Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
240723 Tuesday night bible study/suffering to the point of death - 2024/07/23
There's Sam by you. Sam by you. [Music] [Music] [Music] Who's tonight? What do you think about that? Well, it's a little page four. [Music] Stop page four. Page four. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] You make sure I'm on. [Laughter] Oh, let's see. Up there. Things are looking good. I don't have my tea guy here tonight. Mission Grady. More ways than one. The next few moments will be dove out. It says sign up for a given each one of the opportunity of setting everything aside, focusing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. On whose word we're about to study. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, ensure that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Filling of the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit's unhindered ministry in that he's able to do all that he was placed in our hearts to do. Sin, personal sin suppresses the ministry of God's Holy Spirit. And so when we are out of bounds with God, when the personal sins may be sensed in a tongue, maybe mental attitude sins, maybe some type of overt sin, but whatever the category of sin, it takes you out of the fellowship with the Lord and puts you out into carnality. 1 John 1 9 says, "If we confess our sins, he's faithful in just forgive us those sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness." This is not a license to sin, but a license to serve. So let's take these next few moments in sonic prayer and praying for the speaker, praying for one another, and then I'll open us up in prayer. Let's pray. Father, have a thank you for this opportunity. This evening, to the fellowship in your Word, as we come this evening, we pray with a couple. Prayer requests, one for Samantha. Continue to be with her and her recovery and the physical things that's going on with her. Continue to be with him and those challenges he has also with the physical condition. Another one with Brie forced her as they're getting ready to shut down her kidneys and put her in dialysis as she waits for a kidney transplant. We pray for that transplant for her. We pray also for Blake and his cancer. We ask Heavenly Father that you continue to be with him. So tonight, let us open up our hearts to the study of your Word. I pray Heavenly Father, to be with the Spirit, will guide the speaker in all truth. We guide the listeners in discernment, and we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, we are in Hebrews, Chapter 12. You're going to have to motivate me a little bit because it's been a hard day, hard day at work in Iraq. But the Spirit is still willing, so we're going to let the flesh step by, and we're going to get motivated, and we're going to start to get a Hebrew, Chapter 12. Again, we start out with Hebrew, Chapter 12, Verse 1. Therefore, since we have a great cloud of witnesses, surrounding us, surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and sin, which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. I think of time where we are right now, and this time, I'm bound of saying it, there is no do-overs, because I want you to realize that now, rather than standing before the judgment seat of Christ, to be able to receive your evaluation as believers, and that you missed a mark, that you've lived your life running after fighting the wrong fight. Michael, we talked about that a little bit this morning, fighting the wrong fight, and running the wrong race. You can't win the race by running the wrong race. I came up with that just now. I'm pretty good, right? I'll put that down as a -- I'll put a kudos for the Spirit, okay? But no, pretty good thunderstorm out there, man. Anyway, the -- so you have to know the objective. And again, we mentioned this before, that the objective -- going after the wrong objective, you're not going to win the race either. So the -- we are pressing forward and upwards constantly, and we need to continually keep ourselves in check. Understand we -- in a combat situation, when you're going through the jungle, there's a thing called situational awareness. You need to check your environment. You need to check any signs of the enemy, and things around you. You need to be aware. Well, situational awareness for the Christian is to recognize where you are spiritually at all times. And any given time -- we mentioned this Sunday, and it is true -- a truism -- that we've been accustomed of living our lives in a gray area, many of us. That -- that we're not -- we're good people, we're kind people, we do all the things that are right. We may not be going to church, and we may not reading our Bibles, we may not be so much into prayer, but we're good people. And so we hang out in that gray area. The truth is, there is either the light and the darkness. There is no gray area. You're either walking in light, and when you are in fellowship, and you're advancing in your spiritual life, or you're in darkness, where your spiritual life is deteriorating. And in the darkness, you are doing nothing for God. Your spiritual life is -- it's really like, yes, you're not dormant, but you're going backwards. It is a truism that the spiritual life is fluid. You're either moving forward, you're moving backwards, you are not standing still. There is no mark time in the spiritual life. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. We are the body of Christ. He is the head who sets the way. He established this precedence that we are to follow. And this is why Peter says, "The growing grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." He says, "This way, guys. This way, family. This way, sons and daughters. He will show you the way." Isn't it great? See, the Christian way of life has already been established. He is the author and the perfecter of it. We do not have to come up with our own system. Our own system is called religion and legalism. That we feel like we need to run out and develop a new system. No, we don't have to reinvent the wheel, that spiritual wheel, the Christian wheel. It's already been established. It's for us not to establish the way of faith because it's already been established. The Christian way of life has been established by our Lord Jesus Christ, so therefore we learn it. The Christian way of life is something to learn. And we are disciples. That's part of the great commission in it. The great commission is to go out into all the world as you go, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So in this world, there's the training program. The training program of the system that already is established by the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not have to set up a new standard. So consider him who has endured such hostilities by sinners against himself. Every time the biggest challenge that we all have, one of the biggest challenges is injustice. And justice is of this world. We are as one who are possessors of the righteousness of God. We detest injustice. We not only detest it when it happens to us, we just hate it altogether. In this world in which we live in, when we hear about things that are goes on, the decisions that the court has and it sides with evil. Every time that we see evil prosper, and it may not even be hidden us personally, it irks us. It freaks us. It twists us inside. Especially when it happens and when it happens to us. And we say, unfair, this is not fair. And we're dealing with it. The way we deal with injustice is in our lives. In our lives. Just consider Jesus who endured such hostilities. You see, none of us, none of us are as innocent as the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not deserve any of this. He was sometimes focused when you're looking at the life of Christ. And you recognize this innocent lamb who loved. I mean, he loved, and he loved, he loved, he loves. And he demonstrated that love by going to the cross. There's no one who has been so unjustly treated that our Lord Jesus Christ. So when we have to face the injustices, this is what we do. We consider our Lord Jesus Christ and what he had to endure. And certainly he, certainly there was no hostility and no injustice against himself. That was deserved. And it was by sinners against himself. By sinners. And look at this. In justices, he endured hostility by sinners. By those who deserved, those who deserved the cross. Those who deserved to die. Those who had the full sinners who deserved the full penalty of God's wrath upon them. Jesus who was innocent had to endure what came from them. So that you will not grow weary and lose heart. And the work weary is Kamano. Kamano. And Kamano is to gradually lose one's motivation to accomplish some goal, to become discouraged, to become tired of the Lord. Satan, listen. Satan is in the business of Psiops. And you know this psychological warfare. He's a psychological warfare. And we can understand this when we go back to Genesis. When we see the woman in the garden. And here it is, the saints talking to the woman. And first of all, Satan had no power over the woman. None whatsoever. And up until the time that she gave the creature authority that he did not have. And then she subordinated under his authority. And authority he did not have. The serpent had no authority over her. But she gave it to him. Same thing with the man. And he gave the wife authority over him himself. That she did not have as he supported under her. When he took the fruit from her hand. And so I say this because Satan is in the means of psychological warfare. And it's who you're going to listen to. When the woman stood there with the two truths. One untruth and one true truth. If I can say that. She had one truth that said, when you eat from this tree you will surely die. Did she know her God? Did she know that her God was a God of truth? All she had to do was rely on the fact that God is God. And God cannot lie. But you have this other untruth. I know you will surely. Dr. God knows that. In the day that you eat thereof you will be like the gods. Knowing good and evil. And there is only one way that she could know experientially. She could do one or two things. She could buy faith. She could trust. And the one who said you will surely ask. She could trust. But here it is. Who will she put her trust in? We all know the story. She put her trust in the Satan. What the creature was saying. Over and above what God was saying. She elevated the word of the serpent over that. And why did she do it? Psychological warfare. She caved into the psychological warfare of Satan. And what that's what Satan is doing for all of us. Paul says at first Corinthians that we are taking captive every thought. Everything that comes into the ear gate, into the eye gate, into the heart. Developing our thinking. We need to protect our thinking. They can captive every thought. Get it out of there. Because some of the thoughts that are placed within your heart is from Satan. And it's there to discourage you. It's there to hold you back. It's there when we grow weary and when we lose motivation. It's for one reason. We have taken our eyes off of the Lord and off of His plan and off of the objective that He has set for us. We are listening to stinking thinking. And it may be thoughts. Listen, it may be thoughts that you've received on TV, on radio. It may be something from years ago that comes creeping back into your brain housing group. For you non-marines, that would be your brain, your thinking. You need, first of all, we develop our thinking through the study of the word of God. We develop our thinking through wisdom. It's not just the Bible either. You come to Bible class to learn about the Bible, but there are those good readings. Good readings outside the Bible, yes. Developing of reason. But primarily our spiritual thinking comes from the word of God. It's our only defense. Learning the Bible doctrine is our only defense from psychological warfare that Satan puts out in front of us. He wants us to grow weary. He wants us to lose our motivation. He wants, I mean, an energized spiritual life is one who recognizes the objective, who knows his God, who knows his what state. And he's pressing forward, onward, and upward. But there's a danger for all of us that we might grow weary, and here it starts with distraction. It starts with distraction. Setting aside and distraction leads to setting aside your Bible study. Well, I'll just catch up on my reading tomorrow. Or, you know, I had a hard day today. And, you know, it's just, oh, everything, you know, I just want to go home and, you know, let's just put off, and let's just put off Warren Church tonight, or on a Sunday morning, what have you. And, but be careful, remember, remember when we studied under the current, how easy was it to skip a day, and then skip another day? Then we ended up skipping a week, and it's easy, because whatever excuse you can use, whatever, expect that there's another reason, and another reason. And pretty soon, you find yourself distracted, maybe a new relationship. It may be things going on within your life, into your family, and you start setting aside, and it's something that you can get to later. And next thing you know, you're, what you are actually doing, and you don't recognize it at first. But pretty soon, you get into that rut, and even then, you might not recognize that your spiritual life is thinking back, you are in the darkness, and you don't know that you are. We've talked about this before, you put up what happens when you take a plant, and you set it in a dark room, with no sun, no nourishment, begins to deteriorate, really quite rapidly, doesn't it? It starts dying pretty quickly. That's the same thing with your spiritual life, folks. When you are removed from that spiritual environment, and fellowship, the walking in the light, and you're walking by means of the flesh, and you're being dictated by your flesh. Next thing you know, you don't recognize at first, but you fall into that rut, and you lose that motivation. So, if we stop eating, you see, the physical life demands physical food. You stop eating, and you're going to become malnourished. Same thing with the Word of God. The Word of God is your nourishment, is your sustenance. You stop taking in the Word of God. You start becoming spiritually malnourished. Can we say that? So, each day, in the carnality, in the darkness, takes us further and further and further away from the light. And the more, the further back you go, the harder it is to get back. Remember, Hebrew 6 reminds us that those who had tasted the good things, they tasted that spiritual life, and they had fallen away from it, they will never be renewed. So, the spiritual rut that we feel from time to time, we might want to take a pause and ask ourselves, "Where am I? Where has my focus been? Where is my walk which I once has?" And now, I'm just miserable. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3 says, "And lose heart. Lose heart. This is ekluo. And ekluo means to lose one's motivation to accomplish some valid goal to become discouraged, to lose heart to give up." So, you first, see, "luo means to lose or to destroy." And it says, "Out from the loss, maybe, ek means out from, out from the loss." And so, first you lose your motivation. You lose your momentum. And then you go into that rut and you come into some false conclusion that the Bible doesn't work. Bible doctrine doesn't work. You know, I tried living the spiritual life. I tried living according to the Bible and Scripture, but it don't work. No, it works for everyone that properly applies it to their life. But when you when you when you cave to the psychological warfare of Satan, when you lose your motive next step, if you lose your momentum, you start slowing down. And the next thing you know, you give up. You lose heart. You give up. So you go from distraction to falling away to giving up. Make no mistake. This is where exactly where Satan wants every believer. He can't have your soul. He cannot have your soul. That's been taken care of at your new birth, being born again. But he can destroy your spiritual life. And when your spiritual life is destroyed, goodbye inheritance. Goodbye those good by the rulership positions. Goodbye to those things that no ear has heard and no eye has seen those that which God has provided for you, for those who love him. Satan wants you. He wants to break you. Satan wants to rob you of your joy of the Lord, of your joy of the Lord. Satan wants to rob you of your testimony. Satan wants to rob Christ of the victory. Satan wants you to take off the armor of God, and that will leave you defenseless to fight the spiritual battle. Satan wants to destroy the spiritual life of every believer. He prowls around like a roaring lion seeking those who he can devour. Satan is the expert of psychological warfare. Now say it again just like the woman. Satan has no power over your life apart from the power that you surrender to him. You are a child of God. You are a child of light. What are you doing in the darkness? What are you doing abandoning your spiritual life? Repent. Turn back to the light, name your sins and continue to fellowship. And you may, maybe you've been walking apart from this spiritual life, this so great spiritual life for some time. But no, God still gives you the opportunity to repent, to turn away from the direction that you're going, naming your sins and getting back with the program. It may take you some, now it may take you to rest your life. The consequences, you may still have to deal with the consequences, we'll talk about this. Maybe I'll steal my thunder, my own thunder here, but so I'll just go on with this before I do that. James, so Satan has no power over our life until we surrender it to him. James 4-7 says submit, therefore to God, resist a devil and he will flee from you. The Christ follower is not immune from turning from the light and slipping off into the darkness. Mom, here you go. Be careful that you think you stand lest you fall. Don't think you're so much of a spiritual and mature because a pastor, wherever you are in the spiritual life and how far that momentum can take you, you can at any given point become distracted. Then slip off into the darkness, then give up. Oh, I'm going to say, I'm going to stop right there and go, turn back to Hebrews chapter 6 as a reminder, I need to read it. Chapter 6. "Therefore, leaving the elementary thinking about Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again the foundational repentance from dead works and a faith toward God of instructions about washing and laying on of hands and resurrection dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted good work of God in the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away. It is impossible renew them again to repentance. Since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame. That's warning upon warning. Listen, you believe her, you cannot lose your salvation, but you certainly can lose your inheritance. And those things that God has for those who love him, you will be happy in heaven, but you will be minus the rewards and the decorations that come to those who have reached that maturity. James 4/7, "Therefore, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. And the Christ followers not immune from turning from a light and slipping off into the darkness. We must watch ourselves and maintain spiritual our where we are at all times, our situational awareness." 2 John 8, watch yourselves that you do not lose what you have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. I hope we have in the forefront of our thinking. While we cannot lose our salvation, we certainly can lose our reward. 2 Timothy 1, 18, and 19, this command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keep in faith in a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwrecked in regard to their faith. How do you get shipwrecked? In this time, how do you get shipwrecked? You get off course, right? And when you get off course, then the waves bring you into the shore. You're not knowing where you are and bust you up on rocks. Bust you up on dry ground. Shiphead, the ship captain, the navigator had to make sure where that ship was. You need to know and direct your ship. I'll read this from George Whitten. Fight to win. I don't know which day he did this, but fight to win. 2 Corinthians 924-27. You did not know that those who run race all run, but one who receives a prize, run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown therefore run, thus not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. Thus, I preach to others, I myself may be disqualified. Paul, the greatest Christian, the greatest Christian that ever lived. That I believe is, and other people, you know, I share that opinion with other people, other teachers, other Christians. But Paul is afraid of losing and being disqualified from one. George continues. He says, writing to the Corinthian church, Paul illustrates his exhortation, the metaphors of running a race and fighting in boxing match. Victory is achieved by bringing your body and submission to the will of God. Their idolatrous culture promoted into Corinthians and intense passion to win. In Greek mythology, Nike was a goddess of victory. She fought on the side of the Olympian gods, triumphing over the mighty titans, and thus became a powerful symbol of victory. Her divine, her powers were not limited to warfare. She was also solicited by the Greek athletes who sought victory in competitive sports. A major manufacturer of athletic shoes took note of this and named their company after the goddess. The Romans gave Nike the Latin name Victoria, from which we get our English word victory. The Apostle Paul, with characteristics, cultural awareness, addresses the Corinthians and a language they will well understood. He is seeking to harness their passion for victory and transform it into spiritual purposes, seeking to motivate them for eternal rewards, which the Lord has promised to those who serve Him well. In Yeshua Jesus, we have a real divine power which the ancient pagans could not have dreamed of. It is a power to win where it really counts with and for our wonderful Lord. We too need to discipline our bodies, bringing them into, bringing them under submission, and run the race of faith without looking back. We can be victorious. We will obtain an eternal, eternal crown, which will never fade. George Witten. So we move on in our scripture. It says, "Do not grow weary. Do not..." And the Lord is with us. Listen, the Lord is not in heaven. Looking down upon us, hoping we would win. He is with us, and He is a part of this race. And how is He a part of this race? Let's move on into... Let's move into verse 4. Alright. Becky, you want to do the first four? Sure. And do four to six. You have not yet resisted to the point of sharing blood in your serving against sin. And you have forgotten the exh... exhortation, which is addressing to you as sons. May my son...my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are removed. Just remember. What...nor...plete when you are removed by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. And He scorns every son whom He receives. Alright. You have not resisted to the point of sharing blood and striving against sin. There is a hedge of protection. A hedge of protection that the Lord had placed around Job. And Satan, even...we know this because Satan accuses him. He tells the Lord. He says, "You put a hedge of protection around Him. I could not touch Him." And the Lord gives a certain divine protection to the napios, to the baby believers, as they begin to start up. As they begin to start out, there is a protection that... that a divine protection. But even with us, there is a divine protection when we are walking in the light. And the Lord will not test us or bring about upon to us any more than what we can handle. And so, while we are in that time, as spiritual baby says, "And that hedge of protection is not there just to protect us." And as we go through life to die comfortably and go to heaven. But it becomes a part of that grace and time, or the grace, the commodity of time, and the commodity of the environment. That spiritual environment gives us the opportunity to grow. And how do we grow? Our growth comes through what? Hearing. Our growth comes through Scripture, comes through hearing. Yes, the taking in the Word. But it's not just hearing. James tells us to not only don't be here only, but also be practitioners. That what we take in, you know that God is going to test us. You know that God is going to, that there is going to be a winnow opportunity to, and by God's grace, He's going to lower that hedge of protection. And that's what it is, is lowering that hedge of protection to allow for testing. And then when we experience that pressure, when we experience that attack, then that crisis, then it's time to apply what we have learned. And whether it's what was a charge of mosquito, or the charge of the elephant, that's what we learned when we, the sting of the mosquito, you had the sting of mosquito, which those little aggravating things that come along. Well, that's a test, folks. Consider it all a challenge. The little sting of the mosquito, or the charge of the elephant. And before you can face the charge of the elephant, you better be able to handle that sting of the mosquito. So every situation, every crisis, every pressure is an opportunity to go back to what you've learned in the classroom. And when you have, and you're going to either get a pass or fail, you get that challenge. And then you apply the word of God, and maybe it was a little difficult to get through it. Maybe at times you're going to have to confess a sin or two. A couple times, maybe you got the wazoo-wazoo, self-pity or something, or maybe you lash out, or you don't handle something just right. You go back to the Lord, you name the sin. Lord, I was bitter, I was angry. And he's faithful and just forgive us their sins, brought you right back into the fight, back into that environment. We may have to confess a sin here and there, getting through it, as when we first encounter these things, and learning to run, first to learn to walk, and then to run. And then if you fail, you go back to the classroom. If you fail, I've learned a long time ago that when I fail a test, when a test comes, I certainly want to pass it the first time. Because the Lord is faithful to, when we regroup to test us in the same way again, to see how you're going to handle it again. I don't want to do that. I want to pass it the first time. When you fail again, you name your sins, you continue to bring you back into the light. You continue to, then you fortify your heart with the Word of God. You get your spiritual priorities back in place, and continue to press forward, standing by for the next challenge that's ahead of you, the next testing. For those that pass the test, what that does is, first of all, it accelerates your spiritual growth. It opens up our hearts to receive more, it increases the capacity within our hearts to receive more of the Word of God, more understanding, more light. And what's this for? It's to prepare us for greater challenges. And you might not think right now, wherever you are in the spiritual life, that you might not be able to, if you're thinking of something enough, sure that you're going to be able to do this, and you don't have enough faith to accomplish whatever it is that you think that you have to press forward, you continue to take into Word of God, and you're being developed. The Lord is there with you. He is active in your spiritual life. So as you're growing, and as you're developing momentum, as you're pressing forward, there are times when that hedge protection is going to be lowered, and lowered, and lowered, and lowered. And then it is not the hedge of protection that protects you, but you're thinking that it's saturated with the Word of God. And you've got your eyes open. You know the schemes of the Satan. You're aware of them. You recognize that you're in on the battlefield. Your heart is saturated with the Word of God. You are no longer a Napios, a baby believer, but you are a believer. You are a mighty man of valor and women. Mighty man, you're pressing forward to the objective, and you've got your momentum. It doesn't mean that you're going to stop taking into Word of God. You're going to continue all the way up until you go ten toes up, or as long as you've got a mind to focus upon the Word of God. Never put your word aside. Never think that you're all that, the bag of chips to where you've got enough of God's Word that's going to carry you through the finish line. We don't want to risk that. Again, Mom, careful that you think you're standing. That's what me and Mom was talking about the other day. Careful that you think you stand. Let you fall. And then finally one day, and we see this pattern with Abraham. Abraham didn't get tested on day two of becoming a believer by taking his son Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him. Isaac or Abraham went through many tests and many challenges. He won some, he lost some. But in the end, he was a spiritual giant, and he was ready to take the life of his one and only son whom he loved. I could imagine doing that. Keep pressing forward. Keep taking the Word of God. And then finally, like I said, the head of protection, your head of protection is the Word of God that's saturated within your heart. So you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and the striving against sin. This may also historically tell us that these people were not yet in their general location. They may have been suffering as far as injustices, confiscating the property. The things that we've already seen that many of them were suffering and the abuses and stuff, but yet the greater is coming. And that's giving their lives. That's, that's giving their, that's dying for their faith. See, dying for your faith is the ultimate. That's the highest thing when, when you're going, when you have no problem. So you have such a clarity of heaven and the godly things that you have no problem with it. No, I'm not going to recant my faith. No, I find it a, and your faith takes you, not only do you not recant your faith, you're not, you may not even be. They were at Polycarp. Polycarp was, I think, I think he was the one who was singing hymns all the way to the state. Hey, you know, there's some, the bravado of some Christian believers. I'm only sorry. I only have one life to give. The son who was in the Maccabees said, you know, when they were dismembering him, cutting off hands and arms and he was, and he said, I'm sorry, that only have two hands you can cut off. Because they recognize this, they recognize that those who suffer with Christ will reign with Christ. There were those who not only were praying for their persecutors, they were thanking them for the privilege of suffering Christ. We can't believe, I can't, maybe you can't, but I can't imagine being like that, but God's going to give us the faith that we need when we get to that point. That faith is going to, we're building on that faith right now, as you're, you're sitting here in Bible class. And you've forgotten, first five, you have forgotten the exhortation, which is addressed to you as sons. Stop right there. Remember who you are, sons, weos, sons and daughters. I'm sure we don't have to go with a neutral gender Bible. Ladies, you recognize that this applies to you, weos, children. I don't know, lady, where are you? I need my word up there. All right, but anyway, I address you as children, as my children. All right, my son, exhortation. Here's the exhortation. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor fate when you are reproved by him. This is divine discipline, and it comes, listen, and it comes different levels. And this is the thing that we need to watch for, and this is a certain thing that we spoke of, situation awareness, before, knowing where you are in your spiritual life. Knowing about the rut, because the rut normally comes with distraction, and you're falling away, and you're deteriorating in that darkness. Divine discipline, God is slow, I think, and sometimes slow. Sometimes I think God, it seems like the Lord will slam you quicker as a mature believer, because you ought to know better. One thing that I want, okay, so my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor think when you are reproved by him. Prolong residence in the darkness. Prolong residence being dictated over by your carnal nature. You come to a place where you think you might be getting disciplined by God, or being chased by Satan, or whatever it is. But basically your first level of suffering is suffering from self-induced misery. This is what you brought upon yourself. You're making decisions from a position of weakness. And these bad decisions are starting to collect up. We could go back to David, when David was sleeping all day, rather than going about the king's business, while his armies were out at war. Where did that leave him? Making bad decisions. And he had one bad decision on top of another bad decision, on top of another bad decision. That's a part here, rough. And then, if that's not enough, then there comes the divine discipline from the Lord. Pressure. Now listen, discipline isn't because God is mad. Parents, and I'm talking to myself as well, every time that you last out at your children, because you are angry. That's not discipline. That's punishment. That's almost, and even borderline, to revenge. To you've, it convinced me somehow you've lost your patience, remember a part of love is paid, whatever, and we've all fallen short on that. But God is, God brings on discipline not because he's mad. And neither should we. Parents, as I was learning to become a parent, I realized. And Amanda and Chris, the times that I did it correctly was when I sent you to your room, and that only gave you some time to think about what you've done. It also gave Dad some time to cool down a little bit. That should never discipline your children and anger. Never. I'm guilty, yes. But needless to say, that's, I'm still a teacher, and I teach it that's wrong. God doesn't, God doesn't discipline you because you're, because he's angry. God disciplines you to bring you back. Pressure is designed to bring, divine discipline is a pressure to bring you out from the darkness and back into the light, back into the environment by which you can continue your spiritual life and to your maturity. Because staying in darkness is detrimental to your life and takes you back to the place where your spiritual life is destroyed. God disciplines out of love. And he disciplines, look at the number of times he says, children, sons, the in here, son. This is personal. See, God, and we may, listen, when it comes to the divine discipline, we may wonder why does my neighbor get away with, I mean, he is a godless human being, but yet he prospers. Yeah, he's got a nice car. He's got, he looks like he's got it all together, and he doesn't have God in his life. Why is he, why does God seem to be blessing him and drag me across the coals? Listen, he's not, he may be, we're not all God's sons, we're not all God's children. That's my neighbor, my neighbor is not, and I don't know my neighbor, I'm not calling out my neighbor. But this is just example, your neighbor, my neighbor, whatever, it's somebody you see at work or whatever, you know where I'm getting at. That's not the Lord, that's not the Lord's son, you are, you are, he's dealing with you. You're the one that's receiving discipline and not out of because, again, very important. Not because God is mad at you, because God loves you, and he wants the best for you. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor think when you have, when you are reproved by him. It's time to check where you're at, to see if the suffering that you're having is because you are in the darkness. And it's not a time to get frustrated or bitter toward the Lord. It's time to get on your knees and say, Lord, I've sinned, it gets you. Because if you don't wake up, there is a sin unto death. David was about to die. Nathan had come to him with revelation, and when David recognized that where he was, then he repented, and Nathan said, Lord's not going to take your life. But I want you to recognize this. Well, first of all, verse six, for those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and discipline is teaching. Discipline is when you lost your motivation, discipline is designed to bring you back, maybe motivate you in another way. And he scourges every son whom he receives, means he's hard on you. That means, listen, we get away with nothing, ladies and gentlemen, we get away with nothing. How dreadful would it be if the Lord will allow us to have, to misuse grace and say, well, there goes grace of God, thereby the grace of God go I. And think that every pressure is from the devil, because our arrogance places us in a place that we think that we're bigger and better and more righteous than we are. Once again, knowing the Word of God is very important, so that it gives us the thinking and the clarity to recognize that the Word of God is the law, it sets up the boundaries, so that we know when we're beyond those boundaries. Then we can turn back to the Lord, when we're beyond those boundaries and confess our sins, because the law would be on those boundaries. Again, tougher it is to get back into the spiritual life. Verse 7 is for discipline that you endure, God deals with you once again at you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. Thank you, Lord, for the discipline, especially for those that come out of it, maybe bruised, maybe broken up a little bit, but yet getting their spiritual life back intact. Let me just say this as enclosing today, also understand that while God is, when we see in 1 John 1 9 and other places, that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteous, he restores us back into position. It does not, and this is very important to understand, it doesn't necessarily mean that your circumstances and the circumstances that you created for yourself, or I should say, consequences are quickly removed or ever removed. David suffered for the rest of his life under consequences that he brought upon himself. It was no longer divine discipline. When we name our sins, the Lord is quick to restore us back in fellowship with him. However, the consequences that are left over are dealt with as within the place of strength by having, by having reestablished our communication path with God, because now he will carry us through those challenges. Even those challenges, the consequences that we have made for ourselves, we've heard the old adage, you made your bed now sleep in it, and you're all alone on that. When we repent and we turn back to God, God is in that bed with us, and he sees us through those consequences that the Lord was with David every step of the way. Through those consequences that he brought upon himself, he will strengthen us, he will get us through it. Father in Heaven, thank you that we can call you Father, and we thank you for the trials, and we thank you for the trials that test us to sting on the mosquitoes as well as the charges of the elephants. We thank you Heavenly Father for the discipline so that when we have walked out and walked beyond the boundaries of the spiritual life, that you lovingly give us discipline, pressure from above to motivate us to turn around to come back into that life. Oh Lord, thank you for being a part of our lives, even while we are sinners, even while we have gone astray. You are that one that will leave 99 to bring back the one. We praise you for that love so much. Be with us, let us not be distracted, let us continue on, pressing forward, upward, until we all come to that winter circle. To hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant, pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, another fine day in the world we've gotten, we got your announcements on that one, I think so. All right, be with Brie, Brie is young lady, and I think she's, I think she's 11 or 12, a daughter, a friend of mine at work, an associate and a friend, and they're shutting down her kidneys. I pray for her that she will find a donor real soon. She's on three different lists to get it to be kidding me, so right now she's, you know, they've got the tubes and everything for the dialysis and all of that, so that'll be with Brie, our name is Brie, B-R-E-E. And that's on our prayer list, continue to be with them, prayer warriors, it's, that's part of our job is to pray for one another. All right, as we normally say, until tomorrow morning, Lord Williams, bird guy, rapture pending, we'll be back here in the A.M. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪