Just like my Dad
Hebrews 12:5-11
I know that many of you have heard me say that I was on drugs when I was young. I was drug to church every time the doors were open. And that is only one of my many memories that I thank God for.
I can remember mom telling me to get her a switch. We all knew what that meant. A little one would sting. A big one would beat. So I can remember getting different ones then trying it out on me to find the one that hurt the least before I would take to mom. Now that didn’t make a lot of sense now that I think about it. You whip yourself trying to find the right one before your parents whipped you.
There also was a rule at our house that if you got a whipping in school, you also got one when you got home. Now this was in the days when they had the true Board of Education. It was usually about 6” wide and often had holes drilled in it. But things got worse when I left the private sector and went to the Christian School. They were a lot stricter. Talk in the class and you would get a paddling. One teacher I had gave a quiz every day on the material we had covered the day before and if you miss more than two out of the five questions then you received a paddling. So needless to say, I was accustomed to at least two whippings a day. I can remember going home after school and seeing how many pair of underwear I could fit on under my pants. Or I would have my guy friends slip me their wallets as I walked to the front of the class to receive my punishment. I had it down to an art.
But the one thing I never understood, until I became a parent of my own kids, was when my Dad before he would whip me would often tell me, “This hurts me more than it does you”. I was like “Dad, don’t hurt yourself”. Spare us both. But my Dad would punish me because he loved me, and he must have loved me a lot.
Now there may be some of you here this morning that do not believe that you should spank a child. You were never and you don’t intend to do that to your child or Grandchild as well. Before you get upset with me, listen to what God’s word says about raising your child.
Proverbs 13:24 He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
But that is a whole other sermon. What I want to share with you this morning is about our Heavenly Father. Just as my Dad whipped me because he loved me, our Heavenly Father does the same.
Proverbs 3:11-12 My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.
One of the ways that you know that God loves you is when He spanks you. And both a Christian and a lost person who has not accepted Christ as their own personal Savior sin. We should not be surprised when a lost person sins; that is what sinners do, sin.
But the distinction is that when a believer sins, God will confront them and punish them till they leave that life of sin.
I heard about a young man who went off to college. After his first semester he wrote a letter home to his mom. It went like this…
Dear Mom,
I’ve got some bad news. I know that you and dad paid a lot of money to send away to college but things have gotten a little out of hand. I’ve flunked all my classes. College is a lot tougher than I thought; I guess I should have gone to class. So I got kicked out and have to sit out a semester. I need you to send me money so that I can get home. I wrecked the car a totaled it, but don’t worry I’m all right; I just lost my license for DUI. But the main reason that I wrote you is so that you can prepare Dad for me.
Love your son.
The mom after receiving the letter responded back by letting him know that he didn’t have to worry. She was sure his Dad would be prepared for his return and that he just better worry about preparing himself.
If you are here this morning and you have chosen to enter into a life of sin, don’t worry. Your Heavenly Father is prepared for you as well. How is He prepared for you? Well if you look at the choices, He could do one of three things.
*He could kick you out of His family. He could have the attitude of this. Listen I sent My Son and He gave His life for you, and this is how you thank me. Get out of here. Those who believe that you can lose your Salvation must believe this way. But my two boys are my sons. Now if they do something that I do not like then they may loose fellowship with me, but they will always be my sons. And that is the way it works with God as well. We can lose our fellowship with Him but we are still His children. So He doesn’t condemn us so maybe He…
*Condones our sin. He just ignores it and overlooks it. Kids will be kids. Things happen. If that were true then He would no longer be God; because that is what makes God, God. He is pure, righteous, and cannot let sin go unpunished.
So He doesn’t condemn us and He doesn’t condone us so that must mean that He…
*Confronts us. He doesn’t deal with us legalistically. You mess up one time and you’re out. He deals with us lovingly.
Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
So He confronts us. Let me share with you some ways that He confronts us this morning. When God confronts you, you should not be discouraged. It should encourage you.
Vs.5 Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.
Because that means that you are one of His Children. When you sin then because you are a child of God then something happens to your heart and your conscious. But God confronts His children. If you are a parent and your kids get with the neighbors kids and they get into some kind of mischief, but if you are smart you won’t whip the neighbor’s kids.
Now I sin. And I know how it feels to have the hand of the Lord on your life. But if you are here this morning and you are living in a life of sin and you are thinking that it does not bother me then I would question if I were ever really truly saved to start with, because God whips His kids.
If you are living in sin and you have no guilt, no bad feelings, no remorse, and you are having the time of your life then you are not a child of God.
There are people who come to church every Sunday and they claim to be one of His children, they even may think that they are His children. But if they live in and continue in sin and enjoy it then they are not. You might get away from your sin, but you will not get away WITH it. God will confront you if you are His child. And the reason that He does is because He loves you.
One of the marks that a parent loves their children, or a grandparent loves their grandkids is that they discipline them when they misbehave. Your love is shallow if you don’t discipline your children when they misbehave.
But we are living in a time when parents are learning to obey their kids. You are not doing your kids any favors when you do that. And God is the same way. It is not a sign that He doesn’t love you. It is a sign that He loves you.
Vs.6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
So let me close by giving you a few ways that He confronts us when we enter into sin.
He Rebukes us (5b Nor be discourage when you are rebuked by Him.)
He rebukes us. In other words when He sees that we are getting ready to sin He tells us, “Don’t do this”. How many times have you done something and the minute you did, something told you that was wrong and you shouldn’t have done it? That’s God rebuking you. And that is what God I think prefers to do to us. Just talk to us.
And as a parent that is the way we prefer to do with our kids. Wouldn’t it be great if all we had to do is tell our kids and they listen and do what ever you say? If we had the choice of spanking our kids or just speaking to them then I’m sure that we would all prefer to just speak to them anytime.
But the truth of the matter is that they don’t always listen and we have to move to the next step. And that is what God does too. First He rebukes you then He…
He Discipline us (Vs.5 My son, do not despise the CHASTENING of the Lord.
This word chastening in the Greek is a verb. It does not mean just talking it requires action. It is a word that means to punish by spanking. How does God spank us? Let me give you a couple of ways.
One of the ways is that He does not listen to your prayers any more.
Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
That is why when I pray I start out with confessing my sins. That way that path of the prayer is not clogged with the blockage of sin.
Another way that He spanks us is that we lose our joy.
You lose fellowship with Him. Some times it could come in a form of losing something, your job or your health. Now I am not being like Job’s friends and saying that every time that something bad happens to you then it is because of sin in your life and God is disciplining you.
But there are times in your life that God speaks to you and it doesn’t work then God spanks you. And when you are getting a spanking, no one needs to tell you are getting one. That would be like if someone came up to you and said, “Do you know that your Dad is beating the daylights out of you? You know it don’t you. Sometime you even flinch before you’re even touched. And if you are a child of God and God is whipping you, you know you are and you know why you are.
So what if the spanking don’t work? Then God will…
He Scourges you (Vs.6 and scourges every son whom He receives)
This word scourge is a strong word. It means to flog or whip. It is what Jesus went through before His death on the cross. It does not mean just getting a spanking. It means that you are getting a beating. This is the most serious way that God confronts you.
When a Christian decides that they are going to live in sin. I’m going to live that way and I don’t care what the Bible says or anyone else. I am His child but I’m going to live in that sin.
When you get to that point in your life where no other discipline is going to work then the only choice is to scourge you and sometime He might even have to beat us to death.
(Vs.9b) Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and LIVE?
What he is saying here that when we sin and God speaks or spanks us to leave that sin; that is better to do that and live than to continue and God have to take us out of this world.
And finally…
He Trains us
God correct us so that we can enjoy the world we live in NOW. When He corrects us it is not so much to punish us, as it is that He wants us to GROW from that correction. When you a getting spanked you are not happy at that time. But in the end you are trained by it.
Vs.11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained.
When He rebukes, or disciplines us, or scourges us, He is just trying to train us. To teach us to make the right choices, because He knows that when we learn from it that we will experience peace. The most miserable person there is; is not the person who does not know the Lord. It is the person who knows the Lord but because of sin they have lost their peace with God.
And God says that not only will I give you peace, but I will also give you production. (Vs.11 the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been train by it.)
It is not just stopping what you shouldn’t be doing but you start doing what you should be doing.
He gives us peace. He gives us production. And He gives us purity.
Vs.10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Our profit. He does it for us. The Holy God in Heaven who loves you more than anyone else ever could. The God who created you. The God who put you here for a purpose and some one who has a wonderful plan for your life. He is not so much concerned for your happiness. In fact the Bible tells you that you will suffer. And Happiness is based on happenings. And living a Christian life is not a bed of roses. He is not so much concerned about your health. Christians get sick just like everyone else. What His primary concern is for us to be HOLY!
Because the more we are like Christ. The more peace you have to go through the storms of life.
Let’s pray.
