Be Encouraged, Your Father Has A Purpose

Our Old Testament reading will come out of the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 1 through 5 which is on page 152 in your pew

Bibles. If you would please stand for the reading of God's Word. The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the

Lord swore to give to your fathers and you shall remember the whole way that the

Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you testing you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not and he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but lit man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the

Lord your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these 40 years know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son the

Lord your God disciplines you the

New Testament reading this morning comes from the fourth chapter of the book of first Peter we'll begin reading in verse 12 beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice and so far as you are as you and so far as you share

Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed if you are insulted for the name of Christ you are blessed because the spirit of glory of God rests upon you but let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler yet if anyone suffers as a

Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in that name for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God and if it begins with us what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God and if the righteous and if the righteous is scarcely saved what will become of the ungodly and the sinner therefore let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good please be seated let's take the scriptures this morning and turn once more to Hebrews chapter 12 you follow as I read verses 4 through 13

Hebrews 12 beginning in verse 4 in your struggle against sin you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the

Lord nor be weary when reproved by him for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives endure suffering then as discipline

God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline if you're left without discipline in which all have dissipated then you are illegitimate children and not sons besides this we've had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them but he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness 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 therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed father now as we look into your word help us we always ask this we ask for clarity we ask that your spirit would make it alive in our hearts it would point out where we need to change it will convict us it will encourage us pray that your people be encouraged today as we look into this important passage for understanding our life under the

Lordship of Jesus we thank you now in Jesus name in 1972 that's a long time ago in 1972

I was a senior in high school and I was playing on the high school football team and I remember the very first team meeting we had with our coaches

I remember them walking in and saying to us what's your goal for this season what do you want to accomplish as a team of course the answer was well we wanted to accomplish the conference championship and so that's what we said well we didn't get the trophy the next day and the coaches didn't come in and say that's a great goal here's the trophy some things had to happen first the coaches had to inflict a great deal of punishment on us calisthenics hitting the sled drills drills drills running the plays until we knew them perfectly and then lastly the most hated thing about all the wind sprints we had to run afterwards and that wasn't the only thing there was more we had to submit to that punishment for it to produce the desired result we had to endure it and if you quit the team if you gave up on practice then there was no way you shared in the joy of the trophy that we got at the end of the season those who did stick it out shared in the joys of that now all

God also has a goal for Christians in their suffering and in their persecution the peaceful fruit of righteousness that's his purpose that's his goal for us but he doesn't hand it to you he doesn't hand it to you he imposes afflictions

Christians must endure if they would gain the peaceful fruit of righteousness now the text before you was written to encourage you in suffering you remember the recipients of the letter had suffered and they were in danger of losing heart of giving in of giving up so the question is how can you keep from losing heart how can you endure and not abandon

Jesus and this is what he's told us he says recount the endurance of the Old Testament Saints who lived by faith chapter 11 he says fix your attention on Jesus who endured the suffering of the cross by believing the promises of God of joy and authority after his suffering and then the last thing he's told us here in verses 4 through 13 is embrace a different but encouraging perspective and that perspective is that when hard things come your way when you suffer persecution when you suffer tragedy when you suffer trials whatever the case may be you have to see it not as something random but as the loving caring hand of your

Heavenly Father who's correcting you who loves you okay so recount the endurance of the

Old Testament Saints fix your eyes on Jesus and embrace this new perspective that's how you're going to endure that's how you're going to persevere now in our text

God develops that perspective by telling you that the persecution or any hardship has a goal

God has a purpose in it he's taking you somewhere with all the things that you're suffering he's taking you by means of discipline now

I want to say a word about discipline here as we come to this text you need to understand something

God in no way says that you have hardship because you've done something wrong too many people have read this passage and said well when we go through hardship that's

God's discipline that's God spanking us because we've done something wrong and so now he's given us this spanking that's not what this text is saying people often ask me

I don't understand why is this happening to me what did I do wrong that's not the thrust of this passage it's not what he's saying any hardship you experience is

God intending to move you to the goal he's saying you won't get to the goal the peaceful the peaceful fruit of righteousness without pain without discipline so it's not like oh

I've done something wrong therefore that's why I'm suffering this hardship that's not that's not it at all after all why were the original participants suffering what were they doing wrong they weren't they were doing what was right they were following Jesus that's the point they were suffering because they were following Jesus they were tempted to abandon him because they were doing what was right all right now it doesn't say that if you do something wrong

God's not going to discipline you either what I'm saying to you is when you read this passage do not think he's saying you've done something wrong so this is what

I'm going to do no any hardship that comes into your life whether for something you've done wrong or whether you're doing anything right any hardship is intended to move you towards the goal this is

God's discipline without it you won't reach that goal and so we need to understand that clearly now let's read our text for this morning again which is verses 7 through 11 okay endure suffering as disciplined

God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline if you are left without discipline in which all have participated then you are illegitimate children and not sons besides this we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them but he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness 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 here's what

God says to us God commands you to endure discipline verses 7 and 8

God explains to you his intention in discipline verses 9 and 10 and God declares to you the design of discipline in verse 11 so here's what he's saying to us having explained that God afflicts those whom he loves verses 4 through 6 now he says

God commands you to endure discipline endure those afflictions now you notice

I changed the translation a little bit and I don't want to bore you with details but in in the Greek language the imperative word looks exactly like the indicative that is to say the indicative means what is okay the imperative is command they look exactly the same so the context tells you what's indicative or imperative

I believe the context says it's imperative he's telling you to endure affliction it fits with the whole flow and so here we have

God commanding you to endure the discipline to persevere to stand your ground to not give up God commands you to stick it out or you will not reap the benefits of that affliction you will not reap the benefits of that discipline now what's the wrong way of handling affliction we've already seen it in verse 5 there's stoic reservation resignation it is what it is right he says regard it lightly well that's the way life is but the only thing that does is harden your heart and produce bitterness all right he says don't be weary that is don't lose heart have the what's what's the use and the give up attitude all right that causes depression and you just dig yours whole you just dig yourself deep into self -pity when that becomes the case well what does it mean to endure well he's just told us look to Jesus how did he endure the cross he knew the course set out for him right he prayed much he determined to obey not my will father but yours he trusted

God to strengthen him for the task he believed God would vindicate him as Peter says in 1st

Peter 2 23 he entrusted himself to him who judges justly he concentrated on the glory and the joy that would be his on the other side of that suffering and that's how

Jesus endured suffering so fix your eyes at your attention on him and you do it and so it is with you as you face ridicule and slander and maybe even someday legal sanctions for your faith that's the way you must endure so you have to face anything that comes your way that's hard and difficult and you should endure he says because your father is treating you as sons he's treating you as his children he says face it what son is there whose father is not disciplined why are you surprised right what what son is there whom his father does not discipline the persecution or hardship is not a strange thing for believers so don't fall into the self pity don't sell don't don't because hard things happen to you this is the normal course of father -child relationships so you know don't don't don't get the why

I call him the whinies the whinies you know what that is why me why me to those who say why is this happening to me

God clearly says look affliction is the normal course of the father -son relationship and if you do not suffer obviously then you're not counted as a son that's pretty strong isn't it you know what it says if you belong to Jesus you will suffer you have to suffer right that's normal that's normal so there's no place for the whinies here why me because you're a child of God that's why that's why you're suffering this and what he's saying here when he says in verse 8 if you're left without discipline which all participated then you are illegitimate children and not sons now son would a father would spend much care and patience on the upbringing of a true -born son he would subject him to irksome painful things because the son was an heir and he needed to be prepared for his his responsibilities his duties now an illegitimate son had no future no future of position or responsibility or honor he didn't have anything right so King has an illegitimate son if you read history that's not unusual at all there were lots of kings with plenty of illegitimate children okay but if a king had an illegitimate son he mostly ignored him he's not gonna assume any royal duties right only the legitimate prince would he the illegitimate children would be ignored they were not disciplined they had no duties to assume they had no responsibilities right so he would ignore them do you see what what

God is saying here if you do not suffer nothing would be gained and suffering is the lot of a true son he's treating you as a son not as someone illegitimate all right he's paying attention to you he's not ignoring you he's bringing discipline into your life so God commands you then to endure discipline furthermore he goes on as we read as long as we're talking about fatherly discipline let's compare the discipline of your earthly fathers to your heavenly father let's run that comparison as you look at that comparison note that God explains to you his intention in discipline

God explains to you his intention in discipline first of all verse 9 what does he say besides this we have at earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits is referring to us and live

God intends to produce life that's the first thing verse 9 when your earthly father spanked you when he punished you what did he produce well he says he he produced respect right because of his discipline we respected our fathers some of you said to me you know pastor my father was never a believer and sometimes he was pretty harsh with us but I but I respect him

I respect him we honor our fathers even though they might have seemed harsh we respect those fathers who who were over us how much more reason he says then to submit to your heavenly father because when we do submit he produces a certain quality of life in us then you remember what

Jesus said in John chapter 17 if you want to look at it John chapter 17 verse 3 what did

Jesus say to us he said and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true

God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent here's life here's eternal life what is eternal life knowing

God and knowing Jesus that's eternal life well what is eternal life we tend to think of eternal life in terms of quantity goes on forever but I think the

Bible emphasis emphasizes more quality eternal life is a supernatural life a life that is different in quality than normal life and what is that life it's knowing

God and knowing Jesus you know what here's the thing to remember about eternal life it's received by faith it's developed by endurance it's received by faith it's developed by endurance suffering develops this life when we submit to it this different quality of life we are given a different quality of life that is developed it grows so when you experience slander or even imprisonment and you endure you will experience for example the joy of dependence on God if you ever known the joy of being absolutely dependent on God and knowing he's going to come through or as you go through that kind of suffering you come to know your father in a more intimate way than if you had never gone through that suffering when you find yourself crying out to him depending entirely on him you come to know

God in a more intimate way that's eternal life it's a different quality of life our present -day attitude the day the attitude of our culture is quality of life is good when there is no suffering and God instead says that he produces this quality of life through suffering all right we need to remember that if we want to know deeper and deeper this eternal life then we must submit we must endure in the midst of affliction that's what

God tells us here this father right our earthly fathers produce respect this father develops eternal life in us but that's not all what else does he intend to produce verse 10 for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them but he disciplines us for a good our good what is that good that we may share in his holiness your father intends to produce holy character

I says the discipline of our earthly fathers is temporary right until when we reach adulthood or we leave home or we achieve a certain amount of independence our fathers don't disciplines us anymore right

I don't discipline my grown children anymore they're independent of me although I do have a trump card with my kids that you don't

I'm their pastor nevertheless nevertheless

I don't have authority discipline it's only temporary and notice they disciplined us as they thought best with an uncertain goal uncertain goal in mind they they did what they thought was best all right but compare that to the discipline of our

Heavenly Father God disciplines or brings affliction into your life with a definite purpose in mind a definite purpose in mind and that is that you change that you assume more of his holy character when the guys that work slander you and persecute you you must remember that God's fatherly hand is at work so that you become more holy all right now look

I don't know I know you all of you pretty well but there's probably some things going on in your life that are hard and their affliction and you know when

I sit down with folks and they're talking about a difficult marriage they're talking about an incredibly hard work situation they're telling me about different things

I can always say to them God intends that you become more like him because of what's going on in your life right now

I can always say that be honest with you just this last weekend that can

I met with a pastor and his wife were really struggling and one of the things we said to them was this this is really hard but God's doing something here you can have hope because he wants you to change you see and that's why affliction comes our way

God wants us to share in his holy character he wants you to endure to submit to his discipline he's helping you to change so people are slandering you people are doing awful things to you they're persecuting you what do

I say to that well for example let's just pull one example out Matthew chapter 5 verses 43 to 48

Matthew 5 43 to 48 you've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven where he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love those who love you what reward do you have do not even the tax collectors do the same and if you greet only your brothers what more are you doing than others do not even the

Gentiles do the same you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect in enduring the slander and the hardship of what you're going through at work you learn to love your enemies like God does you assume more of his holy character as you endure you will share in his holiness so when those things are coming your way you must remember

God's using this to move me to the place where I assume more of his holy character and that's good for you that's good for you as a result of the hardships in your life the suffering that you've endured can you say

I have a different quality of life can you say I have grown into a more holy way of life those are the things that should be happening as you endure discipline by faith so God explains to you his intention in discipline life and holiness all right now the last thing

God declares to you the design of discipline what is that design simply put it's this pain plus training that is the training of endurance equals peace pain plus training equals peace that's the formula okay verse 11 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 to those who have endured through it through the pain now again

God restates reemphasizes repeats yes discipline is always unpleasant it's painful it's not pleasant you know ever notice how parents have a have a way of asking the silliest questions your daughter does something wrong and you say to her sis do you want a spanking what a dumb question what's the inevitable response to that question no well why not because spanking is a terribly unpleasant aspect of life that's why that's why that's why they're always gonna say no like they don't know if you're joking they don't know if it's rhetorical they don't know what's going on but they know one thing

I don't want a spanking right because that's painful and God says that discipline is always the painful unpleasant part of growing up it's necessary though but you see that painful that unpleasant thing produces something what does he say he calls it the fruit of righteousness the peaceful fruit of righteousness now what's righteousness righteousness is conformity to Christ's standards of conduct conformity to Christ's standards of thinking believing acting it's conformed to his standards that's righteousness righteousness is always conforming to what the standards are that's righteousness and when you do that you you're conforming that righteousness is produced and when you bite into the fruit of righteousness it always tastes like peace it always means peace because righteousness produces harmony and order think about this if everybody in your household conformed to what

Jesus said they ought to be they ought to think and they ought to do what do you think life would be like in your house there would be what peace it would be wonderful wouldn't it it would be wonderful because peace always produces

I mean righteousness always produces harmony and order even in trials even if trials and losses and persecutions would rain it would fall down on you like rain if you handled it

God's way you would have peace there would be peace okay but that's only true of those who have been trained in their suffering that is those who've endured how do we do that how do we do that get this firmly planted in your mind how can we endure in the midst of affliction believing the promises of God right perseverance fueled by faith in the promises of God all right so the first thing is believing the promises of God the second thing is embracing this perspective that God disciplines those he loves believing the promises embracing that encouraging perspective that's how you'll be trained that's how you will endure if you do those two things okay by believing the promises and embracing the perspective you can endure you can persevere however if you do not endure hardship if you treat it lightly or despair there will be no righteousness and therefore there will be no peace so God's God's goal in all of it is that we have this peaceful fruit of righteousness that's what he wants to produce in this affliction that he brings on us because he loves us and he's treating us as his children so then

God declares to you then the design of discipline what is it pain plus training equals peace that's his design all right now for some of you this morning this has no relevance you've not looked to the one who has suffered in the place of sinners who has paid the price for sin you have not trusted him for the payment he made to the justice of God for your sin and so the hardships that fall on you are not they are not the loving discipline of a father instead they are warnings of a judge their warnings of a judge the hardship that are falling on you are the warnings of a judge that says it's going to be a lot worse if you ignore my son those hardships are intended to drive you to Jesus they're intended to for you to say

I must have Christ until you're in Christ those hardships are judgments warnings so why don't you trust

Jesus those hardships then become meaningful to you they're

God treating you well now Christian God you to take inventory this morning all of you have experienced suffering in one form or another so have you endured like Jesus has endured another question can you say that you've grown in holy character because of what's happened can you say that today you experience greater peace as a result if you can't respond with a yes and here's what

I'd say to you repent repent for ignoring the promises of God and the perspective that he gives you ask him to strengthen you ask him to teach you how to handle hardship and persecution and you know what if you ask him those things with a desire for it he will answer and he will help father we're thankful for this encouraging perspective that you have given us that the hardships and the persecutions that we experience are not random events they are not cause for panic they are not cause for despair they are not cause for self -pity and bitterness rather they're intended to drive us to the place where we will have life a holy character and peace so father help us to embrace that so that we do not lose hope help us to endure so that we will be trained help us