Life of Conquest through Training (Discipline) (Heb. 12:4-13)
Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. May the great power of God be upon the individuals and families that are worshiping in the church, in their homes, and especially out of state. The praise that we heard from the choir was a song that was written by a young pastor. His wife passed away from a disease when she was young, and they had young children. This is the song he wrote in the midst of his wife’s death. This is a praise that confesses “Even in this situation, even in this time, may my heart be filled with only the confession of Christ.”
1. Struggle against sin to the point of shedding your blood
The title of today’s message is, “Life of Conquest through Training (Discipline).” As we live in this world, it’s possible we will face times of great suffering, but what is God telling us about these times of suffering today? If you believe in Jesus Christ, it feels like we shouldn’t have suffering, but why do we suffer?
1) Nonbeliever
And why do unbelievers who do not believe in Jesus Christ, receive curses? Unbelievers are not cursed because they make curses, but it’s because they are sinners. They receive the curses of sin because they are sinners ever since they are born; they are born with the original sin of not believing in God.
(1) Authority of Sin, Satan, Hell (Eph. 2:1-3)
This disaster will come even if they live an ethically and morally clean life. It doesn’t matter how much they beg through religion; these curses still find them. Even if they try to gain the greatest intelligence of mankind, these curses will find them. Because they are sinners, they are under Satan’s control, and before going to an eternal hell, they have no choice but to live a life of suffering hell on earth.
(2) Meditation, Religion, Idolatry
The elites in America go into transcendental meditation to try to solve their suffering, or they try to believe in a religion that they choose. But all of that is just an external effort to package and change how you externally look; it doesn’t change a sinner into a righteous person.
(3) Suffering in life (Spirit, Flesh)
They are fundamentally in a state that has no choice but to suffer, so they are bound to suffer. The world doesn’t know this; God gave the responsibility to educate the world about this to the churches; this is our meaning, our purpose, and our responsibility.
2) Child of God
But suffering comes even to children of God.
(1) Lovers of themselves, money, pleasure – Terrible times (2 Tim. 3:1-4)
The Bible tells us in 2 Tim. 3:1-4 that in the end times, people will love themselves more than God. Loving myself more than God means that God is the Word, but I love my thoughts more than I love and follow God’s Word. It’s because we trust and love our own thoughts and the words of people.
We will face suffering if we love money more than we love God. If we live in this world, we definitely need money, so we have no choice but to love money. But the children of God suffer because of that. They are boastful, proud, and critical of others–this brings suffering. They are disobedient to their parents and ungrateful, this brings suffering.
2 Tim. 3:4 says they are lovers of pleasure, this results in suffering. The young people in America love pleasure. At least twice a year, there’s a drug party during the holidays. People from all over the world will buy plane tickets to gather there. The two places I’ve confirmed for myself are one drug party kids do on the beaches of California, and another is by the Colorado River in Arizona. And young people will gather in groups to go to Mexico.
Because they’re not able to receive love from God, they receive pleasure through drugs or alcohol. Whenever there’s a holiday, a foreigner was waiting with a long line of older gentlemen waiting, and it’s because there’s a shuttle that takes them to go gambling. We don’t even have to mention what goes on beyond this. Even though we’re children of God, these things bring us suffering.
(2) Jesus Christ (Col. 2:3)
Col. 2:3 says Jesus Christ has all treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden within Him. Heb. 12:4 says, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” You are just pretending to fight; you haven’t actually fought. Christ is the solution to all problems and within Him are all things, but we haven’t finished that fight. Everything is contained within Jesus Christ, but we think there is something outside of Christ, so we love that.
(3) Form of godliness (2 Tim. 3:5)
2 Tim 3:5 says they have the form of godliness but they have no power. They have all of the form of going to church and worshiping, but inside of them, there is only the love of themselves, so there is no power of God. They prioritize “me” in everything they do, it is not God. “If I don’t have time, then I don’t need the things of God.” This is the reason suffering comes to believers.
3) Discipline – Training (Pr. 4:14)
God uses the word “discipline” in today’s Bible verse, but this word has a very scary connotation, related to punishment. If you look at it in Greek, you can see the word, paideia and in English, it means discipline or training. You shouldn’t just think of this as punishment. If you understand this as, “God is striking me down or punishing me,” that is a very limited understanding.
This word “Training” or “discipline” or paideia is in Proverbs 4:14 where a father will train his son. The Bible says a father physically disciplines his son to make them assimilate better into society. God will train or discipline us so that His children will go down the correct path of blessings.
(1) Those he loves (Heb. 12:6)
Heb. 12:6 says it is because the Lord disciplines those He loves. Because God loves His children, He disciplines them.
(2) Endure – To receive discipline (Heb. 12:7)
Heb. 12:7 says, “endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.” We endure this so we persevere because this time is absolutely necessary for this person.
(3) Everyone undergoes discipline (Heb. 12:8)
Heb. 12:8 says everyone who is a child of God undergoes this discipline.
(4) For our good (Heb. 12:10)
Heb. 12:10 says that God’s discipline is for our benefit. God is allowing this time of discipline for our own good.
(5) That we may share in His holiness (Heb. 12:10)
So that we may participate in His holiness. God Himself is holiness, you shouldn’t mistake this with ethics or morals. “Oh, that person lived such a good life,” that’s not a good life from God’s perspective. “That person has such a great personality,” not from God’s perspective; that has nothing to do with holiness. Holiness is only a product of God. God allows us to be disciplined so that we may be trained in being with God so we may enjoy that holiness.
In other words, God allows us to be disciplined so we may be trained to follow God’s Word. We must hold onto God’s Word and follow God’s Word, but instead, we hold onto and follow our own thoughts, so God allows us to be disciplined into God’s Word.
2. Results from training (Discipline)
1) Job
(1) He feared God (Job 1:1)
We can see an example of this discipline through Job. In Job 1:1, it says Job feared God, and it means he had faith.
(2) Greatest man among all the people of the East (Job 1:2)
Job 1:2 says he was blameless and upright; when people saw his personality and uprightness of his life, no one could compete, so God boasted of Job.
(3) Satan’s accusation (Job 1:11-12)
But one day, Satan comes and accuses. Satan doesn’t come in from out of nowhere; he always comes in through a channel. If you have a dirty place, cockroaches will come. If someplace is clean, cockroaches cannot come. One day, Satan crawls in and accuses, “Job is only faithful to you because you’ve blessed him, but if you take away everything from him, he will turn away from you.” So God allows Satan to do whatever he wishes to Job, except for taking his life.
2) Training (Punishment)
(1) Lost possessions, children died (Job 1:15-19)
Job had so much livestock and possessions, and he lost all of that at once. His beautiful children also lost their lives. For us, it’s even hard enough if we lose a little bit of our possessions and if our children are a little sick, but Job did not bat an eye. He goes with the confession of faith, “The LORD gives and the LORD takes away.”
(2) Job’s disease (Job 2:7)
Satan goes back to God and says, “He’s only blessing your name because he’s healthy,” so God allows Satan to take away his health but to save his life. The Bible tells us that Job had such a bad skin disease that he was scratching his own flesh off, and he was all alone, and his friends would say, “It’s because of this, it’s because of that,” but none of his friends could help.
(3) The result of Job’s fear and dread (Job 3:25)
Then, the things deep inside of Job came out. Job 3:25 says, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.” On the outside, it seems like we have faith. “It seems this person has faith because they do a lot of acts of faith and receive a lot of blessings.” However, Job was thinking of God as a scary God. He was thinking of God as a scary God Who would punish him if he and his children strayed away. He was living his walk of faith in fear, “If I don’t worship, then God will harm me.” But Satan uses the things deep inside of us to work.
This is not the faith that God desires. If a child has a father, but they’re always afraid of their father, isn’t that so strange? Why am I afraid of the father who gave birth to me? Of course, physically speaking, there are fathers who are very scary, they are abusive or alcoholics, and the children want to run away from home. Even so, deep inside that father, he loves his children. The father cannot control his own actions, but deep inside, he loves his child.
3) Result
(1) Fulfilled God’s power and plan (Job 42:2)
Ultimately, these spiritual states inside of Job are revealed. A lot of time passes, and in Job 42:2, Job says, “I know the True God and believe in Him. I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted.” He completely believed in the complete God Who has absolute sovereignty.
(2) God who listened -> Saw with his eyes (Job 42:5)
Job 42:5, Job confesses, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you,” it means he has experienced the living God in his life. Before, I just heard the word of God with my ears, but now I’m able to directly confirm the word of God being fulfilled in my life. This was the goal of the discipline God allowed Job to experience through Satan’s test.
There’s a time schedule like this for every individual and family, but it’s possible we may misunderstand, “Why is this happening to us even though God is there?” That’s not what is going on; God is allowing this for our benefit. There’s a praise that says, “I will praise my entire life.” One day, he went on a boat with his family, and because of the storm, he lost his beloved wife and children. From our perspective, we think, “If God is alive, He should have blocked this from happening.” It’s possible we may think that way.
At that time, Stafford was praying and he heard God’s Word. “Praising along life’s road.” Because he was praising God, he felt the peace of God within him. We may face this or that within our lives, but you shouldn’t misunderstand God. It’s possible the God you know is different from the God the Bible talks about. It’s possible that what a child wants and what a father wants are different. This is a time God is allowing for our benefit, for something greater that He has planned.
Some people suffer for a long time, but 1 Cor. 10:13 says that when we’re tested, God gives us a way out, and God gives you the strength to overcome this. If you have a test or great problem, God will give you the great faith to overcome it. For us, we cannot compare ourselves to each other because there’s a covenant God has given to me. The metal used to build military tanks is different from the metals used for a bike frame. It’s all metal, but it’s different. The iron used on military tanks has to withstand missiles, so they go through a lot of strengthening. But there’s no need to do all of that for a bicycle frame, you can keep it simple. Even though it’s the same material, because the end goal is different, the processing is different.
It’s not just Job, it’s Joseph, too. Joseph didn’t reach the end overnight. His mother died while he was young,and he was almost killed by his older brothers. In Psalm 105, it describes Joseph being dragged to Egypt with iron chains on his neck and hands, and the Bible said that God hadn’t given His Word until that point.
Why did Joseph need these things? Why didn’t he just go to Egypt comfortably? What was rightful had come. Joseph was always tattling on his older brothers to his father, and God had no choice but to put Joseph through all these things in order to fix Joseph’s loud mouth. “Why am I facing this difficulty?” What should have happened has happened. Without a doubt, I needed this, and I must find God’s plan within this.
After this point, Joseph did not open his mouth. That’s the training he needed when he went in as a slave. He could not remain the same way he was at home, so God put him through this program. Even though he was falsely accused and sent to prison, Joseph did not open his mouth. The many things happening to us are rightful. Just like Job, we have something within us, and this is a necessary program for me. What’s important is finding God’s absolute plan.
Why did God allow me to suffer with my scars for so long even though He can take it away quickly? There’s something rightful that leaves me no choice but to be scarred: I think of everything in terms of myself, and that’s why I’m scarred, even though I believe in Jesus. I’ve never once thought of the other person’s perspective, and I’ve never once asked what God’s plan is, so the scars remain there. Satan knows this and begins to work upon this wrath.
When the scars explode, they will drive a person crazy, and in order to prevent this, we have to avoid people, and we remain within this lie, saying, “This person scarred me.” Those words are correct because you can receive a scar from that person’s words. Last week, I gave the example of words that adults thoughtlessly said, but they scarred me when I was young. It turns out, it’s not really a scar, it was my inability to understand the other person’s perspective because I was only in high school.
Now that I’m mature, I can think from my aunt’s perspective, and it’s nothing to be scarred from, but I was so centered on myself. Nothing can help heal your scars. It doesn’t matter what excuses you make; you will only be a plaything for Satan and you will never be healed. God allows that scar to remain until you believe in the complete and perfect God, but if you only rely on yourself and you’re self-centered, you have no choice but to receive more scars.
Through this, you will be able to think of the other person’s perspective and look for God’s plan. If people go to church and get scarred, those words are correct but they’re wrong. If you get scars from your family, those words are correct but they’re wrong. The reason they’re wrong is because Satan continuously seizes me with his lies. “God is alive, why did God allow this? Why did God allow me to remain within mental and spiritual suffering for so long within my scars? Is it because God is powerless?” Joseph confessed, “There’s nothing impossible for God,” then why did God allow this to remain? May you restore this blessing.
(3) Restored everything double than before (Job 42:12-16)
Ultimately, Job receives twice as many blessings because God allowed all of those things in order to give Job the greater blessings. Job’s result was a stronger faith and more physical blessings. God is allowing this process so you can receive spiritual faith, and big things are coming to you because you have a big vessel.
It’s the same case for Daniel as well as the members of the Early Church: everyone used in the Bible faced great suffering. Even now, we may face the problem of life or death when we get sick. On the other hand, if we’re physically successful and prosperous, it’s not necessarily a good thing because God can either change that in one moment, or that’s just the extent to which a person is used.
3. Purpose of training (Discipline)
1) God’s covenant
(1) Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:2-3)
The goal for which God gives us discipline is to know who God is and to believe in Him completely. The Jewish people who converted to Christianity did not know the covenant of Jesus Christ well, and they kept getting tempted by the other Jews who were saying they needed blood sacrifices and priests, and that’s why people kept shaking on the church. Then, when people on the outside were persecuting them, they were suffering, and they were tempted from within as well, so they shook.
That’s why Heb. 1:2-3 says Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords and is controlling all creation with His Word. These are very important words. You shouldn’t limit creation and people with your thoughts. God is moving all business, all studies, all people, and all work with His Word. When you look at a person, you should see the mission God gave to them and how God will use them, but if you look at their pros, cons, strengths, and weaknesses, that’s the wrong perspective.
That’s why legalism is so scary. The legalism of the Pharisees and the Jewish people blocked people from seeing the gospel. If we wanted to be good or bad before God, then all of us would die, but God allows us to overcome ourselves with the gospel. Legalistic people come into the church and say, “Are your actions good or bad? If your actions are good, then you have faith.” That’s not true at all; you have to look at this person with what God has given them, and this is what God will reveal.
(2) Throne – Eternal, Scepter – Justice (Heb. 1:8)
Heb. 1:8 says, “Your Throne will last forever,” and God rules everything from this throne. It’s not about God being here or there; God exists everywhere, but God rules from the throne and His kingdom is eternal.
(3) Kingdom of God – World evangelism (Mt. 28:18-20)
God’s goal is to completely flip over Satan’s Kingdom on earth. The righteousness will be the scepter of the kingdom, and the scepter is a symbol of reign and authority, and he is saying, “This is just and right.” God is fair.
Why does God give me a lot of difficulties? God is fair. Why did God give us fewer difficulties? God is fair. If we don’t know this, then we think, “God, why are you only making me go through this?” It’s because you don’t know God, and God will allow this until you believe in the complete, perfect, and righteous God.
God is guiding us towards world evangelization where we change Satan’s Kingdom on earth into the eternal Kingdom of God because God’s Kingdom must be fulfilled. Even right now, God is doing that work and is looking for people who believe in that work and He desires for me to be aligned with that. The reason you study and work is because God gave it as an instrument for world evangelization. Because you don’t know this, God keeps disturbing your business until you do realize. Then, all of that is not suffering, but it’s a process to see God’s blessings.
2) Benefit
(1) Share in his holiness (Heb. 12:10)
In regards to this discipline, Heb. 12:10 says it’s so that we may share in His holiness.
(2) Harvest – Righteousness, peace (Heb. 12:11, Rom. 1:17, 3:26-27, 16:20, Pr. 3:1-2, 17, Is.
9:6-7, 26:3, 57:19, Mal. 2:5)
It is through this discipline that we produce a harvest of righteousness and peace, Heb. 12:11. This righteousness and peace are words that belong to Jesus Christ. There’s no righteousness in the world. The righteousness and justice the world has determined is not the righteousness that God desires.
The standard of God’s righteousness and justice is someone who has no sin dying for the sake of those who do have sin. Even in the world, there are people who sacrifice themselves for other people and for righteousness, but that’s not righteous before God. It’s possible for a sinner to die for another sinner, but a sinless God dying for sinners is righteousness.
Romans 1:17 says the gospel reveals God’s righteousness, and those who believe in that gospel are righteous. We do not become righteous because of our actions, but we share in God’s holiness because of our faith in Jesus Christ. But people keep living a good life without Jesus. It’s impossible to live a good life where you can never be righteous before God.
The Bible says Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Do we have peace? Some people say, “My kids are doing well, my business is doing well,” but that’s not peace. That’s a life of difficulties and problems; that’s not peace. Peace belongs to Jesus Christ in Heaven, but they live such a shallow walk of faith, then God has no choice but to put you through this program so you can have true peace. We’re talking about the peace that comes through believing in the Prince of Peace, Jesus. That’s not a peace the world talks about, like a lack of war; we’re talking about a peace you can have even in the midst of war. The true peace is something you can enjoy even through discipline and training.
(3) Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees (Heb. 12:12)
He says in Heb. 12:12, “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees,” it’s impossible for us to go into the path of God’s blessing because our arms and knees are weak. Because we’re so focused and centered on “me,” money, and success, we’re too weak to be centered on God.
(4) Level path – Heal the lame (Heb. 12:13)
In Heb. 12:13, “Make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed,” it means that we are disabled and God allows discipline to make our paths level. Our hands and legs are handicapped to the point where we cannot go into the blessings of the Triune God, we cannot go into God’s path of blessings without Him. That’s why God gives us this training, to strengthen us. That path is level, the path where God is with you is level. It is the path where God is with me, strengthening my arms and legs so that I may be with Him. This is the time schedule God has allowed for my discipline.
You have to not only endure this, but pass through this time schedule with eager anticipation for God’s plan for the future. I received that training for 10 years in Korea. I lived 10 years in a state where I had nothing. I lived 10 years in a state where I could trust nobody. That was a process through which God was training me and disciplining me so that I could be someone used by God. Was that a time of suffering for me? No, I overcame it because God gave me grace.
If I came to my senses physically, I’d think to myself, “Why am I living like this?” multiple times. We are not enduring with our mental grit; we are able to overcome suffering because God gives us grace. If we come to our senses, we will wonder, “Why did I live like this?” I lived in a family of unbelievers, and I lived as an unbeliever for 30 years. The characteristic of an unbeliever means that, for 30 years, I was trained to kill other people so I could survive. For 30 years, I was trained on how to live an upright life so I could succeed.
One day, God made me into a child of God but it was impossible for God to use me as a servant of the LORD, so He put me through a process of discipline and training. If I have some righteousness of my own inside, then I’m bound to kill others because that’s not the truth; that’s just the standard I made for myself, and that becomes the source for your conflicts. If you’re looking at the Word of God, then you would be aligned with each other, but you’re looking at the other person from your perspective. The devil knows about this and works upon legalistic people, those are the Pharisees who couldn’t even realize it. They thought they were correct and righteous, and it’s the time schedule where God trains many people in this way.
(5) Great temptation – Great faith (1 Cor. 10:13)
I hope you will receive all training with joy. God gives you a way out, God allows you the faith to overcome. Your posture should not be one of fear; you should overcome with joy. You should be joyful, we are joyful because we believe in God. God isn’t doing this to harm me, but He wants to give me more faith. “I believe in this and I will overcome with joy.”
If you don’t want to go into God’s discipline training for a long time, put yourself into training every day by yourself. Instead of living according to my thoughts, if you go into prayer with God’s Word, then you’ll be led by God’s Word, and this is the training I hope you will be led to. Otherwise, if you keep going into your own thoughts, God will keep disciplining you and put you on the right path.
We all have our unchanging, strong ideologies. These ideologies were inherited for generations in my family, and because we’re trying to live with the strength of our ideology, God disrupts us. “Oh, this is a disturbance of love that God is giving me to take me down the true path of blessings.” The Word itself is God. If you listen to the words of people, they will move you. If you listen to the words that scar you, you will be moved by those words. The characteristic of people who are swindled is because they listen to the words of conmen so carefully.
3) Every day
(1) God’s promise – Prayer
(2) God’s authority (Ac. 1:8)
(3) Witness who saves (Ac. 2:1-47)
May you go into the prayer that trains yourself to go into God’s Word every day, then you will receive power. That’s where we receive the power and wisdom to know everything to do with our life. “God, continuously give me strength so I can do my business and my studies within the fulfillment of God’s Word,” and God will guide you into the seat of the witness to save lives. God will fight for us, so do not be afraid. If a child is being scolded by their father, they don’t think they’re in danger because they know their father is disciplining them out of love.
Conclusion
1. I must go into training
2. Use my talent for the future generation Remnants
3. Save the region and 237 nations through the church
May you go into training with the church, the field, and your personal life, so you may be a person of world evangelization to save the world.
Prayer
Let’s hold into the Word God gave us and pray. The moment the words change into prayer, they become your power.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Prayer
God, we thank You. We thank You for finishing all problems on the cross, for guiding us towards world evangelization, and for training us for this purpose. We believe this is the discipline of love for our own good, to raise us up. We pray that You will pour Your grace and hope into our hearts so we may look for God’s plan within our circumstances.
We have returned our material blessings as offering. We believe that You will answer us with the economy of light to save the future generations, the Temple Construction, and the field. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. We pray that, according to the Word You have given us, that You may bless these two visitors with the love of God, so they may be able to testify of this gospel in their lives. May You bless this family, be with them, and use them as a precious start for Mongolian evangelization. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all of the people of God who desire to go into the work of world evangelization, be with us now and forevermore always, amen.