrity, leadership, prayer, ministry. I mean, the list is incredible. So here we go. The cure for falling away. The cure for falling away. What is the cure? Discipline yourself. You might say, well, Shane, I don't know about that. Well, let's just read scripture. Our verse this morning is 1 Timothy 4, 7. And if you have your Bibles, you can turn to 1 Timothy 4. I'm gonna actually be reading from the New American Standard Bible. It's very literal for this very reason. But here's the verse I'm springboarding off of. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Discipline yourself. Your translation might say, train yourself. And it's a big misconception we have in the church that the leadership is supposed to train you. And the children's ministry, did you know that? That the children's ministry is supposed to train your kids. No red flags on that one, Craig? The children's ministry is not supposed to train the kids. You are, we are. Now, we'd love to come alongside and supplement and help and encourage, but the church isn't going to discipline or disciple you. The, my messages, although they're important and they radically change lives, praise God for that. They either really radically change lives or they really upset people. That's one of the, that's the options I have when I preach and I have to live that life. So, but you have to train yourself towards godliness. Your spouse isn't going to do it. Even listening to sermons is really, did you know that listening to a sermon, as wonderful as that is, is not where the rubber meets the road? Because you can listen, but not have it take root. Because where's the power of God's word? It's in the application. It's in the doing of it. And I'll give you a secret up front, disciplines of a godly man. I have not mastered them. I feel a little inadequate on teaching. Oh, here's how you do it. I mean, I'm still on the journey with you. But often these things, these disciplines, you don't feel like doing them initially. That's why they're called disciplines. Does an athlete feel like getting up at five in the morning and going on a four hour or four mile run and then exercising? And do you feel like getting up and coming to church? And that's really why many people aren't here this morning. Many men who actually need to be here. I texted dozens. We sent out emails. Why is the majority of men not here? Because it's hard. There's snow out. It's a good excuse. There's ice on the road. I didn't see any, but there is. And I'm not minimizing that. I know there's people who can't make it. I don't want people to feel bad at all, but we all know that it takes a little bit of effort to lead our family in prayer and lead our family in devotional life. It's fighting the flesh the entire way. There is a struggle. There is a fight. So that's gonna be our key verse. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Train yourself. We will equip you. We will help you. We will encourage you. We will motivate you. We will uplift you. But ultimately, the responsibility falls back on our shoulders to train ourselves towards godliness. Now, here's an interesting fact about this is many people are actually disciplined, but often in the wrong areas. We have no problem watching media. We have no problem going to work. How many people are very disciplined in going to work? Well, Shane, I have to. I have to get paid. Well, yeah, I know. You're disciplined in that area. You're disciplined in certain areas. We just have to reprioritize our disciplines and really prioritize what is important. Well, you have to remove things that are not important. You have to add things that are so important into your life, and that will be godly disciplines. The guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier have guarded it every minute of every day since 1937. Did you know that? The tomb of the unknown soldier has been guarded every minute of every day. The extreme standards required of them are put in place to prevent them from getting complacent. I thought, wow, how much spiritual truth here as well. God often puts these things in the word of God for us to apply so we don't get complacent as well. If you're always striving towards spiritual disciplines and training yourself, you will not get complacent. See, the problem isn't that we raise our standard way up here, and we miss it. We lower it, and we hit it. And so this area of spiritual disciplines, it's so we don't become complacent. Shane, when is prayer ever enough? Never. Have I prayed enough? No. Am I convicted often in the word enough? No. There should be a sense of not being complacent. Have you ever met those people? They've arrived. Oh, brother, I don't need church. I've read the word many times. I don't need to do that much anymore. And they've grown into a complacent setting. And also, I was reading an article that said that Olympic athletes spend four to eight years training in a sport before they even make the team. How much more spiritual disciplines? How often do we discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness? Let me explain what godliness is. It's doing the will of God with the right heart. Because I can do the will of God with the wrong heart, and it's not as effective. Doing the will of God, God's way, with the right heart. That's godliness. Obedience, if you want to get a simple term. And like sports, we play like we practice. Who probably practiced better Thursday? The Cowboys or the Bills? It's the only game I've watched in a while because I was stuck there. And it was interesting. We play like we practice. And men, let me remind you, I know some here are single, some of your kids have grown up, but you set the spiritual climate of your home. You set the spiritual climate of your home. And here's my struggle this week on this message, was I want to encourage. I do, I want to encourage, but we also need to be real. We need to talk about things that are going on. And if you look, you know, the mass shootings that are going on. If you trace how many of those kids come from fatherless homes, or detached homes. The rape, the increase in rape in our nation, motivated often by displaced anger. All these ailments that are arising are often due to fatherless homes. But we can also be home, but still be absent. Absent spiritually, absent physically, of course, but absent spiritually, mentally, emotionally. We are called to discipline ourselves. And then that affects the spiritual climate of our home. Yes, we trust in God. We know that God has got our children, but God calls us to this wonderful task. And I've noticed, I'm sure you have too, that the way the father often goes, the home will go as well. Now there are women who are praying and they're contending, they're leading their family because men have dropped the ball. But often, it's the direction of the father's spiritual health that will determine the thermostat of the spiritual thermostat in your home. Leonard Ravenhill said, today's church wants to be raptured from responsibility. I'm going to have to say that again. Today's Christian men, we want to be raptured from responsibility. And this is radical. This is a little hard for people. We're called to deny ourself, to pick up our cross, to follow Him. I've got to structure my life. You have to structure your life in such a way that discipline, godly disciplines build and encourage and strengthen your life. And most men think it's about work and earning a paycheck. Isn't that what we think is the priority? I actually think that's way down on the list. The priority is your relationship with God and building those spiritual disciplines into your own life. So now, let's get to 1 Timothy 4. And actually, I was just going to, primarily in the book that you're reading, he just goes off of train yourself for the purpose of godliness. But I wanted to look at the context, which is so important. So if we have 1 Timothy 4 up on the screen, verse one, but the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will fall away from the faith. Now, well, let me just keep reading and then I'll go back to that. Here's how they're falling away. They're paying attention to deceitful spirits. And I put in brackets there, that's influence. And they're paying attention to the doctrines of demons. That's their beliefs. By means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. That's a powerful text right there. He's saying that in the last days, the Holy Spirit of God expressly says, which is an imperative meaning, it is so important to realize this, that people are going to fall away from the truth. How? By paying attention to wrong influences and wrong beliefs. It's interesting, you've watched before, those who are listening later can go on, if you go to shaneidleman.com, a couple of those people I've debated on Fox News. It's interesting, when you talk to them, they've drifted from truth. They embrace LGBT agenda, gay marriage, some of them even abortion. They really dumbed down the Word of God. More, I mean, I would say every time, every time I talk to these different individuals, they're always telling me what somebody else wrote, not what the Bible says. Well, you've got to read these articles, Shane. They make a great case on why Paul was probably not talking about gay marriage in a relationship that's together. You've got to read these journals, these articles. You've got to read this book, Shane, by this such and such who is actually a false prophet. So see, they're being influenced by their wrong beliefs that make sure everything is grounded in God's Word. Now, it's interesting, some will fall away from the faith. Now, I taught last Wednesday on can I lose my salvation or are you eternally secure? Now, this one verse, though, if I'm gonna lean towards a person losing it, this one verse is a tricky one. I mean, that says that those in latter times will fall away from the faith. But the big question is, are these people seeking? Are they seekers of God or are they solid believers? Now, I'm not gonna explain my position again. You can listen to Wednesday's message. I believe that many people who are not sealed with the Holy Spirit, who have not given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee, they can, if they don't have that, they're just seeking. If they're contemplating God, if they're in church and they're wondering, you know, if they've never fully repented and been born again, that these many people will fall away. The Spirit expressly says that in the last days, many will fall away from the truth of God. So again, it doesn't matter what side of that debate you're on, the bottom line is people will fall away. And don't we see this a lot? America even, we had, of course, Scripture is applicable to the whole world, so we can't look at it through the lens of America. That's often what we do, sometimes on prophecy and different things. But there's gonna be a massive falling away from the truth. And that's the context of discipline yourself towards godliness. You can't trust on others to lead you to Christ. You have to get into the Word and let the Holy Spirit of God direct you. So the first step towards falling away, are you ready for this? And this happens all the time. I counsel men on a weekly, sometimes monthly basis, so I talk to them. It always starts here. They've fallen away from their marriage. They've fallen away from their walk with the Lord. They've fallen away, some have become apostate. Here is the first step that he points out. They pay attention to deceit. What I mean by that is deceitful spirits influence them and the doctrines of demons spew out false teaching. So a person who disciplines themselves towards godliness and God's Word, no matter what's coming against them, they're in God's Word. They're falling forward. They're getting back on track. They built their house on the foundation of Jesus Christ like we sang. Oh, the sure foundation of God's Word. And they're disciplining themselves and they're fighting just like a soldier. That person doesn't drift. It's the one who listens to deceiving spirits or wrong influences. And this is why I make a big deal about entertainment, guys. What we are watching, what we are watching is influencing us. Anybody watching conspiracy theory videos? I'm not gonna go into all the different conspiracy theories out there, but that's influencing a lot of people. Some things might be right. Some things might be, I don't know. But what's influencing you? Media choices. What about friends and relationships? I actually had somebody tell me and I invited them to this and they're Christian, but the reason they're not walking with God is all of their best friends are not Christians. And this person is vacillating because I think our close friends, they better be believers. Hey man, let's get together. And they're influencing you unless you can influence them. Now, I meet with people often that are not believers, but they're not who I, what's the term? Remove your ball cap with or open up to or allow them to influence me and my buddies and who I hang around with and go this place and go that place. And these relationships and friendships that will draw you away from Christ, they'll wanna go watch the game and have some drinks and not be in God's Word. They'll pull you away from God. And also we have to worry about the influence of the flesh. Now, none of these things are new, amen? We just need reminders because you're fighting against the influence of the flesh. That's why discipline, the core definition of discipline is to do something I need to do even when I don't want to do it. There you go. We could have ended this early. Doing something, doing something that is important to your spiritual health even when you don't feel like it. Now, praise God when you feel like it, but often we don't. And then people are getting their information from this. I just talked about this earlier, apostate authors. There are many books out there. Be careful who you read. Be careful who you listen to. They are apostate. They are denying the essentials of the faith. And people, they'll send me books. Shane, you gotta listen to this. I know you don't really believe it, but you know, listen to this. He makes a great point about hell that might not even exist. Universal, universal salvation. And there's a one, Netflix had a movie on an African American pastor, black pastor, who just left the faith completely and believes in universalism. How does that happen? Well, if you listen to the interview, or you listen, he starts saying things like, I just don't, I just don't think God would do that. I can't see how a God of love would have any type of punishment at all. We're just all universally saved. I guess what, even the devil and demons? I mean, there's so many Scriptures that go against that. But see, what I think, what I feel, what other authors have written, everything must be sifted through the Word of God. The sermons I preach, the books I write, you better sift it through the Word of God. Does it line up with Scripture? Also, those who are perverting the grace of God. So you gotta watch out for these people too. They're perverting the grace of God. They'll preach all about the love of God. It's only about the love of God. And they actually encourage people in their sin. The God's grace, they say, is bigger than your sin. And it is, but you still have to repent. You still have to acknowledge the depravity of sin and the destruction of sin. And there's teachers out there, it's all about grace. They actually call it hyper-grace, which means you can live any way you want. God's grace will cover you. Who am I to judge? Who am I to tell you? How can you even be pastors? Who am I to judge? Who am I to say anything negative? Who am I to do that? Well, you're a spokesperson for what God's Word says. Yes, preach love and mercy and grace, but be careful of those who pervert the grace of God. But there's also something we have to be careful of. It's called unwarranted self-denial. Unwarranted self-denial. So on this side, you have the hyper-grace. Right, man? Just do it however you want it. There are churches in this valley. I gotta be careful. My wife warned me not to be too critical. But I've emailed them. I told them, hey, listen, you've got a guy in your church who's bringing his girlfriend. Well, brother, let's just hope he gets saved by the Word and through worship. No, you go to him. No, no, no, no, no. No, that's not our job. God's grace is bigger than that. We're just gonna love him. We're gonna love him through this. Yes, but confront him first and say, hey, by the way, this is not right. But you see how that's not healthy? And so there are many churches that are very weak spiritually, very weak by the moving of God's Spirit because they're allowing things they should not be allowing. They know, for example, if there's a couple and they're living together in blatant sin and they wanna serve in children's ministry, and we're like, we're not gonna say anything. But sometimes we love people enough to tell them, hey, we love you enough to tell you the truth. And over the years, there's probably been a half dozen people we've talked to. And we don't say, no, next Sunday, you cannot be here. But we say, hey, here's the scriptural course. You know, you come here a lot now. You wanna get involved. And we know this about your lifestyle. Is there anything, you wanna get married today? And many times they say, you know, can we plan getting married? Let our parents know. We're gonna do that in a few weeks. And see, they're willing to work with you. You don't, get out of here. You know, get out of the church. You're not sin sniffing. But at the same time, you're holding to God's word. Some of you don't know, but we've had people come, a couple guys come that are gay. And they are struggling through that. So am I gonna say, hey, next Sunday, I don't wanna see you until you repent. Or are we gonna say, hey, you're welcome here, but we can't affirm that lifestyle. You're gonna hear things that are difficult. You know, see, it's that holding to God's truth, but also having the love that underscores those words and those actions. And then we have, on this side though, the churches or groups, this is where the word legalism comes in. Have you heard the term modern day Pharisee? You know, I've said that often. This group puts conditions on your relationship with God. And the church is very dead. It's very by the book, rules only, no relationship. Don't do this, don't do that, or you're gonna be in trouble. And they put all these rules on you. And that's what Timothy goes on to say. If you have your Bibles, you can look at the next verse. Oh, actually, I already read it. We can have it up on the screen. Verse two, by means of hypocrisy of liars seared with the branding iron. Then it goes on to say, oh no, it does say that. A hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with the branding iron. And then verse three, I don't know if we have that up there yet. Men who forbid marriage and they advocate abstaining from foods which God had created to be grateful by those who are shared for all. Now how would that apply today? Well, back in Paul's time, what's happening is they're saying you can't get married. You can't eat these foods. So you're putting all these rules on it. Now granted, you meat lovers out there, you can use this one. And I'm serious. When I talk on this topic, even in my book on feasting and fasting, I don't go to full extremes because you should enjoy all things that he's created. Now there's meat and dairy issues and different things. Be careful, moderation, clean meat, dairy if you want, just my two cents. But there's people out there, and I'll get the emails. You gotta tell them, no meat, no dairy ever. You know, look what's doing to the environment. But be careful, be careful, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from certain foods. And how that fits today is churches will add rules to their list. You can't do this and you can't do that. And basically it's Jesus plus these other things. And you have to watch out. Many cults, have you heard that saying they drank the Kool-Aid? That came from a cult and where they killed themselves by drinking Kool-Aid. Jim Jones or David Koresh in Texas, Waco, Texas. Or you have that Baptist church, they shouldn't be Baptist, I don't remember the name of it, where they'll actually picket funerals of fallen soldiers. And they'll, what is that one? Westboro, Westboro Baptist Church. We have that in the video now, thank you. But those people should be called out. See, that's on the other side. That's on the other side. And they'll rejoice in any type of calamity. 9-11 or people being killed, they'll rejoice in that calamity. Why? Because it's God's sovereignty. We should rejoice in everything. See how perverted it is? So you have both sides you have to watch out for and not fall into either trap. But I like what he said here. Hypocrisy of liars seared their own conscience with a branding iron. This is why many value the spotted owl or the eagle over the unborn. Do you ever just lose your mind? Not in a bad way, but just like, Lord help me. Please be coming back soon. We're outlawing plastic straws, but we can kill a child at nine months. We have lost our mind. Our conscience has been seared with a hot iron. That's what he's talking about here. These things that are so outrageous. But I'm gonna pick up again in verse three. Shared by those who believe and know the truth for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude. For it is sanctified by means of the Word of God and prayer. So back to what he was saying here. If God has created something to be enjoyed, enjoy it. Don't try to put different rules and regulations on it. Now fasting, there's a season for fasting, going without for a season. And here's the thing you need to know about sin. It's often, sin is often a good thing that's been perverted. Is it not? Sex? Good thing? I hope so. More head shaking? Okay, good. I don't know what group we had here this morning. But good thing, the enemy perverts it. Food, good thing, the enemy can pervert it. For some of you, alcohol, once in a while, no big deal, nobody know. I mean, it's just, you can take it or leave it. Other people, mm-mm, don't touch it. Perverted, it can turn into drunkenness. There's so many different things we have to watch out for. One aspect of the word legalism is you have to worship God on a certain day and follow these regulations. Men who control us by rules and regulations. Now, here's a key you have to remember. Holiness, and people call me a holiness preacher. I don't know what that means. But I preach holiness because the Bible preaches holiness. Without holiness, no one will see God come out from among them, be separate, be holy, be set apart. But holiness is not the way to Jesus. Jesus is the way to holiness. Did you catch that? Many people are being holy as a way to get to Jesus. But Jesus is the way to holiness. Once we surrender our lives to Christ, we're filled with the Spirit, we want to live holy, God-honoring lives until the day we die. Yes, it's challenging. Yes, it is the hardest thing we've ever done. We're in a fight, we're in a battle. And I tell Brandt here and Ronnie here, and I tell worship leaders a lot and pastors, you wanna be anointed with, you want your worship to be anointed, live holy lives. Because worship, preaching flow out of the holiness in our own lives. You think a worship leader who's been looking at porn, cussing out a spouse, doing things he shouldn't be doing, the Spirit of living God is going to move boldly through them during worship? Or a pastor? It doesn't work that way. Holiness, the highway of holiness, it's in the Bible. There's a highway to holy, there's a highway to hell, ACDC sang about it. And there's also a highway to holiness. Isn't it amazing how strong the mind is? I can still sing the lyrics to that song 30 years later. And then verse six, in pointing out these things to you, in pointing out these things to the brethren, Timothy, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, constantly nourished on the words of faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. So Paul, I like this verse, it helps me out a lot because he says, in encouraging you in saying these things, you are actually a good servant of Jesus Christ. Now, a lot of you know this, some of you don't, but I either have a reputation as they love the sermons or they hate them. I mean, a friend of mine was just at a wedding and the person said, I disagree with everything that Shane says. Or I don't like what he says, you know he's wrong. I'm like, why'd you even have to go up and say that? But see, because the preaching like this, it stirs the heart. It either draws us to Christ or pushes us away. It's not a lukewarm type of message. It's a message that cuts straight to the heart. Either you want more of Christ or you don't. If you do, you love it and your heart beats more for it and you want, that's what I need. If you don't, then you hate the message and you want to get out of the church. That just drives me crazy, people say, because their heart's not right. So it's interesting. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you'll be a good servant of Jesus Christ, constantly nourished on the words of faith. So I want to ask you a question this morning. What is nourishing you? That word nourishing means it's something that is necessary for growth, for health, and a good condition. In the fitness area, they call that nourishment. Food, nourishment from food. Foods that nourish. Foods that are good for growth, health, and good condition. Right, I'm not gonna give my baby Captain Crunch. Same thing spiritually. What is nourishing you? Is anything nourishing you? Are things, in other words, what are you doing that is leading to spiritual growth, to spiritual health, to walking in alignment with God's will? Are the things you're doing building you up spiritually or pulling you down? This is where the rubber meets the road. That's why spiritual disciplines are so important. So here he gets into the cure for falling away. He just said, many are going to fall away from the truth. They're gonna believe deceptive spirits. They're gonna start to, they're actually gonna start to believe, and I've seen this a lot happening, mainly in hyper charismatic circles, where they start to believe their own thoughts over the Word of God. Well, the Spirit told me, well, I need to be doing it. Be careful. Be very careful. This should be guiding you. Because I don't know about you, but yes, the Spirit of God speaks, but so does my flesh. So does the enemy. He plants those fiery darts. So you gotta discern. I'm talking about that tomorrow for those who can make it on seven keys to understanding the prophetic. Talking about prophecy in 1 Corinthians. And it's been an eye-opening study because it's not just the Holy Spirit that will plant thoughts. You, yourself, can plant thoughts. Like, I just think I'll stay home today and make a fire. I don't need to get into the Word today. I've got so much to do. And the Holy Spirit told me to tell you this, or different things, and we just need to be careful in this area. But verse seven, I'm gonna get off on a rabbit trail, so let me get back in course. Verse seven, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. Now, here's your translation. Let me break this down. But have nothing to do with worldly fables. Or have nothing to do with profane and ungodly chit-chat that wastes time. That's what it means in the Greek. Pretty close. So, they're sitting around. Have you ever, sitting around. That's why I can't go to my high school reunion anymore. Hopefully nobody's watching. This is a waste of three hours. Remember when you did this? No, I don't, and I don't care to. No. That's way, way, way back then. And they just sit around. And people, friends I know from way back, it's like, I'll go to minister to them, but I'm like, you're still living in 1980s, 1990s. And you just, or you sit around with people. It's the same old chit-chat. I don't know, and it's like nothing edifying, nothing building, nothing that builds us up. And now I believe the media has crept in and has taken a lot of that responsibility. Well, I've spent an hour before on YouTube. I'm like, I just wasted an hour. And I know my kids waste a lot more because of the things we're allowing to enter our homes and nourish us. But have nothing to do with ungodly chit-chat that wastes your time. Anybody convicted at work about this? That happens very easily. On the other hand, okay, Paul, what do we do? On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Train yourself for the purpose of godliness. So the image we have here is of a man who from the get-go was listening to the wrong voices. He's listening to false beliefs. He's listening to friends he shouldn't be listening to. He's telling himself things he shouldn't be telling. He's not in the Word of God. He's drifting from the truth. He's listening to idle chit-chat. He's wasting his time on the media. He's just living this carefree life going back and forth between two opinions. Paul says, stop it. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things since it upholds the promise for the present life and also for the life to come. So by disciplining yourself toward godliness, not only are you benefiting physically, you're also benefiting spiritually. It has a double whammy there. It's coming together. Now I've heard people use this against exercise. Don't do that. I don't wanna get into that. Maybe I should. But they've quoted, oh look, it doesn't matter. No, it does matter. It does matter. I believe, Paul's writing this. You had to chop your own firewood. You had to walk wherever you went. You had to take two hours to cook dinner. You had to till the farm. You had to work and you were laborious. Now we've become a sedentary lifestyle, a sedentary society, and we do need to move more and exercise the body. Why? Because physical and spiritual health often run parallel. If a person's neglecting their body physically, it will have spiritual ramifications. And if a person is neglecting their body spiritually, it will have physical ramifications. Let me give you an idea. When I first started preaching, you can look on YouTube, I was about 30 pounds, 40 pounds heavier. And I would just eat whatever. I was too busy to do anything worth, even though I knew this wasn't good, but I was spiritual minded. But it affected my sermons. It affected my energy. It affected my time ministering to others. It affected my relation with my kids when I started to have kids. It affected everything. I wasn't in the Word as well. I wasn't, for example, anybody eat a big Thanksgiving dinner? Only a few of you. Well, that's good. Now, I know most of you. I sure did. And I thought of that analogy. I could not go to church right now and pray. I could not go and I don't want to read the Bible. I just want to sit here. Because the physical can affect the spiritual and the spiritual affect the physical. So Paul, I believe saying, bodily discipline is important. It's profit though is a little bit. You discipline your body, but spiritual disciplines and they actually go together. How can I be a glutton eating too much and a drunkard, but yet be spiritual? See, physical choices, spiritual ramifications. They go together. When you discipline your body physically, it also affects you spiritually. And when you discipline your body spiritually in the Word of God, in worship, in prayer, it affects your life physically. Your body, soul, and spirit. You can't, and actually, if we want to bring the soul aspect into this, emotions, your mood, it affects that as well. Everything is affected by these spiritual disciplines. Another translation, I've told you this already, says train yourself. Train yourself. Get this image in your mind. Spiritual sweat. Spiritual sweat. Train yourself towards godliness. So what do we need? Okay, I'm getting to the part that we call practical application. You've heard much of this before, but again, I think we need to bring it back home. What we need this morning, many people probably need this as well, we need replacement therapy. Replacement therapy. What does that mean? Well, replacement therapy in the physical, in the fitness industry, for example, it's the treatment of something aimed at making up a deficit of a substance normally presented in the body. So replacement therapy gives the body something it needs. Do you know many of our mental health issues, especially, are directly related to the proper amount of nutrients we're receiving, vitamins, minerals. I can spend 30 minutes on the benefits of vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, vitamin D. All these things are so important, so people have to replace them, hence the word supplements. Your replacement therapy, you give the body something that it's deficient in. You could do that in the medical industry as well, giving the body something that's deficient in. So, if you're deficient this morning, here's what we need to do. Let the Word of God influence you. Psalm says, your word is a lamp for my feet, a light to my path. It's interesting, this does not mean the same thing. Your word is a lamp to my feet. What was a lamp? That's what they would carry. Where you're going today, and a light to my path where I'm going later. We need both of those. You need, does anyone here coming here, maybe at the altar this morning, or wanting to go to the altar or praying, I need direction. I need to hear from God. Then get in His Word, bear your face in the Word of God, and let His Word come alive into you. Don't listen to the opinions of others. It's okay to ask for advice now and then, but ultimately, you need to do business with God and let Him direct you. And many times, when we get advice from others, it's too divided, and it makes things worse, doesn't it? One time I asked about half a dozen people on a certain issue, and boy, I was more confused after it than I was before it. Now I had six different opinions. Like, oh Lord, what am I supposed to do? All of these are believers. All these are Christians. And God began to just reveal Himself through His Word. For example, what does that mean? Well, let me give you a few examples. I won't tell you exactly what He's praying for, but it could be anything from the radio stations to different things. Like, okay Lord, I need to hear from you this morning. And I'll read, I'll open where I'm at, it's maybe in Psalm, be still and know that I am God. And I won't just read it. It will like leap from the pages. It will like, oh. So the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit and the believer connects. That's a connecting verse. I never told anyone this, I don't think, in a sermon. But this might, it just came to my mind, so it might be important. When I was praying about moving the church to this location, it was a big decision, big decision. And we didn't know what to do. I was still praying about it. And that verse, I can't remember exactly, I just thought of it, it's in the Gospels, where Jesus said, I'm gonna send you to reap where you have not sowed. I'm gonna give you what you have not built. And I begin to think how it's been here, this location, 60 years. And that God was going to, and that scripture just, oh man, and then again, I read somewhere else and I had that noted for something. I'm like, so that morning, that scripture was really speaking to me. Now, would I just go and do that on my own? Oh hey, I read the scripture. No, because you can get in trouble. You can have the scripture say a lot of things it shouldn't be saying out of context. But that scripture really resonated with me during that morning reading and throughout the week that I'm going to, basically, I'm gonna put you somewhere that you did not build. You're gonna receive the rewards of others building on that foundation. And that's how God will speak to you in his word or I'll be in a situation. Anybody have hard family dynamics for Thanksgiving? Hoo, hoo, hoo. Come on, just don't bring up Trump or religion and you'll be okay. Anyway, joking, but kind of not. I don't remember where I was going with that. The rabbit trail. Oh yeah, I'll be reading in God's word, you know, a difficult situation and just you come across that verse, be slow to speak, quick to listen. And it will just hit you that day. See, that's how the word of God is speaking to you that day. You can't go wrong with these things. How can I go wrong on be still and know that I am God? Wait on me, wait for direction. How can I go wrong by, so that's what I mean by letting the word of, because if I talk to somebody else, they might say, yeah, Shane, let them have it. It's been long enough. You need to just let them have it. Okay, thanks for advice. That's what I'm gonna do. So let the word of God influence you. Leonard Ravenhill said there's a difference between changing your opinion and changing your lifestyle. So many people change their opinion, but not their lifestyle. That's where the rubber meets the road. Let the word of God influence you. Men, if you wanna be men of integrity, men of wisdom, men to lead your family more effectively, get back into the word of God and let prayer be your source of strength. Let prayer be your source of strength. So somebody once asked Charles Spurgeon, what's more important, prayer or the word? Anybody wanna answer? Don't say both. He didn't say both. Think about this for a minute. What is more important, prayer or the word? The word over here, prayer over here. Well, he asked back this question, what's more important, breathing in or breathing out? What's more important, breathing in or breathing out? There's no difference. You have to have both of those guys. Because I know so many people who are, they're so far off on their prayers, it's not even funny. I'll talk to people, even this week, who have utterly made a mess of their life. But Shane, I'm praying. I pray to God, I know God. Who do you think I am? You don't just know God, I know him too. I pray. But you don't have the word, the application of the truth. And what kind of God are we praying to, a genie in a bottle? Because when you really pray to God and want to hear from him, you also obey his truth. That's often how he directs us, through prayer and his truth. Let your lifestyle build you up spiritually. So in short, replace ungodly things with godly things. So I often tell people when I'm helping them with nutrition, I say, you can't just get rid of the junk, you gotta bring in the good. Because empty pantry makes you hungry and you go to Starbucks and McDonald's and all these things. You replace it. You remove the junk, you bring in the good stuff. Same thing, you have to replacement theology. I like that, replacement type of theology. You replace bad things with good things. What needs to happen this morning? Later today, what do you need to start bringing in as we go through this whole book on disciplines of a godly man? What areas do you need to start replacing with godly influences? Also, let your lifestyle build you up physically. Now I want to talk about this just for a second. The physical, like I said, can affect the spiritual and vice versa. Let me give you a wonderful example. I'm reading a book right now entitled, I'm almost done actually, Leading on Empty. Leading on Empty. And it happens a lot to those in leadership, Christian leadership primarily. You're leading on empty. I can list a half dozen names, so many of them you would know who have had nervous. Brian, you gave me a good book too on navigating. I don't remember exactly what it was, but the airplane navigating, the issues with, in other words, trusting your navigation, not your, oh, there's the ocean down there. Well, how far down there? So my point was, so many people have what's called a panic attack or a nervous breakdown, and they don't know what happened. Tommy Nelson talked about this. He wrote a great book on the Song of Solomon. He's been on Family Life today. Wayne Cordero's talked about this. I think Mark Driscoll's talked about this, those who follow him. Many people that we follow, they just shut down and they're like, what happened? See, the physical was neglected. In most of those cases, there's something called serotonin. You've heard that probably. Serotonin is a wonderful gift from God. It makes you feel better. It's a chemical in your body, a God-given chemical that makes you feel better. So when serotonin, how God created us, serotonin, dopamine, all these things are so important. They begin to, that's why people take GABA. Have you heard that? Gamma aminobutyric acid. There's things out there that you can help offset these things. But what happens is when your physical is depleted and you're running on high-octane fuel, you're running on just burning the, burning where they say both ends of the stick there, you're five hours asleep and you're staying up with caffeine and all the time and energy drinks and this, and you're physically, you're just gonna break down. It will happen. What happens when serotonin can no longer function, you start to run on adrenaline that your body starts to run on and it's not gonna last very long. Your adrenal glands get fatigued and you will, many of these guys, I don't know if you've ever felt like this, but they just start crying one day. They just start crying. They're burned out. They don't know what to do. They can't get back on track. And sometimes it's a process, weeks and months of letting the body restore. And people make fun of me sometimes on this and we've learned to deal with it, but on trying, trying is a key word, trying to take a Sabbath, I still think that's a biblical principle. I think it's important to take that, that that would reset a lot of this. Because how is serotonin reset physically? Rest, rest, feeding the body what it needs, less stress, a lot of rest, and you begin to replenish. Then you can go out, replenish and go out. But all those guys running seven days a week, and I've done that many times. It's hard sometimes to take a day off in the summer. That's why I take lengthy time off. I've never been able to do that up until about four or five years ago. I went until I was 45 years old working. I mean, when I was in real estate or construction, your check depend on whether you were there or not. So it's not like you could just go take off a week. I mean, maybe I was getting three or four days off here and there. So it's to replenish and rebuild. And I actually don't like to do it. The elders sometimes force it. Like, no, you need to take at least a month off. But why? I don't want to keep, yeah, but, and sometimes I want to, you know, you get to a point where you just, but then it starts to rebuild the serotonin. It starts to rebuild. And see, that's not a thing that's weird. It's how God created us. I mean, I could do a whole teaching on that, on serotonin, dopamine, and the chemicals, the four chemicals that really affect your mood. And I believe our mood swings. I think depression and anxiety, a lot of it is a tie to our physical bodies and what we're doing or not doing, or a lack of things we should be doing. So let your lifestyle build you up physically, okay? Start making some changes diet-wise and lifestyle-wise. And David, you're here. I hope I can say this, but you're the one whose pantry I cleaned out and refrigerator. That's where I got started, the pantry pastor. Tony gave me the name. He's here too. And going through and cleaning out pantries and refrigerators and getting stuff that is good. And I truly believe in this. And people feel so much better. Why? Because it's how God designed us. So I'm gonna get off of conviction alert and get back on track. Insomnia. Is anyone dealing with insomnia? Feeling isolated? You don't want to be around people? You're tired all the time? It's a good indication. Serotonin levels are low. It's a good indication. You need to rest. You need to get some energy, natural energy back in you. And this is the big thing that my big beef is with, say, let's say caffeine, for example, is because it fatigues your body. Your body's in a constant state of fight or flight. I know people don't want to hear it, but it's the truth. Your adrenal glands are constantly working. It's just your body's constantly working. And I had a guy tell me the other day, he gets like four hours of sleep. I'm gonna send him this message actually. He said, I get four hours of sleep. You know, I can't sleep and I can have caffeine. I just, I go right to bed. No, that's because you pass out. You're so fatigued, your body's so fatigued, you pass out. But you don't get the deep REM, rapid eye movement sleep. You don't get the deep healing sleep because you're constantly in that fight, that state of fight or flight. You get up, ready to fight. Throughout the day, you go to fight. At night, you go to fight. And then you crash and you get back. That's not gonna last very long, guys. You'll start to snap at your children, at your spouse. Anger will start to dominate your life. You'll have insomnia. There's isolation. You're tired all the time. And I can list many people who have shut down because physical boundaries were broken. And I've done this before. I know it can happen easily with Christians. We get so focused on the spiritual and we neglect the physical. And really, disciplines of a godly man involve both. Their body, soul, and spirit, they bring all those areas under the control of Christ and they discipline themselves toward godliness. And then finally, let the Holy Spirit of God fill you. What do I mean by that? Let the Holy Spirit fill you. I don't know what your view of the Holy Spirit is. If you think it's weird. I don't know if you think, well, I'm not really ready for that. This is for all believers all the time under Ephesians 5.18, do not be drunk but be filled with the Spirit. I'm gonna leave you with this thought. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this. The Christian life is a controlled life. So are you out of control? Are you just going crazy and things going 100 miles an hour? The Christian life is actually a controlled life. I love those verses. I just read one yesterday. Paul says, I desire that you live a quiet and peaceable life. Oh, wouldn't that be nice? But it is possible. If you remove things that are driving you crazy and allowing your life to become uncontrolled. The Christian life is a controlled life, he said. It's an ordered life. It is the very reverse condition of a drunkard who has lost control and is being controlled by something else. And who is therefore in a state of utter disorder and disarray. So is your life this morning in disorder and disarray? Be filled with the Spirit. That's the contrast there. It's an ordered life. Self-control, wisdom, understanding, judgment, balance are all hindered when a person is intoxicated. What is really true about this person is that he has become more of an animal. His control over himself has diminished. And that is true. Very true. So I'll close with verse nine. It is a trustworthy statement. It's a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. Well, what in the world is this trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance? For it is for this we labor and strive. Why are we laboring? Why are we striving? Why am I doing this? Why are you here? Why do we want disciplines of a godly life? Here's why. Because we have fixed our hope on the living God. See, you might have been beat up the last 45 minutes, but you can be encouraged the last five minutes. Fix your hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. And I love this word. I could have did the whole sermon, at least half of it on this word, fix. Fix your hope. What does it mean? It means to lay hold of the course and not let go. It's this image of a man seeing Christ on the cross and he's redeeming, he has set me free. I'm laying hold of that image of Christ and I'm not letting go. I'm staying the course. He will build me up. He will strengthen me on that solid rock I stand of Jesus Christ. All other ground is sinking sand. And you fix your eyes. You hold the course. So if anything, this morning, get back on course and hold that course. I'm gonna have Brant and Ronnie come up and we're gonna conclude. So go ahead and come up, guys, and we're gonna conclude in worship. And part of fixing our hope, part of fixing our hope on God is through worship. Worship ignites that passion again. Worship begins to open up our heart again to God. And I know in my own life and in the lives of many others that worship is often the catalyst for change. It doesn't change you, but it's the catalyst for change because the heart is laid open bare and you begin to read, you begin to read the lyrics and those lyrics begin to penetrate your heart. You begin to open up to the things of God. So it's not uncommon to do this at men's conferences and different things, but I wanna open the altar again, of course. And if you need to repent of anything from anger to pride to allowing the enemy to influence you and then ultimately your home, I would encourage you, come to the altar. Give it to God. You don't have to. But what is an altar? An altar is to lay a sacrifice on for the purpose of giving it over to God. And I don't know why, I just kept coming back. I kind of took it out of the sermon. I added it back. I took it out of the sermon again. I added it back. But maybe some of you, deep down inside, there's some deep wounds or hurts. I know I've opened up before about when I conceded to an abortion of my girlfriend when I was in my early 20s. I didn't realize for 20 years how I never dealt with it. And there's things maybe we need to deal with, maybe an abusive father, abusive household, maybe raised a certain way. Maybe you've leaned towards hyper-grace. Maybe you've leaned towards legalism. And this is just the time, guys, where we change. Men have to change from the inside out. The message I just gave doesn't change you. Worship paper doesn't change you. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, Shane. No, it doesn't change you. It's the catalyst. It's the pump. It's the motivation. It's the motivator. But what has to happen, it has to happen in your own heart. That change has to take place. So I don't know if you've dealt with those things before. Maybe the statistics show that half men, half of men in a church have conceded to an abortion. I talked to a man recently who actually, and they're still married, his wife, they actually had an abortion when they first got married. And now they're believers. It's just a hard thing. And again, I don't know why I added this. I took it out and added it, but maybe that needs to be dealt with or anger. And maybe most people, most men, even in the church, at least 60, 70% are looking at pornography on a regular basis. Guys, that needs to be repented of. That impurity will kill you. It will kill your walk with the Lord. And many men, they say, I just don't love her anymore. I'm not attracted to her anymore. Of course not. When you're looking at this, of course you're not. See how the enemy works? It's mental adultery, but it still has physical ramifications. 50, 60% of the men in this church look at pornography on a regular basis, according to current statistics. I hope that's not the case, but I know it's a struggle for all men. Why? Because God has given us something that's good to see the beauty in a woman. Amen. Thank God for that. Can you imagine if we're robots? But then he perverts it. So whatever the issues are, the altar's open. I think this is a time for healing. They're gonna do worship about 15, 20 minutes. I'll come back up at 9.15. And I wouldn't even encourage those this morning. Sometimes there's a few thousand. On Wednesday night, we had 3,000 people watching from all over the world, different places. I wanna encourage those who are watching. If you need to get on your living room floor, you need to just maybe sit where you're at to also just repent. And that's how God's going to awaken our nation, one soul at a time, one family at a time, one community at a time, and that's gonna trickle out. There's gonna be a warfare, it's gonna be a fight, but it starts with the men. Do you ever notice how he's against the men? How can we have, I think, close to 100 women every week in a Titus study wanting to be better wives, but you can't get a dozen men, you can't get a dozen men to a men's study? We had to push, we had to promote, we had to tell everybody about this. Where are the men? Who are the ladies wanting to have prayer meetings? I mean, who are the people wanting to have prayer meetings in the church? Other than Joe, the women. The women want to initiate those. Where are the men? Look how excited we get over the football. We're very strategic with our business, but that's the question, where are the men? Now, don't start something just to start something, but God has to put it on your heart. There's more women in the prayer room, there's more women usually at morning worship, that's been changing, and there's more women. Where are the men? Well, a couple things, the enemy is after us, number one, number two, we've become complacent. We have to deal with that.