City Central Church Podcast
Bob Sorge (Sunday Morning)
Bob Sorge speaks on the love/discipline of the Lord.
But it's a privilege to be with you and this inaugural event, I didn't realize just how significant this was. It's my son Joel and his wife Anna are here with us and just wave. I've been having a marvelous time sharing the word with theologist, kind of that sponge effect. You've been pulling it out of me and I've been enjoying that so much. I had some people tell me wherever you go you need to tell people you're on Twitter. I put little one-liners on Twitter, I put one on there a while back, it's one of my favorites. I don't pray in order to make life work. I make life work so that I can pray. That's your first sermon. Number two now, I feel like I need to put a warning label on this morning's message. It's going to be an espresso. So just turn to your neighbor and say get ready to chew. It's one of those words, ok Hebrews 12. And to be honest with you, I would not feel the liberty to bring this word in every church I go to. Since I'm feeling my liberty this morning. Now for those of you that are with us for the first time, just a word of explanation, I suffered an injury to my voice 17 years ago. So my voice is very small and they have me just on the edge of feedback so that I can relax and be heard. And it's been a pretty intense walk. When this happened to me, I was a pastor and a worship leader and you can do the math on that. As a pastor too, they can't talk. What does a worship leader do that can't sing? So in the crisis of my life, trying to figure out God. Hebrews 12 has become for me one of the absolutely most helpful passages in the entire Bible to help me process my journey. So even if I offend someone here this morning, at least you can know the preacher got blessed. [Laughter] Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, that's her reference to chapter 11. The chapter of faith, some of us call it the whole of faith. The great champions of faith that the Lord gave them the outcome of their conduct, gave them a testimony so that now we follow their faith. And you had to be here for any night to connect with what I just said. These witnesses in Hebrews 11, I used to think that they were witnesses of our lives. Like they're leaning over the banisters of heaven, witnessing what we're doing. And they're not witnesses of our lives, they're witnesses to the grace of God in their life. The witness to us of God's faithfulness, what they're saying is, I walked with God, I held His hand, I leaned on His grace, I persevered in faith, and God was faithful. He completed His promises, He fulfilled His Word, He finished my story, and now they stand as witnesses to the goodness and faithfulness and grace of God in their lives. I'm going to be honest with you. When I get to the other side, it's not going to be good enough for me that Joseph has a good story. I love that he has a good story, but I'm not satisfied with that. I want a story. When we get on the other side and start, "Hey, let me tell you about the time." I don't want to just sit there and listen. I want a story to tell. And after I've listened to David for a few hours, now let me tell you my story. In other words, I want in the cloud. We're surrounded by a great clot of witnesses, layestly aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run within endurance. There's now work again. With endurance, the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured? We just can't get away from that, can we? Endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now, for many in the kingdom of God, it seems as though the book of Hebrews ends right there. Because most of the preaching in Hebrews, you'll hear Hebrews 11 preached all over the place. You might hear the first couple verses of Hebrews 12 preached, and that's as far as we go. If fast in your seatbelt, we are about to go where no man has gone before. Are you ready? We're going into the forbidden zone. Hebrews 12, verse 3. Okay, for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. I want to make an observation. Verse 2, does everyone agree he's talking about the cross? Verse 3, would everyone agree it's talking about the cross? You with me? Verse 4, would you agree he's talking about the cross? I would like to postulate that verse 5 is talking about the cross. And I'm trying a connection now that actually I'm messing with some people's theology because they don't want to make verse 5 talk about the cross. They want to make the writer change subjects, but I'm going to hold it right on the cross as we go now to verse 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as the sons. My son do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him, for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges. He is the same word as the scourging of Christ and scourges every son whom he receives. The Holy Spirit testifies in verse 5 you have forgotten this. I quarreled with the Lord. I said, Lord, you're not serious. I mean, you don't really mean we've forgotten. Holy Spirit says, it's the forgotten doctrine in the church. The chastening of the Lord. Why have we forgotten it? Well, let me suggest a few reasons. Number one, we don't want a God who chastens. If you had a choice, if somebody gave you a choice, you can have parents who spank, or parents who don't spank, what do you want? We don't want a God who chastens. Number two, we have so narrowed the definition on chastening that we've removed it of its teeth, and it has lost its significance, and now we dismiss it. The third reason we've forgotten about it is we haven't wanted to think of ourselves as needing it. Oh, me, good-hearted, sincere, likable, whole-hearted, committed, devoted, me? Another reason we haven't known how to reconcile his goodness with his chastening. Now, this is a theological issue. We believe he's good, and we've assumed that means if he's good, he would never do anything that would cause me pain. And so we haven't known how to reconcile his goodness and his chastening. Another reason, we have looked at examples. We have looked at instances in the church where the Lord has chastened, and we have judged it as not chastening. In other words, we said, "No, God doesn't do that." That's not good. And this is Jeremiah 5-12. They have lied about the Lord and said, "It is not he. Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine." And we're doing the same thing, Jeremiah 5-12, all over again. And we get ourselves in the same pickle that Job's friends got in, because here's the issue for Job's friends. If God is doing this to Job, maybe we're next. And we're not going to be next. So let's decide this isn't God, and we'll come up with a theology that ascribes it to something else. We looked at the cross and said, "God doesn't do that." And then we looked at the resurrection and went, "Oops!" So Holy Spirit says, "The church has forgotten this doctrine." "My son do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him." That scripture contains the two extreme responses that we don't want on either end of it. And is to despise it, that word despise means to lightly esteem, blow it off. And that's not God getting my attention. And that's not him that work in my life, that's just, it rains on the just and on the unjust. Stuff happens, and we just blow it off and never take to heart that God is wanting to do in our life, despise it. The other extreme is to become discouraged under it and say, "I can't deal with this. It's too hard. I give up." And we want to avoid both extremes. For whom the Lord loves, he chases. The scripture is real clear. Now you can make a note of Revelation 3.19. It's the exact same truth that Jesus himself, Jesus said, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." If he loves you, he chases you. And if he really loves you. Anybody here feel loved this morning? Remember, I got a prophetic word. It was about two years into this, and I got a very strong prophetic word. And the brothers said, "This is the love of the Lord for you." I was really hurting when I got that word. I was just a ball of pain. And when I received that word, I was like, "If this is how you love, love somebody else." It didn't feel that I like love. It felt like he was stripping me of everything I had ever known. It took me quite a while to come around. I'm talking months and years took me quite a while to come around to a place where I was able to say, "I see it now. You're the love that work in my life." What do you do with a God who crushes his favorites? You look at the guys in the Bible that the Lord loved. The guys that were closest to him, his favorites, went through the hardest stuff of anybody, Jeremiah, David, Job, Joseph, start making your list so you want to be God's friend. And the one he really loved, the darling of his heart, the apple of his eye, the son of his bosom. Nobody was crushed like the son. Now I'm going to ask a question. And I just want you to decide, "I am not going to say yes or no. I am not going to go like this or like this. I don't want you to move your head and I don't want you to commit with your voice. I just want you to think." Here's the question. It's the million dollar question. And I am dancing on a theological, "What's the word for the fault line? Okay, I'm dancing on a theological fault line right now. Are you ready for the million dollar question?" Was the cross an instance of the father chastening his son? To wrestle with that question, come to Hebrews 2. We're asking the question, "Was the cross an example of chastening? Are we doing right by connecting chastening to the cross? Is this a valid connection? Was the father chastening? Chasing his son on the cross." Hebrews 2, verse 10, "For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." I am wondering if you are willing to agree with me that verse is talking about the cross. Will you agree with that? Through the cross, Christ was made perfect through sufferings. Now, the word perfect when you do the word study on it means perfect, mature, complete. Are three elements to chastening? And this is going to be critical to where I'm going right now. I want you to get all three of them. Number one, there is a punitive element to chastening. You blew it, and the Lord wants you to never do that again. And when we chasten our children, how many mums and dads know there is a punitive element in chastening? Would you agree with me that when the father crucified his son, he was not punishing him for sin in his life? Would you agree? So the first element of chastening is not present in the cross. The cross is not a punishment of Christ for his sinfulness. Second element of chastening. I'm using the word purifying. There is a purifying, refining dimension in chastening. The Lord chastens us in order to make us a better person, call us higher. And in that sense, could we say that in the cross Jesus was made perfect through sufferings in that there were issues that the Lord had to refine in him to make him a better person? Could we say that about the cross? No. No, the cross was not the father refining, or let's make him more mature. He wasn't so mature, so let's make him more mature in the cross. Or he wasn't so perfect, and now let's make him more perfect. Or he wasn't so complete, but now we're going to make him more complete. I testify this morning that the cross of Christ did not change Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. So the father was not chasing him to change him and make him into a better person. Second element of chastening does not apply, but there's a third dimension of chastening. I use the word qualifying. There is a qualifying that happens in the chastening of the Lord that unless you drink the cup, you don't qualify for the job. In Jesus he was perfect, mature, complete, but until the cross he did not qualify as the high priest of our confession. He did not qualify as the captain of our salvation. In order to qualify for that glorious assignment, he had to pay a price. He had to drink a cup. He had to do the cross. And the same is true for you. When God's chasing in your life, yes, there's a punitive element, and yes, there's a purifying element, but there's also a qualifying element that until you do this prison, Joseph, you will not qualify for the palace. There is a qualifying that God has stuff for you, but in order for you to enter into it, there's something you just have to go through. And so I am suggesting that what Hebrews 2 verse 10 is talking about making Christ perfect through sufferings is not talking about a punitive thing. It's not talking about a purifying thing. It's talking about a qualifying thing. Christ was qualified to become part of the captain of our salvation through his sufferings. Back to chapter 12. Verse 7, "If you endure chastening," are we going to get away from that word today? It's just our weekend to endure. Now, the Lord gave me a word one time, and I'm going to take it out of its context and just share it with you right now. You don't embrace chastening. You endure chastening. Because there's a lot of talk about embrace the cross, embrace the crucible, embrace the breaking, embrace. And it's true that we embrace God's purposes in it, but the Scripture didn't say in verse 2, "Who for the joys that before him embraced the cross?" It says, "He endured the cross." You can't get your arms around that cross because it happens to have you impaled to the cross. And for the longest time, I had a problem with people telling me, "You used to embrace this thing, Bob. You used to embrace this thing." And I'm like, "I'm not embracing it. I'm contending for healing. I'm contending for breakthrough. I'm contending for deliverance." And for me to embrace it meant to accept it. And I can't accept it because the cross was never meant to be the last chapter in your story. You don't embrace it like, "This is just my cross now." And I just endure it until in his time and way he brings you through to resurrection life. So if you think I'm being picky with semantics, that's okay. I'm just telling you, for me, it's a huge difference. I'm not embracing the chastening. I'm enduring the chastening. Verse 7, "If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? For sake, but if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." I'm wondering. I think my chances are slim here today, but I'm going to give a shot. Is there anyone in the house who is a die-hard, hold-out, never let go of the King James version kind of person? Is there anyone here that has a King James Bible in front of him? You got one? You win the prize. So we got one. That's the King James you got right there. Okay. Would you be willing to lift your voice loud and clear and read for this room in the King James? Verse 8. But if you be without chastening, we're up all our teachers, and are you bachelors and not cachelors? Excuse me. Did you say bastards? And here I thought we had bouncers at the door. [Laughter] They're going down together. Okay. I used the new King James, and it's much more politically correct, but if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. So I did a word study on it. Guess who's right? The actual word is bastards. The legitimate is a adjective, and it's a noun in the original. Bastards is the right word. What's a bastard? Definition a jerk. [Laughter] Joking. [Laughter] Now this is dictionary definite. A bastard is a child born out of wedlock. Let me put a different angle on it. A bastard is right mother, wrong father. And we have a lot of bastards in the church who have the right mother born in the church, have the wrong father. And the church gets in bed with the devil, she produces bastards. Now how do you recognize a bastard? Well, first they tells you, no chasing. Abba leaves him alone. Abba's gone. That one's not mine. Born of the church, but fathered by the devil, and the father claims no responsibility. I'm not going to mess with your kid. Chasing my own. Thank you. It's a big enough job. In trouble when you start chasing somebody else like it. And now this says, I don't chase in the bastards. I leave them alone. And you can tell a bastard because an absence of chasing Abba leaves him alone. Jesus said to the scribes in his day, basically called ambassadors. He says, you are of your father, the devil. Sons of the covenant community raised up in the covenant community, fathered by the devil. Has anybody here ever seen the movie The Passion? Well, it gives him the Passion. I have an annual tradition. I watch it every good Friday. Awesome movie. And it's striking when you come to the scene of the crucifixion. The scribes on their donkeys in the Richelia, comfortable, secure, good-looking, together, established, in control, vindicated. And here is this lonely figure on the cross. Naked, tormented, writhing, forsaken, rejected, and despised. In which one has the pleasure of the Father? In my heart says this morning, I'm with him. I'm with the tormented, pain-racked one on the cross of the Son. I'm suggesting the Father loved enough to chasten him in order to qualify him as the high priest of our confession, so that now every knee will bow of those in heaven, and those on the earth, and those under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He was eternal, he was perfect, he was uncreated God, but he did not qualify to serve as our high priest until he did the cross. God's got stuff for you, he's got a high calling, and he loves us enough, if you're a son. Verse 9, "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 who live. In our brokenness, we've done our best with our kids, but he is a perfect Father who chastens in our lives perfectly and redemptively in order to bring us to our highest and best that we might enter into true life." In God, verse 10, "For they indeed, for a few days chastened us, has seemed best to them, but he for our prophet that we may be partakers of his holiness. I want you to get this. The purpose of chasing is to bring you into holiness, because when you're living in holiness, you now become a fitting vessel to enter into your inheritance. That's all holiness is essential for all that God has in store for you in your destiny, and when he chases in your life, I will speak from my own experience that when he chases in my life, it puts such a desperation in my spirit that I said, "Everything get out of my way. I am coming after God. And now violently throwing aside the things that had the weights and the things that had tripped me up, and now I'm coming after God, running after him with the fiery passion and intensity, pressing into his heart, really finding for the first time in my life what it means to live a life of prayer, what it means to live in the throne room and find that place of holiness." And I found the verse actually after all that had happened, and so after I had kind of gone through this whole process and had found, "Man, God has just been awakening me to holiness, then I found the verse," and that says, "He does it that we may be partakers of his holiness," and I went, "Wow! It's true!" Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present. Can I get an email on that one? You don't smile your way through that thing. You don't laugh your way through it. It is painful. Now when it says painful, I'm a preacher that says, "It's painful." You might hear other preachers that kind of make it a little bit light, maybe put a little bit of sugar on it. I'm telling you, see, there's, how many know when it comes to chastening, there's different levels of chastening. There's everything from that little flap on the, you know, like, you just kind of, yeah, on their, on their diaper, and they don't feel a thing, you know, but it's just like, whoop, and they're like, "Oh, I didn't even feel that." And then there is the event. How many parents here have ever staged any event? This one you will not forget. Seventeen years ago, I had an event and it's painful nevertheless. Afterward, oh, I like that word. Afterward, I'm holding on to that one. Afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Notice that we're trained. I wish I could get everything I needed in the kingdom by being taught. Wouldn't that be sweet? Just come to the thing. Take good notes. Hebrews 12. Got it. I wish I could get everything in the kingdom by taking good notes. There's some stuff you have to be trained in. You actually have to drink the cup. Walk the walk. Why? Because God wants you speaking, not out of a work study you did in your library, but out of ownership you have, because you walked it with your life. And when you have taken on the demons, when you have walked through the flood, when you've come through the fire, and you have ownership, because you've been living in the word fasting and prayer coming after a seal of fire, a fervency. Like Jesus said in Revelation 3, 19, "Be zealous and repent. Ooh, I might sell us now." Coming after Him. And so, what I share with you this morning, I didn't get from a book. Didn't get this one from a CD. I got this one with a Kleenex box next to me. In holiness, pressing into the heart of God, devouring His Word, and it becomes life to us, to empower us in our journey. And my Bible has a break, but if we stopped right now, we would do an absolute injustice to this message. We have to go on to more verses. Verse 12, "Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed. When you've been chastened and you've had a good one, I testify your hands go like this." The thing just hangs there. Your brain's talking to it, but it ain't moving. When the Lord chastens you, your first response is just everything like, "I can't. I quit. I have no strength." But when you move one finger, you just hand a note to a sister. It's got a Bible verse on it. That's all you did. You wrote a Bible verse on a piece of paper, folded in half, and slipped it to a sister. You moved one finger. And the angels are going, "Yes." She's not collapsing. She's not giving out. She hasn't checked out. She's still with us. I wonder, "Do we have another?" Another one, like Joe. That's not going to just check out two fingers. Open that hand. And every tiny little movement you make to exercise those hands that just want to fall down. The angels are like, "Yes." Strengthening those weak hands. And the feeble knees, because when you've been chasing your knees, just go, "Bam!" And you buckle and you just want to lay out and just undone. And it takes everything within you just to stand. Trembling. Okay, Lord. See, when you've been chasing, one of the greatest things you can do is just come, sit in the back row. Trembling can't even move, but I'm standing. Start to strengthen those knees. And the angels are going, "Yes." And then setting a straight course for your feet, so that what is lame may not be permanently dislocated, but rather be healed. God does not chasten you in order to permanently maim you. It chastens you, takes you out, breaks that thing of naping, in order to train you. And as you walk it out with him, strengthening those hands, strengthening those knees, and setting a straight course for your feet, his design for your life is that you be healed. And the thing that was broken after the healing is even stronger than it was before. And I stand before you as a vessel who has not yet been healed. I am after Hebrews 12 verse 13. It's my portion. It's mine. I will hold to it. Yes, I understand that there's a purifying. There's a punitive... I know there's punitive stuff, Lord. I know there's purifying. I know there's qualify, and I'm going to set a straight course for my feet. I'm going to exercise those hands as much as they want to give out. I'm going to stand, and then I'm going to start taking steps, a straight path. And I believe, Lord, that you will finish what you have begun in my life. That we might be healed. I want to say it again. The cross is never intended to be the last chapter of your story. God's design is resurrection. It's supposed to end in resurrection. And this is what we must contend for. This is what we must present for. This is what we must never give up until we touch the resurrection power of God. Close with a little personal story. Soon after this happened to me, I was a pastor of a church in upstate New York. And I'm in mass of crisis trying to figure out what is going on in this one Sunday morning. There's a gal in her midst, she had a prophetic anointing. And she's walking past me. She stops and she says, "You asked God for something." And he's answered your prayer. And then she keeps walking. Well, you know how we are supposed to judge prophecy and I'm trying to judge it. And something is telling me that's of the Lord. I've asked God for something. And he's answered my prayer. What did I ask for? I've heard it is temporary insanity, Lord. I don't know what I asked for, but I take it back. So no, I'm in trouble. I've asked God for something. He's answered my prayer. And I'm in a heap of trouble. What did I ask for? So I went to the Lord as a Lord. You've got to help me here. If that's you, that's your word for me. What did I ask for? And the Lord reminded me of something I had totally forgotten. It was my custom back in those days. This happened to count as 35. It was my custom in those days. I would go to our sanctuary, which was kind of about the size of this room, I think Joel. I would go there early in the morning and I'd mostly just sit at the keyboard. Sometimes I'd walk around. But a lot of my time I'd just been sitting at the keyboard with my Bible on the music stand and just singing and worshiping and having my time with the Lord singing the scriptures. So I'm doing what I do. And a song comes to mind. I don't like that song. It really has some sauce on it for me right now. So I went and I grabbed a hymnal off my shelf, brought it back, and I started singing the verses in the course. Some of you will recognize this song. It goes like this. Lord, lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's table and a higher plane than I have found. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. I started singing the song and as I'm saying it, the tears are beginning to flow because it was expressing exactly where I was at in that hour. I was at a place where I was working so hard as a pastor I was doing. Like, you know, almost everything in the church. I felt like I'm juggling all these balls. And if they hand me one more ball to juggle, I'm going to lose the whole thing. I was maxed out. I had the pedal to the metal. I was getting up early in the morning to bed late at night, ministry, many nights of the week. I was giving everything, my everything, to the work of the Lord. And when I looked at the fruit of my life, working as hard as I knew to work, looking at the fruit, I was like, oh God, I would look at the word and go, but I'm not even coming close to the kingdom of God. And my heart wasn't so much pain. Lord, you have given us an example here that I love it so compelling and I am working so hard. I can not even. If getting there requires more work, I'll never touch it. And this profound sense of helplessness, giving it my best, I can not touch what my heart is after. And now, Lord, you have got to lift me up. You've got to have mercy on my life. God, help me. Do not leave me here. I cannot get there on my own. I need your help. And this profound cry, God, help me. Lift me to a higher place. I cannot touch myself. I need you to do something in my life. A profound altar with God weeping tears, saying the song for how long. It came back the next morning. It happened all over again. The same song, the same tears, the same cry, the same desperate, helpless reach of my heart. Give me a higher place in you. And to be honest, what I was really desperate for was the power of the kingdom that Jesus demonstrated in the gospels. That's the pain of my heart, my powerlessness. And then I forgot about it. But God didn't forget that cry. He saw the altar I made with him. And my interpretation, in my case, he said, "Yes." And now, Lord, I am after this. My whole life is invested now in the pursuit of the fullness that Jesus Christ demonstrated and died to give us. I consider it a kindness when God interrupts our lives and puts us on a journey for higher things in the kingdom of God. When others are getting chastened, I don't want to be left out. "Call me a son. Own me. And whatever you do, don't leave me alone. Come to me." He said, "Jacob, I have loved." He saw I have hated. What does that mean? My interpretation. By hating, he saw all God did was leave him alone. That's it. Look at his last life. Secure, happy, family, friends, established, settled, comfortable, he saw his life, a paragon of what we consider Christianity. But he was left alone. And Jacob, the guy called Hikes, rejected a wanderer, despised, troubled conflict. "Talk about," Jacob says, "fue and evil have been the years of the days of my life." He says, "I've had an unhappy life." God has hip taken out. But he saw God. He was confronted with the glory of God. God changed his name. And before his story is finished, he is vindicated as a man who has walked with God. And there's an outcome to his story that now we can follow his faith. And God loved Jacob enough to interrupt his life. Thank you, Lord. You'll love me enough. And I'm asking. Now, perhaps this morning, I warned you this was an espresso, okay? This morning, you might be ready to pray a dangerous prayer. God, don't leave me alone. When you're visiting your sons and daughters, don't leave me alone. Don't let me be untouched. I'm asking you, Bob, whatever you have to do in my life, but call me a son. Own me, make me yours, and call me higher. Qualify me for what you have for me. I am yours. And if anyone would like to receive any kind of prayer, Joel and Ann and myself and anyone else that's on our part in this morning, we would love to pray with you. I realize it's a sober word this morning, but there may be some in our midst that are saying, "Don't pass me by. Call me yours." And complete your work in my life. You don't really ask for chasing. You don't really ask for it. You just say, "Lord, own me. Make me yours, and fulfill your word and purpose in my life." And if you are in a place of chasing, we want to stand and agree with you that the Lord would fulfill this word. And fulfill this work in your life and that you may be healed. It's his purpose. And Chasing has never come full circle until you are healed and established in a testimony like Abraham, David, Job, Jacob, give us some in Jacob's in this generation. Amen. God bless you. [BLANK_AUDIO]