Right By Me

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

If you have been paying attention to some commercials that have been going on, you might be aware... I forgot my Bible. You might be aware that it just was Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month. I don't know if you were aware, but it was September 15th to October 15th, and when I first heard that, I thought that was very strange. Why would they put it in the middle of two months if it's Latinx Heritage Month. But I learned September 15th was chosen because it marks the independence of five Latinx countries,

including independence for Mexico and Chile, and those actually come a couple of days later. So that's why it's September 15th through October 15th. I learned just a little bit about Latin heritage as I was researching this a little bit. Heritage is actually a very rich word, right? It's not just a cultural catchphrase. We're not just celebrating Latinx and Hispanic Cultural Heritage Month. We're not just doing that because it's cool because heritage is kind of fun to say or fun to celebrate. Heritage, really when you look at it, it is a collection of essential things that are handed down from one generation to another. So you talk about your heritage, you're talking about a sum total of these essential things that often do not seem very valuable at first. When you are a child, you don't understand the heritage that you are being given, it just looks like things that,

a bunch of things that you don't wanna do. So we're talking about Latin heritage just to kind of wrap our minds around what heritage is. We're talking about Latinx heritage that might include knowing the lyrics to Oye Como Va. Anybody know those lyrics? Okay. Not in the Latin heritage. That's okay. Latin heritage might also include preparing empanadas. Latin heritage might also include learning about Dia de los Muertos. It also might include learning about how family decisions are made. It might include learning how to handle conflict. It might include learning why and how we celebrate a quinceanera. Okay? Most of us in this room have no idea about five of the words I just said. You don't understand. It's not your heritage. It's okay. But if we're talking about a heritage, we know these things, somebody that's in a Latin heritage is going to know these things innately.

They're going to grow up around these things. Because when we are immersed in any kind of heritage, when we are immersed in that heritage, we receive a worldview, a collection of essential things that are handed down, and it shapes how we see everything else. So the heritage that you were given, Maybe you learned how to handle conflict a specific way. Maybe you learned, I don't know, the lyrics to Parents Doesn't Understand. I don't know. I don't know what you learned the lyrics to. Don't start reciting them, Steve. Don't start reciting those lyrics. It's not okay.

When we are immersed in that kind of heritage, we receive a worldview from it. We get a sense of justice, a sense of hope, an appreciation of beauty, an appreciation of art, and attention to spiritual realities. Heritage, the reason I bring up Latinx heritage is because heritage is actually much easier to see in other people, in other cultures. If you start talking about your own heritage, it's strange, it's like talking about how you breathe air.

Heritage is the air we breathe, it's the lens through which we see everything else. It's why things make sense to us. In some cases, it's what we think is right or wrong, or good or bad, or strange or familiar. Heritage determines a lot of those things for us, but again, it's difficult for us to see. We're going through the book of Hebrews in all of 2022. In the spring, we talked about how Jesus was higher. We went through Hebrews 1 through 4. We also talked about a higher promise, and that brought us through Hebrews 8. summer we just finished a couple weeks ago was a higher hope and that got us all the way through Hebrews 11. Now we are finishing the last two chapters of the book of Hebrews and we are discussing what we're going to be calling a higher heritage. And really it's asking this question, what is our heritage as disciples of Jesus? Not as Americans, not as whatever ethnicity we identify

with, not as where we're from, not as Burlesonites or Crallyites or whatever, Texans. We're not talking about that kind of heritage. What kind of heritage, what is our heritage as disciples of Jesus Christ? What are the collection of essential things that we have been given and that we should be giving as disciples of Jesus, as Christians? Another way to ask this is, if someone were to observe our church from the outside, what would they say our church is handing down? Is it the way we conduct services? Is it musical styles? Is it cultural awareness? Is it convenience? Is it moderately interesting sermons? That was a joke. Okay. You didn't laugh, so now I know. Truly, truly, what is our substance? What is the substance of our heritage? What does Scripture tell us to pass on to the next generation? What are those essential things? I think the answers might surprise you.

Hopefully they will inspire you. We're going to spend the next, this week and the next four weeks, talking about these essential things. What are we handing down? talking about reverent obedience next week, a loving community, a unified sacrifice, and we're talking about gospel partnership. Today, this week, we're going to be talking about a disciplined endurance. And to do that, we're going to be in Hebrews 12. And if you want to turn there, we're going to be going through verses from 1 through 11 today. Hebrews 12, 11, and we really do pick it up where we left off. Hebrews 12:1, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so tightly and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. We saw in Hebrews 11 that there is a great hall of faith, right? a great cloud of witnesses.

All of these people that have gone before us, extremely imperfect people that are expressing faith in action, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, Gideon. And there's so many of them, and I love the imagery, there's so many of them, it's a cloud. The air is thick with them. The air is thick with their hope, with their cheering on. We are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses.

And because we are in this cloud, because we are surrounded by this cloud, there is encouragement to lay aside heavy sin and to run with endurance. Says you're surrounded by these people, take the weights off your ankles and run with endurance. But these are no ordinary weights. These are, this is no ordinary heaviness. This is the sin that clings so closely like it says in the ESV. In the NIV it says it's the sin that so easily entangles. Which actually, I think I just prefer the NIV on that because in this and both, you just get the idea that it's like taking bubblegum off of Play-Doh, right? I mean, it's just, it's hard, it's sticky, it's not easily removed. You're thinking that you're gonna need like some other kind of chemical to get this going here. It is something that as soon as you try to get it off, you get it on the hand that you're trying to pull it off with.

It's sticky, it clings, it easily entangles. And the reason that's important is because if we're gonna endure, then we have to endure not just by removing sin one time, but we have to endure by continually removing sin even whenever it is the 10,000th time. Even if it's our 10,000th time sinning that exact same sin, we have to face it, we repent of it, we admit to it. And so in this way, the sin, we talk about a sin being heavy, the sin is not heavy because it's somehow such a big burden to carry. It's heavy because it is an emotional, psychological burden. It is difficult emotionally, psychologically to handle the fact that you are having to deal with this again for the 10,000th time. Easily entangling sin, pulling that off is extremely difficult. What verse 1 is telling us, and it'll go into the next couple of verses, you must endure a continual war with sin.

You must endure a continual war with sin. At various points, the preacher in Hebrews is motivating this church towards spiritual maturity and here he is saying, you are at continual war and you must endure it. And there's more in the next two verses, Hebrews 12, 2, and 3. It says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted." In our battle with sin, in our continual battle with sin, we have a cloud of witnesses. We also have Jesus, our hero to look at. We have Jesus, and he's more than just to look at, he's both our example and our perfecter. So in verse 3 you kind of see him as our example.

Because he's our example, and this is something that we can just be encouraged about, because he's our example, we don't need to hide our pain. Jesus when he endured pain did not man up and get really quiet and just kind of go, well I'll just endure it. You know, that's not what Jesus did. Jesus actually wailed very loudly from the cross. Jesus was very open about the fact that he was going to suffer and that he was suffering. Jesus was open with his pain. He did not hide it. As a church, leadership, anyone else, what we must do is continually display this battle against sin and temptation, not as something foreign or not as something only low-level Christians do or not as something, you know, like, oh, well, you'll start with that for a little while, but then you'll start acing the tests and everything will be fine. Because then we have a lot of people that grow up in their faith thinking, okay, at

some point I should have started acing the tests and now I'm failing and I don't know where to go from here. And what that creates is an environment where people feel disqualified. And if you would give them true serum and you'd sit them down and you'd say, are you qualified to do any kind of real ministry? They would say, no, I am not. And it's not because they're scared. It's not because they're hiding. It's not because they're lazy. It's because they truly feel like they are second class or third class Christians. That they've been through too much, they've done too much, they struggle with too much, We must display this continual war with sin as part of our ongoing maturity. It is normal to lose heart. It is normal to grow weary. That's a normal part of being a Christian. And because weariness and faint heartedness and pain are all normal, It means that it is essential that we hand down a collected wisdom on how to fight against

it. Let me say that one more time. Because that pain is normative, because weariness and faint heartedness happen often, it is essential that those of us who are older are open with the fact that we deal with those things. And we are open with that fact to people that are younger than us. The reason that's important is so that they can grow up with the realistic idea of what it is to be at whatever level you're at. They probably want to be at that level one day when they see you doing it. The best thing that you can do is not just, I mean, don't just show them what a flunky you are, but show them victories and defeats. Show them hang ups and things you're good at. about the ups and downs, talk about things you're praying about that you're frustrated about. It is essential that we hand down the collective wisdom of how to fight against sin, and we need

to explain it humbly to those in whom we are investing. So Jesus is our example. We don't have to hide our pain. Jesus is also our perfecter, which has a different connotation or a different maybe perspective on our pain, because Jesus is our perfecter, our pain has a purpose. Because Jesus is our perfecter, our pain has a purpose. And you see this in the next four verses. Verses five and six. It says, and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the ones he loves and chastises every son whom he receives." So verse 3 is saying, don't grow weary, don't grow faint-hearted. Verse 5, why? Because pain is part of the plan for your discipline. Pain is part of the plan for your discipline. And when I say that, I really want to carefully define what discipline is.

So I've made a diagram because I make diagrams. I just like doing it. So discipline, let's understand it as an overlapping of three different things that do not get confused for one another, but things that sometimes discipline gets confused for. So discipline, we'll start on the bottom left. Discipline includes correction. It includes consequences and warnings. Like it includes, you know, setting up consequences and giving those consequences. That's part of discipline. It's not all discipline is, but it is part of discipline. Now, this is why God gives us two-year-olds as parents to learn that kids need correction. Bottom right, nurture. Nurture is part of discipline. You're caring for the needs of a person, right? If you're going to discipline someone and it's not relational, there's something missing. You are a drill instructor. You are not actually giving them true discipline.

And at the top there is training. So you're actually talking about skills and preparation, talking about actual scenarios, situations that you are training people for. And so maybe we can just understand it in a couple of different ways. But if you take out, if you just do correction and nurture but there's no training, then your discipline is going to lack understanding. It's gonna lack purpose. You don't know why you're doing it. You're just getting correction and then you're getting nurture.

If you only train, if it's only training and correction, you're going to lack empathy. The person that you're discipling or that you're disciplining is going to lack empathy over time. You're not building a relationship with them. Okay, you're just telling them how to do something and you're whipping them when they don't. That's all you're doing. And that's lacking. If it's only nurture and training, but there's no correction, then the person who's receiving the discipline is going to lack restraint. They're not gonna know how to handle themselves. You need training, correction, and nurture if you're gonna talk about discipline. And the goal of discipline here, the goal of discipline, biblically, is to form someone into the image of Jesus. And that goes for any kind of discipline at all. I realize sometimes you are handing out discipline or you are disciplining maybe people at work

that don't know the Lord. That's fine, I'm not telling people that you have to be perfectly like Jesus. But what you are saying as you discipline somebody, Romans 8, 29, we're being conformed into the image of Jesus, is that when I correct my own children, for example, when I discipline my own children, and the way that that looks has varied through the years, my hope for them as I am giving them correction, training, and nurture, my hope for them is that they become like Jesus.

And even if I'm a manager over a team, I am making that team, I am working with that coworker, I'm instilling discipline so that that team can align with the wisdom of God's word. That team can, in so much as they can, look like Jesus. In other words, they care for one another. They get their work done on time, things like that. When you are going for discipline, you are going for Christ-likeness. Discipline is essential for living a life of endurance. The preacher in Hebrews is pointing to the Hall of Faith that we just looked at in Hebrews 11. The preacher in Hebrews is pointing to Jesus, he's pointing to both of those people and he's saying to the church, look at these people, now fight, fight, endure against sin, fight the war against sin, the sin that so easily entangles, endure the pain. You've got your example in Jesus. He's the one that is that is kind of making all this work together

You've got the cloud of witnesses that is cheering endure embrace the discipline of the Lord heed his correction rest in his nurture learn the training embrace the discipline of the Lord our war with sin, our continual war with sin on this side of heaven is something that God uses to discipline us to endure. It takes discipline to resist sin. We see this in verses 7 and 8. It says, it is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline, if you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." Listen, the reason that we need an explanation like this in verses 7 and 8, the reason that it tells us, no, no, this actually confirms the fact that you are a son or daughter of the Lord, is that discipline is way, way more painful than we ever expect. If you think that you are going to

enter into this next season of life and you think you've got it all figured out and then you know exactly what the Lord's going to do and you think you're disciplined enough and you think you've got kind of what it takes to then you are in for a rude awakening. That is not how it works at all ever. The discipline of the Lord is more painful than we expect because the training pushes us past our limits. The correction stings. It hurts. Even the nurture can have medicine that tastes really bad and is hard to choke down. Discipline can feel, in other words, like rejection. discipline can feel like rejection. I want you to consider a sin, just as an example. Let's consider the sin of envying other people. You know that you should not envy other people. You should not look at them and want what they have or think the things you think, but it's the sin that clings so tightly.

That envy just pops up and you think, Man, they have it so easy. They don't need to work as hard as I do to get the same results. They get everything they want. It all falls in line for them. Their life is so much easier. I don't have the same obstacles that they have. You begin to compare yourself. You begin to envy their life. You begin to hate your own life. And you fight, you fight this envy off to the best you can with the truth And you say, in prayer, you say, okay, in Christ, I know I am blessed beyond measure. My life is moving according to the plan and purposes of the Lord. Yes, but the sin that clings so tightly comes back with, if God really cared for you, then your life would not be this hard. This is what the sin that clings so tightly says to you. It says, if you were really God's favorite, if you really had it all together, then you would have more of what you want.

The sin that clings so tightly, it tempts you with feeling like you're an illegitimate son, feeling like you are rejected. discipline in that scenario and fighting off envy. Discipline is not God muting that voice, right? It's not God saying, okay, envy, you don't get to say anything anymore. That's not how it works. It's not how it works. God doesn't come in and just wipe away all your temptation. That's not what happens. That's not what we see in the New Testament. God doesn't take it all the way. Discipline is holding on to the truth in spite of the emotional anguish that you are going through. Discipline is you holding on to the truth despite the emotional anguish that you are going through because that process can feel like God is leaving you out in the cold. It can feel like you're being abandoned. Discipline hurts. And when I was a child, I'm sure, I don't know this for sure because I don't remember

what life was like when I was three. But I do know from what my parents tell me, I was an honoring child. I know that's difficult to imagine, but I was extremely disobedient. I had a wry smile and I would try to get away with it as much as possible and then try to ham it up as much as I could afterward to limit whatever punishment I was about to receive. That was how I worked. I can imagine that as a three-year-old when my dad sat me down and whipped my bottom to kingdom come, that it felt like he didn't like me. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's what I felt. I'm pretty sure I felt like my parents were mad at me whenever they were spanking me. Even as a teenager, as a grade school owner and a teenager, I can imagine, I remember this actually, I remember wanting to go out with friends or do something and my parents saying no. And they had, I'm sure, justifiable reasons.

But when they said no, and I endured that, I thought, oh, jerks. Whatever I could throw on them to smear their character, I would do it. I was mad at them because it felt like they were rejecting me, so I was going to reject them. I can remember one time specifically, I wanted to buy a suit. I needed a suit for a dance that I was going to. I wanted to buy a suit, and I don't remember how old I was, maybe 14 or 15. I was old enough to know better for sure. And I was with my mom and my mom was married to my stepdad at this point. She had already gotten remarried. And so financial decisions went through my stepdad. My mom, man, I could get her to do a lot. I mean, I could say, Mom, Mom, I really need a new suit. Come on. Just, hey, we got the money. Come on. And then my stepdad's over there like iron fist, like not letting go of the money to buy it, right? And I can remember getting so upset that, man, I said, and I won't go into detail, I said

and did some things that I completely regret. And the reason I did those things is because I felt like I was being attacked. I felt like I was being rejected, like I was being left out in the cold. When in all actuality, I just wanted a suit and my parents said no. I was enduring the discipline of my stepdad. And it felt like rejection. How much more, how much more, the creator of the universe, whenever we endure his correction, does it feel like rejection? Does it feel like we're being left out in the cold? We get a little bit more explanation for this in the next couple of verses, 12.9. It says, besides this, we have had earthly fathers, or stepfathers, who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? So it's highlighted in the fact that God is the one that is specifically disciplining us.

And the indication or the implication here is that it is better than human discipline. So say, look, our fathers did what they thought best, or us that fathers, they did what they thought best. But this is so much better why next two verses, for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. Okay. Now listen, as a dad, I can say this, I'm only doing what seems best to me in the given moment with the information that I have. Okay. Every parent, I hope, can amen that in their heart. This is how I discipline my children, right? I disciplined them for a short time as seemed best to me. Okay. So it says, for they, for the earthly fathers did that, but, verse 10, but he, God, disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been

trained by it. I will say it again, the goal of discipline is to form us into the image of Jesus. Romans 8, 29, that God's goal for us, we need to look like Jesus. In other words, discipline is the only way that we share in the holiness of God. It's the only way, discipline is the only way that we become more like Jesus. It's the only way that the fruit is grown. There's an old story that gets told several times through and I heard it so I'll just tell like I told you. I heard that this man speak one time and he said he was at his grandmother's house and there was a lemon tree in her front yard. And this lemon tree, you know, when he was a lot younger that lemon tree would produce lemon and then he'd go pick the lemons. And then after a few years it quit producing lemons. And so he was talking with his grandmother and he said, Grandma, do you know this doesn't

produce lemons anymore? She goes, you know what? Here go into the garage and grab the baseball bat. I said, okay, grab the baseball bat. And he goes, okay, grandma, I got the baseball bat. She goes, go out there and beat that tree at the base. Beat it as hard as you can for three or four minutes. He said, are you serious? I said, yeah, beat with a baseball bat, that tree at the bottom, like right near the ground, beat it three or four minutes. He said, okay. So he goes and does it. Grandma doesn't tell him anything, because grandma's wise. So you just do what grandma says. He goes and beats a tree.

Nothing happens. He's like, okay, I beat the tree. And she said, good boy, that's it. Put the baseball bat up and then we're done. Next season that tree's growing lemons again. And he goes in there, he goes to grandma, the lemon tree's producing fruit again. She goes, yep. She said, sometimes when a tree does that, you just have to shake the roots up. The roots grow dormant and you've got to really beat it around for those roots to wake up to begin taking nutrients from the ground and begin to produce tree again, or produce fruit again. I don't know if that's true even. Let me just tell you, I'm just telling you a story like I heard it. I don't know if that's true. If you can like, you know, if you're a biologist and you can prove me wrong, then cool. I don't know. But I think we see the idea and I think we see it in us that sometimes, man, you've You've got to get shaken at the roots.

You've got to get shaken at your core. And look, some wordsmith putting a sermon a particular way, that's fine. Watching a YouTube video that spiritually convicts you, that's cool. But it is not like the discipline of the Lord. The discipline of the Lord shakes you at your roots. you begin to grow fruit in a new way. The discipline of the Lord doesn't, it's not about cosmetic changes. It's not about changing out, you know, if you talk about like renovating a house, it's not just changing out tile, you know, for carpet, or it's not anything like that. We're talking about ripping out the studs. We're talking about taking whole walls out. We're talking about taking the roof off and putting something else on. It's totally different, the kind of renovation the Lord wants to do in your heart, and he does it through the discipline of the Lord. Our heritage then must include disciplined endurance.

We must know how to fight sin on an everyday basis. We must be okay with saying that we fight sin, that we endure sin. We must be okay with that. is why it is imperative for us to demonstrate. People need to see it. So how do we do it? How do we hand this down? Let me give you three keys very quickly. First key, if we're gonna hand this down, we need to fight for each other. Fight for each other. We need to take time to invest in other people. I mean, it's just what Steve and his testimony was saying that the major moments in his life were kind of mediated through really important relationships. If you are functionally disconnected from everybody else, and you're really not investing in another person, you're missing out. Not only are they missing out, but you're missing out. This is why we have life groups. We have life groups so that we can know practical ways to fight for each other.

We only do three things in a life group, and one of them is confession. And that's why. It's so that we can fight for each other. All of us fights in every day, but we will all feel alone in that struggle until someone says something. Someone demonstrates something and someone's open about it. Again, if you're interested in a life group, if you go out those doors that left and on the left, there's a sign up sheet for those of you who are interested. So we've got to fight for each other. We also have to fight sin, not discipline. Don't fight discipline, fight sin. Okay? We're gonna go back to the discipline Venn diagram. Discipline is correction. It is necessary. It is nurture. Sometimes you got a hard pill to swallow. It is training. You need to seek what God has put in front of you and be okay with being a beginner. Fight sin, not discipline. Embrace the discipline. Fight the sin. Lastly,

we need to fight all the time. This might be depressing, but I think it's ultimately healing and helpful. Life is war. Life is war. Sometimes it is more than that, but it is never less. Life is war. Sometimes it's more, but it is never less. You are in a continual battle with sin every day, all the time. To pretend otherwise is just to be a liar. Don't do it.

This means that you need to schedule time to be with the Lord, be in his presence. Those things are, that's gonna actually help you fight sin. You need to say no to the things that harm you. You need to say yes to things that give you life, but you cannot do that on your own, because if you try to do that on your own, you're going to feel overwhelmed. Some of you are feeling overwhelmed right as I say these words. And it's because you feel like I'm telling you to do it all on your own and you don't need to do that. That's actually a really bad plan. Don't do it on your own. Get people around you and help you fight sin because sin does not take a day off. I want you to imagine your life with disciplined endurance. I want you to imagine that your every reaction to hardship is not frustration. And maybe look, maybe you're not like, you know, running down the street with a big smile

on your face because you know discipline's coming. Like that's not, I don't want to paint some Pollyanna picture of discipline, right? It's hard. It pushes us past our limits. But it is the way, the only way that we grow. In October's of years, just early fall, sometimes, particularly for families, particularly families of young kids, it is a hard time of the year. It is difficult. It's kind of a slog. You're like halfway through the fall. Like the summer was great, The holidays are going to be great, but you aren't anywhere close to either one of those. You are like, mid-October, you're right there. Let me just encourage you, if you are in a season that is just a slog and you have no one to talk to about it, my encouragement, obviously I think signing up for a live group is a great idea, but I just want to encourage you, talk to somebody about it. When you do that, when you talk about things that are frustrating to you and you're saying,

okay, Lord, what are you doing in the midst of that? I think you'll be surprised as to what He's going to say. You'll be surprised at the people that pop up around you. I want you to try to imagine not just your life, but our life collectively as a church, where we are open with what's going on, where we know to pray for one another. As we go into our time of response, I just want to encourage you, and I'm just going to be up here at the front, I just want to encourage you, if you need to receive prayer, if you want me to pray for you, then I will do that. If you want the person next to you to pray for you, then do that. Don't be afraid to ask for it. It's okay. You might think that you're going to look dumb, but you're actually going to inspire like 15 other people that look, they're doing that even though they're risking looking dumb, they're asking for prayer. That's a good thing to do. Let me pray for us.

Jesus, thank you so much for the opportunity that you give us just to be your children, to walk in your discipline. I pray that we would understand it as a good thing, that we would not hate your discipline, that we would not buck against it, but that we would embrace it. Lord, we ask for this time for you to to train us, to correct us, and to nurture us. You are perfect in all your ways. You know exactly what we need and when we need it. I pray that you would give it. It's your name that we pray. Amen. Would you please stand? Thank you.