No Pain, No Gain, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. A good parent doesn't immediately satisfy a child's every want and whim, because a good parent is concerned for that child's character, future, and heart attitude. Through Christ, God claims us as His own children. Because of this, God is concerned with far more than our immediate comfort and pleasure. Yes, God uses the challenges of this world to train up His children. Hebrews 12-11 tells us that our Father's loving discipline yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. In today's message, Pastor Rich unpacks the meaning of our Father's discipline, why we need it, and how God uses hardship in our lives. Let's listen in now. This is part three of a message titled, No Pain, No Gain, from Hebrews 12, 3-11.

It was first preached on January 13, 2013. I'm speaking to you as a child of God. If you are not a child of God, by that I mean if you have not entrusted yourself in faith to Jesus Christ, then you are not a child of God. You are listening to this, but you can't identify with what I'm saying. If you have entrusted yourself to Jesus Christ, then this is for you. I'm speaking to you. Two questions. Are you perfectly now like Christ? The answer to that is no. Let me answer the question for you. No, you're not. You know why?

Because I'm not. The second question is this, and it comes right out of verse 7. What son is there whom a father does not discipline? If you are not now perfectly like Christ, then the second question is this, what son is there whom the father does not discipline? God is invested in you and molding you like his son Jesus Christ.

Like the potter does the clay, he squeezes it, he molds it, he puts pressure on it, he cuts it. Why? Because he's crafting a masterpiece. That's why. Why does this adversity happening?

Why is it happening? Because you are a child of God and God is molding you. And so we get into verses 5 through 8 which quote Proverbs 3 verses 11 and 12. There's a bold statement mentioned here. Look at it with me in verse 8. But if you are without chastening of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

What is he saying here? Listen to this. This is strong.

Okay? This is the word of God. If God is not molding you and training you through adversity, then you don't belong to him.

It's a strong statement, isn't it? When the Bible uses the term illegitimate, what it means is that you are without legal status or right. If before God you are without legal status or right, it just simply means this, you have not been reconciled to God, you are not justified before him. You are not his child. And you might be, you just might be one of those in Matthew 7 who the Lord Jesus said, Look at these people who come to the Lord in the last days and say, Look, Lord, all these religious things that we did in your name and Jesus is going to say what? I never knew you. You're not mine.

You don't belong to me. You see, whom the Lord loves, he chastens, he disciplines. If God isn't molding you and training you through the adversities, then I have to ask you, do you belong to him?

It's a bold statement of verse 8. Prince William on the other side of the pond, his regal outfit, his position. Do you think he got there by his parents just simply letting him do whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted to? I think not.

We probably can't even imagine the level of discipline and training that he's gone through. It has to be there. And so this is what God is doing in the lives of his people. So why is this happening? Because I am a child of God. He for, this is what it says in verse 10, he for our profit. The adversities of life, he is using these for our profit, for our betterment. Two points under this.

Why? So that we become partakers of his holiness in verse 10. Partakers of his holiness.

What does that mean? God looks at you, his child, and he says, you are mine. And I am making you like me, God, the perfect standard in his son, Jesus Christ.

I am making you like me. I am raising you up to the standard, partakers of his holiness. And then the second one in verse 11, to produce peaceable fruit of righteousness. The peaceable fruit of righteousness. Once again, fruit, what is that?

That's outflow. The fruit flows out of the branch as you are vitally connected to the source of life. The fruit is the outflow of that. And God yields then through that the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Often, a vine dresser has to prune the vine.

Why? So that it produces greater, better fruit. This is what God is doing. A peaceable fruit of righteousness. It means that you are ruled and characterized by peace.

Oh, what a goal that is. That I be ruled and characterized by peace, instead of being ruled and characterized by stress and anxiety. God uses the adversities in our lives to expose those flaws, to surrender to his sovereignty and to mold us into the image of his son. And so we come to the how then. How do we do this?

How do we run this way? How do we perceive the adversities of life when we understand them for what they are? Then how, in a very practical sense, what does he say in verse 5? Do not, my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. The adversities that you face, don't despise him.

The word despise means to think little of. And that's what we tend to do with something that's uncomfortable or dissatisfying to us. We just get it out of my life. And sometimes that's how we pray, isn't it?

Lord, just take this away from me. Maybe God's saying, no, I'm using it to mold you. That's why he says, don't despise the chastening of the Lord.

Here's what he's calling us to do. To sacrifice immediate gratification and comfort on the altar of future success. Again, God is molding us.

He's making a masterpiece out of us. That lump of clay has to sacrifice comfort in immediate gratification as it's being pushed and pressed and stressed and cut. And it sacrifices that on the altar of a future success. That's what military discipline does. That's what athletic discipline does.

It ought to be what parental discipline does. To sacrifice immediate gratification and comfort on the altar of future success. God is molding us. So he says, don't despise it.

And the second point is, and I borrow this line from Alex and Brett Harris, the young twin brothers who wrote a book. And it's called, Do Hard Things. Do Hard Things.

Look at verse nine. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? Be in subjection. Submit, endure, persevere. Brett and Alex Harris titled the book, Do Hard Things, and it's subtitled in this A Rebellion Against Low Expectation.

I love that. To a generation where nothing is expected of them, but to play and have fun. These two young men are saying, do the hard thing. What does that mean? In the context of the difficulties and adversities of life, trust God today. Be successful today.

What does he mean by that? To be successful means to operate according to design. What were you designed for? You were designed to fellowship with God and enjoy Him.

That's what you were designed to do. Do it today. It doesn't depend on your circumstances. It doesn't depend on whether or not you feel good.

It doesn't depend on whether or not people are treating you well. Trust God today. Pursue Him today in the context of your adversity and watch Him mold you. Don't wait for a more convenient time or a time when you feel like it. Submit to what He is doing.

Trust Him and pursue desire to please Him right now in the difficult moment without waiting for a more convenient time. I think what Charles Paul Kahn says in making it happen, God created man something in the order of a rubber band. A rubber band is made to stretch. When it is not being stretched, it is small and relaxed, but as long as it remains in that shape, it is not doing what it was made to do. When it stretches, it is enlarged. It becomes tense and dynamic and it does what it was made to do. God created you to stretch.

You can take that one to the back. So what are we called to? I borrow this from Haddon Robinson in the Journal of Evangelical Homiletics. I will do more than belong. I will participate. You see, this is doing the hard thing, not just when I feel like it or when it's convenient. I will pursue God and I will please Him now in the context of difficulty and adversity because my pursuit of God doesn't depend on my context.

God is using my context to mold me into His image. I will do more than care. I will help. I will do more than believe. I will practice. I will do more than be fair. I will be kind. I will do more than forgive.

I will forget. I will do more than dream. I will work. I will do more than teach. I will inspire. I will do more than earn. I will enrich. I will do more than give. I will serve. I will do more than live.

I will grow. I will do more than suffer, I will triumph." That is the spirit of what the author of Hebrews is writing to his readers.

And his point is this, it all comes down to this nutshell right here. In the adversity that we live in, understand it this way, God is faithfully, lovingly molding you into His masterpiece for His glory and your success. So that indeed you can function according to design to enjoy Him forever and fellowship with Him. God is molding you into that masterpiece using the context of adversity in which we live. He uses that to mold us. And He does so faithfully and lovingly. That is how God uses life.

That is how God is molding us. Praise be to Him. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.