The Father who Trains & Heals | Charles Zimmerman | Calvary Church

Well, we're in a series from the book of

Hebrews, and we're calling this series

Jesus is better. And the theme of

Hebrews is Jesus is better. And then the

author lists a whole bunch of things

that he's better than. But the author

wants us to think of the things in our

lives that we often treat as better than

Jesus and bring those things to bear as

well as he shows us that Jesus is better

than all of that. Well, this morning

we're going to talk about the how our

relationship with God changes

once someone puts their faith and trust

in Christ. And it really is a great

morning to do that having seen all of

these pictures of how our relationship

with God has changed because of what

Christ has done. The author of Hebrews

tells us about some of that relational

change. And that's what we're going to

explore. We're going to look at a

message that I'm calling the father who

trains and heals. And we're going to

look at some of the trees in Hebrews 12.

But before we get to the trees in

Hebrews 12, let me tell you a little bit

about the forest of Hebrews. Uh we're

coming to the end of the series and I

know it's been fairly long. There are a

number of chapters in Hebrews. It's easy

to get lost. So let me give you a 30,000

ft view of what the author of Hebrews is

trying to do. If you can think of three

questions, you kind of understand the

flow of Hebrews. So here are the

questions. Who, why, and so what? Who,

why, so what? If you understand those

questions or can even remember those

questions, you understand the flow of

Hebrews. First question, who who should

we be following? Who should we be

trusting? Jesus. That's chapters 1-8. So

in chapters 1-8, the author is saying

Jesus is better. And he lists all of

these things that he's better than.

Jesus is better than Moses, better than

Joshua. Jesus is better than the

promised land and the rest of the

promised land. Jesus is better than the

tabernacle. Jesus is better than the

sacrifices. Jesus is better than

Melkisedc. And whatever else you can

bring as the kind of the competition for

Jesus in your life, Jesus is better than

that, too. Chapters 1-8. Who? Jesus.

He's better than any substitute. They

are all substitutes. They're not the

real thing. So that's first question.

Eight chapters. Second question. Well,

why why is Jesus better? Well, I'm glad

you asked. That's chapter chapters 9 and

10. Chapters 9 and 10. Why is Jesus

better? Because all of those things are

shadows. Jesus is the substance. So a

number of weeks ago now we said all of

those things that the author mentions

are shadows. Jesus is the reality. And

if you picture picture the sun shining

on a tree, the shadow that the that that

sun makes shows something about the

tree, but the shadow also distorts the

reality. So all of those shadows that he

mentions have something that lines up

with who Jesus is, but there's also

distortion in the shadow. So why is

Jesus better? Because he's the

substance. He's the reality. All of

those other things in a sense are

signposts pointing to him or shadows.

They're not the reality. Jesus is better

1 through8. Why is he better? because

he's the substance, not just the shadow.

Well, that brings us to the so what

question. Well, so what? So what's Jesus

better? And so what? He's the substance

and he's not the shadow. What should we

do in response to that? Well, chapters

11 through the rest of the book say,

here's what you should do. Since Jesus

is better, he's the substance and not

the shadow, you should trust him. You

should put your faith in him because he

is all that God has promised. That's

what chapters 11, chapter 11's all

about. All of the people that are

mentioned there put their trust in

Jesus. Put their trust in God. The one

who made the promises. The one who was

about keeping the promises. And everyone

mentioned in Hebrews 11 was looking

forward to the promise. There's a sense

in which we look back on the fulfillment

of that promise, but we're still looking

forward to the culmination of that

promise. So, what should we do? We

should put our faith in Jesus. And you

know, there's kind of a strange thing

which maybe you didn't think of when

when you're reading or when we talked

about Hebrews 11. You know, everyone is

a believer.

Everybody trusts in something. So, for

example, and when you put your money in

the bank, you trust that it's going to

be there if you want to take it out.

When you take your wedding vows, you

trust that the person you're marrying is

going to fulfill the vows. See,

everybody is is a believer. Everybody

trusts something. The difference in

following Jesus is we put our trust in

him. The object changes. It's not that

belief changes. It's not that faith

changes. The object of our faith, the

object of our of our belief changes.

said, "Put your faith in him." Well,

what's the rest of Hebrews about then?

Well, you don't just put your faith in

Jesus. You follow Jesus, right? And so

who? Jesus. He's better than all

anything else you can trust. Why?

Because he's the substance, not the

shadow. Well, so what? You should trust

him and you should follow him. That

brings us to Hebrews 12. So, if you have

your Bibles, turn to Hebrews 12. And I'm

going to read the first 14 verses. And

you're going to see that faith leads to

following. And it's really appropriate

uh on the morning in which we have a

whole bunch of baptisms to think about

following because I don't know how many

times I've talked to people and they say

things like, "Boy, you know, I thought

when I trusted Jesus, I began to follow

him, all my problems would disappear.

It'd be like a bed of roses from here to

heaven." Let me tell that's not going to

happen. But the purpose

all radically changes. Your perspective

and the purpose change radically.

Sometimes the difficulties are still

going to be difficult but the purpose

and the perspective changes. Um I was

thinking of that the other day so I feel

I'll mention it to you. We have a little

extra time. Have you ever heard um

uh you know a story stories about uh

fortunately unfortunately I've heard

unfortunately fortunately stories. Okay,

here's one. I'll I'll give you a short

one. Unfortunately, I fell out of the

plane.

Fortunately, I had my parachute.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't open.

Fortunately, there was a hay stack below

me. Unfortunately, there was a pitchfork

in the haststack. Fortunately, I missed

it.

Right. The perspective is going to

change even though the difficulties may

not. The original readers to the book of

Hebrews, they were experiencing a whole

lot more of the unfortunately stuff. The

author of Hebrews says, "But your

perspective and the purpose needs to

change because your relationship with

God changes." All right, here we go. 14

verses of Hebrews 12. Therefore, since

we are surrounded by such a great cloud

of witnesses, let us throw off

everything that hinders and the sin that

so easily entangles, and let us run with

perseverance, the race mark out marked

out for us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus,

the pioneer and perfector of our faith.

For the joy set before him, he endured

the cross, scorning its shame, and sat

down at the right hand of the throne of

God. Consider him who endured such

opposition from sinners so that you will

not grow weary and lose heart in your

struggle against sin. You have not re

yet resisted to the point of shedding

your blood. And have you completely

forgotten this word of encouragement

that addresses you as a father addresses

his son? It says, "My son, do not make

light of the Lord's discipline. Do not

lose heart when he rebukes you because

the Lord disciplines the one he loves

and he chasens everyone he accepts as a

son. Endure hardship is discipline. God

is treating you as his children. For

what children are not disciplined by

their father? If you are not disciplined

and everyone undergoes discipline, then

you are not legitimate, not true sons

and daughters at all. Moreover, we have

all had human fathers who disciplined us

and we respected them for it. How much

more should we submit to the father of

spirits and live? They disciplined us

for a little while as they thought best.

God disciplines us for our good in order

that we may share in his holiness. No

discipline seems pleasant at the time,

but painful. Later on, however, it

produces a harvest of righteousness and

peace for those who have been trained by

it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble

arms and weak knees. Make level paths

for your feet so that the lame may not

be disabled, but rather healed. Well,

we've looked at kind of the review of

faith. Now, now let's look at faith for

the race. Last week, um Brad talked

about the race and uh how we run this

race, the Christian life. We need to be

prepared for it. Chapter 12 walks us

through how God prepares us for the race

and God prepares us as we run the race.

Now, God gives us three pictures, three

metaphors in the chapter. One metaphor

is the controlling one, but we're not

going to look at that till the end. I

want to look at the two other metaphors

that are kind of subpoints of the big

one, but you'll be it'll be easier to

understand the big one if we do the sub

points first. So here's the first one.

We need to see God as our wise trainer.

God is our wise trainer. Now here's

where I'm getting that from the verse.

So you put the verse up. No discipline

seems pleasant at the time but painful

later on. However, it produces a harvest

of righteousness and peace for those who

have been trained by it. Now, if you

were to uh speak to any athlete and they

were to speak honestly with you and you

were to say, "What's the hardest part of

being an athlete, what's the most

difficult? What where do you experience

the most pain and suffering?" Anybody

who's a real athlete would expect this

answer. And here's what they would say.

It's not the competition. It's not game

day. It's not halftime.

It's not when you win or even when you

lose. The most difficult part of being

an athlete is all of the training. It's

getting up early in the morning and

diving into that icy pool to do your

laps. It's running after school when you

don't feel like running after school.

It's getting on the treadmill, going to

the gym. It's pushing the weights. It's

all of the training. In fact, the the

contest, the game, the event is the

small piece of the bigger picture. Hours

and hours of training are behind every

single minute of competition. Every

athlete knows training is more difficult

than the actual event. What does God do?

He trains us. He's our wise trainer.

Now, if you've ever hired a personal

trainer or you've ever gone to a gym and

you're going to kind of go in and you

want to be trained, you want to kind of

get in shape, which that's a novel idea,

right? I suppose you want to do that.

What's always step one? Step one when

you get a trainer is assessment. It

always comes first, right? And here's

what that sounds like. All right, get on

the bench there and let's see how much

weight you can lift or lift this amount

of weight. Let's see how many reps you

can do out to the track. Let's see how

fast you can run the mile. How fast can

you run the 40? We're going to do the

shuttle run. Um, all of that assessment.

The assessment isn't the end. The

assessment's the beginning. What does

the trainer do once the assessment is

finished? The trainer now makes and

develops a regimen based on that

assessment.

Now, here's the here's how that game

works.

If Saquon Barkley had your training

regimen,

he would look like you and he would be

killed on Sunday during a game. And if

you had his regimen, you would die.

You know, God is a wise trainer. What's

he do? He understands us better than we

understand ourselves. He's made a

perfect assessment and then he builds a

regimen based on that assessment to make

us into what he designed us to be. God

is a wise trainer. And so when you begin

your relationship with God, that's not

the end, it's the beginning. Now God is

your trainer. Now he's going to build

you into the person he's designed you to

be. So what do trainers do? Trainers

assess. Trainers build a regimen to make

us strong so we can endure. What does

God do? God assesses and God builds a

perfect regimen for you to make you into

the person he wants you to be strong and

able to endure. Yeah. I have a stack of

cards that I go through um uh probably a

few times a week. And the beginning part

of the cards are just quotes or things

that I uh want to remember to kind of

get my head together as I'm starting.

And uh one of the cards that has a quote

on it um is by John Newton. Now John

Newton is the one that wrote Amazing

Grace, but I don't have Amazing Grace on

the card. I have a quote that Anne

Newton made that I always think of when

I think of God as a trainer. Here's what

Newton wrote.

Everything is necessary

that he sends.

Everything is necessary that he sends.

Nothing can be necessary that he

withholds.

God's a wise trainer. So whenever you

what the pers here's this perspective

change things aren't happening in our

lives by coincidence. God's not somehow

surprised at what's happen. Everything

is necessary that he send. You may not

believe it. He makes a better assessment

than we do. Everything is necessary that

he sends. Nothing can be necessary that

he withholds. Perfect assessment,

perfect regimen built for you. God's our

wise trainer. That's not the only

picture, though. We're also told in

Hebrews 12 that God is our wise

physician. All right. Now, we have to be

honest here together, right? We're all

friends. How many of you just love going

to the doctor and dentist? Raise your

hand. Oh, we Okay, good. Henry, one.

Yeah. Um what? Why do most of us not

like to go to doctor and then because

they hurt us and he tell us things we

don't want to know, right? And every

once in a while you get this crazy

dentist and you'll sit in a chair and

he'll be working on you and he'll say,

"Now is it going to hurt me more than

you?" "Oh, you think so? Well, you get

in a chair and let me put some tools in

your mouth. Let's see if we can make

that work better." Um they hurt us. Now,

we don't call what doctors and dentists

do assessment. We call it diagnosis, but

it's the same deal, right? And so what

does a physician do? He's going to

diagnose what the problem is. He's going

to diagnose the situation. And what does

the physician do? The physician then

builds a prescription based on the

diagnosis. That sounds a little bit like

a trainer, doesn't it? Assessment,

regimen, following an assessment. God is

our wise physician. What do physicians

want? Physicians want to make us

healthy. Physicians want us to um en

enjoy life and wellness. Well, God is a

wise physician. He wants us well. He

wants us to experience health. He he

diagnoses and then prescribes and on the

basis of the diagnosis, he brings into

our life the exact things we need to

make us to make us healthy and to allow

us to be well. God is a wise physician.

That's now sometimes that's painful, but

that's good news. Now, every once in a

while when you go to a doctor, go to a

dentist,

you think all they want to do is hurt

you when they give you the prescription

because it doesn't seem to fit your

expectations. Well, uh, so let me I'm

I'm not sure where this comes from, but

I no exaggeration, I know about 10 or 12

people in the past year, year and a half

that have all gotten knee replacements.

I guess that means I'm getting old. I

don't know. All these people have gotten

knee replacements. I haven't gotten one

yet. I hope I never do. All right? But

anyway, I I have a very low threshold,

like no threshold for pain. All of the

people that get knee replacements tell

the same story. Here's what they say.

Well, we come out of the operating room,

you go in and you're kind of lying in

bed. Doctor comes out, surgery went

really well. Oh, yeah. By the way, you

need to get up out of bed and you need

to walk.

And the people just came out of surgery

and you must be nuts, right? Where did

you get your medical license from? Some,

you know, cockami mailin at diploma

mill. I can't I I can I move and my knee

is aching? You want me to Oh, yeah. And

by the way, your insurance company's not

paying for you to stay overnight. You've

got to climb a flight of steps and

you're going home today.

Yeah. Now, does it feel like you can do

it? Do you want to do it? No. But the

physician who is diagnosed, the

prescription is given by the physician

and the physician knows there's a sense

in which if we don't hurt our bodies, we

hurt our bodies. Trainers know that.

Physicians know that. If you don't hurt

your body, you're ultimately going to

hurt your body. If you don't put your

body under stress, if you don't put your

body under pressure, your body's not

going to grow and develop and become

stronger, and you're not going to be

well.

God is a wise trainer who wants to make

us strong to endure. God is a wise

physician who wants to make us well and

healthy. Well, there's one more. And

here's the controlling metaphor.

God is our wise father. You know, I'm

really glad that the controlling

metaphor of a Hebrews 12 isn't that

God's your trainer. Imagine if suck in

that gut. Give me that donut. Put that

coffee down. We now that that is not the

over the overriding metaphor is God is a

loving father which means behind the

pain that's brought into our lives is

the love of a father behind a trainer is

a loving father behind a diagnosing

prescribing physician is a wise father

and love is what's driving the whole

deal isn't it true dads

sometimes with your kids.

You act a little bit like a trainer.

Sometimes with your kids, you act a

little bit like a physician,

but you always like act like a dad.

There's always love behind the

prescription, behind the regimen, behind

the analysis, behind the diagnosis.

That's the overriding metaphor. Here's

how the author of Hebrews 12 says it.

endure hardship

as discipline.

It's not judgment. It's not

condemnation. It's discipline. Father,

good fathers don't bring benign pain

into their kids' lives to frustrate them

and tick them off. No. Good fathers

bring benign pain into their child's

life to avoid greater pain later. Isn't

that what discipline is? Bring a little

benign pain today to avoid greater pain

later. trainers, fathers, physicians,

all kind of doing the same thing. God is

treating you as his children. What

children are not disciplined by their

father? Discipline the application of

benign shortterm pain to avoid greater

eternal pain in the future. God our wise

trainer, our wise physician, and there's

love behind all the metaphors. God is

our loving father. So, let me ask you

parents.

Do your kids always understand exactly

why you do the things you do? Or do they

sometimes object to what you're doing?

You don't love me. You don't care for

me. You're like the worst parent ever.

Maybe maybe you never heard that. If you

didn't hear it, they were thinking it.

Why? Because kids were never parents.

They don't understand. Oh, yeah.

Extrapolate that picture.

We feel that way regularly about God.

Lord, everything is necessary that you

said, "I don't think so. Nothing is

necessary that no, God's the parent.

We're the semi-idiotic children that

can't understand why God's bringing this

stuff into our lives. We know the big

picture even though we may not know the

details. The big picture is God wants us

to be strong to endure. God wants us to

be healthy and well. God wants us to be

mature in our character and in our

living. Therefore, he brings benign pain

into our lives to avoid greater pain

later.

So what? Put your faith and trust in

Jesus. And when you do, your

relationship with God now changes.

He's not finished with you. In some

ways, he's just getting started. Now,

he's your trainer who does assessment

and builds a regimen. He's a physician

who does diagnosis and builds a

prescription. But he's a loving father

who wants to build in you the character

traits of his only natural son, our

older brother, Jesus.

Well, before we uh finish, let me

mention a few practices. So, we talked

about faith in review, kind of 30,000

foot view of Hebrews, and we looked at

faith for the race. these three

pictures. But what does that mean? I

don't want you leaving, oh yeah, God

these great things, but what does that

let me explain what it means? Um, here's

the first thing it means.

This is a giant paradox that we

understand in the physical world, but we

never think about or rarely think about

in the spiritual world. Here's what I

mean. When I am weak,

you're actually strong.

Maybe it'd be more accurate to say when

I am weak, I'm actually becoming strong.

Okay, so I go back to your gym picture

for a minute. When you're lying on the

bench and you're doing bench presses,

right? Um, as you do those bench

presses, your arms are getting weaker

and weaker. In fact, eventually, if you

do enough presses, your arms going to

feel like soggy ravioli, right? They're

going to feel you're not going to be

able to. But actually, you're not

getting weaker. As you're feeling weak,

you're becoming strong. Think about your

treadmill or running on a Pelaton,

right? Or riding your Pelaton bike. It

feels like you can't do anymore, right?

You've got the incline up to 10. You're

you're going at a high speed. You think

you can't go. You're going to fall off

the thing and make a bloody puddle

behind a treadmill. But when you're

feeling weak is actually when you're

growing strong.

That is true in the spiritual life too.

What does God do? He puts our faith

under stress a little bit. He puts our

faith under tension because it's when

that stress affects our that that faith

is actually growing. When your muscles

are under stress and pressure, they're

growing, becoming stronger. Our faith

works the same way. So God, a perfect

trainer, physician, father, puts our

faith muscle under stress and pressure

so it becomes stronger. Here's another

lesson. You know, you need humility for

this process to work. Here's what I mean

by that. You have to accept the

assessment of the trainer. You have to

accept the diagnosis of the physician.

You have to accept what the father

believes about you before you're going

to be willing to put the prescription or

the or the plan into practice. And it

takes humility to acknowledge

we're weak,

immature,

sick.

That's what the Bible says. Can I just

let you in on a little secret that

sometimes we don't like to think about?

Sin is not only stuff we do.

Sin is a disease we have.

If we're left to our own devices, to our

own, we will fall into sin and we will

go the wrong way all the time. We're

infected with that disease. And what's

God doing? He's bringing the cure, but

the cure is going to be the application

of benign pain in order to avoid greater

pain later. But you have to admit the

problem. Acknowledge the assessment

before you're ever going to be compliant

or willing to cooperate with with the

with the regimen. Humility. Here's a a

third one. Obedience is required. Here's

what I mean. You've got to do the right

thing and the next thing. Now, you you

may be like me, and if you are, I I I'll

pray for you. Um you don't want to be

like me. But when when I'm suffering,

when I feel like I'm in pain and my

life's being kind of pressurized, here's

what quickly happens to me. I think,

"Oh, okay. So, I'm experiencing a

difficult time. Therefore, I've got an

excuse

so that I don't have to do the stuff I'm

normally called to do. I don't have to

be nice to people. I don't have to read

the Bible. I don't have to go to church.

It's I'm under pressure. I can retreat

from all of those things that I believe

God's calling me to do because I'm under

pressure. I'm under stress. I'm

suffering. I'm experiencing pain. No,

no, no, no, wait a minute. In fact, it's

the opposite. Just like when you're in

training or when you're at the doctor's

office, being under stress is actually

how you're being made well. It's how our

faith is going to grow. So rather than

stress and pressure, pain and suffering

being an excuse for you to retreat, it's

actually should be a call to action.

Uh, baseball season starts this week.

Thursday the Phillies open.

You will see, if you watch any game, you

will see literally hundreds of times

this season batters step into the on

deck circle. And when they step into the

on deck circle, they're normally um pick

up a sledgehammer or put a weighted

donut onto their bat and they'll swing

it. They're not allowed to do this, but

they'll try to, you know, sync it up to

the pitcher thing. They'll swing with

the weight on. Question. How many of the

batters keep the donut or weight on when

they step into the batters box? I know

it looks like some of the Phillies

hitters do occasionally, but they don't.

But they don't. Why do they swing with

the weight in the on deck circle?

Because if you swing the bat with the

weight,

it's under stress, right? It's under

pressure. So that when you take the

donut off, you can swing the bat with

greater accuracy and speed.

That's what God does. Remember the

perfect trainer, perfect physician,

perfect father. He applies a donut pain,

right? He applies pressure to our lives.

Not so we can retreat and have an exc so

we can swing the bat, live, obey, do

what he wants you to so that then when

you're not in that situation, we can

live with more accuracy and with more

speed.

Our relationship with God changes. Now

he's a trainer, a physician, a father.

Yeah. But there's one more.

You know, the dynamic to all of that

is that we need to fix our eyes on

Jesus.

Everything that we've been talking about

beginning in verse four through verse 13

all follows

verse two.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.

That's the d everything else we've been

talking about is kind of technique,

right? It's all technique. The dynamic,

the engine for the technique is fixing

your eyes on Jesus. Hey, put put the

verse up there. And uh I usually don't

ask you to do this.

If you write in your Bible, you may want

to, but don't don't cross out anything

there. This isn't Charles rewriting the

Bible. Um but but let me show you

something that is biblically true even

though it's not written that way. Let us

fix our eyes on Jesus. That's true.

What's the writer of Hebrews say? Fix

your eyes on Jesus. That's how you're

going to run the race. That's how you

get speed in the race. That's how fixing

your eyes on Jesus. Okay. Change one

word that leave the on there above on.

Write the word with.

Fix your eyes with Jesus. That's how we

fix our sight, too. As you fix your eyes

on him, you'll fix your eyes with him.

And all those substitutes that we often

live for will pale in comparison because

he is better than all of them. Let me

show you uh one more thing and we're

done.

See where it says there that Jesus

endured

endured all the suffering of the cross

for the joy set before him. Why should

we endure with God as our trainer? God

as our physician for the joy set before

us. Now what's the joy set before us

that we'll become more like Christ?

We'll experience the glory of God in us.

We'll become more. That's the glory.

Well, Jesus already had that. So what is

the joy set before Jesus that he kept

his eyes fixed on that allowed him,

motivated him to go through all the

suffering to get the joy set before him?

Let me ask it this way. What's the only

thing

Jesus has after the suffering that he

didn't have before the suffering?

He was still adored by angels. He still

had community, love, and knowing within

the Trinity. He had everything

before the suffering.

He didn't have us

for the joy set before him.

Friends, if that won't melt your heart

today, I don't know what else will.

Jesus looked at us and said, "For you, I

joyfully will endure the suffering

because I want to spend eternity with

all of them." For the joy set before

him, us, he endured. For the joy set

before us, he already took care of us

being with him. Now the joy set before

us, we can be like him.

Our relationship with God completely

changes when we decide to trust Jesus

and follow him. He becomes our wise

trainer, our wise physician, our wise

father. We fix our eyes on Jesus, fix

our eyes with Jesus. That's the story of

the Christian life. Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks for um for

this book that we've been looking at for

the past couple of months. And Lord,

even though it's at times dense and even

though the arguments a little

complicated and some of the

illustrations are are very unfamiliar to

us, Lord, the main point is crystal

clear.

Jesus is better. And he's better because

he's the substance, not not the shadows.

He calls us to trust him to live for him

and we fix our eyes on him and we have

our eyes fixed with him and as we do

that our relationship with him changes.

We cooperate with him in this project of

conforming us to Christ's image. We pray

in his name. Amen.