subject: Disciplined Person [print this page] I have a friend that I have known for a long time and I like to imitate him. When someone does something that is a little bit funny or interesting, he always says, You character. You are just a character.
Over the last several weeks, in preparing for this series of talks, I began to reflect on that little phrase, You character. I think my friend was right. I think he is right because all of us are made up of character. What is character? Character is an outward reflection of an inward connection. We are going to find out that true character is an internal thing. It comes from God himself.
A while back, I conducted a very informal survey on character qualities. I asked people, If you could name the character quality that you want more of, which quality would it be?
People thought for a second and most of the respondents told me this, Ed, I would like to have some more discipline. I want some more discipline in my life. I decided to begin this series called CHARACTER.TOUR on the subject of discipline.
Why are we calling this character.tour? It is sort of a play on words. Basically, we are going to take a tour through the Bible and look at great characters who exemplified great character. We are going to log on to Expedia or Travelocity and we are going to find out what character is all about. Because if you look around these days, there is a character void, a vacuum in our world. I think when it comes to character, we have got to start with the d word, discipline, because the d word is like a four-letter word to many of us.
Discipline! I cant become a disciplined person. Thats reserved for those extraordinary people. Thats reserved for talented and gifted people, not for people like plain old ordinary me, Ed. Youve got the wrong person.
Thats not true. All of us can go deep with discipline. The problem is that a lot of people dont really understand what discipline really means. So, lets begin with coming up with a working definition of discipline. Discipline is doing what you ought to do so you can do what you want to do. Thats what discipline is. Its doing what you ought to do so you can do what you want to do. Lets say it together. together means you and me, all right? Discipline is doing what you ought to do so you can do what you want to do.
Ed Young tells us that right up front, many of you are saying, Ed, I understand the first portion. Discipline is doing what you ought to do. Obviously, discipline comes from the nature and character of God. If we sync up with God, if we defer to him, then we do what we ought to do. I understand that. But that second part of the definition, what I want to do? You mean if I do what I ought to do then I can do what I want to do? Whats up with that?
Yes. Because watch this. When we bow the knee to Christ, he comes into our lives and he works from the inside out. The Bible says that when we ask Jesus to infiltrate our being, suddenly our desires and his desires connect. So, our desires are his desires and his desires are our desires. God wants all of us to be highly successful. Thats right. God wants all of us to be highly successful. And because of this, he will allow us to do what we want to do, if we are disciplined.
