Delight in Discipline

Good evening and welcome to my blog and the Panhandle. Today officially marks the first day of Autumn. Today was also the last night of the Wheeless Cowboy Tent Revival. We were able to attend two of the meetings, both were vert good. We ,missed last night because we took students to Guymon to the Sidewalk Prophets concert – an awesome night. Both events took place successfully, because of all the hard work and dedication of those involved. In many cases dedication and discipline go hand in hand.

In this study Pastor Rick Ezell reminds us in the movie Miracle regarding the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s triumphant victory over the Soviet Union, Coach Herb Brooks handpicked a group of undisciplined kids and trained them to play like they had never played before. He broke them to make them. Following a tie with the Norwegian National team, Herb Brooks made his players stay on the ice and sprint “suicides.” He made them do it over and over, repeating the word “Again.” 

Tom Landry, former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said, “The job of a coach is to make players do what they don’t want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.” As other coaches have said, “No pain, no gain.”

In the same way, to become a spiritual champion requires doing things that we don’t want to do, in order to achieve what we’ve always wanted to be—like Christ Jesus. Spiritual growth will not occur without pain. Sorry. It’s just a reality. The writer of Hebrews and other biblical writers refer to this pain as discipline. Hebrews 12:7 states, “It is for discipline that you endure”. In this case, discipline is not the spiritual practices like scripture memorization, prayer, solitude, simplicity, or fasting; rather, the discipline is hardship or spiritual conditioning that comes in the form of testing, suffering, trails, and affliction.

Think about it, when did you see or feel some of your greatest spiritual growth, wasn’t it the times of anguish and pain? And, if you didn’t learn the lesson the first time, God said, “Again.” Ironically, the role of suffering and hardship is one of the most neglected issues in becoming a spiritual champion, because we do not arrange for it to happen as we might Bible study or prayer. Instead, life inevitably arranges it for us. What test are you going through currently? Where are you suffering? What trial is getting you down? Would any of these “painful” events or seasons be corrective measures of God to steer you back on the track toward becoming a spiritual champion? In other words, have you ever considered that the tests, trials, and sufferings that you are faced with are God’s way of disciplining you? Lets look at Hebrews 12:4-11.

Hebrews 12:4-11

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 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,

6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 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 our spirits and live! 10 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. 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.

1. Discipline Defined – The word discipline is used ten times in Hebrews 12:4-11. Short story writers not novelists wrote the Bible. So each word in the Bible is very important. And when the same word is used ten times in eight verses, it is highly significant.

What it is that word? The word is discipline - Discipline means training. In other passages of Scripture, the word is used in reference to a father training his children, or training in righteousness, or in this context of God training His children.

The writer of Hebrews is saying that God lovingly disciplines His children to train them to become spiritual champions. It is meant to draw you away from what will cause you harm and lead you into the likeness of Christ Jesus. It is a spiritual maturing process that God allows you to experience; to become more like Christ Jesus. What does getting your car realign when it gets out of alignment do for you car? Well discipline is God's effort in your life to realign your will to His.

What discipline is not: Discipline is not punishment. Sometimes when hardships and calamity fall on you, you might think that these sufferings are the punishments for your sinfulness. Hardship and suffering are not God’s way of getting even. Neither is it His means of retaliating for the wrongs you have committed.

God’s discipline is not the sentence for your sin. The punishment for your sin was laid on Christ Jesus at the cross, once and forever. When God disciplines you He is not getting back at you; He is drawing you back. He seeks to bring you back to His will. He seeks to bring from that which will destroy you (sin). He seeks to bring you toward His likeness. He seeks to bring you back into His waiting arms, wont you take that step today?

In order for you to receive His discipline in the spirit in which it was intended, you must understand God’s role and your response.

2. God’s Role – God filters the events of life through His sovereign fingers so that we might become more and more like his Son, Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul stated, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:28-29). God’s role in your life is to makes you like His Son, Christ Jesus.

A novice once asked the great Michelangelo how he sculptured such beautiful statutes. Pointing to an angel he had just chiseled out of marble, he said, “I saw the angel in the marble, I chiseled until I set it free.” In a similar vein, yet not as eloquent, a southern artisan had completed sculpting a horse out of rock. Bewildered by the transformation, a spectator said, “How in the world did you do it?” The artist replied, “I knock everything off that don’t look like a horse.”

Likewise, God wants to free you to be all that you can be. He has to knock off the rough edges of your sinfulness, chisel away the wrongful attitudes, and sandpaper your character flaws. For that to happen He disciplines you.

• God is a disciplinarian. He is like a coach who practices, drills, instructs, and corrects his players so that they can be in top shape for a game or a race.

• God’s discipline is a sign of a personal relationship. “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES ... God deals with you as with sons,” (Hebrews 12:6-7).

• God’s discipline is compared to a parent’s discipline of a child. Because of that relationship, the parent has an intimate concern and understanding of that child. As a result, a loving parent administers the discipline with an eye on helping the child become all that they can become.

• God’s discipline flows out of His love for you. You are His children. Unlike human parents, He never disciplines in anger. If He did He would destroy us, reducing us to nothing (Jeremiah 10:24). He may have to discipline us severely at times, but He would never kill us (Psalm 118:18).

When faced with the hardship of God’s discipline, we should accept it as God’s method of training and as a token that we are beloved children of God. Pastor Rick Ezell tells this story, “I remember scuffling home from a basketball practice one day, defeated and discouraged. “What’s the matter?” my older brother, Jerry, asked.

“The coached yelled at me the entire practice. It seemed that I couldn’t do anything right.”

Then, Jerry gave me an insight that I had never thought of before. “Rick, don’t worry when a coach yells at you, worry if he stops. As long as he is correcting and instructing you he sees hope and potential. When he stops offering advice and is silent toward you he has given up on you.”

God loves us just the way we are, but He refuses to let us stay that way. He wants us to be just like Christ Jesus. Don’t take God’s discipline as anger toward you, take it as affirmation that you are His child, that He believes in you, and that He wants nothing but the best for you. He’s a loving parent that refuses to give up on you. Will you give up on Him?

God’s discipline is often times painful. “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful;” (Hebrews 12:11). I will never forget my Dad’s thin, black belt. It hurt. Discipline is rarely painless. But, a double meaning exists in the word painful. Discipline hurts the receiver and the giver. I had to become a parent to understand those words, “This is going to hurt me as much as you.” Discipline hurts—God and you.

God disciplines for a greater purpose. Never is the hardship and suffering sent our way on a whim. “He disciplines us for our good,” (Hebrews 12:10). God’s ultimate purpose is to make you like His son – For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; (Romans 8:29).

For “All” – that is you and me, God designed for glory and happiness, He decreed to grace and holiness as the way. God's foreknowledge of the saints is the same everlasting love that sent Christ Jesus to die for all of us, while we yet sinners (Romans 5:8). In order for that to happen, God has to change us. Ultimately, that is the purpose of all discipline, whether it is from a parent, or a coach, or from God. God seeks to change your behavior, your actions, your thoughts, and your motives – to move you from that which is harmful (sin) to that which is not (a life in Him).

It has been said that God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. God sometimes sacrifices your comfort to make you conformed to His character. God’s discipline seeks a finished product. “He does it for our benefit . . . that we can share His holiness . . . it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10-11). God wants you to finish the race and finish well, by becoming a spiritual champion.

The signs of that occurring are:

• Sharing in His holiness (We are to reflect His likeness only along the lines of those moral qualities of righteousness and love in which true holiness consists.).

• Displaying a harvest of righteousness (Christian in all ages have recognized as the central element in righteousness the intention to be and do right in the sight of the LORD. This common spirit binds together the first worshipers of God and the latest).

• Living a life of peace (the calmness of God; peace in the heart, peace as the nature of or spirit of God ... universal and permanent peace that can come only as that Spirit rules in men’s hearts) International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

• Upward you are holy—set apart like God, outward you are righteous—acting like God, and inward you have peace—the calmness of God.

• Don’t you want that kind of life—one that when lived right has a profound tranquility? That kind of life all hinges on your response to God’s discipline.

3. Your Response – Having come to an understanding of God’s role in the disciplinarian process? What is your reaction when your loving Heavenly Father disciplines you? You have three possible reactions:

• You can resent God’s discipline bitterly. The author of Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3:11 that says, “My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD Or loathe His reproof,” Webster’s thesaurus offers the following synonym for despises: loathe, scorn, look down on, hate, spurn. For resent it recommends: dislike, hate, take exception to, rail against. Yet many people do just that when the hardships of life come. As a result, they become bitter, hardened, scornful, and filled with hate. Discipline not rightly received sours rather than sweeten our character.

• You can accept God’s discipline grudgingly. When the pain and hardships come into your life, you can endure them but not be happy about it. In this scenario, you often question God, “Why are you doing this to me?” You know that you are God’s child; you just can’t understand why He would be putting you to the test. Somehow you have the attitude that as believers you are above the painful realities of life. That in some way your Christian credentials give you a pass from the hurts and heartaches. Instead of asking God, “Why?” you would be better off asking, “What are You teaching me?”

• You can embrace God’s discipline willingly. The writer of Hebrews states, “Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?” (Hebrew 12:9). Discipline is almost always an opening to blessings and can bring nothing but blessing when rightly received. To embrace God’s discipline is to understand that a loving God will never chastise His children randomly.
  His discipline is to prune every branch in your life that does not bear fruit so that your life can increase its yield. His discipline is purposeful and brings you life, and life more abundantly (John 10:10); Will you embrace God’s discipline willingly and become the spiritual champion He wants you to become?

Conclusion: Have you ever heard someone say, “If I ever have a son I would like for him to be like ________.” Don’t you realize that God makes a similar statement concerning you? “For all my children, I would like for them to be like my Son—Jesus.” And to accomplish that purpose He disciplines, His children (you and me). And for us, His children to become like Christ Jesus we must embrace His discipline willingly. Again and again.