So we've been talking about, from the book of
Hebrews, and I've been telling you that I'm going
to be preaching this word. And I really wanted
to set it up, though, because the verses leading
up to the middle of Hebrews 12 are all verses
that should encourage you and cause you to, with
anticipation and joy, receive what the middle
of Hebrews 12 says. And so the previous sermons,
we've been talking about running our race and
how God wants us to do well in our race, and
he's setting us up to run it well. Last week
we talked about thriving, right? Being a green
leaf and thriving. All of that is to set us up
for Hebrews 12. And one of my favorite verses
is in Isaiah 48, 17. And it simply says, the
Lord teaches you to profit. The Lord teaches
you to profit. Now that's not just about profit
financially. This is about profiting in my spiritual
life, in my emotions, in my family. It's profit
in all areas. Do I figure that out on my own?
No. The Lord teaches me to do that. And so our
text is out of Romans chapter 12. And we've just
finished. Talking about running our race, and
we finished with, here's how you run the race
well. You consider him who endured, right? You
look to Jesus who endured. And so directly following
that verse, in verse 5, it says, and have you
completely forgotten this word of encouragement
that addresses you as a father addresses his
son? It says, my son, do not make light of the
Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when
he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines the
one he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts
as his son. Endure hardship as discipline. God
is treating you as children. For what children
are not disciplined by their father? If you are
not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline,
then you are not legitimate. You are not true
sons and daughters at all. 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 spirits and live?
They disciplined us for a little while as they
thought best. But God disciplines us for our
good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
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. Now, this passage is coming
from a time in a culture where they assume that
there are fathers and mothers that are training
up their children, right? And we know, I was
blessed to have that, and I'm thankful for the
discipline of my parents and my grandmother.
But not everybody has had that kind of a relationship
with a father or a mother where they have been
trained and disciplined. Or if they have, it's
been on the extreme side of abusiveness that
is not discipline and is not training. That is
the fruit of temper, anger, and perverseness.
And so for some of us, this is going to be hard
to truly get what it looks like for a father
to truly discipline. You've never experienced
it. You just don't really have much clue what
that looks like. This is why it says the Lord
teaches us. What I don't want is for those of
you that experienced that to feel like, well,
that's not for me because I've not ever experienced
that. No, you have a perfect father that will
teach you, if you are open to it, what that looks
like. And will, in the process, heal woundedness
from that. He's fully able to do that. And so
I just want to say that as we're looking at that,
looking forward into this sermon, there's that
understanding that for some of you, this might
be a whole new concept you need the Lord to teach
you and what it looks like for a father to discipline
and to train. And so this morning, we're going
to start with a story from a man after God's
own heart, King David. And this is following
King David's affair. and subsequent murder of
another person, not himself, right? So it starts
in the story of King David not being where he
should be in the spring. All of the other kings
were out fighting in battle, and he was still
at home. He was lounging at home when he should
have been out to war. So to begin with, he wasn't
where he should have been. And so his gaze found
Bathsheba bathing on the housetop. And he desired
her. And so he took her. I'm the king. I can
take whoever or whatever I want. And so she became
pregnant. Well, now his sin is going to find
him out because her husband was where he should
have been. He was out fighting on behalf of King
David. And so while Bathsheba's wife is fighting
for King David, King David had an affair with
his wife. So now she's pregnant, and David has
to cover his sin. And he does that through having,
through a set of circumstances, her husband killed
in battle. And so this is where we find King
David. Now, I also want to say this about discipline
and correction of the Lord. For King David, this
is the result of his sin. Not every discipline
and correction is because you have some big sin
in your life. Sometimes God is just wanting to
train you. He's wanting to prepare you. He's
wanting you to learn the ways of the kingdom.
In fact, in Proverbs 30, it says there are some
things that the earth can't tolerate. The earth
can't abide. And that is a servant that becomes
a king. Well, why is that? Because servants don't
have the mentality, the paradigm of what it is
to be royalty. And so there's no way they can
occupy the role of a king. They only know what
it is to be a servant, to have a servant mentality.
And so it says the earth can't abide that. Well,
think about what we've all come out of in our
sin, in our past, in all of our willfulness before
we met Jesus. And now it says we have Abba Father.
Now we are stepping into the place of royalty.
I think there's some things we need to learn
about the kingdom, right? And so when we're talking
about correction and discipline, it's not about
just punishment. It is about consequences for
sure, but it's also about training us in the
ways of God's kingdom. And although David here
is going to learn that there were consequences
to his sin, really what this is about is that
he was not doing his life kingdom -minded. And
so it wasn't just a consequence, but God's trying
to teach him, David, here's what you need to
be to be a king of Israel. And so David has done
all of this, and in 2 Samuel 12, the Lord sends
to David a prophet who is a trusted friend of
David's, and his name is Nathan. And so when
Nathan comes to David, he says, he tells a parable,
kind of like Jesus. And I know all of you that
have watched VeggieTales are thinking of the
king's duck, right? I know what you're all thinking.
There were two men in a certain town, one rich
and the other poor. The rich man had a very large
number of sheep and cattle. But the poor man
had nothing but one little ewe. He raised it,
and it grew up with him and his children. It
shared his food, it drank from his cup, and it
even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter
to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man,
but the rich man refrained from taking one of
his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for
the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he
went to his neighbor, he took the ewe lamb that
belonged to the poor man and prepared it for
the one who had come to him. Oh, it says in verse
5 that David burned with anger against the man
and said to Nathan, as surely as the Lord lives,
the man who did this must die. He must pay for
that lamb four times over because he did such
a thing and had no pity. Oh, then comes the kicker.
Nathan looks at David and says, David, you are
that man. You are that man. And then there follows
God's rebuke to David. over what he had done
with Bathsheba and her husband. And so I want
us, there's just a couple of takeaways today
that I want us to look at to help us, because
this is a gift. The correction, the discipline,
the rebuke of the Lord is a gift to you. It means
that he considers you. He's not pushing you away
from him. What he's doing is trying to bring
you closer to him. It means you're his daughter.
It means you're his son. And he's trying to draw
you closer into him. That's what the discipline
and correction means. And so the first thing
in our ability to endure and undergo that kind
of rebuke and discipline and correction is that
we first have to understand the heart of God
in it. Okay? We have to understand the heart
of God. And you guys, you hear me read this passage
over and over. And I want us to go to it today.
I started us out with it. But in Isaiah 48, this
is another life passage for me. I should just
write them all down. I don't know. I have so
many of them that have truly been such foundational
transformative verses. And this is one of them.
And so it starts out in verse 13. This is what
the Lord said. Now, he wrote this after addressing
Israel as being strong -willed. They were exerting
their own will. And so this is what God says
to them in the face of that. I am the Lord your
God who teaches you what is best for you. What
I read earlier was a different version, who teaches
you to profit. I think this is the NIV, it says
he teaches what is best for you. And we often
think we know what's best, right? Who directs
you in the way you should go. If only you had
paid attention to my commands, your peace would
have been like a river. Your well -being like
the waves of the sea. Your descendants would
have been like the sand. Your children, like
its numberless grains, their name would never
be blotted out nor destroyed from me. This is
such a powerful passage, and there's a couple
of takeaways from it that I want us to get. And
the first one is that he wants your best. And
some of us, that's hard to really believe. Because
nobody in life has wanted my best. And so now
I believe I don't deserve best. But can I say
to you, he is wanting to teach you what is best.
He wants your best for you. He wants you to profit.
He desires you to profit. He desires to establish
a way of life that is peaceful. He desires a
life for you that is one of well -being. He desires
this to be a family legacy. Some of you, the
legacy you inherited was not one of peace, was
not one of well -being. He wants to establish
a new family legacy through you. That's his best
for you. That's why he gives his correction and
his discipline. He's establishing a new family
legacy. And so this means that his goal for you
is not your creature comforts, how you're feeling
and how comfortable you are right now. That's
not his goal for you. His goal is a transformational,
transforming legacy. to pass on to the generations.
We cannot be short -sighted in this. He's creating
a legacy that is ongoing and eternal beyond you
being comfortable today. And that's hard because
we like being comfortable. We don't like things
like fasting. Because we get uncomfortable. But
fasting is a way of training ourselves in righteousness.
Now, once we trust that he wants what is best
for us, we can then trust his direction. It's
hard to trust his directing in your life if you
don't trust his heart that he wants what is best
for you. And so I actually asked, Gage and Kenzie
aren't here today, and I asked her last night
if I could share this testimony. What some of
you older ones don't maybe know, because when
you got married 50, 40 years ago, we had a different
culture and society. But for our young adults,
our younger families, getting married and not
just living together, is a real sacrifice. It
is very, our society and our government has not
made it easy for our young people to get married.
It costs them a lot of money when most of them
don't have a lot of it to begin with. And so
for them to take that step of obedience, I remember
when Destiny and Les did that, they immediately
lost money in child care. Thousands. So I've
been going through marriage counseling with Gage
and Kenzie. They're getting married in May. And
if you don't know this yet, Kenzie has begun
this semester with nursing school. And so in
our discussion has arisen, well, if we can have
just a ceremony and file the legal paperwork
later, save her thousands of dollars with her
FAFSA. And so Darren and I had the conversation
with them just a couple weeks ago saying, there
is this point in the process where we begin to
trust the blessing of the Lord over the aid of
the government, right? Now we can all agree,
but that's a hard step to take because you will
feel it. So they were, okay, we're going to do
it legally. They'd made that decision, we're
going to do it legally. Well, Darren had made
that statement about trusting the blessing more,
and so she messaged me Thursday, and she said,
I had to share this with you. Ever since our
meeting, I've been repeating that to myself every
day about trusting the blessing. She said, I
got a phone call today that... Through certain
funding, not her FAFSA, but from funding from
elsewhere, all of her schooling, all of her schooling
has been covered. All of it. I read it and I
laughed, didn't I? I laughed. What did they do?
They decided to trust. That God wanted their
best. And so they aligned their life to that.
And God came through. God came through. Praise
the Lord. So when we begin, what is she doing?
What is her engaged doing now in that moment?
They are beginning to build their story of God's
faithfulness to them. Right? That's now become
a foundation to build their family on when God
reveals his faithfulness to them in that way.
And so now the next time they feel a direction
of the Lord, what are they going to do? They're
going to be a little more likely, aren't they,
to come into alignment with God's direction.
Now they can trust the heart of God for them.
And so they will now. much easier follow in the
direction that he wants them to go. And so that's
our second point there is that now we're trusting
his direction. So I learned something in small
group on Wednesday night that aircrafts, if they
by one degree, there's a rule, a rule that is
called the one in 60 rule. Okay, everybody say
one in 60 rule. A one degree, often stated as
a 1%, course deviation. So just one degree, 1
% of a course deviation results to being one
nautical mile off track for every 60 nautical
miles traveled. Okay, so you say, what does that
mean? You boil that down to this. A one degree
error on a flight from Los Angeles to Rome will
land you in Africa. A one degree, a 1 % off from
Los Angeles to Rome will land you in Africa.
And see, sometimes we're just, Lord, we're just
a little bit. I'm not hugely walking in a direction
foreign to God, but there's this one area that
I really want my will to be done. And it won't
hurt anything. It's just 1%. It's just one degree.
For the most part, I'm still going in his direction
that he wants me to go. I'm still doing it his
way. Listen, that 1 % is all that stinking devil
needs, and we will find ourself in a place we
never thought we would be, out in Africa. We
think it's not much. This is why we sing what
we do this morning. We're going to be completely
consumed. We give it all. We don't hold anything
back. Because it doesn't take much for us to
begin to veer off track. In our passage in Hebrews
12, it said, how much more then should we submit
to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined
us for a little while as they thought best. But
God disciplines us for our good that we may share
in holiness. And so once you trust, he wants
your best. You can trust his direction. And once
you trust his direction, now you are truly open
to correction. Now you have a teachable spirit.
Have you ever tried to teach somebody that doesn't
have a teachable spirit? Oh, she's here. I'm
going to use her as an example. Chris Northrup
down here. I tell this story a lot, Chris. Steve
and Chris are from our church in Galesburg. And
I have said, I can teach anybody to knit. Anybody.
I have taught so many people to knit. I can teach
anybody to knit. And then I would try to teach
Chris. And I will tell you, she's been the only
person I have failed to teach to knit. And do
you know why? I don't know if you remember this,
Chris. The whole time she kept saying, I just
can't do this. I just can't do this. The whole
time she was repeating, I just can't do this.
Finally, I was like, no, you can't. Do you know
why? Because she was... She was determined. She
couldn't do this. Listen, there are things in
your life that you think because of your past,
because of your family, because of this or what
you've done or before Jesus, the things that
you did, that you can't do what God wants you
to do. You can't live in accordance with his
ways. And I'll tell you, it's just not true.
If you will be open, we're going to have to have
another knitting lesson, Chris. I'm determined
now. We're going to change the narrative that
you declare while we're doing that. Once you,
it is that open, teachable spirit that is what
gives you the ability to be empowered by and
guided by the direction of God. It's being teachable.
And so the correction of God that we find. Here
in verse 7 of 2 Samuel, Nathan had said to David,
remember, you are that man. And God began to
then do what? Rebuke him. He began to, in fact,
down in verse 12, God said to him, you did it
in secret, your sin. This is why I'm always on
about making the secret place beautiful. Because
you win it in the secret place. You did it in
secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight
before all of Israel. He was going to rebuke
and correct David. I love, though, David's immediate
response. Because, see, David messed up a lot,
but David did have a heart for God, and he was
teachable, and he said, I have sinned against
the Lord. And what you need to hear and be encouraged
by is Nathan's response. Immediately, he says,
the Lord has taken away your sin. You are not
going to die. Immediately, the mercy of the Lord
was showered down upon David on his confession.
Now he said, but because by doing this you have
shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born
to you out of this sin will die. Now a couple
of things in that. First of all, we said it,
the secret place matters. The second thing we
see here, and this might feel harsh to you, is
that God was going to expose it in public. And
there's just a couple of things I want us to
be mindful in this verse. First of all, David
was a king. And when you are king, you have greater
responsibility. You live in public. And so he
was going to be exposed in public. I feel that
as I minister the word publicly. I am going to
have a greater accountability for what I say
and how I live because I have a public place
here doing that. And so we need to take that
in mind, that David was in that public office
of being king. We see that across the board with
the ministers that have been taken out of ministry
in the last year across the nation. And it happens
very publicly. Why? Because they are... people
in the public face, right? And so they can't
just repent and it all just be okay. No, they
had to be removed from that place. So we take
that into consideration. The other thing that
I find fascinating in this is that David's life
has always been a foreshadow of the Messiah.
How he did worship, how he led, even his heart
of worship. He had revelation in the old covenant
that nobody else had of what the new covenant
was going to be. So David is always, his life,
his kingdom, his reign has been a foreshadow,
right? Jesus came from the lineage of David.
And I think that this is a beautiful foreshadow
that all of our sin in the secret places, Jesus.
publicly took on the cross. All of our sin and
shame was exposed there on the cross. He didn't
do it in the secret room in the back, take our
sin. No, he did it on the cross in front of everybody.
Now, having said all of that, I believe in the
kindness of our Father, of God. And I believe
that, like any good parent, that he brings us
along in the easiest way that we will come. And
some of us are very quick to respond when he
brings that correction. Yes, Lord, I have sinned.
And it's dealt with. Some of us have to learn
our lessons a little bit harder. Some of us are
a little more teachable than others. And so it's
however we learn to respond to the Father. I
believe he is not a God of humiliation, that
he is not trying to deal with your stuff in front
of everybody. It's the beauty of the secret place.
And so just as in raising my four kids, they
got a lot of correction, right? I did not correct
them in front of other people. I was not wanting
to humiliate my children in front of other people.
That was the place of the secret place of their
home. And I believe that's the heart of our Father.
He's always, he's not the God of humiliation.
Jesus took that humiliation. And so this is part
of the ability to trust his correction and guidance.
That he's always trying to cover you. He's always
trying to do it in the easiest way possible.
And he's always trying to do it in a place where
you will feel safe and secure in receiving it.
Amen? And so I just feel like we need to say
that. That if we think that, oh, he's going to
be like he was with David in front of everybody,
expose my stuff. That's not the heart of our
Father. Okay, and so it does say though in Hebrews
12, and I want to throw this in again because
we're not just talking about sin. We're using
that example of King David, but it said in verse
7 to endure hardship as discipline. God is treating
you as children. And so your hardship, am I saying
your hardship is a result of sin? I am not. I'm
saying that hardship, if we will trust that he
will use all things for our good, I'm saying
hardship will train us for what is to come. Hardship
will teach us what it is to not live as a servant,
but to live as a son and a daughter of a most
high God. When I am in the places of hardship,
I will tell you, I understand that we said it
last week, an enemy that is out to steal, kill,
and destroy you. And when I'm talking to the
enemy, I'm always rebuking and resisting. But
when I'm turned toward the Father, I am embracing
the hardship as the way that the Lord is teaching
me and training me, disciplining me. Because
in Hebrews 12, 11, later on in that passage,
it says that later, once you have endured, later.
And if you remember, we used that word endure
when we talked about running our races, didn't
we? That was a key word we saw, endure, endure,
endure. It's the theme word for those Hebrews
10 through 12, endure, endure, endure. When we
endure, we will see then the harvest of righteousness
and peace is a promise for us. And so we go through
all that hard stuff, and it's not fun. Did any
of us as kids enjoy being disciplined? No, we
didn't. You're like, yeah, I'm getting a spanking
today. No, we didn't. And I've always been such
a one that wants to receive affirmation from
my leadership because I want to please them.
Even to think that, oh man, they're upset with
me. It's hard. It's hard. We have to endure it.
But let's just walk through the aftermath, can
we? Once we have endured it, let's look at the
beauty of the aftermath. Once David had gone
through the rebuke of the Lord, And his child
had died. Here's what it says in verse 20. Then
David got up from the ground, because he had
been in a place of grief, a heap of ashes, praying
for his son. After he got up from the ground,
After he had washed, put on lotions, and changed
his clothes. What was he doing? He's saying,
that isn't my identity anymore. I'm not in the
place of grieving and mourning anymore. It says
he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped.
He went into the house of the Lord and worshipped.
Then he went to his own house, and at his request
they served him food, and he ate. What David
didn't do in the face of all of the direction
of the Lord, all of that, he did not wallow in
shame. He did not wallow in regret. He did not
wallow in sorrow. He began to worship. He began
to worship. I think he learned his lesson well,
didn't he, in that moment. And so in Hebrews
12, verse 12, at the end of our passage there
on the correction of the Lord, it says, Therefore,
now that you have endured the correction, now
that you've endured the hardship, therefore,
strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. He's
acknowledging that at the end, you're not going
to feel all strong and glorious and ready to
go forward in victory. No, you're going to feel
weak. You're going to feel all of that lack of
strength. And we think there's something wrong
with our season because we feel weak, because
we don't feel victorious. Can I just say, just
maybe God is wanting to do a work of correction
and training. And at the end of it, you will
strengthen. your feeble arms and weak knees.
You will make level paths for your feet so that
the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
He is not wanting you to go forever disabled.
If you're going from that place of correction
disabled, then you're missing something in the
process. You're missing the healing. Because
he always heals and restores. He always heals
and restores. And so I'm going to ask if the
worship team would come up. There was a time
frame when David first had committed his adultery
and murder. Nathan didn't come to David until
the baby had, she had gone through nine months
of pregnancy. So David had gone through a long
season of thinking he's doing okay. And when
it says that He got up and he changed his clothes
and he went into the house of the Lord to worship.
Do you know what I think that he wrote? Do you
know what song I think he wrote when he went
and worshiped? I think that's where we had Psalm
51 come out of. I think that's where, I think
it was in that moment. Where he had gotten up
and he had gone into the house to worship. I
think that's when he wrote Psalm 51. And we're
not going to read all of Psalm 51. But I do want
to read probably the passage we are most familiar
with. And this would be a great one for you just
to meditate on this week. Because when he's writing
Psalm 51, he's talking about even emotionally.
His nine -month season where he doesn't, because
when it says, it says, restore to me the joy
of my salvation. Well, what does that say to
me? During that season, he didn't have the joy
of salvation, right? And so I think it was a
quiet season. I think it was a season where he
didn't feel connected to God. I think it was
a season where probably his worship songs were
not flowing out of him. I have a feeling Psalm
51 may have been one of the first he had written
in a long time. But he writes in Psalm 51 in
this prayer of repentance. Purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be
whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness.
That the bones you have broken may rejoice. That's
the heart of the shepherd. That sometimes disables
sheep because they will not stay with the shepherd.
And it's an act of mercy and kindness. That the
bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your
face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew
a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me
away from your presence. And do not take your
Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of
your salvation. And uphold me by your generous
spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your
ways. and sinners shall be converted to you.
I think he wrote this when he went to the house
to worship. And he's being restored. What is
he doing? He's making the path straight for his
feet. He's saying, I'm not going to continue
on as king, disabled and broken. I'm going to
receive the joy of salvation again. I'm going
to be upheld by the generosity of the Spirit
of the living God. And some of you today, we're
all in different places. And listen, we're all
going to experience, because we're all sons and
daughters, the correction and discipline of the
Lord. And there's just something in us being
willing to embrace it. Can I just say, the more
we embrace and the more we... are teachable the
quicker quicker we get through our lessons right
and so this morning we're going to take a moment
as the team leads us in worship and we're just
going to make this a place of altar you can in
your seat or if you need to come to the altar
itself but can we just have a few moments where
we Come to God as our Father and say, Lord, maybe
you're not in that teachable place right now.
Maybe God's not doing that work in you now. I
guarantee you he will be because he's continually
wanting us to learn and to grow from glory to
glory to glory. And there's a process. And so
this morning I want us to just take a moment
before we leave to just say, yes, Lord. We sang
it today. When we sing things like, I want to
be tried by fire. It really feels like a fire.
He's not going to refine us while we're sitting
back eating chocolates and enjoying life. It
really feels like a fire. It really is painful.
It really is uncomfortable. And so we can sing,
oh, that's such a great song. I love to sing
that song. But as soon as he puts a fire under
us to reveal what's in us, like, oh, wait a minute,
where's the bucket of water? Holy Spirit, rain
down on me. I'd rather have the rain than the
fire. Can we just today, before we leave, take
a moment to embrace, Lord, we sang it. We sang,
I want to be tried by fire. But right now I'm
feeling the fire and I've been resisting. But
would you teach me your ways? Would you teach
me your direction? I open up my difficult places.
I open up the hardships. I open up my places
of grief and difficulty. I open up the season
where I can't really hear you. And I just invite
you in as my father to do in me what needs to
be done. Can we just take a moment to do that?
And so I want to just invite you to stand. And
the team is going to lead us. And you are welcome
to make where you're standing an altar. You're
welcome to come down to the front. Sometimes
we need to get away, even from our family members,
just to have one -on -one with God. But let's
make space for a few moments to just embrace
the work that the Father wants to do in us.