Discipline is Not Rejection: Understanding God’s Fatherly Training

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:02:07] Prospect, Fresher in Church, glad everybody's here. Pray as always. It'll be an opportunity for all of us to worship our Lord in spirit and in truth.
[00:02:16] The announcements, schedule are there for your consideration. Continue to work on our Easter musical project.
[00:02:23] Anybody who wants to be involved in that at Concordia, practice tonight at 6.30. Just practice tonight at 6.30 at Concordia.
[00:02:31] them. I think we're ready. Let us prepare now. Oh, I did want to change to the bulletin. I knew that Gary's, as I understand, is a public service announcement as well.
[00:02:47] Gary's, I think, is going to go through a little interlude where they're going to be closed. They're going to be closed on February 26th, which is where your men's group is scheduled to meet there.
[00:02:57] That's going to be moved to the China Grove Family House. China Grove Family House on February 26th, Thursday.
[00:03:04] If anybody needs a ride, contact Dale, please, or the office.
[00:03:11] Let's now prepare our hearts and minds for the worship of our Lord.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:03:14] Let's pray together, friends.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:07:14] Almighty and everlasting God, we are privileged to be here.
[00:07:19] We pray by the power of your Holy Spirit you'd be here as well.
[00:07:21] We trust you are.
[00:07:23] We gather in appreciation for the life we have, the hope we have, the promises we have, the work we have to do, being part of your family. We pray for your mercy in our sin. When we gather here before you, it comes to us, we know it, it's real. The closer
[00:07:49] we get to you, the more we are aware of our sin. We thank you also that the closer we get to you, the more we know your grace is real, your mercy is real, that you've got us, you've got an idea
[00:07:59] about us you've got a plan for us so we ask for mercy and we ask for the ability to to live and be the people you want us to be receive now our worship not only in this hour but in the week to
[00:08:16] come enable us to show our loyalty and devotion our commitment to you with the way we live help us feel your joy help us do your work we pray humbly through jesus christ our lord and hear us
[00:08:28] now please as we pray together the prayer he taught his disciples our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
[00:08:45] give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:09:03] and the glory forever our opening hymn is number 10 there are just some uh some names to remember

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:11:52] and to highlight you may have heard of the passing uh if not uh helen barber helen barber passed away on Friday morning, and so we await word on the arrangements for that, but we celebrate
[00:12:12] her life and thank God for her life among us. And so there'll be news coming further about the arrangements related to Helen Barber's service. Also, if you would be, so she'll be praying for her people, starting with Virginia and her family. Also, if you could be praying
[00:12:32] for Don Trudson who is in hospice a pretty rapid development and in conversation with him this morning and they are not expecting Don to make it through the day so be praying for Judy and Don
[00:12:48] had some time with Don during the week and he's at peace and all is well but let's pray for their family. Faith is strong. In terms of those not well, Mae Dower, back in the hospital,
[00:13:03] had a great visit with Dave Howey this week, and he expressly asked me to send their appreciation, he and Crystal, their appreciation for all the prayers and support of this congregation. They're feeling it and appreciate it. And we have been praying and
[00:13:19] We'll continue to pray for Pam Tolbert.
[00:13:21] Great to see her today and her health.
[00:13:25] And she's got some things upcoming in her life.
[00:13:28] And we will be with her and praying for her and supporting her and her wonderful family as the days unfold.
[00:13:34] So, among other things, let us pray for these.
[00:13:37] Let's pray together.
[00:13:41] Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you that you hear us.
[00:13:47] You hear the groanings of our heart.
[00:13:48] You hear our formal prayers made in Jesus' name.
[00:13:51] you hear all the things in between we come to you in jesus name and we thank you that he has made us able to present our lives and our prayers to you you have heard these we have lifted up and we pray
[00:14:08] you would attend to all of them in your mercy and particularly for helen's people and don and his people but all we've lifted up and others on our hearts we pray for each in our own way our ability
[00:14:27] to help these bear their burdens and the general call you have on us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and to continue to expand who we're looking out for, who we're trying to help,
[00:14:43] to continue to expand our definition of who us is, who's in us, and to take care of our people.
[00:14:54] We thank you that you have expanded your understanding and included us in your us.
[00:15:01] thank you for that expansion seeing beyond our sin and bringing us in so we thank you for that Holy Spirit be with this church and your church throughout the community in the world we pray for our good friends at Centenary Methodist
[00:15:19] Church bless them your church throughout the world to get the gospel out and to provide worship to provide shelter and care to teach to teach the people the word and to demonstrate what the kingdom looks like help us do our work in that help your church
[00:15:35] do that justin and kristin rob and sandy our missionaries bless and prosper them holy spirit be at work in us help us love the lost and feel their need help us love the sick and the hungry
[00:15:53] and the naked and imprisoned and the lonely and the grieving help us embrace them help us feel the embrace when that's us help us love being generous help us love working hard for you

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:16:09] help us love being servants we pray humbly in jesus name amen friends well done uh any children

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:21:00] who would like are welcome to meet joy in the narthex uh the front lobby uh and go to children's church uh our ushers will now come forward to collect the morning offering as they do we are
[00:21:12] given opportunity to contribute to the needs of the church for sure, but also to take the time to consider all our many blessings and how we may use them in the service of our Lord. Please be
[00:24:54] seated, friends. Primary scripture for the morning will be taken from the book of Hebrews. I think on the screen, it'll probably start picking up in verse 5 of chapter 12, Hebrews 12, verse 5. I'm
[00:25:12] actually going to read the two verses before that. I apologize for not getting that on there, but you'll hear it and we're continuing our conversation in the book of Judges you may remember last week we started started the book of Judges book of
[00:25:32] Judges is about a roughly 400 year period 350 to 400 years where it but in between the time where Israel comes into the promised land and then the Kings arrive. And what we read last week in Judges 2, 10 to 20, there's this cycle, the cycle that goes
[00:25:53] on for generations where Israel is faithful as they promised, then they get distracted by life and the local gods and how much easier the local gods are and how much easier paganism is than being a follower of Yahweh. Not so many moral demands. Paganism in general is not particularly
[00:26:15] morally demanding. You placate the God. That God does not require you to have a lot of moral expectation, none of this business about having to love your neighbors, you love yourself. It's a consumer relationship. You bring an offering. You bring an offering to Aphrodite. She makes
[00:26:33] love happen. You bring an offering to Mars, he helps you in war. You bring an offering to Baal, he brings the crop. It's a consumer relationship. There's no demand that you be an example to
[00:26:46] anybody. There's no duty. There's no love of neighbor, those kinds of things. It's really a fantastic, you know, it's a fantastically easy religion. It's a much less demanding religion.
[00:26:57] It's very attractive in that way. And what we find in the God of the Bible is this demand that, Hey, I've created you out of nothing.
[00:27:05] I've given you the only life you're ever going to have.
[00:27:06] I've saved you from the pit of hell through Jesus Christ.
[00:27:09] I've blessed you.
[00:27:09] Now I have demands on you.
[00:27:14] And one of the constant battles we're facing as we interact with God, one of the constant battles we're facing is this temptation to see God as, Hey, God, I have this plan for my life.
[00:27:29] I have this idea for my life.
[00:27:31] and God, I have enlisted you to come into my life and help me get my idea of my life.
[00:27:38] That is much more related to paganism.
[00:27:40] That is not Christianity.
[00:27:42] That is not the religion of the Old and New Testament.
[00:27:45] The religion of the Old and New Testament, the religion of Christianity is, God says, I have made you and I have a plan for your life.
[00:27:51] And I have work for you to do.
[00:27:56] And that's what you need to be doing.
[00:28:00] God says, the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ says, I am more interested in you becoming the person I want you to be and you doing what I want you to do than you being happy or you having it easy or you having freedom.
[00:28:15] There's all kinds of passages in the New Testament how Jesus has come to set us free.
[00:28:20] I think God likes it when you're happy and joyful.
[00:28:24] As a matter of fact, God says you've got to trust me that the way you're going to be truly happy and joyful is if you live the way I want you to live.
[00:28:33] But God is much more interested in us becoming the people he wants us to be than life being easy than life being what we've drawn up christianity is not god i have this great idea i need you to come here and help me get it it is god help me hear your idea for my life
[00:28:52] and help me trust that that's going to bring me joy and whatnot the and so it's demanding the gospel is not there's no judgment you know go do your thing there's no judgment that is not the gospel because you have to have judgment in your life to make it meaningful
[00:29:10] there has to be a standard which you're trying to live to to make it meaningful god is the gospel is is that god is demanding and he will empower you to do well and he will forgive you where you
[00:29:25] do not but god demands excellence i had the privilege of going to ann collier's funeral last yesterday and at ann collier's funeral another one of the speakers i got to talk a little bit another one of the speakers her son gave that he ended with the parable of jesus and you know
[00:29:44] where jesus tells about you know that the landowner interests five bags of gold and two bags of gold one bag of gold or ten talents or five talents or you know some some massive amount of money and
[00:29:54] and how did you do with it and the person who hears well done good and faithful servant is the one who says i got work to do and there's an expectation and i'm going to try to do what god
[00:30:04] wants me to do. That is not what paganism says. That's not what the Baals say. That's not what the religion that we make up says. And so what's constantly working in us is, am I going to be
[00:30:21] more interested in my obedience? Am I going to be more interested in becoming the person God wants me to be? Am I going to be more interested, if I could put it this way, in your faith of doing the
[00:30:31] job that God hired you to do, that he saved you to do, than comfort or freedom or ease?
[00:30:40] the gospel is if you just aim for this earth you'll get nothing if you aim for heaven you'll get heaven and good earth joyful earth contented purposeful life on earth thrown in aim for what God demands of you
[00:31:00] and trust this God who is wiser than we are and more committed to us even than we are that if we'll go his way that's what will actually bring us joy and contentment and so we we kind of got to answer the question because one thing we talked
[00:31:22] about last week is there's this great cycle of israel's faithful then they get punished and then they they get their act together they see the error their ways they live faithfully for a while and they fall back in and they get punished and this goes through this goes through judges this
[00:31:35] goes through the through samuel this goes through the kings this goes all the way through through the exile which is the ultimate god disciplining them so today i want to talk a little bit about
[00:31:46] God disciplining us and it's a complex project and we're not going to get it all covered today but discipline is something that's that we struggle with as relates to God we struggle with the idea that God uses negative reinforcement on us we are all about hey you know obey God and
[00:32:10] you'll be blessed and you'll be joyful and he loves you all of which is true we like talking about how god positively reinforces us what the bible is clear what judges kings samuel there's all this be faithful you know we talked about deuteronomy joshua's where the people promise
[00:32:30] be faithful god will bless you be unfaithful god will discipline you we don't like talking about god using negative reinforcement on us the bible talks about it all the time so we're going to try
[00:32:43] to figure out some of it today hebrews 12 there's verse 5 i'm going to read verses 3 and 4 just to start hebrews 12 3 talking about jesus here consider him who endured from sinners such
[00:33:02] hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted jesus had a had difficulty in his life we are going to have difficulty in our lives stay tough in your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood. That's both
[00:33:22] talking about Jesus and we're pretty confident that the letter of the Hebrews was written to a bunch of people who had brothers and sisters thrown in jail and martyred, killed for their faith. So the writer's saying, you know, if you're alive to hear this letter, you have not been killed
[00:33:38] for your faith yet. Verse five, and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons as children god god addresses his people as children my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord that the word that gets translated discipline is is is the greek word
[00:34:02] paideia which where we get pedagogy teaching training one of the best ways of understanding god's training you it's the same word that's used in timothy when it says all scripture is god breathed inspired and used for training it's the same word that's used by Paul and Titus where he
[00:34:23] talks about there's difficult things in life that train you for righteousness that God says no to certain things in your life and he's training you for righteous we're being trained my son you could read it my son do not regard lightly the training of the Lord and do not be weary when reproved or
[00:34:44] challenged by him verse 6 for the Lord disciplines or trains the one he loves and chastises every son son or daughter that he receives God is like a good parent good parents learn how to be good
[00:35:02] parents by following God's example etc verse 7 it is for discipline that you have to endure God is treating you as sons as children for what son is there whom the father does not discipline
[00:35:15] I think what there's an expectation there I think we could put in our language what son is there what child is there that a good parent does not discipline if you are left without discipline
[00:35:26] in which all have participated then you are illegitimate children and not sons besides this we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live for they earthly parents
[00:35:45] disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them i think there's an implication here they're doing the best they can they might not have gotten it right all the time it is conceivable
[00:35:57] that your parents or you as a parent didn't get it right every single time the writer is saying god's not like that we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respect them shall we
[00:36:16] not much respect the father of spirits and live verse 10 they disciplined us for a short time as seem the best of them but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness he has
[00:36:25] an idea of who we're supposed to be he's trying to get us somewhere someone who loves you someone who is powerful someone who is smart someone who is sacrificing for you someone who knows what's
[00:36:37] best for you is trying to get you somewhere verse 11 for the moment or the whole day or weeks or years for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant but later it yields
[00:37:02] the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it that is the reading of god's word for the morning let us pray together almighty everlasting god we pray humbly that your holy spirit the same holy spirit that inspired the recording of these words we pray he your
[00:37:19] holy spirit would be now in our hearts and minds and souls to teach us what the word has to say and to enable us to live as the word teaches.
[00:37:27] Focus us then not on our flesh, but upon your body and our place in it.
[00:37:33] We pray humbly in Jesus' name.
[00:37:37] Amen.
[00:37:40] All kinds of definitions of discipline, training, etc.
[00:37:44] Here's the definition of discipline that I like the best, the one we're using today.
[00:37:49] Discipline is bringing a relatively small amount of pain into your life that you will not have larger pain later and longer.
[00:38:01] Discipline is bringing a relatively small amount of pain into your life that you will not have more, deeper, longer pain.
[00:38:10] For example, when a parent catches a child lying, he or she brings discipline, a small amount of pain, sometimes it doesn't seem small, a relatively small amount of pain into your life, into my life,
[00:38:29] so that I will not have to deal with the longer, much more difficult project of being a liar.
[00:38:41] Being a liar is a terrible way to live.
[00:38:45] It's a hard way to live.
[00:38:47] It's a painful way to live.
[00:38:49] A good parent will discipline you, will bring some amount of pain now to save you the pain of being a liar.
[00:38:58] That's what discipline is.
[00:38:59] So when the Bible talks about God, so Israel, when they stray from God, God brings them oppressors, harassers for days, weeks, months, years to get them back on track of it.
[00:39:19] Here's some pain. Now, the pain of being separated from me, the pain of living your life apart from me is much worse than what I'm bringing now.
[00:39:30] You are my children and I am working on you.
[00:39:32] That's what a good parent says.
[00:39:34] If we want to extend the metaphor, that's what coaches say.
[00:39:36] That's what good bosses say.
[00:39:37] That's what teachers say.
[00:39:39] You have been entrusted to me, and I am working on you.
[00:39:44] What the Christian always has to ask is, do I want to be worked on?
[00:39:50] When you signed up to be saved, you signed up to be worked on.
[00:39:54] Happy Valentine's Day yesterday.
[00:39:56] I will quote one of my favorite songs from my college days from a band up in Winston-Salem.
[00:40:01] the great line was where he's singing to his girlfriend I can understand why you want a better man but why do you want to make him out of me?
[00:40:17] It's too much work for you to make him out of me.
[00:40:20] And the Christian is tempted to say you know God I can understand how you want me to be better you should have just called somebody else I'd still like to be saved and all that
[00:40:28] there's something in us that says stop trying to make such a good person out of me.
[00:40:32] and the Christian has to understand too bad, it's a set you signed up for a savior, you signed up for a lord, you signed up to be saved you signed up to be the consecrated
[00:40:43] holy, separate, different awesome people of God you signed up for both and God pulls us along with carrots all the time, come get the blessing, I love you, come see this, it'll be better and God uses
[00:40:59] negative reinforcement on us and that bothers us all this language of judges and Samuel you're going to get tired of it I'm trying to get this knocked out fairly early so we can just get to the interesting stories
[00:41:15] of how do you beat a giant in a fight and all those kinds of things it's the recurring theme it's one of the recurring themes in Judges and Samuel and Kings to the Exile God is working on them
[00:41:27] they fall back, he disciplines them they come back, he works with them here's the thing, real discipline it's always working with you things are good and you're doing right I'm working with you when I'm disciplining you I'm working with you that's one of the things that
[00:41:41] we know I've told this story before I was playing high school basketball I came home from practice one day and my I said he said how did it go I said the coach will not stop yelling at me
[00:41:52] to which my father in his first he said well then stop screwing up all right all right but then he said son here's what you got to watch when the coach stops yelling at you because then he think
[00:42:08] you can't do anything. He's through with you. You can't help the team anymore. Be more worried when the coach stops yelling at you. Be more worried when God stops yelling at you. Be more worried when you don't feel, here's how I can get better. Here's where I'm coming
[00:42:29] up short. I want to get better. I want to be better. And you hear him after you. Be worried when you stop hearing him after you. If you do, come back. He'll yell at you. He'll
[00:42:44] love you be worried when you when you stop feeling it we use negative reinforcement all the time so does so does god i have i have three examples of what negative there's three different ways we give
[00:42:58] negative reinforcement they're in the bible too makes me feel better all right uh so we start we start with the leo story i really quite frankly this is not i'm just going to give you a little
[00:43:08] heads up this is not going to turn out as well as i want it to this is stacy and i's current favorite Leo story and it is not going to be you are not going to think it's as
[00:43:16] great as we do but we I just can't I've been sitting on this for weeks and now here's a spot where I can use it so indulge me so thank you very much so Leo they go he has his fantastic mother and father is his fantastic
[00:43:29] mother and they go to the library they go to story time and Leo's work is an only child he's working on all kinds of things sharing toys not his strong suit so he so when he's at home and he's only person with toys he's awesome when he
[00:43:43] goes there's other children they want the toys so this whole FaceTime thing we love this FaceTime thing so amber FaceTime says you know for those of a certain age it's like the Jetsons I never thought that we would be able to
[00:43:54] talk on the phone where you can see people I so those you don't know that you look at it I and so is this great thing so we see amber on the face top and she's and Leo's playing in the background and we go how is today she
[00:44:05] goes it was awful she goes I took you know he's great no it's awful he was we took him to the, I took him to the library, I took him to the library, and immediately, he loves
[00:44:19] dinosaurs, he got this T-Rex, and there was this T-Rex, and this other kid wanted to play with it, and they fought over it, and he was, and he was, and he, you know, was bad to the other kid, and I
[00:44:28] had to pick him up and take him away, we had to go home, and every day, he's so excited when we go to the library, and we get to check out books, but he got, you know, we didn't check out any books,
[00:44:38] because he just didn't have faith right here, it was okay the rest of the day, but it just didn't work out well and she was so we talked through that and he's back there playing
[00:44:44] about five minutes later you know he comes to the screen we go Leo how was your day and he's like learning how to talk he's like you know he's like and she has to translate so so she's going T-Rex little boy and he stops he looks
[00:45:05] right at the camera. He goes, no books, no books. So now every time, like, like when, how'd the game go? How'd the game go? No books. That's what we do every day. That's it. It's like a, there's like
[00:45:23] a phrase in our house now. No books. One of the ways that you do negative reinforcement is you withhold good. Matthew 13 says, Jesus was out there doing miracles and he came to this place
[00:45:38] and they didn't believe in him. They wouldn't commit to him. They had, they didn't have faith in him and he said he could do no good he could do no mighty works there because they didn't have
[00:45:45] faith I had to withhold a good to get you to see what you could have letting you go number two would be letting you go one of the ways that God loves you is he keep one of the one of the reasons
[00:46:03] the rules help you is they keep you from doing stupid stuff Romans 1 says the wrath of God the negative punishment of the negative judgment of God Romans 1 says he withholds he says you the
[00:46:15] people god want to go do things and he lets them go he lets them go you want to be greedy you want to be self-centered fine he tries to stop us from doing these things he says but eventually he says
[00:46:26] you want to go do these dumb sinful things fine i will let you go you go be greedy you go be self-centered and watch what that does to your relationships that's what romans 1 says one day
[00:46:39] i went to the to the to the revco to the to the revco you remember the revco to the like drug store back when people used to you know buy things and they were all kind of had toys I took my
[00:46:50] selected saved my allowance and I because I'd seen something a while back and I and I decided I saved all my allowance I wanted this model airplane with like a thousand pieces and my dad
[00:47:03] I was like seven and my dad knew that I did not want that I thought I wanted he says you don't want that son go buy baseball cards I said I gotta have it I gotta have it I gotta have it I gotta
[00:47:14] to have it and finally he said fine go and i bought it and spent my whole allowance weeks of allowance and took it home and opened up and there were a thousand pieces in there and i closed the
[00:47:24] box and it's in the trash somewhere my dad taught me by letting me go i learned a to listen to him b i'm only good with about eight or ten or twelve pieces all right and then third what we're seeing
[00:47:43] so so we see that we see that's good it's what trains us he did jesus does it so when we encounter this when we encounter god bringing actual negative that's the third way of negative
[00:48:02] reinforcement he brings actual negative punishment corporal punishment grounding etc etc etc etc we know that's part of paideia we know that's part of training we know that's part of turning us into who we need to be let us not be afraid of it let us seek to avoid it by being
[00:48:27] faithful let us trust the model the example that god uses in hebrews is the exact example he uses in the old testament out of egypt i brought my son i got a plan for you i got an idea for you
[00:48:42] i got a great life for you you got to trust me when you get off the rails i'm going to discipline you because I like you, son and daughter, because I have an idea for you. I got great work for you
[00:48:53] to do. You got to trust me. You got to let me train you. If you just chase the pagans, if you just chase what's in your heart and in your gut, untrained, you won't be as happy as if you trust
[00:49:05] me. That's really the essence of Christianity. I trust him for salvation. Do I trust him also for the good life and do i believe that he's got my best interest heart when he says no so here's leo
[00:49:25] part number two we were just up there you know when you're up there for a day or two you know you're just pure grandparent you're just we give give give discipline that belongs to somebody else
[00:49:38] that's not my job no more but we were up there for four or five days and eventually something happens and Stacy and I were there and he did something and we dropped the hammer on him
[00:49:51] and here is what the stunned look on his face don't worry he had a great day but the stunned look on his face at that moment and here's something I think Christians need to when God
[00:50:08] says no that what is the stunned look on our face when we read judges and we read Hebrews and we go God does this we have this stunned look on our face as Christians the modern American church
[00:50:21] has a stunned look on its face when God says, I got to tell you no, I got to bring some pain in here to get you back in the right spot.

[00:50:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:50:31] And we go, oh, Leo, poor Leo.
[00:50:33] All right, poor grandchild.

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:50:36] We know it's for their good.
[00:50:38] Do you trust it's for your good?
[00:50:42] Now, I want to, he's not the nine, Yahweh, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not the nine foot grandfather.
[00:50:52] If you want a God that you try to placate and get stuff from only, that's paganism.
[00:50:59] Yahweh, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a Father who loves you, who's working on you, has an idea for you, is trying to turn you into somebody, has great work for you to do,
[00:51:08] has change he needs to bring in you.
[00:51:12] I want to close this with a couple of things just to make sure that we don't get off the rails on this.
[00:51:19] Because for every person in the congregation that says, oh my goodness, yeah, I thought that's useful, there's a person who has no trouble beating themselves up.
[00:51:29] There may be five people for every one.
[00:51:32] Has no trouble being, yes, I'm being afflicted.
[00:51:34] Yes, I deserve it.
[00:51:35] Yes, let's be careful about that too.
[00:51:41] When the discipline of the Lord, you know, this is where it gets a little gray.
[00:51:44] This is where it gets a little messy.
[00:51:46] You know, we hear the story of Job.
[00:51:50] Job is a slightly different story, but we hear the story of Job.
[00:51:53] Here's one of the great things about what Job did.
[00:51:56] Job never thought, God has abandoned me.
[00:52:01] Job always thought, God is doing something.
[00:52:03] I just can't figure out what it is.
[00:52:07] I think it's easy for us to, when something comes along and we look at ourselves, it's like, what is God doing?
[00:52:15] You know, one of my great professors, one of the great teachers of my life said, here's where Christians have, you know, we read about all the judgment.
[00:52:21] We read about all the judgment in the Bible and we're quick to go, they're being judged, they're being judged, they're being judged.
[00:52:27] She said, you've got to watch that because you don't have the biblical witness.
[00:52:30] You don't have the assurance of the Bible to know, hey, I see what's happening to them.
[00:52:35] They're being judged and they deserve it.
[00:52:37] I remember about the same time of that class that was in that that class there was a televangelist and there was some sort of earthquake storm in near at or near Las Vegas and he got on tv and
[00:52:52] goes see look there's God judging Las Vegas and about two months later a hurricane hit the town where his broadcast studio was did not hear anything about here how's God judging me All right?
[00:53:10] Her great observation, my teacher's great observation is, we do not have the wisdom to say, to look at something, to look at a sickness or look at a death or look at a calamity and go,
[00:53:19] God is clearly judging them.
[00:53:21] She said, we don't even know it in our own lives exactly what God is doing.
[00:53:26] She said, it is useful and worthwhile when we see something like this happen to us.
[00:53:33] It is useful to consider, is God trying to get my attention?
[00:53:39] is God trying to show me a place where I need to get on track we know that God disciplines we know that God disciplines and tries to get us on he might bring a little pain into it to make
[00:53:54] our life better long term it is legitimate to say is God asking me a question is God asking me to look at something but Christian do hear this even if you are being disciplined even if I'm being
[00:54:09] discipline. And I talk this language with great fear and trembling, with great honesty. Even if we consider that, just know you're only being disciplined. You're not being abandoned and you're not being rejected. It's just your father. It's just your father saying, I have an idea for you.
[00:54:31] I need to get you over here. Trust me when you get over here. Trust me when you learn this thing.
[00:54:36] trust me when you get deeper trust me when you trust me more you'll be in a better spot for you you'll be in a better spot for the people around you and you'll be in a better spot to serve my
[00:54:48] kingdom and do my work does the christian who looks at jesus christ and says this jesus christ went to the cross for me and the power of god raised him from the dead when i look at what he
[00:55:01] may be doing in my life what i look at what he may be changing in my life what he may be look what he's looking, when I look at what he may be asking me to lay down, what he may be asking me to pick
[00:55:11] up, what he may ask me to try to be faithful through, do I trust this Jesus who died for me?
[00:55:20] Do I trust this God who raised him from the dead? Do I trust this God who said, he who began a good work in you will see it to completion? The heroes of the Bible are the one who say, I don't always
[00:55:35] get it but i trust it and i have a greater commitment to who he wants me to be than for it to be easy this moment the great good news of the gospel is he has a plan for you he has an idea
[00:55:53] for you he will see it to completion he will put nothing upon you that you cannot handle and if your church is any good when you are battling your church will battle with you and
[00:56:08] pick you up and carry you. That's one of the ways he takes care of his children. Let us see that he does this. He does it throughout the word. Let us trust that he does it. Let us find our understanding
[00:56:27] of who he wants us to be and what he wants us to do. Let's trust how he's working on us.
[00:56:34] Child of God, he will get it right and you will see it. Let's pray together. Almighty and everlasting God, follow then please the preaching of your word with the blessing of your Holy Spirit.
[00:56:52] and where if because of human error in the preacher there may have been something false or misleading in the preaching cause that error to be quickly forgotten and do no harm if that's the case if you've brought truth by your spirit alone we pray the truth you have brought would
[00:57:10] be burned into our hearts and minds and souls that your truth might lead us in the everlasting way we pray in jesus name amen jesus said he who acknowledges me before the world i will
[00:57:21] acknowledge before my father in heaven we acknowledge jesus christ to be our lord by the way we live day in day out that we might be reminded of the great privilege of going out into the world and showing and telling the world that we belong to jesus christ and that we might
[00:57:35] practice doing it we stand together in church and say the words of the apostles creed so let's do that now let's stand together please and before god in the world let us confess in whom we believe
[00:57:46] I believe in God the Father Almighty, who suffered under conscious fire, was crucified dead and buried, ascended into heaven. The third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, the quick and the dead.
[00:58:22] I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
[00:58:36] Our final hymn is 375.
[00:58:39] At the Winter Olympics, I learned two things.
[01:00:42] One is, man, that snow and ice is slippery out there.
[01:00:45] It's slippery out there.
[01:00:47] and the other thing you learn by watching the olympics is there is no excellence without training there is no excellence without training in those moments where we may feel that god is disciplining us god god is pushing us god is after us he is not against you he is with you and for
[01:01:12] you and he is training you and he is training you to be great and he will see you to completion you are forgiven you are empowered you will get there he will make sure of it
[01:01:30] he went to hell and back to make sure you do go from this place with great joy and confidence and let us keep doing our work and let us keep working on getting better he deserves it
[01:01:45] as you go may the grace, mercy and peace of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit may these rest and remain with each of you this day and always Amen

[01:05:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:05:42] So, still no word from the SCADA.
[01:05:45] Don't you just love how they get in a hurry?

[01:05:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:05:48] Oh, yeah.
[01:05:49] We've quit looking at my chart, though.
[01:05:51] We just added this up for you to go look it up.
[01:05:53] So, we'll look it up.
[01:05:55] We'll let the doctor tell us.

[01:05:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:05:58] Because we can read everything into it.
[01:06:00] And speculate stuff that...

[01:06:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:06:02] That's the first thing Dr. Cheranasi told me six years ago.
[01:06:07] He said, do not get on the internet.
[01:06:10] Do not talk to me.

[01:06:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:06:12] Yeah, I believe it, really, yeah, yep, so that's where it really went, so let's see if we can see how it went.
[01:06:22] Pretty good, right?
[01:06:24] Quite much knowledge of it, I think.
[01:06:28] I think it's a pretty good project, I think.

[01:06:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:06:36] You're probably not going to be able to pull me worse if I don't.

[01:06:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:06:39] Yeah.
[01:07:09] Yeah, the midgets.