8/24/25 Begin. Or begin again.

1:47 We'd like you to have a seat. So this is our first Sunday back on campus with our students back here. And so our freshmen arrived a couple days ago and our returning students are trickling in. They start school tomorrow. And so I just like a word for them I just have for this weekend is it's welcome and welcome home. The last words I spoke to our students last year, those who are graduating and moving on, or those who are just moving on for the summer were the words of promise that every time they come back, it's welcome home. And so the words to our incoming students this Sunday are welcome to our returning students, welcome home. And either way, it's so good. Like either way, this moment right now is, I love beginnings.

2:37 Beginnings are so good. Whether that, again, is our freshmen, our incoming students, it's time to begin, or our returning students, it's time to begin again. Because there's so much unknown right now. I mean, obviously, I mean, think about those incoming freshmen, those incoming students, they arrive on campus and they have had to leave everyone who knows them and go to a place like this. They go to a place right here, right now, where nobody knows them, virtually nobody knows them, or those students even who have been away for three months and nobody knows what these last three months have contained in their lives. And they don't know, no one knows what they've been through. And this is why, I don't know, if you've been in this situation, this is why we have the same conversations over and over. Whether you're just meeting someone, just beginning a meeting or beginning again, there's the introductions of like, here's what the last couple of months has entailed or those first introductions where it's like, who are you?

3:31 What's your name? What's your family? Where are you from? What's your major? What are your interests? What are your accomplishments? and those conversations are all good because you have to. Why? Because for the most part, nobody knows. Nobody knows who you are. And again, the positive part of that is it's a relief. In the sense, I mean, I don't know if you've ever gone to a new city or a new community, there's a relief there where it's like, hey, no one knows, I can be anyone. But it also comes at a price. Like nobody knows. What if I remain unknown?

4:03 But I like to choose to focus on the positive part. Like this, just the potential of, okay, who are you? But not just who are you, who do you want to be? And even to begin this semester with that question, what do you want by the end of this semester, by the end of this year, by the end of these four years, what do you want to be true about yourself? That's why I love this potential, right? Because everything we do here, like this whole university, what we do here as a church on campus, we do it because we believe in the potential of each and every human being. whether they're just beginning or whether they're beginning again. We believe in the amazing potential of each and every human being. But here's the problem. The problem is this. Potential without discipline is often a tragedy.

4:50 There's almost always potential without discipline is potential that's lost or potential that's wasted. That's why the second reading today, right, from the letter to the Hebrews, the author talks about this and he says, okay, discipline. When it comes to the word discipline, he says, Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him. For whom he loves, he disciplines. Therefore, endure your trials as discipline.

5:15 Endure your trials as discipline. Now, I just want to make this clear. Just a little side point. It's very important for us to make this point. Discipline is not the point. This is really important. Because I think sometimes people approach Christianity as if the whole goal of Christianity is that discipline is the point. That if I do all these hard things and I never enjoy life or I always am super serious and I'm white-knuckling my way through the next year or the next four years, then that's called being a Catholic. We can sometimes act as if following Jesus means discipline is the point. Now, obviously, we know that following Jesus involves the cross. Obviously, we know that following Christ involves challenge. I mean, realize that no one drifts into heaven. No one drifts into heaven any more than anyone drifts into any kind of greatness. I mean, think about any Olympian or any collegiate athlete.

6:13 They're all normal people. I mean, think about every person playing a pro sport is a normal person. Obviously, they have certain gifts. but what sets them apart is that they don't live like ordinary people, right? That's the thing is like every professional athlete you've ever seen on TV or an Olympian you've ever seen, they're all ordinary people. What sets them apart, yes, they have certain gifts, but they choose not to live like ordinary people. There was a woman I knew in high school who was a decent runner. She was in track and she was okay. She made it to state in the hurdles. I remember that, but like didn't place, wasn't in the final heat, didn't really do anything. She was a walk-on at the University of Minnesota for the track program. And over the course of the next four years, she became not only a national champion, she also became one of the, I think, top five all-time hurdlers at the University of Minnesota. She showed up as an ordinary person.

7:07 I remember I saw her in Target one summer. We were both home on break. And I was just struck by like, oh, I remember I saw her and I was like, oh, wow, you're an athlete. Like, you look different. I could tell that even just how she acted, like, oh, you live differently. We could pause on that. You realize this. If gifted athletes live just like everyone else, they would never be Olympians. No matter how gifted they are, they would never be professionals. They live differently. What do they do? They strive. And that's the gospel today, right? I love this gospel because someone comes up to Jesus. You heard the story and they say, Lord, tell me, how many people? Will many people be saved? I love how Jesus answers because he doesn't give a stat. He doesn't give a percentage of like, well, you know, 95 people or five people. My guess is because we know that God desires all human beings to be saved.

7:59 And so what does many, what does few mean to him? Maybe one lost is too many. Jesus doesn't get bogged down in stats. He doesn't get bogged down in percentages or numbers. But what he does is he turns to the person who asks them. And this is the original Greek in the gospel. he says in like a singular, it's in the imperative form of the word strive, meaning basically in answer to the question, hey, well, a lot of people, how many people will be saved? Jesus turns the question on the person asking the question and says, okay, I'm not giving you a number. All you need to know is this, you strive. If you wanna go to heaven, you strive. Why? Because here's Jesus who's saying, okay, you have the potential. You need to have the discipline.

8:49 I think that even Jesus turning to this person and saying, you strive, as he turns to us and say, hey, you strive, all of us here, is a vote of confidence. Again, it's a letter to the Hebrews. It says, what father does not discipline his son? Well, let's answer the question. What kind of father does not discipline his son? I guess I would say this. A father who doesn't believe that their child has what it takes. but Hebrews says, but the Lord does discipline you. What's that mean? That means God believes that you have what it takes. You know, when a rabbi would invite someone to be his disciple, we invite them to follow him. He's implicitly stating this. He's implicitly stating that, hey, you are worth training. You're worth me taking my time and giving you what I know, giving you what I can do, because I believe there's something in you that has the potential to do something incredible. God gives us discipline because he believes. then you have what it takes.

9:48 But remember this, discipline is not the point. Discipline is not the point, but it is the path. The point is joy, right? Jesus said, I came, they might have joy that my joy may be in them and their joy may be complete. The point is life. Like Jesus said, I pray they may have life and have it abundantly. The point is freedom. The point is to live as the person that God has called you to be. The point is God himself. Discipline is not the point, but discipline is the path. There's this former Navy SEAL. His name is Jocko Willink. You can look him up. But Jocko, he was a Navy SEAL. And now he is like a business guy. He does a podcast and whatnot. He has a three-word phrase that he repeats over and over again. And it's a three-word phrase that as often as I repeat it, when people hear it, there's something in them that it resonates with them. And his three-word phrase is very simple.

10:41 His three-word phrase is, discipline equals freedom. Discipline equals freedom. Discipline is not the point, but it's the path. It's the way. If we want to say, okay, I have all this potential, but potential without discipline is potential wasted. It's a tragedy. But discipline equals freedom. So years ago, I saw this documentary, and the documentary, I think, was called Surf Wise, like Street Wise, but about surfers. And the whole context was this, was this man. he was, he did, he worked really, really hard in elementary school, high school, went to college. I think he went to medical school at Stanford. So he worked really, really hard at being a part of his life. Went to medical school at Stanford, became a physician. So he worked as a doctor, but he loved surfing. And so what he would do is he would just, he'd work, work, work, and then he'd surf as much as he could. At one point he met this woman on the beach. They both loved surfing. And so they kind of basically started a life surfing with each other. They had a bunch of kids, I think maybe like five or seven kids, somewhere in there, five or seven kids, we'll say six. They had a bunch of kids. And, and the first part of the documentary is talking about how awesome it was to grow up like this. Cause these kids are like, yeah, we just, you know, kind of travel all the wrong, all over the place when we didn't have any money, we would stop in some city or some town. And my dad would be a doctor for a couple months. We'd make enough money to be able to eat again and go back to surfing. And the first half of the video of the documentary was how awesome their life was as children. Like other people had to go to school.

12:02 we didn't have to go to school. We just got to play. We got to surf. The second half of the documentary was all about what their lives were like as adults and how stuck they felt. So because we didn't get, that foundation we got was just go surfing, just live this life of flexibility, live this life of ease, live this life of comfort. Said our dad was able to live a life of freedom because the first part of his life was a life of discipline. And because of that discipline, he now had the ability to do whatever he wanted. but the beginning of our lives was marked by freedom or liberty, license. And so now the second half of our life is marked by discipline.

12:44 Now, of course, you find people all the time who say things like, well, I've always done what I was supposed to do and now that I'm 30, I don't know who I am. Or someone who says, I've always done what I was supposed to do and now that I'm 40 or 50 or 60, however old I am, I don't even know who I am. Well, first to that, I would say this. I don't know about this, but let's be honest. If you're 30 or 40 or 50 and you don't know who you are, whose fault is that? I'm not trying to be sassy about this, but let's be honest about this. Even if you would say, I'm 20 and I don't know who I am, all right, begin. I'm 30, I don't know who I am, all right, begin. I'm 40, I don't know who I am. Either begin or begin again, because the question is not, have you done all the right things and who are you right now? The question is, who do you want to be? Here we are, beginning. Who do you want to be at the end of this semester? Who do you want to be at the end of this year?

13:36 Our freshmen, who do you want to be at the end of four years? Who do you want to be? Well, just begin. Or begin again. It's been a rough three months away. All right, begin again. The question is not, do you know who you are? The question is, at the end of this, whatever this is, this semester, this year, this lifetime, what do you want to be true about yourself?

14:00 How do you answer that question? Well, I was listening to, you know who Warren Buffett is? Warren Buffett is a significant investor, investment guy, decent with money. He was kind of quoting an idea of Aristotle and he was talking to a bunch of college students. This is like 30, 40 years ago. And he was talking to these college students and these college students, he wanted them to have the idea of how do you know what do you want to be true about yourself? How do you know who it is you want to be? And he said, it's really simple. He said, just pick out this. He's kind of quoting, again, the idea of Aristotle. He said, pick out the person in your class that you admire the most. And then write down why you admire them. Put down a list of qualities. He said, okay, don't pick yourself. He said, put down a list of qualities of the people you admire the most. What do you admire about them? And then he said, actually, if you want to do this, you can. He said, put down the person in your class that, frankly, you can stand the least in the whole group. and what are the qualities they have that really turn you off?

14:56 He said, look at that list. And he said, you don't find a bunch of things like they can throw a football 70 yards or anything like that. He says, the qualities in the person that you admire are the qualities that if you practice, you can make your own. who's the person around you that you're like, man, that person is great. What makes them great? If you wrote those down and practiced their qualities, you can make them your own. And he says, which if practiced can become habit forming.

15:30 What are the qualities of the people around you that you admire? Well, begin or begin again. But here's a problem. Here's the issue. Here's the thing. This has to start now. Why? Because the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. So we have to start now. Because the reality, of course, is we're choosing to be someone right now. And that choice, those choices become habits. And the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken.

16:04 Keep this in mind. All of this has everything to do with Jesus. this isn't just like self-help if you want to be a better person this is about being a disciple of Jesus it's about being the kind of person who can know Jesus who can know his voice who can know his joy this is about being the kind of person who can actually look like Jesus what are the qualities in Jesus that you admire write those down and then begin to practice either begin or begin again Why? Because we walk the path of discipline so that we can be a disciple. Another way to say it is we walk the path of discipline so that we can do the kinds of things a disciple of Jesus can do. And we have to begin. Or we just have to simply begin again.

16:59 This is the last thing. begin or begin again how do I begin to be a disciple I make it really really really simple I came across this definition of what it is to be a disciple a bunch of years ago and it is so simple and so clear and it's the kind of thing that every one of us could start right now if we wanted to it's just this a disciple is someone who is willing to change their schedule in order to get closer to Jesus That's it. A disciple is someone who's willing to change their schedule in order to get closer to Jesus. It's not a life of perfection. It's not a promise of perfection. It's not like, I'll no longer have any vices or I'll be perfect from now on. It's simply a disciple is someone who's willing to change their schedule in order to get closer to Jesus. You're not gonna do it perfectly, but here's the thing, you have to do it.

17:52 we have to actually, if we're going to be a disciple, we have to have discipline. Discipline is not the point, but it is the path. And so here's the question, this starting this week, starting tomorrow, do you want to be a disciple? Okay, in that case, how will you change your schedule tomorrow so that you can be closer to Jesus by the end of tomorrow? Or this week, how will you change your schedule this week so that by the end of this week, you'll be closer to Jesus? Or this semester? How can you change your schedule this semester so that at the end of the semester, you'll be closer to Jesus? we have to do it if we're going to be a disciple. We have to have that discipline. Not perfection, but simply the willingness to decide. The willingness...