Discipline Produces Endurance (Hebrews 12:3-13)

INTRO

Have you ever gotten tired in the middle of physical activity?

Runner’s World: In general, hitting the wall refers to depleting your stored glycogen and the feelings of fatigue typically accompany it. Glycogen is carbohydrate that is stored in our muscles and liver for energy.

Cycling— every 12 miles.

Have you ever grown weary spiritually?

I think it’s easy to do.

Overworked and maybe not seeing the fruit of your labor like you’d like to see.

Weary because it’s a spiritual battle. The forces of evil have you down.

Heb.12 is about enduring in our faith. Pushing through the weariness and faintheartedness. And the first couple verses teach us to consider Jesus. The Greek word there indicates to look at with repetition. Over and over again— look to Jesus. He’s the example.

If you’re overworked— stop trying to do too much and earn salvation, and look to Jesus to find rest.

If you’re weary from the spiritual battle— don’t justify your laziness or selfishness to not keep going— consider Jesus who endured far more than we ever will.

We know the hostility Jesus endured. But in our struggle against sin, we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding our blood.

Some believers at that time became martyrs. Their blood was shed because of their faith.

“Not yet” are 2 important words— no Christian is guaranteed a pleasant life. Persecution could come to any, anywhere. We don’t really understand persecution in our country—we’re nowhere close to the levels of persecution our brothers and sister around the world deal with.

What’s true for all of us is that we are struggling against sin— for some it is the temptation in the midst of suffering to neglect or blame God. The temptation to get caught up in the ways of the world and not stay faithful to Jesus.

We all can become weary and fainthearted. But consider Jesus.

Not only as the example of one who endured,

but also look to Him for the strength to endure,

and look to Him as the One to keep you on the right path to endure.

How does He do that? Discipline. Discipline produces endurance.

The writer of Hebrews quotes from King Solomon, the son of David, who wrote in Proverbs 3:11-12 the words we see quoted in v.5-6.

Solomon is telling his son not to scorn God’s discipline.

And let me say maybe one of the most comforting things you’ll hear today: the presence of God’s discipline in your life is evidence of His love for you.

He disciplines those he loves, like a Father does to his own children.

This passage talks about the necessity of discipline, the proper response to discipline, and the benefits of discipline.

Necessity of Discipline

Here’s the hard part--- a loving Father’s discipline is nearly a foreign concept in our culture. Many grow up experiencing the opposite of a loving father.

Discipline is a word that causes many to shutter. Whether it is in families or even when some hear church discipline.

Discipline is a good and necessary thing, but so many grow up only knowing the pain of discipline without the peaceful fruit it yields (v.11).

10,000 Sermon Illustrations Tough Dad

In his men’s seminar, David Simmons, a former cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys, tells about his childhood home. His father, a military man, was extremely demanding, rarely saying a kind word, always pushing him with harsh criticism to do better. The father had decided that he would never permit his son to feel any satisfaction from his accomplishments, reminding him there were always new goals ahead. When Dave was a little boy, his dad gave him a bicycle, unassembled, with the command that he put it together. After Dave struggled to the point of tears with the difficult instructions and many parts, his father said, “I knew you couldn’t do it.” Then he assembled it for him.

When Dave played football in high school, his father was unrelenting in his criticisms. In the backyard of his home, after every game, his dad would go over every play and point out Dave’s errors. “Most boys got butterflies in the stomach before the game; I got them afterwards. Facing my father was more stressful than facing any opposing team.” By the time he entered college, Dave hated his father and his harsh discipline. He chose to play football at the University of Georgia because its campus was further from home than any school that offered him a scholarship.

After college, he became the second round draft pick of the St. Louis cardinal’s professional football club. Joe Namath (who later signed with the New York Jets), was the club’s first round pick that year. “Excited, “I telephoned my father to tell him the good news. He said, ‘How does it feel to be second?’”

Despite the hateful feelings he had for his father, Dave began to build a bridge to his dad. Christ had come into his life during college years, and it was God’s love that made him turn to his father. During visits home he stimulated conversation with him and listened with interest to what his father had to say. He learned for the first time what his grandfather had been like—a tough lumberjack known for his quick temper. Once he destroyed a pickup truck with a sledgehammer because it wouldn’t start, and he often beat his son. This new awareness affected Dave dramatically. “Knowing about my father’s upbringing not only made me more sympathetic for him, but it helped me see that, under the circumstances, he might have done much worse. By the time he died, I can honestly say we were friends.”

Discipline should be a natural part of a Father’s relationship with his children. That’s the point of v.7. You’ll see some variation on v.7 among English translations.

That verse can be translated as purposive (it is for [because of] discipline that you endure) or causal (it is because of discipline that you are enduring).

Either way works, and the point is clear— God is treating you as sons. Discipline should be a natural part of a Father’s relationship to His children, and so it is between God and His children.

“To expect anything else is to betray an appalling ignorance of the implications of their sonship. To wish for anything different is tantamount to forfeiting one’s status as son and heir.”

(Patrick Gray. Godly Fear: The Epistle to the Hebrews and Greco-Roman Critiques of Superstition, p. 180)

Discipline is necessary.

Not only is it natural to a Father-child relationship, but God’s discipline of us has a greater purpose— v.10— for our good, that we may share his holiness. God is developing our character to be more like Christ, and v.11— to bring about the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Without holiness, no one will see the Lord (v14).

Discipline is necessary.

Proper response to discipline = submit to it

The proper response to God’s discipline is in v.9— submit to it. Be subject to it.

Let’s just recognize that this is contrary to our nature. We don’t want to submit to discipline. V.11 tells us its not pleasant.

toilet paper in pants

We submit to God’s discipline because it leads to life. The end of v.9— be subject…and live.

We have to know that God loves us. That God is leading us to experience true life, and life abundantly.

What does God’s discipline actually look like in our lives?

Often we think of ways in which we suffer, because discipline is unpleasant, and could that suffering be the discipline of God?

Many examples of suffering in the Bible, but we don’t always know why that suffering came. (Job, Ananias and Sapphira, believers in Corinth struck down because of the Lord’s Table…)

Sometimes, it was the result of a specific sin, other times not. So we can’t generalize and say that all suffering is the direct result of specific sin.

We also must understand that in any situation of suffering, God is most likely doing far more in that situation than we will ever see.

Godly Mother in her 40’s with terminal stage 4 cancer--

Preparing her for death—what a great grace to know that death is coming and prepare

To shock her 20s-something son who is living in opposition to the Lord, that he can’t control life and must submit to the One who can;

To sharpen her other son, who is developing a better understanding of suffering, and preparing him for a life in the ministry;

To teach her husband to slow down and care well for his family;

These are things we could maybe see, but God may be doing far more than that.

Some might look at natural occurences and wonder if it is God’s judgment. Earthquakes, hurricanes…

The answer really is “I don’t know.”

Can God use natural phenomenons to carry out his judgments? Gen.6— and we all decorate our nurseries to remember this for some reason!

But do we know for sure if Hurricane Isaias is judgment from God? No.

Do we know if your suffering is God’s discipline for a specific sin? No. Could it be? Yes.

In any situation, suffering must always lead us to self-examination. Instead of asking Why? ask What? What might God be trying to teach you? Is this suffering or discipline revealing other sin in your life of which you must repent?

Let’s have a proper response to discipline.

The Benefits of Discipline

v.10- for our good

v.10- we share in God’s holiness

v.11- peaceful fruit of righteousness (we don’t have to continue to live in that sin that produces such anxiety for us—we can live in peace as we learn to do what is right)

v.12- healing.

(drooping hands— athletic analogy—weak)

(weak knees indicate fear— knocking knees how the old cartoons would depict when someone was scared)

(straight paths= remove obstacles that keep you from running toward righteousness).

Then you’ll find healing for what has felt lame.

You’ll find rest/healing for your spiritual weariness.

Discipline produces endurance.

Discipline doesn’t produce endurance in the sense that it makes you tough; gives you thick skin— it produces endurance because it is God’s way of keeping you on the path of righteousness, which will lead to the greatest joy and glory you’ll ever experience!