Proverbs chapter 3, we're going to look at two
more verses today. Proverbs chapter 3, verses
11 and 12. That's going to be in the Old Testament,
kind of close to the middle of your Bible. If
you can find Psalms right there in the middle,
Proverbs is going to be pretty close nearby.
If you just keep turning. I would encourage you
to read through the Proverbs. A lot of good instruction,
a lot of good wisdom. In this particular part
of the Proverb, Solomon is writing to his son,
giving his son instruction. That's so important
for those of you who are parents and grandparents
to instruct your children and guide your children
and let your children know right from wrong.
Try to put them on the right path because somebody
in this world and this life is going to be guiding
your children. And it'd be far better if it were
you than allowing somebody else to do it. And
so it's good for us to give instruction to our
children and to our grandchildren. And that's
what we see here in this Proverbs. Proverbs chapter
3, verses 11 and 12. We'll read these two verses,
then we'll pray. Do not despise the Lord's instruction,
my son. And do not loathe his discipline, for
the Lord disciplines the one he loves. Just as
a father, the son, he delights in. Let's pray.
God, we come to you. We thank you for these good
words. I pray that you would help us to focus
on you today. There are a lot of stresses and
worries and stuff that compete for our attention
and maybe even some good things, dear Lord, that
are competing for our attention today. But I
pray in these few moments that your Holy Spirit
would be in this place, that you would hide me
behind the cross, that I would preach and teach
in a way that brings glory and honor to you.
Dear Lord, I pray that you would help us to pay
attention when perhaps you're trying to get our
attention, dear Lord. God, you give us instruction
not to keep us from having any fun, but dear
Lord, so oftentimes the things that seem fun
to us are not good for us. So let us know, God,
let us know today that you love us and what you
command us to is because you love us. So let
us seek to follow your commands and live in obedience
to them. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. Has anybody in here ever got a whooping
before, a paddling? Has anybody in here ever
got, I see some hands going up. I suspect that
some of us have. I don't know that that's even
a thing in schools these days. When I was in
school, you could get a paddle, and I don't expect
you can get a paddle in these days. You did something
wrong, and it wasn't any issue. Parents had told
the school or the principal, hey, if he does
something that's wrong, and you tear him up.
And sure enough, your parents would find out
before you got home, and you'd get two whippings.
Because you'd get a whipping at school and you'd
get a whipping at home. And for some young folks
today, maybe even some in here, I don't know,
that's all like foreign language. They don't
even have a clue what I'm talking about. But
there was discipline that took place. And I think
that that's a good thing. I think that the Scripture
says that that's a good thing. We see Scriptures
that speak of that in Proverbs 22, verse 15.
Foolishness is tangled up in the heart of a youth.
The rod of discipline will drive it away from
him. In Proverbs 13, 24, the one who will not
use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves
him disciplines him diligently. Now these are
not very popular verses in our world today. There
was a time in our culture that physical discipline
was accepted, but nowadays it's sometimes referred
to as discipline. child abuse. And there is a
lack of discipline, I believe, sometimes in our
world today. And I don't think that that's a
good thing. We kind of tend to shy away from
discipline or attempt discipline in a different
way, perhaps. Used to, when I was young, it was,
if you did good, then nothing would happen. But
if you did bad, you were going to be disciplined.
Now, The code for me when I was a kid was, do
we need to go to the bathroom? If I was somewhere
and I was misbehaving, which was very rare because
I was a pretty good child, my dad would look
at me and say, do you need to go to the bathroom?
Now, I knew what was going to happen when I went
to the bathroom. And there were a few times that
I had to get disciplined, that I got a whipping,
that I got a spanking with the belt. Now, it
wasn't abusive. It didn't cause any problem.
It was done out of love, but nevertheless, I
didn't like it. And we don't really see that
these days. It was, you go and you do good, you
say yes sir and no sir and yes ma 'am and no
ma 'am, and everything would be fine. But if
you didn't do good, you got disciplined. Well,
now we see kind of a different shift in our world.
For better or for worse, you can decide. Nowadays,
it's, well, we're not going to discipline a child
for doing wrong. We just ignore them when they
do wrong. but we reward them when they do good.
That's a whole different type of mindset. So
just don't acknowledge the wrong and reward the
good, and that will teach kids to do good all
the time. And I don't know that that's a good
concept. I don't think the Scripture teaches
that. Now, there are a lot of people today that
say, well, we discipline our children, but we
don't discipline them physically. So be it. We
still have these scriptures you have to do something
with. You, as a parent, I'm not a parent, but
as a parent, we have to read these scriptures
and we have to say, well, these are command of
God, so we have to do something with them. If
some physical discipline was good when God had
these words penned, then perhaps there is some
good in it today. But as a society, as children,
as adults, discipline helps us to respect authority.
And I believe that that's a big problem in our
world today. I think when I look around, I see
a lot of people that don't respect authority.
And perhaps that stems from a lack of discipline.
That when children were growing up, that they
didn't receive any discipline. That they did
what was good and they got something for it and
then they get into the real world and somebody
does discipline them and say you're wrong and
they don't know what to do. They say, but I do
good. You should give me something for that.
No, we do good just because it's the right thing
to do. But in our world today, we don't see as
much discipline perhaps as we should. And I think
part of a result of that is there's a lack of
authority. We don't respect that authority anymore.
And when people do show authority, we have a
hard time submitting to that. And so this sermon
is not necessarily about how you discipline your
kids, but that does have an effect in how we
turn out in life. Because I think that that discipline
that we experience as a young person helps us
to begin to respect our parents. And even more
so, that carries over into our respect for God.
That in that discipline, that that teaches us
that there is a higher authority. That there
is one that we answer to. That there is a right
and a wrong. That wrong is punished. That sometimes
good is rewarded. But our motivation to do good
should not just be that, man, if I'm good this
week, I'm going to get a new Lego set. That shouldn't
just be our... Our motivation to do good shouldn't
just be, what are we going to get from it? Our
motivation to do good is... God is the creator
of the heavens and the earth. He is the authority,
and he gives us instructions and commands that
are for our good and for our well -being. And
if we follow those things, blessings will occur,
maybe not physically or financially, but just
knowing we've made the right decision. Man, that
feels good to know that you've done what's right.
It's a certain sense of peace that comes along
with that. And so we see... Passages like these
in the scripture. It talks about discipline.
It talks about the Lord's discipline. Did anybody
in here ever, when they were young, enjoy, those
of you who have gotten one, enjoy getting a whipping?
Did anybody ever enjoy that? Don't think so.
Praise the Lord. I didn't see any hands go up.
Now, some of you got a lot of whippings, but
we never enjoyed it. Let me ask you another question.
For those of you who were on the giving end as
parents whipping your children, did you ever
enjoy it and just long and say, man, I hope my
boy messes up at school today. I can't wait to
get to bed. Did any of you parents ever do that?
Praise the Lord, there's no hands. So nobody
likes to receive discipline. And I'm not a parent,
but I got a little puppy. And when she was young,
she was bad. And now she's really bad. And it
might be because we didn't discipline her enough.
Because it's hard. We did discipline her some.
We tried to at least. But it's hard, right? You
see this life form that you love and like all
you want more than anything, I'm guessing, I'm
speaking, you can correct me. I say this a lot
when I'm talking about parenting because I don't
know. But I imagine that probably what you want
more than anything in this world is for your
children not to suffer. You want to try to take
all suffering out of their life. You want them
to avoid suffering at all costs, and especially
at your hands. And so discipline is hard. It's
a hard thing that we don't like to receive and
that we don't like to give, but as hard as it
may be, it's necessary. It's necessary, and I
think God's Word is pretty clear on that in a
physical sense as to how we raise our children.
And I think God's word is clear on that in our
relationship with God. And that's what this verse
says. Do not despise the Lord's instruction.
Okay, what is instruction? Instruction is do
this or don't do this. Now, what is instruction
for? Well, here's what happened. One day, years
ago, there was a group of parents and they got
together. And they said, we have kids coming
up, and we don't want them to have any fun whatsoever.
So we are going to make rules that we are going
to tell our kids that they cannot stay up late,
that they cannot eat sweets all the time, that
they cannot jump off the roof onto the trampoline.
Anything that looks fun, we're going to ban it.
And we are going to call each other at night
when they go to bed early, and we're going to
say, can you believe how much fun we have kept
them from? That's not what happened. That's not
why parents give instructions. It seems like
that as a kid. Oh, my parents don't want me to
do that fun. All my other friends get to do this.
Jimmy's dad lets him jump off the roof on the
trampoline. We say this kind of stuff, right?
And as kids, we just think our parents, they
must just not want us to have fun. But that's
not the truth. Now, why might your parents say
don't jump off the roof on the trampoline? Well,
you might kill your fool self. You might fall
off and trip and hit your head. The trampoline
might bust. You go to the ground. You might hit
the trampoline and bounce up to the moon. You
don't know where you're going to go. Now your
parents are pretty wise and they know that it's
not good to do that because they did that when
they were a kid and they busted their head open.
When I was young, some of you kids and adults
too may have got this instruction. Don't jump
on the bed. Well, jumping on the bed is pretty
fun. It's cushy. It's springy. What could possibly
happen? I was jumping on the bed one day just
having a big time. You know what happened? I
got too close. I fell off the edge of the bed,
hit the corner of the dresser, busted my head
open. There's a scar there today probably still.
You can see it. Now, why did my parents tell
me not to jump on the bed? Because they knew
that something like that could happen. And so
the instructions that we get from our parents,
we may not understand it, we may not like it,
but there's a good chance that the reason why
our parents are telling us not to do some of
the things they tell us not to do or to do some
of the things they tell us to do is because they
want what's best for us. They want to eliminate
as much suffering in our life as they can. And
the same is true for God. Now, we read God's
word and, man, our human natural tendencies are
to want to do some things that feel good and
that seem good and that don't seem like they
have any negative impact on us. But what the
Lord knows is that there are some things that
are not good for us. We see that throughout the
Old Testament. God gives us all kind of commands.
Hey, don't do this and don't do that and don't
do this. And these things we say, well, maybe
it's okay if we do a little bit of this and a
little bit of that. But God's instructions are
good. And he gives us these instructions because
they are good for us. So what's the instruction
that Solomon gives to his son here? He says,
don't despise the Lord's instruction. The Lord's
instruction is scripture. You say, what is the
Lord's instruction? It's the Bible. We have to
read the Bible. We have to read and say, okay,
what is God instructing us to do? How does God
want us to live? What are some things we need
to be careful about? What are some things we
need to stay away from? And if the Lord's given
us that instruction, then we need to try to follow
that instruction. Do not despise the Lord's instruction,
my son, and do not loathe his discipline. Now,
none of us like to be disciplined. When we're
younger, we probably don't even like it much.
When we're older, in whatever form, shape or
form that discipline takes, we don't like that.
Maybe when we were younger and we got a whipping
from our parents, we thought, man, I can't believe
my dad did that or my mom did that. We don't
like that because we don't understand that. We
can't comprehend as a child, as we grow into
adults, especially as we grow into parents. Maybe
we begin to understand that a lot more. I didn't
care for a weapon when I was a kid. But now that
I'm 42, I think, man, I probably should have
got a lot more weapons than I got. It probably
would have been better for me. There were a lot
of things that my parents let me get away with
that they shouldn't have let me get away with.
Things that probably would have helped shape
me to make better decisions and do better things.
And I didn't understand that as a child, but
I understand that. the more I grow into an adult.
And we don't like discipline. And I guess that's
why this has to be stated to us here. Don't loathe
the Lord's discipline. The Lord is disciplining
us for a reason. What does it say? For the Lord
disciplines the one he loves just as a father
the son he delights in. Now that seems contradictory.
I love you, therefore I'm going to whip you.
Your parents might say something like this. This
hurts me more than it hurts you. Oh, really?
You're the one that's got the belt. How is this
hurting you? And you say those things as a parent,
and it's true. It does hurt you more than it
hurts the child. What does the Lord say? The
Lord disciplines the one he loves. Now, do you
love your child? Well, hopefully you love your
child. Do you want your child to be a productive
citizen? Do you want your child to be safe? Do
you want your child to make good decisions? Well,
that comes about by disciplining them in some
way, shape, or form. Maybe you say, I'm not using
physical discipline. So be it. That's between
you and the Lord. But there has to be some discipline
that takes place. Because if there is not, It's
trouble. If a child grows up and gets everything
they want and gets to do everything that they
want, and I would imagine, I'm not a parent,
I would imagine that the temptation to try to
give your kid everything that they want and to
take all suffering out of their life, I would
imagine that temptation is super strong. But
that comes with some very bad consequences. Because
if a child doesn't learn discipline, doesn't
learn correction, doesn't learn right from wrong,
and always gets what they want when they're young,
guess what? One day they're going to be 40 years
old, and they're going to be pouting, and they're
going to be whining, and they're going to act
just like they did when they were 8 years old.
Because what they have learned is if this is
how I act, this is how I get what I want. Now,
discipline takes care of that. Train up a child
in the way he should go. When he is old, he will
not depart from it. Praise the Lord. That's good
if you're training up a child in good ways. But
I think it also is applicable if you train up
a child in bad ways. However you train up your
child, that's how he or she will be when she
gets older. Children don't just grow out of these
things most of the time. If they get away with
everything, if they have everything, and you've
tried to protect them from all suffering, then
all you are doing is preparing them for an even
greater suffering. And praise the Lord, He doesn't
do that for us. Now, we may look at God and say,
man, God's just a big meanie. He don't want us
to do anything good. Okay, maybe that's true.
Or maybe God only wants what is good for us.
That's what Scripture says. God only wants what
is good for you. So God has a way of getting
our attention. Now, a good example of this, if
you've never read in the Bible the story of Jonah,
you can find that story, a real short book of
the Bible. Go read it. It's only four chapters.
It's a great little story. God called Jonah to
go preach in Nineveh, and Jonah said, not going
to do it. Not going to do it. I'm going to get
in the boat, and I'm going to go the other way.
away. And guess what God did? God disciplined
him. God says, here's what you should do. Here's
what I've called you to do. You've chosen to
not listen to me. And so therefore, I'm going
to make things hard on you so that I can get
your attention so that you'll do what's right.
So he's out of the boat. Storm comes through.
Nobody can figure out what's going on. Jonah
says, it's me. It's me. I know why these things
are happening. I've been disobedient to the Lord.
Throw me overboard. He gets ate by a big fish.
He's in the belly of this big fish. And he says,
God, a beautiful prayer. In Jonah chapter 2,
he says, look, God, I need you. I have done wrong.
God, help me. Beautiful prayer. It's a good example
of what it means to... experience the Lord's
discipline. And maybe there are some things in
our life that have happened or happening right
now or will happen in which the Lord's trying
to get our attention. Some consequences to the
bad decisions that we make that God says, okay,
I don't want you to have to go through hard times,
but I want to get your attention. So that you'll
do what's right. We see that time and again in
the Old Testament. God gave his people all kind
of good instructions to keep them safe and healthy.
And man, they would just blow through the stop
sign and just go do what they wanted to do. And
God would, he'd turn them over to their enemies.
He would allow them to go through hard times.
Why? So that he'd get their attention. He didn't
just bless them in their evil. He didn't just
bless them in their sinfulness and say, ah, those
Israelites, those kids of mine, kids will be
kids. He didn't just turn a blind eye to it.
He said, look, if they continue doing these things,
it's unhealthy for them. They'll die apart from
me. They'll get into all kind of evil. There
will be all kind of horrible junk in their life.
And so he says, I must crack the whip and get
their attention. And he'd allow them to go through
some hard times. And guess what they'd do? They'd
say, oh, Lord, we are sorry. We've done wrong.
We'll never do this again. God, just help us.
And God, being a good father, he'd help them,
and they'd mess up again, and he'd have to discipline
them. Not so unlike you and I. That's what this
example is. That's the example of the comparison
that's being made. Hey, don't loathe the Lord's
discipline because he's just like a father disciplining
a son. He doesn't do it because he hates you.
He does it because he loves you. And he wants
you to grow into a strong man, into a strong
woman that knows right from wrong, that respects
authority, that respects God, that seeks God
before we make a decision. And so we see plenty
of examples in the scripture of God disciplining
his people. And the scripture says that God disciplines
those he loves. In Hebrews chapter 12, verse
11, it says this, No discipline seems enjoyable
at the time, but painful. Later on, however,
it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness
to those who have been trained by it. Now, when
we make boneheaded decisions, and we're going
through hard times as a result of those decisions,
maybe we should pause for a moment. and say,
God, maybe you're trying to get my attention.
Now, I'm not suggesting that every bad thing
that happens to you is God getting on to you.
I'm not suggesting that at all. Sometimes life
just happens. Sometimes bad things happen. I'm
not saying that everything you do is because
of the Lord, but I believe, I believe that in
our heart, we kind of know when we do wrong.
I think our conscious convicts us of that. And
sometimes maybe there are things that we do and
And maybe the thought that comes to our heart
and mind is, maybe the Lord's trying to get my
attention. I remember when I was a kid, I'll
never forget this. This is such a simple story
and not much to it, but I still remember it for
whatever reason. When I was in elementary school,
one of my friends, he said something to me, called
me a name or something. I don't even remember.
I don't even remember what he said, and I didn't
even think anything of it at the time. But after
recess was over, I was at the water fountain
getting a drink of water. And he come up to me
and he said, he had skinned his arm or scraped
his arm or something. It wasn't nothing serious.
And he said, I want to apologize to you. He said,
because I got hurt today and I think it's because
I called you that name. Now, whether or not that
was God getting on to him or not, I don't know
if that was the Lord's discipline. But in his
heart, he associated those two things. In his
heart, that action, that consequence, that pain
that occurred. And that triggered something in
his heart that said, wait a minute, I did something
I should not have done. And this thing that's
happened to me has helped me to see that. I don't
know if that was the Lord or not, but I believe
that the same thing happens in our life. I believe
that there are times that we do wrong and we
know we're doing wrong. We need to read God's
word to know what he calls us to. There are times
that we do wrong and something happens and maybe
that's the first thought to our mind. Maybe the
Lord's trying to get my attention. Okay, well
that's a good place to be. That's a good place
to be. Because if we get there, we need to remember
this passage. God disciplines the one he loves.
That's good. We don't like discipline, but when
you are disciplined, you know you are loved.
I think even kids... like discipline in some
way. Some of you may have experienced this before.
There are some kids that don't ever receive any
discipline, any instruction, any encouragement.
Those of you who teach kids or have dealt with
kids in any way, maybe you've seen this. They've
never had anybody to get on to them and say,
that's wrong and I expect better of you. You're
better than that. That's not good. They've never
had anybody say that to them. And they just run
around doing all kinds of bad stuff because they've
never been disciplined. They don't have any respect
for anybody. But you may be surprised that when
you set a kid down and you say, I'm disappointed
in you, that's not right. And we don't do that.
And you give them some form of discipline. I'm
not saying it has to be physical, but you kind
of hold their feet to the fire. You might be
surprised that that child doesn't hate you more.
that that child may have a much greater respect
for you than they have for any other adult in
their life because nobody else has ever loved
them enough to say that's wrong and you're better
than that. I think kids need discipline. I think
we need discipline. We need God to show us his
word and to call us out and say, look, I know
that temptation to sin and do wrong is strong,
but I want better for you. I want you to receive
my blessing. You keep living in sin and doing
this junk. The consequences you're going to experience
are going to be full of pain and heartache, and
I don't want you to have that. And so therefore,
I'm going to shake you up a little bit. I'm going
to let you go through some hard times in hopes
that you would seek me and come back to me. That's
what God wants, is for us to seek him and to
come back to him and to live by his commands.
So maybe today you're experiencing some discipline
in your life. Maybe God wants us to examine how
we discipline our children or our grandchildren
to help teach them that there is a right or a
wrong. To help teach them that there is one that
we need to respect. And that one that we need
to respect is God. And if a child won't respect
their parents, then it's unlikely that they will
respect God. And so these words are good for
us. They're a good reminder for us. No one likes
discipline. No one likes pain. And I don't think
there are many people, except for some really
evil people, who like doling it out. And I certainly
don't believe that God finds any enjoyment in
disciplining us, but he does it because he loves
us. God so loved the world, he gave his only
begotten son. That's love. There is no greater
love than this, the scripture says, that a man
would lay down his life for others. The greatest
discipline that we see in scripture that should
have been reserved for us was poured out on Jesus
Christ, that he suffered and bled and died, that
he was nailed to a cross so that our sins could
be forgiven. That's love right there. That God
would sacrifice his only son? And you want to
say, God, you're being a meanie because I'm having
to suffer? No. Jesus knows what it means to suffer
and die. The Lord knows what it means to sacrifice
his only son. That's a God who loves you. And
if a God loves you that much, that he would send
his only son to die for you, then maybe he's
a God we need to listen to. Maybe if we don't
read his word, we need to say, okay, God, if
you love me that much, I want to hear what you
have to say. God, I want to try to live by it.
So maybe today we feel the Holy Spirit working
on us. Maybe today the Lord has disciplined us
in some way. Maybe this week we've had that conviction
that there's been some stuff that's just not
good, not right, that we've been doing. And we
need to stop doing that. If the Lord has been
disciplined in you, then rejoice in him today
because you can know that he loves you. Listen
to his discipline. Repent of your sinfulness.
Turn from your evil ways. Know that he has your
best interest in heart. Turn to Jesus Christ.
Know that your sin can be forgiven and you'll
find the peace and the love of God. Let's pray.
God, we come to you. We thank you for this truth.
Dear Lord, these words are kind of hard to think
about and comprehend and wrap our heads around,
dear Lord. We talk about discipline and what
your commands are and discipline our children
and what that looks like and how that works,
dear Lord. I pray that you would just guide all
of these parents and grandparents to let them
know what that needs to look like and how that
needs to take place, dear Lord, but that we can
learn to discipline as hard as it is. It's not
a bad thing. But it's a necessity, dear Lord.
If we love our children, we cannot allow them
to do things that are dangerous, that are not
good for them, dear Lord. And if we're a parent
that lets our kids do anything, dear Lord, we
really have to look at our life, dear Lord. So
I pray that you would help us to be those who
would love and care for our children and discipline
them in the ways that are necessary, God. I pray,
God, that we would see that connection. between
this and between your love for us, dear Lord.
God, you wouldn't be a very good God if you just
let us get away with everything and let us do
whatever we wanted to do. God, you know that's
not healthy for us. And so we thank you for loving
us enough to give us instruction. And most importantly,
we thank you for loving us enough to give us
Jesus Christ, that our sins may be forgiven.
So dear Lord, maybe there are some today that...
or parents or children that struggle with discipline,
that you would just help them to see love in
that. God, maybe there are some today that they
just feel the conviction. They know that there's
some stuff that is in their life that shouldn't
be going on. Maybe some of the situations they're
in now are a result of just not making good decisions,
not being obedient, not doing what you say, dear
Lord. When we are disobedient to you, we find
ourselves in a mess. And you could keep us from
those messes, but dear Lord, you allow us to
suffer sometimes, to discipline us, to get our
attention. So God, I pray that if there's one
like Jonah today, maybe they've been disobedient
and run from you in a lot of ways, and maybe
today they're just in the mess that they're in,
I pray that like Jonah, they'd call out to you,
that they would seek you, that they would repent,
that they would turn to you, that they would
turn to Jesus Christ to know that their sins
can be forgiven. That they would experience that
love and discipline, dear Lord. That when they
come and submit to you, dear Lord, that they
would experience the peace that comes from that.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.