George Verwer emphasizes the critical need for discipline in our speech and actions, warning against trivial conversations that do not glorify God. He challenges listeners to reflect on their words and to ensure they are edifying and purposeful, rather than filled with foolish chatter. Verwer also discusses the importance of controlling our bodies and desires, advocating for a disciplined life that honors God in all aspects, including our relationships and daily activities. He illustrates the necessity of discipline through biblical examples, particularly focusing on Joseph's resistance to temptation. Ultimately, Verwer calls for a life of obedience to God's Word, relying on the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance.

Welcome to from the pulpit and classic sermons each week We bring you a different message from some of today's greatest speakers in the Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers, too This week we have George Verver with part two of his message discipline Can begin talking with someone else about this and saying can you give me some help on this? I can't figure out just where to use so-and-so and see me maybe here's so many things wrong with him This is how Satan gets you just with the tongue Tearing us down, but I think there's another area that's even greater and that's foolish talking and Worthless talking talking about so many things that that means so little in the light of eternity And I think every one of us Stand condemned this morning. I certainly do for the many times that I've said words that have had no power It hasn't edified someone else. It hasn't been a loving encouragement to another brother It hasn't been perhaps an exhortation or rebuke in the spirit of love to another person, but it's just been about nothing We mention it and then we mention it 15 more times when once would have been enough. Oh How easy it is just to get occupied with trivialities While we can find ourselves talking all day long just about the food and planning menus We said about the Lord and we get to meal time and we joke and we banter and we do everything else But really talk about the Lord Jesus Christ Why is it it's so difficult. Oh Yes in a service we talk about the Lord. But why is it then when we eat it's so hard to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ Why is it when we're out working? We don't seem to want to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ so much And I knew this back in Bible school I talked with some fellas and they said we're afraid to talk about spiritual things because they'll blame us as a holy Joe and a hypocrite in a Bible school in United States, I heard them say this How tragic it is when we as Christians can't get together and talk about the thing that is to mean the most in our lives. Oh Yes, we can get together and especially around here. We can talk vehicles can't we? Why we can talk about vans and motors and problems that come up with vehicles we can talk about that all day long But it's another thing just to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ Instead of just vehicles Or we can talk about the tent and think of how we praise God for the way he supplied it But then we can spend the next half hour talking about this tent and just how it should be When it's already up And it should be done and over with In other words things which really don't count for eternity. Oh may God search our hearts May God control our tongues. This is discipline a Tongue that speaks to the praise of his Lord a tongue that edifies let your speech be seasoned with salt Does your speech edify one another Tell me or rather. Let's tell God or ask ourselves Has everything we've said in the last two days really been to the glory of God Every word we've uttered Has it really been for some real purpose Or has it been foolish talking or senseless chatter? James says that if you control the tongue you control the body And if you can control your tongue by God's power you're doing something that mankind cannot do You're doing something that's far greater Because mankind can control in so many ways nature man has taken the powers of nature They've taken the atomic power and they can they don't always do it But they can use it for good purposes and they can take it and harness it and control it But they can't control the time Therefore let us yield our tongues as members of righteousness Unto God as we are commanded to do so in Romans 6 Well, there are other areas too To talk about the body The natural desires of our body in all how we need to have this under the control of the Spirit of God The desire for food it's a good one, isn't it? But how we need to have it controlled so that we try to eat what's good for us So we try to drink what's good for us So that we eat and drink to the glory of God So that our bodies might be the strongest possible Some of us especially those of us who sit behind the desk need to exercise I'll be frank. I don't like doing push-ups. I don't like doing setups But it's good for me in all how I need to discipline myself to exercise my body I Went out for a bicycle ride about a week ago. I came back pooped My legs are weak, of course, I was cycling with someone that used to be a cyclist that didn't help matters, but He set a pretty good pace. Well, maybe it wasn't too fast It was for me when I hadn't been on a bicycle for some time But all how we let our bodies just get out of shape We let our bodies just go to pot and yet they're the temple of the Holy Spirit of God And we are not our own this body isn't ours that means my little finger is to be God It means my hair is to be God and it's to be treated as such Of course we could talk about our sexual desires, too And probably this is one of the realms where Satan hits Christians harder than any other We all know it don't we? The desire for a wife or the desire for a husband It's in us all Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness I've said this sometimes in a joking way and yet I think there's a lot of truth in it Fellas are good and girls are good. But when you get them together Unless they're brought together by God and Only then Does it become something that's really of glory to God? when God brings two together and unites them in Jesus Christ And they're meant for each other. Then it becomes a great thing and a wonderful thing I'm speaking not from personal experience, but from observation of other Christians And I've lived in enough homes with married couples to know that unless God gives me a wife Who has only one passion and that's for Jesus Christ. Well, I don't want to be married Because it isn't too happy a scene in a lot of homes It's just heartache and grief and I've met too many people that have come from broken homes or unhappy homes And I see the problems it's caused And I tell you just to show you what it's like here in Britain of the 30 or so who have been working here at Chigwell I don't think there's more than three or four that have a full Christian home of both the mother and dad who are Christians All the rest either one is dead or they're divorced or they don't even know where they are or they're not Christians or they hate them chaos And all we can't afford it and if you read the history of missions and if you If you read about Christian workers, you know, how many times whole works of God have just been plowed under because of sex because of lust And I'm speaking because I believe this is a real danger In each one of our lives take heed lest ye fall That's why God says not only pray but watch and pray And I'd like to give an illustration from Scripture and the man is Joseph I was really struck by this if you remember the story of Joseph when he was working for Potiphar You remember how he was tempted by Potiphar's wife To commit immorality and you remember how he didn't fall but he fled from her presence but before that She had tried to tempt Joseph before and she had tried to rule him to commit fornication and He refused and we read a little phrase Over in let me read it for you. It's in Genesis chapter 39 Verse 10 Now notice this and it came to pass as she that's Potiphar's wife Spoke to Joseph day by day that he hearkened not unto her And to hearken means to hear and do he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her and he refused even to be in her presence and I believe that's the reason he had the victory of a while later When he was caught unawares and it was something he couldn't help He was in her presence and he couldn't help it. But then was the time that he fled But you see if you give in a little bit If you give in a little bit in the realm of thoughts, you're gonna fall sooner or later in action And that's the way it works Satan gets you to do it first in your mind and then you do it in action But you see Joseph took the steps before and he refused to be caught in her presence And then when the great crisis came he was able to get out of there There are some times when the Bible says we're to stand and resist the devil But boy, there's a lot of times when it says to just get running and get out of it And I don't mean as some people have said some men run from temptation hoping it's going to catch up with them And you know that happens a lot we run but we still have that secret desire Hurry up and catch up with me. No, but to flee Oh If we would have that same zeal that Dave Prosser had for planting corn and in getting those crops if we'd have that same zeal for a holy life and for a pure mind And to be utterly rich of sin in our lives and to flee temptation We have the promise that no temptation has taken us but such as is common to everybody else But God is faithful he'll first not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able but will with the temptation Also made make a way to escape. You know, I found that sometimes I just don't want to take the way of escape And that's why I may fall Simply I know the way of escape is there So it's because I don't want to take it You see we actually do like to sin though It's our nature to desire that's why the mind and the attitude needs to be renewed and Changed from ourselves to God from the world to Jesus Christ And so we need to have bodies that are disciplined another thing. I found that Discipline in one area helps you discipline in another area. I Discipline in one area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in one area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you discipline in another area helps you 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of discipline not something that's just kind of neutral but something that you know is good and on the other hand don't do something that you know really isn't the best for you even though you like to do it I think it helps you discipline our whole lives wholly disciplined or controlled by God himself then there's the discipline of actions and of course this could be amplified I mentioned so I mentioned study study to show thyself approved unto God give all diligence were to meditate upon the Word of God day and night and it's a discipline if you wait until you have just a great desire to go and study the Word of God you probably won't get in it too much praise God he does give us that hunger and thirst doesn't but sometimes you know we have to go because we know it's good for us and as we study then our thirst and our hunger is built up it's that way with eating sometimes perhaps you don't feel like eating probably not very often but yet you eat anyway because you know you need it it's good for you there's the discipline of prayer this is a lot of it a lot of times we don't pray because of an undisciplined life we know we should pray we know we should get along with God but somehow well there's people to see there's decisions to be made there's little items to take care of and people have told me that instead of saying in my office I should go off and feel where people can't reach me but I insist on saying the office and therefore I get a lot of interruptions it's just this is not common sense it's not discipline sometimes you have to just walk out of everything and get clear away then people can't call you then if the phone rings and it's the Queen of England you can't answer it because they don't know where you are and it's a help to get clear away from it this is what I need this is perhaps what you need you just have to walk completely out of it and discipline your life to get along with God denial of self this is another thing we have some desire we realize it's selfish deny it cut it out even though perhaps it's not really so bad after all there's a lot of things that I wish I could get kind of a group of men together I'd like to call I really would like to have tiny snow and Dave Hunt come up here for all the drivers and boy I'd love to give them turn them loose for about two hours and tell you how you should be disciplined as a driver on OM I'd love for us to take a long time just to discuss how we can be practical after all what good is a great time of worship with God if it isn't evidenced in our daily lives what good is meeting together before God and having a great sense of his presence if it never makes any difference in the way we live and so we need to be disciplined we need to every morning before you go out and drive a van you need to check the water in the oil and I'm so ignorant I don't I don't know what all you're supposed to check that's why I need to be disciplined that's why I get other people to drive because I know I'm not that good a driver myself how we need to to use our heads in these little things let me just quote some examples we have a car over in Chateau we hope that it might be repaired but somebody left the water in it over the winter it's got a cracked block and needs a new engine now beside another example here there's a comer down there now we're hoping that we can get it fixed but somebody left water there and it cracked the block slightly there are other times when engines get blown up because somebody doesn't think and they aren't disciplined in the way they drive other times perhaps an accident occurs now I had one last summer and it was simply because I was careless I came out of the road Avenue de Ligue you that were in Chateau and I thought the fellow was going to go straight but he turned and I didn't wait to see far enough and so I smacked up his front door see it's just a little thing like that another time I remember tell you all my accidents you never want me to drive again when I was out in Montana while I was on the way to Montana and I was driving it was about midnight I'd had about two hours sleep the night before about four the night before that and I went to sleep cost me $100 about 30 pounds because I knocked a windshield out hit a mailbox don't know where the mailbox went if I had been sensible I would have turned it over a lot sooner than that to someone who was awake and I remember driving up from Spain you see God's going to teach me this lesson I don't drive when you're sleepy it's worse than driving when you're drunk and I was sleepy so I said I can't drive someone else drove a little bit and they were sleepy and all of us were sleepy and so I went to sleep stayed by the side of the road and then when we were awake enough then we went on and it's a lot smarter than having about six dead bodies in the ditch and I was telling some people just think just think of what people would think of OM and all our transport system if one of those vans cracked up and yet about 15 people who are wounded and dying along a highway I can't think of any faster way to see OM go right out the window than to see a van crack up like that now fortunately if you hit a little car with a van the van doesn't get hurt quite so much but you can get into real trouble with whoever's in the other little car but it's actually just discipline always obeying the orders given to you if you're told not to drive over 40 miles per hour don't drive over 40 miles per hour and obeying the speed limits if it says 20 miles per hour then go 20 miles per hour if it says don't pass don't pass and if it's raining again extra precaution discipline in driving now for you that ride in the back of the van of course you need to be disciplined too and not always keep bothering the driver now it's good to have one person to keep the driver awake but if everybody's chattering and you know another thing it's good not to jump around in the back of a van somebody shared with me that one of the vans down there what all's wrong with it Lou give us the word this is important it's inside oh in other words the whole inside is quite a quite a quite a mess and I think it's not only on the seats that we put in not only the top part not only the top boards are broken with some of the two by two inch beams that we put in to hold up the seats were broken I don't know what somebody was doing I don't I haven't seen any people that heavy here yet but discipline it's so easy to treat God's property as nobody's property and so we don't take care of it oh that's an OM van so what and so we don't take care of it and we waste God's money we probably spend more money in OM on correcting mistakes that have been made then we do feeding the whole lot sometimes I wonder I think we pay more money on vans just correcting careless mistakes that have been made then we paid for the vans to begin with because we're not disciplined we don't know what how to do as we're told there's so many little things I would say this learn to be neat learn to pick up after yourself and learn to pick up after other people too you know if everybody took it upon their responsibility to pick up stray paper that was around you'd have a clean campground instead of walking down and seeing everything in a big mess if everybody took it upon themselves not only take their own plates but any other plates they saw laying around you wouldn't see anything around the campground but you go in the registration office and see three cups of coffee you can go another place and you see a plate you can see rubbish here and rubbish there now fortunately most people put it in the boxes now but it's so easy just to think well it doesn't matter these things aren't important but it is I tell you you live in a van for a month and you live sloppily and you just see what it's like to live in that some of these vans after one night it's like a pig pen now we're trying to take some steps to correct this and some good healthy reminders but all how we need to be disciplined just in the everyday realm of these things little things well there's other things that we'll be learning as we go along but if we've been told once let's learn it let's not have to learn the same lesson fifty dozen times that's the tragedy if you make one mistake and confess it and learn from it that shows wisdom but boy if you make it the same mistake another five times then we begin to wonder what's happening and begin to wonder what's happened to us either the teachers bad or the pupils bad one of the two speaking about the mind maybe we should say it's good to have a mind to work you know the scriptures full of this this discipline of working some of you have never done door-to-door work I want to tell you it's hard I have to confess that it wasn't much fun going door-to- Mexico with only 20 phrases and in my broken Spanish and they gave me some argument all I could do was come out and was repeat my little my few phrases again and it was hard it got hot and the book bag got heavy as George mentioned yesterday very heavy and a lot of times people didn't sell didn't didn't buy and many times well they just weren't too friendly sometimes they tore track right up in your face it wasn't it wasn't a pleasant experience wasn't pleasant at all it's just plain old hard work boy I tell you that's when you begin to find out if you're steadfast or not then you find out whether you've been blessed with the perseverance or not after 50 doors turn you down to go to the 51st one and keep going we read about the people the children of Israel and Moses day when they built the tabernacle that they had a mind to work and in Nehemiah's day the people had a mind to work and tremendous things were accomplished they had more than enough it's the first time I've ever heard of an offering being given where they had to give it back to the people but when the people gave for the tabernacle because they have such a mind to work in a mind to give they had too much and they had to give it back you ever heard of that today no a mind to work yes this is what we need God says let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labor working with his hands why that he may give to those that don't have and this is the whole purpose of working whether it's in a secular job or a so-called sacred job is that we might give to others either maybe we're giving directly of our work or we work and we give directly of what we make from our work but that's how we need to do it's for a purpose you see this brings me to another point that I feel is so important is discipline in purpose because if there's no overall purpose how can you have discipline if we have this great purpose of glorifying Christ then this affects everything we do and we can be disciplined but why be disciplined if life doesn't matter if I have nothing to live for well why should I mess around exercising my body let me sit in the chair and die there it doesn't make any difference unless there's a real purpose there's no point for discipline but when we've got a purpose such as we have in Jesus Christ there's all every reason in eternity to live discipline and this is what we need discipline of purpose think of Jesus Christ we read in Isaiah that he set his face like a pin we read that he set his face steadfastly towards Jerusalem now don't tell me that he really felt by going to the cross we don't go by feelings but he went because he loved because he knew this was right and he had this great purpose and he accomplished it and we too have a great purpose and how we need to discipline our bodies our minds our thoughts every imagination all that we have we need to discipline towards this great purpose of first knowing Christ himself in our own lives pleasing him and making him known to the ends of the earth as he's commanded us you see there's a purpose for discipline it's not just to go around saying I'm a disciplined one no but it's that we might accomplish the purpose and if we aren't disciplined we're not going to see the purpose accomplished this summer if we aren't disciplined in the back of vans we're going to have chaos and you won't get the job done instead of seeing 250 tons of literature be given forth you'll see a hundred tons of it wrecked in the back of vans camped on and torn up and gotten dirty and thrown in mud puddles and hundreds of pounds worth of literature just thrown down the drains because we don't know how to take care of literature it wasn't quite so bad last year with just trash but when you come with two books they cost a little more money oh how we need to be disciplined in the way we treat literature instead of taking a book and just jumping it up like this on a table we fold it and take good care of it now you're looking at my Bible it's a poor binding it's been used for two or three years now so it's beginning to wear out but how we need to treat with respect books in my family I was brought up right from the ground up to to treat a book with great respect not to worship it but to treat it as something valuable my parents didn't have enough money just go out and buy me a new copy of the book every time and we were to take care of it and take good care and oh I pray that God will give you a real vision for learning how to take care of literature this summer because it's the Word of God it's the message of God and it needs to be treated right and preserved so that might reach hungry hearts we have a real discipline and purpose we'll have a discipline and perseverance then that we might reach that purpose therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord why because you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord see there's your purpose therefore be steadfast unmovable always abounding discipline and perseverance oh this is so important I tell you this is I think of all the truth maybe I shouldn't say of all but one of the greatest truths that keeps me going is this matter of don't give up don't be a quitter put your hand to the plow and don't look back but keep on what do you feel like it or not when the problems come and you wonder well how everything's gonna work out don't give up but keep going on and I believe that God wants us to be persevering saints yes we have all the promises of God at our disposal but we need to act upon them and trust them but we need to take heed and watch at the same time lest we fall I'd like to close with five vows that were written by A.W. Tozer I don't know if they tie in exactly with discipline but I think they do he says these are five vows that will really make your spiritual life something in the practical realm I like to read them the first one he says is deal thoroughly with sin for undisciplined it's sin deal thoroughly with sin confess it and forsake it the next one is never own anything if all that we have is God's and we don't own it then if something happens to it how can we get upset it's not ours it's God's and how can we take care of what we wear better than we take care of someone else's because it's not ours never own anything number three never defend yourself never defend yourself oh you never defend yourself really help a lot wouldn't it the fourth one never pass anything on about anybody else that would hurt them never pass anything on about anybody else that would hurt them and the last one never accept any glory it all belongs to God never accept one ounce of glory it belongs only to God and if we take it we're robbing God if we take too much time we're robbing God if we misuse what God has given us we're robbing God and one of the great commandments is thou shalt not steal and so it really boils down again discipline is simply obedience to the Word of God yes we need the faith oh how we need it we need believing hearts and at the same time we need hearts that will obey they go together trust and obey you've got to have both and discipline is simply obedience to the Word of God oh that God will enable us for it's not by might it's not by power it's not by our feelings it's not by our emotions it's not just by our desires it's not by our striving but it's by my spirit sayeth the Lord God is the one who has to discipline our lives it may take rebuking it may take chastising but oh I pray that in my own life God will bring whatever it takes to make me disciplined for him that the world might hear let's pray oh father we have to confess our undisciplined lives Lord we lay them before thee and we realize that we cannot we cannot remember what you taught us we cannot do the things you've told us to do but we're glad that you've said it's not by might or by power but it's by thy Holy Spirit who indwells us and so Lord we believe thee that you'll enable us to obey thee in everything you tell us to do oh God discipline our lives not for our sake but for your sake because you died that we might be disciplined for Jesus Christ we ask it in your name you've been listening to from the pulpit and classic sermon series this week you heard George Berwer part two of his message discipline tune in next week to hear John Piper talk about are you wasting your life I'm from the pulpit and classic sermons