Discipline of a Loving Father

Divorce, separation, rejection. But because of the blood of Christ and His strength and His love, we are real brothers and sisters bound in one body. Well, Brian and I are up here just to share the ministry of the week, and that is the convalescent Home Ministry at Plymouth Towers. There's a multitude of us that go at different times.

I can think of at the top of my head, 10. 15 maybe people that have gone past couple of years as, as they come and go just as time. permits But at, at the convalescent home, we, we go to the 2nd floor. At Plymouth Towers.

This floor is a floor where It's a special floor. It's where they, they get roommates and they need medicines. They're, some of them are bedridden. And let me tell you, there are some brothers and sisters there that are part of the body.

And part of our Mission statement. You can say is to. Let them know that God does not retire them. That they're not done because they're behind walls doesn't mean God has forgotten them.

We need them just as much as they need us. We, We go there, Sunday after church. We, meet together about 2 in the afternoon. Yeah, I know.

We will stay until 3. We just visit different rooms. And we do things, we read them scriptures, we'll, we'll sing hymns. We'll, read them hymns, we'll just read to them or just sit with them and listen.

It's just a, a great opportunity to serve the Lord and to, to share his love. I, and it's just anybody can do it. I remember, Brian, when the Lord called him to, to serve in the ministries, he just thought he would come and pray. I says, I can't speak.

No one can understand me. Let me tell you, I sat there and watched him minister to someone. As they ask questions, he would just machine gun off scriptures, and I can just see the understanding and blessing coming over them. And let me tell you, they minister to us more than we do to them.

They don't believe it, but it's an awesome ministry. If Any of you are interested in getting involved in this, call me, Carl Sims. My number's in the back of the bulletin. And we also have a Thursday evening at from 7 to 8, communion that we do.

but call me if you're interested in going to that. I, I work a lot of hours and sometimes I just can't make it. But let me tell you, it's a. It's a, it's a wonderful ministry.

And If any of you are called or just wanna go and listen, That's, that's quite all right. Sometimes we'll go in groups and rooms, sometimes we split off, whatever you're, where you're comfortable at. There's no pressure. Just come along.

That's the, that's the mission of the week. Thank you. Appreciate, Carl's leadership there, pure and undefiled religion. And if you wanna be a part of that very important ministry, you can contact him, look at your bulletin if, if you'd like to get more particulars.

we really believe that this stuff is. this is 50% of what we do is is reaching out to people that need ministries of mercy, right? to in order for the gospel to be effective it needs to be adorned with good works, correct? And so we just are so thankful for Karl and others that go out and we commend that ministry to you.

I have the opportunity to preach, this morning. Pastor Milton was, our speaker for our seminar, December seminar. Raise your hand if you've been a part of the parenting seminar past couple weeks. Great, and, he did a great job in the first hour, talking about gospel centered discipline.

And we are keeping with that theme somewhat here in this hour. The title of my message is the Discipline of a loving Father, and you can go ahead and open to Hebrews chapter 12. We're gonna be looking largely at Hebrews 12 verses 5 to 11. But I wanna say something quickly about another discipline that is the discipline of Bible study or the discipline of theological study, and I wanna shamelessly plug a class that I am teaching at the Foothill Institute for theological Training.

This is actually a sister church in Upland that we're joining with to try to do some Bible training and some theological training together. And if you've ever wanted to go to Bible school or take some or get some more formalized training in either theology or Bible counseling or just Old Testament New Testament survey but you haven't had the money or the time this is a great opportunity to do that they offer classes that are on Monday nights. And you can, basically get virtually a seminary degree minus the languages by just attending on Monday nights, for a few years.

There's they offer two classes every Monday night.

The one of the class I'm gonna be teaching is, introduction to theology. We're gonna be talking about the doctrine of scripture and the doctrine of God. And it's gonna be in a little more of a formal setting that we've done here at Sunday school or and then in our our men's Wednesday night classes. It's, required reading.

It actually costs a little money to take the class. It's very inexpensive though. It's like $60 and if you need that discipline, which I do, for me I always do. Better when I actually have to pay and actually have some requirements than if it's just something I audit but anyway this I want you can talk to me or Tom Vessey about this class you can also look at the insert Wayne Wilson Pastor Wayne Wilson is teaching the other class on a New Testament survey again that would be a form of discipline, discipline that you could participate in that would be a great blessing and help you grow and be trained in righteousness.

Well, again, we're gonna be talking about the discipline of a loving father from the book of Hebrews 12. And I wanna begin this morning by talking about Pinocchio. I've been reading Pinocchio, believe it or not, if you've ever seen the Disney version, it has very little to do with the book. It's, really a sad representation of the original tale.

The original tale really reads more like a Grimm's brother's tale, and Pinocchio is not this cute little kid. He's this little disobedient prideful. Little, beast if you will, who is constantly going throughout life disregarding every bit of advice that comes to him from his seniors, from his parents, from his fairy, from the little cricket, Jiminy Cricket in the Pinocchio movie? Well, in the real book, Pinocchio takes a hammer and throws it at the cricket and crushes him and kills him and then he comes back later as a ghost to haunt Pinocchio anyway.

it's a really interesting tale though, but as I'm reading this book and sometimes just laughing out loud, I'm seeing myself all throughout this book here's, here's this, this kid who is being, going throughout life just dangled on everybody else's strings. He can't seem to avoid peer pressure anytime somebody comes along to lure him into some, some misbehavior, he's just going right along with whatever. Everybody says his whole goal in life is to avoid all pain and all work so that he can just have pleasure.

And what he finds out throughout the book is that if you just pursue pleasure and try to avoid pain, what you end up with is lots and lots of pain and disappointment.

By the end of the book, it's a, it's a, it has a happy ending. He finally learns if I apply myself and give myself to my studies and if I work hard and save money, I can provide for my father who's sickly and I can be a happy boy and he actually becomes a real boy. That is true to the Disney, the Disney film. but it, it comes to this realization that hard work, pain, and discipline are really good for little boys, and the avoidance of pain and discipline really brings more harm and difficulty and real pain in the long run.

I'd highly recommend this book to you. I'd be careful about reading it to young children. There are some scary parts. I was actually reading it one time I was up late, I couldn't sleep and I was by myself, and I won't go into details, but the hair started to come up on the back of my neck.

I'm like, whoa, this is a little spooky hair. So Pinocchio, it's a great read. Anyway, as, as we think about this whole subject of just discipline, we, we have a father that recognizes that as Milton was talking about in the first hour that that all of us in this room are born just like Pinocchio. We're, we're just prone to wonder.

Prone to leave the God we love. And as we come to know Christ, we have a loving Father, who wants to make us into be real children, children of God. He wants to see us grow up in righteousness, and rather than fleeing and running from pain and running from work and discipline. the goal is, is that we would actually embrace difficulties, that we would embrace pain and see it as something that is very much for our good.

I wanna also quote the great theologian Bill Cosby. He says, if you want to discipline a child, instead of doing something simple like training killer bees. that's supposed to be really funny. I just laughed out loud when I heard that.

you will find that many things are against you, one of which is the child, and that's Bill Cosby classic understatement. in comparing notes with other defeated fathers, I've gained an insight into our, never having the slightest idea of what we're doing. And, that is, it's obviously true if you're just coming from out, out of a worldly perspective, but even in the church, when you're trying to do this thing, there's a feeling that comes about you when you're trying to discipline your own children of what in the world am I doing at times?

And then when you look at what God's trying to do in your own life, it's like, what is going on here?

There's all of these complications, but praise the Lord. There is a happy ending to the story, and that is that God knows what he's doing. Our Heavenly Father is not confused. He knows that yes, while trying to train our little hearts are as difficult or more difficult than training killer bees, that God has a program that is effective if we will be trained by it.

And so this morning we're gonna talk about 5 facts. This is the next slide of 5 facts about God's discipline, and we get these facts right out of Hebrews, chapter 12. Why don't we read for a moment, just Hebrews 12. Starting in verse 5.

Just to set The context. By the way, is anybody here ever read Pinocchio, the original story? I just want to just, I'm just curious. OK, good.

Isn't it a great tale? That's pretty awesome. Who's the guy that directed Nightmare, Nightmare Before Christmas? I've never seen it, but I've always thought that Tim Burton needs to direct a real Pinocchio.

It would be great. Hebrews 12:5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord or the discipline of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him for whom the Lord loves.

He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. You endure chastening, you endure for chastening or for discipline. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten or discipline.

But if you're without discipline, of which all have become partakers, all sons, then you are not illegitimate, but, and not sons. But you are illegitimate, not sons. Furthermore, we Have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live, for they indeed for a few days discipline doesn't seem best to them, but he, for our profit or our good that we may be partakers of His holiness now.

No discipline seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Lord, we ask that you would open up your word to us. We thank you that you've given us your word.

We know that your Spirit is here present, ready to teach us, give us open hearts in the name of Jesus. Amen. 5, facts about God's discipline. Fact number 1, God's discipline is personal.

God's discipline is personal. Look again at verse 5 and following, and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as what? Sons, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you're reproved by Him for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, scourges every son whom he receives. We have a Father, who is the one who is disciplining us.

Discipline from God is always a personal venture. He is a father to us. God does not just bring pain into a Christian's life as a judge, or as some abstract being. We don't worship a the deist God that's just out there just, he just Turns the world loose and then lets the forces of nature work all of their wild evil upon us.

We worship a Father, and he is a loving Father. Verse 6, for those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And so we see something about God's discipline. Right here in the very beginning of this passage that it's always within the context of relationship.

And, this would have been very encouraging to the people that are being written to in the book of Hebrews. You understand the context here is not just something where they, let's, the writer of Hebrews isn't just saying, well, let's just talk about discipline in a vacuum or let's talk about child rearing in a vacuum. The idea here is these were people that have been led to Christ, and it embraced the gospel, some of which truly, some, it seems that they were just feigning embracing.

But, but the writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of people that named Christ, and we're probably very, very joyful at the reception of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But not too long after they became Christians, they began to realize that this Christianity has a lot that comes with it, that is very, very painful. And these Hebrew Christians began to receive persecution, trials, sufferings. They were being rejected from their families. Many of them had had their property taken away from them, as we'll see later.

They had all kinds of crazy things that were around them and the temptation was to say, if this is what Christianity is about, I don't think I wanna be part of it. And if you don't have a loving personal father involved somehow, in what you're seeing come into your life, then it's very easy just to check out. What the writer of Hebrews comes in and says, what he comes in to do is he reminds them that the stuff that you're experiencing, even the loss of your homes, the trials, the persecution.

sometimes the physical persecution ultimately comes from a personal God, a God who cares about you.

It comes from a father. And doesn't a relationship make all of the difference when you're talking about discipline and pain. One of the experiences I hold very dear in my childhood is being on a baseball team that my dad coached in in Little League when I was only 9 years old. I was on a team called the Yankees.

I'm ashamed to say, but my dad was the coach of this team. And it's an interesting tale because we were the castoffs from everyone else. It's like we didn't have a coach. Everybody else got drafted and then we were all placed on the Yankees and we didn't have a coach at the beginning.

Finally my dad stepped in and said, well, I'll go ahead and and coach for a few weeks until you find somebody else, how that goes and so he ended up being the coach for the whole year, but my father was just very, very good at just developing teamwork and relationships with the kids. And those kids, including myself, they would do anything for my dad in this relational context they really began to look at my dad as as a father figure on this on this team. And even though our practices sometimes were hard, even though he would make us run sprints, sometimes we would be goofing around and we'd have to run wind sprints, and he would inflict pain upon us as a part of this whole procedure to get us ready, we would, we would submit joyfully because my dad had created this context of relationship and you've all probably experienced the opposite as well where you submit merely because the person's an authority.

But we submitted because we really cared about our coach and I'll never forget the scene of when we, we won the, the championship and here's this these castoffs and, and then, our pitcher, so I didn't get enough sleep last night so I'm already getting emotional, our, our, our pitcher like struck out the last batter and he just runs to my dad and just leaps up into his arms and and just embracing this big hug.

And and our whole team is just into this this big hug thing but there's this relationship that was developed and because of that relationship my dad could inflict all kinds of pain on us and and we bore it. And when we understand the relationship that our Heavenly Father has, and we realize that the things that are coming into our lives, these, these disciplinary type things, things that are designed to train us and to help us grow, we, we step back and say, well, this is coming from a God that loves me, so I can bear up underneath this.

this has application to every one of us, whether you're a parent or not. You have a father who loves you and knows what is best for you.

And when we see something coming into our life that we think is terrible and painful, we're asking why we need to go back and say, I have a loving father. these things that are coming into my life ultimately come from the context of a relationship and parents we need to look at our heavenly Father and recognize that the same attribute needs to be there in our own parenting obviously we have a relationship by blood with our children but we really need to develop the sense of relationship.

In love with our kids, discipline must always be done in a relational context for it to have its desired effect. One of the things that I will say to my son Joshua, when we sit down to have any time of discipline, is I will regularly remind him that Jesus Christ died on the cross to bear the eternal punishment for his sin.

And I will say, Joshua, am I disciplining you in order to punish you for your sins, in an eternal sense? Because no, Jesus, Jesus died for my sins. So why am I punishing you, Josh? Why am I disciplining you?

Because you're my father and you want me to grow up to be a righteous young man, or he'll say something along those lines or I, or sometimes he'll tell me because I need foolishness to get out of my heart. But we try to develop this sense of, of, you, what? God used to treat us as a judge, but because of Christ, now he treats us as a father. So my discipline is in no way connected to that eternal judgment that comes from a judge upon the wicked that have rejected the fatherhood of God.

Those are actually in First John called the sons of the devil, those that are the sons of God, now it's because of the cross that we can have this disciplined relationship with the heavenly Father. It's because of the cross that I can come and lovingly introduce discipline before my child. I can do this discipline because the eternal consequences have been taken care of and now in a fatherly way I can help you grow in righteousness into the young man that the Lord would have you to be.

So the first thing is, is that God's discipline is personal.

Secondly, a second fact about God's discipline that we see in this text. God's discipline, God's training program is God's discipline is painful. God's discipline is painful. Verse 6.

Look at your text for those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. Whatever that verse means, I got a feeling that has something to do with pain. I don't know why But pain is involved in some fashion and when you look at the context again here in Hebrews, you look back to chapter 10 and so on, it's very apparent that these believers were going through painful circumstances. Look back at chapter 10, verse 32, same book, Hebrews 10.

Verse 32, the writer of Hebrews says to these professing believers, but remember the former days when after being enlightened, OK. Right after you got saved, you endured what? A great conflict of sufferings. Wait a second, when I got saved, I thought everything was supposed to go my way.

Oh, he says, remember you endured a great conflict of sufferings partly being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly becoming sharers. With those who were so treated, you got to be treated like other Christians. Christians have been treated before you. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property.

These are people that actually lost their homes, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. I just was trying to picture that this week. What if, if, if in our country the Lord moves sovereignly in such a way to where the type of discipline or training that came to my life was the fact that my home was taken away from me. could I, how would I view that?

Could I view that as as coming from a loving father and that the pain being introduced into my life was actually for my good these people had their homes taken away. verse, look at, chapter 11 verse 35 and following as, the writer of Hebrews is going back in the Old Testament now to try to encourage these present believers. Look at what happened to believers in the Old Testament. Women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured.

Not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. Verse 36, and others experienced mockings, scourgings, chains, imprisonments. They were stoned, sawn in two, tempted, put to death with a sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

You just look at that without a context of a loving father, and you just think. What in the world is going on with these people? But the writer of Hebrews wants to, wants to point out that this is the heritage of all God's children. The heritage of God's children is that God has a program that is for our good, and part of that program involves pain.

The type of pain we're talking about is what we see up here on the, on the board. It may involve persecution. It may involve. hostility.

2 Timothy 3:16. Indeed, some who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Is that what that verse says? Let me read that again.

Some, this is 2 Timothy 3:12, some who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. All, all is a big word here, who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Part of God's plan, his program for our growth and maturity, part of his plan for our training, is that all who have ever been a believer in Christ, and all who ever be a believer in Christ, will suffer. It is part of our life.

Old Testament, present, into the future, until we go to be with glory, pain is part of God's program, and part of that pain involves persecution. I had a great privilege to be at a retirement party later for our brother Sebastian Fernandez and it was a really jolly time as people were sharing different stories and having fun and some of the people there were drinking a little bit and having a good time and and then Sebastian got up and just preached the gospel. just, he didn't hold a thing back.

Talked about the love of God, talked about the justice of God.

And I, I, I don't know the exact words, but the conclusion of his message was something to the effect, do not feel secure in your present joy at such a party. For all of us must face the living God who will judge the living and the dead. We must give account to him. Without Jesus Christ, we cannot escape the wrath to come.

And everybody was just quiet. It was interesting, even in that context where here we're celebrating a guy's retirement. I'm, I'm not kidding. Less than 2 minutes later, I heard someone blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ.

Just as they were making a comment in response to something that had been said. yelled out very, loud enough to let the whole room know. I'm not affected by what was just said. And I'm gonna let everybody here know, yeah, this guy's got his own opinions, but, we can have a good time and, right in that context, I saw Sebastian being, taking on a little bit of buffeting.

And, but he was willing to stand up. And say what, hey, this is part of my life I've enjoyed my time here as a CHP but I'm gonna, I'm gonna share people the love. And the gospel of Jesus Christ, there was a time when I was doing, I was doing youth ministry up north, in a place called Lebeck. Has anybody ever been to Gorman or Lebeck?

OK, some people know where it is. It's up on the top of the grapevine as you're heading up past Magic Mountain over before you go down and get to Bakersfield, but it's, I was actually doing youth ministry up there and I remember one time after our youth group we used to all go over to McDonald's right there off the, 5. And I was talking to one of the gals that had just visited that night and I began to share with her the gospel and was talking both about the fact that sin requires payment and punishment that if we die in our sins we'll go to hell, but there's this provision in Christ and by.

All witnesses that I'm aware of, it was just a very just straightforward loving presentation of the gospel within 24 hours it was all around the mountain that I had yelled and screamed at this teenager and told her that she was going to hell in the middle of McDonald's.

it was just all over the mountain if like mountain communities. And that was, that was a regular thing up there to, to be trying to do just God's work and just lies and exaggerations, but that shouldn't be shocking to us because persecution is part of God's program for our good, right?, God's discipline is painful, and this may involve suffering. Do we have that up there? Is it?

Are we all gone? Did it just like go out? is the is the bulb just gone oh and John's nowhere to be found or OK OK all right well you guys know where we are. We'll see if you guys can.

Get by without the visual stimulation. God's discipline is painful. It may involve persecution. It may involve suffering.

And we see this from the life of Paul. Paul says in Philippians 3:10. That I may know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to his death. First Peter 4:13, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing.

So that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. There's many other passages that just communicate this concept that pain, suffering, persecution is just part of our life. It will involve God's discipline will involve persecution. It will involve suffering and because of that, it will involve pain.

Milton's definition of discipline this morning. It reads as this, the loving introduction of pain into the lives of God's children so as to train them in righteousness. Let me say that again. Discipline, biblical discipline is the loving introduction of pain into the lives of God's children so as to train them.

In righteousness. God has a program for us, and his program is not to protect us from all pain and suffering. His program is actually to allow us and actually to for ordain pain and suffering for our good. And for our growth.

We see even in the life of the apostle Paul, that there was a point which he asked the Lord to take away pain. Remember in 2 Corinthians 12, he had been given this thorn in the flesh, and we don't know what that thorn was, but thorn communicates what? Pain, right? It's whatever it was, it was something that was painful.

And it also, while it was got from God's sovereignty, it's also spoken of as being a messenger of Satan to torment me. So even though this was a painful thorn, and it was coming from the devil, and it was they're tormenting Paul. Paul says, could you take this away? 3 times he prays and the Lord says, What?

No, my grace is sufficient for you and it's perfected weakness. Therefore, Paul says, I'm well content with weakness, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, for Christ's sake. When I'm weak, then I am strong. You see, this is part of this is not plan B for God.

It's not Plan B Plan A was to, to protect us from all suffering, and somehow that went wrong, and now we're in Plan B. No, pain and suffering is part of Plan A. It's part of God's program for training. I love this quote from CS Lewis, a book called The Problem of Pain.

he says, God whispers to us in our pleasures. Speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. And that is so true.

And you've probably seen this in your own life that When it seems like things are just going well and everything seems to be everything in my things to do list is popping and my calendar's working and my car's running and my children are obedient and everything's just going yeah the Lord is showing me that I'm blessed there's lots of things but it's when things are going wrong. If I respond properly, that God is shouting his love for me. If we're, if we are looking at pain and suffering properly, we should feel the most loved.

When we are experiencing pain and suffering because it proves, as we've read in the text that we are as children we're not illegitimate.

by way of application to everyone here, pain from God does not contradict his love. It means, it is a means of showing His love. God shows his love to us by bringing this program of discipline and training, which involves pain, suffering, and trials, because he loves us. And as far as our parenting goes, we need to be careful not to try to protect our children from all forms of pain when it comes to our parenting.

There are times in which we actually ought to program pain into our parenting. There's times where, I'm out, I'm just, this is not a, a very significant issue, but with Joshua as we're learning how to play baseball, I don't get out in the backyard and just toss some really slow grounders every time. There's times where I toss him, it gets harder and harder. There's times where it's many times where it's, it's popped up and bit him in the lip or hit him in the, in the chest or other places, not so comfortable for a little boy and.

And but what, a little boy learns that, what this is if I'm gonna play baseball, this is how you, you just learn to suck it up and he's actually got a a phrase which I'm ashamed I taught him but. sometimes if he falls down and, and gets hurt or even gets a scrape, he'll say, Daddy, blood makes the grass grow. Blood makes the grass grow. And that's just kinda If you ever played anybody played football, it's a football, football thing, so.

But with our children we want to, we wanna actually in a controlled environments allow them to go through things that may introduce pain or struggle or difficulty even as Milton spoke of in the first in the first hour and you get tape on that when it comes to the discipline of, of spanking and whatnot so you can get his tape to, to more hit that issue. Let's talk about a third fact. First of all, what we learned from this passage God's discipline. is personal.

God's discipline is painful. Thirdly, God's discipline is purposeful. And are we back online? Wow.

Now, who did that? John, wow, that's awesome. These guys are great. God's discipline is purposeful.

Look at verse 10. For they, speaking of human parents, disciplined us for a short time it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. First of all, we see here that God's discipline is for our good. The persecutions that the Hebrew Christians were going through, if they're understanding them correctly, were for their good.

The pain that God in His loving sovereignty introduces into our life, we need to believe, according to the scripture, that it is good for us. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, right? It is good that I have been afflicted. There is something that God is trying to do.

And what that is, is that we might share. In His holiness. He wants us to become partakers of his nature, right? You shall be holy as God is holy.

The, the salvation package is not just that Christ saved us to give us our fire insurance, and now we don't have to worry about eternal punishment, then the Lord just lets us go off and dishonor his name throughout our lifetimes. The idea is we get saved. And then over the course of time, God begins to introduce pain, loving pain, to help us become partakers of His holiness. So more and more we begin to reflect Christ, and that is the purpose for which we're saved.

So we can glorify Him, reflect him. Shine back to the world, the character of God. And what better opportunities to shine back to the world, the character of God, when we are in pain and suffering. Any worldly pagan can be happy when things are going fine.

But it takes the spirit of God and it takes God's program of discipline that comes upon us by grace that allows us to bear up underneath suffering and shine in times of difficulty. you've heard it said, I, I think many times, just the way that our brother Dave Alcarez as he was going through cancer and moving towards death, just shone for Christ. And that pain and suffering. it was an awesome example and we, by God's grace have the opportunity when our car breaks down when.

When we lose our job, when finances aren't going the way we would like, when I've got a toothache. for me, the thing is, is I, I'm pretty fine and dandy until I get tired or sick. And then somehow in my little mind I give myself an excuse to be a naughty Pinocchio and and to do things that are really in my heart all along but I excuse I can excuse myself and saying this pain and suffering gives me a right to behave in a bad way when God's design is that the sickness that I've incurred at that moment.

would actually be something that would help me, help spur me on towards holiness and, and reflect God's character in that sickness, in that tiredness, by God's grace.

Ask yourself, do you believe in God's good purposes? When, when something bad happens in your family, in your life, is our first reaction? Oh, great. What next?

And I have, I, I'm ashamed to say that that's sometimes my reaction. But if we're understanding what the Spirit is saying to us through us, through this text, for our own good, our disposition ought to be. With this I'm, I'm receiving this because God loves me. This is a demonstration of God's love that this has happened.

And it's total reverse of the way that we would think normally in the world. This challenge, this difficulty, and, and sometimes it's very hard to know how in the world can God be good in this. You look at what Job went through. And how do you see God's goodness in that?

But if we believe what the word says, there was goodness. There's a gal right now in Foothill at this sister church that is sponsoring this institute, a gal named Hannah who is experiencing pain all over her body. It's some nervous disorder where every inch of her body she's experiencing excruciating pain. The doctors don't know why, and she's a teen gal who's been experiencing this pain since August.

And she hasn't slept since August and because she hasn't slept since August she's going delusional. She's a Christian gal in a Christian family. And that's one of those situations where I stand back and I'm just like, what's the good in that? But if we understand what the word of God says, there's some good purpose in this, at least on the eternal scale of things.

So we've been praying for this family and I think they're they're in our prayer sheet. Do you believe in God's good purposes? Do you want to have a part of His holiness? If we really say we want to be holy, then.

Be careful, right? I want to be holy. Right? If we really want that, what does that really mean?

What are we asking for if we want to be more like Christ? We're asking for this program of pain. And God lovingly grants it to us. Application to parents, our kids need to see God's good purposes through us.

God does have a good purpose for our children, but they need to, to be able to sense that and feel that as we come to bring pain into their lives that we're bringing it as a good representative of our Holy Father, that we're, we're communicating both with our words and our actions that this is coming for your good and they really know that it's for their good. We want to be an agent of God for the purpose of holiness. We want to bring our children to a point of reception of Christ, first of all, and then to sanctification.

And be an agent of God to do that.

Amen. A 4th fact. First, God's discipline, his program is personal, right? It's painful.

God's discipline is purposeful. And fourthly, this is, this may be the key here. God's discipline calls for a proper response. All of those three things can be true, but without the proper response makes no difference in the world.

Proper response. Look at verse 5, for instance. And you have forgotten the exhortation. Which is addressed to as sons.

Here's the improper response, or the improper response to regard regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Don't faint when you're reproved by him. Verse 7, it is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there, whom his father does not discipline?

Verse 9, furthermore, we had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. So we not much more be subject to the fathers? If we're subject, that's a good, proper response. And verse 11, all discipline for the moment does not seem joyful or does not seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.

Yet to those who have been trained by it. Afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Looking at those verses, let's go back and, and make some deductions here. First of all, God's discipline calls for a proper response.

Here's the, here's, here is a proper response in the negative. First of all, don't take God's discipline lightly. Don't take his discipline lightly, meaning belittle it or treat it as insignificant. And there's lots of ways which we can belittle or treat as insignificant the pain or the discipline or God's program in our life.

We may accept discipline stoically, and that can actually look like we're regarding the discipline of the Lord. Well, say la vie, yeah, this is the way it is. And we disconnect from the fatherliness of the discipline and we just have this fatalistic attitude of well what can I do? And that can look very spiritual, but it can actually be regarding lightly the discipline of the Lord.

We may accept discipline resentfully. and we, we, we can, the Lord can bring something in our life, and we, we appear to bear upon it, but really in our heart of hearts, we're resentful that this is happening. We're mad that God has done this to us and our children can be that way. They can, they can submit to the discipline, so to speak, but very, be very resentful, and therefore not have the desired effect.

We may accept discipline defiantly. Or we may reject discipline entirely and just forget it. This, I'm not gonna accept this is from the Lord. Or, what, if the Lord wants to bring this to my life, and forget the Lord.

And we check out or we distance ourselves from him. So don't take God's discipline lightly. A second negative response is don't faint. From Proverbs 3:11, don't faint.

We may accept discipline and self-pity. God brings pain or difficulty into our life and we just go into this sense of self pity like Pilgrim's Progress I forget the guy's name now the character that pretty much throughout the whole book it's just one pitiful thing after another look at what God's doing to me and and faint I think isn't it faint heart no feeblemind feeble mind yeah and I really identify with feeblemind I resemble that that name. But that can, that's an exhortation from the Lord is when this pain, when this persecution, when the suffering, when God's program designed for your good comes into your life, don't regard it lightly, but don't fade under it either.

Let's not get in, involved in Self-pity and defiance and resentfulness or even just acceptance in a stoic stoic type of way rather, rather how should we respond?

We have I think 3 different ways we can respond in this text is endure verse 7. It is for discipline. That you endure. Same word is used of Christ in verse 3.

Look at verse 3, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself. Here's Christ who never sinned. And yet he endured underneath persecutions and sufferings. And so the Lord comes to us and calls us to follow Christ and to fill up his sufferings, as it were, and to endure and bear up underneath it.

That's the proper response. A second proper response is be subject. To the Father, verse 9, shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Place ourselves underneath the discipline, underneath the pain, underneath the program, and just say, Lord, I accept this is from you, my Father.

And then lastly, we need to let ourselves be trained by it. Look at verse 11. This is a very important verse, I believe. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful.

Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward, it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. There's a condition implied here. For you, for me, for our children, and that is that we need to make a choice of our wills to let ourselves be trained by the suffering, be trained by the persecutions, as Christians we could experience lots of suffering persecution, trials and pain and come out the back end of our lives utterly unchanged. Why?

Not because God's program was deficient, but because our response to his program was deficient. We need to allow ourselves to be trained by it. How do you respond to God's training program for your life? You must allow yourself to be trained by it when these things come into your life, is there a what next mentality or we are are we bearing up underneath it and and receiving it is from the Lord as far as application to parents, your children must be reminded.

That they have a part to play in this program. They must make the choice to subject themselves to their Heavenly Father and let themselves be trained by God's loving discipline. When I, when I sit Joshua down for whatever reason I end up having more opportunities to do this with Joshua. I'm not quite sure why yet, but, one of the things I remind him is Joshua.

What we are about to do. will produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness in your life, if you let yourself be trained by it. If you don't allow yourself to be trained by it, son, then I am still fulfilling my obligation before God. But it may have no result in your little heart, and that makes daddy sad.

Do you want, do you want to let yourself be trained by this discipline and praise the Lord. He's got a soft little heart. He, he'll say, Yes, Daddy, I wanna be trained. I wanna be trained by this discipline.

And and we need to go for that with our kids it's not enough that they just bear up and grit their teeth underneath it. What we're striving for is that they'll submit and let themselves be trained by it. And don't underestimate how that your children will learn from how you respond to God's discipline in your life. Me too.

I can be talking this way to Joshua. But then as God brings challenges into my life, if I'm not letting myself be disciplined by God, and I'm flying off the handle and And I'm just displaying this, this, this attitude of what God is doing in my life. Don't underestimate the lessons that I am teaching my son, by God's grace allow that to impact your heart even now that that we as parents by God's grace and by the gospel need to try to show them how we bear up underneath the discipline and let ourselves be trained.

By what God is bringing into our lives so that we can turn to our kids and, and by example impact the same thing or impress the same thing upon their their little hearts finally this is the last point.

God's discipline is personal. God's discipline is painful, it's purposeful. God's discipline calls for a proper response. Lastly, a final fact, with a proper response, God's discipline is productive.

And in this sense, you can say it works. With a proper response, it's productive. Look at what it says in verse 9. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers who disciplined us.

We respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of Spirits? Shall we not respond properly and live? It produces life.

First of all, if we will properly respond to God's program in our life, it will produce life, real life. This morning Pastor Milton referred to Ephesians 6:3 that if we obey our parents, the promise that comes with that is it will go well with you and you will live long on the earth. I think one of the promises here is that if we subject ourselves to this this plan, this program of discipline that God has for our life, it's gonna go well with us. We're gonna be sensing the abundant life.

As we subject ourselves with a proper response. But secondly, verse 11, it produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Verse 11, all discipline, for the moment does, seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. Yet those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

God's design is, is to produce in us this fruit. God has this idea as a farmer. He's going to prune us. He's going to paint us in order that we would produce this fruit.

And what is the fruit that our Heavenly Father wants to produce in us? He wants to produce. This peace, this peaceful fruit of righteousness that we would be like God, that we have this sense of peace in our lives and display his righteousness, obviously not perfectly but in the gospel that we are walking in the sense of peacefulness and righteousness as we reflect the characteristic of our heavenly Father. Let me ask you this morning, are you living the abundant life.

Are you experiencing peace in your life? Do you feel that peaceable fruit of righteousness just, just bearing up within your soul? If not, it may be. That you are not submitting yourself to God's program for your good.

It may be that you or I, when we're not feeling that. That sense of life and vibrancy and fruit that perhaps we're not properly responding to what God is designing to bring into our lives for those purposes. Parents don't be surprised. When the Holy Spirit, as we do these things.

Begins to do a work through our children. As we lovingly introduce pain into their lives, discipline this program, as we do it as we reflect our heavenly Father, and as we teach them to let themselves be trained by it. It's an amazing thing to watch little kids, little junior highers, little high schoolers start having this abundant life flow out of them. As as they submit to God's program for their good.

Don't be surprised, because that's what God wants to do, right? God wants to do that in our children. So it shouldn't surprise us when it happens. We should expect that would happen.

So in summary, The 5 points we've looked at. God's discipline is personal. It must always be tied to our heavenly Father. We wanna be personal in our program with our kids.

God's discipline is painful. He doesn't protect us from pain. We dare not try to secure our children from all pain. God's discipline is purposeful.

We wanna see his purpose and design and we wanna have a goal and vision and share that purpose for with our children. We want to have a proper response before God and call our children to a proper response before us. And God's discipline is productive if we submit to it, and we should expect that produce. We should expect That produce Let's bow in prayer As the worship team comes up to close us in a final song.

Just allow a few. I'll just allow a few minutes here for you to meditate and speak to the Lord. Lord, we thank you that you. Our heavenly Father that we can trust and that you love us enough, you look down and us better than we know ourselves us better than any person in this room knows us.

You look and you consider. Lord, the ways in which we are depraved and sinful. And through Christ you look at us and you see this product at the end, you see this. This peaceful fruit of righteousness, this holiness that you want us to partake of, and you have a program to help us get us, get us there.

We thank you, Lord, that You love us enough not to let us stay the way we are. You love us enough to bring discipline, to bring chastisement, to bring training into our lives. So that we would grow from glory to glory to glory. Lord, help us by your grace to see your loving hand.

Help us, Lord, to not run from pain, but to embrace it. Help us, Lord, to see your design and Lord, help us to respond the way that you would have us to respond, Lord, so that you can have your way with us. We thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

and my heart will not be moved. His mornings will be the light which will guide and keep me pure treasure. OK. I meditate on