Hebrews 12_4-11 Tough Love
Secular:
We all love to challenge God and his motives in our lives… at least every once in awhile…
Listen to the words of Raptevia in this clip from Fiddler on the Roof…
He desires that which God has not promised…
Sometimes we want to avoid the race and claim the prize… It just doesn’t work that way…
Hurdles… trials… are God’s way of growing us through discipline…
Watch…
Biblical:
Hebrews 12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Personal:
Not many of us like to be challenged or questioned about how we act or what we do… not many children enjoy the discipline their parents enact in their lives…
** Steve?
No many people like to be disciplined…
(I love the line when someone gets a ticket for speeding… why don’t they go after the real criminals…)
We pretty much dislike being disciplined…
Bridge:
Scripture teaches that discipline is much more than we often perceive… especially when it comes from God…
God protects us… God grows us… God teaches us through discipline…
Discipline is administered by God because He loves us… more than we can understand…
Most children will tell you they don’t get it… when they are disciplined…
God explains to us…
We need to view discipline as another aspect of God grace, mercy and immeasurable love for his children…
Let’s look at it…
Body:
Purposes of Discipline(3 types)
Punishment
- Look at King David… “A man after God’s own heart”
- Adultery and murder
- God punishes David…
- Anguish over the loss of his son
- Heartaches from his other sons…
- Years of anguish… for this “man after God’s own heart”
Prevention
- Restrictions on our lives…
- Boundaries… like we do with our own children…
- Don’t run across the road
- Don’t talk to strangers
- The Don’t list…
- 2 Cor 12:7… It talk of Paul having a “thorn in the flesh”… he pleads three times with God to remove it…
- 2 Corinthians 12:7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-- to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
- It was not out a malice or vindictiveness that Paul had to deal with the thorn I the flesh… it was to protect him from pride…
- Prevention… curfews… monitored behaviour…
Education
- Do you know the story of Job…
- The Bible says God was “blameless before God”
- …yet God turned him over to be tested… not because Job wasn’t on God’s bad guy radar screen… quiet the opposite… God want to teach Job… grow Job… educate Job…
- Job 42:5… 5 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You”
- Realized who God was and is…
- Job lived righteously without fully understanding… through discipline he came to know God more fully…
Why are people being Disciplined according to this text…
3 Points…
Forgetting God’s Word
v. 5 – “You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;”
- Have you known someone to say…
- I am waiting for the Lord to tell me whether I should…
- You fill in the blank…
- Serve in a ministry
- Take a certain job
- Marry a certain person
- None of these things are things we need to rush into…
- Prayer…
- Quiet time before God…
- But sometime we are looking for a “New Light”… from God…
- When we have been given his Word…
- Sometimes the answers we need or the help we desire was given to us a longtime ago… bit we too have forgotten!!
- Two problems with Forgetting God’s Word…
1) We regard the discipline of the Lord lightly
2) We ‘faint’ when we are reproved…
· 1) We regard the discipline of the Lord lightly
o Not that we take our problems too lightly… our spiritual weakness is that we can’t or won’t often see what God is teaching us… (Forget the Word and it all makes no sense!!)
o Rom 8: 28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
o O Woes me… o why me… need to be changed… to what are you teaching me… in the light of your Word in the knowledge of your truth… open my eyes Lord…
o Don’t regard the discipline to lightly… (how many times have I told you…?)
· 2) We ‘faint’ when we are reproved…
o We are wimps sometimes…
o Long before we have learned the lesson… we begin to blame God… be angry… fail to see the big picture…
o (Forget the Word and we have no strength!!)
o Psa 42: 11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
o Do not faint or hide or run in trial… but find hope… in God…
o He is our strength… our shield… our refuge…
o We want to be strong… we need to know his Word… his Promises… his Hope
We need to remember the Word of God…
Hold fast…
That we might learn in our trials…
And That we make be strong…
Never Forgetting God’s Word
Proofs in Discipline
6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
- For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines…
- Outstanding isn’t it…
- I mean it makes sense in our context doesn’t it…
- Haven’t you asked yourself about the parent who allows their child to maraud about the streets at 1 a.m… where is the correction… where is their love?
- Surly… aggressive… kids… no discipline…
- Isn’t is great to know… HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES…. Everyone of his children… face his discipline… (not his wrath or judgement…)
- Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
- NAU John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
- FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.
- His discipline serves a proof…
- Proof of God’s Love…
- He cares enough… loves enough… to punish us… to prevent us… and to educate us…
- NAU Romans 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
- Proof or our sonship…
- We know that when God leads us… when we are his children… God will…as any loving parent will… to punish us… to prevent us… and to educate us…
- Not distant and impersonal… hands on… refining strengthening…
- Most parents who have sent their child of into the world knows… that the hope that their guidance… correction… education will help their child “get along in the world”… Our Heavenly Father wants the same… children prepared to live lives sold out for him!!
- People often are troubled about security… assurance… understanding that they are children of God… one test is right here in verse 8…
- But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
- If God is refining you… growing… stretching… reproving… challenging you…
- He cares enough… loves enough… to punish us… to prevent us… and to educate us…
- The Proof of Discipline
Products of Discipline
9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
We had earthly fathers to discipline us and respected them…
God takes obedience to parents very seriously…
In the Deut… we see how seriously God takes dealing with a rebellious child…
To Live
Deuteronomy 21:18 "If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. 20 "They shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.' 21 "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.
- In no uncertain terms failure to heed discipline… could ultimately lead to death!!
- Physical…. And painful death… shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
- Would it not be better for us to face the discipline of our gracious and loving Father… to heed the discipline of our God… and live… and we are not talking just about here and now… we are talking about the choice to heed the Lord’s discipline… be obedient and live eternally… shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
Romans 8:12-13 12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Products of discipline… first is life… life everlasting
Second… is holiness…
To be Holy
For our fathers disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
- Reconciliation to God… Jesus died for it…
- It is what God desires… that we be Holy as He is Holy…
1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."
- God is grooming us…
- God is molding and renewing us…
- God is conforming us to the image of his Son…
- God is through discipline and love making us holy…
- It has got to make this easier…
- Looking back at my parents…
- It is a lot easier…
- Looking forward to glory… is making it a lot easier…
Conclusion:
Forgetting God’s Word
· It’s time to remember…
1) We regard the discipline of the Lord lightly
2) We ‘faint’ when we are reproved…
Understand and be strong…
God loves you… You need to know it… and You need to live it…
Flip over your notes…
Writing - Forgetting God’s Word – This week I will get into the world of God…
· Understand why?
· Be Strong…
· Find true nature of God’s Love
Proofs in Discipline
Writing – Proofs is Discipline…
The discipline of God proves I belong to him… and that he loves me…
Products of Discipline
Writing – Products of Discipline
To Live – to have hope in eternity…
To be Holy – to live life reconciled to God… pleasing him…