— Brother Phil Enlow: I’ll tell you, I feel the need to just let go and trust God more than I ever have. How about you? Does He know what He’s doing? Does He know how to design things?
But how many times, I wonder, when we begin to kind of wander a little bit in some fashion in our lives, does the Lord speak to us quietly? And we hear that voice behind us, “…This is the way, walk ye in it.” (KJV). What happens if we don’t listen to that? Do you think the Lord says, oh well, just let him go. No, sometimes the Lord has to come and speak a little louder. Sometimes He has to allow something to happen to kind of get our attention. And you see a little bit of a progression that’s often necessary in our lives. Some of us, He needs to whop upside the head to get our attention.
( laughter ).
You know, David was inspired to write, “Do not be like the horse or the mule…” (NIV), because you can’t just explain what you’re gonna do, you’ve got to use physical control methods to get them to do what you want them to do. God doesn’t want…He wants us to be sons and daughters. He wants us to understand these things, not just simply respond to things that happen to us and, you know, yield to that. Yes, but He wants us in the process to grow up with our understanding so that when we stand there with Him that day, we will get it! We will know, as the scripture says, as we are known. And oh, we’ll be able to stand there.
I’ll tell you, you know, one word that is misunderstood, and I don’t know that it’s always bad the way it’s used. But, one of the words that is used of God’s people is that we are adopted, is the adoption of sons. And I think a lot of folks think of that as we think of it, I adopted somebody who needed parents and now we’re making them part of our family. That’s not what the original word meant. This was literally a ceremony that was performed when an adult son had reached a point where the father could hand him his seal and say, this man is my…represents my name. I’ve given him my name, I’ve given him the authority to act in my name. This is a grown son and I present him to the world. He’s ready to do business. That’s where this is headed, folks. Where God is bringing us to that point. Just another illustration of what I said earlier about God’s intent here.
But here’s the thing. Are these disconnected thoughts? We’ve talked about enduring in a race. Now we’re talking about discipline. Are they disconnected? See, that’s what we need to understand. That when God allows something, when He ordains some difficulty with which we must deal, it is His hand to train us, to teach us. We are folks in school. How do we deal with that? How do we respond, is the question?
And so, here’s the verse, in verse 7, that connects these two. It says, “Endure hardship as discipline….” Do you see the connection? You’ve got the hardship implied very plainly, in verse 1, about how we’re supposed to run with endurance. Then he talks about discipline. Now He connects the two, and says, the hardship I talked about back there is actually child training. I’m the One who sent it! Okay?
So if you get mad about it, who are you mad at? Ah, see it’s not just endurance, it’s got to be a deeper, a deeper reality that we enter into when we see what’s happening in our lives and how we react to it. Not just, I’m gonna get through it, I don’t have to like it. But okay, I’ll do it, I just won’t have to like it. But God wants to bring us to a deeper place where we can have the joy that Jesus had, and how He was able to move forward.
“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.” And that’s where He goes and he uses the illustration of earthly discipline. And I hope that there was some discipline somewhere in your life that you actually do respect now when you look back. I realize there’s some awfully broken situations. But here’s where it comes down to, “How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!”
And it says, “They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order 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.”
Now, we have another ‘therefore.’ See, the passage started with a ‘therefore’ that looked back to the foundation that had been laid and the example of all those who had by faith persevered in life and now were standing in glory encouraging us, ‘therefore.’ But now we’re getting a deeper look at what the hardships of life are really about, that there is a God who has ordained them to train us.
Now, look back sometime at Deuteronomy, chapter 8, and you will see that same thought, the very passage where he says, he caused you to hunger, and he fed you, and it goes right down to the end of that paragraph in the translation here, and it says, but God is treating you like a son, as his father disciplines his son so the Lord is disciplining you.
There’s an interesting passage in Deuteronomy. In fact, I read it in my reading this morning, in which the Lord uses that same imagery of a father discipling his son, and He actually, it appears, that He’s including not just the things that happened to them, but the things that He did to Egypt, all the signs and wonders, all the victories that were won against them, the destruction of the army that happened there, and the cloud and the pillar and all of those things, and the judgment that fell upon some who rebelled, and all of those things were part of their training.
Oh, I pray that God will help us to see that everything that He allows in our life is part of our training. So obviously, endurance is a big part of that, where we are willing to keep on going, and say, God, You’re gonna help me to keep on going, but I’m gonna keep on going. That’s the what.
But, is that enough? Is it enough to just keep going? Again, we’re familiar with the idea that, okay, I’ll do it, but I don’t have to like it. But here you come down to another, “Therefore…” and it says, “…strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.”
Now, is he talking about, literally? There’s something that’s happening in our spirits. In other words, things can happen that weaken us, if we allow it to weaken us. We can be wounded. We can be…we can have maladies that go far beyond these bodies, these temporary bodies. You can have somebody that looks like Charles Atlas, for any of you that remember who he was, or anybody that just looks great physically. But you could have a spirit, that if you could see it, was just full of wounds, bruises, sores with pus running out of them—all kinds of wounds.
What about those? Do you believe that God wants His children to go around with a wounded spirit like that? I’m so thankful that we have somebody who’s not just concerned with healing bodies. You know, Jesus raised bodies from the dead, but they died, eventually. But that was temporary. I want to be part of something, I want to understand, with my understanding I want to cooperate with something that never ends.
But I don’t want to go through this life wounded. How effective can I be if I’m wounded on the inside and I just go along and those wounds just hang on? And so, what the writer here is saying, is that there is a part that I need to play. I can go along and I can outwardly do the right thing, and just keep going, and look to God and all of that, and still carry wounds and weakness, and lameness on the inside.
You know, we’re familiar with a wound that punctures our skin somewhere, and there’s a process of healing. But what happens if you just keep picking it, and picking it, and picking it, and picking it—picking the scab is what we say. What happens?
( congregational response ).
Yeah, it takes longer to heal and it’s liable to get a whole lot worse. I wonder how many of us have wounds, deep on the inside, that are like that? You know, my mind was brought to this scripture because of the King James translation of this verse 13. And, the end of it says, “…but let it rather be healed.” (KJV). Well, I mean, the thought is the same, but those words are clear in this respect, I can’t heal it. I don’t have the power to fix what’s going on inside, but I can sure get in the way of the process that would heal it.
See, the word ‘healed’ there is passive. It means I need to allow something to happen. If you’ve got a sore and you keep picking at it, you’re not letting it be healed, are you? Do you suppose we ever do that on the inside? There are things that happen in our spirits, and instead of letting those things be healed, we’re hanging onto them.
That’s a lot to think about, isn’t it? I mean, obviously, it could be things that happen to us, I mean, an obvious example is that if somebody does something that is distressing or where there’s a problem, and there’s a person involved, and it’s a real trial to us. It’s not just that we keep going, but how do we react to that on the inside? Do we sit there and harbor resentment, hate, all of those kinds of reactions in the spirit?
Do you think that when Jesus was despised and rejected of men that He just went around with a seething mass of, boy, I’m gonna get them one of these days? See, there was a freedom on the inside. Whatever darts, if you will, the devil threw at Him, He knew better than to allow those things to infect His spirit and make Him sick on the inside, carrying around a load of hatred and resentment and bitterness and unforgiveness, and all these things.
Do you wonder why Paul deals with that many times? He’ll exhort Christians to get rid of sins of the flesh. You know, sexual lust that’s out of bounds. All these other kinds of things. Don’t do those kinds of things. Stop robbing people, he even says in one place. Don’t steal anymore. I’ll tell you, Christians come out of a lot of backgrounds, don’t they?
But then he almost always goes into these sins of the spirit, that we’re pretty good at hiding. We’re pretty good at nurturing grudges. I wonder how much of our endurance and putting one foot in front of another is done grudgingly? Again, I’ll do it, but I don’t have to be happy about it. And instead of seeing the hand of a loving, heavenly Father who allows things to happen for our ultimate good, we are seeing the instruments and focusing our displeasure on the inside. I’ll smile, but on the inside that’s not what’s there. I’m covering up a wound that’s in here.
How much of that goes on? I mean, you think of kids growing up and how they treat each other, how they react to that. My God! God is the only one that can give grace to see past that. But think how Jesus did, despised, rejected of men. All they did to Him at the weakest moment, just before He died on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (NIV). Man, that takes divine grace!
( congregational amens ).
But here’s the problem. What if God does something in your life and allows it because He sees a need in your heart and in your life, and instead of just doing the right thing, you’ve got this wound that you allow in your heart, and He wants to come and heal it, and we say, that’s my wound, I’m gonna nurture it, I’m gonna wallow!
Let it be healed! How many of God’s people are lame when it comes to running the race that God has marked out for us, because of what’s happening inside? We can’t let it go. We can’t have freedom. When God sends something, He never sends it so that you can wallow in self-pity.
But I mean, weakness is something we don’t like, but as we’ve pointed out so many times, Paul learned to see it in a different light. But that goes for everything that could possibly happen to us. It’s not just what we do, in the sense of putting one foot in front of another, it’s how we do it, and how we see it. Do you see the difficulties and the challenges of life, the thing that your flesh doesn’t like and would rather avoid, do you see them as a Heavenly Father who loves you, knows what He’s doing, and wants your ultimate good?
Oh, His heart is longing for the day when He can say, this is my son in whom I’m well pleased, this is my daughter in whom I’m well pleased. They put their lives in my hands and they went through a lot of stuff, but I gave them everything they needed to be able to handle it. And they surrendered, they saw past the passing problems of this world, and they saw my hand of love in their hearts. They surrendered to my discipline, and I changed them. I gave them real, rich grace deep in their hearts and I brought them through.
So, it’s not just endurance in the sense of putting one foot in front of another, it’s, how we do it. Do we do it without grudging? Do we do it with joy, with understanding? And when there is a genuine wound, are we willing to bring it to Him to heal it?
There are a lot of things that happen in this life that we just don’t have the power to fix! I can’t stop feeling some things unless God helps me! And, you know, the answer is not to cover it up. It’s not to try to drink it away or drug it away, which is the only answer the world has for a lot of people. You know, I’m so glad this doesn’t just apply to us. God is able to heal the broken hearted!
( congregational amens ).
He’s the only One that can heal the wounds that life delivers! When He calls people by the Gospel, it is a God who’s capable of healing, not just the body but the inner man, to set us free from all of that stuff. But oh, how many times, if we’re honest with ourselves, do we cling to our wounds and pick our scabs, and embrace them as just, well, that’s just part of me? When the Lord is longing to pour in the balm of His mercy and His love and heal us so that we can be free.
Think of the scripture we’ve used so many times, in Philippians, about Paul, talking about forgetting what is past, forgetting those things that are behind. Aren’t these some of the things we need to forget? When life wounds you, what do you do?
Now, I want to say, that the healing we need, down in here, in the inner person, is not a push-button thing necessarily. There are wounds that are very real. And just like wounds, sometimes take time. A very strong wound in our flesh takes time to heal. And we can cooperate with that process or we can get in the way of it and say, that’s mine and I’m mad at whoever caused this and I’m gonna cling to that and feel sorry for myself and so forth, all the range of stuff, you know all about it, you’re human.
But there are genuine wounds that the Lord allows, when a loved one dies. He’s so willing to come and heal. But that’s not just something where you can just push a button and pretend. There is a genuine healing that has to take place. But can we continue to look to the Lord and say, Lord, Your grace is enough. Just give me grace for today. Help me to understand what’s happening and to cooperate with it, because that’s what this is about.
Do we understand what this life is about for His children? God has called a people to live in a broken world. One of the scriptures that is prophetic of God’s Son has to do with the fact that He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. So, we’re called to live in a world that has both good and evil. If we’re gonna grow up to be His children, we’re going to have to know what those are and choose what is good! And there’s a God who loves us and will help us do that.
But, we’re gonna have to live in the presence of what is evil, what hurts, what does all kinds of things. And another thing God is doing is putting to death this and our dependence upon it. Oh, how married we are to our earthly sense of wellbeing, everything that feeds into that. And how the Lord longs to set us free from being chained to this flesh and what it wants.
And oh, how easily do we fight against Him, and fuss and fume, and…why am I going through this, and they’re doing great, and a thousand and one things the devil feeds into our punkin heads when stuff happens.
But oh, how this passage that the writer gives us needs to guide us. It’s not just the writer, it’s the God behind the writer. You have a path, God’s marked it out for you, it’s unique. We’ve said that many times. And yes, He wants a sense of endurance. And yes, He will give you the faith to stand. But oh, it’s got to go beyond that to see the heart of a loving Father, Who knows what you need, Who’s bringing you to that place where He can say, this is My child. I present them as finished products, if you will.
Are we not, “…his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…”? (KJV). Yeah. But there’s gonna come a day, the day of Jesus Christ. See, He’s promised to work until that day. But there is coming a day when we will stand there, every child of God throughout all the ages, will stand there, robed in white, whatever the imagery will be. We will stand there as finished products of His grace.
I want to get what He’s doing now! I want to understand it better so that when things happen, I can cooperate. I can not harbor the feelings, and harbor the inner things that we’re so good at hiding. God, I want my spirit to be free. I don’t want to go around with these negative feelings and thoughts and fears and anxieties and unforgiveness and bitterness and all those things. I want my spirit to be full of just His peace.
He wants me to be free to love people. But if I’m nurturing these kinds of things, how can I… that’s just being lame! It’s just the same thing as a runner having a lame leg. And the writer says here, “…let it rather be healed.” Let God have it. Let God fix what’s going on the inside. Yeah, we want our bodies healed but this is what we need most, to be healed. Let it be healed.
Let’s ask God to teach us His ways and help us to be the kind of people He wants us to be. He is a loving Heavenly Father, beyond our imagining. And He cares about every single one of His children and He knows what we need. We can trust Him with everything. And oh, how much better it would be…how sad it must make Him feel when He allows something for our good and we cling to it with this negative kind of thing and allow it to put us on the sidelines of the race, when God wants us to be free. And Jesus has paid it all! Praise God! To Him be the glory!
