Disciplining Ourselves For Godliness by Pastor John Barnett

welcome to transfer live this is John Barnett speaking today on disciplining ourselves for godliness that phrase actually comes right here from the Bible from first Timothy 4:7 in fact when I was invited to speak on this I thought that this that concept of disciplining ourselves for godliness is most of what the epistles are about the metaphor the New Testament is so much the athletic the the self-discipline Greek body that was totally in the command of the the total Greek person and Paul surveys that culture and reduces it down to this this one verse in 1st Timothy 4:7 two imperatives which really have been for me a foundation in my life it it says but reject and in the Greek language the way you emphasize something is not by raising your voice but by a little ending a te ending on the end of a word and it becomes an imperative that's a command so God through Paul says to every believer reject profane and old wives fables muthos myths things aren't true profane things that aren't godly and he says I am supposed to be a rejecter of those things it's almost like ping pong says it comes at you you knock it away it's my life is to be rejecting anything profane that means it's not sacred and anything that's an old wives tale you know our lives are so short why invest precious time and things that are false worthless etc but now this gets the positive reject all that stuff that that's just you know the command but then he says it's not enough to just get rid of stuff remember jesus said when you when the demon was cast out if you don't put something in more demons will come he says don't just clean out profane and old wives fables but exercise yourself toward godliness that's discipline godliness is not something that happens it is something that we choose that we're commanded to exercise ourselves toward now that whole word exercise is where I talked about the New Testament metaphors the Christian life is described in the New Testament epistles by the Apostle Paul who by the way was a wordsmith the Apostle Paul took words and formed them kinda like if you know the German language at kugel Schriever or something like that a it's the idea that you take two words and when you join them it makes a picture everybody yeah I could have thought of that myself well Paul does that describing the Christian life as being an agony that that's one of his great words and a gong an athlete ace agony means a struggle athlete ace means a competition that we're competing in a race and the Lord is at the finish line and he set the rules us being wrestlers he says I I wrestle against not just flesh and blood but against principalities and powers another one boxing all of these were the disciplines of the athletics of the Greek world and Paul said we're supposed to incorporate those athletic metaphors into this exercising our self toward godliness now let me just give you one example in my personal life and maybe I'll communicate to you in in my life when I think about my spiritual life I think about the fact that I'm so much like my dad I'm so much like probably his dad in fact I was born into a line of alcoholics in fact my wife was a bartender and an alcoholic for she was saved and so I mean I even married a former alcoholic and so that this whole background alcoholism drug addiction anything else is when we don't discipline ourselves we allow something else to control us instead of us through the power the Spirit of God denying our flesh and so I grew up seeing so many of the tendencies of my father in my life in fact I was disciplined most often when I was a little boy by my dad grabbing me around the neck lifting me off the ground holding me feet dangling squeezing my neck and saying if you do that again I'll break your neck and dropping me and what I thought when I crumpled to the floor is I don't want to be like that when I grow up but I found out as I grew up I became exactly like that because without the positive effect of us learning to discipline ourselves for godliness that the Bible talks about we will become just like the worst of whatever we come from our flesh is always at work so what Paul says is doesn't matter whether you're from my background the alcoholic angry family or if you're from the proud self-righteous family we are supposed to exercise ourselves toward godliness how do we do that well I'll turn to one more verse and I know that your time watching this is limited and so my time speaking is limited too but this is what it says in Titus 2 one of my favorite books in fact the book of Titus is the only curriculum that the Bible gives it's for every age group in the church it's the only place anywhere in the New Testament that every age group has mentioned it says the older men the older women the younger women the younger men and if you're not one of those four you're nothing right you're not alive you're a chair so it says here you're supposed to teach the older men women younger men and younger women this that the grace of God that brought salvation now listen to verse 12 chapter two of Titus teaches us to deny ungodliness I hear people all times say they're under grace and that's code for they can do whatever they want God says if you're really saved that the same grace that saved you Titus 2:11 teaches us that I have to learn to deny ungodliness Paul remember the word Smith made up all these words you know what he said he said flee youthful lust you know toward flee is its word whew go it's where we get fugitive from I'm supposed to be a fugitive from my flesh you know a fugitive is they just don't have any place to land they're always on the run anywhere my old me the way used to be shows up I flee from it I deny it I I say that God's grace has taught me to deny that instead of saying that's just the way I am that's an excuse I mean people all times say I lost my temper no you didn't you found it it's been with you all along you have got to learn what the scriptures say to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly soberly is under the restraint of the Spirit of God it's having a whole doesn't mean your Puritan dower it means there's a divine restraint over your life the scriptures say that's our responsibility we have the Holy Spirit's power we are regenerated that means we have a brand new operating system it I am a brand new me in an old case the very core the the the processor of my being in November of 1962 on my knees with my mother was replaced that operating system when Jesus Christ saved me regeneration means there's a brand new operating system but the problem is the Bible says we're still in the old case our flesh and our flesh is trying to squelch it's trying to contaminate it's trying to inhibit the new us and what we have to say is that because of regeneration I'm a new creation because of justification God looks at me in such a way there's nothing I can do to make him love me more love me less there is nothing I can do to cause him to turn his his love toward me away and so what I am left with task with is just taking all he's given me his grace his love and His Spirit living within and do what first Timothy 4:7 says that I'm supposed to discipline myself for godliness now if I was a runner and I was gonna become a disciplined runner you know what I'd do I'd get out and I'd start running a little more every day if I was gonna be a swimmer I'd swim one lap and then to the next day and three the next day if you're gonna discipline yourself for godliness the Bible talks about the disciplines of a godly person's life do you know what they are Jesus exhibited them all Jesus was one who got up a great while before day to commune with God every great person in the Bible and in church history has been a man or a woman of devotion not of a mechanical devotion of a devotion to Christ so if I'm gonna discipline myself for God least I got to get that devotion down prayer Jesus prayed he'd pray all night he would he would pray before it's big events me I would sleep to get stronger Jesus prayed to get stronger so we have to have the discipline of devotion is where we have to have this one in prayer jesus said if you follow me out of you'll come rivers of living water the Holy Spirit we have to have the discipline of being full of the Spirit it's kind of like my battery and myself on him always checking to make sure it's charged up are you aware when you're full of the Spirit and not it's supposed to be my responsibility I'm I'm supposed to get this package discipline for godliness nothing new Jesus is a pattern he was in the word he was in prayer he memorized the scriptures when he faced off with the devil didn't take his Bible he had it memorized and he quoted it back to the devil I always tell people you better memorize because sooner or later can be laying in a hospital bed when you get there they take away your glasses and your rings and your wallet and your clothes and they put that footing down on you and they put in your mouth and you have a respirator and you're gonna be all alone and only the verses you've memorized are you gonna cling to Paul said you got a choice in life discipline yourself for godliness it's imperative and the scriptures give us the picture and it's Jesus Christ and he's the one that died to make it possible moved in to give us the power left us the picture in this word and commanded us it's your responsibility discipline yourself for godliness that's what God wants for each of us

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Keywords: john barnett, dtbm, word of life, wol, disciplining, godliness

Id: 6GHtBFGWAtU

Length: 11min 3sec (663 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2015