Scripture referenced 6 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Hebrews 12:1-11 the main passage preached through in sequence
1 Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.
4 You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin;
5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
6 For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?
8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children.
9 Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
11 All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby.
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Keep this verse
Hebrews 10:32-35
cited to show the original audience had already endured suffering and seizure of property
32 But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings;
33 partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so.
34 For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.
35 Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.
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Proverbs 3:11-12
quoted as the source of the exhortation about not regarding lightly the discipline of the Lord
11 My son, don’t despise Yahweh’s discipline, neither be weary of his reproof:
12 for whom Yahweh loves, he reproves; even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.
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2 Corinthians 7
referenced to distinguish godly sorrow that produces repentance from worldly sorrow that produces death
1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Open your hearts to us. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one.
3 I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before, that you are in our hearts to die together and live together.
4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction.
5 For even when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside.
6 Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
7 and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced still more.
8 For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while.
9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
11 For behold, this same thing, that you were made sorry in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
12 So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God.
13 Therefore we have been comforted. In our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
14 For if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying also which I made before Titus was found to be truth.
15 His affection is more abundantly toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.
16 I rejoice that in everything I am confident concerning you.
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Psalm 13
quoted as the psalmist wrestling with sorrow then arriving at trust in God's unfailing love
1 How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your loving kindness. My heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to Yahweh, because he has been good to me.
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Psalm 139:23-24
sung as the hymn Cleanse Me at the close of the sermon
23 Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message came from Hebrews 12:3-11, a passage about why God's people suffer and what God is doing through it. The pastor walked the congregation through the hard reality that discipline is not a sign God has abandoned his children, but a sign that he claims them as his own. The goal was not to make suffering feel easy but to help people wrestle through it until they find genuine rest in God's goodness and sovereignty.
What was said
The passage opens with a call to consider Jesus, not as a distant example but as someone who endured the same kind of hostility his people face. The writer of Hebrews is addressing first-century believers who were under real pressure to walk away from following Christ, because doing so would have made life considerably easier. The point of looking hard at Jesus is so that they, and we, will not grow weary and lose heart.
The text then quotes from Proverbs, addressed to believers as sons: do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not faint when he reproves you, because those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. The pastor was direct that this is the hard center of the passage. If you are in Christ and you are suffering, that suffering is not outside the hand of God. He scourges every son he receives, and the same word used there appears back in Hebrews 11 to describe what the Old Testament saints endured.
The passage draws a clear line: a child who receives no discipline at all is not a son, but illegitimate. This is not a comfortable comparison, but it is the one the text makes. God deals with his people as assets, not as a drag on the family economy. The discipline comes because the relationship is real and the love is real.
The pastor then introduced the video of a Nigerian pastor who had been abducted by Boko Haram on January 5th and was still being held. The pastor, speaking from captivity, said he had never been discouraged because all conditions a person finds himself in are in the hand of God. He refused to hold an offense against his captors, said they were feeding him and providing for his needs, and closed by saying that if his release had not been granted, perhaps it was the will of God. The pastor pointed to him as someone who had already arrived at the rest this passage is pointing toward.
The tension the sermon sat with openly is that both things are true at the same time: sinful men are responsible for the harm they do, and God's sovereign hand is not absent from any of it. Boko Haram is fully responsible for that abduction. God is also fully in control. The pastor said he has wrestled with that tension to the point of finding rest in it, and that the wrestling is the path, not a detour around it.
The closing movement of the sermon drew on 2 Corinthians 7, on the difference between sorrow that is according to the will of God and the sorrow of the world. Sorrow itself is neutral. What matters is whether a person endures through it toward God or turns away. The sorrow that moves toward God produces a repentance without regret. Verse 11 names what comes out the other side: the peaceful fruit of righteousness, for those who have been trained by the discipline.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor described wrestling with God through hard circumstances until finding rest in Him rather than in anything else. What has that wrestling looked like in your own life, and what did you find yourself tempted to rest in instead of God?
- The passage from Hebrews says 'those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines.' How does that truth sit with you when you are actually in the middle of a painful season, and how is it different from how it sounds when things are going well?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 9,151 words
0:01
Speaker 1Good morning, everybody. How are you? Doing alright. Good to good to see you out there. I was just coming up to arrange my notes but Judy noticed and kind of beneath though.
0:12
Just ended it right there. Would you stand up and we'll sing Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. That's what we need to be doing. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. Hymn number five seventy five.
0:26
Speaker 2A fellowship what a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms what a blessedness what a peace is mine leaning on the everlasting arms leaning on the everlasting arms oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way leaning on the everlasting arms Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms, leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all arms leaning leaning on the everlasting arms what have I to dread what have I to fear leaning on the everlasting arms I have blessed peace with my lord so near leaning on the everlasting arms leaning safe and secure from leaning leaning on the everlasting arms. Amen. Amen.
2:17
Speaker 1About blessed assurance? Hymn number five seventy two.
2:27
Speaker 2Blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine heir of salvation purchase of God born of his spirit washed in his blood this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long perfect submission perfect delight visions of rapture now burst on my side angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy whispers of love this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long perfect submission all is at rest I and my savior am happy and blessed watching and waiting looking above filled with his goodness lost in his love this is my story this is my song praising my savior this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long Hi, Chocolate.
4:34
Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. Few announcements this morning. We've got Monday nights at First B, Home Sweet Home. The the picture up there says Home Sweet Home. It doesn't even say Monday nights but that's what it mean.
4:45
Monday nights at First B happens at 06:00 on Monday nights down in the fellowship hall. Carl is going through a series on Proverbs that wisdom is crying out to us. It's crying out to us. We have a choice. Choose wisdom or folly.
5:01
That's the other choice but it's really good. His series is going great. You don't have to have heard the other two to hear this one. So, if you wanna come tomorrow night to have a meal, music, and a message on Monday night, it's down it happens at the same time as Awana happens starting in this room, 05:45 to six, they gather in here and then they spread out in age groups from two all the way up through fifth grade. We even have some sixth and seventh graders that are helping out with the little ones too which is really nice.
5:29
So, we're pouring scripture into the minds to reach the hearts of the kids. Sunday school for young men eight through twelfth grade boys January 12. Last week, we started this and that's during the 09:00 service. It happens at the same time as girl study. Judy has been leading a girl's study for eight to twelfth grade girls for some time now but Tim Dalton is leading this one.
5:52
Why Jesus? Study why Jesus really is that awesome. It's pretty fun. Snowmobile retreat is happening next weekend, January twenty fourth, twenty fifth, and twenty sixth, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I plan on going up just for the Friday, Saturday and be back here on Sunday but it's a fun time.
6:09
You don't have to snowmobile to go. It is a men's retreat. So, there will be some someone will be speaking on various subjects, biblical subjects but there are also, it's just time together mainly and there are lots of different activities that one could do up there. Ping pong seems to be one of the favorites. There's a lot of different kinds of things to do but snowmobile retreats amazing.
6:32
January twenty fourth to twenty sixth. Fight Club is a men's Bible study. It's a challenge group. It's lord of sort of like a squadron they're calling it that meets at Wednesday mornings at six. There may be other times.
6:47
If you feel like you wanna be in a group but Wednesday at six is not good for you, there may be other groups that I don't yet know the time zone but their kickoff meeting was a couple weeks ago. It's good. There's Community Christian Book Group and Stalker is a bit of an instigator on this one. (307) 203-9526. If you wanna ask her about it but basically, they're reading this book together, Always Near, 10 ways to delight in the closeness of God and after today's sermon, you may wanna get involved in this.
7:15
Trust me. Okay. God is always near. Sometimes, it does not feel like it and that's what this book is covering. It's it it is a good book by a good author.
7:26
Announcements, is there something else? Community groups. So, next week, there will probably be, is James Landis here? I don't think he is. So, community groups are gonna be starting up that are new.
7:38
There are already a lot of community groups that are happening. There are, like I said, fight club and there's Bible study here and book study there. There's a lot of stuff going on but we're gonna start three different community groups. We're trying to offer em at different times. Community doesn't necessarily mean same neighborhood but just to build community within the church at large, smaller groups.
8:01
We have called them small groups in the past but community groups is the idea. We used to call em life groups. Do you all remember that life groups living in faith every day. Great acronym but it sounds sort of like a sentence instead of a group that you wanna be a part of. It's life.
8:14
Life. I have to be with these people every Tuesday for life. So, it's community groups. It's gonna be six to eight week study and those are starting up. Hopefully, we have three groups starting of 15, the beginning part of February.
8:29
15 is about the outside edge. If we need more groups, we'll make more groups but next week, be looking forward to another announcement before we do that. Yes, sir. Thank you very much, Blake. Precept Bible study on Thursdays and y'all are studying.
8:44
Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Fantastic. I knew that but I just was testing you. Okay.
8:49
Alright. I did actually know that. This this time, I did actually know that. Jeremiah, it's a great great book and actually, dovetails perfectly with what we'll be studying today and for the rest of Hebrews quite frankly. So, if you would, stand up.
9:03
Y'all can greet one another. This is the shaky shake hand time and if you if you would greet one another, we'll bring you back together with a song. Hymn number five thirty three if you're looking for your part.
9:24
Speaker 2Is a savior what joy is expressed
9:36
Speaker 1his Amen. Who thought of Sandy Patty when we were singing that? Y'all are, y'all been in church a long time. I I did. Anyway, that's good.
11:02
Learning.
11:08
Speaker 2To lean I'm learning to lean on Jesus finding more power than I'd ever dreamed I'm learning to lean Jesus. Key change. I'm on Thank
12:35
Speaker 1you. Y'all can have a seat. I'm going invite the frontline team to come forward Would you pray with me? God, I thank you for this morning. I thank you for the for the comfort provided by your word.
12:50
Lord, if we take it seriously, pay more attention to that which we've already heard and consider it all fully, consider you fully, Jesus, that there is comfort and peace and rest there. Lord, the wrestling through it, not always easy and you acknowledge that. You acknowledge it in your word. You acknowledge it in Christ's experience. Lord, we want to be more and more faithful.
13:21
We want to be more and more. Experiencing the peace of righteousness. God, would you do your will and your way through your word this morning but lord, by at this time right now where we take and give of a portion of what you've given us, would you take this and would you advance your good gospel so that those who are without hope and are going through pain and sorrow may find their rest in you too. God, would you use us to do your will not just here in this community but to the very ends of the earth. Would you do your will, your way through us?
13:56
This Amen. Thank you, Judy. So, this morning, we are up to Hebrews twelve three through 11. If you have been here for the past two weeks, you've already heard me get to Hebrews twelve three twice. I've gotten there twice.
17:40
I covered a good section of the end of Hebrews 11 and got to twelve three two weeks ago. Part of the reason for that being that we as a church had just lost a dear individual and I wanted to get to the hope of fixing our eyes on Jesus and not growing weary and losing heart. That's what I wanted to get to. So, I said, I'm gonna run through the last part of 11 to get to the first bit of 12 and then last week, I covered just twelve one, two, and three and that was fixing our eyes on Jesus but Imma start with three. In most Bibles, three is in a different paragraph and goes forward down to about verse 11.
18:22
The rest of this chapter is a difficult passage if you understand it. If you get it, it's hard and it will cause you to wrestle and might be wrestling with God or wrestling with God's sovereignty and his goodness. So, we're gonna go through it but I wanna take just a minute if we can just to kinda pray for me to pray that I just get out of the way, let the text say what it says, make it clear what it says so that I'm not the only one wrestling with this. For one thing, but so that your wrestling would find its way into resting. We wanna wrestle with God until we find our rest in God.
19:08
It's there and it's real and it's available but if you're a thinking person and you look around and you see everything that's going on, it can be very upsetting but you can get through that if you'll wrestle with it and come down where this passage comes down on not just the free will of man but the sovereignty and goodness of God. So, would you take a minute to pray? Just open yourself up to whatever God would have to say this morning. Thank you lord for your word. I pray that we would apply it to our lives.
19:54
Lord, and that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we pay more attention to that which we may already have heard and that it would make a difference. Amen. So, this is the whole passage here this morning and I'll remind you that I was seven minute shorts last week and if I go long this week, y'all feel free to get up and leave at twelve, okay? Now, I'm I'm I'm it might go a little bit long this week. Just a little bit but I'm serious about it.
20:24
If you gotta go, you gotta go. So, go. But this is the whole passage. This is everything we'll be dealing with. Imma read it all together once and then I'll go back and I've got a different approach than normal this morning.
20:34
I want you to hear it all at once. I usually go sequential. Hear it all at once. Then, we'll go through it sequentially then we'll come back and answer a few questions but that's our approach. For consider him, that's Jesus.
20:45
For consider fully all the way down through analyze him, Jesus, who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. That's the point. So that you will not grow weary and lose heart. That's the point of the passage. Yet, you have not resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin yet you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons.
21:22
See, it's addressed. My son and it's for you. This is from Psalm three actually but my my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And he scourges every son whom he receives.
21:47
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 but if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then, you are illegitimate children and not sons at all. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them that shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits, God, and live. For they, earthly fathers, disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them but he, God, disciplines us for our good so that we may share in his holiness. Up at the top, it's so that you may not lose heart and grow weary and then down here, it's so that we may share in holiness of God.
22:37
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 perfect fruit of righteousness. God, I pray that you bless your word to to our lives. Amen.
22:55
So, that's it. I'll go back to twelve one and two. That's a happy, good, like upbeat where fix your eyes on Jesus but it's talking about an athletic metaphor that requires discipline. The rest of the chapter is about discipline, chastening, reproof, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, we've got all of those examples from Hebrews 11, those Old Testament Testament saints and I've added a couple more from a more recent history here to the church a couple weeks ago. People that we know and love, that we have lost, who did what they did, and endeared themselves to us as Christians by their faith.
23:35
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us then also lay aside every bit of extra weight that encumbers us, every encumbrance, whether it's the heavy robes or extra weight or extra baggage, Let us lay aside every encumbrance and also the sin. So, not just sin but also other things that distract from Jesus. Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run unhindered with endurance, the race that is set out before us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Let's look to him.
24:17
For who? For the joy set before him endured the cross. Despising the shame, scorning the scorn, I said last week and he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. His saving work is finished. His sanctifying work is ongoing.
24:34
He is praying for us right now at the right hand of God. Then, we got to for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. That's what the point of the sermon is today and that's what the point of this passage was to those first century Jewish background believers who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ, for following after the way. It would have been easier earthly, temporally speaking. It would have been easier for them to go back to a Jewish ritual background because the heat from the government would have been less.
25:10
The heat from the mob would have been less. The heat from the Jewish ritualists would have been less. The heat from everyone would have been less but the right way to go was continue after Jesus. For consider Jesus who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you'll not grow weary and lose heart. So, our approach today, like I said, I read through it all once.
25:31
I'm going through it in sequence but in sequence, the text itself will point these questions out. I stole these questions, okay? I don't generally think like in questions. I don't think I question the text and I keep working with it and wrestling with it but I stole these from John Piper. Now, half the room just went, oh, Piper, gracious.
25:52
What a Calvinist camp. The other half went, yay, Piper. I am trying to walk the razor's edge between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Both are affirmed in scripture. I believe both of em are true.
26:07
I believe this is a great passage for showing that. So, reserve judgement, alright? Listen to the questions and listen to the text. Get what you believe from the text. Adfontes, go back to the sources.
26:21
We will notice the pain and the sorrow in this passage and then, we will ask what kind of pain it is, what kind of sorrow it is, and where it comes from and we will ask if it has a purpose or a design and what that purpose is, okay? That's the that's the deal. That's what we're going for today. Here is the text. For consider him, Jesus, who has endured such hostility.
26:45
You can read it one or two ways in English. You can read or consider him who has endured such hostility, so much hostility. You can read it like that and that's fine. I believe that it is actually for consider him who has endured this kind of hostility. These people were being persecuted and Jesus was persecuted in a similar manner and that's what the text is saying.
27:09
For consider Jesus who has himself endured such hostility. Same kind of stuff you're facing by sinners against himself. So, is that true? Yeah, the guys were nailing him to a cross and he said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So, he has been through what you're about to go through.
27:29
He's the author and the perfecter of the faith. Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You, people, y'all, have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Now, some of y'all might know some missionaries who have lost their life in service to God and some of y'all might have a family member, you might. As if you do, looking at this crowd, if you do, I don't know about it.
27:59
So, I could write the same thing. Y'all have not yet lost your life over this. So, or or lost a life of this body over this. Y'all have not yet but the yet says, it's coming though. It's coming and if I were to flip one more slide here, those guys are Boko Haram soldiers if you wanna call em that militia guys and they are absolutely opposed to the cause of Christ.
28:28
In Nigeria, where we have missionaries, the littles, right? They teach at the university in Joss and they have a lot of people that are they're teaching Greek, teaching biblical Greek to people that are pastors in this country and these guys recently abducted lots of people. Just this month, they're they abducted a pastor. I might get to him later on but you haven't yet. It's coming though.
28:58
It's coming. That's the sense in the text and if I'm going first century, I can tell you exactly what's going on. Apparently, but if if I'm talking about sorrow and suffering, we all have sorrow and suffering we're going through in the twenty first century. Some of it is similar. In other countries, exactly the same.
29:16
As they were dealing with the persecution from the mob, the persecution from the government. So, that's an armed group of guys that took a pastor away from his family and have him held hostage right now, okay? Took him January 5. He's still not released. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin and you've forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you.
29:47
I will back up with that and you're striving against sin. Some of y'all might read that and say, well, that's talking about my own sin. Like, I haven't lost blood or spilled my blood in my struggle against sin. Okay, but I don't think that's what it's saying. It's saying we're struggling against spiritual forces.
30:03
We're struggling against sin which is opposed to the cause of Christ. Whether it's ours or someone else's and not one of y'all yet has resisted to the point of death and you have forgotten exhortation which is addressed to you as sons and the writer of Hebrews as is often the case calls back on Old Testament text and said, this book is for you, for today, for now. When you read this, read it with the mindset that God is communicating his will and his way and his word. He's communicating it to me today to be applied to my life. You have forgotten exhortation.
30:42
Oh, writer of Hebrews is so good about, hey, go back and pay more attention to that which you've already heard. You know this stuff. But now you're getting the experience where you can understand. And you have forgotten exhortation which is addressed to your sons and this is that exhortation. It's quote from Psalm three.
31:01
Psalm three four and five says, actually, sorry. Psalm three, this is eleven and twelve. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. My son, it's addressed to you as sons, the writer of Hebrews says. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved by Bear up up under it.
31:30
Wrestle with it. Don't ignore it. Don't take it lightly. And don't faint. For those whom the Lord loves, disciplines.
31:41
Those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. If you're going through it right now and you trust in Jesus, opposed to your best life now by Joel Osteen. If you love Jesus and you're going through extreme sorrow right now, those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And he scourges every son whom he receives. If you if you don't believe that, you might say, I I don't believe that.
32:16
I don't believe that he, I don't believe he scourges, then you're going against what scripture says. You're going against Old Testament and New Testament right there. He scourges every son whom he receives. It goes further than that. Actually, Psalm three is where this comes from.
32:31
My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof for whom the Lord loves, he reproves discipline. Even as a father disciplines or corrects the son in whom he delights. You have forgotten this exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. Consider that what's going on is a part of the discipline of almighty God. That's hard for for all of us who are walking through hard stuff.
33:01
He scourges. That's the same word that was used of that section that I ran through 35 to 38 of chapter 11 where it says, and the prophets and these other Old Testament saints have gone before us. What did they receive temporally, earthly experience? They were sown in two. They were beaten, mocked, and scorned.
33:23
Ignored and rejected. They received the same treatment that some of y'all are receiving now to the point that they were scourged. That's what it says and it says, and he scourges every son whom he receives. This is the hard part of the message by the way. If you understand this, it's very difficult in experience.
33:45
It's true but it's very difficult in the experience but if you get past the experience to the other side of the scourging, it's good. Really, really good. I I couldn't remember how I started the sermon in the in the last service. I grew up in sort of a hothouse or a greenhouse situation. I had a very Mayberry like experience with a lot of good people surrounding me that love me dearly.
34:18
They shared with me God's word and they lived it out in front of me and so, I didn't have a whole lot of adversity in my life. I didn't have a whole lot of stuff. I was storing up scripture for the time in the future when I would really really need it but I didn't have that. When I got to be 21 years old, I got married and then, we walked through some stuff together that was difficult. It was hard, hard, hard stuff.
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And it was, I had the reserve. I had the well from which to draw scriptural understanding but my experience and Tanya's experience were very difficult. Then, when we went to the mission field, the first two weeks I was on the mission field were the hardest two weeks of my life without any close comparison at all and I'm a pastor. The first two weeks there, I didn't know if I would make it through. I kinda prayed I wouldn't.
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I wanted to be not here. It was very, very, very hard and I could not see what was on the other side and I could not stand the paint. Now, why would that be the case? I had been raising money to be a missionary, had a clear vision for what I would be doing but what I needed was a severe discipline from God. Need to face a hard truth and it was very, very, very difficult and now, I thank God for that two weeks of my life more than any other two weeks of my whole life.
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Now, if you ask people around me, would they wanna live it again? They'd say, nope. Just that quickly but for me, I rest because I did the wrestling then and I thank God it was on the beginning side of ministry. He scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure because the temptation is not to endure.
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Temptation is to go back to something else and rest in something else. So, the wrestling, we wrestle with God until we find our rest in him instead of anything else. You don't wanna find your rest in wealth. You don't want to find your rest in fashion. You don't want to find your rest in intellectual superiority.
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You find your rest in God and God alone and he'll strip away the other things if you will humble yourself under his mighty hand and he'll lift you in due time. It's for discipline that you endure. Temptation is not to endure. It's for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons for what son and let me stop right there.
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Dealing with sons in the Old Testament and in the first century was different than dealing with daughters. Sons were an asset to the family and they should be disciplined in such a way so that they are always an asset to the family. They were reproved and disciplined in a way that is different from a daughter, excuse me. Daughter at the time, this is not right but this is the way that it was. Daughters had virtually no rights.
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They were seen as a drag on the family economy and to get rid of a daughter, you had to pay someone to take her. That's the truth. That's the truth. I'm not. It is still that way in some countries, in some other religions.
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It's still that way. This says clearly, God deals with you as assets, as sons. You have all the rights of sonship, your identity if you are a believer. Your identity through Christ is as a son. It's a it's for discipline that you endure.
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God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline. Okay. Now, in Jackson in the twenty first century, y'all have seen a few people that have had very little discipline in their lives. Do you agree?
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Yeah. I'm afraid I agree also. I have heard some very unusual parenting methods. One of them is, we're not gonna say the word ever. We're never gonna use the word no.
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No, nothing negative ever with our child. We're growing em up. People are essentially good. We would not dare force a religion on them. We'd not dare force anything on them and we will not even say no to them ever.
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Those are the kids that are throwing chairs in the classrooms, okay? Those are the wild, wild, wild ones because they've never been brought back into line. I I I I don't I know that and then the text even says this, it's coming soon. In fact, let's go to it. I don't wanna say it without it saying it.
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But if you are without discipline, if you're without discipline of which all of us have become partakers. Discipline is actually being foisted upon us at all times. It is. If you are without discipline, you've rejected it out of hand and you're not gonna have any part of it. You're not enduring and you're not gonna have it.
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If you are without discipline of which all of us have become partakers, then you're illegitimate children, you're not sons. That's a hard word right there too. Jesus in one of his confrontations with the Pharisees, he's saying, under what authority did you do this? And he says, under my fathers. He goes, Abraham's our father and he says, and and they were saying, God, through Abraham, he's our father and he says, no.
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No. You're of your father, the devil. It is one or the other. Either your children of God or your children of the evil one. If you're without discipline, we we've all been faced with it.
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If if you're without discipline, then you're illegitimate children. You're not even sons at all. You're not. You're of your father, the devil. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them.
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That's a general statement. I know that there are a lot of people that don't respect their fathers. I know that there are a lot of earthly fathers that don't do as they should and have beaten which is way beyond spanking and that they have mistreated and abused their children. I know that. I pray that's not your experience.
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It was not my experience. I did get spankings and I deserved everyone of em. I pray it's not your experience because I don't want your earthly father to stand in the way of your heavenly father. He presents himself because in general, furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respect them. Shall we not then much rather be subject to the father of spirits, that's God and by so doing, live, right?
40:45
I think of the book of John. I've been touting the book of John lately. There are couple or few of em left out there that are little pocket sized books of John. I've been keeping em in my pocket reading it and towards the end of the book, it says, lot of other things can be written about Jesus but these have been written so that you may believe and believing have life, life in his name and so this is about that. Have life in Jesus name by subjecting yourself to the father's discipline.
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For they, that's earthly fathers, disciplined us for a short time. There is only a short time that the window of opportunity is there for disciplining a child, right? They grow up and if they're disciplined early, it helps them to grow up. This is the kind of discipline that we're talking about. Good and loving discipline.
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I I didn't use the example this morning. I'm look around and see if I heard anybody's feelings. I got spankings when I needed them. Early on early on, Paschal, when on a changing table, she thought it was funny to roll. You're on a changing table.
41:56
We got a we're in Mexico at the time and we've got a ceramic floor and it's about three and a half feet up, you know, and she's on the changing table and she thought it was hilarious. She would kick her head back, arch her back, flip over in whatever she was in, you know, and then, she's headed towards the floor. She's and we and we would grab her if we could catch her but she just does that and Tanya's not a spanker, not generally but on the back of her thigh and she did that once. Pascal's like, oh, I equate with my flipping over. That little uncomfortable pain on my backside.
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I think I'm just not going to do that anymore. Now, I would have needed a bunch more times. She learns quick though or maybe Tanya's just more effective than my parents. I'm not sure. They disciplined us for a short time.
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There's a short window of opportunity for that. As it seemed best to them, they're not perfect. Earthly fathers are not perfect. As it seemed best for them. They're limited by their understanding.
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They're limited by their experience. They're limited by their own emotions and their peace and comfort and rest and everything else. There's a limitations to what our father but in general, they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them but he, God, disciplines us for our good and he is good and he is almighty and where this sermon hits is in that place of the sovereignty and goodness of God and the free will of man. We'll get to that in a minute. It also says that he is the one that is doing the discipline for our good.
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So that we may share in his holiness. Thank God that he wants to share his holiness with us. He's made a way through Jesus. He's made a way through his word. He's made a way.
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This says through all of our circumstances, whatever they are. He's making a way to transform our lives and sanctify us. All that was needed for salvation has been done. He sat down at the right hand of the father but he's interceding for us so that we would get it and find ourselves what verse 11 says, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful. It's hard.
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It's hard. If you go back and consider this as an athletic metaphor where it says, run the race without any encumbrances, lay aside the sand which entangles and run the race that God has set out for you. It's gonna require some training and the training itself is difficult. How many of y'all remember basketball practice? Like, right, standing against the wall and jump up and slap as high as you can as many times as you can over and over.
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I hated that. But I could jump out of the gym because I did that, right? Foul line and back, timeline and back, half court and back, timeline and back, foul line and back. Full court and back. It's makes me tired just thinking about it.
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What's that called? A suicide. That's what it's called. It's killing yourself to be better at the game, to run the race better, right? It's discipline and for the moment, it seems not to be joyful but sorrow full.
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Yet, to those who have been trained by it, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Afterwards, the during is not so good, right? Had a basketball coach said, they might beat us but they ain't going to run us out of the gym.
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Speaker 2They did beat us.
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Speaker 1But they didn't run us out of the gym So, our approach today. So, we noticed, I think you noticed the pain and the sorrow in the passage the first time through. I can point it out but I think you got it. We'll ask what kind of pain it is and this is it. Jesus himself endured such hostility by sinners.
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The same kind of hostility you're encountering your savior encountered just a few years back for a century folks or just 20 centuries back, twenty one centuries back for y'all today. Jesus endured the same kind of hostility from sinful men. Back then, it was obvious and overt and now it's insidious. You don't see it as much in this country. I did mention Boko Haram and other countries.
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It's not the same experience everywhere around the globe, exactly the same all the time. Even with the freedoms we experience here, there are a lot of people that are under real, hard, overt, outward persecution. We're under an insidious condescension. Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself that you'll not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin.
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This was persecution is what they were up against. So, where does it come from? The persecution it says, back if we go just two chapters back in Hebrews, Hebrews ten thirty two says, remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings. You have already been through sufferings yourself, not yet to the point of losing life but partly, it was by being made a public spectacle spectacle. That is somewhat of an insidious condescension, right?
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Oh, they don't they believe in Christ. This they don't they won't worship the governor. Anything that we can blame on him, we're gonna hang on him. There was mob mentality against Christians, followers of the way. Partly, you're made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations.
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They went through trials and partly by becoming sharers with those who are so treated because you are a tight knit family, you remember what it was like and you shared when someone else was ill treated. It was just like you were being ill treated yourself. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners. Oh, that means the government is involved. Now, Christians are being jailed at this time, right?
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Christians were being jailed and they accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. In Jackson, can you imagine? Finally getting a little piece of this pie and then somebody comes along and said, this is no longer yours because of what you believe. We're taking it. You accepted it joyfully because you knew that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.
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Temporal suffering is bad but eternal suffering is much worse. Therefore, don't throw away your confidence. This is the same message we're preaching today. Don't throw away your confidence which has a great reward for you have need of endurance so that you do not grow weary and lose heart as the way our text says it today so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. Amen.
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We'll get to that in verse 11. So, and so we've got a hostility by sinners. That's the type of pain and sorrow. It's something that was inflicted upon us by the free will of other people. That's what that was about.
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Now, that's a difficulty when you consider, it don't bother me anymore. I've wrestled with it to where I found my rest. Both of these are true. God is sovereign. Man is responsible.
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Period. Boko Haram is responsible for for abducting that guy, taking him away from his family, and mistreating his family. They are absolutely responsible for it and yet this text says this, it is for discipline that God deals with you. Whose hand? Whose hand is involved?
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It is the hand of those bad guys. It is also not outside of the power of an almighty and overarching God. So, we notice the pain and star in the passage. We ask where it came from. It's both from sinful men and it is the discipline of a loving God, a spanky spank on the behind is from a loving parent good for.
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It gives a structure in which a life can flourish. The flour flourish and thrive. Throw thrush. Is that a word? No.
50:08
Thoroughly flourish. So, that's where it comes from. It's both and. It's both and. Can you play the video, Blake?
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I'm on the the guy that was abducted. I'm gonna play a video by or Blake's gonna play a video by this guy and this is what he has to say. He has quite an accent even more than I do and afterwards, I'll read it to you.
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Speaker 3I have never been discouraged because all condition that one may find his self is in the hand of God. God who make them to take care of me and to live my life will still work, will touch them. So in summary of my speech, that they request I should summarize it again in English. I appeal to my colleagues, reverence, particularly my President, Reverend Joel Billy, which is a strong man, man of compassion, man of love, that he can do all his best to speak to our governor, Omaru Jibrella, and other necessary agent for my relief for my release here. These people have been doing good to me.
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They are filling me with all what I want to eat. They provide a nice place for me to sleep, blanket and every need. So I believe they didn't do anything wrong to me. I still believe that God who made them to act in such a way is still alive and will make all arrangement. By the grace of God, I'll be together with my, my wife, my children, and all my colleagues.
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If the opportunity have not been granted, maybe it is a will of God. All person all people close and far, colleagues and other wishers to be patient. Don't cry. Don't worry. But thank God for everything.
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Thank you.
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Speaker 1Did you catch up to his accent and understand what he had to say? I'm a read it for you again but that guy understands both the hostility of sinful men and the sovereign hand of God that is involved at all times through all circumstances of our life. He says, I have never been discouraged because all conditions that one finds himself is in the hand of God. God, who made them to take care of me, So, in the summary of my speech, I am appealing to my colleagues, reverends, he's a pastor, particular to my president of the country of Nigeria. Reverend Joel Billy, although he did say Billy Joel to begin with, don't let that confuse you, alright?
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Reverend Joel Billy, who is a strong man, a man of compassion, and a man of love. He can do all his best to speak to our governor, Omaro Gibrilla, Ventiri. And other necessary agents for my release here. I would like to be released and please, y'all pray. You know, he says that.
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Then he says this, these people have been doing good to me. They're feeding me with all that I want to eat. They provide a nice place for me to sleep, blanket, and every need. So, I believe they didn't do anything wrong to me. These men abducted him at gunpoint, put him in a van, and took him away from his family.
53:52
He's refusing to hold on to an offense right there, isn't he? So, I believe that they didn't do anything wrong to me. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I believe that he who has made them to act in such a way is still alive and will make all arrangements. By the grace of God, I will be together with my wife, my children, and my colleagues.
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If the opportunity has not been granted, Maybe it's the will of God. He throws a maybe in there. He knows that it's the will of God. He's he's settled. Did he did he look like he was wrestling or did he look like he was resting?
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If the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it's the will of God. I want all people close and far, our colleagues to be patient, don't cry, and don't worry but thank God for everything. Again, his opening line is I've never been discouraged because all conditions that one finds himself in is in the hand of God. Today's passage, if you understand it, on the backside of it, it's great. On the backside of it but while you're going through it, this passage itself is resonating because we all go through painful and they can either be, well, let me go get to that.
55:14
He disciplines us for our good so that we may share in his holiness. It's the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, right? It's the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. He's not asking us to do anything that he has not already done and he himself was scourged in the most painful and brutal way possible. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful and do you see the word seems?
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From our limited viewpoint, it is really hard to see past the sorrowful. It's really hard to see the sun of righteousness for all of the clouds that are between us. But he's still there. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful and there are two ways that we can take sorrow. Probably one of the sermons that I go back to most often in my own life, in my own head was from second Corinthians seven and it is this verse, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God.
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Sorrow is neutral. Basically, was my point in that sermon. Sorrow happens to everybody but there are two different ways that you can take sorrow. Sorrow that is according to the will of God or if your translations King James or New King James, godly sorrow, godly sorrow. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces what?
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A repentance. That is without regret. It is a change of mind. The wrestling that we feel is, oh, how could God do this to me being that he is good. How could this ever happen?
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I cannot stand him yet he is good and he loves me but this doesn't feel like it. That's the wrestling back and forth. The The sorrow that is according to the will of God eventually outside of the other end of it produces a repentance to say, as the Psalm has says, how long must I wrestle with my thoughts? Every day have sorrow in my heart. How long will my enemy triumph over me and then, it says, but I trust in his unfailing love and my heart rejoices that he saves from above.
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Keep on wrestling. Keep on wrestling until you can get to the rest that that Psalmist but I trust in his unveiling love. Keep on, stay in it with him and you will come out the other side. Sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance that is without regret and you will look back and like I can say about my first two weeks on the mission field, that I'm more thankful of than anything else that's ever happened to me in my whole life. Although I got a lot of things to be thankful for and all things right.
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I never regret having gone through it. The sorrow that's according to the will of God produces a repentance. It produces it. It's not immediate. It produces it.
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A repentance that's without regret leading to salvation but the sorrow of the world produces only death. So, this is all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful yet to those who have been trained by it. Afterwards, in the moment, it is terrible and the text itself realizes that and affirms that it is terrible. Life is hard right now. But it says, for those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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There's a place of peace and rest. Jesus says, come on to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. We're building towards that. Is that the last slide, Blake? There's one more.
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Shall I use the one more? Let's do it. There's a picture. This is Devin Rose Marley. Devin Rose Marley went out to the ski hill this weekend and she and her parents were there and she's two, right?
59:15
She's two years old and so, skiing is awesome by the way, right? Do y'all agree? Skiing is fun. It's a lot of fun. Lot of y'all love skiing and so, they buckled her in to some ski boots.
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Now, I know you see she's on a snowboard right there but they buckled her into ski boots and what happened? She wailed. She did not like it one bit. They were uncomfortable and horrible and she couldn't stand it. It was just awful and her parents were doing this to her.
59:48
People who generally comfort and take care of me have just all of a sudden clamped my feet into these torture devices. Blake and Bailey were doing the best. What does it say? What's the text say? As a father, what seemed to them best?
1:00:07
They kind of forgot to tell her that this is going to be painful now but it's cool on the other side of it. Even if they told her this is painful now but it's gonna be cool on the other side. She still might have wailed through it, right? Because her experience of that truth was not comfortable or painful. This is funny because they put her in snowboard boots which are much more comfortable, right?
1:00:27
Not the same as skiing. In the first service, everybody said, thank you for the sermon as we put it but why did this snowboarder so bad? It is better but it is better afterwards for those who have been trained by it and actually I can go back to the verse. It says, it is for discipline that you endure. There is a choice not to endure and that's what they were being faced with and that's what you're being faced with.
1:01:01
Now, there are people who actually apostasize and say, I want nothing to do. If God is like this, I want nothing to do with it. Trust me that it is better to endure through it and say, God, I know that you are good and when you come out the other side of that wrestling, there is a profound peace and rest. Even more so than you ever would believe or experience. Anything else?
1:01:33
Y'all have anything else? Any other examples you wanna share? Actually, I almost asked for testimony this morning. I've I've all of us have been through hard stuff. Or is there anybody who would just raise their hand and say, I've been through something that was so hard.
1:01:45
I did not think I'd make it through it but now, I can see God's goodness in. Can you say that? Yeah. There's some of you who are going through it right now. I'm I'm with you and I'm sorry.
1:01:56
God is still good and he does discipline every one that he loves. It is his love and discipline. Alright, would you stand with me? We're gonna sing Cleanse Me. This is speaking of Psalmists.
1:02:14
Actually, Psalm three by the way, that part where it says that don't take lightly the discipline of God. It's the same Psalm where it says, lean not on your own understanding but trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding and he will direct your paths. Can you, can we together sing? Just the first verse of cleanse me and I think this is great.
1:02:36
The Psalm has can get to the but I trust in his unfailing love because he knows that when we ask, God to cleanse us, he does. So, first verse, cleanse me.
1:02:53
Speaker 2Search me oh God and know my heart today try some wicked way cleanse me from every sin and
1:03:41
Speaker 1Amen. And for the benediction, it's a tough one. Just like the passage and I know that we together are wrestling through but we're wrestling to find our rest in God. Endure this hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children for what children is not disciplined by their father.
1:04:01
God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness. You might be tempted to say, I really don't wanna be this holy. I'm seriously, I'm saying, I really don't wanna be this holy. I'd rather just be alright. God almighty, would you, would you give us the strength to endure and stand up under what we have to bear and lord, for those of us who are not walking through a situation right now, may we have the empathy and compassion on those who are such that we lend strength, the strength that you provide to them, and lift them up in this difficulty.
1:04:41
Amen.
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