Sermon Tone Analysis

Last time we were in Hebrews, we went into the first two verses of Chapter 12 to help it make sense with what we were talking about all of the witnesses that had gone before in the OT and the way they provided examples for us of how to live.

Even though their lives weren’t perfect, still at the heart of their being, they served God to the best of their ability and return to Him with true remorse.

We are going to continue to look at this as well as the way the Lord disciplines us and the way we should look at this as we experience this.

Place title slide here

We’re going to take a look at these first two verse from a slightly different angle from last week.

This is what I love about digging into the Bible.

There are so many nuggets you can glean from the same scripture.

If we dig deeper than the first glance we take a look at something, we can find so much more.

Fixing Our Eyes on Christ

During this chapter, the writer is going to refer to a lot of sports metaphors.

I love sports.

There are a few I like to watch on TV.

There are a lot of sports I like to watch live.

Basketball and baseball are a couple I really like to watch live, but don’t particularly like to watch on TV.

Track and field, I can go either way.

I do like to watch these events during the Olympics, but that’s about it on TV.

Jaylyne, my daughter was involved in track in middle school.

I may pay for this later, but here she is in one of her favorite events.

Long Jump.

This picture was taken by our principal at the time.

It’s one of my favorites while she was doing this.

This is either her 6th or 7th grade year.

She really enjoyed track during her years at Blennerhassett.

She learned a lot of life lessons from her time running.

Fixing Our Eyes on Christ

When you watch a runner today on TV or really any type of physical racing, the runner will wear a suit which is as skin tight as they can get it.

In some races where a helmet is required, the team of coaches will put the helmet through computer simulations and tests to make sure it is as aerodynamic as possible.

They don’t want anything creating drag for the athlete.

We need to try and get rid of everything which is weighing us down to run this spiritual race we are in.

It is easy for us to say we need to get rid of our sin, but what qualifies as sin?

Anything which takes our eyes off of Christ and the prize He and His Father have for us at the end of the race.

John Martin, who was a history teacher at Blennerhassett when I was a student and teacher, was an awesome track coach.

One of his best assetts for track was teaching how to run hurdles.

He was retired by the time Jaylyne got into middle school, but he came to watch Jaylyne at one of her early practices her 6th grade year.

His comment to me was,

“I’ve never seen a kid run hurdles with such reckless abandonment.”

He worked with her and gave her the skills to run the hurdles.

She did pretty well at them, even though they weren’t her favorite event.

If you have ever heard a racer say they had the perfect race.

The running conditions were right, they were in the best shape they could have been in, the other racers pushed them just enough - Christ ran the perfect spiritual race.

He saw what was at the finish line and endured the suffering of the cross and the shame He put on Himself by taking our sins.

He kept His eyes on what was coming at the end of this spiritual race He ran, being seated at the right hand of His Father, and providing a way for mankind to be able to come back into the presence of He and His Father.

It would have been very easy for Christ to have gotten distracted by what all was going on around Him.

It would have been very easy to look at the sidelines and realize the price He was having to pay for our eternity, but He kept His eyes straight forward and on that finish that would change the world forever.

If we could only remember these words.

When we are going through the Lord’s discipline or He is trying to grow us.

He is trying to make us into the people He needs us to be.

He is trying to make us vessels that are more open.

These verses we are told to remember come from Proverbs 3:11-12.

The book of Proverbs is so full of wisdom for life.

As we go through this part of the sermon, we will be referring to many verses from this book.

Why discipline?

These two verses are very clear why the Lord disciplines us.

He loves us.

Let’s read on in this next set of scripture.

I think it will be very clear to us why God disciplines us and why we need to take a different look at it.

Why discipline?

Verse 8 ought to hit us like a ton of bricks.

When God disciplines us, it proves we are His children.

This verse flat out tells us if we go without God’s discipline, we are illegitimate.

We are not sons and daughters of Christ.

Our earthly fathers and mothers disciplined us.

Boy do I remember.

There are some you who have known me for a short time and didn’t see me when I was growing up.

There were several times when mom and dad had to apply the board of education, or a belt, or a hand, or whatever was convenient to grab to the seat of knowledge.

Give a couple stories.

Did I like the discipline at the time?

Yeah sure.

I was the golden child all of you think I am.

Are you kidding?

It was painful.

There was some that was painful for a little while.

The whippings only hurt for a short while, but they taught none the less.

As I got older and the groundings came into play, the pain was a lot longer to bare.

When I had the one six weeks I was grounded from everything but the TV from 8-9 in the evening, that was awful.

I was missing Star Trek at 5 on WTAP.

Our heavenly Father disciplines us for our good.

He wants what is best for us.

What does the discipline He gives us yield.

The last part of verse 11 tells us.

We also need to be careful to allow God to work through this manner with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Do we enjoy seeing others going through this?

No.

We can show empathy and love towards the people who are going through this, but we need to allow God to work.

Joe Bryant

What would have happened if Joe would’ve been there every time my father needed to discipline me?

Joe would’ve kept interfering in my parents trying to teach me how to behave during a worship service.

Both of my parents were involved during the Sunday morning services.

I had to sit on the front row.

Dad was in the choir, and if mom wasn’t playing the piano, she was in the choir.

I had to learn how to sit there by myself and behave.

Like I shared earlier, I wasn’t always successful, but more times than not, I didn’t get into trouble when I got home.

We need to make sure we allow God room to operate and allow Him to work in our brothers and sisters lives the way He wants to.

There may be times we will have to be honest with people about certain matters, but we can do it in love and pray they take our advice our opinions the right way.

This journey isn’t easy, but we are all meant to grow from it and be better Christians.

We also need to remember as Christians, we should all be going through this process.

Even people who you consider walk the closest walks with the Holy Spirit are still under the conviction of this same Spirit.

You can take a look at the purest of ores, and there will still be imperfections.

Even the most precious of diamonds have flaws.

It is the same with all of us.