Do Not Despair Under Discipline (Hebrews 12:5) | Worship Service

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Do Not Despair Under Discipline (Hebrews 12:5) | Worship Service This stream is created with #PRISMLiveStudio

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Good morning. We welcome you to Kootenai Church. We're glad that you're here today. Would you stand and join us as we sing
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Christ Our Glory. Christ our glory,
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Christ our hope, Christ our King forevermore.
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Be still and remember the worst that can come but shortens our journey and hastens us home.
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No hour should be wasted on seeking our joy and placing our hope in what will be destroyed.
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We look for a city that hands have not raised.
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We long for a country that sin has not stained.
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Christ our glory, Christ our hope,
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Christ our King forevermore.
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We look for a city that hands have not raised.
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We long for a country that sin has not stained.
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Though trouble and anguish increase all the more, they cannot compare to the glory in store.
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Come joy or come sorrow, whatever befalls, the light of the
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Savior will outshine them all.
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Christ our glory, Christ our hope,
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Christ our King forevermore.
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Christ our glory, Christ our hope,
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Christ our King forevermore.
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Christ our glory, Christ our hope,
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Christ our King forevermore.
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Come joy or come sorrow, whatever befalls, the light of the
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Savior will outshine them all. O God, we've seen your faithfulness.
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You brought us from the wilderness. But now our faith is frail and weak.
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O God of mercy, hear our plea. When will you comfort our distress?
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How long until the promised rest? We cry to you from deepest need.
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O God of mercy, hear our plea. Abba, Father, our
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Redeemer, in this barren land be our hope and strength.
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Until glory we will trust and sing.
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Abba, Father, hear our plea. Rejoin creation's longing crowd to take your ransomed children home.
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For then the eyes of all will see.
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The God of mercy hears our plea.
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Abba, Father, our Redeemer, in this barren land be our hope and strength.
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Until glory we will trust and sing.
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Abba, Father, hear our plea. For then the eyes of all will see.
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The God of mercy hears our plea. Abba, Father, our
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Redeemer, in this barren land be our hope and strength.
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Until glory we will trust and sing.
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Abba, Father, hear our plea. Abba, Father, our
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Redeemer, in this barren land be our hope and strength.
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Until glory we will trust and sing.
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Abba, Father, hear our plea. Abba, Father, hear our plea.
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God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.
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He plants His footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm.
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Deep in the dark and hidden mines With never failing skill
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He fashions all His bright designs And works
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His sovereign will. So God, we trust in You.
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Oh, God, we trust in You.
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Oh, fearful saints who courage take The clouds that you now dread
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Our big, whipped, jersey hat will break And blessings on your head.
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Judge not the Lord by feeble sense But trust Him for His grace.
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Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.
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So God, we trust in You.
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Oh, God, we trust in You.
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When tears are great and comforts few We hope in mercies ever new.
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We trust in You. God's purposes will ripen fast
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Unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste
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But sweet will be the flower. Why not believe
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His sure -to -error And stand His work in vain?
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God is His own interpreter And He will make it plain.
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So God, we trust in You. Oh, God, we trust in You.
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When tears are great and comforts few We hope in mercies ever new.
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We trust in You. So God, we trust in You.
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Oh, God, we trust in You.
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When tears are great and comforts few We hope in mercies ever new.
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We trust in You. You may be seated.
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The best
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Sundays of the year are those Sunday services that are followed by a potluck, and that happens to be the case today.
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So just one quick announcement regarding that. After the service today, we have to tear all of the chairs down here and set up tables.
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So there are two groups of people who have already been talked to, those who need to stay in here to set up tables and chairs, and those who need to be working in the kitchen.
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So if you have not been asked to do either one of those, the best thing that you can do for us is to exit this room as soon as the service is over, and you're welcome to go out into the other areas of the building or even upstairs to look at the progress on the upstairs while we very quickly turn this into a lunchroom after the service.
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And Josh will remember to remind you of that when he's done with the benediction. Please turn your Bibles to Psalm 42.
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Psalm 42. After our potluck, following the service, we also have our annual business meeting where we recognize new members and talk about church business and ministries.
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And you do not have to be a member to attend that. We would encourage anybody here who is interested in this ministry and considers this your home church to please come to that.
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You're free to stay for that. You don't have to, but you are free to do so. Psalm 42. The introduction says,
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For the choir director, a mascal of the sons of Korah. Beginning of verse 1, we'll read this entire psalm together.
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As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living
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God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food, day and night, while they say to me all day long, where is your
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God? These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
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Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence.
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O my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon and Mount Nazar, deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls.
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All your breakers and your waves have rolled over me. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and his song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the
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God of my life. I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do
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I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, where is your
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God? Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of my countenance and my
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God. Will you stand with me as we pray? Bow our heads.
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Our Father, we are so grateful to you for the hope that we have in your goodness, your providence, your sovereignty, your love for us, and your grace.
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And while the sentiments of this psalm express our hearts at times as we are under the weight of affliction and despair, as we wait upon you, we know that our hope is in you and we will again praise you.
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We thank you that you have given us confidence in your truth and in your word. And we thank you that behind all of the storms of life that you continue to work out your purposes.
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We pray that you would strengthen us to see those things, open our eyes that we may see them. Give our hearts resolve to trust in you.
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We pray that by your grace you would strengthen the faint -hearted and the weak, help those who are doubting.
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And we pray that you would strengthen us by your grace for your glory, that we may rejoice in you and find in you our joy and our hope.
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You are our rock. You are our redeemer. You are our Father who loves us with a love that is redeeming, with a love that is infinite and beyond our comprehension.
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And we pray that in the midst of all of life's difficulties that you would give us the grace to see that, that you would help us to see that and to trust it.
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We love you and we thank you and we pray that you would exalt your name here today amongst us, your people, for the glory of Christ our
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King, in whose name we pray. Amen. ♪ The church's one foundation is
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Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the
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Word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.
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With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died.
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He left from every nation yet one for all the earth.
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Her charter of salvation, one
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Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food.
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And to one hope she presses with every grace in due.
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Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore.
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Till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
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Yet she on her path union with God the three in one and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is one.
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O happy ones and holy Lord give us grace that we like them the meek and lowly on high may dwell with thee.
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Like them the meek and lowly on high may dwell with thee.
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In Colossians chapter three verses one to four it says, Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
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Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth, for you died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.
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When Christ who is our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with him in glory.
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Let's sing together Before the Throne of God Above. Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea
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A great high priest whose name is love Who ever lives and pleads for me
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My name is written on his hands My name is written on his heart
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I know that while in heaven he stands No tongue can give me words depart
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No tongue can give me words depart He takes and tempts me to despair
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He tells me of the guilt within Upon I look and see him there
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Who paid a debt to all my sin Because the sinless
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Savior died My sinful soul is counted free
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For God the just is satisfied To look on him and pour on me
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To look on him and pour on me
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Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise the one present
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Son of God There the wounds encamp
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My perfect spot There's righteousness The great unchangeable
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I am the King of glory and of grace
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One with himself I cannot die My soul is purchased with his blood
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My life is lived with Christ on high With Christ my
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Savior and my God With Christ my Savior and my
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God Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise the one present
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Son of God How before the cross of Christ and marvel at his love divine
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God's perfect Son was sacrificed To make me righteous through God's eyes
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This river's depth I cannot know But I can glory in its flood
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The Lord was high has bowed down low And poured on me his glorious love
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And poured on me his glorious love Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise the one present
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Son of God Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise the one present
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Son of God that you have died in our stead and that you have laid all of our sin upon him and that you have redeemed us and forgiven us our sin not because of anything that we have done but because of what
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Christ has done because everything has been done by another on our behalf and so you have caused us to believe that you have opened our eyes to that truth that reality and now we pray that you would give us grace to believe and trust by faith something that is far less difficult to believe namely that having saved us you are securing us and that having loved us with a love that has redeemed us and laid our sin upon your
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Son you also love us enough to discipline us and to strengthen us for our security for our sanctification for our good and for your glory so help us we pray to apprehend these truths and to trust them by faith by your grace and your power and strength we ask in Christ's name.
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Amen. Hebrews chapter 12 we're going to begin reading at verse 4 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 my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the
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Lord nor faint when you are reproved by him 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 but if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers then you are illegitimate children and not sons furthermore we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them shall we not much rather be subject to the 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 his holiness all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness the great preacher
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Alexander McLaren once compared Hebrews chapter 12 this passage verses 4 -11 to a lighthouse
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McLaren said that this passage gives the kind of teaching that we don't much notice when the sun is shining like a lighthouse you see the lighthouse during the day and you don't necessarily appreciate the light you don't necessarily appreciate the function of it but when night comes and the sun goes away and the clouds roll in and the storm begins to assail us with the winds and rains of affliction and suddenly this passage takes on a blazing glory that guides our steps and really comforts and encourages our hearts but in the middle of the day you don't notice it in fact discipline in this whole subject of discipline really is a topic that we care very little about and think very little about until we need it and then once we need it suddenly these truths take on a life of their own suddenly these truths come to the forefront and we are able to appreciate what the author is saying here we don't really sense the need to ruminate on the subject of discipline when the sun is out and when the skies are bright and everything is going well but when everything turns and we face afflictions and trials and difficulties when we are up against suffering whether it is physical or spiritual or emotional when we suffer loss that is when the truths that are behind Hebrews chapter 12 kind of bubble up to the surface and they become precious to us these truths were encouragements to the first century
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Christians to whom the book was written they had endured trials a conflict of suffering they had been reproached and reviled had their property seized and some of them had even been imprisoned so this is intended to be an encouragement short lived trials we can endure those relatively easily and I say relatively because you can always compare short lived trials to long lived trials and when the short lived trials come and we compare them to the longer trials we say okay
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I can endure the short lived trials now short lived trials are much more difficult to endure than no trials at all
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I understand that that is the easiest thing of all to do but short lived trials can be endured relatively easily it is the long lasting the protracted the extended trials that come into our lives those are the ones that are more difficult to endure those are the ones where we have need of endurance so that having fixed our eyes on Jesus we will run the race cross the finish line and receive the reward that has been promised in the last couple of weeks we have been working through these first few verses with two goals in mind first to address the proper mindset with which we view discipline that is trials and tribulations and afflictions that come into this life view those with the proper mindset to think properly of them and to have a proper perspective of them so that we may embrace them or approach them as God would expect us to embrace and approach them the second goal has been to address the manner in which we embrace
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God's discipline what is the attitude of the heart how do we approach God what is the disposition of our soul towards a
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God who sends into our lives always with wisdom and purpose his loving discipline in whatever form that may take in order to accomplish his purposes in our lives what is the posture that we are to have in the midst of affliction and suffering last week we highlighted two errors that are opposite and equal and they both threaten to sideline us when we are facing difficulties and trials the first one is to despise
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God's discipline and the second is to despair under them and last week I gave you four ways that we despise
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God's discipline and all this is just for the purpose of review I want to not I know it's a sensitive subject
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I just want to bring these four up again and remind you of what it is that we covered last week there are four ways that we can despise
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God's discipline when we complain about his discipline when we question his wisdom in that discipline when we regard it as shameful or dishonorable to be disciplined by him it's not it's a badge of honor and fourth when we make light of it that is to either ignore it or to keep our focus off of his purposes in it or we simply just say
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I'm just going to get through this I don't care what God is doing I'm just going to endure and get through this without any thought to what it is that God is doing in the midst of that affliction that way of approaching
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God's discipline despising it produces bitterness and anger and resentment it hardens the heart and makes it calloused it produces a hardened heart not a holiness that should characterize our lives and today we're going to address the second error that we make in responding to God's discipline this is in verse 5 you would think that with more weeks behind us now in this subject we've gotten beyond the end of verse 5 but we're looking at this last phrase of verse 5 nor faint when you are reproved by him my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the
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Lord that's to despise it to think lowly of it second nor faint when you are reproved by him and so that we can maintain balance in the force
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I'm going to give you four ways that we faint under God's discipline that we despair under it but before we do let's look at verse 5 and see what it is that the author is describing here with this word faint verse 5 and 6 are quotations from Proverbs chapter 3 verses 11 and 12 and the author there is quoting those verses to remind us of God's purpose in discipline verse 5 let's read it again from the top you have forgotten the exhortation or we might even say encouragement the encouragement encouraging exhortation which is addressed to you as sons not as God's enemies but as his sons my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the
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Lord that's despising it and second nor faint when you are reproved by him two opposite errors both of them threaten us in terms of getting us off task as it were in how we were responding to God's discipline we can make either of these two errors the word faint is a word that is used five times in the
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New Testament three times it is translated as faint once it's used here and it's translated as faint it's used twice in the
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Gospels once in Matthew and once in Mark both times referring to the same event in the life of Jesus and the same words in the life of Jesus Matthew 15 verse 32 and Jesus called his disciples to him and said
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I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat and I do not want to send them away hungry for they might faint on the way and you can hear there how the word is used to describe a losing of physical stamina just kind of a coming undone physically because you have no energy you have no fuel you have no food and it's describing there a physical undoing it's translated once as grow weary in Galatians 6 verse 9 let us not lose heart in doing good for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary we do not faint and once it is translated as lose heart even here in our very own passage look up at verse 3
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Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3 consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart it's the same word the same word is translated here in verse 3 as lose heart it describes a weakness a weariness a loosened heart a heart that just comes undone it loses its backbone it loses its stamina it just becomes weak it becomes pliable it bends it falls down it loses its energy its ability to stand up under pressure that's the idea we don't want to fix our eyes on Jesus and consider him who endured that hostility so that we don't spiritually speaking faint like we would physically speaking if we had no food and no fuel and we came undone so it can describe the loosening or the undoing of a heart now here are the ways that we despise
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God's discipline it comes in various formats it comes in various ways I think I've chosen here four of them that are common ones that probably plague and tempt us most and this gives us an opportunity
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I think like we did last week to examine our own hearts and say am I despairing under God's discipline under adversity in one of these four ways or am
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I on the path the trajectory towards despairing under his discipline in one of these four ways number one when we doubt our status as God's sons or children that is so common because we reason that if we are saved and if we truly enjoy his favor and if we are the objects of his love from eternity past if we are in his family and have been adopted by him how is it that he treats us like this that's the sinful sinful idea that pops into our head and into our heart and then we take the very next step and say well maybe
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I'm not a child of God if I'm enduring this discipline if I'm enduring this kind of affliction and suffering this seems like the type of thing that God according to my thinking would reserve for his enemies not for his friends for somebody who's not in his family not for those who are in his family and if it is indeed that I have
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God's favor then why would he not protect me from this affliction or make it end because if I favored me and I certainly do then
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I would bring this affliction to an end right now it would stop right now that's what we always want to be out from underneath of it nobody says under affliction and suffering
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I really hope this goes on for a couple more weeks because this is producing so much fruit in my life this has caused me to draw so much closer to the
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Lord I am so full of joy in the midst of this that I never want this diagnosis to go away
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I never want the pain to stop I never want the affliction to disappear I want it to continue very few people if any will say such a thing and yet we reason that if we really had
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God's favor that the difficulty would end if he really loves me why is this my lot why not something else because Bill Gates seems like a really happy man all of the wicked seem especially favored they enjoy this life so if God favors me and if I am his why is this my lot why would
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God treat his children this way I must not be his child I must be his enemy that's the reasoning that's the danger and when you start to reason that way you are beginning to despair under the discipline you are seeing it as a weight that is so heavy over you that you cannot stand up underneath of it and if you continue to reason that way then you will lead on to one of the other ways that we despair under God's discipline these assessments that I've just given you these are all based on wrong assumptions they're based upon how
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I feel underneath of affliction they're based upon what I experience how
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I think that God should deal with me in this life this is again a way of questioning his wisdom in giving me affliction is to wrongly assume that his discipline is an expression of anger and not love but it is love and not wrath that is always behind a discipline that's why we talked about the proper mindset with which we accept discipline always remembering that the rod of God's discipline is baptized in deep affection before it is laid across the back of a believer if I am convinced of that then
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I cannot despair under his discipline because I have the cure in my mind which is that this is exactly how
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God deals with his children he disciplines us as is appropriate so the cure to this way of despairing is to remember that God does not discipline his enemies he disciplines only his sons again this is a privilege a joy and a blessing that God has reserved for those whom he has loved from before the foundation of the world and because he has loved them from before the foundation of the world he has reserved this blessing for us
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God is not interested in doing this for his enemies he is interested in doing this for his children so it is out of his deep and abiding and redeeming love that he disciplines us chapter 12 verse 7 it is for discipline that you endure
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God deals with you as with sons he says that because that is the central point of the whole passage
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God doesn't deal with this in this way with his enemies he deals in this way with his sons they disciplined us for a short time it seemed best to them verse 10 he disciplines us for our good so that we share his holiness
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God does not share his holiness with his enemies he shares his holiness with his children those who are inside of his family and discipline is the means by which
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God strengthens us produces fruit in us purges sin from our lives protects us from future sins strengthens us for his trials and makes us useful in his kingdom it is the proof of our sonship when you look at somebody who is under discipline or you look at a child of God who is going through tremendous affliction or suffering we can never conclude that that is a sign that they are not in the family of God we can always conclude that that is in fact a marker of their adoption your tribulation in this world is producing glory in the next and your tribulation and affliction in this world is a voucher of your glory in the next you can look at all the afflictions of this life and say this guarantees me a glory that I cannot comprehend
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Richard Phillips in his commentary on the book of Hebrews says this some believers manifest abounding joy when
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God is blessing them with worldly goodness but quickly resort to sullen resentment when
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God is blessing them with trials such Christians will never make much progress because they fail to realize that trials are part and parcel of the
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Christian life and that they are a sign not of God's neglect but of his fatherly involvement affliction is a sign that we are children that our conduct is important to God and has a bearing on his glory your conduct is important to God and has a bearing on his glory that is why he watches over your discipline and your afflictions with an attentiveness that the angels cannot even possibly comprehend it doesn't always appear like that in this life
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I understand that sometimes it seems as if God's enemies have the upper hand as if his children are the ones who are suffering the hardest lot it appears as if we are cast off but as the song that we just sang here a few moments ago says judge not the
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Lord by feeble sense but trust him for his grace behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face you can't judge the conduct of God based upon how providence strikes you you always have to by faith look behind the providence to the smiling loving face that is behind it and seeks your every good and your eternal joy and your eternal glory children who are disciplined by their parents have no idea what is in their best interest have you noticed this parents children who are disciplined have no idea what is in their best interest they do not understand why the rules exist they do not understand why their hand gets slapped when they reach for a hot surface they do not understand why you say no why you deny them privileges why you deny them what they desire all that a six year old understands is what he craves and desires and wants in the moment he doesn't even remember what he wanted five minutes ago but he knows what he wants now and to him at that moment that's the only thing he can think of is what he wants right there at that moment and when you say no to that the six year old does not understand it he can't comprehend that he has to well
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I would say he has to embrace by faith but this is more applicable to us the six year old cannot possibly comprehend what you and I comprehend and that is that behind the no behind the denial behind the withholding there is grace there is goodness there is wisdom it is because of the fact that I am a responsible parent and I have wisdom and experience and a knowledge of the world around here that I would deny my six year old child something that they think they absolutely have to have in the moment for their happiness so when your kid comes home from adventure club and says hey there was a new kid at adventure club tonight
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I met him his name is Mark whatever it is his name is Mark and this weekend it's his birthday and he invited me to his birthday party it's a two night sleepover at his house out in the woods can
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I go dad and I say to him no you cannot go but his parents are really cool
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I don't care who his parents are I don't care what they can offer the answer is no I don't know these people this is everything you've described to me is a recipe for a national news story and I'm not interested in having my name or your name in that national news story so the answer is no all the child can think of in the moment is that they want that that is for their good but all of my wisdom in the moment because I understand the world in a way that my child can never understand the world all my wisdom and my experience and my skill and my common sense says no the answer is no my number is no everything about this is no don't ask me about it again because the answer is always going to be no to a question like that but the child in the midst of that cannot possibly comprehend that behind that denial behind what they think is the most painful thing they've ever experienced in their life that there is wisdom and love and benevolence and understanding and skill and knowledge that is outside of their entire world view their entire ability to comprehend that children don't understand it in the midst of it and yet the reason for those things from a parent's perspective is because you love them and because you know them and you know what is for their best do you think it's possible that there might be a parallel there with God you and I think this affliction cannot possibly have a good outcome cannot possibly have a good point a good work in it and yet he knows because of his wisdom his skill his knowledge because he sees the beginning from the end he knows exactly what it is that we need right there at that moment
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I think it's possible I think it's actual first we despair under God's discipline when we've failed to remember that we are his sons we start to doubt that we are in his family and second when we believe that we are forgotten by God in our affliction this is the danger for long and enduring trials give me a day or a week can endure that but when trials go on for weeks and months or even years we start to feel like maybe
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God has forgotten us he knows us we understand he knows us he knows all things but God has a lot going on doesn't he there are people starving on continents and other continents around the world the church is being persecuted in some degree some measure in almost every country on the planet and there's war in Europe again the
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Europeans are always at war so there's always a war in Europe and God's got that and then there's these weird balloons flying across the sky and there's somebody with dementia who has his fingers on the nuclear codes
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God has a a lot of plates spinning a lot of balls that he is juggling he has a lot going on and so here
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I am in my difficulty and maybe it is that God in the moment of sending that affliction to me was paying attention and knew exactly what he was doing and then that started and here
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I am over on the sideline waving my arms and saying God we could really use this to stop I need this to end and I need it to end now
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I can't bear up under this but he's got a war in Europe again that he's got to deal with and all the weird stuff going on around the world that he's trying to get sorted out and so maybe it is that he has just forgotten us this is the sentiment of the psalmist
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Psalm 13 verse 1 how long oh Lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me
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Psalm 44 verse 24 why do you hide your face and forget our affliction and our oppression that's the feeling but then there's fact and what is the fact the fact is
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Psalm 22 verse 24 he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted nor has he hidden his face from him when he cried to him for help he heard the fact is
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Isaiah 29 15 can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb even these may forget but I will not forget you remember
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God's mind is an infinite mind it gave this observation a couple of weeks ago this has been a profound realization for me even in the last few weeks and it comes from Dan Phillips who was here for our cessationist conference
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I think it was in his Sunday school lesson he talked about the infinite mind of God and because God's mind is an infinite mind that means listen carefully that everything
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God does he does as if it is the only thing that he does everything God does he does as if it is the only thing that he does which means that when he sends an affliction into your life or my life he is as focused and attentive on that with his infinite mind and all of his resources as if it is the only thing in the universe that he is doing because he can do it to an infinite degree with infinite wisdom and infinite attentiveness and because his mind is an infinite mind he is ever present ever present in every affliction every temptation every trial and you and I have no reason to doubt that we have never been given a just or a good reason to doubt that truth that he is always present in it and he is working to accomplish something namely that we may grope for him and trust him and embrace him in the midst of the difficulty and the darkness
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J .I. Packer said this this is the ultimate reason from our standpoint why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort or another it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast
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God wants us to feel our way through life is rough and perplexing so that we may learn thankfully to lean on him therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self confidence and into trust in him you and I must inform our feelings with this you and I must make how we feel about difficulties and afflictions we must take that and we must bend it to the truth because we are crooked the truth is straight and we have to either take what is crooked and bend it so it matches up with the truth or the truth will break us but the truth is not going to change the truth is always going to be straight so we can either be conformed to it or be destroyed by it
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I've been pleading with all of us for the last several weeks that we would be conformed to that truth and begin to with a mind and a heart that is submissive to God's purposes embrace the discipline that he brings into our lives the third way that we despair under his discipline is to despair that we are ever coming out of the trial not just to doubt that we're in the family of God but also to despair that we will ever come out of the trial to give up hope that it will ever end listen to your saint
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I want to promise you something your suffering will end I promise you it will end you say
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Jim you don't know that I may die in this condition and then what then it will end that's right you're not going to be the first person to die under affliction and you're not going to be the last person to die under affliction but I promise you that it will end for the believer all affliction is temporary listen to that for the believer all affliction is temporary for the unbeliever all affliction is a preview of what is to come but for the believer it's all temporary it will end the moment
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God stops doing something in your life with it I promise you that if that means that you die under it then that is the moment that God has stopped using it in your life and if he intends to use it to a certain point in your life and then to cause that affliction to end then it will end as soon as he is done using it
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God's not going to waste affliction in our lives so as soon as it has accomplished the purpose that he has for it it will come to an end at that very moment not one second longer not one day longer why because then it would be to waste that affliction in the life of his child so as soon as he is done using you so as he is done developing you training you as soon as he is done instructing you and teaching you with that affliction then it will come to an end the cure is to remember that all our afflictions are temporary but the glory that it produces is not it is producing a glory that cannot be weighed it cannot be compared it is a glory that cannot be taken away from us it is a glory that will not fade it will not be stolen from us it is a reward an inheritance that is described in 2nd
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Corinthians chapter 4 as an eternal weight of glory Romans 8 says that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us listen to how in Psalm 43 the psalmist speaks this truth to his own soul
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Psalm 43 verse 5 why are you in despair oh my soul and why are you disturbed within me now that's the question listen to what the psalmist is doing he is stepping out as it were and becomes a third party from himself and he is looking at his soul and he is addressing the state of his own soul he is speaking to himself if you do this in the grocery store people will look at you but it's okay when you are in the quietness of your own home to do that very thing to step out of your situation as it were and to look at the state of your own soul and to address it and what does he say to his soul why are you in despair oh my soul and why are you disturbed within me that's the question listen to the answer hope in God he's not just saying this generically to people it's a good idea to hope in God he is addressing his own soul and saying to his own soul hope in God for I shall praise him again the help of my countenance and my
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God why are you disturbed oh my soul here's the remedy you soul hope in God for you will praise him again when the affliction ends after death at some point your soul will praise him again therefore hope in God that's the answer it is speaking truth into our own hearts truth to our own souls which are weary and in despair
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J .C. Ryle said this by affliction God teaches us many precious lessons without which it should we should never learn by affliction he shows us our emptiness and weakness draws us to the throne of grace purifies our affections weens us from the world makes us long for heaven in the resurrection morning we shall say it is good for me that I was afflicted we shall thank
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God for every storm we shall thank God for every storm a fourth way that we despair under God's discipline is when we give up all effort in discipline whereas the kids say today
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I just can't even I can't even I stop praying
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I stop reading I stop serving I stop thinking of anybody except myself
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I stop striving I stop pursuing holiness I stop being productive
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I just slip into a apathetic indolent lazy careless state a spiritual torpor
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I don't even feel like doing anything that I just give up say what is the point I'll just do nothing then that is to despair under his affliction what is the cure for that to tell yourself the truth and what is the truth
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God calls you to obey him in this and he will strengthen you to do it that's the truth
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God calls you to obey him in this and he will strengthen you to do it he calls you to pursue holiness to share in his holiness for he is producing in you the peaceful fruits of righteousness yet to remind yourself
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I am here to run a race he will strengthen me for that race because there is a finish line and that finish line is closer than it appears and the savior standing on the other side of the finish line he is holding the reward in his hands and his eyes are fixed on me and so my job our responsibility is to fix our eyes on him the author and finisher of our faith and to consider him who has endured such hostility against himself from hostile sinners so that you and I will not lose heart that is our goal and to give up under discipline is to take your eyes off of Jesus and to become so obsessed with yourself your own situation your own lamentations your own despair your own pain and affliction in this and off of everything that you expected in this life it is to take your eyes off of Jesus and put them there and to become so obsessed with you and what you have to endure what you have to give up what you have to exert friends let's be honest with that that is peak sinfulness to do that that is peak sinfulness let me close by giving you three passages you don't have to turn here you can write them down if you'd like Hebrews chapter 10 verse 36 you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised for yet in a little while he who is coming will come and will not delay but my righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back my soul has no delight in him but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul verse 39 we are not of those who shrink back to destruction we are those who have faith to the preserving of the soul 1st
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Peter chapter 1 in this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while did you hear that Peter undergoing the church's first persecution real government sponsored persecution 63
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AD even if now for a little while what did I promise you all affliction for the righteous will cease even if now for a little while if necessary and it obviously was necessary for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ what is
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Peter saying 1st Peter chapter 1 he's saying that God takes you through the furnace of affliction so that when you come out the other side all of the dross all of the garbage all of the sin everything that is not worthy of eternity comes out of that and on the other side of the furnace of affliction you look at a faith that is like pure gold all of its dross removed from it it's pure gold and you can rejoice in that that is the kind of faith that endures the trial you know what kind of faith does not endure the trial the kind of faith that comes to Christ for what they can get in this life because then when the trials come that kind of faith is consumed in the fire those are the people who walk away and say
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I want nothing to do with the church I gave the Jesus thing a whirl for a couple of months it didn't work out nothing but suffering and affliction it wasn't as good as they said it was going to be and so I'm done with Christianity I'm done with the church and they want nothing else to do with Christianity after that it's that shallow pathetic man centered faith that is preached quite frankly from most pulpits in America that is the kind of faith that does not endure through the trials last passage
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James chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 and verse 12 consider all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance blessed is the man who perseveres under trial for once he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the
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Lord has promised to those who love him that is your hope persevere under trial and you receive the crown of life all those do who love the
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Lord and whom he loves let's pray our father we are so grateful to you that you in the midst of our trials you preserve us through afflictions you delight in doing those things which are for our good and we thank you that because of your infinite love for us and because of your infinite mind that you are ever present in everything that we endure always for your sake always for our good always for our glory our eternal joy our eternal reward so we pray that you would fix our hearts and our minds upon these truths and encourage us again with this truth that you are in every last affliction every last suffering every last detail that life brings to us you are behind it all with an infinite and redeeming love that is securing us for your glory and for our everlasting joy thank you in the name of Christ who has died for us and made all of this possible and a reality in the lives of those whom he has chosen and called to himself to you our
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God be glory forever and ever we pray amen let's stand together and end our service this morning by singing the doxology praise
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God from whom praise him praise father now may the
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God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the