Introduction:
3 Reasons for Discipline:
- Correction
- Prevention
- Edification
Discipline is Good for Me (Hebrews 12:4-11):
- Because it is From God . (Heb 12:4-5)
1 Thessalonians 5:18 - ...give thanks in all circumstances...
- Because it Proves I'm His Child. (Heb 12:6-8)
- Because it makes me Like Jesus . (Heb 12:9-11)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-01:12
You know, it was so long ago, I don't even remember her name, but a friend had asked me to visit a friend in the hospitals, a very young girl who was in the psychiatric unit because of a suicide attempt.
01:14-01:20
And I went and I met with this girl, I think she was still in her teens at the time.
01:22-01:26
And she had taken her father's car and wrecked it on purpose.
01:30-01:38
And making a long story short, but in a delicate way, I asked her what made her do that.
01:38-01:42
And she said something, I'll never forget it.
01:42-01:44
I'll never forget what she said.
01:45-01:53
She said, "My parents never disciplined me, ever." I've never heard a teenager say that.
01:55-01:56
I've heard the opposite.
01:58-02:20
She said, "My parents have never disciplined me." And she said, "I thought that if I did this, I would get dad's attention." And I said, "Your parents never discipline you?" She said, "No." She said, "I've come home drunk at three in the morning." She said, "You know what my parents would do?
02:21-02:28
They'd tuck me in and say, 'We'll talk about it tomorrow.' And then they'd wake me up for school in a few hours and send me off." And it was never brought up.
02:34-02:53
And I'm standing in the hospital looking at what happens when you have a father who does not lovingly discipline his child, even when a child recognizes she so desperately needs it.
02:54-02:56
And I got good news for you.
02:58-03:00
Your heavenly father is a lot different.
03:02-03:04
We're gonna talk about that today, but first let's pray.
03:06-03:11
I'm gonna ask you, would you please pray for me that I would be faithful to communicate clearly the word of God.
03:12-03:17
And I will pray for all of us to have hearts open to receive it.
03:18-03:22
So that as Dan prayed, the word of God can change us today.
03:23-03:23
Let's pray.
03:32-03:35
And all of God's people said, amen.
03:35-03:38
We've been talking about faith for the past few weeks.
03:39-03:45
And chapter 11 showed us that faith is building your life on God's word.
03:46-03:50
It's waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled.
03:54-03:58
That's why when we got to chapter 12, he says we need to run the race.
03:59-04:04
Faith is striving through suffering to get to the finish line.
04:04-04:06
It's a call for endurance, right?
04:06-04:08
It's literally agony.
04:11-04:14
Faith is often agonizing.
04:14-04:23
And we said last week, still true, but if you find your faith, your walk with Christ, if you're like, you know what?
04:23-04:27
I find it to be easy and convenient.
04:28-04:30
And my faith always makes me feel good.
04:31-04:33
I gotta tell you, you don't have biblical faith.
04:33-04:40
You don't have the kind of faith that's represented in God's word if it's always candy land.
04:42-04:53
So, I think a lot of us would testify that, yeah, the life of faith is hard, right?
04:57-05:01
Today we're gonna answer the question why.
05:03-05:06
Why is it so hard?
05:12-05:17
I mean, if I was God, you ever play that game?
05:18-05:23
I'd change a lot of things around here and I'd screw them all up if I was God.
05:23-05:26
But if I was God, I wouldn't make it so hard for people.
05:26-05:28
(congregation laughing)
05:31-05:32
But he does.
05:34-05:35
Why is it so hard?
05:37-05:45
You know, I was thinking the last couple of weeks, especially as we've been going through the people that have inspired us to faith from the Bible, Hebrews 11.
05:45-05:56
And last week I shared some men on this earth, some who have gone to heaven since, who have inspired me.
05:59-06:01
You know, I realized something this past week.
06:03-06:07
The best Christians that I've known are the ones that have had the hardest lives.
06:07-06:08
Think about that for a second.
06:09-06:11
Think of the best Christian that you know.
06:16-06:19
The best Christians I know are the ones that have had the hardest lives.
06:20-06:29
The best ones that I've known have had the hardest lives.
06:34-06:36
Is it possible there's a connection there?
06:40-06:43
You're like, man, Pastor Jeff, that is a tough pill to swallow.
06:44-06:46
Well, while we're swallowing tough pills, here's another one.
06:47-06:55
All of the hardship that you face as a follower of Jesus is actually God's discipline in your life.
06:59-07:04
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second, hang on a second, just, you know, let's pump the brakes here.
07:04-07:07
This isn't the feel good Father's Day message I was looking for.
07:07-07:16
But you're telling me that all of the hard stuff that I deal with in my life is from God.
07:18-07:20
You're like, "No, no, no, no, no." You're like, "No, Pastor Jeff, you're wrong.
07:21-07:35
It's from Satan." And I would say, "Well, what would Job say about that?" Yeah, Satan afflicted Job, but he had to get God's permission first, right?
07:36-07:42
And God used everything that Satan was doing for God's purposes.
07:43-07:50
You could ask Paul, 2 Corinthians 12, a messenger from Satan, that thorn in the flesh.
07:51-07:56
God used that to accomplish something in Paul's life.
07:56-08:01
God uses Satan for God's glorious purpose.
08:02-08:05
And there's, well, there was somebody else.
08:06-08:09
Oh, oh yeah, Jesus.
08:11-08:18
Did God use Satan to accomplish glorious eternal purposes through Jesus Christ?
08:19-08:19
Yes or no?
08:20-08:20
Yes.
08:24-08:29
It was God at work and He uses Satan.
08:30-08:32
And here's a reality you're going to learn.
08:33-08:39
Satan wants to tear you down and God wants to build you up and they are both using the same thing.
08:41-08:50
So, when you're going through hardship, whatever the source looks like, ultimately it's from God.
08:53-09:05
And He's not just allowing it, as if you're facing hardship and God's up in heaven going, "Okay, I'll permit it." He's not just allowing it, He's using it.
09:07-09:17
God says, "Yes, this is what we are going to do in his life." You're like, "Why is he using it?" He's using it to discipline you.
09:18-09:20
Today we're going to talk about discipline.
09:21-09:27
Because as we look at this passage, I counted nine times the word discipline shows up in this passage.
09:27-09:31
And I love when that happens because I don't have to figure out what the passage is about.
09:32-09:32
Nine times.
09:33-09:34
It's about discipline.
09:34-09:39
Now, as soon as I say discipline, we think so narrowly about that, right?
09:39-09:43
Like if I said, you know, discipline your children, what's the first thing you think of?
09:43-09:45
Or maybe the only thing you think of?
09:45-09:46
Spanking, right?
09:46-09:49
Yeah, discipline, kids need a good spanking nowadays.
09:49-09:55
And we are so narrow because discipline is so much more than that.
09:57-10:09
Here's a definition to help us expand our thoughts on the concept because again, you think discipline is just like the SmackDown and it's not.
10:11-10:19
Discipline is God's often painful means of making you gain wisdom and learn to avoid foolishness.
10:22-10:24
What's on the screen right there?
10:24-10:30
God's often painful means of making you gain wisdom and learn to avoid foolishness.
10:30-10:32
That's kind of a generic definition.
10:33-10:34
So we're gonna flesh that out a bit.
10:35-10:36
The discipline is about building character.
10:37-10:38
That's what discipline is about.
10:39-10:43
Discipline is not, it is not, it is not punishment.
10:45-10:50
There's a huge difference between discipline and punishment and the difference is the outcome.
10:50-10:54
And I'm gonna say this real quick because I hear so many Christians say that.
10:54-10:55
I think God's punishing me.
10:55-10:58
God is not punishing you, okay?
10:59-11:02
There is a huge difference between punishment and discipline.
11:02-11:04
Punishment has the outcome of vengeance.
11:05-11:09
It's you did wrong, and I'm going to inflict vengeance on you for the sake of pain.
11:11-11:12
That's punishment.
11:14-11:26
So if you're a believer in Christ, understand God is not punishing you because when Jesus Christ was on the cross, he was bearing all of God's punishment on himself on your behalf.
11:27-11:28
Okay?
11:28-11:40
So many Christians act like, you know, God poured out his wrath on Jesus and then we sin, and God's like, "No, I can't believe you, "now I'm gonna have to punish you too." No, no, no, he's satisfied.
11:40-11:42
That's perpetuation.
11:43-11:46
God is satisfied with what Christ has done on our behalf.
11:46-11:47
God is not punishing you.
11:49-11:51
Discipline has a different outcome and it's character.
11:51-11:56
The character, it's changing your course in order to build you up.
11:57-12:03
So the hard stuff in your life is God disciplining you, not punishing you.
12:03-12:04
Do you understand that?
12:05-12:13
Because from now on, if anybody associated with this church says, "I just think God's punishing me." If you hear that, you have the permission to bite them.
12:14-12:15
(congregation laughing)
12:16-12:20
Because if you're following Christ, that is a blasphemous concept.
12:25-12:28
Jesus took your punishment, but God will discipline you.
12:30-12:33
Three reasons for discipline, and we're gonna get to the text.
12:33-12:36
We gotta on-ramp this though, because people are so messed up about this.
12:37-12:38
Three reasons for discipline.
12:38-12:39
We're gonna write these down.
12:40-12:43
Now, when you think of discipline, think in terms of parents, right?
12:43-12:45
Parents and children, Father's Day.
12:45-12:52
Yes, but also God disciplining His children.
12:52-12:55
Both contexts, same purposes, right?
12:55-12:58
There's three purposes for discipline and the first is correction.
12:59-13:01
Okay, first is correction.
13:01-13:06
Parents, your kid sins, does something rebellious, you discipline them.
13:07-13:07
Why?
13:07-13:09
You're saying this isn't how we do, okay?
13:09-13:11
We don't do it that way.
13:11-13:12
You're not doing it that way.
13:12-13:14
So now you're facing discipline.
13:14-13:20
You're bringing some sort of painful consequence because we don't do it that way, right?
13:20-13:23
You know, God will discipline his children for the same thing.
13:24-13:26
To teach us, no, no, no, no, no.
13:26-13:27
We don't do it that way.
13:28-13:29
Correction.
13:30-13:31
Another one is prevention.
13:32-13:33
Three reasons for discipline.
13:33-13:34
Another reason is prevention.
13:36-13:45
Okay, so parents, maybe you say, now I'm talking to parents of teens, hopefully parents of toddlers aren't saying this, but maybe you say to your teenager, you have to be home by 11.
13:49-13:50
That's not to punish you.
13:52-13:54
That's to protect you, right?
13:56-13:59
And sometimes God's discipline is like that, right?
13:59-14:01
We talked about 2 Corinthians 12.
14:02-14:06
You know, Paul had that thorn in the flesh messenger from Satan that God used.
14:06-14:09
God didn't allow that to happen.
14:09-14:12
God didn't use that because Paul was proud.
14:14-14:19
If you study the passage, He used that to keep him from becoming proud.
14:19-14:22
Sometimes discipline is sort of that preemptive thing.
14:22-14:28
Like I'm gonna hem you in here a little bit because I love you and I wanna protect you, right?
14:28-14:32
And then the third one, the third reason for discipline is edification.
14:34-14:40
That's taking or allowing your child to go through a hard experience so that they can be equipped.
14:45-14:51
And I gotta tell you, my son Cade started working at Chick-fil-A a few months ago.
14:52-14:53
That was hard for me.
14:54-14:56
And some of you parents get it.
14:56-15:00
First time kid gets job out of the house on their own-ish kind of thing.
15:00-15:01
You know what I'm talking about, parents?
15:01-15:02
Don't leave me up here, come on.
15:03-15:04
None of you dealt with that?
15:05-15:06
Okay, thank you, thank you, Candice.
15:09-15:10
Isn't it hard?
15:11-15:17
And I remember Candace like, when his first day, she's the only one that is tracking here.
15:17-15:23
So his first day at work, I wanted to go in with them.
15:24-15:31
And wherever they stationed him, I just wanted to stand there and be like, nobody's mistreating him.
15:32-15:33
Nobody's speaking rudely to him.
15:35-15:36
You're gonna deal with me?
15:38-15:44
I wanted to do that so badly and I knew that I couldn't because this is part of growing up, right?
15:44-15:52
Part of growing up is like, buddy, I'm allowing you to go through this because it's going to be good for you.
15:52-15:54
And you see your heavenly father does that for you.
15:55-16:00
Sometimes you go through something that you're like, oh, this is kind of scary, this isn't familiar.
16:00-16:05
And God's like, I'm letting you go through with this because I wanna teach you something.
16:08-16:15
2 Corinthians 1 tells us that we are comforted in affliction in order to comfort those in affliction.
16:15-16:17
That's a very common way that God does it, right?
16:18-16:19
He teaches us sympathy.
16:19-16:24
You're gonna go through this because you're gonna be able to minister to the next guy going through it.
16:26-16:33
So we discipline our children for these reasons because God disciplines his children for the same reasons.
16:37-16:42
So if I say, "Children need discipline." Yes or no?
16:42-16:43
Yes.
16:43-16:44
Children need discipline.
16:44-16:45
Yes or no?
16:45-16:45
Come on.
16:46-16:48
And we're like, "Yes, yes, I'm on board with that.
16:48-16:53
Children need discipline." Okay, next question or next statement rather.
16:53-16:54
Let's see how much you agree with this one.
16:54-16:56
"I need discipline." Can you say that about yourself?
16:57-17:00
Say it, say, "I need discipline." - I need discipline.
17:01-17:07
Some of you didn't say that very strongly And I get it because that's a lot harder sell, isn't it?
17:08-17:14
Of course we recognize that our goofy rebellious child needs discipline, but do you recognize that you need it?
17:16-17:17
Do you recognize that you need it?
17:18-17:21
Everyone would say discipline is good for kids, right?
17:21-17:23
Have you ever been around an undisciplined kid?
17:23-17:24
(gagging)
17:25-17:25
Gross.
17:32-17:35
Discipline is good for your kids, but who would say, who would say this?
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Being disciplined is good for me.
17:38-17:39
Being disciplined is good for me.
17:41-17:42
It's a hard sell.
17:43-17:45
That's why we're gonna see what God says about it.
17:47-17:49
And what was the longest introduction ever?
17:50-17:53
On your outline, discipline is good for me.
17:56-17:57
Why?
17:57-17:58
Well, three reasons.
17:58-18:01
One, because it is from God.
18:02-18:11
I don't have to wonder if discipline is good, because the Bible is very clear that it is, because it is from God.
18:12-18:13
Look at verse four.
18:17-18:26
It says, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Stop there.
18:27-18:32
He's like, "Yes, you're struggling." He's talking to these Hebrew Christians in this church.
18:32-18:37
He goes, "Yes, you're struggling, but same message for you." Okay, you're going through some struggles right now.
18:37-18:40
Some of you are, but don't overreact, okay?
18:41-18:42
Nobody likes a whiner.
18:44-18:49
And the reality is we are so spoiled with first world problems.
18:51-18:55
And the things that we whine about and we think are persecution is pathetic.
18:55-18:56
Let me tell you a quick story.
18:56-18:58
You know, we've been over to Thailand a few times.
18:58-19:04
One time when I was over in Thailand, there was this Christian family in this very pagan village that had twins.
19:05-19:12
Well, in that culture, in that pagan culture, the pagan belief is the twins are a birth defect.
19:12-19:15
So those twins had to be executed immediately upon birth.
19:16-19:26
Well, the family that had the twins, they just became Christians and they're like, "I'm not killing children because killing children is evil." Right?
19:28-19:34
So like the town witch doctor made this like, this little like stick design pattern thing.
19:34-19:40
It was like this little, I don't even know how to describe it is made out of sticks, like a lawn ornament kind of thing.
19:40-19:42
And he stuck it in their lawn.
19:43-19:51
And Barnabas said, that's his way of marking this family for death to say, we are killing those kids.
19:51-20:00
And that family had to flee the village because of their following Christ and their refusal to murder babies, they had to flee the village.
20:01-20:02
These are people that we know.
20:06-20:08
So how's your struggle been?
20:09-20:16
You're like, but you don't understand Pastor Jeff, the lady at Starbucks said happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas.
20:19-20:19
Like, oh.
20:25-20:26
And I think that's what he's saying here.
20:27-20:30
He's like, you ain't dead yet.
20:32-20:33
Right?
20:33-20:37
Some people even today right now are dying because they believe in Jesus.
20:38-20:39
You aren't there yet, okay?
20:39-20:43
So let's not lean on the panic button.
20:43-20:43
Look at verse five.
20:44-20:53
He says, "And have you forgotten the exhortation "that addresses you as sons?" He's like, you should be expecting this, by the way.
20:53-20:56
He's gonna take us here in a second to the Old Testament.
20:56-20:57
That's what he's saying.
20:57-20:59
He's like, do you even Bible?
20:59-21:04
Like if you know God's word, you should be expecting hard things to come.
21:06-21:06
Right?
21:08-21:10
Look at verse five, second part.
21:10-21:14
He says, now he's quoting here Proverbs 3.11.
21:14-21:35
He says, "My son, do not regard lightly "the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him." He's saying in Proverbs, and he's quoting Proverbs, same truth in Proverbs, in Hebrews, same truth today, harvest Bible chapel.
21:36-21:42
Life is difficult for God's people because God disciplines His kids.
21:43-21:49
In other words, he's saying, hey, when you're going through hard stuff, this is from God.
21:52-22:01
So he comes out of the gate here with the warning from Proverbs, "When we're being disciplined, there are two wrong ways to handle it." Do you see that?
22:02-22:06
And as people, we say this so many times, we have this tendency to go to the extremes.
22:06-22:09
And he says, "Both of the extremes are wrong." Look at it again.
22:09-22:10
Look at verse five.
22:10-22:15
He says, "First, do not regard lightly." Do not regard lightly.
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So the first way that you can mishandle God's discipline is to disregard it, write that down, disregard.
22:25-22:29
We lose sight of the fact that this is from God, so we regard it lightly.
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Or we just, we're so focused on the pain that we're missing the lesson.
22:35-22:38
And I was thinking about, how do you illustrate this, right?
22:38-22:43
Regarding the discipline lightly, and I realized that we have a lot of examples of this, right?
22:44-22:45
Have you ever disciplined a teenager?
22:46-22:49
I got two teenagers and I can tell you what that's like.
22:50-22:51
Some of you know what that's like.
22:52-22:57
When a teenager gets disciplined and they don't think it's fair, and they don't think it's right.
22:57-23:01
Oh man, my dad stinks and it's not fair.
23:02-23:03
And that's regarding lightly.
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Trying to teach you something and you're just blowing it off because you're so ticked off about the inconvenience or the pain or whatever, don't blow it off.
23:17-23:18
Don't blow it off.
23:19-23:20
But the second one, did you see it?
23:21-23:24
It's despondency.
23:26-23:27
You see that?
23:27-23:31
He says, "Nor be weary." Nor be weary.
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That's when you get to the point that you're under hardship that God is using to discipline you.
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And you just get to the point that you say, "You know what? I give up.
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I can't take it anymore.
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You're like, I don't know why God would allow this in my life.
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And he's reminding us, we know why God allows it.
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It's discipline.
23:56-24:00
And instead we need to learn, I need to learn this more than anybody in this room.
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Instead of being overcome by the hurt or the grief, I need to change the question.
24:14-24:16
Instead of saying, why would God allow this?
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I/we need to ask, what does God want me to learn through this?
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What does God want me to learn?
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He's trying to teach me something.
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What does he want me to learn?
24:33-24:34
This is from God.
24:35-24:35
This is from God.
24:35-24:47
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances." And this is, I was gonna cut this whole chunk out, but I can't because it's so important.
24:48-24:53
He noticed he says you give thanks in circumstances, not for circumstances, right?
24:55-24:58
Sometimes you can't be thankful for a circumstance.
24:58-24:59
You know what I mean?
24:59-25:07
Like somebody gets a bad diagnosis, and you're like, "I'm so thankful for Joey's cancer." Like, no, no, no, no.
25:08-25:09
Or a job loss.
25:10-25:15
You know, I'm so thankful that I don't have to worry about how to spend all that money that I was making.
25:16-25:17
Like, nobody says that.
25:17-25:20
But you can be thankful in the circumstance.
25:21-25:26
Like, okay, Joey was diagnosed with cancer, and I'm going to thank God for what he's going to do.
25:26-25:37
God's going to show up somehow and glorify his name and give opportunity for his gospel, and maybe God will bring healing, and I'm gonna thank God ahead of time for everything that I know He's going to do.
25:37-25:40
See, that's giving thanks in the circumstance, not for it.
25:40-25:41
Do you get that?
25:41-25:42
Or the job loss thing.
25:43-25:50
You could say, I'm thankful that I had the opportunity that I had, and I'm thankful that God is going to take me to another chapter of life.
25:50-25:56
Is there something He's trying to teach me in this transition period of my employment?
26:00-26:15
Give thanks in all circumstances, not for all circumstances, and you're like, "Well, how can I do that?" And I would say, "You never will." Unless you embrace that your hardship ultimately is from God.
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You gotta land there.
26:18-26:26
Whatever it is, whatever the source looks like, you gotta get to the place, this is from God.
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All right?
26:29-26:35
Number two, discipline is good for me because it is from God and because it proves I'm his child.
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Look at where we at, six through eight.
26:43-26:52
He says, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves "and chastises every son whom he receives." That's Proverbs 3:12.
26:53-26:55
But then the Hebrew writer goes on to comment.
26:55-27:02
He goes, "It is for discipline that you have to endure." God is treating you as sons.
27:03-27:05
For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
27:07-27:17
If you're left without discipline, in which we, excuse me, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
27:20-27:20
Stop there.
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He says, here's some good news about discipline.
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It proves that you're God's child and that he loves you.
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That's awesome.
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all that hard stuff that you're going through as a child of God, you're like, this means he loves me and he cares about my growth and maturity and development and that is awesome.
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That is awesome.
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Have you ever, have you ever been at the store, maybe you've Walmart or you used to shop at Target before they got all rainbow bright on you Have you ever been to a store, maybe, you know, picking up some essentials at the local store and you see some kid throwing a tantrum?
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You ever seen that?
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Some kid screaming he wants to count Chocula and not the grape nuts.
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And you totally get that, right?
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But what you don't appreciate is the means by which he is pleading his case.
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The screaming, the tears and snotting on himself.
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(yells)
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"I want to count Chocula!" He's just screaming and acting like a complete jerk.
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You ever seen that scene or something like that, right?
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Where the kid's just freaking out in the store.
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Have you ever seen that?
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Well, have you ever wanted to discipline that kid?
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Nope.
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You really haven't.
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You thought he needs discipline, but you've never really wanted the discipline, right?
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because you've done exactly what I've done in that situation.
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You just kind of walk away going, you better figure that out.
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(congregation laughing)
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Right?
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What's the point here?
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You don't discipline somebody else's kid because it's not your kid.
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You don't love another child the way you love your own child.
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And someone else's kid's maturity is not your job, but your kid's maturity absolutely is your job.
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And it's the same with God.
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That's what the Hebrew writer is saying here.
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He says, "God is not disciplining people "who don't belong to him." For somebody that isn't a believer in Jesus Christ, God isn't giving direction, He isn't shaping them, He isn't maturing them, He's not doing that.
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But when you belong to Him, you better believe that He isn't a tentative dad.
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You see, we discipline our children because we love them.
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And we discipline them because we want what's best for them.
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That's the point of discipline, right?
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My son will tell you, I've given the same speech to him many times.
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Like, look, it's because I love you that we have to do this.
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I can't let you act like that.
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I can't let you talk like that.
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We've had the conversation.
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Someday you're gonna get a job and you can't talk to your future boss that way.
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You can't go to your job with that kind of a work ethic.
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So we need to discipline you now so you learn some things in preparing you for adulthood.
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You can't talk to your mother that way.
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Someday you're gonna have a wife and you're gonna make sure that nobody talks to her that way, right?
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That's the purpose of discipline.
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You see, God does the same thing to us.
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God looks down at us and he's like, "Well, God's like, I can't let you act like that "because you're mine.
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"You are called by my name.
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"You represent me, you represent my gospel." So I gotta discipline you to change the way you're doing business.
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That's how much God loves you.
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And that means, church, we rejoice because discipline means you belong to him.
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And he loves you enough to be committed to your growth.
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Last week we talked about enduring, enduring.
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Why endure?
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Look at verse seven again.
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It is for discipline that you have to endure.
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You endure because of what God's discipline is doing in you.
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So listen, instead of looking at your hardships as something keeping you from what you wanna be, can you look at them as the way God is making you who he wants you to be?
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Because if you get that, your whole life will change.
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The hardships you're going through, brought into your life by God to make you who he wants you to be.
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And you're like, all right, I hear you, Jefe.
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What does God want me to be?
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Well, that's why number three on your outline, Discipline is good for me because it makes me like Jesus.
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Because it makes me like Jesus.
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Look at verse nine.
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It says, "Besides this, we've had earthly fathers "who disciplined us and we respected them.
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"Shall we not much more be subject "to the Father of spirits and live?" He says, "Be subject to the Father of spirits "and live, and live." It produces life.
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He's not talking about eternal life here.
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That's already been accomplished through Jesus Christ.
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That's not what he's talking about.
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He's talking about really living here and now.
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Like, what do you mean by that?
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You know, Deuteronomy 21, 18 says that you need to, under, this is Old Testament law, under Old Testament, Mosaic, ancient Israel law, Deuteronomy 21, 18, if you had a disobedient child, you were to kill them.
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And there was a whole process, bringing them before the leadership, et cetera.
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And I've had a lot of people really come after me about that.
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But you study the passage, it's pretty clear.
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He's not talking about babies or toddlers because he's talking about children who have become gluttons and drunkards.
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He's talking about older children.
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And you're like, man, that's kind of hard, isn't it?
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And I would say that's hard on the parents.
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Because don't you think that that puts the weight of responsibility on the parents unlike anything else?
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To say, if I don't figure out disciplining my kid, it could get to the point where he is legally executed.
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That's a burden.
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So here's a parenting tip for you.
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You're gonna see how it connects to what God does in our lives.
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Babies and toddlers are much easier to handle, believe it or not, than when they get older.
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They are much easier to handle.
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So parents, and the reason I gotta share this with you, I know we have so many parents, so many babies, babies on the way, you know, toddlers, listen parents, you have to hit the lessons hard and early.
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Hard and early.
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And there's a lot of resources if you're like, I don't even know where to start.
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Get shepherding a child's heart, get creative correction, get focused on the family, just get a good biblical resource, but you gotta get on the lessons hard and early.
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You're like, what does this have to do with Hebrews 12?
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Here's what it has to do with Hebrews 12.
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I think this is why new Christians get hit hard and early.
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Did you ever notice somebody gives their life to Christ and all of a sudden their whole life just like capsizes?
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Like what happened?
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I came to Christ and I thought it was gonna be easy.
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Like, well, that wasn't in the brochure, first of all.
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But why is it so hard for new Christians?
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Because God's hitting lessons early and hard.
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That's why.
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That's why we have baptisms up here and I'm dunking a person, I'm like, "Hey, your life is about to get so hard.
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(laughing)
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You don't even know.
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You think it's gonna be..." Well, that can't stop with a bag.
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(congregation laughing)
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Subject yourself to the Father and live.
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The more obedient you are to God, the more you enjoy life.
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You're like, "I don't think that's true." And I would say, "Try it." The more obedient you are to God, the more you enjoy life.
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Who's the most miserable person in the world?
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We think it's some pagan who doesn't know Jesus.
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That's the most miserable person in the world.
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You wanna know who the most miserable person in the world is?
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Find a Christian that's living in sin and get them to be honest with you.
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That person is the most miserable person in the world.
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All right, so where were we?
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Verse 10, he says, for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them.
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I love that, as it seemed best to them.
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Dads, we're trying, we're trying, right?
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We're trying.
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Ladies, wives, as it seemed best, we're trying.
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But he disciplines, God disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness.
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Okay, ding, ding, ding, here it is, here's the goal, Here's the end game.
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God, why am I going through all this hard stuff?
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Here it is.
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He wants you to share his holiness.
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This is what God is going for.
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This is his goal for discipline.
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He wants you to share his holiness.
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Yes, when you believe in Christ, you are pronounced holy in Jesus, perfect, righteous.
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Yes, you are pronounced that in Jesus upon salvation.
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But your time on earth is about God making you holy.
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That's sanctification.
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God is making you what he's already pronounced you to be.
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And that does not happen overnight.
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It is a process.
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It is a painful process.
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And I heard a metaphor one time, it always stuck with me.
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When you're a Christian, in God's eyes, you're this hunk of marble and he has the chisel.
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And he says, I am going to chisel off everything from you that doesn't look like Jesus, that hurts and that's discipline.
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So Christian, are you committed to becoming like Jesus?
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Because I can for sure tell you that God is committed to you becoming like Jesus.
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And that doesn't happen any other way than his discipline.
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So, you're like, let me get this straight.
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You're saying if I come to Jesus, I'm guaranteed for the rest of my life receiving painful discipline from God.
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Is that what you're saying?
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And I'm like, that's exactly what the Bible's saying.
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And you're like, well, you're a terrible evangelist because that's not a great sales pitch for Jesus.
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(congregation laughing)
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Well, I think that's why verse 11, he says what he does here.
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Look at verse 11.
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He says, "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." Yeah, discipline does come in all sorts of painful varieties, illness, job loss, financial problems, issues with your spouse, issue with your kids, none of them are pleasant.
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But discipline is supposed to be painful.
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Discipline is supposed to be painful because otherwise God would never have your attention.
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The Bible says, "Discipline your kids with the rod." Why?
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Because it's painful and it gets their attention.
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At the risk of stepping on toes, but here we go.
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You ever heard the parents go, you know, "Declan, stop doing that.
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I'm gonna, I'm gonna count.
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I'm gonna count.
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I'm gonna get to five.
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One, two, Declan, I'm gonna count.
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One, one, two.
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Declan, it It's because discipline has to hurt in some way.
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It has to sting in some way.
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But listen, discipline's not pain for the sake of pain.
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That's why he says here in verse 11, he goes, "For the moment." Painful rather than pleasant.
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Then he says, "But later." Take the long view.
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It's for the sake of the results.
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And church, if you see discipline for what it is, if you're willing to learn what God is teaching, what happens is God gets a kid who's better, better represents him, better represents his kingdom, and you, kid, get to reap the benefit of that, which according to verse 11 is the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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The thing that every single person on the planet is pursuing is peace, a settledness.
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And he says, here's how it comes as a result of God's discipline, peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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So yes, the life of faith is a life of God's discipline.
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It builds you up.
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It makes you like Jesus.
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It results in peace.
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And the question I got to leave in your lap is this, are you going to be the whiny kid who refuses to learn?
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Or are you going to see the pain that you're going through as God's tool to make you better?
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I confess before you in front of my brothers and sisters that I don't like discipline from you.
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I have resisted it and I have complained about it instead of learning from it.
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I've done that for too many times in my life.
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So God, I pray that through your word, you're changing me.
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that I can look at the hardships differently.
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Yes, it's hard, but that I can grow in being thankful in them, even when I can't be thankful for them.
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Let me see these things, God, as being from you, as being proof of ownership, as things that you're bringing into my life to make me like your son.
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And I pray for my brothers and sisters here and those that are watching this stream or listening to this podcast later or whatever, God, I pray that there would be a true repentance, a true changing of our minds, that we see your discipline not as this aggravating, frustrating pain that you're callously letting us go through because you don't care, but instead it's a well-measured application of your love that you've called us to be. Father I thank you ahead of time for the changes you're making in our minds. Hear your word that's going to result in the changes that will be made in our actions. Discipline us, Father, because you know best. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 12:4-11
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
“All of your hardships are ultimately God’s sovereign plan to discipline you.” How can you support this Biblically?
Tell of a specific lesson you have learned through God’s discipline. How did He discipline you? How did you come to realize the lesson?
Breakout
Pray for one another.