What To Do About Pain & Weakness Hebrews 12:10-14 “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.” Heb. 12:11

Theme To be near God requires serious acknowledgment of & dealing with sin – and God has it all worked out for us.

Heb. 12:10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 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. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees! 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. 14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

September 6, 2014 Ebola death toll tops 2,000

The Real Killer The wages of sin is death. Ro. 6:23a Sin will kill you: it is 100% fatal. The gift of God is eternal life. Ro 6:23b Jesus will save you. It is that simple.

1. God’s Dynamic Plan To Have Fellowship With Us 10b. “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.” 1. For our benefit – His purpose is to bless us 2. For our holiness _ His purpose is also to separate us from sin and its impact and draw us into godly action 3. For our closeness with Him – His purpose is to put us in a state where we can have close fellowship.

2. God’s Warning About Discipline Confusion 11 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. We experience the process of improvement as pain Pain is so very necessary as we do not heed the warnings from God about the following…

A. Cunning pleasure & appetites At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. Titus 3:3

B. Attractive lies You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire…for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44

C. Harmful laziness Ro 12:11 Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically. 1Th 5:14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy.

D. Perverse thoughts Eph. 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

3a. God’s Dramatic Disciplines for Intimacy With Him Error and sin both have this in common, that the deeper sin and error are imbedded in us, the less we think of them as a problem. We don’t suspect danger. But they are evils with very clever disguises! The human spirit will never try to surrender self-will to God’s will as long as all seems to be well within.

Theme To be near God requires serious acknowledgment of & dealing with sin – and God has it all worked out for us.

3b. God’s Dramatic Disciplines for Intimacy With Him Pain on the other hand is in your face and an unmistakable evil; every one of us knows that something is wrong when we feel PAIN. Our pain is what drives us to deal with disease and attend to it, discover weakness and work out the remedy, pay attention to and deal with deficiencies of every kind.

The Disciplines 12,13 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees! Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Recognize and deal with weakness Ga 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

A. “Feeble arms…”

B. “…weak knees…”

Theme To be near God requires serious acknowledgment of & dealing with sin – and God has it all worked out for us.

Our Challenge Heb. 12:1 …let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.