Trusting His Correction | Pastor Kami Palmer | Faith Church

So we've been talking about, from the book of

Hebrews, and I've been telling you that I'm going

to be preaching this word. And I really wanted

to set it up, though, because the verses leading

up to the middle of Hebrews 12 are all verses

that should encourage you and cause you to, with

anticipation and joy, receive what the middle

of Hebrews 12 says. And so the previous sermons,

we've been talking about running our race and

how God wants us to do well in our race, and

he's setting us up to run it well. Last week

we talked about thriving, right? Being a green

leaf and thriving. All of that is to set us up

for Hebrews 12. And one of my favorite verses

is in Isaiah 48, 17. And it simply says, the

Lord teaches you to profit. The Lord teaches

you to profit. Now that's not just about profit

financially. This is about profiting in my spiritual

life, in my emotions, in my family. It's profit

in all areas. Do I figure that out on my own?

No. The Lord teaches me to do that. And so our

text is out of Romans chapter 12. And we've just

Romans 12 · chapter mention

finished. Talking about running our race, and

we finished with, here's how you run the race

well. You consider him who endured, right? You

look to Jesus who endured. And so directly following

that verse, in verse 5, it says, 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 and do not lose heart when

he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines the

one he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts

as his son. Endure hardship as discipline. God

is treating you as children. For what children

are not disciplined by their father? If you are

not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline,

then you are not legitimate. You are 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. But 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. Now, this passage is coming

from a time in a culture where they assume that

there are fathers and mothers that are training

up their children, right? And we know, I was

blessed to have that, and I'm thankful for the

discipline of my parents and my grandmother.

But not everybody has had that kind of a relationship

with a father or a mother where they have been

trained and disciplined. Or if they have, it's

been on the extreme side of abusiveness that

is not discipline and is not training. That is

the fruit of temper, anger, and perverseness.

And so for some of us, this is going to be hard

to truly get what it looks like for a father

to truly discipline. You've never experienced

it. You just don't really have much clue what

that looks like. This is why it says the Lord

teaches us. What I don't want is for those of

you that experienced that to feel like, well,

that's not for me because I've not ever experienced

that. No, you have a perfect father that will

teach you, if you are open to it, what that looks

like. And will, in the process, heal woundedness

from that. He's fully able to do that. And so

I just want to say that as we're looking at that,

looking forward into this sermon, there's that

understanding that for some of you, this might

be a whole new concept you need the Lord to teach

you and what it looks like for a father to discipline

and to train. And so this morning, we're going

to start with a story from a man after God's

own heart, King David. And this is following

King David's affair. and subsequent murder of

another person, not himself, right? So it starts

in the story of King David not being where he

should be in the spring. All of the other kings

were out fighting in battle, and he was still

at home. He was lounging at home when he should

have been out to war. So to begin with, he wasn't

where he should have been. And so his gaze found

Bathsheba bathing on the housetop. And he desired

her. And so he took her. I'm the king. I can

take whoever or whatever I want. And so she became

pregnant. Well, now his sin is going to find

him out because her husband was where he should

have been. He was out fighting on behalf of King

David. And so while Bathsheba's wife is fighting

for King David, King David had an affair with

his wife. So now she's pregnant, and David has

to cover his sin. And he does that through having,

through a set of circumstances, her husband killed

in battle. And so this is where we find King

David. Now, I also want to say this about discipline

and correction of the Lord. For King David, this

is the result of his sin. Not every discipline

and correction is because you have some big sin

in your life. Sometimes God is just wanting to

train you. He's wanting to prepare you. He's

wanting you to learn the ways of the kingdom.

In fact, in Proverbs 30, it says there are some

things that the earth can't tolerate. The earth

can't abide. And that is a servant that becomes

a king. Well, why is that? Because servants don't

have the mentality, the paradigm of what it is

to be royalty. And so there's no way they can

occupy the role of a king. They only know what

it is to be a servant, to have a servant mentality.

And so it says the earth can't abide that. Well,

think about what we've all come out of in our

sin, in our past, in all of our willfulness before

we met Jesus. And now it says we have Abba Father.

Now we are stepping into the place of royalty.

I think there's some things we need to learn

about the kingdom, right? And so when we're talking

about correction and discipline, it's not about

just punishment. It is about consequences for

sure, but it's also about training us in the

ways of God's kingdom. And although David here

is going to learn that there were consequences

to his sin, really what this is about is that

he was not doing his life kingdom -minded. And

so it wasn't just a consequence, but God's trying

to teach him, David, here's what you need to

be to be a king of Israel. And so David has done

all of this, and in 2 Samuel 12, the Lord sends

to David a prophet who is a trusted friend of

David's, and his name is Nathan. And so when

Nathan comes to David, he says, he tells a parable,

kind of like Jesus. And I know all of you that

have watched VeggieTales are thinking of the

king's duck, right? I know what you're all thinking.

There were two men in a certain town, one rich

and the other poor. The rich man had a very large

number of sheep and cattle. But the poor man

had nothing but one little ewe. He raised it,

and it grew up with him and his children. It

shared his food, it drank from his cup, and it

even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter

to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man,

but the rich man refrained from taking one of

his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for

the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he

went to his neighbor, he took the ewe lamb that

belonged to the poor man and prepared it for

the one who had come to him. Oh, it says in verse

5 that David burned with anger against the man

and said to Nathan, as surely as the Lord lives,

the man who did this must die. He must pay for

that lamb four times over because he did such

a thing and had no pity. Oh, then comes the kicker.

Nathan looks at David and says, David, you are

that man. You are that man. And then there follows

God's rebuke to David. over what he had done

with Bathsheba and her husband. And so I want

us, there's just a couple of takeaways today

that I want us to look at to help us, because

this is a gift. The correction, the discipline,

the rebuke of the Lord is a gift to you. It means

that he considers you. He's not pushing you away

from him. What he's doing is trying to bring

you closer to him. It means you're his daughter.

It means you're his son. And he's trying to draw

you closer into him. That's what the discipline

and correction means. And so the first thing

in our ability to endure and undergo that kind

of rebuke and discipline and correction is that

we first have to understand the heart of God

in it. Okay? We have to understand the heart

of God. And you guys, you hear me read this passage

over and over. And I want us to go to it today.

I started us out with it. But in Isaiah 48, this

is another life passage for me. I should just

write them all down. I don't know. I have so

many of them that have truly been such foundational

transformative verses. And this is one of them.

And so it starts out in verse 13. This is what

the Lord said. Now, he wrote this after addressing

Israel as being strong -willed. They were exerting

their own will. And so this is what God says

to them in the face of that. I am the Lord your

God who teaches you what is best for you. What

I read earlier was a different version, who teaches

you to profit. I think this is the NIV, it says

he teaches what is best for you. And we often

think we know what's best, right? Who directs

you in the way you should go. If only you had

paid attention to my commands, your peace would

have been like a river. Your well -being like

the waves of the sea. Your descendants would

have been like the sand. Your children, like

its numberless grains, their name would never

be blotted out nor destroyed from me. This is

such a powerful passage, and there's a couple

of takeaways from it that I want us to get. And

the first one is that he wants your best. And

some of us, that's hard to really believe. Because

nobody in life has wanted my best. And so now

I believe I don't deserve best. But can I say

to you, he is wanting to teach you what is best.

He wants your best for you. He wants you to profit.

He desires you to profit. He desires to establish

a way of life that is peaceful. He desires a

life for you that is one of well -being. He desires

this to be a family legacy. Some of you, the

legacy you inherited was not one of peace, was

not one of well -being. He wants to establish

a new family legacy through you. That's his best

for you. That's why he gives his correction and

his discipline. He's establishing a new family

legacy. And so this means that his goal for you

is not your creature comforts, how you're feeling

and how comfortable you are right now. That's

not his goal for you. His goal is a transformational,

transforming legacy. to pass on to the generations.

We cannot be short -sighted in this. He's creating

a legacy that is ongoing and eternal beyond you

being comfortable today. And that's hard because

we like being comfortable. We don't like things

like fasting. Because we get uncomfortable. But

fasting is a way of training ourselves in righteousness.

Now, once we trust that he wants what is best

for us, we can then trust his direction. It's

hard to trust his directing in your life if you

don't trust his heart that he wants what is best

for you. And so I actually asked, Gage and Kenzie

aren't here today, and I asked her last night

if I could share this testimony. What some of

you older ones don't maybe know, because when

you got married 50, 40 years ago, we had a different

culture and society. But for our young adults,

our younger families, getting married and not

just living together, is a real sacrifice. It

is very, our society and our government has not

made it easy for our young people to get married.

It costs them a lot of money when most of them

don't have a lot of it to begin with. And so

for them to take that step of obedience, I remember

when Destiny and Les did that, they immediately

lost money in child care. Thousands. So I've

been going through marriage counseling with Gage

and Kenzie. They're getting married in May. And

if you don't know this yet, Kenzie has begun

this semester with nursing school. And so in

our discussion has arisen, well, if we can have

just a ceremony and file the legal paperwork

later, save her thousands of dollars with her

FAFSA. And so Darren and I had the conversation

with them just a couple weeks ago saying, there

is this point in the process where we begin to

trust the blessing of the Lord over the aid of

the government, right? Now we can all agree,

but that's a hard step to take because you will

feel it. So they were, okay, we're going to do

it legally. They'd made that decision, we're

going to do it legally. Well, Darren had made

that statement about trusting the blessing more,

and so she messaged me Thursday, and she said,

I had to share this with you. Ever since our

meeting, I've been repeating that to myself every

day about trusting the blessing. She said, I

got a phone call today that... Through certain

funding, not her FAFSA, but from funding from

elsewhere, all of her schooling, all of her schooling

has been covered. All of it. I read it and I

laughed, didn't I? I laughed. What did they do?

They decided to trust. That God wanted their

best. And so they aligned their life to that.

And God came through. God came through. Praise

the Lord. So when we begin, what is she doing?

What is her engaged doing now in that moment?

They are beginning to build their story of God's

faithfulness to them. Right? That's now become

a foundation to build their family on when God

reveals his faithfulness to them in that way.

And so now the next time they feel a direction

of the Lord, what are they going to do? They're

going to be a little more likely, aren't they,

to come into alignment with God's direction.

Now they can trust the heart of God for them.

And so they will now. much easier follow in the

direction that he wants them to go. And so that's

our second point there is that now we're trusting

his direction. So I learned something in small

group on Wednesday night that aircrafts, if they

by one degree, there's a rule, a rule that is

called the one in 60 rule. Okay, everybody say

one in 60 rule. A one degree, often stated as

a 1%, course deviation. So just one degree, 1

% of a course deviation results to being one

nautical mile off track for every 60 nautical

miles traveled. Okay, so you say, what does that

mean? You boil that down to this. A one degree

error on a flight from Los Angeles to Rome will

land you in Africa. A one degree, a 1 % off from

Los Angeles to Rome will land you in Africa.

And see, sometimes we're just, Lord, we're just

a little bit. I'm not hugely walking in a direction

foreign to God, but there's this one area that

I really want my will to be done. And it won't

hurt anything. It's just 1%. It's just one degree.

For the most part, I'm still going in his direction

that he wants me to go. I'm still doing it his

way. Listen, that 1 % is all that stinking devil

needs, and we will find ourself in a place we

never thought we would be, out in Africa. We

think it's not much. This is why we sing what

we do this morning. We're going to be completely

consumed. We give it all. We don't hold anything

back. Because it doesn't take much for us to

begin to veer off track. In our passage in Hebrews

12, it said, how much more then should we submit

to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined

us for a little while as they thought best. But

God disciplines us for our good that we may share

in holiness. And so once you trust, he wants

your best. You can trust his direction. And once

you trust his direction, now you are truly open

to correction. Now you have a teachable spirit.

Have you ever tried to teach somebody that doesn't

have a teachable spirit? Oh, she's here. I'm

going to use her as an example. Chris Northrup

down here. I tell this story a lot, Chris. Steve

and Chris are from our church in Galesburg. And

I have said, I can teach anybody to knit. Anybody.

I have taught so many people to knit. I can teach

anybody to knit. And then I would try to teach

Chris. And I will tell you, she's been the only

person I have failed to teach to knit. And do

you know why? I don't know if you remember this,

Chris. The whole time she kept saying, I just

can't do this. I just can't do this. The whole

time she was repeating, I just can't do this.

Finally, I was like, no, you can't. Do you know

why? Because she was... She was determined. She

couldn't do this. Listen, there are things in

your life that you think because of your past,

because of your family, because of this or what

you've done or before Jesus, the things that

you did, that you can't do what God wants you

to do. You can't live in accordance with his

ways. And I'll tell you, it's just not true.

If you will be open, we're going to have to have

another knitting lesson, Chris. I'm determined

now. We're going to change the narrative that

you declare while we're doing that. Once you,

it is that open, teachable spirit that is what

gives you the ability to be empowered by and

guided by the direction of God. It's being teachable.

And so the correction of God that we find. Here

in verse 7 of 2 Samuel, Nathan had said to David,

remember, you are that man. And God began to

then do what? Rebuke him. He began to, in fact,

down in verse 12, God said to him, you did it

in secret, your sin. This is why I'm always on

about making the secret place beautiful. Because

you win it in the secret place. You did it in

secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight

before all of Israel. He was going to rebuke

and correct David. I love, though, David's immediate

response. Because, see, David messed up a lot,

but David did have a heart for God, and he was

teachable, and he said, I have sinned against

the Lord. And what you need to hear and be encouraged

by is Nathan's response. Immediately, he says,

the Lord has taken away your sin. You are not

going to die. Immediately, the mercy of the Lord

was showered down upon David on his confession.

Now he said, but because by doing this you have

shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born

to you out of this sin will die. Now a couple

of things in that. First of all, we said it,

the secret place matters. The second thing we

see here, and this might feel harsh to you, is

that God was going to expose it in public. And

there's just a couple of things I want us to

be mindful in this verse. First of all, David

was a king. And when you are king, you have greater

responsibility. You live in public. And so he

was going to be exposed in public. I feel that

as I minister the word publicly. I am going to

have a greater accountability for what I say

and how I live because I have a public place

here doing that. And so we need to take that

in mind, that David was in that public office

of being king. We see that across the board with

the ministers that have been taken out of ministry

in the last year across the nation. And it happens

very publicly. Why? Because they are... people

in the public face, right? And so they can't

just repent and it all just be okay. No, they

had to be removed from that place. So we take

that into consideration. The other thing that

I find fascinating in this is that David's life

has always been a foreshadow of the Messiah.

How he did worship, how he led, even his heart

of worship. He had revelation in the old covenant

that nobody else had of what the new covenant

was going to be. So David is always, his life,

his kingdom, his reign has been a foreshadow,

right? Jesus came from the lineage of David.

And I think that this is a beautiful foreshadow

that all of our sin in the secret places, Jesus.

publicly took on the cross. All of our sin and

shame was exposed there on the cross. He didn't

do it in the secret room in the back, take our

sin. No, he did it on the cross in front of everybody.

Now, having said all of that, I believe in the

kindness of our Father, of God. And I believe

that, like any good parent, that he brings us

along in the easiest way that we will come. And

some of us are very quick to respond when he

brings that correction. Yes, Lord, I have sinned.

And it's dealt with. Some of us have to learn

our lessons a little bit harder. Some of us are

a little more teachable than others. And so it's

however we learn to respond to the Father. I

believe he is not a God of humiliation, that

he is not trying to deal with your stuff in front

of everybody. It's the beauty of the secret place.

And so just as in raising my four kids, they

got a lot of correction, right? I did not correct

them in front of other people. I was not wanting

to humiliate my children in front of other people.

That was the place of the secret place of their

home. And I believe that's the heart of our Father.

He's always, he's not the God of humiliation.

Jesus took that humiliation. And so this is part

of the ability to trust his correction and guidance.

That he's always trying to cover you. He's always

trying to do it in the easiest way possible.

And he's always trying to do it in a place where

you will feel safe and secure in receiving it.

Amen? And so I just feel like we need to say

that. That if we think that, oh, he's going to

be like he was with David in front of everybody,

expose my stuff. That's not the heart of our

Father. Okay, and so it does say though in Hebrews

12, and I want to throw this in again because

we're not just talking about sin. We're using

that example of King David, but it said in verse

7 to endure hardship as discipline. God is treating

you as children. And so your hardship, am I saying

your hardship is a result of sin? I am not. I'm

saying that hardship, if we will trust that he

will use all things for our good, I'm saying

hardship will train us for what is to come. Hardship

will teach us what it is to not live as a servant,

but to live as a son and a daughter of a most

high God. When I am in the places of hardship,

I will tell you, I understand that we said it

last week, an enemy that is out to steal, kill,

and destroy you. And when I'm talking to the

enemy, I'm always rebuking and resisting. But

when I'm turned toward the Father, I am embracing

the hardship as the way that the Lord is teaching

me and training me, disciplining me. Because

in Hebrews 12, 11, later on in that passage,

it says that later, once you have endured, later.

And if you remember, we used that word endure

when we talked about running our races, didn't

we? That was a key word we saw, endure, endure,

endure. It's the theme word for those Hebrews

10 through 12, endure, endure, endure. When we

endure, we will see then the harvest of righteousness

and peace is a promise for us. And so we go through

all that hard stuff, and it's not fun. Did any

of us as kids enjoy being disciplined? No, we

didn't. You're like, yeah, I'm getting a spanking

today. No, we didn't. And I've always been such

a one that wants to receive affirmation from

my leadership because I want to please them.

Even to think that, oh man, they're upset with

me. It's hard. It's hard. We have to endure it.

But let's just walk through the aftermath, can

we? Once we have endured it, let's look at the

beauty of the aftermath. Once David had gone

through the rebuke of the Lord, And his child

had died. Here's what it says in verse 20. Then

David got up from the ground, because he had

been in a place of grief, a heap of ashes, praying

for his son. After he got up from the ground,

After he had washed, put on lotions, and changed

his clothes. What was he doing? He's saying,

that isn't my identity anymore. I'm not in the

place of grieving and mourning anymore. It says

he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped.

He went into the house of the Lord and worshipped.

Then he went to his own house, and at his request

they served him food, and he ate. What David

didn't do in the face of all of the direction

of the Lord, all of that, he did not wallow in

shame. He did not wallow in regret. He did not

wallow in sorrow. He began to worship. He began

to worship. I think he learned his lesson well,

didn't he, in that moment. And so in Hebrews

Hebrews 12:12

12, verse 12, at the end of our passage there

on the correction of the Lord, it says, Therefore,

now that you have endured the correction, now

that you've endured the hardship, therefore,

strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. He's

acknowledging that at the end, you're not going

to feel all strong and glorious and ready to

go forward in victory. No, you're going to feel

weak. You're going to feel all of that lack of

strength. And we think there's something wrong

with our season because we feel weak, because

we don't feel victorious. Can I just say, just

maybe God is wanting to do a work of correction

and training. And at the end of it, you will

strengthen. your feeble arms and weak knees.

You will make level paths for your feet so that

the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

He is not wanting you to go forever disabled.

If you're going from that place of correction

disabled, then you're missing something in the

process. You're missing the healing. Because

he always heals and restores. He always heals

and restores. And so I'm going to ask if the

worship team would come up. There was a time

frame when David first had committed his adultery

and murder. Nathan didn't come to David until

the baby had, she had gone through nine months

of pregnancy. So David had gone through a long

season of thinking he's doing okay. And when

it says that He got up and he changed his clothes

and he went into the house of the Lord to worship.

Do you know what I think that he wrote? Do you

know what song I think he wrote when he went

and worshiped? I think that's where we had Psalm

51 come out of. I think that's where, I think

it was in that moment. Where he had gotten up

and he had gone into the house to worship. I

think that's when he wrote Psalm 51. And we're

not going to read all of Psalm 51. But I do want

to read probably the passage we are most familiar

with. And this would be a great one for you just

to meditate on this week. Because when he's writing

Psalm 51, he's talking about even emotionally.

His nine -month season where he doesn't, because

when it says, it says, restore to me the joy

of my salvation. Well, what does that say to

me? During that season, he didn't have the joy

of salvation, right? And so I think it was a

quiet season. I think it was a season where he

didn't feel connected to God. I think it was

a season where probably his worship songs were

not flowing out of him. I have a feeling Psalm

51 may have been one of the first he had written

in a long time. But he writes in Psalm 51 in

this prayer of repentance. Purge me with hyssop

and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be

whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness.

That the bones you have broken may rejoice. That's

the heart of the shepherd. That sometimes disables

sheep because they will not stay with the shepherd.

And it's an act of mercy and kindness. That the

bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your

face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew

a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me

away from your presence. And do not take your

Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of

your salvation. And uphold me by your generous

spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your

ways. and sinners shall be converted to you.

I think he wrote this when he went to the house

to worship. And he's being restored. What is

he doing? He's making the path straight for his

feet. He's saying, I'm not going to continue

on as king, disabled and broken. I'm going to

receive the joy of salvation again. I'm going

to be upheld by the generosity of the Spirit

of the living God. And some of you today, we're

all in different places. And listen, we're all

going to experience, because we're all sons and

daughters, the correction and discipline of the

Lord. And there's just something in us being

willing to embrace it. Can I just say, the more

we embrace and the more we... are teachable the

quicker quicker we get through our lessons right

and so this morning we're going to take a moment

as the team leads us in worship and we're just

going to make this a place of altar you can in

your seat or if you need to come to the altar

itself but can we just have a few moments where

we Come to God as our Father and say, Lord, maybe

you're not in that teachable place right now.

Maybe God's not doing that work in you now. I

guarantee you he will be because he's continually

wanting us to learn and to grow from glory to

glory to glory. And there's a process. And so

this morning I want us to just take a moment

before we leave to just say, yes, Lord. We sang

it today. When we sing things like, I want to

be tried by fire. It really feels like a fire.

He's not going to refine us while we're sitting

back eating chocolates and enjoying life. It

really feels like a fire. It really is painful.

It really is uncomfortable. And so we can sing,

oh, that's such a great song. I love to sing

that song. But as soon as he puts a fire under

us to reveal what's in us, like, oh, wait a minute,

where's the bucket of water? Holy Spirit, rain

down on me. I'd rather have the rain than the

fire. Can we just today, before we leave, take

a moment to embrace, Lord, we sang it. We sang,

I want to be tried by fire. But right now I'm

feeling the fire and I've been resisting. But

would you teach me your ways? Would you teach

me your direction? I open up my difficult places.

I open up the hardships. I open up my places

of grief and difficulty. I open up the season

where I can't really hear you. And I just invite

you in as my father to do in me what needs to

be done. Can we just take a moment to do that?

And so I want to just invite you to stand. And

the team is going to lead us. And you are welcome

to make where you're standing an altar. You're

welcome to come down to the front. Sometimes

we need to get away, even from our family members,

just to have one -on -one with God. But let's

make space for a few moments to just embrace

the work that the Father wants to do in us.