Understanding God’s Discipline || Pastor Diego Mesa

Are you guys ready for the word today? Well, here's before I'm going

to tell you this. I've been preaching thirty nine years and I've never preached

on this subject. That's why I don't understand people saying the Bible is boring.

Well, I've been reading the Bible for forty six years and I'm still

coming up with revelations and truths. And I've been preaching it for thirty nine

years, and I'm going to preach something and I'm gonna try to break it

down to the best of us my ability. But it's along the line of

pain and gain. So we just stand on your feet. We're gonna read

a few scriptures and it's going to be powerful. Watch this. And Hebrews

the twelfth chapter and verse number five. And you have forgotten the exhortation that

addresses you as sons. It's referring to plural male and female here, so

it could be daughters there easily my son or my daughter. Do not take

the Lord's discipline. If you have Old King James Bible, it uses the

word chastisement, and many of you are familiar with that word. Lightly or

lose heart when you are reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one

he loves and punishes every son he receives. So today, if you feel

like you're being disciplined, is a sign that God loves you. Let's go

on endured sufferings. Endure suffering as discipline. God is dealing with you as

a son. Very important. For what son is there that a father or

a mother will not discipline. But if you are without discipline, watch this

which all received, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Old King

James, it's not a cussword you'll look at in your bible. He says,

you're bastards, your bastards if you won't receive the chasing of the Lord.

Furthermore, we've had human fathers disciplined us, and we respected them.

Shouldn't we submit even more to the father of spirits and live? For they

disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them with their

limited human knowledge. But He does it for our benefit. He does what

he disciplines us, why so that we can share in His holiness. No

discipline seems enjoyable out of time. How many have you ever gotten about or

a switch? How many have you said, hallelujah, this is fun,

give me some more, but it's painful later on, though, however,

it yields peaceable fruit of righteousness. I know our children don't feel that way

when you're correcting them, but it says from God's perspective, and hopefully,

if it's done right, from a natural perspective righteousness to those who have been

trained by it, you may be seated. Wow, what a great subject

to talk vot Ha train discipline, the training of discipline that takes place.

Now here's a couple thoughts I want to share with you, and I talk

along that line of discipline. God is not trying to God is not trying

to punish you, because most of us have this negative connotation of chastisement or

discipline. But there's words like this that go along with that instruction, correction

and training. So there we often think of discipline just from a negative perspective,

but there's a positive perspective to discipline. So I'm gonna come down both

those lanes. How many have you ever seen like a defense dog or a

dog in training, it has a shock caller, shock caller, Okay,

the owner has some kind of electrical device in their hand, and that when

that dog is not doing what the owner has trained it to do, what

the dog has been created to do. You have been created to God to

function. That's what the Bible tells you in Ephesians two ten. You are

His workmanship, creating in Christ Jesus for good works. You aren't just to

get married, have a job, have a retirement plan, go to Vegas,

go on vacations, and that's it. There's a broader purpose. That's

why he put a calling in you, in your mother's womb. That's why

he formed your personality. That's why you're weird. All of us are weird

because He formed you for a purpose. You cry about certain things. You're

passionate about certain things. Some things move you. Something's come innately easy to

you, some things come hard to you. That was all in your mother's

womb. That dog has been wired to do something, and that when he

doesn't do it, that owner will have the right to push a button and

hopefully it's a light shock. But if he's doing something that could harm his

life, then he's got to give him a heavy shock. I'm trying to

draw you a picture of what God's discipline looks like. He may have to

go heavy on you, but sometimes he doesn't know I have to go heavy

on you. He could go light on you. That's based upon you getting

back in the place of where He wants you to. But if you aren't

in the place where God wants he could. Don't marry that woman. Don't

marry that man. Stop spending all that money that you don't have. Stop

buying all those designer purposes persons and running up your credit card. Okay,

we'll leave it that right there. Let me give you an example here.

This is a guitar. It has everything in it, it's not missing any

parts. Okay, it has all the potential in the world. Has been

equipped and perfected to play beautiful music. Right So what says? Here we

go, I'm gonna make some music. Now, what's wrong? What's wrong?

Oh it's out of tune? Okay, Okay, here we're getting somewhere.

Okay. So you have been equipped by God fully functioning as a Christian

you were born again and saying but doesn't mean you're making beautiful music right now.

It's not until you let God tune you up. That's discipline, And

there's a lot of Christians don't want to be disciplined. They just want to

look cute as a Christian. That's all they want to do. So I'm

gonna give you a few analogies as I walk through many forms of discipline,

just the same way you have many forms of disciplining your children. So does

God. And so we're gonna work through all that. But I'm gonna give

you a few pictures that are gonna drive it first. Here's the first picture

I want to give you. It's a parent who's disciplining a child. I

think we can all relate to that. So that's why I'm doing relatable pictures

here right now. When would that parent ever have to discipline a child?

Is there such thing as a child that goes? It's all life and it

doesn't need any discipline. If you are one of those children that have never

been disciplined by and by anybody your whole life, a teacher, a mother,

or a grandmother, please raise your hand because you're a liar. It's

true. So why is that child disciplined? It's just disciplined sometimes because he

doesn't do his chores, doesn't pick up after himself, he hits his siblings.

Okay, he talks back to his parents sometimes, So what does that

parent have to do? He has to discipline them. Now should that parent

not discipline that child? Is that? Is that a good thing or a

bad thing. If a parent says, you know what, you know what,

just do whatever you feel like doing. I love you. I'm not

going to put commands on you. Demands on you figure it out yourself.

Is that a good parent? No, that's a bad parent. God would

never do that. So his form could be instructional, it could be correctional,

it could be training, but it also could be in the form of

a punishment. And we accept that as a as a parent does a child,

and a child should receive it. Next, analogy, wat says soldier,

any military veterans here today, okay, here we go. You cannot

tell me that you went and spent all your time in service and never got

disciplined. You'd be a lousy soldier. You couldn't say, I don't want

to get up at four in the morning. You know what, I stayed

up late and I need my beauty sleep, and so you know what,

I'll wake up about ten thirty in the afternoon. Will that fly in the

military? I want to skip boot camp? Can you just give me a

heavy rank like a captain or you know, a major, and just skip

classes. I don't want to be trained. I don't want to lose weight.

I don't want to go through combat scenarios. I don't want to learn

how to use. What kind of sergeant would that be that would allow his

soldier not to go through that kind of discipline? A lousy one. Yet

we are in a spiritual war. We are called soldiers in the army of

God, and yet we don't think that God should ever discipline us and that

we should automatically know how to do things. Third analogy. Third picture a

teacher with his students. Okay, why would a teacher ever have to discipline

a student. He doesn't come to class, he ditches class, he doesn't

turn in his homework. There are many reasons he's cheating all the time.

He doesn't meet the requirements of graduation. So what kind of teacher would say,

you know what, We're gonna just throw all those rules out the door,

and I'm just going to allow you to get on the stage and you're

gonna graduate. Is that a good teacher. It's a bad teacher. Why

because after they get their diploma, they're gonna meet real life. They're gonna

have to make a living and go through a job, and they don't have

the skills. That's the way God is. Bible calls us a student,

and so he has to be a good father. So here's the next analogy.

An athlete, many many athletes right now are preparing for the Olympics in

Paris in a few months. But whatever athlete they are, an athlete,

what they do is they monitor. Great athletes have to monitor everything in their

life. They monitor how many hours they sleep, They monitor their diet and

their nutrition and what they put their food in, and everything is monitored.

They monitor their training plan, whether it's light day or heavy day, or

whether it's arm day or shoulder day, or whether it's speed work or whether

it's disstant running or whether it is free throw day. I don't know what

it is, whatever the sport is, but there's nothing that's not without purpose

and done randomly to produce a great athlete. Now, what kind of coach

would allow his athlete to do whatever he wants to do. That's what you

are. The Bible calls you an athlete, and so that athlete has to

be trained. So last year I decided after forty years to enter in re

enter the triathlete world. So I did it triathlon last year. I told

no one about it because it's just it was all for me. I just

wanted to do it for me and God. The one person that went with

me is my dad. When the staff heard about it, let's send a

film crew. Now you're not gonna send no film crew. This is just

me and me. God, I don't want to do it for me this

year, I'm not going to send a film prove but I already signed up.

On June twenty third, I'll do another one. So I want to

improve. I want to improve and get better at sixty seem to be sixty

three years old. I want to get better. So listen, I know

how to do the three disciplines and I'm pretty good, believe me at doing

the three disciplines because I have twenty year olds that can't keep up with me

and thirty year olds. So I know how to swim. So I went

and saw a swim coach and he evaluated, he took he did an analysis

on my stroke and he said I could get three more inches out of your

stroke because you're not extending as full as you can. There's three more inches.

I could get three more inches over a mile swim. You do the

equation. I will never get better if I do not allow someone to correct

me, rebuke me, discipline me, train me. I'm all that.

You know how you know I'm master blasted past the key? You want to

come and see my trophy? You will? You want to see up.

So I go do a bike analysis. I'm a great biker. So I

go to a bike analysis. He lowers my seat by three tenths of an

inch because he says, I could get more performance out of you if I

just lower that seat three tenths That's what discipline looks like. Sometimes. Here's

the last picture that I want to give you. It's a picture of these

trained labrador dogs, field dogs, bird dogs. Notice how they are all

stationedary in position. But what you don't know or can't see, is that

a bird has been killed. They don't just run after the bird. They

have to be permitted or allowed to run after the bird. Now they are

waiting for their owner to call the name of the one of eight that gets

to go get the bird. And it's done that way. So I'm just

saying Is it a bad owner. Is it a good owner that he could

get the best out of a pedigree dog. You're not a mut. I

know sometimes you act like a mut, but you're not a mut in God's

sight, You're a pedigree. You're not a barn horse. You're a thoroughbread.

And God has to discipline you, not the way he would discipline a

barn horse or a mut. He's got to discipline you for his purpose,

for his glory, so that you could bear fruit in your life. So

you don't have a marriage that's struggling, you don't have rebellious kids in your

life. That you are able to be the best employer or the best employee

you could possibly be. But it's not innately within you to do that.

He's got to come along inside of you and bring instruction subtimes, and correction,

subtimes, and training sometimes and discipline sometimes in your life. Watch the

screen, that's just youre a little video. Hey, climbers, how we

doing. I'm on about forty eight maybe forty eight mile bike ride over six

thousand feet in climbing in mount going up Mount Baldy. This is the ice

house and I'm here with my friend Matt back there he's holding my bike and

there's his bike, and there's nothing more than experiencing pain together. Pain is

tough, it's tough to do it alone, but it makes it a little

easier when somebody will go through the pain with you. Did we just go

through some pain right now, Matt, Yes, sir, it was very

Yes, there it is, but it's enjoyable. What's what's the steepest grade

we're on on right now? We got to the twelve thirteen twelve thirteen grade?

And what do you think the win in our face was today? Yeah,

fifteen twenty miles an hour. But again, the key is, don't

do pain alone. Do pain with somebody. I don't know if you're going

through a marriage pain, a financial pain, a physical health pain, but

don't do it alone. Do it with somebody. Everything worthwhile uphill. It's

not trying to take something away from you. Sometimes he's trying to get something

in you or to you. I want you to see it. The fact

is this is don't see disciplined as just simply punishment. See discipline as a

stage of your life that got like well refining process, like a perfecting process

or maturing. It's not that you've done something wrong that God would discipline.

Now, it can be we'll see the balance of that, but it's because

you're doing something right that God wants to discipline. So here's the next points.

We're gonna give you three quick points today. We're going to talk about

the what of discipline. We're going to talk about the how of discipline,

and the why of discipline. So here we go. Let's talk a little

bit about the what of discipline. The Bible says this, do not despise

the Lord's instructions, my son, and do not loathe his discipline. Eight

times in Hebrew we see in the Book of Hebrews that we read in our

introduction, we saw the word discipline eight times there. That word discipline in

the Greek is pidea. Pidea is translated to the English. Is what we

get. The English word oh, just drew a brink right now is where

we get the English word pediatrician from pediatrician is pediatrician a bad person? Does

a pediatrician want to do evil and wrong to a child? But yeah,

God chose to use that word to describe what he does to us. He's

like a pediatrician. He comes to train you. He comes to instruct you,

he comes to correct you, he comes to try to fix your wounds

and when you're sick and get you back on course. And that's the word

that he chose to use. Then at Hebrews, it talks about what we

just read. The nature of God is he's a father. We sing the

song here he's a good good father. Well, part of him being a

good good father is the fact that he has to discipline us. If he

doesn't discipline us, he's not a good good father. Now the part on

our responsibility you'll see in a few moments is the fact if he's a good

good father, will I be a good good child? And the good good

child sign. The sign of a good good father is that he will discipline.

The sign of a good good son or daughter is that I will receive

the father's discipline. Watch, here's the challenge that reads on the screen right

now. The challenge is that he is a good father. But are we

a good children who receive it? Or we be children that run from it?

Because he says here in the scriptures, then if we're ones that run

from it and don't welcome the father's discipline, then we are illegitimate children.

We are like bastards. He says, we're runaways, we're spoiled kids.

We act like orphans, and we're disrespected kids. We are like Baybay kids.

Now, I don't know if you know what babe is, but you

probably act like a babe every once in a while. Now, they gave

me a new term because babe's a little dated. So they said the silver

tooth kids. But I have no idea what the silver tooth kids are.

That's when you know you're getting old, when you don't even know what's new.

Today. God said, I don't want you to be silver tooth kids.

I don't want you to be babay kids and spoiled brats. So I

want to discipline you. And sometimes I do it with a heavy hand,

and sometimes I do it with a light hand. But sometimes that's based upon

how you respond to my discipline. So I'm just opening question. If God

was to discipline you, how would he discipline you? If right now you

are being disciplined by God, right now, how would you describe it?

Because most of us don't even know what it means. You might be right

now under the discipline of God and not even know it. And so it's

important if this is the nature of who our Father is, that we break

down the misconceptions and the bad teaching in the church, the bad theologies that

exist. That is blaming God when God is not to be blamed because we

don't understand what discipline and chastisement looks like. Are you with me so far?

So here's the thought. People want to blame God. And people do

this all the time. That they believe that God disciplines with accidents, that

God disciplines with sickness and disease, that God disciplines by killing people. See,

I grew up in a religion that believed that God like carried a bat

in his hand and every time you missed it, boo, He's gonna smack

you up side the head. And didn't bring a righteous fear. It bought

a terrible fear into people's lives, like people say, I see it like,

oh, I'm gonna stand away from you because a lightning bolt's gonna come.

And here where did where did that come from? Well, mama said,

Mama said, Well, I'm gonna hear respect of mama wrong. Here

are the misconceptions that I've heard all my life and the world does it.

This was an act of God. A tornado that killed thousands of people was

an act of God. A tsunami that wiped away people. See, this

is why atheists don't want anything to do with us, because we have taught

this to them. So they would say, how can a loving God allow

violence and murder and injustice to go on? Because they don't understand God,

and so they're just blame it on him. He had nothing to do with

it. There's an enemy, a thief who comes to still tell and destroy

people. Say this, God is trying to teach you something. So he's

got to throw you flat on your back so that you can look up,

so that you could finally listen. Listen. God is trying to get your

attention. God is mad at you. God is trying to get even with

you. God's after you. God's punishing you for something you did. A

Bible says, I'm an evil father compared to him in how good he is.

And there ain't no way that I would put cancer on my children to

teach them a lesson. They's no way I cause a building to come upon

them to get their attention. And now all of a sudden, there you

know they can't walk for the rest of their life. They're invalids. But

finally you're holy and righteous, so I had to do. It reminds me

of the story of this burglar criminal that broke into a house to rob it

in the middle of the night and the owner caught him, and the owner

caught him, and the guy shocked for a moment, and then you know,

he's not scared anymore. And the man looks at him and says,

you know what, Jesus is gonna get you. Jesus is going to get

you. Jesus is going to get you. And the burglar, the criminal

says, I don't believe in Jesus. He said, I'm not as scared

of Jesus. And he looked down at his German shepherd dog said Jesus get

him. And we just think that Jesus after us all the time. If

you believe that to be true, and you've been taught that in your life,

then I want to challenge that thought today. Do you believe? And

the answer the answer is not a trick question. Pair you do you believe

that Jesus did everything that the Father asked him to do? Do you believe

that everything that Jesus did please the Father. Did you believe that Jesus is

the express image of the will of God good? Then show me in the

three and a half years of Jesus's ministry when he ever inflicted sickness and disease

on somebody to teach them. Show me the parable of the story where he

said, you, rebellious person, let the building fall down on you right

now. You ain't serving God. Death come upon you now. In fact,

there are two disciples that wanted to do that, and Jesus had to

rebuke them because they want to call down lightning to judge them. You can't

validate it. It's not proven in his ministry. It's not there. So

we have to unders We have to understand then, how does how does God

discipline? How many have you ever seen a beautiful bonzai tree? And I

mean you can look and you're just amazed by the manicure of it, how

it's formed, and somebody, how many of you know it just didn't get

that way because in its raw form it just looks like any other bush.

But why it's gone through a pruning process. It's come under a craftsman and

a master master craftsman that has seen what he's seen in its raw form before

it evergs you saw it, He saw it in his head and his spirit.

And that's the way God says you were fearfully and wonderfully made. That

he is, that He is working within you to perform his will, That

you are his workmanship, creating Christ, Jesus under good works. And so

he's trying to form the beauty out of who you are and what you are.

So here's the here's the next thing I want to talk about today.

I want to talk a little bit about it's going on screen. How God

disciplines. I'm want to talk a little bit about how God disciplines. Now

again, oh I want to read you scripture. I'm sorry, how God

disciplined. So it's just listen. Every branch in me that does not produce

fruit, he removes it. Now, most of us when we read this,

get this image that he breaks off this branch and he throws it away

into the garbage bin. So he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that

it may produce more fruit. This is what discipline looks like. Could be

a form of a pruning that's taking place in your life. But notice what

he says, here, how many have you ever seen a bush, a

heavy bush, a heavy tree, or a heavy fruit tree that the branches

or the fruit on that is so heavy the branches fall on the ground.

So when it falls on the ground, it's fruit harvest is being robbed.

It's now subject to disease. Varmints, insects now can get into that tree.

So what a good farmer does is he doesn't cut it off. He

just lifts it up and maybe pushs this, put a piece of wood under

there, and he retrains the branch. You're not made to be on the

floor. The floor rubs us of the fruit of your life. I'm going

to put you back into your proper place. And that's what God does in

discipline. So not trying to break you away from him, He's trying to

lift you up. That's what the word remove means. He's lifting you up.

He's propping you up so that you and I can bear more fruit in

our lives. So again, let's now, as we have talked a little

bit about the ways and the methods in which God disciplines, I'm going to

go into a deeper way now of a more stout way. The great illustration

is that of Jonah. Jonah does not want to obey God. He wants

to go in the opposite direction of obeying God. And so God has to

allow him to be thrown into an ocean, has to allow a fish to

swallow him, and has to allow him to go into the belly of the

fish where he smells all that's polluted and the seaweed. And his life is

an uncomfortable place. And sometimes God has to chase at us and discipline us

with uncomfortable circumstances. That's the key word. He makes your life uncomfortable.

Man, I ain't uncomfortable sleeping around with women anymore. God chasing in you?

Man, man getting highs getting old now forty five years old, still

hadn't have a job. You weren't thinking that way when you're twenty five years

old, it was all fun. Why are you feeling restless because you're being

disciplined right now by God? So how quiet God? That was a good

one right there, what I just said. So God puts us in uncomfortable

places so that he can discipline us like we should be. Now, I'll

give you just a little bit of an example that again, I work nine

years at a church and then they fire me, and I go and I

work at a parcel company, working a third shift. And I didn't like

that place. I didn't like that job. I used to wear in a

suit, and now everyone is ten years younger than me. While I'm there,

I'm kissing my wife and my kids goodbye eleven thirty at night when I'm

going to work and being there at midnight. And it's a hard job and

I don't like it. But it formed such a character within me that I

didn't know what the future of abundant living look like. And what I learned

in a warehouse would shape me into what exists today. I would learn skills,

I'd learned character, I'd learned the fruit of the spirit. I learned

how to be a better witness for Christ. I learned how to be more

patient. But if God didn't allow me to be in an uncomfortable place,

not because I was doing something bad, but because he wanted me to prepare

me for the future of something that he had from me, I would have

flunked that test. So sometimes God just shuts the water down to a dribble

man. The money was flowing in, man, ain't no clients now,

I'm not trying to explain everything, but I'm just trying to tell you you

might be an uncomfortable place right now because God's disciplining you. Number two,

the second example is the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler does not

want to give up his wealth, so Jesus has to correct him. The

second way I want to give you today of God disciplining us. He disciplines

us through circumstances, but he disciplines us through his word. How many have

you ever been reading the Bible? Went ouch see ya yah yah, yay,

I'm guilty. He says, to love my neighbor. Does that mean

my ex spouse? Because I don't like her. I just read a scripture

that says if I don't forgive, God won't forgive me. And Lord knows

I got a lot of sins. Shoot, I gotta start it. The

Bible says, tithe. I don't tithe. Why do I feel convicted about

that? Bible tells me to serve? And I go to church, in

this big church, and I just think all these people work for me,

and I don't lift a finger to help them. I'm not talking about you.

I would never talk about you, but I've read the word, and

sometimes it's not always breakthrough miracles God's going to do for you. Sometimes it

is God just reproving me, trying to get the best out of me.

And so God will chasten us and he will discipline us through his word.

Then when we see it, we see Peter being confronted by Paul because of

his hypocrisy. So sometimes God will use people to discipline you, strangers to

discipline you. How many is that times? Has that happened where you've You've

been just walking somewhere and some said, aren't you a member of Abundant Living?

Didn't I see you at church? And you got to think, Wow,

how am I living home? I? How did I drive a driving

cutting people off? And I think that's a member of abundant Living right there?

True story. I'm a I'm at a whatever stadium this is now called

Tyota citizens, I don't know what it's called now, and I'm watching a

fight, so I excuse myself to go to the bathroom. I'll never forget

it. It's real funny, it's real kick. There's a guy who he

ushers, and he has some bomb beers and is at forty fours he's walking

down the steps like this, and I'm walking up the steps. He looks

at me and he goes, he forgot my Name's hi. I said,

brother, go enjoy your forty fours, but let it be let the forty

five or last the whole fight. Brother, don't begin another forty four.

God will send a stranger to approve you. You'll get busted. What's you

at church yesterday? What are you doing now right now? On your job?

Didn't you say you're a Christian? Didn't you invite me that Easter service?

So he's using he's using somebody to discipline you, a stranger, a

person, people to discipline you. God, when when when we see that

David is reprobanded by Nathan the prophet for killing your Rayah, the hit tie

and sleeping with Bathsheba. God will use authority figures to chasing you. Got

to use a boss, got to use a parent, got to use a

pastor. You don't know how many times people said to me, oh,

you're my pastor, a mentor me. Whatever, if you see anything wrong,

and if you see anything wrong in my life, tell me. And

the first time I go to them and tell them, listen, diego don't

you talk to me that way. I have the Holy ghost just as you

and God didn't and say, okay, then I'm backing off, man,

Why you tell me that? So? But God will bring authority figures.

David cuts off Saul's robe and he feels guilty. God uses your conscience or

a conviction. You're right in front of that TV. Shoot. I shouldn't

be watching this, man, I shouldn't be talking this way. I feel

so bad about it. He's using your conscience to convict you Roman's thirteen.

He can use the laws of the land to convict you and excise me to

discipline you and chasing you so so I mean you get away that you get

away in that diamond lane all the time, you all by yourself, and

you get away with driving a ninety miles an hour and all by and the

moment you get a ticket pulled over, you want to rebuke the devil and

blame it on the devil. No, that's God using the laws of the

land because he doesn't want you to get in an accident or wants you to

have to pay fines all the time. And then God through Sam's and has

to chase in him because he likes the femininas. He likes a woman from

Timna that his parents told him not to do. He married outside of his

faith, not his race. He married outside of his faith. And God

knew that that would turn him and kill the anointing of God and the purpose

of God in his life. So he gave up the woman from tim Nah

and he went after the prostitute from Gaza. And that wasn't good enough,

because then he went after Delilah. So he has to be chasing. His

eyes are plucked out and he's he's full of shame and guilt as he's in

chains. But God didn't give up on him. God gave him a second

chance. His hair grew back, and he fulfilled the call of his life.

And last of all, the God sends the Holy Spirit to us,

and the Holy Spirit is our teacher. He's our helper, and the Holy

Spirit will help you to be a better husband or better father. He'll bring

things back to your remembers. Before I get into my last point of the

why, and we'll go through the why very quick. I could share a

lot of things that the Lord has disciplined me and chasing me, and sometimes

where I'm at right now in my relationship with God. It seems as though

every day I'm being chasing to discipline a little bit of a not this anymore,

not that anymore, it's just now if I'm getting that, and who

I am, don't you tell me you ain't getting anything, because then I

have to question what the Hebrews said. So where God right now recently is

chasing me? Is the words that are coming out of my mouth. They're

not cusswords that was forty years ago. They're not angry, violent words of

explosion that was forty years ago. They're not negative, degrading words that was

forty years ago. But right now, it just seems as though every time

I get on the freeway, all the bad drivers show up. I don't

know what it is. And it seems as like every time I go to

the market there's only one person on one cashier with twenty people in that line.

And sometimes when people don't meet up to my standards or are incompetent,

words come out of my mouth. That's here are my favorite words. Stupid,

stupid, stupid, dumb, dumb, dumb, dum, fool fool

fool, jerk, what a what a jerk? And God says we're gonna

tweak this now. I want three more inches out of your extension now so

I could see some of you aren't gonna go for it. That's where God's

disciplining me. Right now, let's get into the wy and we're done.

Just give me a few more minutes. The why for they discipline us for

a short time basis it's good to them, but he does it for our

benefit. Why am I going to allow God to this one? Why does

God die? Because he wants benefit from you that he wants to bring forth

more fruit the last scripture here poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction,

but whosover heeds reproof is honored. Why would I want God's discipline?

Because God's discipline produces a holiness within me, because Hebrews told me that.

That means there's corrections from wrongness that God wants to bring into my life.

God produces Hebrew's peace in your life. God wants you to walk in a

level of confidence and assurance that now you could seriously, this is a bit

real huge that you can come boldly to the throne of grace. See Christians

coming boldly throw the thirro own graze. But but but they're sin in your

life. See can't You could come boldly, but you're not gonna get your

prayers answered. God wants you to come boldly and get your prayers answered.

The enemy knows those that will ex accept God's discipline and those that won't accept

god discipline. So there's a level of confidence and assurance one walks in.

It produces righteousness when you start doing the right thing and responding treating people better.

It produces honor, one of the words of honor. As promotion now

comes your way. Why are some people promoted and some people aren't promoted because

they won't go on under God's discipline. They're baby kids. He loves you.

You're going to heaven, but your baby. God promotes whatever you want

to look at as promotion because people that are willing to be disciplined by the

Lord, and it produces more fruit, and it produces strength. You're gonna

have strength to overcome. You're gonna have strength to be victorious. You're gonna

have strength to be powerful and succeed in what God wants you to do.

Because all of that is that you and I accept the discipline of God.

So again you are not a farm horse, You're a thoroughbread Hubert Sicconi in

your diamond. What's the difference? Discipline? They're self discipline, but I

didn't talk about that. That's not what I wanted to talk about today.

I want to talk about God's discipline, the way God disciplines. I don't

mean to offend, but they say that a Tyota Prius can be built from

ground up between eighteen and thirty five hours. A Bergati it takes six months

to build. Do you choose to want to be a Prius Christian or a

Burgoti Christian? The difference is the level of discipline it takes to be the

Brigati. Father, I thank you for the message today. I pray that

administers to every single one of us, and it's a timely word to take

us to the next level. Thank you. Thank for the understanding that it's

not just punishment driven, that it is instructional, correctional or training driven God,

and I thank you for that. I pray that every person that's hearing

my voice today would bear fruit and would bear much fruit in the Kingdom of

God. And I pray that now in Jesus's mighty name, Amen, I'm

going to ask that nobody move. I want you to stay in your seat

till Pastor Adam comes, Pastor Adam, Pastor Nathan comes up here and praise

us out. But I want to share a thought with you today as I

close this message. Now, if you're ever going to talk to an atheist

about Jesus, you may run across this question, why should I believe in

Jesus? There may be atheist in this room, there may be agnostics in

the room. I want to address why I diego believe in Jesus from a

rational perspective, to try to bring understanding to the skeptics and to the doubters.

And this is what you're going to have to learn to do when someone

asks you why do you believe in Jesus? And you have to do more

than an emotional response to them, more than Hallelujah. Speak in tongues.

I believe in Jesus because of creation. Speaks about a creator. When I

think about science and people think that they're opposites, No, it just confirms

the gospel. How planets and solar systems and stars stay in place, and

if they move just simply a few inches, the gravitational pool destroys and implodes

the whole universe. Who's suspending that? Who's holding that? Then I look

at creation. I go into running places that I buy and I see natural

flowers and I think who planted them? Who planted them? How did they

get here? And then look into rock formations and see colorations that are there,

Where did that come from? And I see sunsets and sunrise and mountain

escapes and oceans. Creation. I believe in Jesus because of creation. Reason

I believe in Jesus because of what He's done for me. Yes, I

know what I used to be, and isn't positive thinking or a book or

a seminar that I went through. I know what changes have taken place in

my life, and he's very very real to me. The third reason that

I believe in Jesus is because he fulfilled at least three hundred prophecies that were

written hundreds of years before he was ever alive. The confirmation is there.

The odds are astronomical that he could fulfill that. Watch this. I'll give

you four. I want to describe a man to you. He's a Mexican

from Montabello who had a one point eight GPA, who went to Shre High

School. I gave you five discripts. Who am I talking about me?

And I just gave you five. Now put three hundred of them there.

The evidence is overwhelming. The fourth point is this secular historians, non Christian,

wrote about a man that was born in Bethlehem, who lived in Nazareth

or the Galilean area, who the Romans killed on a cross. There'll end

it there. There's more evidence of Jesus walking this earth than Abraham Lincoln,

and we never doubt that Abraham Lincoln was here. Next is that there were

five hundred eyewitnesses that saw him die on a Friday and saw him walking around

for the next forty days. Five hundred, not five five hundred. And

last evidence is this, If all of this is alive and a folicy,

then why did those disciples be martyred for their faith and die for a man

that didn't really raise from the dead. There is no profit to gain from

it. You're ridiculed, you were mocked, you persecuted, Yet they died

for him. That's more than enough for me to believe in Jesus. I

hope I answer you today. I hope now you put my answers with your

doubts and speculations and say I'm ready to believe in him or i want to

rededicate my life to Him. When I coult the three you raise your hand

and will pray for you right now and be the best decision you've ever made,

because we're all a whole bunch of ex something's in this place that have

been saved by the love and grace of Jesus Christ. I promise you you're

not the only one. I know this church, and I know a lot

of people, and you would not be sitting shoulder to shoulder with the person

that's next to you if you knew what they were before they were a Christian.

I got murders in this church. I got lifers. And I'll leave

it at that, because every sin that's under the planet is in this room.

But Jesus saved, delivered, and church transformed their lives and they're a

walking miracle of the hand of the A one two one two three. Raise

your hand wherever you are, give your life to Jesus Christ. Wherever you

are, would you say this prayer with me, Dear Lord Jesus, I

asked you to come and live in my heart. I believe in you.

Now all my doubts, all my speculations are now gone. Thank you today

in Jesus' name,