Hebrews 12:3-11

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotion. This morning we are at Hebrews chapter 12, verses 3 through 11. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll jump into God's Word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to get to follow you. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would please be working in our hearts. It's easy for us to take your word for granted. It's easy for us to think we're smart enough to just learn these things and get them ourselves. Father, we need you. We need you to give us your spirit so we can understand. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Here we go, Hebrews chapter 11, or sorry, chapter 12, beginning at verse three.
For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted the bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons.
My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Do not be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? 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. 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 by it."
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? Well, we know that God is training us up. What is this about? This is about God chastening us, correcting us, rebuking us, but not for our ill, not for evil, not for anything wrong, but for His glory and for our good. We know that we have not, like Jesus, we have not resisted sin, even to bloodshed. Jesus did, but we have not.
And God tells us that we need to think about, we need to consider, we need to mull over in our minds, we need to meditate on, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus and run like Him because He endured such hostility from sinners against Himself. And this is key, this is important, this is necessary, that we don't become discouraged and we don't lose endurance. lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Because we may see things happen in our lives, we may struggle with things that are going on in hard providences, and we may think, man, this is horrible and this is wrong, and be tempted to quit, to stop the race, to walk off the playing field, to take off our shoes and go sit down in the grass and cry.
The Lord says, no, no, no, no. You need to understand that the Lord, the Lord may discipline you. The Lord may bring hard things in your life. The Lord may challenge you with things, but it's for your good. It's for training you up. So discipline, don't despise his discipline.
That's part of verse five and following is that this is the way in which the Lord is showing us that we, it's not that we aren't his children, it's that we are his children. He points to Proverbs chapter three, verses 11 and 12. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.
And so endure that chastening. It's often that when I'll have to talk to my children and I'll have to correct them, exhort them, rebuke them, I'll have to chasten them in some way, that often, even as they're crying, I'll have to take them by the chin and have them look up to me with their eyes and I'll say, look at me.
I'll say, son, I love you. I'm telling you this because I want it to go well with you. I know you don't like it, but I need you to receive this. I want your life to go well. And so I'm just doing what I think is best for my kids. But the Lord knows what He's doing is best for us. And He's doing this. Why? What's the goal of this? What did you notice? This is what I have underlined or double underlined in my Bible.
Verse 10. For they indeed for a few days chastened us as it seemed best to them, but He, for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. The point is that the Lord is stripping away from us things, taking away from us weights, burdens that would slow us down, sin that would so easily ensnare us, things that we know or that He knows are going to keep us from the full enjoyment and communion with Him. And He's making us more and more set apart, more and more like Him, more and more holy. This is the Lord's doing.
So what's the best verse? Well, in my Bible, I have verse 10 double underlined. I got a bunch of other stuff single underlined. But really, this is about God's chastening. And the purpose of that is for us to partake in His holiness. So what are we called to do?
Well, this morning, you may be struggling with really difficult things. There may be disappointments in your life. There may be things that you want to do. There may be ways in which you think the Lord is withholding things from you or pushing you into situations or making you uncomfortable, or he may have brought even people into your life that are challenging.
The Lord is doing this not because he doesn't love you, but because he loves you. He may be teaching you new depths of grace, new ways of forgiveness, new paths towards peacemaking, new levels of contentment. He may be not removing that thorn from your side because He wants you to know that His grace is sufficient for you. He may want you to know that even you may be facing life and death situations right now. And to be able to learn to say, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
The Lord is disciplining us as a father, chastening us, teaching us what is good, that we may partake in His holiness. And so don't become weary, don't become disheartened, but follow after Him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Jesus Christ. We thank you for the one who has struggled against sin, even to bloodshed. Lord, we thank you that he submitted to you, even to the hardest providence imaginable, suffering upon the cross. But Lord, we thank you that his suffering was for us. He bore our sins.
So Lord, we pray that we would no longer carry the weight of sin on our shoulders. But as you sanctify us, as you make us more and more holy, Lord, we pray that the refining fire would do its work. the gold would remain, and that we would follow you. Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy that comes from knowing that your Heavenly Father loves you and does all things for your good. I'll see you next time. Bye.