Discipline over Regret

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Well, welcome. It's great to have you here today. We are actually in our third week in this series. If this is your first time here, just let me let you know we have been doing a series called I Choose. I Choose. Four, I would say, significant, important decisions that everyone basically makes through life, whether we consciously make it or unconsciously make this decision. And two weeks ago, which feels like about two months ago, do you know what I mean? I mean, lots has been going on. But two weeks ago, we went through the decision of I Choose Surrender over Control. And boy, that was a good one. But it was a tough one to go through for me and for all of you, I think, as well. But it's exactly where we need to be. And next week, I want to tell you, this is the I think this message next week is going to even probably hit home to me even more and maybe to you as well. Do you ever have I mean, it's you've probably got this laundry list of things that have to be done. And then all sorts of things come up and it becomes a I got to, I got to, I got to, I got to. And it's running from one thing to the next. And next week, we're going to talk about that, that we choose what is the important over the urgent. Yeah, the important over the urgent. But today we're on I Choose. I Choose Discipline over Regret. Let's look at this Bible passage. It's from First Corinthians nine. I think Paul has a it's just packed full of a great analogy here. That really helps us understand what this self-control or discipline is all about. Paul writes, Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize. So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control. Lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. Discipline over regret. Now, a couple of weeks ago, when I did share it with you about surrender versus control, I used one of my little shortest favorite quotes from Stanley Hauer was, which was this, that a Christian is one who lives out of control. OK. Who lives out of control, and it's pretty powerful stuff if you think about it, because most of our lives, we're trying to get into control of everything and have everything just go kind of just exactly. And that living out of control, according to the Bible, is not, according to the Bible, it is not being totally out of control and everything's just chaos. But living out of control is that I am not the one who is controlling my life. I have something greater than, something outside of myself. I have another master who I have surrendered to who controls, who's in control, the only one who really can be. So, living a life out of control is not one that doesn't have, in a sense, self-control or discipline. In fact, if you look at the Bible, it talks about it here and there. And in the list of Galatians chapter 5, that lists the fruit of the Spirit, this is what the Spirit produces in our life. It's love and joy and peace. Well, the last one you see is self-control. And against these, there is no law. OK. And in our text today, that we looked at, Paul said, every athlete has self-control in all things. And that word there is fascinating. OK. And it's very telling, the analogy he uses. The Greek word is ekrataia. And it really means self-command or self-mastery. And what's fascinating in the Greek world, this was a big deal. You can look at Plato and Aristotle and all of these thinkers. They thought it was the most important thing is to be a master of your own fate and your own soul and your own life. And to try to have everything. Because the fear was, if I am not in charge, then I am enslaved to other things and they are in charge. Well, Paul doesn't say that that's what self-control really is. And we're going to learn in this text from 1 Corinthians 9, three different things about what self-control really is, according to the biblical worldview. And so we're going to learn what it is. Then we're going to learn how it is actually born in us. And then thirdly, how we can have it grow in us. So first of all, what it is. So I think this illustration, this illustration he uses today, well, it's very appropriate. I think we understand it as well. Every athlete has self-discipline or control in all things, right? We're coming up to the Olympics. Do you think the Olympians who are going to or already in South Korea, are they just kind of like, oh, let's go out and party tonight? Don't think so, right? I mean, it gets down to the point where they scientifically have figured out exactly what to eat, when to eat it, how much to eat it, when to go to bed, when to get up, what exercises to do. They've ...