OUTLINE FOR February 5, 2012 MESSAGE
Disciplined
for Duty
Hebrews
12:4-11 (NIV)
Introduction:
Hebrews chapter 12 begins with comparing following Christ to
running an endurance race. If you have ever watched runners finish a
marathon, you see that they are in great pain. Are you trying to
avoid pain by not telling people that they need Jesus in order to get
into heaven?
The
writer of Hebrews told his readers to accept the pain that the Lord
allowed to come into their lives as a result of their efforts to help
worldly people have eternal life.
vs.
4-6 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to
the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of
encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make
light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes
you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes
everyone he accepts as a son."
Pain
comes into our lives as we follow Jesus, because people who reject
God's plan of salvation through Jesus also reject us, his messengers.
They may stop associating with us, and may start saying bad things
about us that are not true. They may try to keep us from telling the
message to others.
What
do we gain as we endure the pain that comes into our lives because
people reject us and may try to harm us as we seek to be obedient to
Jesus by helping people have eternal life through faith in him?
First,
the pain assures us that we truly are children of God.
vs.7-8
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what
son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and
everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children
and not true sons.
Jesus
said that we know we are children of God when the world hates us for
proclaiming God's word.
John
17:14 (NIV) I have given them your word and the
world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I
am of the world.
The
apostle John told us that we live in enemy territory.
1
John 5:19 (NIV) We know that we are children of God, and that the
whole world is under the control of the evil one.
Second,
enduring this pain develops a Godly character.
vs.
9-10 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 our spirits and
live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they
thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share
in his holiness.
Helen
Keller (1880–1968), “Character cannot be developed in ease
and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the
soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
http://www.preciousheart.net/love/Character_Quotes.htm
Helen
Keller became deaf and blind because of an illness before when she
was 19 months old. However, she graduated from college with honors at
age 24. She always sought to help others who were blind and/or deaf
by appealing to the government and charities and by setting an
example of what a blind-deaf person could do.
http://www.afb.org/section.asp?SectionID=1&TopicID=129
Just
as Helen Keller was committed to helping people with physical
disabilities, the Lord wants us to be holy as he is holy – to be
committed to helping others have eternal life. God may have to remove
other activities from your life that interfere with
being holy. That may be a painful process.
John
15:1-2
(NIV)
"I
am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every
branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more
fruitful.”
Last,
the result of living a holy life is having more peace with God
because you are living to help others be right with God and have
peace with him.
vs.
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.
Anne
Sullivan, the teacher who first taught Helen Keller to understand
words, had once been blind, but had her sight restored through a
series of operations.
http://www.afb.org/section.asp?SectionID=1&TopicID=129
We
who have received spiritual sight through receiving God's Spirit
because of our faith in Jesus are called to help others who are
spiritually blind come to Jesus so that they can have spiritual
sight.
