1. Title: What To Do With a Bum Knee
2. Text: Hebrews 12:4-13 (12:3-29)
3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM crowd. September 17, 2006, in the series “Nothing Better Than The Best”
4. Objectives:
-for the people to understand how difficulties are used by God for our good; what a right response to hardship looks like;
-for the people to feel comforted that hardship is not unique to them, that they can benefit from it and that it can be used by God for good things
-for the people to look upon their current and future hardships with this right perspective and learn to appreciate the good that they produce in life
5. When I finish my sermon I want my audience to have a more finely-tuned attitude toward hardships and to develop a plan that will help them to regularly grow through events that stretch them
6. Type: expository
7. Dominant Thought: God uses hardship to shape people into strong children of the King
8. Outline:
Intro: Chester Goode had a bum knee. I know he did, because every time he came running from off-screen, yelling ,” Mr. Dillon! Mr. Dillon!” he limped real badly. It was his trademark. But, hey, when you’re Matt Dillon’s sidekick, you can have a bum knee and still be a pretty good guy.
Chester was actually Dennis Weaver, who not only was a famous actor who died this year, but who also used to attend here at Villa Heights when he was a boy. So, when I started thinking about someone with a bum knee, I got this mental picture of old Chester Goode.
A wise man once told me, “Most everyone I’ve known in life has some setback that they have to deal with. Everyone.” Life has confirmed that to me. Whether it’s a traumatic experience, some injustice that has happened, a physical disability - maybe even a bum knee - you’re going to have some kind of hardship to deal with – whether it’s lifelong or an event. Life is going to hand you your bum knee.
In the case of the people receiving the letter we call Hebrews, there was something that was happening to them just because they were followers of Jesus. We don’t know the exact nature of it. We do know that it was as bad as having their property taken from them, being publicly insulted and persecuted, and even imprisoned. (Ch 10)
Bum knee. At least, some of them were left limping from it. So, in the 12th chapter of this letter, the writer gives them some help in dealing with it. The message to them, and to us today, centers around one word: discipline.
What was happening to them wasn’t without meaning. It was discipline. To understand the bum knees of life, we have to understand that they are used by God as discipline.
Discipline is like communication. It has two ends – the dispensing end and the receiving end. There’s the person who dispenses it, and for it to work that has to be done correctly. Parents have to love their kids first, and discipline has to come from that to succeed. The reason the supposed experts of our time have failed to understand this is because they don’t understand how discipline is the loving thing to do. It is. If you wonder where I got such a crazy idea, take a concordance or a Bible search program and look up the word “discipline.” It’s not some foreign concept. Rightly given, its basis is love, and its goal is the good of the person receiving it.
Yeah, I was spanked as a kid. If you insist, OK, I’m an example of what a warped adult a spanked child will become. My dad, as I recall, was very adept at that after 5 kids before me. I was “raised and reared.” But what I remember about being disciplined isn’t the spankings themselves. It’s the fact that my dad loved me. No, I didn’t believe the old, “This hurts me more than it hurts you” line at the time, but I certainly have grown to understand that better. Discipline has to be controlled by and dispensed with love. If you’re a parent, you need to get that straight, or else discipline won’t work.
Now, the other end of that, the receiving end, if you will, has to be done correctly too. If not, discipline won’t work. Discipline has to be given correctly, and it has to be received correctly.
The chapter of Hebrews we look at this morning deals with both ends of it. Bum knees in life are going to happen. It doesn’t even have to be for punishment, because that’s not all that discipline is for. What these readers had to do and what we have to do is decide how we’ll respond to it. So, let’s jump into the middle of this text, and consider the way to handle it.
Before we do, let’s get something straight:
Hebrews 12:4-6
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
Whose discipline? (The Lord’s); When Who rebukes you? Who disciplines those He loves, Who punishes those he accepts as children? (The Lord!) It’s not a new idea. It’s right out of Proverbs 3. The people who received this letter had forgotten it. Does it seem strange to you that God calls this His discipline? I guarantee you that it wasn’t godly people who were persecuting these Christians. It wasn’t godly people who were seizing their property and who were publicly shaming them.
But in God’s economy of things, for Him to allow that is just as much in His control as for Him to cause it. Please, get that straight. Whether you’re lying in a hospital because you got drunk and drove into a telephone pole, or you’re lying there because someone else got drunk and drove into you, either way, you’re still lying in the hospital! And either way, God makes all things work together for good to them that love Him and who are called according to His purpose. Whether He caused it directly or allowed someone to just make a mess of life, God is still in control and God will still use whatever He chooses for His purposes.
It’s just interesting, that at this point, to help them understand it all, the HS talks about all of this as God’s discipline. God’s discipline. We can’t make that never happen. We don’t have control of that. But what we do control is our attitude and our response, so that’s where this text focuses. First, there’s a…
I. Wrong Response
Another way to put this might be: “What not to say when you get spanked.”
Having been a child, and now being a parent, I can tell you that there are certain things not to say when you get spanked.
Ill – My daughter is 3 yrs old or so. Something had happened, and she was in need of some lovingly distributed discipline – on her receiving end. So, I put my little girl in the cute little denim skirt and the cute frilly tights over my knee. Whack, whack, whack! I waited for her response. Silence. Was she taking a deep breath to scream? Had I overdone it? Then, she looked up at me and smiled. The cute little denim skirt had interfered. So I raised it and started over. No more silence!
That’s an example of a wrong way to respond to discipline. To make light of it; to say…
1. What problem?
v.5 says “Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline.” Don’t regard it lightly. Don’t ignore it.
If God is working to change you, listen!
For some of the people reading this letter, God was letting them go through tough times so that they’d somehow learn and be stronger.
We can’t take every negative thing that happens and pronounce it a judgment from God, but at the same time, we need to tune into life’s problems and ask God what He’s teaching us.
What if God is trying to get your attention and you’re ignoring it? What if the thing you’re going through was supposed to be a wake-up call, and you chose to stay asleep?
Imagine…
• You’re outside the ark. You’re treading water. Tell me, how do you ignore that God is dispensing discipline?
• You’re the prophet Jonah. You’ve been thrown overboard in the middle of a storm and swallowed by a huge whale. Is God trying to tell you something, or are you just having a bad week?
• You’re Balaam. You’re on a journey that you shouldn’t be taking. 2X your donkey veers off the road. Sometimes donkeys have more sense than people. But you manage to ignore the signs. Finally, after the donkey just stops and won’t move, you’re beating her when she turns around and says to you, “Why have you beaten me these 3 times?” Would you listen?
• You’re carrying out the body of Ananias, struck dead by God for lying. As you throw the shovelful of dirt that covers his face, do you think about the importance of being truthful?
Wake up! Smell the coffee. Be careful to not impose this on someone else, and be careful not to misinterpret, but don’t ignore if God is trying to get your attention. Don’t try to enter the race while you’re ignoring your bum knee.
Another wrong way to regard God’s discipline is to lose heart / faint / be overwhelmed by it. In other words, don’t take every bum knee of life and say,
2. I’m gonna die!
Once in a while, it’s necessary to remember…
Proverbs 23:13-14
Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.
It’s funny, sorta, to watch a child get grounded who thinks that it’s going to kill him. “That’s it – no MSN chatting for a whole day!” “Oh, no, I’m gonna die!” No, you’re not.
And I wonder if, sometimes, God doesn’t shake His head at us when we overreact to hardships and turn desperate, rather than learn from them. Look again at v. 4. “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.” Does that mean it wasn’t hard? No. But it did mean that it could, and would, get worse. And most likely there were others who had resisted to that point. But for these people, they weren’t supposed to lose heart – to feel undone by it.
Too often, in the face of hard times, some people decide that God is being unfair, unjust, unkind.
Friend, that’s just not Who God is. It’s not consistent with Who He is.
Too often, some people decide “God hates me!” The opposite may be true.
Ill – Remember a book in the Bible that starts with Satan presenting himself to God? Remember God saying to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
What followed was Job losing everything he owned, even his family, and then his health. God allowed all of it to be taken away, and it wasn’t because God hated him. It was because Job was a good man.
Don’t allow hard times to turn you against God. Life is always changing. God isn’t.
Let’s go from here to a right response…
(II. Right Response)
What to say when you get spanked. These are some of the ways to respond when you are faced with the Lord’s discipline. They’re right in this chapter. These aren’t just trite thoughts to share with someone who’s having a tough time. These are facts to help you through it with a right heart.
The first comes from
Hebrews 12:5-8
And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
So, if you’re undergoing tough times, one appropriate response may be:
1. “I’m a legitimately accepted child of the King”
Men who are truly dads are men who also love their children enough to discipline them. It’s not easy. It’s no fun for anyone. But if a father loves his children, he’ll make sure that he’s pointing them the right direction in life. That takes work, and patience, and love, and everything else that goes along with successfully disciplining your child, but, dads, if you love them, you’ll do it!
Remember this the next time you feel God’s discipline in your life: God is treating you as His child. He’s treating you like a true child of His, not like someone who’s just over visiting or someone who never really belongs. When you face hardship, realize that God’s making an effort to grow you somehow. Just say, “I’m a legitimately accepted child of the King.” If fact, if you’re a Christ-follower this morning, repeat that with me right now: I’m a legitimately accepted child of the King.”
If that’s true, then expect to be disciplined. God loves you enough to treat you as His child.
The next response is from v.9:
Hebrews 12:9
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
2. “I respect God’s right to deal with me however He chooses.”
It’s a wise child who respects his father’s right and duty to dispense discipline. I knew that my dad had the right to spank me if I needed it, but I also respected his ability to do it well! Strange, when I had been disciplined, I never turned to my dad and said, “Who are you to tell me what to do?”
Respect God’s right. He created you. You can’t uncreate yourself. You’re in His hands. If He were evil, and He wanted to, He could do whatever to you and you couldn’t stop Him. Praise God He doesn’t
Psalm 103:10
…he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
It’s not easy to say this when you’re facing tough times. But let me turn you back to Job again. After he had just received the news that he had lost all of his possessions and all of his children, Job tore his clothes in grief, and fell to the ground, and worshiped. And said,
Job 1:21
"Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."
You may not be able to answer why things happen. Job’s friends tried that and blew it. But in the midst of it, you can be sure that one right conclusion is to say to God, “You have the right to do whatever You choose, God! I wish that it wasn’t this way, but I don’t question Your right.”
One more helpful response comes from…
Hebrews 12:10-11
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
3. “This isn’t much fun right now, but I’ll be better because of it!”
No discipline seems pleasant at the time. Amen?
Physical therapy doesn’t seem pleasant at the time, does it?
6 weeks of basic training doesn’t seem pleasant at the time, does it?
Going through weight training and running doesn’t seem pleasant at the time, does it?
But all of those things are necessary to get important results. They aren’t pleasant at the time, but the outcome is good.
It’s not pleasant to run and train to try to get in shape to go up a mountain, but if you live in Joplin and you’re 40 and you’re going to try to climb a 14-er in Colorado, you need to do something to be ready for it. I started that in January, and it wasn’t because it was pleasant at that time. It’s because there was a mountain to be climbed.
If you want to climb a mountain, you first have to trudge up some smaller hills. It’s not all fun, getting ready to do it, but once you make it to the top of the mountain, the view is worth it. Jeff and I managed that this summer. It wasn’t much fun to get ready for it. It wasn’t easy to make it, but it was great to be on the top of it and look down. It must be – there was a summit log to sign in on at the top, and there had been over 20 other people there…that morning! It was hard, but it was an experience that made us better.
Whatever you’re going through, whatever you will go through, learn to respond to it by looking for the way it will make you better. It isn’t pleasant at the time. It’s even painful. But later it produces something good because of it. Remember the way Paul opens II Co:
2 Corinthians 1:b3-4
…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Part of the point of discipline is for the person being disciplined to learn something so that the same discipline won’t have to be repeated later. So, let’s finish this by looking at “What to say so that you won’t need to be spanked.” Let’s look at the goal of discipline; what is our…
III. Daily Responsibility
Hebrews 12:12
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
1. Strengthen where you’re weak
If you have a limb or a joint that has been injured, maybe put in a cast or had surgery, you may be given exercises to make it strong again. Our limbs weren’t made to just hang limp. If they aren’t exercised, they’ll become weak. They can even become useless if they sit too long. So what do you do? Physical therapy! It’s not fun at the time, but you have to work to make it strong again.
The letter to the Hebrews has been reminding us to spur one another on. When it comes to the parts of the Body of Christ, restoration is much more to be preferred to amputation – even if it takes some unpleasant work to get it there. And whatever personal weakness it is that you might have, direct some attention to it. Memorize Scripture; learn to be an encourager; improve your stewardship; control your temper.
Hebrews 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
I’ve just labeled these
2. Family virtues
Peace; No bitterness (re-read: no bitter root…); Holiness
All of these are an evidence of the HS living inside the child of God. They ought to be showing up in us. Just the same, we’re told to “make every effort” to bring them to bear in our living.
Peace with all men. Do we need that in the Church?
No bitter root that causes trouble. Do we need that in the Church?
Holy living. Do we need that in the Church? – only if we ever want to see the Lord!
Paul told the Philippians…
Philippians 2:14-15 - Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
Conclusion:
Here’s the end. I know that a lot of this has just been directed at people who are already Christ-followers. So what if you’re not? Well, garbage happens to everyone, doesn’t it? So if you’re not having this basis for how to respond to what life dishes out, I’m wondering, how do you process that? What do you do with the rough times?
I believe in a God Who works all things together for good to them that love Him. I believe in a God Who is able to take what seems like the most hopeless and meaningless situations in life and work good from them - to shape me into something better; to accomplish some good that’s even greater than what I could have thought of.
What do you do with them?
Wouldn’t you like to make some sense of some of the nonsense? I know a Savior Who can help you with that this morning…
