S4 E31 - A Discliplined, Daily, Lifelong Choice

Happy New Year Everyone! 

Are you ready to change? If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. Make the right choice. Being a disciple isn't a New Year resolution. It is a discliplined choice that you make all year long for the rest of your life. Is it time? 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to our very last episode in season 4 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Thanks for tuning in! 

2024 has come and gone in what seems like the blink of an eye. In this next week, we will once again ring in a new year – and with it the promise of many wonderful and hopeful things we have all set our minds to do in the up-and-coming year. My family and I plan to celebrate this upcoming week alongside my wife’s side of the family, and we are anxious to see all of them and be together for a few days in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. As this year comes to a close, my mind has been on a lot of things – especially how much has changed for our family in the last 12 months. Both of our oldest children started school, and that was a drastic shift in our schedule among other things. We have watched them grow and develop in ways that are astounding in such a short period of time. Our youngest child overcame significant developmental issues and went from having great difficulty walking to now running around our house at warp speed. In this past year at our local church, we appointed four more shepherds – good, wonderful, godly men. We welcomed a new intern. We parted ways with several in our church family who have gone to their heavenly home, but also welcomed several new children and families into our mix. In this past year, by what can only be attributed to God’s providence we had family surprisingly move from Florida to right here in the Danville area – which has been one of the greatest blessings. 

This year has certainly been a year of significant change – and among those changes that I have yet to mention was my commitment to taking better care of my physical health over the last year. If you would remember, with the start of this past year I joined our local Horse Country CrossFit gym. Before this I had witnessed myself starting to make consistently poor decisions with my diet, lack of exercise, and sleep – and I had finally had enough. So, I made a change, a commitment to do something different – and that something, spurred on by Michael Couch, was CrossFit. I remember how difficult those first few months especially were – and there is without question several times that I wondered, “What have I gotten myself into? I can’t do this – who was I kidding.” But I didn’t give up. Instead, I dragged myself out of bed and rolled into the gym ready to get worn out all over again. Day after day, I had to make the decision to keep going, keep working, and keep pushing. Day after day, I had to make the decision to drink water, eat healthy, and get to bed on time. It didn’t happen overnight, and I am far from finished with my fitness journey – but I am so proud to look back over the year and see what all that hard work has accomplished for myself. I am down 20 pounds from where I started the year. I have gained strength, gained confidence, and gained many friends who have encouraged me and helped me to keep going when it was the hardest. I have healthier habits that are supporting and benefitting my emotional, physical, and spiritual goals. I have so far to go, but I’m so grateful for how far I’ve come – but none of it would have been possible without making the decision every single day to stay true to my commitment. And now, as the year ends, I’m happy to say that my wife has also joined me in the same journey – and she’s doing so incredibly well! 

Today, our gym posted the following statement on their social media page. It said: “Are you ready to change? If it doesn’t’ challenge you, it won’t change you. Make the right choice. Being fit isn’t a New Year resolution. It is a disciplined choice that you make all year long for the rest of your life. Is it time?” They are true and wise words, but in far more ways than one. To close out season 4, we want to spend this very last episode talking about the disciplined, daily, lifelong commitment of discipleship. To do this, we will examine a short and yet extraordinarily profound statement from Jesus recorded for us in Luke 9:23-24. Here are the words of the Lord: “Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.’” Jesus is talking about discipleship – the commitment to following after the footsteps of Jesus as our Lord and our King. But discipleship is not an easy journey. It is not a one-time decision. It is a lifelong journey that will drastically transform us if we are willing to truly submit to Jesus’ instruction in how we are to follow him. 

First, discipleship takes an incredible amount of discipline. The very first qualification that Jesus gives to become a disciple is to “deny-yourself.” What does he mean by this? Well, to summarize, Jesus is speaking to our willingness to lay aside our sinful and fleshly habits, pursuits, and desires. Paul in agreement with the Lord would teach in Romans 12 the following: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” Simply put, my friends, you cannot be a disciple of Christ if you are not willing to change. You must repent and turn from your sinful and selfish ways in order to let Jesus lead you and make your paths straight. And that is going to be extraordinarily challenging. Jesus would say also in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.” There are many who are not willing to do the hard things, to make the sacrifices they must make in order to follow Jesus. In fact, the majority will not – because the narrow way is hard. It’s difficult. But remember, spiritual discipline is much like physical discipline…if it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. If you want to be a disciple, the first step is to commit to saying no to yourself & the world and saying yes to Jesus and the Word. 

Second, discipleship is a daily commitment. The second thing that Jesus says a disciple must do is to “take up their cross daily”. What does he mean by this? Well, to summarize, Jesus is speaking to our willingness to not simply to be committed at the start, but to keep that commitment and stick to it day in and day out. Consider the parable of the Sower recorded for us in Matthew 13. Jesus would illustrate the conditions of people’s hearts through four different types of ground that the seed falls on: the road, the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the good soil. Jesus would explain starting in vv. 18, “So listen to the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”  I want you to pay special attention to the second and third soils – the rocky ground and the thorny ground. In the case of the rocky ground, this describes a person who was excited and ready to follow Jesus – they received the gospel with great joy. But when things got difficult…they stopped. They were not willing to do the hard things and make the right sacrifices day in and day out to follow Christ. Our commitment to Christ and following him should be renewed with each new sunrise – as though each day was our first day. In the case of the thorny ground, this describes a person who receives the gospel of Jesus…but they stop growing and therefore do not produce fruit. Why? Because they have become distracted. They have taken their mind off the goal and taken their eyes off of Jesus and have become overwhelmed and overinvolved in the things of this world. Their discipleship as a result is not consistent – perhaps some days they pick up their cross and strive to follow Jesus, but other days they are wrapped back up into the world. You cannot make real and lasting spiritual transformation without daily, consistent spiritual discipline. Ask yourself in this upcoming year: are you ready to take up your cross every single day? 

Finally, discipleship is a lifelong commitment. The third thing Jesus says a disciple must do is implied through his statement that, “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.” My friends, discipleship is not a yearlong commitment. There is not a trial period, there is no taking a season off, there is no stopping for a while and then coming back to it at a time where it is more convenient. Real, true discipleship is a lifelong journey. I am mindful of the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer when he would state in his book The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” This is the essence of what Paul states in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” When you become a disciple of Jesus, you are giving your entire life over to him for the rest of your life. Our plans, our ways, our desires – all of that is done with, and forever. What waits for us now is the tremendous lifelong journey of following after the footsteps of Jesus and becoming transformed day by day until he calls us home. Our journey is never complete on this side of heaven, we will always have much more to grow in and much more to learn – even after decades of discipleship. As Paul would state in Philippians 3:12-15, “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.”

Real discipleship is difficult. Real discipleship takes daily resolve. Real discipleship is a lifelong journey, up until the very day that he calls us home. Are you ready for a change? If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. Make the right choice. Being a disciple of Christ is not a New Year resolution. It is a disciplined choice that you make all year long for the rest of your life. Is it time? 
 
 Let us conclude with the words of Paul recorded for us in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17. “Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 4 episode 31 – our final episode of the season and for the year. I’m so thankful that you decided to tune in today! We will take a short break from the podcast for a week or so but be sure to tune in for the start of season 5 not far into the month of January. Happy New Year, everyone.  I also want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you as listeners for your desire to want to grow in the grace and knowledge of God together. Thank you for your unwavering support of this effort, and I pray that as long as the Lord allows for us to that we will continue to be able to set our minds above from all around the world together. Thank you for sharing this work with others, and even more importantly thank you for sharing Jesus with others – it is all about him.  And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.