Celebration of Discipline

Well, I bring you warm greetings from your sister church, Church of the Resurrection down on Capitol Hill.

I've known a few of you for a couple years at vigils or other various Renew DC events.

I hope to get to know some more of you after the service today.

If you've got a Bible, turn back to Hebrews 12, which is going to be our text today.

Hebrews 12, verses 3 through 14.

Hebrews 12:3–14

As you're getting there, I want to kind of set this passage up a little bit for you guys.

I know that you have been doing your own sermon series through Colossians about being made alive in Christ.

Christ is at the center of Colossians.

Christ is the highest.

Christ is the best.

He is the reason.

He is the everything.

Through him, we are made alive, truly alive in every aspect of our heart and our mind and our body in all facets of our life.

I wanted to piggyback a little bit on this.

And offer a bit of a companion piece this week.

I wanted to talk about discipline and hard times.

About what happens when, even though we are alive in Christ, we still face adversity.

So, in Hebrews, like Colossians, we get chapter after chapter where Jesus is shown as the author, the perfecter, the center, the everything of our faith.

If you're not familiar with the book of Hebrews, here's a 30-second summary.

Hebrews was in all likelihood meant to be heard as a sermon.

So, they would have heard the entire thing as one.

So, people hearing this passage tonight on God disciplining us would have first heard chapters 1 through 11, where they would have heard that Jesus is better than angels.

Jesus is better than Moses.

Jesus is better than Joshua.

Jesus is our great high priest.

So, with confidence, let us draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham.

He is the mediator of a new covenant that we have with God.

Jesus is our tabernacle.

He is our holy place that goes with us throughout the world.

Christ's sacrifice was sufficient.

It was all-encompassing.

It was perfect.

And it was through that that God will say, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

We can be confident through our faith in Christ, and we can be confident in our faith in Christ.

Christ's sacrifice is our God.

So, this is what we've set up as we come to chapter 12 to talk about what's called in Bible studies the imperative, the implication, the what are we supposed to do in light of all this.

As we prepare to dive into this, will you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for your word and the privilege to sit under it.

Your word is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Will you use it to pierce through our dull senses tonight?

Will you use it to reshape our minds and our attitudes and our hearts

and our steps ever toward Jesus?

And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.

There's a lot of times when things can happen to us because of things that we did.

And everybody knows that person in their life who, no matter what happens,

will always say, well, you know, everything happens for a reason.

One of my favorite bumper stickers I've ever seen is,

everything happens for a reason.

Sometimes that reason is that you are stupid and make bad choices.

Not all the knocks that we get in life are God disciplining us.

Some of them are just us.

But sometimes, sometimes God will take things away from us that we love.

Sometimes God will give us things that he doesn't think we can handle.

Why? Why does he do these things?

Well, look with me at verses 5 and 6 of our passage tonight.

This is a great place to start.

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 he chastises every son whom he receives.

That comes from Proverbs in the Old Testament.

It's Proverbs 3.11 if you want to read it later.

So why does God discipline us?

Well, one really good reason is because he loves us.

Because to demonstrate that love for us,

he disciplines us to shape us into a better version of ourselves.

And that's one of the two things that this passage talks about,

is what to do when God disciplines us.

And the other one, which we'll get to later,

is how do we discipline ourselves?

But first, why is God disciplining us?

It's because he's our Father and he loves us.

I think that most people probably knew that kid growing up who had no rules,

who could stay out as late as he wanted,

who could watch whatever he wanted on TV.

He didn't really have to do any homework.

There were just seemingly no boundaries for him.

And his parents must have been the coolest people

because they just let him get away with whatever they wanted to.

They certainly were a lot cooler than mine.

I'm not going to lie to you.

I wrote this before I realized my father was going to be in the congregation today.

But seriously, let me ask you this.

You probably knew one of those kids.

So, if you flash forward to today,

how do you think that person reacts today when he is told no?

What do you think would have been more loving, ultimately,

for his parents to have given him no boundaries

or for his parents to have provided him discipline?

Verse 5.

When God disciplines us, he is doing so because he sees us as sons.

He sees us as his children.

When you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit is daily shaping you

into a person who looks more like Jesus.

This is seen in your study on Colossians last week.

Part of that discipline is living in the way that Christ would have us live.

Husbands, love your wives.

Wives, love your husbands.

Children, honor your parents.

Parents, honor your children.

Employers, honor your employees.

Employees, honor your employers.

We are called to do these things with no promise of reward

because they are good works,

and God is glorified when we do them.

So, what does that mean?

Why is God glorified when he disciplines us?

God doesn't necessarily discipline us because we screw up.

Jesus himself talks about this in John 9.

He and his disciples are walking.

John 9, 2 specifically.

He and his disciples are walking.

The disciples see a blind man,

and they say to him,

Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,

that he was born blind?

Jesus answered,

It was not that this man sinned or his parents,

but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

That the works of God might be displayed in him.

That God would be so glorified

because the hardship that this man had been given

gave Jesus a chance to display his grace and his mercy

and his power and his own glory

by healing the man in the sight of all.

Why was this man blind?

Why had he been afflicted since birth?

Because of something he did?

No, so that God could be more glorified.

Why was Jesus sweating blood

in the Garden of Gethsemane

in our Gospel text tonight?

Because he was about to go to the cross

for all of our sins.

Was he going to the cross

because he had done something wrong?

No.

It's so that God could be more glorified

in his plan to redeem us.

So, what does that have to do with you and me?

Well, it's really simple, fortunately.

This is not always a good thing

because sometimes simple things

don't mean that they're easy.

And it isn't.

This is no exception.

This is not easy, but it's actually very simple.

Verse 11 of our text tonight.

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.

Stop assuming

that the hard stuff in your life

is nothing more than an inconvenience.

Look for ways that God is working on you

and praise him for it.

And this sounds ridiculous.

Bless him for it.

And that sounds absurd.

The Lord gives

and the Lord takes away.

And blessed be the name of the Lord.

Look at those areas

where you can clearly feel God

kind of working on you

and rounding off the hard edges of your soul.

Look for those areas in life

where he's clearly guiding you away from something

or guiding you towards something.

God trains us

and he shapes us.

Why does he do this?

Because he is our Father.

Why does he do this?

Some of you might really bristle

when you hear language like that,

when God is called our Father.

I get that.

I do.

Many of you had fathers

who disciplined you.

Maybe not so much

so that you could eventually flourish,

but to vent their own anger

and soothe their own twisted souls.

Maybe you had a father

who abandoned you.

He didn't want to have anything to do with you.

Now, if you had a father

who modeled

what our Heavenly Father is to us,

then praise God.

Go and call him today.

Thank him.

But,

if you didn't,

please know

you can look to God

to be the perfect father

that you always wanted

but never got.

God is our perfect father.

He disciplines us

in order to shape us.

And he allows us

and he shows us

how to discipline ourselves.

And that brings us to question two.

How do we discipline ourselves?

You can't be in one of our churches

too long,

either sitting under the preaching

of Tommy or Dan,

or Dan Clare and Sean

back in my church.

You can't be around us too long

without running into the name

Jamie Smith.

James K.A. Smith

wrote a book called

Desiring the Kingdom.

It's all about the liturgies

of culture around you,

about the spiritual power of habit.

Throughout the book,

Smith asks the question,

do we love the things,

how do we know

that we love the things

that we say that we love?

How can we tell?

It actually can end up

being a very uncomfortable question.

How can we tell

the things that we love?

We can tell it

by what we spend our time on,

by what we spend our energy on.

Again,

it's one of those things

that's simple,

but that doesn't necessarily

make it easy.

There's a phrase

that I used to hear

in seminary

that you'll occasionally hear

in talking about worship,

and I think it really applies here.

It's a really fun Latin phrase,

and it's

lex arendi,

lex credendi.

It's really easy to remember,

what you pray

is what you believe.

And this is often

kind of expanded

to be

what you worship

is what you believe.

How you worship

shows the things

that you believe.

What you truly believe in

will be shown

by what you worship.

This is at the core

of what Jamie Smith

talks about.

You can tell

what you worship

by the liturgies

that you create

in life.

So as we are called

to cast off sin,

to put aside

sinful ways,

to choose

the path of Christ,

this is very difficult.

Remember that quick

highlight reel

that I gave

of Hebrews.

Right before this chapter

in Hebrews 11

is something called

the Great Hall of Faith

where all of the,

or many of the standouts

of the Old Testament

are named.

If you look at that list,

though,

if you're familiar

with the Old Testament,

one thing is abundantly clear.

Everyone on that list

is every bit as messed up

as you or I.

Everyone on that list

is a sinner

whom God used

for his purpose

and his glory.

And even so,

with this grandstand

of sinners

watching us,

we are still exhorted,

the writer of the Hebrews

tells us,

to press on

to the goal.

Verse 3,

consider him

who endured

that is considered Jesus.

This is all

like Colossians,

like the entire Bible,

the book of Hebrews.

Everything Points to Christ.

Consider him

who endured

from sinners

such hostility

against himself

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.

Consider whom?

Consider who?

Consider Jesus.

Jesus,

the God-man,

fully God

and fully man,

prayed in the garden

that God would find

some other way

if there were

any other way

that we could

fulfill your plan

without going to the cross

and taking on

the sin of the world.

Can we please

do it that way?

And he prayed

so fervently

that he sweat blood.

Even before

he shed his blood

on the cross,

he was bleeding

under the weight

of God's discipline.

And there appeared

to him

an angel from heaven

strengthening him.

And being in agony,

he prayed more earnestly

and his sweat

became like great

drops of blood

falling to the ground.

And as he rose

from prayer,

he came to his disciples

and he found them

sleeping for sorrow

and he said to them,

Why are you sleeping?

Rise

and pray

that you may not

enter into temptation.

As I was thinking

about these two passages,

I realized

that

Jesus'

instructions here

are very good

for us as well.

There is no better

daily discipline

to get into

than prayer.

It isn't

glamorous.

It isn't

there's no

lightning bolt.

It isn't

world changing.

It is just simply

a conscious effort

every day

in those little

everyday ways

to

discipline ourselves,

to follow more

after Christ.

And I think

that prayer

and making

a routine

habit

of prayer

throughout the day

is one of the

best ways

to do it.

It's not just

about changing

our minds.

It's about

examining our hearts

and our hands

and seeing where

we spend our time.

Maybe it's about

on a pragmatic

level

the self-discipline

that God calls us

to do,

figuring out

where our

worship is,

where our

allegiances lie.

That can be done

with figuring out

how we really

spend our money,

taking a really

hard and

unflinching look

at that.

It can be done

figuring out

how we spend

our time,

taking a really

hard and

unflinching look

at that.

Our passage

ends

tonight by

talking about

the kind of

self-discipline

that we are

called to do,

that we are

empowered to do.

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

healed.

So,

before this all

becomes about

how we are

all each

getting better

and stronger

and faster,

what does

this all mean?

It's no surprise

if you have

read

Colossians,

if you have

read Hebrews,

if you've

read the Bible.

This is all

about Jesus.

God disciplines

us because

he's our

father,

and sometimes

he has to

discipline us

in order to

mold us

into the

mold of

Christ.

And he

disciplines us

because we

are sons.

The writer of

Hebrews is

clear to say

sons and

not sons

and daughters,

although there

are other

places in the

New Testament

where that

language is

used.

This can

really trip

us up.

In a modern

day, we

often want

to just

kind of

inherently

say sons

and daughters.

My wife

and I

are in the

process of

adopting our

first kid.

We have

been reading

a bunch of

books on

adoption.

Baptist

theologian

Russell Moore

in his book

on adoption

actually addresses

this exact

thing, and I

just wanted

to point out

what this

discipline that

God gives

us is for

and what it

means.

In a modern

context, we

do want to

put and

daughters on

the end of

any sentence.

When we

are in

Christ, we

are truly

sons and

daughters of

God, but

there is a

bigger component.

In the

ancient world,

what did

sons do?

They

inherited.

They

received the

riches of

the household,

the estate,

the land.

How great

is it that

all Christians,

this is

Russell Moore,

how great

is it that

all Christians,

men and

women, are

adopted by

God and

gifted the

inheritance of

peace with

God, the

inheritance of

union with

Christ, the

inheritance of

eternal life in

a new

recreated heavens

and new

earth with

new resurrected

bodies.

How amazing

is that, that

that is our

inheritance.

God is our

father and we

are his sons, and

that is possible

only through the

work of Jesus

Christ.

That great

inheritance that

we have was

won for us by

the suffering of

Christ on the

cross.

When he who

was not sin

became sin so

that we might

become the

righteousness of

God.

part of

becoming the

righteousness of

God is God

disciplining us

and us

disciplining

ourselves.

We are called

to do it.

We are empowered

to do it.

Why shouldn't we

do it?

Becoming more and

more like Christ

is one of the

greatest things in

the world.

And there are

times, there are

days where, I'm

not going to lie,

my fallen mind

and my sinful

appetites would

buck against that

and would say

that being

disciplined by

God, that

becoming more

Christ-like, that

there are a lot

of things that

are better than

that.

But it's not

because it's not

glamorous, because

it's not the kind

of thing that is

going to get

noticed or

remembered.

It's often easy

to overlook.

But for the

Christian, for the

one who knows

that what we have

as inheriting

children of God,

there truly is

nothing better.

There's a great

film from a few

years ago called

Man on Wire.

It's a story about

a guy who strung a

tightrope between

the two towers of

the World Trade

Center in the

1970s and walked

across them.

It is an absolutely

amazing film.

If you've ever read

anything about

tightrope walking,

you'll always hear the

same thing when

someone is learning.

They'll just tell you

the same thing over

and over again.

Don't look down.

Never look down.

Never look at your

feet.

Never look at what

you're doing.

Look at where

you're going.

And I think that

that's true in

everyday life as

well.

If I'm walking

along this stage,

I'm only looking at

my feet.

If I'm not looking

at where I'm going,

I'm going to trip

down the stairs and

I'm going to fall.

How much more true

is that when somebody

who's walking across

a wire one inch thick

suspended 105 stories

above the ground,

which is about a

quarter mile.

When you're walking

on a tightrope,

if you look down,

if you look at what

you're doing and not

where you're going,

you're going to fall.

Read verses 12 and 13

with me.

Lift your drooping heads.

Strengthen your weak

knees.

Redouble your efforts.

Call on the body of

Christ for help if you

need it.

please call on the body

of Christ for help.

Do not do this alone.

Don't look to yourself.

Don't look to your own

devices.

Look to Jesus.

He is the point of

this whole thing.

He's the center of this

whole thing.

In a culture where

happiness is everything

and comfort is king,

the idea of willingly

submitting to a plan

of discipline is just

ridiculous.

ridiculous.

It's utter foolishness

to submit to someone

else's discipline when

it comes to my thoughts

and my desires and my

heart.

But the church is

supposed to look foolish

because Jesus Christ,

God and man in one

person, went to the

cross and died for

millions and billions

and trillions of sins

that he didn't deserve.

And he did it out of

love for us.

I want to end by going

back to our Old Testament

text for a moment.

In Deuteronomy,

Deuteronomy chapter 8,

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

tonight we heard verses

1 through 6.

And this is really about

not looking at what we're

doing but keeping our

eyes focused on where

we're going.

I chose this chapter,

I chose this passage of

Deuteronomy 8, 1 through 6

because it's a great word

about God discipling.

I'm sorry about God

disciplining.

I would have kept going

to the end of this

passage but I was afraid

that if I did,

no one would have heard

what came in the middle.

What came in the middle

and where we ended our

reading on was,

Know then in your heart

that as a man disciplines

his son, the Lord your

God disciplines you.

So you shall keep the

commandments of your Lord

by walking in his ways

and by fearing him.

But then it continues

and it gives us a picture

of what eternal life

in the presence of God

through Christ will look like.

For the Lord your God

is bringing you into a good land,

a land of brooks,

a land of brooks,

of water,

of fountains and springs,

flowing out of the valleys

and hills,

a land of wheat and barley,

of vines and fig trees

and pomegranates,

a land of olive trees

and honey,

a land in which you will

eat bread without scarcity,

a land in which you will

lack nothing,

a land whose stones

are iron

and out of whose hills

you can dig copper.

And you shall eat

and be full

and you shall bless

the Lord your God

for the good land

he has given you.

God disciplines us

because he is our good shepherd.

God disciplines us

because he is shaping us,

he is guiding us,

he is driving us

into this great land

that we will all

eventually inherit.

Will you pray with me?

Amen.

Amen.