FBC Morning Light – September 30, 2022

Well, a good Friday morning, and here we are, the last day of September 2022. So we have finished up three quarters of this year, and tomorrow we enter into the fourth quarter, the backstretch of the year.

I hope your week has gone well and you're looking forward to a good weekend. I hope you can join us on this coming

Lord's Day as we gather together for worship of the Lord. We'll be commemorating the

Lord's Supper on Sunday, Lord willing, and continuing our look at 2

Peter in the morning service in our Sunday school, adult Sunday school time, we're focusing on the book of Isaiah, and Sunday evening we're in the

Gospel of Mark. So a day in the Word, a day in the Word, a day of the

Lord. I hope you can make it. Well, today we're in the book of Hebrews chapter 12. Let me ask you something.

Have you ever, you look back over your childhood, you think back of some times of discipline that you didn't particularly appreciate at the time and even still.

I remember when I was a kid, I took piano lessons and my dad was a pastor in the church and he said, why don't you play a piano solo in Sunday night?

I said, okay, I will. And so I practiced hard and I learned to play

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Very easy, key of C, no sharps or flats, you know.

So I got up and I played When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and I'm sure, as I recall, I mean, I can still kind of remember doing it.

It was very pedantic, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, you know, that kind of thing.

But I got done and I think it was fairly flawless, I guess.

I don't know. Anyway, I got done and I felt pretty good about myself that I actually did it. I was all of probably eight years old,

I don't know. And went back to my seat. I was sitting with a friend in church and he and I were kind of cutting up during church, you know, during the message.

And at one point, my dad hollered at us from the pulpit, which, by the way,

I don't think was a good idea, but nevertheless, he did. And then on the way home from church, he said to me, as a consequence, as a punishment for your misbehavior during church, you can go to bed tonight without a snack.

Now, our tradition in our home on Sunday evening after church was we would come home from church and we would have some kind of a snack, a sandwich or something before going to bed.

But he said I had to go without. So that's exactly what happened. And I remember lying there in my bed that night and I was fuming,

I was mad, I was angry. I thought, boy, you know, here I went and played this song because my dad wanted me to in church.

And now this is what I get out of it. This, you know, he turns around and does this to me. That chastening did not appear to me to be very pleasant.

I chafed under it. Now, to be honest, I don't think my dad punished me from the most noble of reasons.

And that brings up what I'm looking at in Hebrews chapter 12. In verse 10, it says, our parents indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, seemed best to them.

And my dad thought that was the best way to handle this kind of a situation, to chew me out from the pulpit.

I don't think that was a very good idea. I don't think that was the best, but it seemed the best way to him.

I think it had some negative effects, and I don't want to go into that. And then the other point in verse 11, he says, no chastening seems to be joyous for the present, but painful.

And yes, it was. I was humiliated in the church service, and I was hungry when

I went to sleep that night. It wasn't very pleasant. But here's the contrast that Hebrews is bringing out for us, that even though our parents may discipline us the way they see fit, and it doesn't always have good results, the

Lord chastens us as well. But He chastens us, first of all, motivated by His love for us.

He brings that out in verse 6. It says, whom the Lord loves, He chastens.

So the discipline that we receive from our Heavenly Father is always motivated by His love for us.

The second thing He brings out is in the end of verse 10, that even though our parents will chasten us as a way that seems best to them,

He chastens us in a way that's best for us, that's most profitable to us, so that we may be partakers of His holiness.

And there is a purpose for His chastening, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

We may become more and more like our Heavenly Father. So that brings up the 11th verse.

No chastening seems to be joyous for the present, but painful nevertheless afterward. The chastening that the

Lord gives to us afterwards yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it.

Point being that the chastening that I receive now from my Heavenly Father, as He chastens in love and He does so for my profit, that I might be a partaker of His holiness, trains me not to go down the road that I have gone down that required the chastening, but instead to go in a path of righteousness which is peaceable.

I don't get chastened for going down the path of righteousness. It yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

We can be thankful for our Heavenly Father's perfect and faithful chastening that chastens in love for our profit unto holiness and a path of righteousness that is peaceable and doesn't experience the same kind of chastening.

We don't get chastened for doing right. Let's be grateful for that today. So our

Heavenly Father, we thank you for being a good Father, a good loving

Father that chastens us for our profit that we might indeed grow in holiness.

And may we do so, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, well have a good rest of your

Friday and I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful weekend and that the Lord will bless you richly in it.