Whatever Happens Pt. 3

Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don Noble,

a Pure Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today with

exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy. I've been speaking to you

about whatever happens. This is Part three and the premise

is on the scripture that Paul wrote to the Philippian Church,

and that scripture is Philippians one twenty seven, which says,

whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the

Gospel of Christ. So the last time I spoke, I

talked about walking in that maturity where we know the

will of God, we pursue the will of God. And

today I want to continue in helping us to understand

the maturity of being a Christian, or understanding the maturing

of a Christian. And I want to start today in

the Book of Hebrews, and the writer of Hebrews writes

in chapter twelve some verses that I think are going

to be very helpful to us. I'm going to read

it in the New King James first, then I'm going

to read it in the Amplified Classic, then I'm going

to read it in the New Living Translation. And the

reason is that you get the full scope of what

this writer is trying to say to us. So if

you have your Bible turned to Hebrews chapter twelve, and

I'm going to be reading verses five through eleven, and

it says, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks

to you as to sons, my son, do not despise

the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you

are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he

chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you

endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what

son is there whom a father does not chasten. But

if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers,

then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have

had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect.

Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to

the father of spirits, and live, for indeed for a

few days chastened, For they excuse me, for they indeed

for a few days chastened us, as seem best to them.

But He for our profit, that we may be partakers

of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful

for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the

peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained

by it. Okay, let's look at that in the amplified

Classic version. Therefore, then, since we whoops, that's starting with

verse five, I mean one, let's start with verse five,

and you completely forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement,

in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons,

My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit

to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose

courage and give up and faint when you are reproved

or corrected by him. For the Lord corrects and disciplines

every one whom he loves, and he punishes even scourges

every son whom he accepts and welcomes to his heart

and cherishes. You must submit to and endure correction for discipline.

God is dealing with you as sons. For what son

is there whom his Father does not thus train and

correct and discipline. Now, if you are exempt from correction

and left without discipline in which all of God's children share,

then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons at all. Moreover,

we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we

yielded to them and respected them for training us. Shall

we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of

spirits and so truly live? For our earthly fathers disciplined

us only for a short period of time and chastises

as seemed proper and good to them. But he Christ

disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become

shares in His holiness. For the time being, no discipline

brings joy, but seems grievous and painful, But afterward it

yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have

been trained by it, a harvest of fruit which consists

in righteousness, in conformity to God's will, in purpose, thought,

and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God. Now,

before I go on to read those sets of scriptures

in the New Living Translation, I do want to make

a comment here in the Amplified Classic in verse eleven,

it's showing us about that process of maturing when the

word says here, when we have been trained by the discipline,

When we've been trained by the discipline, we reap a

harvest of fruit to righteousness. And what that's saying. The

scripture says here that it is in conformity. In other words,

it conforms to God's will in purpose, in thought, and

in action, which ultimately results in right living and right

standing with God. So there is your key, so to

speak about understanding this maturing process, because the maturing process

is really conforming us believers to God's will, not just

something ethereal out there what's God's will, but conforming us

to God's will in purpose, to God's will in our thoughts,

to God's will in our actions, which actually results in

right living and right standing with God. Okay, let me

read these same scriptures then in the New Living Translation,

starting with verse five. This is Hebrews chapter twelve, verses

five through eleven. I'm reading out of now the New

Living Translation. And have you forgotten the encouraging words God

spoke to you as his children. He said, my child,

don't make light of the Lord's discipline, and don't give

up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those

he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as

his child. Verse seven. As you endure this divine discipline.

Remember that God is treating you as his own children.

Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined

by its father. If God doesn't discipline you as he

does all his children, it means that you are illegitimate

and are not really his children at all. Since we

respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn't we submit

even more to the discipline of the Father of our

spirits and live forever for our earthly fathers disciplined us

for a few years, doing the best that they knew,

how But God's discipline. God's discipline is always good for us,

so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline

is enjoyable while it is happening. It's painful, but afterward

there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for

those who are trained in this way. So let me

go back to the beginning here, starting with verse five,

and the writer is addressing you know, he says my son,

but in the New Living translation it's translated my which

I think is a better translation right there, because we're

not talking about the male gender. Okay, So when it

says my son or it talks about God deals with

you as with sons. He's not. The writer's not talking

about the male gender. The writer is talking about children

of God, male and female. So when he says my son,

I like the New Living Translation, which says, my child,

do not despise the chastening of the Lord. That chasening

is discipline, the number one thing if you're going to

mature properly as a believer in Christ, you don't want

to despise his discipline. He's chastening. Now. He's going to

discipline us. He has to because our human nature is

contrary to God's nature and God's ways and God's will,

and we still have this adamic nature working in us

that we have to train, and the Lord has to

discipline this behavior in us because Adam's nature tends to

make us do anything and everything that's not of God,

not God's ways, not God's nature. So when we're acting

out in the flesh the nature of Adam is the

nature of our flesh, then there's going to be discipline.

There's going to be a chastening. Now, the writer says,

but don't be discouraged when you are rebuked by the Lord.

Don't get discouraged. Don't be like you know, because you've

heard me say many times. If you listen to me

when the Lord has disciplined me, you know, it's like

he takes me to the woodshed. And I'm telling you

he knows how to discipline so sweetly, so gently, and

yet you get it. You understand that he is truly

disciplining you. You know, I remember as a child, I

remember being disciplined by my father with a strap bend

over and ooh, yeah, it was painful. Like the scripture says,

chastening is not joyful for the present, it's painful. Well,

this was physically painful. A few cracks with the belt

really did hurt. But the Lord says those that he

loves this is key verse six. For whom the Lord loves,

he disciplines. So you have to remember that when the

Lord is disgiving you a discipline, or or he is,

you know, chasing you, disciplining you, he really loves you.

He really loves you. And if verse seven says, if

you endure it, God is dealing with you as a

child of God. Now in the New King James, it

says he deals with you as sons. But again we're

not talking male gender. We're talking male and female children

of God. So if you endure the chasing and the discipline,

God's dealing with you as a son or as a daughter.

And the writer says, for what son or daughter is

there whom a father doesn't chasen? Then he says in

verse eight, but if you are now he flips it.

If you endure it, he deals with you as a

child of God. Verse eight says, but if you are

without chasening, then you're illegitimate, and you're not a son.

Do you know what that means? If you're illegitimate and

not a son, then you're really not his. You're really

not his. You're not a child of God. I don't

know about you, but I don't want to be called illegitimate.

I'm a son. I'm a daughter of Christ, and I

hope you are too. And then verse nine furthermore, we've

had human fathers who corrected us. Now in the day

we live, there are a lot of human fathers who

don't even discipline their children today. And that's why children

run rampant. They you know, they are exceedingly rebellious because

the father has not brought correction. The father has you

know how many children in America today I don't know

about the world, but in America today many children are

father lives. Yes, so there is no father in the home.

And then those who do have a father, many of

these fathers are just not doing their job as a father.

They're not disciplining their children or correcting their children. But

like I would say, most of my generation growing up

in the early fifties and sixties and seventies, our fathers,

our human fathers, brought correction to us, and if you

had any sense about you, you would pay them respect.

So the writers saying, if your human father who brought

correction to you and you paid respect to, wouldn't you

more willingly, more readily tolerate and be in subjection to

your heavenly father and live and live? That's that's key

verse ten, For they indeed for a few days chasing

who's he talking about? Heavenly? Are excuse me? Our earthly fathers,

our earthly fathers out of the New Living translation for

our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years. Hey,

they did the best they knew, how The scripture says,

that is the truth. My father wasn't born again, you know,

and his father ooh, was not not a good father

at all. So my father, my earthly father, didn't have

a good example for a father, so he just did

the best he could. And I think for the most part,

my earthly father did a pretty good job, considering that

he didn't know Jesus. But it says, but God's discipline

is always good for us, right, It's for our profit.

When God brings discipline in your life, it's for your benefit,

it's for your profit, it's for it's always good for us.

That's what you have to remember. That's what you have

to focus on. Because our heavenly Father is not in

any way, shape or form like our earthly father. We

can't compare them. People often do that. They often think

that their heavenly father is somehow like what their earthly

father was. So if their earthly father, you know, was

a really bad father, they're going to have a hard

time and struggle with their heavenly father and understanding how

much our heavenly father loves us, how much our heavenly

father's for us, how much your heavenly Father is disciplining

us for our own benefit, for our profit, for our

for our best, always doing good for us. There's never

a negative when it comes to the heaven, to our

heavenly Father disciplining us, chasing us, there's never a negative.

There's nothing bad that's going to come out of that.

That's what you have to grasp and understand, because look,

if you endure it, then you're a son, you're a daughter.

But if you don't, if there's no no chasing, no

discipline comes in your life, you're illegitimate and you're not

a child of the living God. And of course verse

eleven says, like I said earlier, there's no discipline that

seems joyful. You're never gonna like have a happy face.

Oh yes, please come discipline me, Lord, Come, yes, I'm

ready for the discipline. I'm I'm just a happy camper

waiting to be disciplined. No, there's it's not joyful for

the present, and it may feel painful. One thing about it,

The Lord is not going to cause physical pain to

you at all. Ever, there will be no physical pain

when the Lord disciplines you, not like your earthly father.

But here's what's going to happen. The scripture said, it's

going to to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to

those who have been trained by it. And the New

Living translation says, but afterward there will be a peace

full harvest of right living by those who are trained

in this way. In other words, what this chasing does

is it gets us and keeps us on the track

of right living. So if we're trained in this and

we allow and endure the chasing of our heavenly Father,

we're trained this way, we're allowing him to train us

this way, we're allowing him to bring discipline in our life.

Then it's going to bring forth a peaceful harvest of

right living. We are going to as let me go

back to the amplified classic, and it says, but afterwards

it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who

have been trained by it, which means it's a harvest

of fruit which consists in righteousness, which is in conformity

to God's will in purpose, in thought, and in action,

resulting in right living and right standing with God. It

really doesn't get any better than that. Let me just say,

it just doesn't get better than that, because there's a benefit.

Do you see if you can endure the chasening as

a sign as a daughter, there's a huge, not just

a tiny benefit here. This is a huge benefit. You

have to understand this, because this is a huge benefit

to you and I, because it will conform us, because

we're being trained by it. It's going to conform us

to God's will and our purposes in our thoughts and

our actions, and then we're going to have right living,

righteous living, and we're going to have right standing with God.

Let me conclude with what James wrote in chapter five,

starting starting with verse seven, James writes, Therefore, be patient, brethren,

until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer

waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently

for it until it receives the early and latter reign.

You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming

of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against

one another, brethren, lest to be condemned. Behold, the Judge

is standing at the door. My brethren. Take the prophets

who spoke in the name of the Lord as an

example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed

who endure. You've heard of the perseverance of job and

seen the end intended by the Lord. That the Lord

is very compassionate and merciful. So in this set of scriptures.

The Lord is using an example talking about the prophets.

First of all, you know, telling us look at their lives,

look at what they went through, look at what they suffered,

look at the patience that they had to endure and

the discipline they had to endure. And then he talks

about the perseverance of Job and all the Job endured.

And guess what, it was intended by the Lord to

bring a great end to Job's life. So there was

an intention, and because Job endured the discipline and the punishment,

he had a great ending. It says in the scripture

here he saw the end intended by the Lord. That

the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. So just when

you think that you can't endure this anymore, you have

to remember God's word. The Lord is very compassionate and

very merciful to you. Amen. So we will as believers.

I just conclude with this, we are going to persevere.

We're gonna stay steadfast in the love of God. We're

gonna endure that chastening so that we can be called

the sons of God, the daughters of God, the children

of God. Amen. And we our lives will conform to

God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right

living and right standing with God. Amen. Well, this is

Don Noble. You can go to www dot pureheart dot

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Please don't forget to pray for me and this ministry

and what God's doing. We look forward to being with

you again next week. This is Don Noble saying, shall oam, shalloam?

Peace be unto you