In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing and accepting God as the ultimate authority in our lives. He compares the disciplined self to an aviator who must obey the laws of aviation at all times to avoid disaster. The speaker also highlights the need for a deep connection with God, stating that we do not all have our being in Him until we accept His Son as our Savior. He emphasizes that life is restless and disruptive until we submit to something beyond ourselves and obey it supremely. The central message is that self-discipline and surrendering to God's will are necessary for true freedom and abundant life.

The other day, a young teenager said to me, I'm free to do as I like. And that young teenager got the shock of his life when I replied, Indeed you are. I could not agree more. You have spoken a truth. You have stated a fact. You are absolutely free to do as you like. Now the fact is that we are all created, all of us. Every man, every woman, every person living has been created with free moral agency. I say, I am free to do as I like. Absolutely. I can be a bum. I am free to be a drunkard. I am free to sell my body in prostitution. I am so free that the very destiny of my own soul is in my hands. I am also free to do as I ought. A disciplined self is a self of power. And when we learn that glorious truth, when that fact becomes very real to our hearts and real in our thinking and in our living, it will be one of the greatest secrets of life that we could possibly learn. A disciplined self is a self of power. An aviator told me that every moment while he is in the air he has to obey the laws of aviation. Just one moment's disobedience or carelessness. Only one moment, that's all that it takes. Just one moment of carelessness and the great machine would be wrecked. Whenever there's a plane crash, the very first thing they look for in making their investigation is for carelessness. Or for someone who might have disobeyed some law that governed the flight of that plane. There can be no moral holidays while in the air. The obedience must be complete or the mastery will not be complete. Listen to me just a moment. Life is a restless, disruptive thing until we give ourselves to something beyond ourselves. Until we obey something ultimate and obey it supremely. Otherwise, life will be like a brush heap instead of a tree. A brush heap has no central organizing principle and thus it is a decaying mass destined to the dust. A tree, on the other hand, has an organizing principle and its branches fit into that principle. And hence, a tree is a growing organism destined to the skies. Now, Paul says, in God's Word, in Him we live and move and have our being. We do live. We do move in God for He is the inescapable. But we can only deny Him with the very powers that He gives us. And it's just like that. The infidel, the skeptic, can only deny God with the very powers that God has given to that man. Remember, God is the inescapable. And every man lives and every human being moves in God. But watch something. We do not all have our being in Him. We live on the surface roots. The taproot has not gone down deep into God. We do not have our being in Him. And we will never have our being in God until we accept His Son as our Savior. And He becomes the branch and we the vine. The self, then, does not know its master. As long as we do not have our being in God, even though we move and live in Him, but so long as we do not have our being in God, the self, our true self, does not know its master. And the self without its master is the self as a servant to itself and becomes its own slave. And that's the reason that men and women get themselves in such jams and such awful messes. You want to know something? People blame God for a lot of things that God has nothing to do with whatsoever. They brought all their troubles on themselves. They were free to do as they liked, absolutely free to do as they pleased, as they liked, and they did it. They were a servant to themselves, did as they pleased, and then they didn't like what they did. When God is not your master, when you do not have your being in Him, then you become God. Self must be disciplined. One must give oneself to a power greater than himself. The self must be disciplined to die. It must die in order to live. That is why at the very center of the Christian religion is a cross. At the very heart of our faith is a cross. You must die and be buried in order to experience a resurrection into freedom and into the fullness of life. It is then that you will see that you are not free to do as you like, but as you ought. Pause a moment. The cross is a symbol of death. When Jesus spoke the following, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. He was speaking of a death to that one as an individual. Even as the master himself, surrendering his will to that of the father, cried, Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. Even the son himself was not mastered by himself, but he was mastered by the will of his father. Therefore, when I take up my cross, I surrender my will, my sins, my weaknesses, my very life to him to such an extent that I completely abide in him. Then, for the very first time, I know what it means to live and move and have my very being in him. Life is no longer a restless, disrupted thing. It has meaning. It has purpose. There is a plan, a divine plan for my life. There is no defeat, for God cannot be defeated. There can be no failure, for God cannot fail. There can be no death, for Jesus himself said, I am the resurrection and the life. I move, I live, I have my being in him. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus not only removed the penalty of sin, but the very power of sin, and has enabled me as a frail creature of the dust to live as I ought through his power and person. Ah, beloved, life with Christ is the only life to live. There is assurance. There is God underneath all the uncertainties of human existence. And so, I rest in God.