When Jesus was being interrogated by Pontus Pilot, pilot responded to Jesus by saying to Him, “What is truth?” The Pharisees, the political party that had all the power in Jesus day were desperate to get rid of Jesus and they brought all kinds of false accusations against Jesus to Pilot to try and get Him crucified. Pilot was responsible to try and sort through the all the conflicting information and determine what was true, and in the process in frustration uttered those famous words, “what is truth?”

Today in the political scene, and with the media there is a ton on conflicting information, and everyone is declaring that everyone else who disagrees with them is a liar. The only thing that people in authority get called more than a “racist” is a liar. We who watch the news often cry out in frustration voicing the same words of pilot from 2000 years ago, “what is truth?”

As Christians it is more important than ever to read the Bible everyday. The Bible is the Word of God and it is the truth about everything.

2 Samuel 7:28 Now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are truth.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

It is important for us to understand that the devil and his demons are the ultimate source of all lies.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

Jesus declared in John 8 that if we knew the truth it would make free. Èè

When I was about 25 years old and still farming, I wrote out these verses in a little notebook that fit in my shirt pocket, and I read them several times everyday. I was prompted to do it because of a sermon a visiting missionary that our church helped support gave in a Sunday morning service. The sermon was on the power of our words. With our lips we worship God, tell our wife we love her, share the good news of the gospel with a lost person, and encourage someone so that they choose to serve the Lord. But with those same lips we grumble about hard times, gossip about our neighbor, hurt a person terribly with our angry words, and speak or yell curse words.

The words that the missionary spoke that convicted me deeply was, “God is always testing people to see who He can use to do His work and accomplish great things for Him, and a primary test are the words that come out of our mouth.”

As a 25 year old I wanted desperately to serve the Lord and accomplish a lot for Him, but I knew that the words that often came out of my mouth would disqualify me from doing much that mattered for Him. As the missionary put it, “I was going to be on God’s bench instead of in the game,” and I had ridden the bench a lot as a High School basketball player, and I hated it. I did not want to ride the bench in the game of life. So, I wrote out those verses and read them over and over again until the power of God’s Word began to change me from the inside out. Occasionally I get them out and read them some more when I hear myself talking rude, or mean, or gossiping, or slandering, or complaining. I like being in the game.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties. I am well content! I am well content? Why? There must be a reason Paul is “well content” when all of life is bad, “with insults,” that is bad, “with persecutions,” that is doubly bad, “with distresses,” WHAT!

What does Paul mean when he says, “I boast about my weaknesses,” about the insults, the persecutions, the distresses, and the difficulties. I don’t think he means to boast in the sense that he accomplished something worth glorying in, but that he sees these bad events and circumstances as a good thing because when he does so God blesses and rewards him with power, God’s power, supernatural power.

How much of an advantage in life would I have if I had great power, God’s infinite power. I don’t think it is a limited commodity, this power of God, I think that the more I rejoice in my trials the more power I will get, the more I refrain from grumbling and complaining, the more power I will get, and the more I thank God for His infinite love for me in the midst of hard times, the more power I will get.

“I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me!” “so that,” “so that!” “So that” means if I do that then this will happen. If I boast about my weaknesses, my trials, the things that I hate in life, then I will be a mighty man, like Popeye, like Superman, like Samson, like David, like Jesus. I wonder what that feels like, “to have the power of Christ in me!”

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Whether it is reading 3 chapters everyday in the Bible, praying for 15 minutes each day, memorizing a verse a week, faithfully attending worship services, giving, or witnessing even just a little bit, most Christians don’t because it is to hard.

Everything that causes us to grow, and that gets rewarded at the “Judgment Seat of Christ” is hard, and very few Believers choose to do them because they are hard. Our flesh is lazy and enjoys comfort, and we let our flesh run our life.

The narrow way, the hard way or the broad way, the comfortable and easy way, we choose all day long, many times a day. As a Pastor, over the years I have seen so many people mess up their lives, destroy their marriage and do a very poor job training their kid’s, become totally unusable for God, and get to the end their life with nothing to show for it, but a house, a car, a boat because they continually chose the easy and comfortable way.

I teach a “Leadership Class” each year that is life changing for all who get involved, but many choose not to attend because they perceive it as to hard.

Every year in my goals there are a number that I make just because they are very hard, and I want to continually train myself to choose to do hard things. I am going to climb Mt Adams taking three days to complete even though I have failed to make it to the summit for the last 5 years, this year I will make it to the top. I am going to run in and finish a 10 K and a half Marathon even though it has been 5 years since I have done any running. I am going to memorize the book of Colossians and review the other 600 verses that I have memorized every week so as to keep them sharp in my mind. I am going to start a “Satellite Church” even though I am 72 and it is time to retire.

Those who consistently choose the hard and narrow way all day long are the ones who receive God’s strength and power, they are the ones who change other people’s lives for all eternity. They are the one’s God chooses to give more responsibility to and they keep on doing more and getting better.

This last weekend at JBC Pastor Mike preached on a very important topic, fellowship with God. The Apostle Paul declared in the book of Philippians that he “counted everything in life to be garbage compared to the value of knowing Jesus”.

The command to seek the Lord is given in the Bible over 50 times and there are over 20 blessings and rewards mentioned that God gives to those who do seek Him. To seek Him means to seek a growing relationship with Him, a growing intimacy with Him, a growing awareness of His presence in our lives. I decided that I wanted to marry Patty before she barely knew who I was, and once I decided she was the one, I began to pursue her, and seek a relationship with her. I must have done a pretty good job because she married me 51 years ago.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

1 Chronicles 16:10-11 Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face continually.

1 Chronicles 28:9-10 the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

2 Chronicles 12:14 He did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

Psalms 9:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Psalms 27:8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”

Psalms 34:10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

Psalms 63:1 O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalms 119:2 How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart.

Seeking God is an every day discipline. It is easy to get so entangled in everyday life that we forget about our relationship with God and how it is doing. Like any relationship if we neglect seeking Him we will drift apart.

We seek the a lord by reading His Word. We seek the a lord by spending time with Him in prayer. We seek the Lord by gathering together with others to worship Him.

A principle that drives me to seek Him diligently everyday is “the closer we are to Him here in this life the closer we will be to Him in the next life for all eternity. This life is a test to see who it is who will make Him first in their life, and He will reward them by making them first in His life for all eternity.

7. I have already mentioned that the way to grow stronger in self-control is through training so it will be like learning to play the piano. We learn a basic about playing the piano, and then we practice, and then we learn a little bit more and practice some more. That routine is kept up until we are a great piano player.

When we join the gym for the purpose of becoming a very strong person we are given “routines” and we do them systematically. If you practice them haphazardly, with no system, skipping them when you are tired or to busy you will remain a wimp.

In my weight lifting routine that I do in my man room I use a system called “Strong Lifts 5 X 5”. There are five different lifts, squat, bench press, overhead press, barbell row, and deadlift. Three times each week I do three of the five lifts.I do the squats every time I lift and alternate between two of the remaining four. For each of the three lifts I will do five sets of five and add 5 pounds the next time if I successfully lift the designated weight 25 times. This is my plan along with riding a stationary bike, running on a tread mill, and hitting a heavy bag to stay fit until I am 100 years old.

So in my gym for training to get strong in self-control I have five disciplines that I systematically apply to my life incrementally. The first is Bible reading, second is prayer, third is fasting, fourth is exercise, and the fifth is scripture memory. I keep track of these five disciplines very religiously, working very hard to stay on the routine and increasing them gradually, “a little bit more, just a little bit, but always more.”

Bible reading is the most important of all of the disciplines. I read 14 chapters each day, and have arrived at that number gradually as I have added a little bit more over the years. Most people will probably stay in the 3 to 5 chapter range. I read as much as I do because my job is to teach the Bible, and I want to teach it well.

I suggest to people that they have a prayer time that is five minutes long three days a week. Those who are most successful are careful to always have a time when they pray and a place where they pray. When you faithfully keep this routine for several months add another day and keep adding a day until you are praying five minutes every day. A key tool to make prayer much more effective, interesting, and meaningful is a prayer notebook or journal where you keep a list of people and things you are praying for with answers. Once you are super faithful at five minutes each and every day you can start adding time one minute at a time.

Intermittent fasting probably has more impact on my self-control level than any other discipline. So even though I hate it with a passion I continue to do it because it not only grows my self-control level, I also lose weight. My commitment now calls for a 24 hour fast twice each week.

The fourth discipline for me is an exercise routine which lasts at least an hour every day and as I have already mentioned includes riding a stationary bike, lifting weights, running on a treadmill, and punching a heavy bag. Working hard to not make excuses and keep the routine is very powerful in my life to grow my self-control.,

The last of the “mighty five” is memorizing Bible verses. It easy to systematize this discipline by starting out small and gradually increase the time that you work on this. This discipline not only grows your self-control level very effectively, it also changes your heart, increases your memory, and probably will keep you from becoming senile when you get to be 72 years old.

The most effective way to do this plan is to do it with another person or several and encourage each other, and pray for one another.

6. Self-control is not only a character trait it is a form of energy in us. As we exercise self-control resisting a second helping of Marion Berry cobbler with ice cream we are using energy that we can call “will power”. Like every other type of energy the “will power” we have in us is limited, meaning we can run out of it. Many people who relapse on an addiction will do so in the evening because they have run low on “will power.” If we are serious about winning the temptation battles in our life we will learn how to steward our “will power” supply. Some suggestions; don’t spend hours on the computer, iPad, or cell phone in the evening by yourself if you struggle with porn, computer games, or on line gambling. I have on my car a fuel rate gauge which tells me at any given time what my miles per gallon of fuel consumption is. The other day I was pulling a heavy trailer up a steep hill and it went way down to 6 miles per gallon. There are times when the amount of “will power” being consumed in order to resist a particular temptation is very high. The main issues are time of day, availability, presence of accountability or not, ease of committing the sin, and mood determined by earlier events. A recovering alcoholic would be wise not to spend his evenings in a bar, especially with others who are drinking. Another key to stewarding “will power” in us is to turn disciplines into habits as much as possible and as soon as possible, because habits take very little “will power” to maintain. Reading your Bible everyday for 30 minutes starts out as a discipline but if faithfully done everyday it will gradually become a habit. That is another reason why everyday, everyday is so important. Regularly missing even one day a week will keep your Bible reading from becoming a habit and it will continue to use up a large amount of your “will power”. Probably the most significant factor in reducing the amount of will power required to maintain self-control over a temptation is accountability. Years ago I traveled to an Eastern State to speak at a church. After I had checked in to my motel room I got a phone call from a lady who saw me enter the motel by myself, and asked if I wanted company. After I said “no thank you” I got to thinking about how easy it would have been to have answered “yes”. After that when a church or group called and asked me to speak I agreed if they would pay for two plane tickets instead of one. The most powerful influence to godly living in my life apart from God is Patty. With her by my side on trips there was zero temptation to watch the wrong stuff on television and she took any phone calls. In that environment there was very little consumption from my “will power” reservoir. A basic law of life is, “anybody will do anything if given the right set of circumstances”, so the key is to control the circumstances in your life to the highest degree possible.

I want to grow stronger in the character trait of self-control so that I am not controlled by my flesh, my sin nature, the world around me, and the devil. There are seven fundamental, foundational principles that govern our pursuit of self-control.

1. We are in a partnership with God in this pursuit. He will work in us and empower us to change and to grow, for apart from Him we can’t change anything. In Galations 5:23 self-control is listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit. In 2 Peter 1:3 it says that it is His power that changes us, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,” But Peter goes on and says in 2 Peter 1:6 that we have a part in acquiring this important character trait as well, “that you may become partakers of the divine nature. . . Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control,” The balance between our humble dependence on God, and our faithful obedience, diligence, and discipline is very important in our journey to maturity. We apply this balance by crying out for help everyday and also having personal goals and strategies that we are pursuing.

2. We train ourselves to greater levels of self- control, not by trying harder. Trying harder is the natural route, but it doesn’t work, at least not for very long. Training implies a plan or a strategy. If you decide to learn how to play the piano you would immediately launch into following a plan or strategy. Tomorrow I will tell you what my plan is. You can follow it or invent your own, but without a plan you will go in circles, and continue to struggle with self-control.

3. The key part of the strategy is adding disciplines to our life in small, achievable doses, incrementally. My motto for this is, “a little bit more, just a little bit, a little bit more, just a little bit, but always more.” It is like lifting weights to get stronger. I do 5 different kinds of lifts, each one 25 times, in groups of 5. I take a 3 minute break between each set of 5 lifts. If I do 25 lifts successfully I add 5 lbs the next time I lift. Faithfully, systematically training, adding just a little bit more, just a little bit, I end up getting stronger and stronger. When I turned 50 years old I was fat, out of shape, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar, border line diabetic. I decided to do something about it so I started running. I ran one lap in our gym, 1/20 of a mile, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The next night I ran two laps, each night adding one lap. I got to a mile, then 2, then 5, then I ran a 10k, then a half marathon, then a full marathon. “A little bit more, just a little bit, a little bit more, just a little bit, but always more”.

4. The disciplines that we do to get stronger in self-control are like the weights that we add to get stronger physically. It is important that once a discipline is added that we do them everyday, everyday, everyday. Disciplines that are done sporadically never increase our self-control, in fact decrease it because we train ourselves to justify our lack of self-control with excuses. Some disciplines will be done less than everyday, so we maintain the discipline of doing them when we committed to doing them. I lift weights 3 times a week, and only when I am gone do I miss my routine.

5. Bible reading is the first and most important discipline to add to our life in order to grow in self-control. Most Christians don’t read their Bibles everyday, but they always have a good excuse why they don’t. I get asked often, “If I am so tired that I don’t really get anything out of my Bible reading, isn’t it alright to skip it for a night?” Not if you want to grow in self-control, everyday, everyday, everyday! Start with a Bible reading plan that takes no more than 10 minutes to do, and don’t miss a day, if you do miss, make up the reading the next day. When you have been successful for 3 months straight without a single miss, add one chapter to your plan, and then again 3 months later. When you are faithfully reading 30 minutes everyday, everyday, everyday you can move on to the next discipline.

Some more tomorrow.

Why can’t an overweight person who wants to lose weight in the worst way, make it happen? Why can’t they just do it, eat less, exercise more? I mean, it isn’t hard to figure out what to do; why is it so hard to do it, in fact, almost impossible. What is it that we are fighting against, and how do we win. Why can’t a person who blows up and loses their temper regularly just stop it and become patient, always? How about an alcoholic, or a person addicted to drugs, or pornography, or, or, or.

The Apostle Paul, a very godly man, had the same struggle, and he expressed it well in Romans 7:15, ”For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

In our journey through life one of our goals is to overcome and conquer the devil, the world, and our flesh with it’s inclination to control us. That is not an easy war to win, and many don’t, in fact, most don’t. Most have given up winning, and just declare, ”that is just who I am.”

The critical character trait to grow in is self-control. Paul defines self-control in 1 Corinthians 9:27 this way, ”but I discipline my body and make it my slave.” Wow, make my body my slave, it does what I want, not me doing what it wants, that sounds like absolute freedom. How do I grow stronger and stronger in self-control? The average person, if asked that question would have no clue. Well, for sure you won’t grow in self-control if you don’t know how, don’t have a plan or strategy.

The most important word to remember is ”train”, not ”try”, we want to train ourselves better, not try harder. If you get put into a tennis game with a good player, having never played the game before yourself, you will get beat, probably annihilated, and no amount of trying harder will change the score, it will probably just make it worse, and make you feel more and more like a loser. You need to sign-up to take tennis lessons, train, and practice. If you get good training and practice hard you will become a winner. That is how life is lived successfully by overcomers and champions.

Tomorrow we will outline a plan on how to train ourselves to become more and more self-controlled.

The title of this blog is one of my regular comments to myself when I don’t get everything done on my “todo” list. Or if I am really disgusted with myself I will say, “You worthless pile of horse crap!” I realize that is not what you would call positive self-talk, but it does motivate me to get out of my recliner and get busy. I have one of those electric beds like they have in hospitals where the back goes up, the feet elevate, and it even has a vibrator that makes my back feel so good. I am now propped up in it reading my Bible, praying, and writing this blog drinking a cup of coffee that Patty brought me. I came home early from my hunting trip so this is an “extra day”. I am supposed to be hunting according to my calendar, but here I lay being lazy, and I can do anything I want and still be right on schedule! But I am now making a new “todo” list for the day, calling myself an assortment of names for thinking to myself,

“it sure would be nice to stay right here until noon, drinking coffee and watching “YouTube” hunting shows, yeh, let’s do it, what the heck!” But then, my motivator kicks in,

“You lazy good for nothing, pile of brown stinky stuff, get out of bed before Jesus comes!”

I don’t even get to eat breakfast, Patty decided this would be a fast day for us, great! Oh well, might as well get up and do something that matters.

One of the characteristics of high-performance people is that they are very self-motivated. I am working at learning how to be one of those dudes. The key is in the “self-talk” that is repeated continually. The most effective self-talk for me at motivating this lazy body to action are Bible verses that I have memorized and make the commitment to meditate on or think about repeatedly so that they do their work in my mind, heart, and soul.

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

The words of Jesus right before His death,

John 17:4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might;

Ephesians 5:15-16 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

John 15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr that is the sound of the electric motor on my bed making it go back to flat so I can get out of it!