Don't Grow Weary!
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Trees grown without wind are weak.
Trees without wind collapse under their own weight,
Wind causes thicker trunks, core strength, deeper roots and grow talkler.
Everything about trees that make them better is caused by the stress of the wind.
So if you ahte your tree, keep it out of the wind. It will be sure to grow weak and collapse as soonas you take it out into the world.
Love comes with hard things. And this is what Christians need to know, especially Christians today in the west. We have, in God’s kindness, become immensely wealthy and enjoyed great technological advancement that removes so much of the difficulty of life.
We all use washing machines to wash our clothes. None of us are down at the river duirng the week scrubbing our clothes on the banks of the river. Washing clothes used to be difficult labour, and through wealth and technology we have removed the burden, the work, the struggle.
And we’ve done it with a thousand other small things. In fact, large parts of our economic engine are dedicated to the removal of inconvenience and difficulty. Between advertising and other media, we have largely chetechised generations to think that “difficulty” = bad. That hard things are bad things that need to stop. Hard things are almost given a moral quality - hard is equated to evil.
Imagine if tomorrow the PM stood up and said - we’re in a bad way as a nation, but if we do a bunch of really hard things, give up on many of your pleasures and benefits and easy-living, then we will turn this ship around. He would have a leadership spill in weeks, he certainly wouldn’t be re-elected. We don’t want to hear that hard things, that trials, that suffering, can be good for us.
We know this logically, when we think about it, but we shy away from it when it comes our way.
I’m sure you’ve had the experience thinking “what have I done to deserve this?” “Why does God have it in for me?” “Can’t God give me a break?”
Certainly sometimes hard things are judgment from God, meant to bring you to repentance, but as Job teaches us, sometimes the suffering and pain we’re experiencing is actually because we’re being faithful to God.
In the book of Hebrews, the author is adressing the early Christian church and helping them as they face suffering and trial.
They have been encouraged with the great stories of faith and endurance, calling them to run the race of faith looking to Jesus.
Yet the author has more to say, because these Christians aren’t just facing the ups and downs of life, but they are also facing opposition for being Christians. They are being persecuted.
In circustances like these it is tempting to think that they are somehow outside God’s love, outside his plan, or outside his attention. Yet this could not be further from the truth.
As we look more closley at this passage we can divide it into three sections to see how Hebrews encourages Christians to live under hostility and trial.
Consider Christ and be Received as Sons
Consider Christ and be Received as Sons
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
The example fo Christ to face hostility and opression
You haven’t been killed yet!
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“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.”
Persecution linked to the discipline of God.
God is never the author of evil, but he sovreignly ordains it for good.
Disciplined to Share God’s Holiness
Disciplined to Share God’s Holiness
AI is dangerous, it panders to the whims of the person. The AI is trying its best to make validate and engage the user so they keep coming back for more. It’s a digital sycophant. You do not wnat God to meet your every whim.
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
Illegitimate sons got financila support but not training & discipline. The diffierence between child-support dads and active dads.
If you are receiving the dicsipline of the Lord it is a sign that you are under God’s love. Far from being hated or rejected, you are right in the middle of his love as you are being discplined.
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
I didn;t like it as a child - but I would not change the discipline i received.
Discipline is not alyways punitive - think of trigger discipline, or parade discipline, or musical discipline. It is training. But in this case it much is focused on.
Walk faithfully
Walk faithfully
In the last part of our passage the author, by the HS, turns from explaing the external factors of their present circumstances to encouraging them to live upright and holy lives in the midst of their trial.
GOd disciplines us for holiness, now this is what a holy life looks like:
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
This is the response to the news that God is disciplining you to share his holiness.
Do not be passive under discipline, instead, get going!
Get your legs under you and run that race, endure.
The only way to “heal yourself” spiritually speaking is to look to Christ and start walking.
That walk looks like seeking peace with everyone.
So far as it depends on you - leave at peace with all.
That means that family relationship that is strained, that person that frustrate you at work, that church member who said something insensitive - you take responsibility for your side and forgive and get along with them, just as Christ forgives you.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
The root of bitterness is about people walking astray - i.e. not obtaining the grace of God.
The root of bitterness is bitter becasue it deceives people into thinking they have salvation, but they have actually turned away.
This is warned in Deut 29 - People who say “yes” to God’s covenenant, and then are not loyal. They want the blessings of the covenenat and the appearance of beleonging, but the substance is not there. They will taste the bitterness of God’s rejection.
So encourage and build each other up to pursue God’s grace in Christ!
Another aspect of holiness and faithfulness is Sexual purity
Husband-Wife Sexuality.
No to adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, etc.
Other unholiness - Rejecting the inheritance, rejecting the blessing in passion and then being unable to find it again:
For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
There is a point of no return, repent early!
Covenantal faithfulness - adultery is unfaithfulness in marriage. Esau was unfaithful in covenant.
So What?
So What?
As you come against suffering and persecution, is your natural reaction to assume God is against you?
Yes, see if there be any unrepentant sin in your life, and then remember that God disciplines those he loves. It is because you are a legitimate Child that God is bringing you through hard things, to grow you into holiness.
God is disciplining you for good!
Walk Faithfully under discipline:
Get going
Stick with Jesus
Stay faithful covanentally
