Don't Despise Discipline (Hebrews 12:5) | Worship Service

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Don't Despise Discipline (Hebrews 12:5) | Worship Service This stream is created with #PRISMLiveStudio

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Good morning, we welcome you to Kootenai Church today. We're glad that you're here. Would you stand with us as we sing
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Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. Praise to the
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Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation.
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O my soul, praise him for he is thy health and salvation.
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All ye who hear, now to his temple draw near.
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Praise him in glad adoration. Praise to the
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Lord, who o 'er all things so wondrously reigneth.
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Shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth.
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Hast thou not seen how thy desires e 'er have been granted in what he ordaineth?
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Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee.
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Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
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Ponder anew what the Almighty can do if with his love he befriend thee.
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Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in thee adore him.
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All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before him.
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Let the Amen sound from his people again.
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Gladly forever adore him.
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Immortal, invisible, not only wise, enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes.
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Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days. Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.
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Unresting, unhastening, and silent as night. Not wanting or wasting, you rule us in might.
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Your justice like mountains lies soaring above. Your clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
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Most holy, most glorious, the
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Ancient of Days. Almighty, victorious, your great name we praise.
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Comes from you,
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Lord, to both great and small. In all life you live, Lord, the true life of all.
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We blossom and flourish, but quickly grow frail. We wither and perish, but you never fail.
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Great Father of glory, your Father of light. Your angels adore you, availing their sight.
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All praise we will render, O Father of grace. Till one day in splendor we see face to face.
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Most holy, most glorious, the Ancient of Days.
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Almighty, victorious, your great name we praise.
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Most holy, most glorious, the Ancient of Days.
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Almighty, victorious, your great name we praise.
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Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take
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Him at His word. Just to rest upon His promise, just to know the saith the
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Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust
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Him, how I love Him more and more.
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Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust
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Him more. Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self -deceit.
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Just from Jesus simply taking life and presence and joy and peace.
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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how
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I've proved Him more and more. Jesus, Jesus, precious
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Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more.
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I'm so glad I learned to trust in precious
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Jesus, Savior, Friend. And I know that He is with me, will be with me to the end.
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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how
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I've proved Him more and more. Jesus, Jesus, precious
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Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more.
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You may be seated. Will you please turn your
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Bibles to the book of Psalms, to Psalm number 119. And while you're turning there, the only announcement that I have concerns our annual business meeting in Potluck next
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Sunday. There is a little insert like this that will tell you what you're supposed to bring if you plan on sticking around for the
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Potluck next weekend. And we, of course, would encourage you to do that as well as the business meeting that's to follow.
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You don't have to be a church member to attend the business meetings. That's next
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Sunday, so please take notice of that. Psalm 119, and we're not going to read the entire psalm this morning, but we are going to begin reading at verse 65.
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Verse 65, and we're going to read two of these sections within the psalm all the way through the end of verse 80, beginning at verse 65.
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You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word. Teach me good discernment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
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Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good.
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Teach me your statutes. The arrogant have forged a lie against me. With all my heart,
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I will observe your precepts. Their heart is covered with fat, but I delight in your law.
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It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
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Your hands made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
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May those who fear you see me and be glad, because I wait for your word. I know,
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O Lord, that your judgments are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. May your loving kindness comfort me according to your word to your servant.
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May your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight. May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie, but I shall meditate on your precepts.
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May those who fear you turn to me, even those who know your testimonies. May my heart be blameless in your statutes, so that I will not be ashamed.
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You stand with me as we pray. Bow our heads.
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Our Father, it is our joy and our delight to be called by your name and to gather here again this
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Lord's Day as your people. We do so because we have been made the unworthy partakers of the new covenant, the blessings of salvation.
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And we have been called here to worship you and to glorify your name, to serve one another, to be united in and around and by the truth, and then to express our love for you for all that you have done for us in the great gift of salvation which you have provided in Christ Jesus, your
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Son. So we thank you for this joy and we thank you for this privilege. We get to come here and to worship.
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We get to come here and sit under your word. We get to come here and fellowship with one another.
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And this is a great privilege and it is a high calling and we thank you for it. We pray that as we worship and as we sing and as we sit before your word today, all of us, that our hearts may be tuned to your grace and to your spirit, that we may hear from you in the pages of your word, that we may delight in your truth, that we may love you and embrace all the good that you have for us in this life, in discipline, in affliction, in suffering, in your word, and that you would grant to us the grace to respond appropriately to all that you have ordained for us.
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We pray that you would strengthen our hearts together in the unity that we have in Jesus Christ, that you would accomplish this through your word, and that you would be delighted to dwell here with your people and to visit us this morning in our worship and in your word.
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We pray in Christ's name. Amen. The sea with a bottom o 'er shore
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Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more
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Praise the Lord His mercy is more
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Stunder the darkness, new and reborn Our sins, they are many,
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His mercy is more What patience would wait as we constantly roam
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What Father so tender is calling us home
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He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor
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Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more
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Praise the Lord His mercy is more
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Stunder the darkness, new and reborn Our sins, they are many,
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His mercy is more What riches of kindness
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He lavished on us His blood was the payment, His life was the cost
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We studied the death we could never afford
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Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more
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Praise the Lord His mercy is more
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Stunder the darkness, new and reborn Our sins, they are many,
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His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more
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Stunder the darkness, new and reborn
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Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more
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Today, out of Isaiah 25, we're going to read verse 9. And it will be said in that day,
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Behold, this is our God, in whom we have hoped that He would save us. This is
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Yahweh, in whom we have hoped. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.
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We're going to end our music service this morning by singing, Behold Our God. Behold Our God Who has held the oceans in His hand
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Who has numbered every grain of sand
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Kings and nations tremble at His voice
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All creation rises to rejoice
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Behold Our God Seated on His throne
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Come, let us adore Him Behold Our King Nothing can compare
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Come, let us adore Him Who has given counsel to the
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Lord Who can question any of His words
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Who can teach the one who knows all things
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Who can fathom all His wondrous deeds
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Behold Our God Seated on His throne
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Come, let us adore Him Behold Our King Nothing can compare
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Come, let us adore Him Who has felt the nails upon His hand
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Bearing all the guilt of sinful man
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God eternal, humble to the grave
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Jesus, Savior, risen now to reign
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Behold Our God Seated on His throne
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Come, let us adore Him Behold Our King Nothing can compare
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Come, let us adore Him Behold Seated on Behold You may be seated.
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And now will you please turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12.
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And in a moment we're going to read Hebrews 12 verses 4 through 11. But before we do, let's bow in a word of prayer.
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Our gracious God, we come now to Your Word and it is inside of Your Word that You have revealed
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Your glory to us, Your purposes, Your eternal and redeeming purposes. And we can behold
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You only in so far as and to the degree to which You have revealed Yourself to us.
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And the place where You have revealed Yourself to us is in Your Word. And so we pray now that You would open our eyes and our hearts to that, that we may look upon Your wisdom and Your majesty,
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Your grace, and Your infinite and redeeming love for us. And that our hearts and our minds, our souls, may be forever changed by Your truth, and that You would be glorified here amongst
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Your people and through Your Word. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Hebrews 12, beginning at verse 4.
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You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in Your striving against sin, and You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to You as sons.
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My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when You are reproved by Him.
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For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that You endure.
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God deals with You as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
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But if You are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then You are illegitimate children and not sons.
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Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the
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Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good so that we may share in His holiness.
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All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.
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Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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The wisdom of God is seen in the variety of ways that He corrects us and trains us and equips us and prepares us for life and service in this world and for obedience in this life.
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And our God wastes nothing. I think it was the second song that we sung there in the first set.
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Nor wanting, nor wasting, He ruleth and might. God does not want or waste anything in the lives of His children.
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No difficulty, no disappointment, no disaster is without a purpose. Nothing comes to you except by divine appointment.
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The sovereign God who upholds all things by the word of His power and rules all of His creation, holding all of it together,
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He does not struggle to accomplish His purposes in our lives. And He uses every last thing that comes into our lives in some way for His purposes to accomplish those purposes in us.
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To produce in us obedience, to produce in us holiness, to conform us and form us to the image of Christ, because to that end we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, Romans 8 says.
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And so everything in our lives is used by God for that purpose in some way, all of it together, works together for our good and for His glory in molding us and shaping us into that image.
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So that in the language of Hebrews 12, we may share His holiness and we may demonstrate or manifest the peaceful fruits of righteousness.
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And we will see all of God's purpose for us eventually in heaven. What is a mystery to us here will be a beauty to us there.
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For then we will see everything that He has been doing through every event and every circumstance and every disappointment and every discouragement and every affliction that has come into our lives.
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Everything is a tool in His hand. Persecution, personal tragedy, dashed hopes, betrayals, natural disasters, man -made afflictions and sufferings, tribulations, reproaches, imprisonment, hostility from the world, loss, financial destruction, the death of a loved one, physical disability, sickness and sufferings, all of them are in the hand of God.
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All of them are used by Him. They are tools in His hand to mold us and to shape us.
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It is by faith that we embrace that. And that we love that.
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And that we trust that. That in eternity we will look back and realize nothing has been wasted.
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We will never get to heaven and say, of all the things that happened to me, I see the purpose behind all of these, but these half a dozen things in this decade of time here, this seems to be wasted.
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There was nothing accomplished by that. I can't see the end of it. I can't see the purpose for it. That will not happen when we get to glory.
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When we get to glory, we'll look back and see His sovereign hand appointing and ordaining every single thing that has happened to us.
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And we will see that it has been for our good and for His glory and for the good of others. And we will rejoice in that.
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We will remember and rejoice in the fact that He works all things after the counsel of His will. Ephesians 1 says,
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We have been predestined to an inheritance according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His will.
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All things. Romans 8, verse 28. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love
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God to those who are called according to His purpose. If you're in Christ Jesus, you are called according to His purpose and you love
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God and God loves you and therefore, the promise stands that God causes all things to work together for good.
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It's not that everything that happens to us is a good thing in and of itself, but that everything that happens to us is added to this script, this drama, and together they all work out for our good.
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And if we could see the end from the beginning, as we will someday when we're at the end looking back on the beginning, we will look back on everything and say,
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I would not have changed anything. That is hard to wrap our minds around.
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It's even harder to wrap our hearts around. I would not change anything. I would let God do exactly what
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He has done through all of those things. By faith we count that as so, and by faith we persevere in a hope that we know will not disappoint.
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So far in Hebrews 12, we have dealt with the mindset with which we embrace God's discipline.
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Understanding that the afflictions that we endure are less than we deserve, and understanding that He deals with us as with sons.
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He disciplines His sons, not His enemies. We have been dealing for the last three weeks with how it is the mindset with which we are to embrace
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God's discipline. Once we frame it properly and we remember that it's correction and it's not punishment, it's out of love and not out of wrath, it is for our good and not for our harm.
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Once we have that framework in mind and we say all of the afflictions that God has ordained and appointed for us in this life, they fit into that box.
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That describes all of those. All of it is for our good, not our harm. None of it is out of His wrath.
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All of it is ordained by Him for us out of love. And none of it is intended as a punishment on us for our sin, but rather it is intended as a correction for us so that He might preserve us from sin and purge us from sin.
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Once we have framed that, which I think we have adequately done to this point, now we can move on to the manner in which we embrace
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God's discipline. So we talked about the mindset with which we embrace God's discipline. And now we're going to talk about the manner of it in verse 5.
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We're focusing in on the quotation in verse 5. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the
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Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. That describes the manner with which we approach and embrace God's discipline.
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How do we do this? And I'm not specifically talking about the mechanics of how we do it, like what do I do today, tomorrow, and the next day?
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What things do I do, physically speaking? But rather the attitude with which we embrace
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God's discipline. How do I do this in my spiritual life? It's one thing to have it properly framed in my head as to what this is.
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And now how is it that I go about embracing this? And again, discipline is not a joyful thing in and of itself.
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The author is honest about that. Down in verse 11, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.
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So when we embrace God's discipline, the point of embracing it is not to convince ourselves that it's fun.
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Oh, I lost my spouse. I have to find how this is fun. Unless you just lost her at the mall, then that might be fun.
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You can go find her. But if you lost her like she died, then the point of embracing discipline or difficulty and affliction in your life is not to convince yourself that this is enjoyable.
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That's not. There's nothing about sitting next to the bedside of a loved one who is suffering a terminal illness or dying of a terminal illness.
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There's nothing about that that is enjoyable or fun. But it's fruitful in an eternal sense.
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It's fruitful. It's not fun. And the goal is not to convince ourselves that it's fun. The goal is not to convince ourselves that it's joyful or to find some joy in it because the author is honest.
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All discipline, all afflictions, trials, tribulations, all of it seems in the moment not to be joyful but sorrowful.
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It's true. We can weep. It's okay to weep. Yet to those who have been trained by it, there is fruit in it.
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It produces the peaceful fruits of righteousness. It produces something that is joyful and will bring joy.
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So let's jump in now at verse 5. You'll notice if you're reading the NASB that it is verses 5 and 6.
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The end of verse 5 and 6 are in all caps. That indicates to us that it is a quotation from the Old Testament.
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Let's read those two verses together. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him.
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For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. That is a quotation from Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12.
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And the wording is a little bit different in the New Testament quotation of that than it is back in the book of Proverbs 3.
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You don't need to turn there, but I'm going to read to you now Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12. And I just want you to notice the words that are different, how it is phrased differently.
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Just pay attention to it as you, with your eyes, on Hebrews 12, verses 5 and 6. Here's Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12.
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My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe
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His reproof. For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom
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He delights. Now the wording is a little bit different, but the meaning is not. And what is it that accounts for the difference of wording?
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If this is a quotation, how come it's not a direct quotation, or a word -for -word quotation?
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Well, it actually is a word -for -word quotation if you were holding in your lap the Septuagint, which is the
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Greek translation of the Old Testament that Jesus and the apostles would have had in their day. This is the translation of the
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Scriptures with which the author of Hebrews would have been familiar. He would have been able to cite large passages of it from memory, and that's what he does here.
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Quoting Proverbs 3 in the Septuagint translation, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, then we, in our
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English translation, translate from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
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Now there are people who say that the Bible is nothing but a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation over time, and that its meaning has been lost, and the original reading is unrecoverable.
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That's not true. The furthest we get away from the Hebrew Old Testament is an English translation of the
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Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, but we can still go back to the Hebrew Old Testament and compare Proverbs 3 and realize that the author here, though he is quoting a
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Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the meaning is the same. And this is what we typically get in the
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New Testament when we are reading quotations from the Old Testament. We are typically getting the Septuagint translation, because that's the translation that they would have been familiar with, and that accounts for the difference in wording.
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But as I said, the meaning is not different at all. The essence or the sense of it is the same.
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Verse 5 addresses the manner in which you and I are to respond to God's discipline, and it warns us of two opposite errors.
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Either to despise God's discipline, that's the first phrase. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the
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Lord. And the second error is to faint under God's discipline, nor faint when you are reproved by Him.
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Those are our two errors. We despise God's discipline, or we just despair underneath of Him. These are two opposite errors.
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They are actually on two opposite extremes of our response to God's discipline. The one, when we despise
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God's discipline, that ends up hardening the heart as a response. When we look down upon the discipline of God, the result of that is that our heart is hardened against the work that God is doing in our hearts.
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On the opposite side of that, when we despair under God's discipline, we actually lose heart. And that's what the idea of fainting here carries.
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It carries the idea of our hearts just weakening out and losing heart under them. We give up.
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We despair under it. So one results in a hard heart. The other results in a weak heart. To despise
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God's discipline is to think of discipline as nothing. It's to disdain it. Whereas to faint under His discipline is to think of it as everything and to say, oh,
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I cannot bear it. See the opposite errors? Despise it. Look down upon it.
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To despair underneath of it is to think of it as being something that is so heavy, so over the top that I cannot bear up underneath of it.
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One looks down and makes nothing of it. The other looks at it and makes everything out of it. Those are two opposite extremes.
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To despise His discipline is to regard it as too light a thing to consider properly. And to despair under it is to regard it as too heavy a thing to bear.
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One results in bitterness and hostility. That's despising God's discipline. Results in bitterness and hostility.
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The second results in a brokenness and despair. Neither of those are healthy. Neither of those is the object of discipline.
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The object of discipline is the peaceful fruit of righteousness, sharing in His holiness, pursuing sanctification without which we cannot see
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God. And if we err in either one of these camps, we either end up hostile and bitter and angry over the things that God has ordained and appointed for us, or we end up despairing and weakened and fainting under it.
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And in neither of those cases is the purpose of God in that discipline accomplished in our lives.
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And so what we ought to do is to embrace His discipline and to pursue the holiness and not err in either of these two common ways that Christians respond to God's discipline.
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So if we are to embrace God's discipline in the proper manner, and how we ought to think of it, we ought not to think lightly of it or faint under it.
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We must not despise it or to despair under it. And I think that once we consider the errors that typically we commit under either of these two headings, how it is that we respond to that discipline, particularly in the rest of the passage, will become quite evident.
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So if we are to embrace God's discipline, we must not despise it. That's the first phrase of verse 5.
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Read it with me again. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. That word, regard lightly, is used only one time in the
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New Testament. It's translated here. It's used nowhere else. You might think that this just has to do with kind of not valuing it enough, but it's more than that.
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There are multiple, many ways that we show our despising of God's discipline.
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The definition of this word, it means to look down on, to think lightly or regard lightly, here translated in verse 5.
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It means to look down on or to have contempt for something. The idea of kind of like an arrogant or prideful person might walk by a beggar on the street, kind of pass by it, you think little of it, you have very little regard for it, actually have contempt for it.
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It means to make light of something or to despise it, to esteem it very little, to have little regard for it, or to care little for it.
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Now the phrase in Proverbs, back in Proverbs 3, says do not reject the discipline of the
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Lord. We tend to reject those things that we value very little. If anybody offers you a diamond necklace, you don't reject that, do you?
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Why? Because you cherish it. You understand there's value in it. We reject the things that we esteem very lightly.
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We tend to turn those things away. That's why the author of Proverbs uses that word that means to reject something, to turn away from it.
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In Hebrews, we think lightly of it. Let me give you four ways that we despise
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God's discipline. And each of these four ways that we despise God's discipline is going to be an opportunity for us to examine our own hearts and how we respond to afflictions, sufferings, difficulties, trials, tribulations, reproaches, hostility, persecution, all the stuff that comes into our lives, all the things that none of us like.
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Number one, we complain about His discipline. We complain about it. And I put that right up at the top because I want to spend the most amount of time on the subject of complaining.
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If we could only understand the evil that is present in our own murmuring hearts, if we could only understand that, we would be horrified at how sinfully evil a complaint is against the good hand of God.
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And yet when we experience something that is a tribulation or a trial, an affliction, or suffering, some form of discipline in our lives, our most natural response is to complain about it.
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We are complaining creatures. We complain about everything. You go to the restaurant this afternoon and you sit down at a table and you order a meal, you will be presented with a hundred opportunities to complain.
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The waitress is here too much. The waitress is not here enough. My glass is filled too often. My glass is not filled enough.
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My food is too hot. My food is not hot enough. You complain about too hot food, there's something wrong with you.
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But most of us complain when our food is served to us cold. There's not enough here for the price. There's too much here for the price.
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The music is too loud. The music is not loud enough. The lighting is too bright. The lighting is not bright enough. I can't hear what's going on.
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The waitress is annoying. You will be presented with a hundred opportunities to complain. And we will probably naturally, instinctively, at least in our hearts and minds, take opportunity to complain about ninety out of the hundred things that are presented to us just over a meal without ever coming face -to -face with the reality of what a tremendous blessing it is that God has provided something more for us to eat.
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We are complaining creatures. We complain about everything. Afflictions and trials and sufferings and difficulties and persecutions certainly make that list.
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And the fact that we complain when we are undergoing discipline is the evidence that we need it.
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That's it. When you're experiencing discipline and your first instinct is to complain about it, stop right there and realize this is the proof that this is what
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I need. And maybe this discipline is intended to purge me of the sin of complaining and producing me gratitude and thankfulness.
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Paul in Philippians 2 says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world.
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Notice that the opposite of wicked and perverse and crooked generation is a generation that does not complain or a group of people that does not complain.
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You are to do all things without grumbling or disputing. Does all things include enduring affliction and suffering and discipline and trials and tribulations?
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Would that be under all things? I'm tempted to think it would be included under all things, since when Paul wrote that he was in prison for the sake of the
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Gospel, and yet he is saying to us, do everything that you do without complaining.
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This is our initial response in the midst of afflictions and tribulations. Our initial response to discipline is to say,
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Lord, why have you saved me only to put me through this? Why me? Why can't my lot be different?
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Why won't you answer my prayer? Why won't you make this thing pass? Why do I have to go through this?
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Why me? Why now? Why this? Why them? Why us? Complaining is a sin that is so ingrained in us that there is hardly one person among us that does not struggle to mortify and kill that sin.
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There's hardly a person here that is not tempted by it. I don't know that I've met anybody who never complains about anything.
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You think the meal will present you a hundred opportunities to complain? Don't even get me started on the weather. Every day is a whole series of things that we are offered to complain about.
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Too much snow, too little snow, too bright light, too cloudy, and on and on it goes. We breathe in oxygen and we exhale complaints.
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That is the nature of humanity. We breathe it in and we exhale complaints.
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Not carbon dioxide, complaints about everything. And the source of these complaints comes from a wrong assessment of the purpose of God in our discipline.
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We don't understand that what He is doing in us through the trials and the afflictions is something so precious, so golden, so perfect, and so eternal that if we could just see that, we wouldn't complain about it at all.
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We would embrace it readily. We have a heart that thinks too highly of itself and too little of God's wisdom in the midst of our afflictions.
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We forget His purposes. We are familiar with the many examples of the Israelites who right after they get delivered out of a great tribulation or a trial, they come out, say for instance, out of Exodus, out into the wilderness.
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What was the first thing that they did? We don't like the water supply. We don't like the meat supply. We don't like the vegetable supply.
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We're not sure why we're out here doing this. And what did they long for? To go back to the bondage of Egypt.
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And we read that story and we look at them and we say, how can they be so foolish? And then a third of a second's reflection tells us, that is me.
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I am them. I would do the exact same thing in that situation. I have done the exact same thing in that situation.
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We are delivered from the eternal wrath of God and the penalty for our sin. And then we complain about the freedom that we enjoy.
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And we complain about not having enough of whatever it is that we desire. We're just like the children of Israel.
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Delivered from His wrath and then we cry out, oh, if only I were back in Egypt. If only
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I had the leeks and the lemons. We escape the sword of God's wrath only to complain about the rod of His love.
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If I truly escape God's wrath, His eternal wrath, then there is no aspect of discipline with which
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I should complain. If I realize that it comes from a loving hand and that I have not been appointed the sword of His anger and His wrath, but instead
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I've been spared that, and then He has taken the rod of His discipline and He has baptized it in deep affection before laying it to my back, as Spurgeon says, then how could we possibly respond to that with complaints?
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We think little of His discipline, valuing it little, not seeing it as something that is worth cherishing, not looking at what it is that it is intended to produce in us, and we don't value that thing or cherish that thing.
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And what is the cure for this? It is to remember that the afflictions that we endure are less than we deserve. Verse 4.
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You have not yet shed blood in your striving against sin. It could be worse. You deserve worse.
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I deserve worse. Spurgeon said it this way. Are not His strokes fewer than your crimes and lighter than your guilt?
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That's a good question. Are not His strokes fewer than your crimes and lighter than your guilt?
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A .W. Pink said, Remind yourself of how much dross there is yet among the gold and view the corruption of your own heart and marvel that God has not smitten you more severely.
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That's the perspective change. That's what we need to keep in mind. Remembering that God is treating us as sons, not as enemies, and that every thought of His toward us is only good, it is only loving, it comes out of a deep and abiding affection that He has for His own people.
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And in the moment of complaint, the truth that we need to speak to our hearts is that this thing, however distasteful and sorrowful it is in the moment, is for my good.
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He intends it for my good and He intends it for my eternal glory. That's the truth
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I have to speak to my own heart in the midst of affliction when I am tempted to complain. If I could only see the end from the beginning, it would call forth my highest praise for Him, for what
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He is doing in the midst of the affliction. Now let me offer a clarification because when
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I complain about people complaining, it can be easily misunderstood. We are tempted to hear somebody talk about not complaining in the midst of affliction and think that what that means is that I never talk about my own difficulties to another person.
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That's not what I'm describing. I'm not describing that. I'm not talking about refraining from sharing an affliction or a suffering or a difficulty, a trial that you're going through with a beloved brother and sister in Christ or somebody in a leadership position or a friend or a neighbor who can help you out and counsel you and give you advice.
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That's not what we're talking about. It is the attitude, the manner, the heart expression of that sharing that makes it a complaint and not a sharing of what
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I'm going through. So for instance, if I tell my wife my back is out for the third time this year and I'm in tremendous pain and this is difficult,
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I can do that in a way that shares with her what I'm going through so that she understands why it is that I don't jump up to help her with something in the moment or why
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I'm not doing dishes or whatever it is. I can share that with her in an attempt that she could sympathize with me and help me out and understand and expect less from me for the next week until my back is better.
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Or I can say to my wife, my back is hurting again. I don't know why the Lord does this. This is the third time this year.
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Doesn't He know that I need to work? Doesn't He know that I need to provide? Doesn't He know that I hate this? Does He not understand how much pain
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I'm in? You see, one isn't me sharing with somebody what I'm going through. The other is me complaining about what
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I'm going through. And the difference between that is the attitude of the heart. So, when you are in the midst of discipline, it is perfectly legitimate to find a brother or sister in Christ with whom you can share that burden, you can talk it through, you can express it, you can let them know what you're going through so they can pray for you, so they can counsel you, so they can comfort you, and so that they can help you.
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That is entirely legitimate. Second way that we despise
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God's discipline, not only just complaining about discipline, but questioning the wisdom of His discipline. This is really a complaint of a different nature, but it more complains about the wisdom of God in appointing that difficulty for me.
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When we think to ourselves, or say to ourselves, or even say to the Lord, look, this trial has gone on too long.
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This trial is too severe. This trial is not accomplishing anything in my life. This trial is not bearing any fruit.
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This trial would be better if it were given to my brother over there, or my sister over there, or even the annoying neighbor across the fence.
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Anybody else would be better to receive this trial than me. And this trial should be shorter.
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This trial should be more useful. What good is this affliction? I can't see what the purpose of this is in this.
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All of those are merely complaints or expressions of a questioning of God's wisdom in what He has ordained or appointed for me in the midst of my affliction.
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I'm really questioning whether He is best suited to determine who it is that should determine and appoint my afflictions and to guide and direct the appointed course of my life.
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I'm questioning God's wisdom. This trial should have ended yesterday, or it should not have been given to me, or it should not be this severe, or it should be of a different nature.
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That is simply saying to God, if I were on the throne, I would handle me differently. And of course you would.
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You're not on the throne. But to question God's wisdom in the midst of that trial concerning things that He has appointed for me is a blasphemous slight, really, against Him.
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Or to suggest that somebody else should deserve this affliction and not me is to question
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His wisdom in giving the affliction to whom He would give it. Why me?
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Why now? Why this? All of these question God's wisdom in it. And the result of questioning
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God's wisdom is the bitterness that I talked about a few moments ago. And here's why. Because when
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I'm undergoing affliction or difficulty, and I'm in the midst of that discipline, when I question God's wisdom in giving it to me, what
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I am really saying is that the fruit of what He is going to produce in this is not worth the squeeze of the discipline.
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And so if that is the case, then I am going to think in my mind concerning God that He has taken something that is very precious from me, and He has given me something that is not very precious, and the result of that will be bitterness.
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Because I will be angry with God for taking something from me and not adequately compensating me for what
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He has removed from my life. That is comfort, or convenience, or ease, or reputation, or financial stability, whatever it is.
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He has taken something from me, and He has not adequately compensated me for that. That is going to produce hostility and bitterness toward God.
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And here is the cure for that. Remember the purpose of the discipline. He disciplines us for our good so that we may share
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His holiness. That, for the believer, is more precious than anything this world has to offer.
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It will yield for us the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Remember that the One who has called you to run this race is
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Himself strengthening you and disciplining you so that He will guarantee that you will cross the finish line and receive the reward.
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That is the goal. And when you understand the goal, then you will not question the wisdom of the coach who is calling the plays and calling you to run the race.
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You will see it as a wise bestowment of everything that He has appointed in my life for my good.
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The third way that we despise God's discipline. We complain about it. We question the wisdom of His decisions. And third, we regard it as shameful or dishonorable.
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It is not uncommon for us to view it as a shameful thing when we are undergoing God's discipline. I think this is because we misunderstand what
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God's discipline is. But then we look at when we are under affliction or we're going through a difficulty, we tend to try and convince ourselves that we are somehow unique, that nobody else goes through these things.
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It's just me. I'm going through this. And because everybody else in the congregation hasn't shared with me the difficulties that they're going through,
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I must be the only one that is struggling with this. I must be the only one that is going through this. And if I'm the only one that is going through this, then
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I'm the only one that deserves this or needs this. And if I'm the only one that needs this, then there must be something horrible in my life that is not in everybody else's life.
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And therefore, if I'm undergoing discipline or affliction, then
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I should probably be ashamed of that fact, that this is difficult, that I'm going through this affliction.
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We always convince ourselves that everybody else has it so good. This is the mistake that Asaph made in Psalm 73.
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He looked at the wicked and he saw their wealth and he said, they're fat. Not that being fat is bad, but what he meant by it was they have plenty to eat and the righteous are starving.
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They die in comfort. They're not plagued in their conscience. They're not under the hand of God's affliction.
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All they do is jet around the world telling the rest of us what to eat and how to eat it and when to eat it and what we get to do with our free time and our free money.
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And the rest of us have to live under this oppressive affliction that these people impose upon us so the righteous get all of the affliction, the wicked get all of the blessings.
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This is what we tend to typically convince ourselves is true. That's Psalm 73. Until, by the way, and I'll spoil the end of the
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Psalm, Asaph came to realize, no, it's the exact opposite. The wealth that God gives to the wicked is their judgment.
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This is an act of God's judgment upon them. He is lifting them up so that their fall will be greater and He will destroy the wicked through what we think are the blessings.
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It's not blessings. It's just prosperity. We convince ourselves that if we're undergoing affliction that it must be something wrong with us and it might be something that we have done that has brought on a discipline that is always possible, but it's also possible that God brings into your life something that is disciplined because He knows that you are strong enough to bear that burden and to carry that weight and to glorify
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Him through it. Would you look at some young couple who is struggling with a sick child and think to yourself, what have they done,
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Lord, to deserve this? Who sinned? They or their parents? Isn't that the mistake that they made in John 9 with the man born blind?
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What did they assume? If somebody's going through a difficulty, it must be the result of sin.
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How many things could you look at in the life of the Apostle Paul and say, it must have been sin in Paul's life that caused all of these afflictions and difficulties?
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No, maybe. Maybe. Is it just possible that God would give that affliction to the Apostle Paul, that suffering to that man, because that man could bear it and thus display the glory of God through that affliction?
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That God's glory might be manifested in his weakness? Is that possible? That is exactly the purpose of the affliction.
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It is not because God hates us. God loves us. In the midst of that affliction,
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He is producing in us something of an eternal weight of glory. So we show that we regard
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God's discipline as shameful when we see it in our own life and we think that somehow we should be ashamed of the difficulty or affliction that we're undergoing.
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And we also reveal that we see it as shameful when we see it in the lives of other people and think that they are under some sort of judgment for their sin.
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This is the same mistake that the natives on the island of Balta made when the Apostle Paul was stranded there and he picked up the bundle of sticks to throw into the fire and the fire warmed up the snake and the snake came out and bit him on the hand, a poisonous snake.
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And the natives said, oh, this man must be a murderer and this is the judgment of the gods upon him.
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So they assumed that a bad thing happens, it can be directly correlated to something evil that that person has done.
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And in this life, we can't always make that connection. Sometimes bad things happen because of evil things that we do.
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That's true. Sometimes affliction, sometimes difficulty, and sometimes discipline is the result of a sin and I can make a one -to -one connection between those two things, but not always.
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In fact, I would suggest most of the time that is not the case. Sometimes we just endure affliction and discipline because that is what
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God has appointed for us out of His love so that He may strengthen us so that we can run the race and share in His holiness.
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The difficulties and afflictions, the disciplines are an evidence of God's love, not an evidence of His abandonment. The fourth way that we demonstrate that we despise
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God's discipline or regard it lightly is to make light of it, to make light of it.
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And this is actually an error that we make on the other side of the other three errors and that is the error of gritting our teeth, bearing down, and saying, yeah, this might be
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God's discipline, but so what? I'll get through this. Everybody endures this. I'll just persevere to the end.
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This is no big deal. This is no big deal. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not really concerned about anything.
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It's just getting on the other side of this. God might be doing something, but I don't care what that thing is. I just need to get through this right now in this moment.
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And what that demonstrates is a certain level of pride, a certain amount of pride that refuses to consider the value of the outcome that God has ordained for that trial, for that discipline.
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Rather than looking at the end and saying, there is a holiness that I am predestined to share.
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There is a sanctification that I am to pursue in the midst of this discipline. And there is a peaceful fruit of righteousness that the
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Lord is wanting to work in my life. Rather than seeing all of that, this prideful response just simply says, yeah,
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God might be doing something. I don't know what it is. And frankly, I don't even care what it is. I'm just going to bear down and get through this.
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That is a way of despising, showing, looking down upon, and actually reproaching, not just God's ordination of what
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He has ordained in the afflictions, but also reproaching what it is that God is doing through those afflictions.
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It's a prideful response. And the cure for that is to simply remember the purpose of the discipline, verse 10, that we may share
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His holiness and that it produces in us the peaceful fruits of righteousness. So, the first extreme that we tend to is to despise
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God's discipline. If you regard it as punishment, then you are despising it.
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If you think that God intends your harm, then you are despising it. And if you think it is anything but love, an expression of His love, then you are despising it.
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But if you are convinced that God's discipline is not punishment, but correction, it is not out of anger, but out of love, and it is not for our harm but for our good, then you will never complain about it, you will never question the wisdom that has ordained it, you will not regard it as shameful, and you will not make light of it.
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But you will embrace it. But if you doubt God's goodness and His love, then you will question
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His wisdom, and you will complain about it, and you will make light of it, and you will see it as a shameful and embarrassing thing that you are undergoing affliction.
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So my counsel to you would be to see the value in what it is that God has ordained for you in this life.
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Cherish it as the evidence of His abiding, deep and abiding love for you. And remember, He has not given you the sword of His wrath,
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He has given you the rod of His love. We can embrace that. He has not abandoned you in your sin, but He loves us enough to correct us in it, and to bring into our lives those things that will strengthen us, to cast off every encumbrance in the sin that so easily entangles us, so that we may run our race, and that we may finish it with joy.
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Homer Kempton, his commentary on Hebrews, says this, To treat lightly or to despise these circumstances that come into the believer's life is to display ignorance of God's means of ministering to His children.
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Close quote. To treat lightly or to despise these circumstances that come into the believer's life is to display ignorance of God's means of ministering to His children.
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God ministers to us through the discipline and the afflictions. And when we despise it, we demonstrate our ignorance of what
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God is doing in the midst of them. Let's pray. Our Father, we rejoice in Your Word, in Your goodness, and in Your sovereignty.
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We thank You again that we have been reminded of Your purposes for us in this life. Your purposes in everything that You have appointed and ordained for us.
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We pray that You would strengthen our hearts to embrace that. Help us to see in all of life's difficulties and trials
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Your purpose, and beyond that, Your love for us. May we see it as an evidence of Your infinite and abundant redeeming love for those who are
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Your own. We pray that You would do a work in our hearts, that You would conform us to the image of Your Son, that You would grant to us the strength and the grace to embrace everything that comes into our lives as a gift from You, and to pursue holiness in the midst of it.
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Strengthen us for that end that You may produce in us the fruit of the Spirit, the peaceful fruits of righteousness, so that we may both desire to share
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Your holiness, and we may share in it. We ask this in Christ's name. Let's stand and end our service this morning by singing
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He leadeth me. He leadeth me,
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O blessed thought, O words with empty comfort brought.
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What e 'er I do, where 'er I be, He stills
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His God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me,
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He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me.
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His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand
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He leadeth me. Sometimes mid scenes of deepest blue, sometimes where Eden's flowers bloom, by water still or troubled sea still,
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O His hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me,
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He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me.
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His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand
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He leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp
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Thy hand in mine, nor ever murmur, nor reply.
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Content whatever lot
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I see, since His hand that leadeth me.
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He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand
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He leadeth me. His faithful follower
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I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me.
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He leadeth me, His faithful follower.