Summary & Key points
This morning, I kind of want to pivot into moving our preparation of mind, spirit, whatever it may be, for Easter. I had entitled the sermon “Missing a Good Thing.” I’ve asked the church to read Joshua about the crossing over, which is symbolic of when God comes into our life, and we give our hearts to the Lord. We cross over from an old life to a new life, from old ways of thinking to God’s way of thinking. It’s a whole dynamic that God brings into our life. I’m going to look at one key scripture today from Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 to 11.
I want us to think of these few things. If you’re taking notes today, I’m not going to have a lot of slides because I ended up changing quite a bit of what I wanted to say this morning, last night, just thinking through some of the things that I wanted to communicate to all of us in preparation. Also, I’m hoping that where you are, you are able to take hold of something from God’s word today. Crossing over, I’m talking about from the ordinary to the life that God wants us to live.
So, as we look at Hebrews 11, we are going to read this through a few times today. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” therefore indicating something that he had said in chapter 10 and chapter 11, we talk about it, the Hall of Fame of Faith, all the different ones who had lost their life, who stood their ground, and he talks about all the various things they’ve been through. Then he comes and he begins to land here and he says, “Therefore,” looking at all that has happened, so if you’re diligent enough, go home and
read chapters 10, 11, and 12 together, and then you’ll understand this transition here a bit better. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” that means all those who have died and those who have walked in faith and served God and honored God and won great battles, he says these guys are all cheering us on. We can’t see with our naked eyes, but they are all cheering us on. What is it that he is trying to communicate to you and me in our everyday life here? He says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
I kind of have a sub-theme if I can. I want to talk about the race of life. Those of you who remember long ago, there was a series called “The Amazing Race.” Anybody remember that? The older ones will remember. It says, “Fixing our eyes,” everybody shout that word, “fixing our eyes.” That means we intentionally look, that means we look away from something else and we look towards something else. He says, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith,” that means we are being worked on all the time. “For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines the one he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.'”
Follow my thoughts here. We need the right skill sets and mindsets and attitudes for life. Would you not agree with me? We need in this life, wherever we may be at, whichever direction we are going, hopefully it’s the right direction, we all need skill sets, right? You embark on a new journey, a new job, you need skill sets, you need abilities, you need to build through. You are finishing one part of your education, as you go into secondary, as you go into college, into
university, you realize you can’t study the way you did in primary school, isn’t it? So you need to change as you move forward and go there.
I want us to go back to verse one. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” So I want to talk about this race of life. Now he uses an interesting word, the word “race.” If you look into the original text in Greek, it’s actually the word “agon.” Don’t worry about it, okay? When I give you the Greek words, don’t worry about it. But that’s where we get our English word “agony.” That’s where we get our English word “agony.” That means he says, “Let us run with perseverance,” the word race is “agony” marked out for us. That means there are challenges in life. You know, the ongoing struggle, we like everything put on a platter. Life is not such. Now, if none of you have faced any trials, any problems, you are not living. You are a ghost; nothing is happening in your life. So this whole idea is like a wrestling match.
I need you to jump to verse 11. I want us to look with fresh eyes at this entire portion here. He says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Now, if you want to run a race, if you go to athletics, you need to be trained, right? So I want to connect verse one
and verse 11 as I move forward with what I want to say this morning. Now, this word “trained” is where we get our word “gymnasium.” So I give you a bit of English Greek lesson also this morning. One is where we get this word “agony,” the word “race,” and then this whole word “trained” is where we get this word “gymnasium.” Verse four, he says something else here. He says, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” They call the games; the Greeks were known for their sports, right? Olympics, whatever, so the pentathlon, and you start with running, then it’s swimming, and all these different things. At the end of it, it’s a wrestling match. So he says this race, the word “race,” has the idea of contending, wrestling. The main thing that the wrestlers had was these gloves. One is to protect their hands, but the inside of the glove was also a bit of a weapon because you could cause bleeding to your opponent. So he says, “You have not come to the point of shedding blood.” Sometimes we go through problems like there’s no tomorrow, we’re going to die. What he’s saying to you and me is, in chapter 11, he said a lot of them died serving God. A lot of them lost their lives. You haven’t lost your life, but you must understand this race that you are running, this life that you are living has a lot of wrestling and pushing forward and challenges. But he says, “Look, you are being trained,” and we want to talk about how it is that God comes and helps us in our race of life.
Because when we read this, we talk about sin, you know, get away, get rid of the sin that so easily entangles us. When you read it through carefully, that’s not all what it’s talking about. It goes beyond that. So this race, this agony, this struggle, this wrestling match in life, okay, there
is a training that God takes us. He takes us to the spiritual gym to build us.
So what do we need to look at? Number one, which today we don’t like hearing it, life’s problems are necessary. No, don’t worry, just stay in the 11 verses. Life’s problems are necessary. Sorry to disappoint you this morning because there is such a lie when you say, “When you come to Jesus, your problems are over.” That is not true. That is not true. Anybody has no problems since you came to Jesus? And yet we love those kinds of preachings. We flock to those places because it tells us all is good, but that’s not what the scripture says. So he’s saying problems are necessary. Now I’m going to venture into a space which I’m not very good at. It’s called exercise. Don’t laugh, because most of you are also very bad at it, okay? So we laugh at each other today, okay? Exercise and starving yourself is not exercise; it’s just you’ve got a different set of insecurities, okay? And the operative word is insecurity. Okay, problems are necessary just as exercise. When you go to the doctor, you do medical tests, what does it say? They will say you are overweight, and I’m going to say you’re blind. You are overweight. You need to lose some weight, okay, in order to balance yourself out and you need to be healthier in your heart, in your mind, okay, thank you. Okay, and what did the doctor say? You need to keep active. Then we have watches, we say 10,000 steps, you know, so we walk up and down the office, we say we’ve done 10,000 steps without even a drop of sweat. So I don’t know what 10,000 steps those are. So it says keep active. Most people will tell you now, all those enthusiasts and people telling you to get well or get stronger, they said you need to have resistance exercises. Isn’t that true? Oh, come on, come on, come on. Resistance exercise, that means you cannot just do shadow boxing and feel that you’ve done everything, okay? So we like the easiest exercises, is that not true? But if you want to tone your muscle, you want to be a bit healthier, stronger in your body. Like I said, cutting down your carbs is good, cutting down your sugars is good, but if we are not exercising, we are just fantasizing, okay? All right, so he says must have a bit of resistance. Why? Your resistance will tone your muscle up a bit, okay? It’s funny, young people go to the, but there’s nothing there, you know, don’t know what they’re looking at anyway. So resistance. So exercise in our lives, unless we are willing to exert, our bodies don’t get well. Unless I’m willing to exert a bit, I don’t tone my body to be healthier, okay? The only exertion I do is the second burger. I’m working hard, I’m thinking the burger is a dumbbell. No, but it’s not, okay? So if I’m walking this, it brisk, you’ve got to walk, you’ve got to push yourself a bit, that resistance will build that, that opposition, that stress. How many of you have been to a stress test in the hospital? I’m not talking about you giving stress to others, stress test. They have four levels, right? Everyone, three minutes, I just did one recently. I thought I was going to die, man, four levels. They say first level, second level, but the moment you hit the fourth level, and they are testing, they’re looking at your heart rate, your heartbeat, your breathing, they’re checking out your lungs, everything is being looked at. If you cannot go through after the second step, you have a heart problem. We never like spiritual exertion. Make it easy for me. Why do you give me memory words? Why must I show up to pray? Why fast? Why read the Bible? What’s this 155? What’s all this? Why study the Bible? Because you don’t want to die. Die a spiritual delinquent, never knowing the race that God has set for you, never realizing the price that’s at the end of it, never understanding the fullness of what God wants us to live. Why? Our opinions become the weight that disqualifies us. So problems are necessary. Stress tests, it checks our heart. You see, your faith and commitment will never grow unless it’s tested. What do I do when it’s tested? I ignore, I don’t listen, I don’t come, I get angry, I make comments. That’s very dangerous, you know. So the thing is this, my faith and my commitment with God never grows unless it’s tested. My compassion will never grow unless it’s tapped, isn’t it? We all want compassion, but we realize our hearts are muddled up with a lot of other things. My patience is never tested unless it’s tested. My commitment will never grow unless it’s threatened. My courage will never grow unless it’s challenged. It will never grow. You see, these verses that we have just read, and many other, but especially this, tells us that difficulties and sufferings are necessary in life. Now again, we don’t want to hear this. We like messages that say, “It’s all going to be okay, you’re going to be rich, you’re going to be good, everything is yours.” If your faith and commitment is never challenged, you will remain a shallow Christian and an immature Christian. And the problem is this, the danger is this, you will always cause others not to progress. You will tell them they don’t need to because you do not want to grow in your own faith. “I know it all.” For the love of God, we don’t. Come on, who are we fooling? That’s arrogance. Arrogance and denial. So remain shallow, we remain immature. Now when you go to the gym, I won’t ask for hands, but we’ve gone to some form of exercise, we do it. You realize when you’re in the midst of some exertion, exercise, you feel like you’re going to die. Cannot breathe, I’m going to die, I’m going to die. But you realize when you exert a bit more in the gym or you’re doing your exercises, at that moment you may ache, but if you keep doing it, you feel weak, right? But at the end of the month, if you do it every day, do you realize you’re going to feel better? You’re going to feel stronger. So first I’m weak, then I get strong. But when I engage in it, it’s not pleasant. But after that, there is a reward. I may be all excited to have spiritual disciplines, but as I move on in life, then I turn back and I look and say, “Man, I look at things a bit differently now. I look at life differently. I look at people differently. I can cope with things differently.” You follow me, everyone? So at the end, we’re going to read this entire 11 verses again, and I would like you to look at it differently. So it’s not about just sin, no. It’s not that. We’re talking about this race, our life. So this is where it happens. One of the difficulties, the other difficulties is this, is this word “expectation.” We all have expectations, either right or wrong. So in everything, most of the times when we encounter suffering or pain in difficult times, or rather pain, it’s not due to the problem itself. If I can just venture here a bit, it’s due to the shock we get or the anger that we are reacting with, or the self-pity we get into as to, “Why am I going through this problem? Why am I… Why is it me? Why do I have this? Oh, why this problem? Why these children? Why this spouse? Why this job? Why this country? Why, why, why?” We are struggling. And the problem is this: we don’t process the situation correctly when we face a problem. Why? We have a wrong expectation, and God has not met my expectation. Everybody still with me? Okay. God has not… Here is what’s really happening, or here is the question that you and I must ask ourselves, and every believer needs to ask themselves one question. What are you living for? What are you living for? Sales, we want that target, but somehow we never set targets to grow and mature. We have, at the end of the year, we have so many goals set, but we fail in one of the biggest goal settings is to live like Jesus and share his love. Because it’s too much exertion. Why waste my time? What are you living for? What do you want to live for? What is life about? I’m talking about race, but let me ask you a question because so many things happen in our life. Who are you living for? Many times we live for ourselves. Is that not true? Who are you living for? Why? What are you living for? We cannot avoid these questions. What am I living for? I want to live life to its fullest. I want to enjoy life. I want to travel to the nations. Good. I want to make as much money, build a few more homes. I want a better car. Sure. Good. I don’t know what I really want. Okay, we also stuck there. I want things my way at my timing. I want it this way. Now, let me… We’re going to look at that 11 verses again. Now, suffering and problems, when they come into our life, destroy the meaning that you and I have developed in our head of what life is about. Because of the expectations mismatched. And that’s why we play with the Bible. Those of you who understand, you know what’s the English word for “D-E-I.” Okay, God says, “I’m blessed.” What are you living for? Who are you living for? Many times, we live for ourselves. But we say, “God, bless me.” Sufferings and problems and challenges in life will always upset the cart of how you and I think about life. We don’t want problems. We don’t want sufferings, isn’t it? We want life easy. Anybody pray for problems every day? Do you pray this, “Lord, bring problems my way. Bring it on.” Or do you pray, “God, bless my day. Bless me, Lord. Bless, bless me.” Which one do we pray? Oh, come on, come on. Yeah, bless, right? Sometimes God miss here. He said, “Bless you.” Okay, sure. We like the “Bless me,” but God says, “We’re going to read this again.” Yeah, okay. I want us to understand this as we go into the next 10 months of this year to finish well. It’s a race, it’s a journey we’re going to go into. I don’t want problems. I want to live well. And when something goes wrong, it is always somebody else’s fault. It’s always somebody else’s fault. It’s the boss, it’s the people, it’s the church, it’s pastor, it’s my mother-in-law, my father-in-law. Don’t give the mother-in-law’s headache. It’s my father, my mother. You know, it’s this place, it’s this country. Pause. What are you living for? Who are you living for? It’s my wife, it’s my husband, it’s my children, it’s my parents. Stop. What is your expectation here? Whose fault? We blame others, we blame the devil, and then we say, “God, where are you? God is not real. Where is God? Can he not see this?” So I have to do things my way. You miss it again. Who are you living for? For what are you living for? When I don’t get what I want, I have to find somebody to blame. I have to blame something. It’s like this insurance form. This lady is filling up the insurance form and she says, “I was driving along the highway, minding my own business, when all of a sudden this tree appeared before me, magically, the tree.” You drove in the wrong direction, you know. I know this person, childhood. Parents took care of him, oldest son, blue-eyed boy, everybody
takes care of him. One more, one more, the younger one. Older brother takes care of everything. Got a problem, dish it out. “Hey, get a job, get a job.” Always somebody, and this person always ends up blaming people. When he loses a job and when his business gets messed up, he never takes a good look in the mirror and says, “I’m quite lazy.” Actually, we must have correct view of life so that we can live in the reality of what we are facing and find God as the anchor. Because when you go on reading Hebrews, it talks about the anchor in the storm. So as we look at this passage again, I want us to just remember, I’m talking about the race. Okay, introduction. I got two more thoughts, and that’s a family of thoughts underneath, and I know I’m not sticking to my notes at all today. Next question: Why? Why the race of life? Why do you run the race of life? Why? And we’re going to look at the life of Jesus, we’re going to look at where we are at, but why? Running involves what? Running involves my mind, running involves my attitude, my motivations, my desires. I want us to look at verses 5 to 10 here. Please, excuse me. “And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? Now, if you remember the first four verses, the metaphor is about race, running, athletics. The metaphor is going to change here into something else. Now, it says, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you. Because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined,’ sorry, until verse 10, that’s right. ‘If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness.’
Now, prosperity preachers hate this chapter. They will never preach it. The metaphor changes here from athletics, running, to one of a father and a child. We’re going to look at why this metaphor changes. How does he take running, athletics, and bringing this father-child relationship and bring it together and say, ‘This is the race of life. This is how you run it, and this is why you should run it.’ Let’s look at it. See, when you and I experience sufferings or problems, we must realize one thing. This is where a lot of theology clashes, people’s understanding. God is not the author of all this. Read the Bible carefully again. God is working behind the scenes when there are problems taking place in our lives. Sometimes he just steps back and lets it happen. We’re going to see why, because first, we may ask, ‘What? I thought God loves me.’ Can you imagine your kid acting up as a brat all the time? Parents, will you discipline them or not? But you’re a good parent, loving parent. Let them be. You see, if you say that for yourself, don’t put God in another category. That makes sense, everybody? You better be. We must be
consistent here with truth.
So when we are in the middle of a problem, what do we want? Maybe a teacher, a coach to help us. But this scripture tells us when we’re in the middle of the problem, don’t look at God as your provider or somebody who will come with thunder and lightning and slap all your enemies away. He says, ‘Now you’ve got to pause and look, and you see him as a father.’ Now, this word ‘discipline,’ let’s go for verse… I actually printed this yesterday evening, and I counted from verse 5 onwards, big enough for my eyes. This is Hebrews 12:1-11. From verse 5 onwards, he says, ‘I want you to count with me. Have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? Do not make light of the Lord’s ones.’ Right? Okay, next verse. ‘Because the Lord’s…’ What? Okay, so two. And the one… No, no, no, keep… Yeah. And the one he loves chastens. Now, the word ‘chastens,’ ‘disciplines,’ about the same. Everyone he accepts as his son. Next. ‘Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?’ Are you catching on right now? But parents, don’t go home and all of a sudden memorize seven chapters of Hebrews 12 because you’ve got to talk to your children. They can’t. Verse 8: ‘If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.’ Verse 9: ‘Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live?’ Verse 10: ‘They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness.’ Let’s do verse 11: ‘No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.’ Ten times. Now I want to draw you into this amazing truth of this word here. When you think of the word ‘discipline,’ what goes through your mind? Come on, confession is good for the soul, for yourself. What goes through your mind? Punishment? Pain? You pay. Let me tell you what the word here means in its original text. Here is where we get the word ‘pediatrics.’ You know what’s ‘pediatrics’? People who work with children, doctors who work with children. Now does the word ‘discipline’ change your mind? And now you know why the metaphor changes into a father. So he says here, verse 5: ‘Do not make light of the Lord’s…
There are too many Greek words I looked at. Trust me, it’s ‘padaya.’ He says, ‘Don’t make light.’ So now God is this doctor, this pediatric doctor. He’s working with you as his child. The word ‘discipline’ all of a sudden changes, isn’t it? Completely changes. So now he says, ‘I want you to understand this a bit more carefully. Let’s look at this. Pediatrics, we all have taken our kids one time or the other. Don’t look at… We look at discipline as punishment. God looks at discipline differently. He looks at it very differently. See, verse 10: ‘They disciplined us for a little while, earthly fathers.’ Some of you are saying, ‘I still get disciplined.’ As they thought best, but then it hits, we are not the best disciplinarians. God’s discipline versus our discipline is very different. But God’s discipline for us is for our good. It doesn’t stop there just for good, in order that we may share in his holiness. God is after something more. We are after our ego at times. ‘Hey, I show you who’s boss in the house. My way or the highway.’ And we say, ‘No, highway gate is locked. Sit down.’ God’s discipline is not my way or the highway. God’s discipline is, ‘Hey, you’re not doing well in your heart. I need to work at that. You’re not doing well in your mind. Come on, let’s look at this. You’re not doing well in your emotions. Let’s work on this.’ That’s God’s discipline. That’s how he’s working at it. But how do you bring this race, athletics, and this whole father-child thing together? Well, it says, ‘When God deals with us, he has a very clear intention in mind. Very clear. Now, if I want to discipline my kid, my kid acts up, steals, lies. Now, if I don’t discipline the kid, am I a responsible father? I’m not. Some of you shake your head because you’re not listening carefully. I’m not a disciplined father. I’m not a responsible father. I’m an irresponsible father. Many times, when God is dealing with our lives and we don’t see it, we shake our fists at God and we say, ‘Why bother with church? Why bother with God? Read Bible? Please, I gotta work.’ Stop. Your arrogance is killing you. Your arrogance and your dead heart is killing you. You are in God’s treadmill, and he says, ‘Hey, your first three minutes or so, you’re dying, man.’ And you say, ‘Get me off this treadmill.’ God says, ‘Do you want to mature or do you want to be immature?’ For our benefit, for our growth. So, I am an irresponsible person because this child is going to grow up and trouble other people. So, discipline is the pain that matures me. ‘Okay, you can’t go out, you are grounded. I don’t care, I hate you.’ It’s okay, tomorrow you will love me when you need money. ‘Okay, I won’t do it again.’ Good. Why will you not do it again? Let’s talk about it. Human parenting is imperfect. God is perfect. And the problem is this: because I am imperfect, I force my imperfection on the way God deals with me. That’s the danger. That’s the blindness that we have. And all of us have to be careful with that.
We will not mature if we don’t let God deal with us. ‘Hey, I’m 60 years old.’ Good. God is still dealing with you. And then, when you’re going to breathe your last, God says, ‘Okay, welcome home. We’ll talk about it now.’ So, please don’t say, ‘Ah, you know, some will say, ‘I’m old enough.’ For the love of God, if you mature enough, you will never talk like that. You will never talk like this. And you will never say to your kids, ‘I know it. This is how they’re going to…’ If you are mature enough and you’ve allowed God to work on you, you will stop talking like this. And you will say, ‘God, my immaturity is showing, isn’t it? My immaturity is really, really screaming here. I need to deal with this.’ Verse 7 and 8: ‘Endure hardships as discipline. God is treating you as his children. The word ‘endure’ is pediatric. Endure hardships as somebody working in your illness. God is treating you as his children. The word ‘discipline,’ pediatric, children, for what children are not disciplined by their father. Verse 8: ‘If you are not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.’ Now, all of us remember the story of Joseph in the Bible. Now, this is what happened. Joseph was the son of old age, and Jacob actually messed him up so badly because he became the blue-eyed boy. So, sometimes in our families, when we have blue-eyed boys, we actually bring more destruction in the family than we realize. The brothers hated him. Sometimes in the family, we think it’s all right, but there is deep resentment. We say, ‘This one always gets his way, her way, or gets it.’ Some of us may have grown up that way. Joseph, the brothers so despised him, but he had this amazing call on his life. Can you imagine, with that arrogance that Joseph had at that age, he would become the prime minister of Egypt, the most powerful nation on the face of the earth? Then he goes into the pit. He goes into Potiphar’s house. He’s accused of something that he never did. Then he goes down to the prison. Think of all the three P’s. So, the pit, the brothers threw him there, then they sold him, then he goes to Potiphar’s house, and he meets Potiphar’s wife. They never give a name for her. Then he goes to the prison, and from the prison he goes to the palace. If Joseph never went through that discipline, he would have never hit God’s purpose in his life. Never. We want millions. If you cannot tithe with ten thousand, what a monster will you become with ten million? What other excuse will you make with ten million? If one thousand or so, other problem. Imagine ten million. Come on, Church. Come on. God is working on our hearts, his hardship. Joseph’s hardship prepared him for the greatest position that God wanted him to have. Don’t look at the cross just for salvation. Look to the cross for sanctification, daily working out our faith, maturing, going to the gym and saying, ‘God, I need to get rid of spiritual flab.’ Two attitudes here I want to talk about before we go to the last point. I want us to look at verse 5. This is the introduction to my sermon, so next week… Sorry, this one I’ll just post it to you all. Have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? He said, ‘Have you forgotten this word that God has spoken to you? And in this word, actually, he’s encouraging you to do something.’ He says, ‘My son, look at this. There are two points here. Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline.’ Do not make light. Now the word actually, if you look at it carefully again, it’s… Maybe we can call it… You know, being proud, arrogant. ‘I will go through this. No problems.’ It’s like a kid, you know, you get disciplined. ‘Nope, you are not going to that party.’ Or what was the concert last day? Ed Sheeran, whatever. Ed what? Who? I also don’t know. I thought Ed Sherlock or something like that, you know. Ed what again? Whatever. He’s obviously a popular singer, okay? And the kids in my house who went to… I said, ‘Sorry, you know, your attitude really stinks. And how are you behaving? I’ll tell you what, you’re not going.’ ‘Fine, I hate him anyway.’ Ah, you missed the point. ‘You can’t go. I hate it anyway. I’m not going.’ No, he says, ‘Don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline. Aha, wrong. Next, do not lose heart when he rebukes you.’ See, we cannot fathom that idea that God is working through people, through circumstances, whatever, and saying, ‘Hey, you are on my stress test. Really, you’re not doing well here. Why should I bother? I’m doing well now. Why should I hear discipline? Why should I hear correction? We don’t care. We don’t want to hear it.’ So a child will respond and say, ‘I know I’m wrong.’ Or you’re going to get so upset, you say, ‘Why me? Why me? Why me? How can this be? Where is God? I thought everything is supposed to be good.’ He says, ‘Don’t act both either way. Don’t act either way.’ So the thing is this: let me close with my last thought, which has four thoughts under it, and I’ll get done in ten minutes. Don’t call me a liar. How then? Francis Schaeffer is the one who wrote that whole volume, ‘How Then Should We Live?’ How then should we run this race of life, of our faith, of whatever we do in life? How do we run tomorrow morning when I wake up? How do I get on it? Life, the next ten months, the next ten years, whatever it may be. Well, if you’re taking notes again, number one, I would say sincere humility. Sincere humility. What does that mean? Allow God to work, because many times my attitude shuts God out. I do not allow him to work in my heart. I continue, and we still think God should show up and make life right for me. But you’ve never allowed him to work on your heart. You still do all the binding and loosing, but God wants to deal something through all your problems and all your issues. But you’ve always ignored him, and you’ve always blamed the devil, jealous, this, that. No, pause for a while and say, ‘God, am I missing your dealing in my heart?’ Verse 7: ‘Endure hardships as a child.’ The word ‘endure.’ Endure hardships as discipline. God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? Allow God to work. Somebody wrote this. He says, ‘When I despair, when I retreat, it is actually the place that exposes my arrogance within my heart.’ The second thing would be sincere obedience. So, the first one is sincere humility. The second one is sincere obedience. Verse 7 again, he says, ‘Endure.’ What do I do when I have problems? The first one is, ‘Why bother with God? Why bother to read my Bible? Why bother to pray? Why bother to show up to pray? Why bother to fast? Why worship? Why pray? Fellowship with people? No, it’s… And remember, if somebody says, ‘Yeah, bunch of hypocrites,’ hey, there’s room for one more. Come, please. All hypocrites saved by grace. In fact, we would like one more to join us. Come on. It makes the hypocritical
circle a bit better. Come on. It’s time to grow up, Church. We cannot remain as infants. Hebrews will deal with it. He says, ‘You cannot remain as little children.’ He says, ‘Grow up.’ So, sincere obedience. If you read… I was reading something on sailing, and they said, ‘When you face a storm, you must grab hold of the rudder and not let go.’ Have you seen all those movies? They’re all holding on to the rudder. Because it is said, I’m not a sailor, so I’m just telling you what I read, is that when you hold that rudder, no matter how severe the storm is, it keeps you on track to go where you are going. It’s when you let go of the rudder, you end up somewhere else. What does that mean to you and me? As simple as this: keep doing the right thing and keep doing the next thing. Keep doing the right thing, keep doing the next thing. Don’t draw from God. Don’t neglect the word, don’t neglect prayer, don’t neglect worship, don’t neglect community. Don’t neglect… Hebrews again speaks about, ‘Don’t give up meeting together as some are in the habit.’ This book was written especially for those Christians who are facing persecution. Remember, exercise is hard, but we’ve got to keep doing it, isn’t it, if you want to achieve that?
The third thing to do is honest evaluation. Honest evaluation. Verse 1, please. Honest evaluation. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Now, does verse 1 make more sense now, rather than, you know, get rid of sin? No, let’s look at it a bit more carefully here. So, practical evaluation. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to get rid of? God, what are the things that you are getting my attention to deal with? My attitude, my mindset, my behavior, my anger, my opinion, my criticisms of people, unforgiveness. God, what are you dealing with? What is that in me that you are trying to address here? So, he says, ‘Remove everything that entangles you.’ Now, when you go to the gym, do you go dressed in a shirt and a tie and a nice dress? And then you go on the treadmill and you’re waving your skirt? Are you going to do that? Come on, hum me, please. When you go to the gym, are you in your suit and tie? Why?
Because that hides what’s really wrong with you. Have you seen how tight some of the clothes are when they’re in the gym, especially those who want to show off their bodies? ‘You know, I’ve got a six-pack, it’s hiding inside, I don’t know where, I’m trying to find it, it’s hiding somewhere there.’ But the moment you wear your gym clothes and you stand in front of the mirror, oh my goodness, because it’s a bloop here and a bloop there and a bloop everywhere. We can laugh together, okay? We can laugh together. That’s the problem, isn’t it? Your gym clothes actually tell you where you need to get rid of your prosperity. Is that not true? So, dear. And God’s truth, and when his discipline comes, it shows us what we need to deal with. Didn’t James say God’s word is a mirror? Are you escaping the mirror? Are you scared of that mirror? Do you despise that mirror? We’ve got to ask ourselves those questions. So, what do we do here? Ah, finally, what are the right effective actions? Verses 2 and 3. ‘Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith.’ Some versions will say the author and the finisher of our faith. ‘For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’ Verse 3: ‘Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’ Why did Jesus run the race? How did Jesus run the race? Well, how did he run it? He suffered. Jesus suffered. What did he suffer? It says, ‘For the joy set before him.’ What was that joy? What was it that he’s going after? You and me, our salvation, our redemption, redeeming us from hell and death, taking us out of a life that is doomed for darkness. And he endured that shame. He endured all of that. Why? Because there was a joy he was looking forward to, reconciling us back to him and back to God. That is the joy that was set before him, reconciling us back. Why did Jesus suffer? Because of you and me. In his suffering, he was seeking us. In our suffering, we seek him. In our problems, we seek God, not run away from God. Because only then we see that joy that is set before us. We share with his glory. That’s the difference. Church, can we stand together? I hope you got something out of this today. We’re going to pray the prayer that I have ready for us. Before that, I want us to pause for a while in our own hearts and minds. Are we running away from God? Have we
despised his discipline? Have we blamed others, blamed God, blamed that we blame everyone except take a good hard look and say, ‘God, I need to change. What is it that you want me to get rid of?’ I will read to you those 11 verses, and I want you to listen.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.’
I think we will look at the scripture very differently now. Will you pause? Lord, what do I need to get rid of? Some of my opinions, my mindsets, my expectations getting in the way of you working in my life. Lord, what’s happening in my life? Lord, come all around here and let’s take a minute or two. Let’s do that from all of you on the cameras, the PA, ushers, those online, musicians, everybody. Let’s all of us be doing that right now. Thank you, Jesus.
Look full in his wonderful face. We don’t need the lyrics for this. And the things of the world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory. Hebrew says fix your eyes. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of the earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory. Turn your eyes. Come on, let’s worship him, Lord. Say, ‘I turn my eyes to you, Lord.’ Full in his wonderful face. And the things of the world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Let’s pray this together. All right, let’s come, everybody. Let’s pray it out together.
Father, help me to hold fast to the truth of your word and not let seeds of doubt and unbelief germinate and grow in my heart. Give me wisdom and discernment as I read through your word and guide me into all truth. I pray that you would align my thoughts to your thoughts and my will to your will so I do not go astray or fall from grace through a doubting heart but stand fast in the evil day. Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Help me to take to heart the example of the Israelites who forfeited their rest through unbelief. Keep the eyes of my heart focused on Jesus, in whom I have received my promised rest through faith in Christ and have all I need to live a victorious, God-honoring life. Keep me ever looking to Jesus and prevent me from falling into the sin of disobedience and unbelief like the Israelites in the wilderness who were redeemed from slavery yet wasted their lives through deliberate unbelief. Help me to live by faith and not by sight or feelings, that I may live and work for your praise and glory. This I ask in Jesus’s name. Amen.