The Result of Discipline

Intro  

Races

Normally i would present my challenge at the end of the message but today I want to present it at the beginning. I want you to make a decision before we get into the word...

Will you commit yourself today to running the race that the Lord has laid before you?

It won’t be easy, their will be times it will break you, Most of us have already made the decision to run the race, but we need to be dedicated to running it. I don’t want PCVCC to be a church that walks the race, I want our church to strive for 1st place.

Paul tells us in order to run the race, we must discipline ourselves, we must beat our bodies into submission.

Best athletes of all time

Usain Bolt trains 3 hours daily

Michael Jordan trained 5-6 hours daily

Michael Phelps trains 5-6 hours daily

Muhammad Ali trained 7-8 Hours daily

These are men that understand that to see results, they must be disciplined.

Growing up, I’ve always struggled to self discipline, which is why I had parents to discipline me. and in the same way that all these athletes have trainers to help discipline them, we have the father above who disciplines us.

Fatherly Discipline

Hebrews 12:3-13

C.S. Lewis “The Problem of Pain”

We want not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven — a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’.

The point that C.S. Lewis is making, is this; often times a father must discipline, for the sake of molding your children into who you desire to see them become.

When I discipline my children, I do so with an expectation and a vision of who I want them to grow up to be, there is a model in my mind, of how I want them to turn out.

The father has sent his son, to be that model for us, and the Lord forges us by fire into that image, because it was in his image that we’ve been created.

Even Christ received discipline from the Lord, look at Heb 12:3-4 …

Christ was disciplined through the trials and tribulation that he faced. it says that he faced the hostility of sinners so that we wouldn’t grow weary or give up. The Lord faced greater trials and tribulations than us, and endured in faithfulness. showing us that we too can endure in faithfulness.

Heb 12:7 says this...

I want to make an important mention here, discipline does not equal punishment. when I say discipline I don’t want the word punishment to come to mind. Christ was perfect and deserved no punishment in the same way we deserve punishment.

discipline can be correction or instruction, not necessarily verbal instruction but learned instruction.

It seems hard to believe but Asher is now 3 and I have to remind myself often that he’s not my baby anymore, he needs to learn to do things. meaning a lot of my discipline towards him, is simply making him learn to do things for himself.

We receive this same kind of discipline from the Lord, he never abandons us but he does step back, at times so that we can learn and grow from our failures and trials.

Asher and Shepherd both are very polite and kind when they ask me to do something for them, and when i do it for them they say thank you like the good kids they are. but when I discipline them, when they learn by trying and failing, when Asher brings me his toy that’s not working and I tell him he needs to try to fix it himself first; when he succeeds he has an inexpressible joy within him, and it’s a result of discipline.

Job 5:17-18 says this...

Why do athletes train? because they want to win, not because they want to participate. We need to train in Godliness, for when our discipline bears fruit we are filled with the overwhelming joy of the Lord.

Responding to discipline

I’m telling you all of this, but who here has hear, “why does God let bad things happen to good people”, or “if God is all good and all powerful then why do bad things happen”

The Bible warns us that not everyone will respond to discipline faithfully; Prov 3:11-12 tells us there will be those that respond with hate towards God, Heb 12:5 tells us that there are those who disregard his discipline as well as those who allow themselves to be discouraged by it.

But that’s not how we should respond is it, those are signs of spiritual immaturity.

Hebrews 12:9 tells us to respond with respect, and submission

James 1:2-4 tells us that in our maturity we should respond with joy.

Revelation 3:19 tells us to respond with zeal for the Lord leading to repentance.

How we respond to discipline really does matter and it affect our entire outlook on life. Does this make discipline easy? No. it’s still discipline, but it gives us the strength to endure.

Let me put this in the simplest terms i can, when you go through trials and tribulations, you can either distance yourself from God or draw near to God, and what we read in James tells us that those who choose to draw near, are equipped with true endurance.

I’m sure Ron can testify to this as well… but there is nothing more heart breaking to me, than to see a Christian who I’ve recently baptized, face their first true spiritual discipline and they immediately respond by withdrawing from the Lord.

The Lord doesn’t discipline us to drive us a way, he disciplines us because he loves us and wants us to draw near to him.

when my children were learning steps, they wanted to be completely independent, they refused any instruction or guidance from Sierra or I, and so we’d say okay good luck, and we didn’t do it because we wanted to watch them fall down the steps, no rather we wanted them to realize that they needed our help, and it wouldn’t take long until they were crying out for our help. and we drew near to them and helped them. and now I watch as they help each other.

Which is something else important, Ron preached a sermon a couple weeks ago titled, let us. and in the message he talked about how we must stand together, you are not being disciplined alone, we are all being disciplined, and so we must rely on one another, for prayer and encouragement. your sufferings and mine may not be identical but we are both called to endure, and so let us do it together.

Disciplined unto Salvation

we need disciplined, Heb 12:11…

Paul tells us in 1 Cor 11:31-32…

We are disciplined, because we have been called out from the World, Hebrews 12 clearly tells us that if we were of the world, we would not receive the Lord’s discipline, but because we have become children of God we will be disciplined, so embrace it.

Conclusion

Are you willing to run the race the Lord has set before us?

Will you accept the Lord’s discipline which leads to salvation? If you are up to the calling to endure then allow his discipline to lead you to submission, joy, and repentance. Let’s pray.

Races

Who here remembers having fun racing their friends growing up. I would race my friends quite often, now that I’m a father I get the pleasure of racing my children. However, I have a feeling that the day will come that I won’t have it in me to race them anymore. How many of you think you have it in you to have a race after church today?

Hebrews 12:1 says this…

I find it amusing that the Greek word for race is ἀγών which is the where we get the word “agony”. It’s not easy to run a race, it can be agonizing. If I said we were racing after church today, how many would opt out?

Scripture tells us that there is a race that lies before us, and we need to decide if we are going to run it or not. I imagine that’s why so many withdraw from Christ, they recognize the agony that comes with race we are called to, and they’d rather just opt out.