Our Scripture reading is Hebrews 12/3 through 13.
For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners
against himself, so that you won't grow weary and give up and
struggling against sin. You have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding your blood, and you have forgotten the
exhortation that addresses you as sons.
My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly, or lose
heart when you are reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son
he receives. Endure suffering as discipline.
God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a
father does not discipline? But if you are without
discipline, which all receive, then you are illegitimate
children and not sons. Furthermore, we had human
fathers discipline us and we respected them.
Shouldn't we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live
for they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed
good to them, but He does it for our benefits so that we can
share His Holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at
the time, but painful later on. However, it yields the peaceful
fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and
make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may
not be dislocated but healed instead.
This is the word of the Lord. Jess stole my opening question.
How many of you started school this week?
Raise your hand, teacher or student?
How many of Y'all started school this week?
All right, cool. How many of you are excited that
school is back in session? Even parents, Some of you guys.
Yes. Yay, nay okay.
How many? Y'all are like bummed out that
school is back? Yeah, some of y'all.
All right, cool. So everything in between, right?
Decatur City Schools is back in session this week.
And so as we did every year, we got our kids ready for the first
day of school with all their new gear and backpacks and school
supplies. And what was unique about this
year as we got to drop all four kids off at the same building.
So we have two years of that. All that Julie Harris
Elementary. And so we're going to appreciate
that. But that is something that it's
just that time of year we're all thinking about.
And if you have kids in here, regardless of your choice of
education for them, whether that be private school, public
school, home school, whatever. Your goal for them and your hope
for them as we enter this fall semester and every year, is that
they continue to grow and be learned and trained and
instructed about certain things. We understand that normal part
of growth for a person requires a form of instruction and
discipline. And this is true for anyone,
right? Not just students, whether it be
in your career, whether it be in your college classes or in
something like your sports that you do.
We understand that any growth requires instruction and
discipline and that sometimes receiving this instruction and
discipline is hard work. But any good teacher or coach or
boss, if they can see the big picture, they are willing to
allow others, those that they are leading to experience
seemingly painful struggles, even sometimes maybe
intentionally, putting people in those struggles for the purpose
of joy and growth in the long run.
In our text today that you just heard, read, The preacher of
Hebrews will encourage us to consider what it means to be
instructed by God. And the beauty of this is, it's
not just God as a teacher or a coach for a semester or a
season, but rather for your entire life and eternity as a
good father who always has our best interest.
And because of this, our call is to simply respond in simple
obedience, to leave the results up to God and trust that His
instruction, His discipline, as it's interpreted in this
translation, is what leads us to life.
And joy. And that is what our text is
about this morning. So good morning again, church.
It is a joy to gather with you all.
If I'm not had the chance to meet you.
My name is Joel. I get to serve here at New Eden
Church, specifically, I get to serve as one of the elders and
one of the the pastor for preaching and oversight.
And so as always, it's just a joy to be with you guys this
morning and to gather, to be reminded of the good news of
Jesus and to just see what God is doing in our midst.
As you can see, we're jumping back into our series through
Hebrews. We kind of stayed in Hebrews
through the summer. But we spent time in Hebrews
Chapter 11, looking at different characters listed there.
And now we're going to continue working our way through the
book. And so we're in Hebrews chapter
12, verse three through 13, as you heard read.
You can follow along however you'd like.
There's Bibles around you on your phone, whatever.
We'll also have the verses on the screen when we go through
them. We're in the CSV version, if
you're interested in that. So let's see if you remember
since it's been a minute, I think six or seven weeks since
we've been in Hebrews. So the theme of the book is
what? Oh, that's so weak.
All right, let's try it again. The theme of the book is what?
See, I knew some of y'all snarky people are going to say Jesus is
greater. So yes, it's Jesus is better.
Or if you're snarky and you realize that this actually says
Jesus is greater, you can say that as well.
It means the same thing. So.
But it is true, right? It's what we've seen through the
entire book of Hebrews is that Jesus is better than the Old
Covenant and all that went along with it.
He's better than the angels. He's better than Moses.
He's better than the temple, better than the sacrifices.
Whatever it is, whatever you want to name Jesus is supreme
and superior. And so it's important for us to
remember that this was meant to be delivered as one sermon and
so as we go into our text today. Don't forget that this comes on
the heels of 11 chapters of exposition about the supremacy
of Christ as we are reminded and called to endure suffering.
Don't forget that this is not something we do in isolation or
in our own strength, but rather we endure by gazing deeply on
the one who first endured perfectly for us.
As we work our way through the passage, and as you heard it
read, you're going to hear the word discipline used quite a
bit. You're going to hear it
specifically in conjunction with the way that God relates to us
as sons and daughters. And so I want to kind of just
address this up front before we fully dive in that honestly,
this word might be better translated for us as education
or instruction. When we hear the word discipline
in our context, I mean, that's a faithful translation.
But when we hear it, we hear it as primarily punitive.
You did something wrong and then God is going to punish you, is
what we kind of hear. But in this case, and I'm, you
know, commentators are clear, the context is clear.
This specific instruction in Hebrews 12 is not a punishment
for past sins, but rather a training for future
participation. With Jesus and the glory that
awaits. And so this is an active
education and instruction, A discipline as a disciple.
And so I want to make that clear upfront.
Our big idea for the sermon today is this.
It's a little lengthy, but it's this right here.
Jesus endured in resisting sin to the point of bloodshed,
giving us the privilege of being educated as sons.
And daughters of God, Jesus endured in resisting sin to the
point of bloodshed, giving us the privilege of being educated
as sons and daughters of God. So let's read verse three and
four again. As we begin to unpack this text,
it says For consider him who endured such hostility from
sinners against himself, so that you won't grow weary and give up
in struggling against sin. You have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding your blood. So by calling his hears to
consider the endurance of Jesus, the preacher of Hebrews is
acknowledging a reality of the Christian life.
And it's this, the struggle is real, right?
Some of you guys might have said that when you were finishing up
your masters. Maybe if you were at RI.
Those three people, you know I'm talking about maybe as you were
just trying to get kids to go down for the night, right?
Maybe you're trying to get some certification for your job.
You're just like the struggle is real, right?
And here the preacher acknowledges that the struggle
against sin is real. He doesn't minimize it.
He is encouraging them to not grow weary or give up, which
means that he acknowledges there is a temptation to do so.
He acknowledges that a war is being waged.
There is a real temptation to give in to the pressures of this
age that seek to lure us in the enemy.
He knows how to talk to us. He knows what lies were most
susceptible to believe. He knows how to dress up the way
to death, to deceive us into thinking that it is the way to
life. And in the midst of this
struggle, we need to be strengthened by God.
We need to be reminded and given eyes to see when the enemy seeks
to lie to us. The enemy needs to be exposed
for who he is. On the way to school this week,
some conversation in our car came up that caused my 7 year
old daughter, Everly to inquire of me about Satan's appearance.
She wanted to know what what does Satan look like?
And I told her I was like, well, we we don't know exactly, like
we don't have a picture. But we do know that sometimes he
dresses up real nice to look like this beautiful Angel of
light just to trick people. And like she got this look on
her face like jaw dropped, eyes rolling in disgust and
disbelief. She could not believe the
audacity. That the devil would dress up as
an Angel of light and like as she gets older.
I I want me, I want her, I want us to be able to have the eyes
to see when the enemy is seeking to deceive us and to be
disgusted by that. To be sober minded.
The scriptures don't sugarcoat the struggle against sin.
First, Peter 5/8 and nine. Be sober minded.
This is a call to the church. Be alert.
Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring
lion looking for anyone he can devour.
Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of
sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers
throughout the world. I love how we're placed in this
like global context as we live in a local context.
And what's important to understand that not only is
there a struggle against sin and it's real that it's actually a
type of suffering. Peter labels it that Hebrews
talks about resisting sanity labels it as suffering.
This can include the temptation to give in to personal sin that
is attacking you and tempting you.
But it also and probably in Hebrews more is talking about.
Just the cultural pressures on the church, this tension that we
constantly live in, to give up on God, to reject Jesus, to walk
away so that things seemingly might be easier.
Because reality is you might have got sold a pipe dream that
if you follow Jesus, your life is just going to be go happy.
You're going to get the job you want, the money you want, the
house you want. That's not reality.
That's not the scriptures. Following Jesus is is not always
easy. The temptation is to adjust what
we believe to fit in the rooms we most want to be a part of.
And I don't know what rooms those are for you.
I don't know what political party that is for you.
I don't know what theological camp that is for you.
But there is a temptation, and you feel this tension a lot.
If you're following The ethics of God's Kingdom, maybe you're
at work with the group of men and you hear them either
objectifying or demeaning women. But we believe those lies as
well, begin to be sucked into that because it's humorous or we
want to be accepted by the group.
Maybe we we feel the temptation. This is one I I struggle with,
to believe the lies of the culture that says as a parent,
you bear the entire weight of your child's future on your
shoulders. So if you miss out on this or
that education opportunity, this or that sports opportunity, he's
going to be screwed. She's going to be screwed.
You're less than as a parent if you're not involved in this or
that. Maybe you sit under the
pressures of the world's expectation that says maybe
you're behind in life because you didn't get the degree when
when the world said you should have.
Or you didn't tie the knot. Or you didn't get the career in
the white picket fence, as if that's what life is about.
We feel those pressures and those are just a few examples.
I I don't know what it is for you, but if we live a life
through the lens of a Kingdom ethic, we will be living in a
state of of constant tension and pressure.
There will be no singular room we can fully fit into because
the only place that we will fully belong is being prepared
for us by Jesus. As CS Lewis said, if we're not
at home, maybe it's because we were made for another world.
And that constant tension and struggle is an actual form of
suffering. If you've lived it.
It's it's hard. We need to acknowledge that
following as a disciple of Jesus, submitting to his rule
the reign even when we don't fully understand trusting that
what you say leads to life. I'm following that.
It's literally in the scriptures referred to as suffering because
it is an attack on us. In fact, it's guaranteed for the
one who has given their life to Jesus.
Paul told Timothy and Second Timothy 2-3 that he was to share
in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
The next chapter he says, in fact, all who wants to live a
godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, not will be
blessed abundantly with earthly blessings, and a good father
will sometimes give us that. I'm not saying that we can't ask
for that and he will take care of his own, but persecution is
guaranteed. There are principalities and
powers at work seeking to come and destroy the good reign of
Jesus, both in our lives and in the world around us.
This is a reality. But he also offers them a bigger
perspective. Now, I don't know if you've ever
been in a situation where you're struggling with something as
someone's, like, you know, maybe you're hungry and someone's
like, well, imagine starving kids.
You know, wherever, right? You're like, shut up.
I don't want perspective right now, right?
But there is the reality of a perspective.
Even though their struggle is real, what he tells them is
you've not resisted to the point of shedding blood.
You have not had to face martyrdom.
And this is relevant for us. We should acknowledge that the
struggle is real, but let's let's put it in a perspective.
Sometimes I hear someone complain about their coworking
coworker cussing or something, and they're like, man, it's just
really hard. They cuss a lot at my job and
I'm like, OK. You know, or like man, I had to
talk to my kids about something they learn in school or I had to
sit through a presentation at work that I disagreed with.
And and again, I'm not saying that those constant pressures
like a constant drip, they they are real struggles.
We just talked about that. But but let's put things in a
perspective We have not yet resisted unto blood like in
Alabama following Jesus. Maybe we'll make you have to
have an awkward conversation if you speak up when someone's
talking about women in a certain way, right.
It's not going to cost you your life.
In Alabama, it's not even going to cost you your job.
And like, like sometimes you're worried about things happening
around the world or over even like in another state.
And like, maybe we're called to just have that awkward
conversation, right? Like in our context where you
attend church can actually be thrown on your teacher bio and
it's like, whoo social status points, that person goes to
church, they must be a better teacher, right?
As if that has something to do with it.
But, and yeah, anyways, I'm not going to.
Here's the point. As we face cultural pressures,
let's let's put it in perspective.
We have friends of ours who are heading to serve in places where
they could eventually be required to shed their blood as
they resist sin simply by sharing the good news of Jesus.
We just read in Hebrews about people who had been imprisoned,
beheaded, sawn and two for their faith, whipped, beaten, hanged.
And that still goes on today in many parts of the world.
And So what that does, it doesn't cause us to just demean.
Well, this isn't really a struggle.
Why are you getting upset about that?
What it does is it puts it in perspective and allows us to
lock arms with people around the world who are facing kinds of
suffering and it encourages us and spurs us on depressed on in
the midst of our culture pressures.
And to respond not in hate, not by waging cultural battles.
I got to win this. I got to go up and protest this,
but rather by loving our enemies.
That's what Jesus did on the cross when he was resisting sin.
He resisted sin by loving them. Steven being stoned, Father,
forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. Our battle is not against flesh
and blood, but principalities and powers of darkness in the
world around us. And so, yes, the struggle is.
Real But the question is, when we're faced with this struggle,
how will we respond? And verse five, he quotes from
Proverbs Chapter 3, and he addresses the two unhealthy
responses that we could have when we are faced with God's
instruction through the struggle and suffering in our life.
One response is to he says take it lightly, which means to
ignore it. I'm gonna ignore it.
No big deal. The other response is to lose
heart, to be crushed by it, to be so discouraged that we want
to just give up. When I coach sports, and if
you've you've taught kids at all, there's two responses that
take place that tell me immediately that the young man
or woman is probably going to lose out on an opportunity to
grow. And it's when they respond in
this way, neither ignore the instruction.
It's no big deal. Why do you tell me I got to run
past the line? It's just a foot.
It's no big deal, right? They ignore it.
They think it's pointless. Or maybe they think they know
better, or they get really down on themselves, right?
You get on to some kids. They're like, absolutely
crushed. Like, Oh my gosh, it's the end
of the world. Like I'm somehow attacking them
or I'm against them, right? And the preacher exhorts us to
avoid these two ditches, and instead to think soberly and
rightly about the struggles in her life and how God might be
using them to form and shape us into His image, because instead
of losing heart. The opposite effect can actually
happen, and it takes the very spirit of God on our lives.
But we can actually be encouraged if we get an insight
into what God is doing. Yes, the struggle is real, but
the struggle can also be encouraging, and this is what
the preacher continues to address.
He tells us that the struggle against sin, which he now begins
to talk about in the lens of suffering and discipline.
In verse seven, he tells us that it's there for our benefit to
instruct and train us. Now I want to be clear, Does
this mean that all suffering we face in life is because God just
has some specific lesson he's trying to teach us?
Some. Some of that can't happen, so.
So there's nothing wrong with asking that question.
But I've seen people get, as Kevin would say, wrapped around
the axle, axle, the phrase I've stolen from them.
Just trying to figure out like what is God teaching me in that
sometimes life sucks, sometimes the world's broken and sometimes
you just got a flat tire because you got a flat tire.
Right. Like in it and OK, like, it can
remind us that the world is broken, that come quickly,
Jesus, fix the mass. But it's not like he's
specifically like, well, you did this, and so let me teach you
this lesson. See, there are many forms of
suffering that the Christian faces, and we have to be careful
to not, like, put all suffering in the same category.
There are times where God will use things to kind of get our
attention. But but in this specific
instance, he's talking about just training and the suffering
that we face as pressures from the world.
See, the reason behind all suffering is not the same.
But by God's grace, we can be confident that the result of all
suffering is the same, which is our good and God's glory.
We can trust him with that. And so in this passage, as we
talk about the resistance against sin, the pressures we
face, the temptations we wage, war against, the attacks from
the enemy on ourselves or our friends or our family.
Our preacher is saying, hey, that suffering you're resisting.
The tension that you feel you live in, It is not meaningless.
It is a form of instruction, and it actually has eternal value.
It's this idea of a trainer putting an athlete through a
grueling workout so they can be more prepared on game day.
It is the picture of a teacher giving out homework or a pop
quiz so the student can be prepared for the upcoming test.
Every single bit of suffering in your life is promised to not be
wasted. And this specific type of
suffering is promised to train us and educate us for our
benefit so that we might be more like Christ, sharing in His
Holiness this, this progressive sanctification as we are
transformed from 1 degree of glory to another.
We say sin begins to fall off because we say our eyes have
been open. That is the way to death.
This is the way to life. It's not just like oh don't do
that. I really want to, but I can't.
But rather like no, that's death.
This is life, and we are formed and instructed as we endure and
trust God. It's what the Apostle Paul tells
us in his letter to Titus. He says for the grace of God has
appeared. What does it do?
It brings salvation for all people.
And what does it then do? It instructs us to deny
godlessness and worldly lust and to live.
Isn't this a beautiful life in a sensible, righteous and godly
way? In the present age, while we
wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our
great God and Savior Jesus Christ, He gave himself.
He sacrificed for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and it
cleanse for himself. Listen to this identity of
people for his own possession, eager, flowing from who we are
to do good works. So this struggle encourages us
because it trains us. It has value, but that's just a
piece of it. If that's all that was, we would
just get tired and burn out. I promise you, I've tried to
live where I'm just going to do big things for God.
The author of Hebrews gives a much greater reason, and what he
spends more time on is why our struggle can be encouraging, has
less to do with our activity and more to do with our identity, he
says. The reason we can be encouraged
in the midst of our struggle is that it is evidence that we are
God's sons and daughters. Culturally.
In the time this was written, fathers only took time to
educate their legitimate sons. They were the ones seen to have
value, to carry the family name, and so that's how it was done.
But what he does is he he's not. The preacher is not excusing
this practice, but he is using it as an example to make his
point. Because for a child to be
educated was a privilege that was only reserved for the men,
the boys of society and the legitimate boys, the ones that
the father wants to. And he says, under the gospel
ends, everyone through Christ has a privilege to be educated
as a son and as a daughter. You get that right For a child
not to be educated, not to be given the time and energy to to
just to be discipled and instructed and trained, which
takes a lot of work. That was evidence that they were
illegitimate. You could literally, in this
culture look at a kid and say we know he's not really his because
that father just kind of ignores them.
Maybe he was born by some slave or something like that.
And even today we understand this right?
It might not be that extreme, but I'm not going to get onto
your kid the same way I get on my own.
And if you get onto my kid the same way you get onto your own,
I'm going to be a little upset. Like let's be real.
The other day someone was running on their communion
table. One of our kids that just and
about, like, grabbed it was like, hey, and then I was like,
oh, that's not mine. All right, back up.
Hey, you wanna let's let's get away from that.
Right. Like, we recognize that because
I've I've earned the trust. And again this isn't excusing.
Like I there's times I have to apologize to my kids because
it's not. I'm not instructing them
rightly. I don't always have good
motives. But there should be a care and
sincerity and energy with which I instruct my own sons and
daughters. God has given them to me to do
that. And the author uses this earthly
example to remind us that the reason your your struggle and
your suffering can be encouraging is that it is
evidence you have a new identity.
Being educated by the Creator of the universe is a privilege, not
a negative thing. Through Christ you've received
the right to be heirs, sons and daughters of God, receiving all
the privileges therein, including the privilege of
learning obedience through suffering, like Christ did.
The privilege of being parented and instructed by a perfectly
good parent. Because when we talk about
discipline of parents, the reason sometimes we struggle
with this thought is because we might have had over, we might
have had the abuse of discipline, we might have had
parents that didn't do this right.
And he acknowledges this. He says earthly parents instruct
for a short time based on what seems good to them.
And sometimes what what seems good to a parent in the moment
is. You're getting on my nerves and
I'm just going to yell at you. But that's not necessarily good
for the child. But in Christ, through God the
Father, we are parented by a perfect parent for our benefit,
with perfect motives. He says, for your benefit so you
can share in my holiness. That's wild, guys.
We don't deserve that. God's motives are always
perfect. He's never instructing you
because you get on his nerves because you got out of bed for
the 20th time. That's not God.
He's not getting on to you because he's petty and you
showed out in front of his friends, and so he wants to let
his friends know that I really am a disciplinarian.
So let me chew my kid out. That's not God.
He's not petty like that. He's a perfectly good father who
has promised to work all things together for our good, even when
it seems painful in the moment. You might remember back in
chapter 5, the preacher of Hebrews told us that Jesus
himself as God's Son in a sense learned obedience through what
he suffered became complete and we are invited into the same
privilege. Just as a child receives all the
privileges of family when they are adopted into a family,
including the privilege of being guided, instructed and
disciplined, so too do we receive these privileges when we
are welcomed into the family of God.
And it's not always enjoyable in the moment, actually, he says no
discipline is enjoyable in the moment.
The scriptures are honest about it.
He even uses the word. It says punishes.
In the CSB. The root word there is scourge.
OK? It's not that God is physically
beating us or that's the attitude.
It's this idea of cutting deep into the recesses of our hearts
that only a father could see what's really going on.
Maybe you said that someone pointed out a blind spot in your
life and you're like, ooh, that cut deep, right?
Like you got me there. But you're grateful for that.
He's looking deep into our soul and and forming and shaping us
because he loves you too much to let you run to what can hurt
you. And the reason we're grateful is
in the end, all of this works to produce the fruit of peace that
comes from righteousness. We can't fully understand all of
this like you can. You can go all day trying to
figure out why is this suffering happening?
What is the reason for this And not?
And I don't even think we're called that.
We're called to trust that our struggles against sin and
suffering in this life, as we seek to remain faithful, will
only serve to bring about us a peace that passes understanding.
And yes, this means it takes time.
There's a reason the analogy here is fruit takes time.
Fruit is not grown overnight. In fact, much of what prepares
the way for fruit to be born is invisible to the naked eye, most
of its roots burying deep underground that God might be
doing in your life. But like a football team working
out for results they won't see for months, like a friend
disciplining someone over coffee over the course of years, like a
teacher investing into a new, wideeyed classroom of students,
eventually Fruit fruit will come forth.
And when it does, it's beautiful.
This is the way Peter talks about it In First, Peter won six
and seven. He says, you rejoice in this,
even though now, for a short time if necessary, you suffer
grief in various trials so that the proven character of your
faith more valuable than gold, which though perishable is
refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. And when I I get the privilege
of of sitting back and watching someone who has been matured
through suffering and in the midst of trials, they experience
a peace and a trust that I don't mean it's always pretty.
I don't mean it's like, yeah, God's gonna work this out.
And like, we don't even really mean it.
We're trying to commit, but like this, this deep rooted in their
bones, like this, trust joy on their face.
Because fruit has been born and in the struggle against sin, God
has kept and sustained them. And if you ever get the
privilege to talk to these people, what's incredible is
you're not going to hear about a story of someone who figured out
life, who had enough discipline and who kind of just got it all
right and checked all the boxes and now made it to the end
unscathed. That is not the story you hear
of someone who has deep peace in the midst of trials.
You'll hear story of men and women who tell you it's grace
upon grace upon grace. I've got knocked down, I've got
beat up, and all I could do was lift my weary head to the one
who won the battle for me, which is what spurs us to press on,
not in our own strength, but in his.
And even when we do grow weary and we do give up, which
happens, Jesus picks us back up and carries us back on the path.
This is the point of the passage anyways.
It's not about you figuring it out and having enough
discipline. I promise you, it is all about
Jesus. He's the one we're told to look
to, the one to consider. He's the Prince of peace, the
son of righteousness who has risen with healing in his wings.
That's why you hear about joints that are knocked out of place
like it's this cross sometimes. And it is looking to him because
healing will come. He will care for us and bind us
up in the midst of our struggles.
He's not aloof. He's not like someone who's off
to the side and doesn't get it. He left a a throne of perfection
and entered into our struggle, took on flesh, took on humanity.
Fully God, yet fully human, surrendering to His Father's
will. And unlike us, he never grew
weary. He never gave up in the
wilderness, facing the temptation against sin.
Bow to me, I'll give you everything.
The world at his feet. And as the better Adam and the
better Israel, he stays faithful all the way, even to death.
The enemy was attacking him. He became the true son, who was
punished for our iniquities, who actually was scourged and and
bore our transgressions, who was physically cut deep.
And it's through his stripes that we receive healing for our
tired hands and our weak knees. And when all was said and done,
when sin had done its worst with the God man, Christ Jesus, what
does he do? He gives up his life.
He trusts. He doesn't try to fix it.
He says, You know what? Into your hands, Father.
I give you my spirits. And he prays and he trusts God
to complete the work. He obeys, just leaves the
results, knowing that his suffering would not be wasted,
that his resistance against sin, even to the point of shedding
blood, would change the course of humanity, and he laid in a
tomb for three days resting in peace.
But in that tomb of death, God was laying down the roots
necessary to bring forth the fruit of life.
And even though his journey was painful, the joy set before him,
he endured the cross. It was an endurance.
Even though he entered into our suffering on that Sunday
morning, the earth gives way to resurrection hope.
His surrender to suffering produces the fruit of
righteousness in you if you trust in his life, death,
burial, and resurrection. And the empty tomb stands to
serve as a witness. That suffering may endure for a
night, and it might seem like a long night, but joy comes in the
morning. This is the one we look to.
This is the good news. It's all we have to offer as
Christians. It's not about measuring up.
It's looking to the life, death, barrel, and resurrection of
Jesus. And that is what begins to
produce in us. Peace in the midst of suffering,
looking to him. The one who started your faith,
The Founder, the one who's gonna finish it.
You can't do it on your own. The one who who did not call us
to a struggle against sin without first facing it himself
and beating sin and it is gazing upon him, is what actually
transforms us to be a people who began to appreciate the
instruction and discipline of God in our lives.
This is why he ends all of this with a call to the Church, to
care for each other. He calls us to strengthen tired
hands and weakened knees, to walk in straight paths as we
await final healing. And it's not like someone
flippantly telling you when life has knocked you down, like, hey,
keep your head up, son. You'll be fine.
Like, you even know what I'm walking through right now.
Like, that's not it. It's more like the old battle
scarred warrior with bruises and scars still on their body coming
to you and your weakness. You look them in the eyes and
you can tell they know what you're going through, she says.
Hey, hope awaits. Healing is coming, so take
heart, take heart. These verses here, they are a
communal corporate call. We love to interpret everything
through the lens of individuals because we're Americans.
But the reality is this is to the church together.
Y'all strengthen your tired hands.
Y'all strengthen your weary knees.
We can't do this alone. We need each other to remind us
of the good news of Jesus. He's actually quoting from
Isaiah 35. I'm going to read the passage.
It's a little bit lengthy, but look at it with me.
Isaiah 35. It'll be on the screens.
It says strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees.
Say to the cowardly, be strong, Do not fear.
Why? Here is your God.
Vengeance is coming. God's retribution is coming.
We normally see this negative. He's like, yo, hey, he's going
to put all things to right. He's going to end it.
He will save you. Look at the vision.
Then the eyes of the blind will be open, the ears of the deaf
unstopped. The lame will leap like a deer.
The tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Water will gush in the wilderness and streams in the
desert. A road will be there and away it
will be called the Holy Way. We get to share in His Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one
who walks the path. Fools will not wonder on it.
There will be no lie in there. We do not have to be sober
minded. We can rest.
No vicious beast will go up on it.
They will not be found there. But who will be on it?
The redeemed will walk on it and the ransom that the Lord will
return and come to Zion with singing crowned with unending
joy. I love this line right here.
Joy and gladness will just overtake them.
You can't like just let me be happy.
Like no just overtakes us. And sorrow and sighing will
flee. When you walk in at the end of
the day and you're just like, oh, you feel the deep sorrow
because there's pain or grief or death or whatever you're walking
through. Just those deep size of longing.
They will flee and run because there's no room for them.
And you're suffering, no matter how big, no matter how small, in
ways that you could never see or know.
It is working. A weight of glory that cannot be
compared with the depths of your suffering.
And as I've said, that doesn't minimize the depths of your
suffering. It maximizes the height of
glory. Healing will come.
Hope does await. We are awaiting to return to the
city of the Living God that has been designed for us, where
we'll walk in the holy way, made righteous by Christ alone.
Singing songs that sometimes you come here and you're like, I
don't feel like singing today. That's OK.
But then we will sing. We will be crowned with an
ending joy. So yes, sometimes the Christian
life feels a lot less like winning a first round knockout
victory and more like Rocky, right?
Just trying to go 12 rounds. Like getting beat up left and
right, just trying to stay in it.
Survive. Is it 1512?
I don't know. But strengthen your tired hands
and weaken knees, because Jesus has won the fight against sin.
You are God's sons and daughters and he will bring you to the
finish line. Joy comes in the morning as we
closed band. You can start making your way up
or whoever's coming up to sing and play.
I'm going to read for us right before we go into communion from
2nd Corinthians 4, seven through 18.
And I just want you to to receive this and says, now we
have this treasure in clay jars so that this extraordinary power
may be from God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way,
but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. We are persecuted, but not
abandoned. We are struck down, but not
destroyed. We always carry the death of
Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be
displayed in our body. For we who live us are always
being given over to death for Jesus's sake, so that Jesus's
life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh.
So then, death is at work in us, but life in you.
And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with
what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke.
We also believe and therefore speak.
Listen to this, for we know that the one who raised the Lord
Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you.
Indeed, everything is for your benefit, so that as grace
extends through more and more people, this is bigger than just
us. It may cause Thanksgiving to
increase to the glory of God. Therefore, because of what God
is doing in the world, we do not give up.
Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner
person is being renewed day by day, for our momentary light
affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable
eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is
seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.