For Our Good

Jesus, amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Kids, you are dismissed to your King's Kids class.

For him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, speaking of Jesus, so that

you may not grow weary or faint-hearted in your struggle against sin.

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

And have you forgotten the agitation that addresses you as sons?

My son, my daughter, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when

reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves.

And chastises every son whom he receives.

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate

children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them.

But he disciplines us for our good.

That we may share his holiness.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.

But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for

your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.

That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled.

That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal.

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected.

For he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

May God bless the hearing of his word.

Some of the most formative moments in parenting our children to train them, to form them, are in moments of crisis.

Moments of hardship.

Your child tries out for a play.

Your child tries out for an orchestra, a band, or an athletic team, and they don't make the cut.

They're disappointed.

And that is a parental training opportunity.

To speak into their lives for their good.

Your child is being marginalized from a group at school or in the community because they don't fit in.

It raises questions in them.

Their identity, who am I?

It's a parenting training opportunity for their good.

You get to speak into their life who they are.

Your child gets in trouble in school or with the police.

They're facing really stiff consequences.

They may be trying to ignore it, keep it away from their consciousness, or maybe they're just deathly afraid.

It's a parenting training opportunity to train them in responsibility for their good.

It might be the moment they need most for later in their life.

God brings hard things, hot things, heat into the lives of our children.

And we as parents have the opportunity to make the most of that opportunity.

To form our children's characters.

To ignore it would be to be unloving to our children.

For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, by God's grace he brought us out of the domain of darkness.

And transferred us into the kingdom of the beloved son, the family of God.

We are God's sons and daughters.

And our loving father brings heat into our lives.

To form us.

To grow us.

To strengthen us.

To help us to endure all the way to the end.

To our very last breath.

Holding fast to Christ.

Our loving father disciplines us for our good.

So this morning from Hebrews 12, I want to convince you of this.

We must welcome God's loving discipline.

Because it's always for our good.

I'll just say that again.

We must welcome God's loving discipline.

Because it's always for our good.

So we're going to walk through this passage.

I'm going to ask four questions.

And answer them.

Here are the four questions.

What is God's discipline?

Second question.

Why does God discipline us?

Third question.

How does God discipline us?

Fourth question.

How do we respond to God's discipline?

We welcome God's discipline.

His loving discipline.

Because it's always for our good.

So let's start with this first question.

What is God's discipline?

And in one word, it's training.

It's God training us.

Did you notice when I was reading through this section how many times that word discipline or disciplines or disciplined shows up?

It shows up nine times.

That's a lot.

That kind of repetition is emphasizing the importance of God's loving discipline in our lives.

But for many of us, when we hear the word discipline, we think strictly in terms of punishment.

We think of when in terms of child raising, our child disobeys.

They do something wrong.

And we spank them.

We give them a time out.

Because we want to help them understand what they've done.

Bringing painful consequences for bad behavior.

And that's part of parenting.

It's a necessary part of parenting.

But biblically speaking, that word discipline is broader than just punishment.

It includes it, but it's broader.

It has the sense of training.

In Ephesians 6, we're told to raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

The training and instruction of the Lord.

We're to grow them up.

We're to help them endure.

And God uses discipline to help us endure.

It is for discipline that you must endure, verse 7.

So let me help you see a connection here.

If you turn back to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 32, we read this.

Hebrews 10:32

But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering.

So the writer's looking back on an earlier period of the original audience and said,

When you were converted, remember that time you were suffering and you endured it?

And then in verse 36 of chapter 10, he says,

For you have need of endurance.

Now.

They had grown weary and fainthearted.

They were tempted to walk away.

To drift.

To fall away.

He says,

For you have need of endurance.

This long obedience in the same direction.

So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

Holding fast to Christ all the way to your very last breath.

And then in chapter 11, we have this hall of faith.

The who's who of the faith.

20 plus examples of men and women who endured by faith all the way to the end.

Pursuing holiness.

Trusting in God.

When we turn to chapter 12, we read this in verse 2.

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.

Despising the shame.

Seated at the right hand of God.

Verse 3.

Consider him, Jesus, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself.

So what is this discipline?

It's God training us to endure.

To strengthen our faith muscles.

Instead of atrophying them.

That we endure all the way to the end.

Pursuing holiness.

The writer of Hebrews puts Jesus to the forefront.

As the ultimate example of endurance.

So that we don't grow weary and fainthearted.

When you suffer hardship.

Whether that's something within you or from out of you.

You can be tempted to want to throw in the towel.

In verse 4, he says,

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

The struggle against sin is the sin within us.

When we are tempted to sin ourselves.

And then there's sin outside of us.

When others are seeking to be hostile to us for following Jesus.

And what he tells this church, this first century church,

is that they had not yet resisted that to the point of shedding blood.

Nobody had died for being a follower of Jesus in this church at this point.

He's saying, hey, you've got a real struggle.

But you haven't gone the distance in terms of Jesus and some of the other people from the hall of faith.

And then in verse 5 and 6, he says,

You have forgotten something.

He poses that as a question.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

What he's saying is, why are you surprised that you're suffering?

Why are you surprised that you're experiencing hardship and pain?

And then he quotes Proverbs 3, 11 and 12.

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

So let's think in terms of training.

My son, do not regard lightly the training of the Lord.

His intentional seeking to help you endure by faith,

nor be weary of being reproved, corrected by him.

Don't grow fainthearted in that.

For the Lord trains the one he loves and chastises.

That's an interesting word.

Underneath that word, it means to whip.

And the idea there is corporal punishment, spanking.

He spanks every son whom he receives.

He wants to grow us.

Help us to endure, grow us in holiness.

The Lord disciplines us.

So the connection that's being made here is

what this church, this first century church was experiencing,

the suffering at the hands of people who were seeking to hurt them.

They were being exploited.

They were having their names dragged through the mud.

We know this from chapter 10, verses 32, 33, and 34.

They were being put in prison.

They were having their property plundered.

And what we're being told here,

and it requires a radical shift of thinking,

don't be surprised by this.

God is in it.

Training you.

Growing you.

Helping you.

Because God uses all sorts of heat,

all sorts of crisis, hardship, difficulty,

sufferings, to train us, to grow us.

You might be thinking, I didn't sign up for that.

Yes, you did.

When you became a Christian,

when you were adopted by your loving Holy Father,

you signed up for holiness training.

He loves you so much.

This kind of thinking is a radical shift of thinking, isn't it?

Hardship comes into your life.

Sometimes you want to blame God.

Here's a story.

When I was a seminary student,

I was driving the car a lot,

and I'd listen to Moody Radio.

And one afternoon, I was driving home,

and I heard an interview with a Vietnamese pastor.

And this pastor and his church at that time

were suffering greatly in Vietnam.

They had their building burned down.

They were suffering threats.

And at the end of the interview,

the host asks this Vietnamese pastor,

how can we pray for you?

How can the American church pray for you?

And you know what this Vietnamese pastor said?

Don't ask God to stop the persecution.

And then he goes on to say,

our suffering is as if God is tightening the string on a violin.

And we, the Vietnamese church,

gets to add tonal depth to the worship of God across the world.

So he was thinking of his suffering as God's training,

growing, helping them endure.

This Vietnamese pastor had not forgotten Proverbs 3, 11 and 12.

He was seeing that this pain was actually for their good

and our good as the worldwide church.

It's a radical shift of thinking.

Do you have heat in your life?

Are you facing hardship in your life?

Difficulty?

How are you interpreting that?

Have you forgotten you are sons and daughters?

What is God's discipline?

It's God training us.

Second question.

Why does God discipline?

In two words.

Love and holiness.

That was three words.

Love, holiness.

Why would God bring heat into our lives?

Doesn't that seem mean?

Why make us uncomfortable?

Why stretch us?

Why would he intentionally cause us pain?

In this passage, we are giving a two-fold answer.

His motive is love.

And his aim is holiness.

Let's look at his loving motive.

Did you notice when I was reading that there was this reference

to fathers and children all the way through?

In fact, there's a comparison between earthly fathers and our heavenly father.

What's up with that?

I mean, in verses 5 and 6, it's like, have you not forgotten that God addresses you as sons and daughters?

Proverbs 3.

And then he starts talking about, verses 7 and 8,

that the argument is, what kind of father would God be if he didn't discipline us?

The assumption is, fathers lovingly discipline their children.

Hey, if our earthly fathers, then how much more will God?

And then he makes this really interesting statement.

If everyone else of God's children is being disciplined, but you're not,

could it be because you're not a legitimate child?

The other side of that is this.

If you are experiencing the discipline of God, you are a child of his.

Verses 9 and 10, they get at this idea that,

well, earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time as best as they knew how.

I'm grateful for Steve Salvati's discipline in my life.

He did as best as he could.

But our heavenly father, how much more is the argument?

Our heavenly father, how much more will we subject ourselves to him?

Because he disciplines us for the long haul, for our good.

Here's what's behind this, these references to fathers and children.

It's verse 6.

The Lord disciplines the one he loves.

He loves you.

Son of God, he loves you.

Daughter of God, he loves you.

And it's not just a rub your back love.

He's going to love you into holiness.

In verse 10, we read,

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them,

but he disciplines us for our good.

That's his loving commitment.

He loves us into goodness.

And that goodness is not left for us to define, but he defines it to share his holiness.

God in his love values your holiness more than your comfort.

We know from 1 John that God is love.

And we know from our Bibles that the greatest demonstration of God's love towards us is in the giving of his son.

And there was all sorts of pain in that.

Jesus suffered the wrath of God.

Terrible pain physically, spiritually, emotionally, for our good.

And for the joy set before him, Jesus endured it.

God loves you.

He loves you so much.

He wants you to share in his holiness.

Now let's turn to his holy aim.

Verse 10.

He defines for our good.

In greater clarity, he says,

To share that we may share his holiness.

We are to be holy as our God is holy.

And he is actively training us to endure so that we become more and more holy all the way to our very last breath.

The most basic sense of the word holiness is to be set apart.

To be distinct from the world.

And you can think about it along two lines.

In terms of moral purity, God is the ultimate standard of moral righteousness.

He's morally perfect.

Jesus, totally God, totally man, is God incarnate on the planet.

And if you look at his life in the gospels, he was morally sinless.

All the way through.

Morally perfect.

That's the standard for us.

That's what we're being called to.

But it's just not moral purity.

It's relational peace.

It's a holy peace.

Peace within the triune Godhead.

God has eternally experienced peace.

And then when God in his mercy rescued us through the blood of Jesus, adopting us as his own, he made peace with us.

We've been justified by faith and therefore we have peace with God.

God wants us to be like him in his holiness.

And that's not a downer.

That is really good.

God is full of joy.

God is full of joy.

The most joyful being of all experience in all of existence is the most holy.

In verse 11, he goes on to further describe this holiness, this good.

And he describes it as this peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Why does God discipline us?

He disciplines us out of his love for our holiness.

His motive is love.

His aim is holiness.

And he is seeking to yield this peaceful fruit of righteousness, this goodness, this holiness in us.

All right.

Some of you today are going to need to repent of something sinful.

Because when hard things enter your life, instead of trusting in God's holy motive, you question it.

Why are you doing this to me?

Why are you letting this happen?

You're questioning God's character.

You've lost sight.

You've forgotten that he's treating you as sons and daughters.

That he loves you.

That he brings hard things into your life.

Because he loves you and wants to make you holy.

When God brings the heat into your life, what question are you asking?

Are you saying, why are you doing this?

Or are you asking, God, show me what you want to do.

Have your way.

The answer, why does God discipline us?

It's because he loves us.

The third question, how does God discipline us?

In a word, painfully.

Verse 11.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.

Okay, if you're a Christian in the room, I just want you to see the word in verse 11.

The word painful.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.

If you're a child of God, you will experience pain as your heavenly father forms your character.

As he strengthens your endurance, you will experience pain.

Why will you experience pain?

Well, here's some reasons why.

Because oftentimes, when God is at work in you, showing you areas of sin within you,

you start to realize that you've been grieving God.

It's a kind of pain.

And not only grieving God, you've been hurting others.

It's a kind of a pain.

It's the pain of embarrassment.

It's the pain of causing people distress.

That your sin distresses other people.

That's painful.

But what we learn from the Bibles is that when that pain goes from being horizontal to going vertical,

and you gain this godly sorrow over your pain,

that leads to repentance.

That leads to holiness.

Another reason why this can be painful

is because some of our sinful patterns in our life,

we think are going to be painful to give up.

Now, we think, oh no, I can't live without that.

For some reason, they register as lost.

Now, let's be very sober-minded here.

Addictions.

Addiction to pornography.

Addiction to alcohol.

Addictions to gambling.

Addictions to different kinds of drugs.

Addictions to gambling.

There will be pain

and coming off of these sinful patterns.

But to think that that's not worth it.

God is holy and he loves you

and he wants to pull these things,

pull you out of these things.

The pain will be worth it.

another reason why things can be painful is this

because the consequences of past sinful choices

can have ongoing and present painful effects

just think about if you were a younger person

and you were making foolish sinful financial decisions

and now you continue to reap what you sowed 10 years ago, 20 years ago.

That can be painful.

But God is in it, using it to train you.

One other reason is

because suffering for Christ can be painful.

Again, this church that the author is writing to,

they were being publicly humiliated.

There were people being put in prison.

They were having their properties plundered.

That would have been very difficult.

It would have been very painful.

The worst that we tend to experience here now in the United States

is we get looked over for a job

because we're too honest.

People talk about us behind our backs.

We get canceled on social media.

Like that's the worst thing.

You know what?

We haven't resisted to the point of shedding blood yet,

brothers and sisters.

It's going to be painful.

God's discipline is painful.

But God is loving.

He's using it all to train us to endure unto holiness.

To hold fast to Christ all the way to the end,

to our very last breath.

God gets some of his best holiness training done

when we're in crisis.

When we're experiencing the heat.

Pain has a way of getting our attention, doesn't it?

Pain has a way of softening our hearts.

Hardship has a way of giving us ears to hear,

of posturing our hearts.

It was Billy Graham who said that

the same sun that melts the butter hardens the clay.

When heat comes into your life,

it can tenderize you.

Depending on how you respond.

But it's not just the heat of sinful choices

or our sinful choices

or the sinful choices of others.

Natural disasters are heat.

God wants to train us in that.

The heat of aging and ailing bodies.

God is training in that for us.

The heat of a tragic death.

God is training in that for us.

The heat of relational conflict.

God has training in that for us.

He is using all things

because he is a sovereign God in the details.

Behind all this

is the belief that God is in the details.

Working all things out for the good of those who love him.

Been called according to his purpose.

And that purpose is Christ likeness.

Romans 8, 28 and 29.

How does God discipline us?

He uses pain.

Hardship.

Difficulty.

Have you heard the expression?

No pain, no gain?

When I was a young man lifting weights.

No pain, no gain!

I look back on that disbelief now.

But God's training of us

to strengthen our faith muscles.

He will bring pain

to bring about holy gain.

It's because he loves us.

In the moment,

no discipline.

It's seen as,

experience is painful.

But let me just be clear.

To be a child of God

is not all pain.

It's not incessant pain.

We have seasons,

wonderful seasons

of relational peace

and healthy bodies.

And we're not experiencing

persecution from others.

But let's just be clear.

Those are seasons.

What I love about my Bible

is it's so realistic.

It explains reality the best.

Did you see the word later?

For the moment,

all discipline seems painful

rather than pleasant.

But later,

it yields the peaceful fruit

of righteousness

to those who are trained by it.

Later.

You know what?

Many of us want that later

to be like 10 minutes later.

But the reality is this.

God is at work

for your good.

And that later

may be

later in the afternoon.

It yields a peaceful fruit

of righteousness.

It may be later in the week

or weeks

or months

or years.

Remember the book of Judges?

The cycle?

God would raise up a judge.

There would be peace

brought to Israel.

And that judge would die.

And then Israel would go back

to their sinfulness.

And then God would raise up

an oppressor.

That was God's heat.

That was God's loving discipline

of his people.

And sometimes

it took decades

for Israel

to come to a point

of saying,

Lord, deliver us.

God is patient

and he's loving

and he's on a timeline

for our good.

So we'll have seasons

of peace

and sometimes

we'll have seasons

of pain

but God

is using it all

for our good.

We welcome

God's discipline

because it's always

for our good.

There are two passages

I want you to

look at maybe

later today

or in the week

just so that you know

that what I'm telling you

is not just limited

to the book of Hebrews.

Look up Romans 5,

2-5.

Look up James 1,

2-4.

When we are told

that we welcome

hardship and suffering

because it produces

in us endurance

and in the end

steadfastness

and in the end

holiness.

He brings heat

and pain

for our good.

Last question is

how do we respond

to God's discipline?

in a word

humbly.

We humble ourselves.

In verse 11

we read this

for the moment

all discipline

seems painful

rather than pleasant

but later

it yields

the peaceful

fruit of righteousness

to those

who have been

trained by it.

To those

who've welcomed it.

to those

who have

subjected themselves

to the will of God

their father.

To those

who have

humbled

themselves.

I've been trying

to convince you

that we

welcome

God's loving

discipline.

We welcome it.

We welcome

the momentary pain

because we are

convinced

that holiness

is better

than comfort.

And this

those who've been

trained by it

there's another word

in the passage.

It's in verse 9

that gets

at the heart

of this.

Besides this

we've had

earthly fathers

who disciplined

us and we

respected them.

Shall we not

much more

be subject

to the

father of

spirits

and live

to submit

ourselves

to him

and live

to thrive?

In verse 36

we read

for you have

need of endurance

so that

when you

have done

the will

of God

you may

receive

what is

promised.

This is just

different ways

of talking

about humbling

yourself

under God's

mighty hand.

Surrendering

your will

to his.

Welcoming

his holy

and sometimes

painful work.

It's where

we are

consenting

to what

he's doing.

Where we

yield to him.

Trusting

in his

character.

Here's what

that sounds

like.

God brings

heat into

your life.

Maybe your

first impulse

is to react

in unbelief.

Why are you

doing this?

But then you

come to your

senses and

you say

father would

you have

your way

in me?

I don't

I don't know

why all this

is happening

other than

I trust

in your

character.

I trust

that you

are loving.

I trust

that you

want to

produce

holiness

in me.

So God

would you

use these

circumstances

in my

life

to make

me more

like

Christ.

God

opposes

the proud

but gives

grace to

the humble.

I want

to recommend

a book

for you.

It's this

little book

by David

Mathis.

It's called

Humbled.

Many of you

have read

it.

Listen to

the

subtitle.

Welcoming

the

uncomfortable

work of

God.

There are

11 copies

of this

at the

Connect

desk.

Grab one

on your

way out.

This

will help

you

welcome

God's

loving

discipline.

See it

for what it

is.

To make

the most

of it.

Imagine

this.

You're a

dad with

a 10

year old

son.

He steals

$20 from

your wallet.

You've got

it on

video.

Two

responses.

You tell

me which

one is

the humble

response.

response

one.

You bring

your son

into your

bedroom.

You're like

son.

I got

you on

video.

Your son

says that's

not me.

He looks

like me

but that's

not me.

Did you

talk to

Scott?

My older

brother?

He looks

like me.

Maybe it

was him.

And he

starts digging

himself further

and further

into the

pit.

Right?

And you're

going to

have to

respond to

that wisely

as a mom

or dad to

have an

appropriate

consequence.

But is he

humbling

himself?

No.

Second

response.

You show

your son the

video.

First thing

he says,

that was

me.

I haven't

been able to

sleep,

dad.

I've been

wanting to

tell you but

I've been

afraid.

I've been

afraid of what

you would

do.

In fact,

I know I

deserve to

be spanked.

Here's the

$20.

You spank

him.

Tears are

shed.

And then he

says to

you,

thanks dad

for helping

me.

I know

it's wrong

to steal.

I know

it grieves

God,

it hurts

others,

and that

includes

myself.

30 years

later,

he says,

dad,

you know

what?

I haven't

stolen

since.

I learned

a lesson

that day.

Which one

humbled

themselves?

The second,

he took

responsibility

for what they

had done,

and they

allowed the

discipline to

run its

course and

to train

him to

be holy.

The rest

of the

passage in

verses 12

through 17

shows us

what it

looks like

to run

the race

that God

marked out

for us,

to pursue

holiness,

to run it

in peace

and in

holiness,

both in

terms of

relational

peace,

in terms of

sexual purity,

let's

apply it

like this.

Are you

experiencing

heat?

Are you

experiencing

hardship?

How are

you interpreting

that?

Is that

just the

universe

run amok?

Could it

be that

your heavenly

father is

behind it

for your

good?

Yes!

He's

sovereign over

all things

and he

is loving

you unto

holiness

and so

if you're

experiencing

heat

personally,

what you

do is

you humble

yourself.

You say,

God,

use this

for my

good

and that's

not letting

other people

off the

hook.

That's you

saying,

God,

do your

work in

me.

Not

blaming

others that

you start

with yourself

but then

do you

know someone

who's

experiencing

God's

heat?

Are you

living life

with people

who are

experiencing

God's

heat?

Yes!

You know

how you

can help

them?

You help

them by

pointing them

to the

throne of

grace.

By saying

you need to

cry out to

God,

help you in

your time

of need.

Welcome

his work.

I'm with

you.

I'll walk

with you.

Let's do

this

together.

How do

you respond

to God's

loving

discipline?

We humble

ourselves.

We welcome

it.

Some of

the most

formative

moments for

us will be

when God

brings the

heat.

Why does

what is

God's

discipline?

It's

training.

Training

in holiness.

Why does

God

discipline?

He loves

us.

He wants

us to

be holy.

How does

God

discipline

us?

He uses

pain.

And how

do we

respond?

In humility.

We welcome

God's loving

discipline because

it's always for

our good.

Let's pray

together.

God in

heaven,

forgive us

for questioning

your motives,

for arching

our back

when you are

seeking to do

us good

through hard

things.

God, would

you have your

way in us

grace?

And would

you help

us, one

another, to

obtain the

grace of

God that we

would help

each other not

miss out on

what you're

doing in

our lives.

God, would

you help us

to endure and

to make us

holy for the

glory of your

name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.