Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] It's about a year and a half before we planted Redemption hill with about 35 adults.
[00:00:22] I was preparing to go through a pastoral cohort as a church planting cohort. There were five of us from different parts of the country. I was the only guy from Texas who would meet once a month. We'd fly off somewhere, some neutral site, and we'd meet and we'd talk about church planner things. Built a really, really close friendship with these guys. And as you're preparing to go to be a part of this cohort, they have you go through this really strenuous assessment process, application process. So Sydney, my wife, and I are going through this kind of application process, filling out all these really deep personal questions about our sin and suffering and our marriage and all of these various things.
[00:01:01] And unbeknownst to me, I don't know the kinds of question that Cindy's filling out. Obviously I'm not looking over her shoulder as she's filling out the application.
[00:01:08] So Cindy's filling out the application, and as she does, she does so honestly. And man, at the time, I just wasn't husbanding very well.
[00:01:18] I suspect there are a handful of seminary students here. I was also a seminary student at one point.
[00:01:24] And maybe you're a little bit more familiar with this than others who are not intending to go into vocational ministry, but I think it applies to all of us in our various forms of vocation is that it's really easy to find your identity in that.
[00:01:38] Right. And to kind of go through and if you have a little bit of competency in it, to kind of miss the deficiencies in your own heart.
[00:01:48] So that was certainly me. And so Sydney's filling out this application honestly, and she answers a question about me and how often my sinful anger would express itself, you know, by the grace of God. I never abused my wife.
[00:02:00] But man, I was a deeply. I was an angry man.
[00:02:04] And because it wasn't expressing itself in these really intense ways, I assumed it was just pretty much okay. I mean, there was fruitfulness in ministry. We're planting a church, we're doing all these things. So she answers the application. And one particular day we're at my in laws house and Sydney was upstairs and I could hear her talking on the phone.
[00:02:25] And so I began to kind of walk up the steps and I could hear her crying. And so I like, man, who's she talking to? So I kind of lean my ear up against the door as such and realized pretty quickly that she's talking to my sending pastor.
[00:02:40] And so Like a good pastor. He didn't call me first. He called Sidney to ask about our marriage.
[00:02:49] And so they're having a conversation, and I just kind of walked away from the room and I went into the A room kind of off to the side, and I just. I got on my knees and. And immediately. And hey, here's like, I think, foolproof way you can know that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you when the word of God comes to your mind in an applicable way.
[00:03:11] Okay, so I'm on my knees in this room, and all of a sudden, Hebrews 12, 5, 11 comes to my mind, and I'm like, I think that I'm under the discipline of my father.
[00:03:26] Why?
[00:03:27] What was he doing?
[00:03:29] What was God ultimately doing in that moment?
[00:03:32] Was he intending to harm me?
[00:03:35] Was he being harsh with me? I may not get to. I mean, all these things. Really awesome conversation with me and was very encouraging.
[00:03:43] Like, you plant a church like that, you're going to hurt a lot of people.
[00:03:47] But what was God doing? What's God doing in it? So maybe you don't know if it's the discipline of the Lord. Maybe it is. Maybe you're struggling with a habitual sin and you find that life is hard.
[00:03:58] Whatever the case is that you come in with, what is God doing in this thing called discipline? Is it good? Is it loving? Is it kind? Is it for your ultimate flourishing?
[00:04:09] What's he doing? Okay, so let's look at the text. And I just want to give us a kind of a what?
[00:04:16] And like, what is the discipline of God? How does God discipline? Why does God discipline? And how will you and I respond? Four questions, four points. What is the discipline of God? How does God discipline his people?
[00:04:28] Why does God discipline, and how will you and I respond to it this morning? All right, so let's look at what discipline is. So if you look at verse 5 with me, chapter 12, verse 5 says this, and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you? And I'm going to pause for just a second because before we get into what discipline is, the author's going to do this amazing thing.
[00:05:00] So before we get into what the discipline of God is, he's going to couch the entire thing in this ethos of familial love from God.
[00:05:12] So before he says, hey, this is what the discipline of God is, and this is how you ought to respond to it, he's going to comfort you, because that's what the Holy Spirit does.
[00:05:23] He's our comforter, and it's only the comforted soul, that is the enduring soul.
[00:05:30] So if the book of Hebrews is about endurance, and it is, and there are lots of warnings in the book of Hebrews, what he goes back to time and time and time again is this reality that, hey, the Christian ought to have a comforted soul.
[00:05:46] Jesus didn't come to put more burdens on you. He came to take the burdens off of you and off of me.
[00:05:53] So that the Christian life, life with Jesus would be light, not weighed down by the law, but freed by from that he said, his burden is easy and his yoke is light. So here's how he's going to begin this conversation around discipline. In verse five, he says, have you forgotten the exhortation? That word could also be translated as encouragement or comfort.
[00:06:21] Have you forgotten we're just going to use the word comfort? The comfort that addresses you as what, sons?
[00:06:31] He could have said a lot of things.
[00:06:34] Have you forgotten the comfort that addresses you as servants or as workers for the Gospel, or as you fill in the blank with whatever the thing is, that you come in this morning identifying yourself by your successes, your accomplishments, your failures.
[00:06:58] Whatever the thing is, he says, have you forgotten, friends, this. That addresses you as sons.
[00:07:10] It's one of the most amazing benefits of the good news of Jesus, that it isn't enough for God to simply declare you as righteous when you put your faith in Jesus. That would be plenty.
[00:07:22] It would be plenty for me as a sinful man standing before a holy God, to be credited with the righteousness of Jesus. That would be plenty enough to get me into heaven.
[00:07:34] But he goes further than that, says one of my pastor friends says he takes us from the courtroom to the living room, he declares you righteous in his son, and then he makes you a son and a daughter. That's who you are. Above all of your accomplishments, all of your failures, whatever your job is or whatever you want it to be, above your ministerial successes, above your relational status, being a parent, whatever the thing is, above all of those things, who you are is a son or a daughter of God.
[00:08:14] Wonderful. It's so wonderful to be reminded of that. So he says, you and I can't understand the discipline of the Lord unless we're first comforted by the reality of our adoption in Christ, and only in Christ, through faith in Christ. You're a son, you're a daughter.
[00:08:36] This is how God sees us.
[00:08:40] This is.
[00:08:42] This is so important for us to be reminded of this, that J.I. packer in his book Knowing God, if you haven't read Knowing God, it's a great. It's a great book.
[00:08:54] J.I. packer says this. He says, if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes the thought of being God's child and having God as his father.
[00:09:11] He says, if this is not the thought that prompts and controls our worship, our prayers, and our whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
[00:09:25] Know what Packer's saying. You could have a really tight view and understanding of how propitiation works.
[00:09:35] You can know the law, you can have great and robust theology, and all of those things are good and necessary things.
[00:09:44] But if you and I don't know what it means to identify yourself as a son and a daughter of the Father and know God as Father, we don't understand New Testament Christianity.
[00:09:59] I mean, when Jesus comes to Earth, one of the first things that he does is one of the most. He does a lot of radical things. That's why the Pharisees hated him so much. But think about Jesus teaching his disciples to pray. What's the first thing he says to pray? Our Father.
[00:10:16] You're not allowed to do that. Jesus.
[00:10:19] You're not allowed to call God your father, and you're not allowed to tell other people to call God their father. And Jesus is like, this is why I came.
[00:10:29] Jesus came for adoption, to be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters that we might know God as He does.
[00:10:40] Father, do you.
[00:10:46] Do you know him as your father?
[00:10:50] You're loving, good, kind, benevolent, patient, slow to. I get that many in the room don't have a good relationship with biological father. I get it.
[00:11:04] As father, it's wrong to look at God.
[00:11:10] We have to know, namely, His Word and his son circumstances.
[00:11:15] But through His Word and through God, in his fullness, you see how he talks to women. You see how he talks to children.
[00:11:25] You see who he rebukes and why.
[00:11:27] You see how he welcomes in sinners and sufferers of all kinds. The very least of these that the ones that the religious people didn't want anything to do with, That's God.
[00:11:39] That's what our Father's like. Do you know him?
[00:11:42] Do you know God as Father?
[00:11:45] Not merely as judge, not merely as king. He is those things. Do you know him as Father? And do you know yourself as a son, as a daughter?
[00:11:55] Packer says, this is one of the six things. I don't even know what the other five are, but this is one of the six things that you and I ought to tell ourselves every morning.
[00:12:04] I'm a son of God.
[00:12:06] If you're a believer in Jesus now, if you're not a believer in Jesus, you're not a son or daughter of God. And we'll touch on more of that in a little while. You need to put your faith in Jesus. You need to repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus. Jesus came to save sinners.
[00:12:22] So your sin and your weakness is not what disqualifies you to come. It is what qualifies you to come. So you should come and become a son and become a daughter.
[00:12:31] But if you're a Christian man, this is the invitation for you every morning to wake up and say, because of Christ and because I'm in Christ, who I am above all things is a son.
[00:12:43] So that means if I were never able to pastor after that day, it would have hurt, it would have been painful, it would have been sad, but it would not have crushed me.
[00:12:52] Because whether I'm doing this or working at HEB for some reason, that's always the other vocational alternative that I think about when I'm not pastor. But whatever I'm doing, I am a son because of Christ.
[00:13:05] So be encouraged, be comforted. That's verse five. Have you forgotten the comfort, the encouragement that addresses you, brothers and sisters, as sons and daughters? You must not. You won't understand discipline if you do.
[00:13:20] He goes on. This is what discipline is.
[00:13:24] He says.
[00:13:26] Sorry, the remainder of verse five. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. So what is discipline?
[00:13:42] What does that word mean? Well, he quotes at the latter part of verse five and into verse six, in that little middle section right there in the text, he quotes Proverbs 3:11.
[00:13:52] So that is a direct quote from Proverbs 3:11.
[00:13:58] And the Word discipline that he uses simply means training, means training or correction or instruction.
[00:14:11] That's what the word discipline means.
[00:14:15] So you are a son in Christ through faith in Christ. God is your Father, your loving, good, gracious, heavenly Father.
[00:14:23] And it says that he trains, he instructs, he corrects those that he loves.
[00:14:35] It's like one commentator said, it's kind of like if you could imagine a gymnasium setting. Okay, so there's a lot of, like, athletic parallel in Hebrews chapter 12. So if you can imagine yourself in the middle of a gymnasium, okay, off season. I've shared this before. Was always my least favorite part of the year as a football player. I did not like off season and I deeply regret that because had I at least put forth a little 10% more of an effort, I think, than what I did in off season, I would have been a much better player.
[00:15:04] I did not value the benefit of training.
[00:15:07] I didn't value the benefit of a little bit of pain.
[00:15:12] And this is the idea says, don't be encouraged, be comforted. You are a son, you are a daughter in Christ by grace through faith.
[00:15:24] And this is how. This is one of the ways by which our Father, perfect heavenly Father treats us is he trains us, he instructs us.
[00:15:35] When we veer off the way of Jesus, away from the word of God, he's not just going to let you go.
[00:15:43] That's wonderful.
[00:15:45] Praise God. That's wonderful. He's going to come after you and he's going to woo you back.
[00:15:51] And sometimes that process of wooing you back hurts a little bit. Because we're very prideful people.
[00:15:58] We don't like to be corrected.
[00:16:01] We don't like to be told no, we don't like to be told to wait.
[00:16:06] We want what we want when we want it.
[00:16:09] Okay? And so we've talked about this before. If you're rhc familiar is what do you do every day when you wake up in the morning?
[00:16:17] You and I do the same thing. We do whatever we want to do.
[00:16:20] That's what we do.
[00:16:22] And so we don't like to be jostled and corrected and instructed. We don't like that. It's not natural for us.
[00:16:30] There must be a supernatural change that happens in our heart that can only come about by the Holy Spirit for us to see this as a good thing.
[00:16:37] Okay, so the word discipline just means training. It means correction. It means instruction. So many believe that these brothers and sisters in the Book of Hebrews, for some contextual insight, were suffering at the hands of others, namely Jews, that they were being persecuted and tempted to abandon Jesus to rely on works of the law.
[00:17:00] That's what they were being tempted to do.
[00:17:02] Leave behind grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and go back to works of the law. That's what they were tempted to do. And because there was resistance to to that, there was persecution. And as there was persecution, there was more of a temptation to go back to works of the law.
[00:17:17] And so God is disciplining, he's instructing, he's correcting, he's moving them back through the author of the Book of Hebrews, and he's doing the same thing with you and I today.
[00:17:28] This is what God's doing. He's training, he's instructing, he's correcting.
[00:17:35] How does he discipline his children? So let's move to the next question.
[00:17:38] So this is what discipline is. Training, correction, instruction.
[00:17:42] He does it to his kids, doesn't do it to everybody, does it to his kids.
[00:17:51] How does he discipline?
[00:17:52] Well, in this context, and then I'm going to zoom out from the book of Hebrews for a moment, but in this context, in the book of Hebrews, he does it by permitting persecutions.
[00:18:04] He does it by permitting persecutions from those who seem to be influential in this particular setting in swaying them to turn from reliance on Jesus to reliance to the law of Moses. God is allowing, he's permitting, he's ordaining these things in the lives of these Christians for their ultimate good, hard things. What are some other ways that God disciplines his children? So I want to go into a few of these, but before I do it, I do want to just make a quick note as to say not all trial and suffering in the life of a Christian is disciplinary.
[00:18:44] Okay? That's really important.
[00:18:47] We see this one in the life of Jesus.
[00:18:51] Jesus went through very hard, painful things, even death on a cross.
[00:18:57] Okay? He wasn't being corrected by the Father because of sin.
[00:19:01] Okay. Number two is the blind man in John 10, John 9, John 9, one of my favorite stories. But they come upon this blind man, Jesus, and the disciples. And the disciples look at the blind man on the road and they say, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born this way. And Jesus basically says, you're missing the point.
[00:19:20] Wasn't him or his parents, that this is not a result of personal sin. It's for the glory of God.
[00:19:27] So we don't presume to know the mind of God on all of these things as it pertains to the problem of pain in the world or in your life.
[00:19:36] But it's biblically clear that not all pain and trial and suffering is the result of personal sin and or disciplinary in nature. Does that make sense?
[00:19:46] All right, so that's pastoral note. But what are some ways that we see in Scripture as to how God disciplines those he loves, how he disciplines his children? Number one is Job.
[00:20:00] How does God discipline Job? Well, Job was a blameless and upright man, as we see in the text. And it's a very odd story.
[00:20:07] Satan is roaming the earth, and then he goes before God and the angelic beings. And God's like, what are you doing? And he's like, I'm just roaming the earth. And God says, have you considered my servant Job a blameless and upright man?
[00:20:21] It's just odd. It's not a thing that God does. And you don't really get a fuller perspective until the end of the book, obviously. Okay. And what we see at the end of the book as God shows up in the whirlwind and he says, where were you when I created the seas and the lands and the animals and the galaxies? And, like, where were you when I did all that? You don't know my ways as much as you think you do. There was a little remnant of self righteousness in Job's heart and in the hearts of his friends that we see God pursuing and ironing out throughout the book.
[00:20:52] So God will discipline. And we see this throughout Scripture through our circumstances, and it's often through loss.
[00:21:01] Job lost his health, he lost his money, he lost his security, he lost his family.
[00:21:13] We see it in the life of Paul.
[00:21:16] Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, another interesting text.
[00:21:20] So to keep me from being conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being conceited.
[00:21:41] That's very interesting.
[00:21:44] We don't know what the thorn was, but we know the purpose of it.
[00:21:49] To keep me from being conceited.
[00:21:52] God has put this trial in my life.
[00:21:54] He's put this hardship in my life.
[00:21:57] Thorns are painful, okay?
[00:22:01] And Paul says, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away.
[00:22:07] So God.
[00:22:09] God ordains, sometimes through circumstances, sometimes through loss, in order to correct.
[00:22:19] And this is the one that I feel like has gotten me recently more than some of the others.
[00:22:26] Sometimes God just showers you with kindness in the midst of your sin in order to correct you.
[00:22:38] Romans 2, 4.
[00:22:39] God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
[00:22:46] So I read this story from John Piper. But as I read it, I thought, oh, my gosh, that's. Yep. Been there.
[00:22:52] Said this one time, he just got really angry with his wife because something was misplaced in the garage.
[00:22:58] So he goes to the garage and something's misplaced, and he goes in and he just berates his wife. And so she kind of just lowers her head and walks into the room, and he walks out. And as he walks out, he says, the sun is shining bright on my face. I can feel its warmth. The birds are chirping in the air.
[00:23:15] The air is crisp. Neighbor walks outside. Hey, John. Hey, how you doing? Nice neighbors, right the kindness of God just being showered upon a person who doesn't deserve it because that's how good he is.
[00:23:33] He doesn't do it to manipulate. He does it because it's who he is. He's just abundantly kind. I can't tell you how many times in my own life when I've sinned or acted in a way toward those God's called me to love in my home. That is totally contrary to who God is. And he just showers me with kindness.
[00:23:52] And in those moments, by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, if we can be aware of those moments, then it leads us to a place of repentance. God, you're so good.
[00:24:04] Turning from that, turning back to Jesus.
[00:24:07] Does all this make sense so far?
[00:24:11] So that's how we see him exercise discipline a few ways throughout Scripture.
[00:24:22] Why does God discipline? So now we kind of get into the third quarter here. Why does God discipline?
[00:24:31] The text, I think, is going to give us three reasons why God disciplines verse 7.
[00:24:38] Look at verse 7 with me, says, it is for discipline that you have to endure.
[00:24:46] God is treating you as sons.
[00:24:49] For what son is there whom His Father does not discipline?
[00:24:55] So the first reason that the text gives us for why God disciplines. We've talked about what it is and how he does it, but why he does it is to affirm his fatherly love for you.
[00:25:08] We talk about assurance a lot as well, and I know many have struggled with like, how do I know I'm a Christian?
[00:25:15] Especially if you grew up in the church and you're familiar with these things and you know, you're in your 20s or 30s and you're just, like, still blowing it in a lot of ways, like, how do I know?
[00:25:24] Like, how do I know my faith is strong enough? How do I know?
[00:25:27] You know, my prayer life stinks, you know, et cetera, whatever.
[00:25:31] How do we know? Well, I want to give you three things within the three things.
[00:25:35] Number one, you know you ought to know, and you ought to find your assurance through Christ alone in his finished work.
[00:25:43] Your assurance should not come from a sinner's prayer or a camp experience or a good work on your behalf, or any of those things. Your assurance ought not to be that. Your assurance ought to be what happened over 2000 years ago on the cross.
[00:25:59] So as you look to Christ and what Christ accomplished on your behalf, find your assurance there.
[00:26:05] Because nothing you do will ever give it to you.
[00:26:09] It'll never be good enough.
[00:26:11] You find your assurance there in what Christ did on your Behalf. The second thing are the promises in the Word of God.
[00:26:17] Many of us know a lot about the Word of God, but we still fail to actually believe it.
[00:26:24] So we know a lot of verses, we know a lot of theology, you know. But do you really believe what Romans says when it says, hey, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, here's your promise. You will be saved.
[00:26:39] Not you might be saved.
[00:26:41] You will be saved. That's a promise. And so we're invited to trust that that promise is true because of the one who gave it.
[00:26:50] But then the third thing that Scripture gives us, and this might be a little bit new for some of us, as how can we be assured of the love of God for us are trials.
[00:27:01] It's discipline.
[00:27:03] Like the author saying, you want to know that the Father loves you dearly, that he dotes over you as a son or as a daughter. Look at the discipline of God in your life.
[00:27:13] That's how you can know.
[00:27:17] It's not just how you can know that he's pursuing you and he's coming after you, but that he has you, that you're His.
[00:27:25] Because even earthly fathers who desire to be good, none of us are perfect earthly fathers, my goodness.
[00:27:33] But any earthly fathers that desire to be good fathers will discipline their kids.
[00:27:40] We may disagree on the form of that. That's fine.
[00:27:44] But we will do it.
[00:27:48] It's a cultural lie to believe that parenting is letting kids do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it.
[00:27:55] And you just kind of sit back and don't say anything because that's meant to be.
[00:27:59] No, your job and mine with my kids, in part, is to discipline them.
[00:28:08] And here's what the author says.
[00:28:11] We're not going to do that perfectly. Earthly fathers don't do that perfectly. We often do it out of unjust anger and impatience motivated by the wrong kingdom, namely, the kingdom of our kingdom, not the kingdom of God, but nonetheless, we're still supposed to do it.
[00:28:30] And he says, if us as imperfect earthly fathers do that because we know that that's ultimately what's good for our kids, how much more will our Heavenly Father do it if we experience that from our earthly fathers? For those of us who did, how much more ought we to submit ourself to the Father of spirits and live, is what he says?
[00:28:54] And so it is a means of assurance.
[00:28:57] If you're experiencing the discipline of God, hardships, trials, sufferings, see it as an assurance.
[00:29:06] It's not just that God's permitting those things. It's that man. He's with you in the fire.
[00:29:12] He's with you. He loves you. He's doing it for your good.
[00:29:17] Why does he discipline? He disciplines his fatherly love for us. It's one of the ways of him is when we're experiencing his discipline. Illegitimate children and not sons. Illegitimate children and not sons. But because he hasn't done that, we can be assured. The Father loves me. The Father's for me. The Father's with me.
[00:29:39] The second reason that he disciplines is verse 10 says that we might share in his holiness.
[00:29:49] We would share in his holiness.
[00:29:53] When you and I become a Christian, we are grafted into God. You just feel like you understand what that means.
[00:30:00] If not, that's okay. When you become a Christian, you and I are grafted into God, into life with God. The Bible, the New Testament, uses the phrase in Christ.
[00:30:14] That's why you're a son. It's why you're a daughter. It's not just because God wanted to be nice. It's because he's grafted us into His Son. So we're in Christ. That means as goes Christ, so goes you.
[00:30:28] Christ suffered on this side of glory.
[00:30:33] Friends, you and I will suffer on this side of glory.
[00:30:37] Christ experienced abandonment on this side of glory. You too, in following Jesus, will experience abandonment on this side of glory.
[00:30:50] Christ was ridiculed. Christ was betrayed. I mean, all of these kinds of human experiences are normal Christian life experiences.
[00:31:01] And it's because we have a sharing in Christ.
[00:31:05] We share in his sufferings.
[00:31:10] And so Jesus suffered. You and I will suffer.
[00:31:18] And the Book of Hebrews, chapter 5, verses 8 and 9 says that Christ learned obedience by what he suffered.
[00:31:30] Now, that doesn't mean that Jesus was sinful and he was learning how to not be sinful through what he suffered, which is the case for you and I.
[00:31:39] But it does mean that throughout Jesus earthly life, as a man, fully God, fully man as a man, Jesus obedience was moving from one degree of glory to another, so to speak, through what he suffered through what.
[00:31:56] And so the author's telling you and I that one of the reasons that God the Father lovingly disciplines you and I through circumstances and sometimes loss and pain is that we might move from one degree of obedience to another, one degree of glory to another. I want you to consider for a moment how God has used some of your pain in life to make you more like Jesus.
[00:32:25] Just think about it for a moment.
[00:32:29] Think about what if. What if none of that had happened, who would you be, apart from the pain that you've experienced?
[00:32:38] Would you be as kind?
[00:32:41] Would you be as gentle?
[00:32:44] Would you be as humble?
[00:32:47] I was the most eager pastor I knew before my son started having epileptic seizures.
[00:32:57] And, man, it just slowed me down a lot.
[00:33:01] It made me realize I don't have control.
[00:33:05] It made me realize how quickly I am to idolize my family, to worship them over God, all sorts of ways that God was using that very painful experience in my life to make me more like Jesus. And he was with me as my Father in the midst of it all.
[00:33:25] I said this to just a dear loved one many months ago who was really struggling over the floods that happened in Kerrville.
[00:33:34] And why would God allow this to happen? Those kind. He's a new Christian, those kinds of things.
[00:33:40] And, man, we just kind of got to a point where we're like, would we rather that these things happened randomly just by happenstance, or that all of the things that happen in life come from the hand of a good God?
[00:33:54] We don't always know why, we can't always make sense of it, but that's not our place to make sense of it.
[00:34:03] And so one of the reasons he tells us that he's permitting these things, that he's correcting, he's training, he's instructing, often through pain, is that we might share in his holiness.
[00:34:15] And if you're a Christian, you want that, you want to be more like Jesus, if you're a Christian, that we would share in his holiness, that our heart would become more and more beautiful because it would resemble more and more of Jesus.
[00:34:36] Our life would look more and more like the Sermon on the mount or Galatians 5 that talks about the fruit of the Spirit, that this would become more of the felt experience of our life. And oftentimes the Lord produces that in us through pain.
[00:34:54] And then the final one in regards to why does he do it? Then we'll get into, how are we going to respond today? The final point on why God disciplines His children is for our eternal happiness.
[00:35:08] He disciplines us for our eternal happiness. Look at verse 11.
[00:35:15] He says, for the moment, that's the moment that we're in all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.
[00:35:23] But later, and I just want to encourage you to circle, highlight, square that word later.
[00:35:32] It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
[00:35:41] The peaceful fruit of righteousness. Guys, if we could just let go of the I want everything the way I want it right now and realize that the reward Comes later. We'd be much happier, we'd be freer things wouldn't have to go your way all the time.
[00:36:01] The reward comes later if you're a Christian.
[00:36:04] This is like super low hanging fruit old school Christian, like bashing another pastor kind of a thing. But like sorry Joel Osteen, that's why we're not. It's not about living our best life now. That is not what the Bible teaches.
[00:36:19] Your best life and mine comes later, not now.
[00:36:24] Praise God for the gifts he's given us now.
[00:36:27] Sunshine, stained glass, friends like family, laughter great things we should rejoice in God over But you will experience narrow as to think well because I'm exhausted must not be there wrong friends Bible, the Old Testament and the new to me comes later.
[00:36:49] No more tears, no more pain. No more violence, no more divorce, no more pain.
[00:36:57] As we sit at the wedding banquet of the Lamb and we behold Jesus face and his very presence transforms us metaphysically and we see one another and we laugh together and we cry happy tears together and we behold the beauty of the new earth.
[00:37:15] We'll understand how God has used all this pain and all this discipline and all this suffering in our life for our ultimate glory.
[00:37:27] Paul says in Romans 8 that all of creation awaits groans for the revealing of the sons of God.
[00:37:37] That's a weighty glory for all of creation to be anticipating us.
[00:37:46] When you're glorified and I'm glorified, that's where our Father is leading us all to. In the midst of all of this, he's proving his fatherly affection.
[00:38:00] He's leading us to share in his holiness and he's doing it for our eternal happiness.
[00:38:08] And so how will you and I respond?
[00:38:11] Again, I think the text gives us three things. I think you've gotten like nine points today. Okay, but here are some options. Three options for how you're going to respond to God's discipline in your life. If you're a Christian. Again, if you're not a Christian, your invitation today is simple. Turn from yourself and believe upon Jesus.
[00:38:32] Turn from your sin and believe upon Jesus.
[00:38:35] Halt from being your own God, trying to be your own God and control your own destiny. And recognize that there is one who controls your destiny. It's not you, friends.
[00:38:45] Turn to Jesus, the Son of God, and believe and you will be set free.
[00:38:52] And if you are a Christian, how will we respond to the discipline of God?
[00:38:59] 1 and this is going all the way back to verse 5. We could regard it lightly.
[00:39:04] He says, do not, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Another way to understand that is to despise it.
[00:39:14] So you could be in the midst of a trial, a suffering that could or may not be the discipline of the Lord.
[00:39:22] And we could choose to despise it, to disregard it, to think it's just, you know, that's probably not what it is to regard it lightly.
[00:39:33] So maybe a diagnostic question. Do you despise discipline God?
[00:39:41] God uses. I didn't talk about this earlier, but God uses a variety of ways to discipline. But one of the means by which God disciplines us is through his church, is through his people.
[00:39:55] Are you a teachable person?
[00:39:57] Do you despise that?
[00:40:00] They can't tell me what to do.
[00:40:01] They can't tell me what to think.
[00:40:04] Like, is that your disposition?
[00:40:07] Who are they to tell me that?
[00:40:10] They don't even pray as much as I do. They don't even, you know, like man, that inner lawyer is just intense in all of us.
[00:40:18] So recognize him or her.
[00:40:22] Don't despise the discipline of the Lord. It's for your good.
[00:40:27] Now, if you're on the other side of that, if you're on the. I'm the one correcting this person. Like, you better do it gently, humbly, as Jesus would do it.
[00:40:40] You're not helping by being harsher. Sometimes I think with my family, if I can just speak louder, then they'll do what I want them to do. It never works, okay? It only raises the temperature of the room.
[00:40:53] But do you despise? Do you despise discipline? That's one option. Number two, are you weary under it? He says, for the Lord.
[00:41:03] I'm sorry.
[00:41:04] Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
[00:41:10] So to be weary just means to be crushed or to be in despair because of it.
[00:41:16] So under the discipline of the Lord and in a place of despair, in a place of weariness, you just. You kind of feel crushed under the weight of your circumstances.
[00:41:28] Do you have diagnostic question? Do you have tunnel vision? Our sufferings and trials, discipline, have they so clouded your vision that you cannot see the future glory that awaits you?
[00:41:41] Jesus said, my burden is easy and my yoke is light. So how then should we respond to the discipline of the Lord? It's verses two and three, friends, look to Jesus if you want your burden lifted.
[00:41:56] I'm talking to Christians now. If you want your burden lifted, look to the person of Jesus.
[00:42:03] His burden is easy and his yoke is light. Means that his burden is a non burden it's like a hot air balloon. That's what happens when you and I look to Jesus.
[00:42:13] He removes the burden because we remember that Jesus lived the perfect life that we could never live.
[00:42:19] He removes the burden because we remember that when he went to the cross, he took all of your sin, your past, present and future sin, and he buried it with him in his death.
[00:42:29] When we look to Jesus, we remember that he rose from the grave three days later, showing Himself to be God and being fully victorious over sin and death once for all. When we look to Jesus, we realize that he is in heaven, ruling over all things, meaning that nothing is outside of his control.
[00:42:46] And when we look to Jesus, we remember that he's coming again.
[00:42:50] He's coming soon to bring us to Himself. That where he is, we may be also. So we're not to look to law. We're not to look to ourself. We're not to look to our circumstances. We're to look to the beautiful, perfect, magisterial, wonderful person of Jesus.
[00:43:05] That our burdens might be lifted and that we, by the grace of God, in the midst of discipline, might endure.
[00:43:12] It is the only way that you and I will endure. By the grace of God is over and over and over again to look to Jesus.
[00:43:19] So let's pray and ask God to help us do that.
