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South Bay SDA Church

Jeremy Arnall

A Sacred Trust: Discipline

A young boy made a toy boat and then went to sail it in the pond nearby.

While he was playing along the water's edge with his little toy boat that he had created, the boat started to float beyond his reach.

In his distress, he asked the older boy that was nearby to help him.

Without saying a word, the older boy picked up some stones and started to throw them towards the boat.

The little boy became upset, for he thought that the 1 he had turned to for help was now going to become the means of destroying his prized creation.

Soon, though, the little 1 noticed that instead of throwing the rocks to try and hit the boat, each stone was directed just beyond it, making a small ripple that moved the vessel a little near to the shore with every throw.

You see, every throw of the stone was planned.

It was at last, thus, that the treasured possession was in the little boy's hand.

When our world is shaken, when your pleasure is interrupted, when you are hurt or you're pained by your circumstance, could it just be that this is God's attempt to bring you closer and closer to him.

Of course, we know this intellectually, don't we?

But do we comprehend it practically speaking?

This morning I would suggest that this begins as children, and while such lessons might seem harsh for a child to comprehend, if not learned then, Your faith could very well come to collapse when you are old.

The title of the message this morning is A Sacred Trust.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to comprehend your will, your love, and that we will be able to see more clearly the ways in which you express that love to us.

Lord, please wash me, hide me behind your glory.

Anoint me and cleanse and fill me that I might be a vessel for your glory and and that your presence, your beauty will be experienced by each 1 here.

Open your Bibles this morning to the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews chapter 12.

Perhaps a reasonably well-known passage as it pertains to discipline.

Hebrews chapter 12, and I'll be reading from the New King James Version, and we will pick up with verse 5.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

You have not resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin, And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons.

My son, quoting from Proverbs 3, my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him.

He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons.

For what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate.

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 chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness.

Now no chastening 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." Remember now that in the previous chapter of Hebrews, chapter 11, we found that great hall of faith as it's often referred to.

Heroes of faith who've gone before and who exhibited challenges but exhibited faith through those challenges.

Then near the end of chapter 11, we see how while some of these greats did amazing things by faith, others, on the other hand, suffered great trials through faith.

Notice verse 37 says that some were stoned, sawed in 2, tempted, slain with the sword, and the like.

In other words, the life of faith has its trials.

Then in the first few verses of chapter 12, with that background of the hall of faith, we see in chapter 12, it introduced with Jesus who endured.

It encourages, Paul does, the reader, and I believe Paul's the author of the book, he encourages the reader to join that story, to join the cloud of witnesses, to become themselves heroes of faith by the power of God, casting off anything good or bad that would hinder them from finishing the race well.

After all, remember he says that Jesus has gone before us and He has endured even to death on a cross.

But we are invited to take up our cross and this is the context where we find our reading today.

In other words, expect it and realize that you're in good company.

For Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 8, just turn a few pages over, you read these words in verse 8, though he was a son, speaking of Jesus, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

When you review this passage of chapter 12, verses 5 through 11, you notice a few words that quickly pop up.

Chastening, or as some translations will put it, discipline.

Paul wants to help the reader understand that discipline is a part of the deal.

It's how God trains his children so that they can successfully finish the race.

And so again, we are brought back to the age-old question that we saw in Job in the Old Testament, that is, why do bad things happen to supposedly good people?

Some might suggest that it's Satan's working in our lives, And it is true that God will stand back and allow Satan certain opportunities to test God's faithful, but still at the very head of things, God is allowing or not allowing.

God is our Father and he disciplines us with these struggles and trials.

Perhaps you remember hearing from your parents when you were young, receiving a spanking if you were so privileged.

You struggle to understand when you're little like that.

And I remember trying to teach my oldest 1 this lesson.

I'd heard Tina had tried it with great success.

You see, I told him, he was quite young, I told him I would take his spanking for him, and I quickly saw the relief in his face as he realized that he would get a break.

This was not the way it was supposed to work and I'm relieved to say that later I tried it the experiment again and it came through with tears and as he spanked his papa.

Yes, you see when we are young we focus on the physical pain of discipline.

When we are older and more mature, we realize the emotional and spiritual aspects of discipline, and we realize the pain that it brings is much more significant.

Lewis once put it, you know, pain is God's megaphone to what?

And So Paul is trying to strengthen the believers and us and thus tries to prove to them that discipline is not only from the Lord, but that it is a good thing, for it shows us his love.

The first way he seeks to prove this is with Scripture itself.

He quotes from Proverbs 3 and he speaks there in verses 5 and 6.

He quotes the passage and thus he is appealing to us that the scriptures themselves tell us that this is how God loves us.

Hence the lesson for us that when we are discouraged thinking that this is unbearable what we have to go through.

We are to comfort ourselves with the words of God.

God said he would do this because he loves us.

You notice that the word discipline or chastening is used twice, but we also see in verses 5 and 6 the word rebuke and the word scourge.

While the word for rebuke can also be translated as admonish, the word to scourge can be translated as to whip or severely beat with a whip or to punish.

The idea being, not that God severely beats us per se, but that spare the rod, spoil the child.

But I want you to notice the word for love here in the Greek is agape.

It's not some mere sentimental feeling that God has towards you or you as though your cuteness might attract him.

Your bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh.

God's love for you runs deep and He willingly laid down his life for you so that you wouldn't have to take the ultimate scourge or punishment, which is eternal death.

You see, God is pruning us, he's shaping us, developing us so that we might bear fruit for him.

But not only do the scriptures remind us that God is disciplining us out of love, Paul also has another point that he's trying to use to reason with us that discipline from God is a good thing.

You see, our own experience as children, and perhaps for some as parents, should illustrate the aspect of this love.

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A Sacred Trust: Discipline

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