“Embrace the Discipline of Our Loving Lord”
Proverbs 3:11-12
INTRODUCTION What is the Meaning of Proverbs 3.11-12
In an article in Christianity today magazine called “the feel-good faith of evangelicals,” the author of that article discusses a book entitled “When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God.”
The author of the book researched the Vineyard movement. She spent years attending small groups and worship services. The author of the article describes the book. She writes, “[The author of the book] provocatively suggests that American evangelicalism has scripted a new narrative, reformulating both problem and solution. She quotes the author saying …”The [new] problem is human emotional pain and the human’s own self-blaming harshness;” the gospel is that “God loves you, just as you are, with all your pounds and pimples.”
The author of this article has found that not only do the book’s conclusions accurately describe the Vineyard movement, the author of the article also argues that this describes evangelicalism at large.
What were some of those findings? The author of the book, now, quote … “insists that the ‘deliverables’ of faith matter most to evangelicals—not our actual beliefs.”
In other words, what can this faith do for me? We don’t want God because of doctrine we don’t want explanations about why the world is the way that it is, what we want is how this is going to affect the issue of my crabgrass in my front lawn. In other words, what do I get out of being a disciple of Jesus? This is the described mindset of the evangelical.
And the author of the book, when she studied evangelicalism all those years, describes sitting in small group Bible studies of the Vineyard churches and found that most people favored the reading of the text for the sake of merely personal application. This is the “what do I get out of being a disciple” mindset.
“They didn’t seem to share her own curiosities about a passage’s context or the point that the biblical author had about the passage. They merely wanted to use the Bible passage for their own benefit. They did not concern themselves with doctrine or with doctrinal deviance; she reports that these people worried themselves more about how to make God come alive for them.
This is a consumer mentality when coming to passages of Scripture. What can I get out of this? I have my shopping list … how can this passage apply directly to my life? Of course, God is not unconcerned about applying things to your life, please no one misunderstand. But God is concerned most about what is in fact said directly in… His… Word. If He is concerned about your crabgrass, He will let you know. If He is concerned about Him coming alive for you, he will let you know that, explicitly in… His… Word. So we really need to be giving our attention to the exact statements of Scripture, don’t we?
This mindset is so easily taken up. We want to feel better, don’t we? We want the Bible to help us feel better. This is, as the title of the article said, this is the “feel-good faith of evangelicals.” Do you have a feel-good faith this morning?
Like it or not, we’ve all come out of churches who have this same mindset. By God’s grace He will root this out of us. And it’s in these kinds of churches that we would not typically find whole message dedicated to Proverbs 3:11-12.
Proverbs 3:11-12 11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord Or loathe His reproof, 12 For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
These verses don’t feel good, do they? But the Bible actually says that they do. Don’t fix your crabgrass, embrace your crabgrass. In other words, don’t fight to fix your trials, embrace them.
It’s interesting isn’t it, how these 2 verses are in the context that they are? The most popular religion in the world really likes to focus in on verses like 9 and 10.
Proverbs 3:9-10 9 Honor the Lord from your wealth And from the first of all your produce; 10 So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine.
The Lord does, as we saw a couple weeks ago, prosper us as we give according to His purposes in the Scripture. We saw that when we give, God gives back to us, but for the express purpose that we might give yet again.
Isn’t it interesting as well how this is also tapered with the next set of verses? Here is where the real profit and riches are in life: it’s in the one who gains wisdom.
Proverbs 3:13-15 13 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who gains understanding. 14 For her profit is better than the profit of silver And her gain better than fine gold. 15 She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.
Don’t let the promises of wealth in verses 9 and 10 distract you unnecessarily. We also need to be aware of the discipline of the Lord and that wisdom is the only thing that is true riches.
So, I’d like to preach from verses 11-12 on Embrace the Discipline of Our Loving Lord
This passage is a father teaching his son to embrace, not to reject the discipline of the Lord. “My son” be careful about this.
The first point answers the question, “What is the discipline of the Lord?”
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What is the discipline of the Lord?
The discipline of the Lord is this: some sorrow that trains us and yields some righteousness in us. me sorrow that trains us and yields some righteousness in us. I get that definition straight from Scripture…
Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Discipline is not primarily to get you to the point where you are more moral, although that may be included. No, primarily the discipline of the Lord expresses God’s love to you as a child of God so that you become more God-centered like the Son of God.
Let me say that again: the Scriptures teach that the discipline of the Lord expresses God’s love to you as a child of God so that you become more God-centered like the Son of God.
That too is from Scripture, Proverbs 3:11-12 11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord Or loathe His reproof, [why should you not despise it?] 12 For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
The discipline of the Lord expresses God’s love to you as a child of God so that you become more God-centered like the Son of God.
So, our sanctification…our growth in Christ… is in view. But it’s not just being moral. Growing in Christ-likeness is not you becoming more moral. It it’s you becoming more like God! “Be holy for I am holy” declares the Lord.
So, this message is primarily aimed at Christians this morning. What is a Christian? A Christian is not someone who is moral. A Christian is someone who has trusted in Christ alone for eternal life.
The Bible is a history book and tells us about real events that happened in real time. Jesus came, as was prophesied hundreds of years previous to His coming. He fulfilled hundreds of very specific prophesies. The Bible very clearly testifies that Jesus was God in flesh. He left His riches in glory to come to earth to die. He lived a sinless life, a life we should have lived, and He died a death on the cross that we should have died. He took our place. He took our place in His life and He took our place in His death.
He died on the cross instead of us having to die on the cross. On the cross, He paid the price for our sin. He died to release us from sin’s power and from sin’s penalty. When He said “it is finished” He was saying that He fully and effectively paid our sin debt, a debt we could not pay. He paid it all.
And then 3 days later, He literally, bodily rose from the dead. He is Lord overall. To receive eternal life, one has must not depend on anything else for salvation. Jesus Himself said it, “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” It’s only through the Jesus, God in flesh, that we receive eternal life. Unlike any of man’s religion, the Bible clearly says that salvation is not by works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Titus 3:5 He save[s] us, not on the basis of our righteous works, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
So, one must merely turn from his/her sin and ask Jesus to save you.
Romans 10:9-10 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Acts 2:38 Peter on the day of Pentecost preaches and says to crowd, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Turn from your sin and trust Christ alone to save you from eternal condemnation and from the power that sin has on your life and you will be saved. Have you called upon Jesus to save you? If you have, you can trust Him! Jesus saves! How many wonderful testimonies of this do we have in this room? And each one is indeed wonderful.
But once someone becomes a Christian, that doesn’t end the difficulties does it? No, trials come, don’t they? And they are used by God for good.
This is the discipline of the Lord again: the discipline of the Lord is some sorrow or suffering that trains us and yields righteousness. It expresses God’s love to you as a child of God so that you become more God-centered like the Son of God.
TRANS: Now, let’s get more specific on what we’re talking about concerning discipline or reproof.
First here…
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Discipline is not judgment for your sin
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Discipline is not God’s judgment against your sin.
Turn over to Luke 13. Luke 13 proves that sorrow does not come because of sin. God does not bless the righteous with peace and prosperity and the unrighteous with turmoil and sorrow. That’s not how this works.
Luke 13:1-3 Jesus is asked a question…1 Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices [tragedy of murder, even during God’s prescribed activities. Why did they die like this?]. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? 3 “I tell you, no, ….
Look at the answer. These Galileans, did they suffer this because of their sin? Verse three Jesus says, “no.”
Luke 13:4-5 4 “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? 5 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Look at the same answer. There is a tower and it fell on some. Those upon whom it fell, were they worst sinners than the other men living in Jerusalem? Jesus answers, “no.” So some sorrow or trial that enters into your life is not judgment against your sin.
Disaster like this is meant to call you to repentance, to turn from your sin: Luke 13:5 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
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No, the judgment for your sin is paid for at the cross (2 Co. 5:21)
If you have called upon Christ to deliver you from your sin, only then is the judgment of your sin paid for at the cross…
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Isaiah 53:5-6 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
You cannot pay for your sin by doing enough good works. The sorrow or trial you might have in your life is not judgment against your sin.
TRANS: Now, that does not mean that God cannot bring sorrow or trial into your life to correct some moral issue.
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Not always, but trials can occur because God needs to correct you in some way.
The Psalmist writes…
Psalm 119:71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.
The Psalmist had an outlook concerning his suffering or affliction. He valued it, though it was sorrowful. He believes that it was actually good for him to have been afflicted. He understands the value…yea, the eternal value of learning God’s statutes, whatever the cost. “It was good for me that I was afflicted.” Can we also say that it would be good for me to be afflicted to learn your statutes? Are we willing to say that? “Lord, whatever it takes, make me like Christ.” Could you pray that?
Whatever suffering you might be going through or will go through, do you believe that it will actually be good for you? “It is good …for… me that I was afflicted.”
TRANS: So, first discipline is not a judgment for your sin. Secondly, sometimes it takes affliction for us to learn God’s Word. But thirdly here…
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God can bring suffering or sorrow to make us wiser and stronger
God can bring suffering or sorrow into our lives to make us wiser, stronger, or more equipped to endure.
He can bring trouble and trial for the purpose of making us more like Jesus. We didn’t sin habitually in some way per se, it’s just God’s use of trial to make us like His Son.
You say, is this kind of thing fair? God is gracious and compassionate and He brings trials. But these trials are the kinds of things that happen to other people, not you. And God will use them to shake you up, grab your attention, and set you down on the right path. But it ain’t some feel good faith, folks!
ILL: When I was in high school, my favorite sport was basketball. My last basketball coach was probably the most harsh, for more than one reason. One of the reasons was his demand on physical stamina. We had to run these things called suicides. Know what I’m talking about… suicides?
Starting at the baseline under the basket, you would run to the free-throw line and back to the baseline and then we would run from the baseline to the three-point line and back to the baseline. Then you run from the baseline to the half-court and back and keep doing that until you ran all the way down the court like that. It was to build stamina. I hated it. Coach said I needed endurance. If he didn’t make me do it, I would not have done it. I didn’t want to do the suicides. But I received the discipline because there was benefit there and I knew I was pleasing my coach.
So, our team, we could run … not so good at basketball, but we could run. But it took a trial for me and the other players to improve us in the way the coach wanted.
Similarly, God brings trials into our lives to improve us in the way that He so desires. And if I were of such a mind, as a basketball player, I could reject that discipline and loathe that instruction. I could quit in the middle of practice because it’s too hard or I could not show up to practice the next day. But if I was a basketball player, I would stick it out.
Believers enter into hard times. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Let the trial have its perfect work. The Bible clearly teaches that these trials are for our sanctification, our growth in Christ. But these trials also teach us God’s love for us.
Turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12 {*me turn there too*}. As you’re turning, I will read Heb. 5:8…speaking of Jesus…
Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.
Jesus, the perfect Son of God Heb. 5:8 says, learned obedience. God used suffering to teach obedience to the sinless Son of God. So God can bring suffering or sorrow to merely make us wiser or stronger.
So what can we learn from Jesus’ suffering? Hebrews teaches us that Jesus learned obedience through suffering, therefore, just because we’re suffering, does not mean that we are out of God’s favor. Jesus was in God’s favor and Jesus suffered. Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. Therefore, just because we suffer, does not mean we are out of God’s favor or that God is not pleased with us.
Not only that, God is expressing His love in the suffering. We’re in Hebrews 12….
Hebrews 12 is of course a continuation of chapter 11. The end of chapter 10 and into chapter 11 was for our Scripture reading this morning and in it we saw the trials and suffering of godly people.
As we read Hebrews 12:1-11, I’ll make some comments along the way.
Point from 12:1-4: In suffering, keep focused on Jesus.
Point from 12:5-8: God proves we are his in suffering. Context is persecution, but all trials of believers demonstrate God is faithful to make us like His Son.
Point from 12:11: sorrow yields fruit of righteousness. Do you embrace that notion?
So this is the discipline of the Lord. If you are a disciple of Jesus, God does not bring trial into your life to judge you for your sin. Your sin was judged at the cross. Trial and sorrow can enter into your life because God is using it to root out a specific moral issue in your heart. And God can also bring in trial and temptation and sorrow into your life in order, simply, to make you more like His Son.
Your life can become a turmoil, and through it all God is attempting to teach you … about a particular issue in your heart. You know you need endurance, and this trial is causing you to endure like you’ve never known before.
You know you have a problem with whatever, whether it be the absolute need of being in control, anger, lack of patience with others, God is constantly bringing in trial after trial to drive home that particular virtue into your heart.
Do you care and love your own growth in godliness? How much do you really appreciate about God making you more like Christ?
Well, it will show by whether or not you reject or loath God’s discipline. Will you reject or embrace the discipline of our loving Lord?
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Do Not Reject, but Embrace God’s Discipline (11-12)
So, don’t reject, but embrace the discipline of our loving Lord.
Proverbs 3:11-12 11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof
What does it mean it to reject or to loathe? This is someone who would reject or turn away from or refuse God’s loving discipline.
Someone who loathes God’s discipline, feels a disgust or a dread over it. They despise it or are overly afraid in it and question God through it.
Anger with God: This would be like someone who is angry with God. Some difficult trial or circumstance enters into their life and God is using that situation to make them more like Jesus Christ, and the whole time they are questioning God or refusing him or fighting him.
ILL: This would be like children who would fight their parents in a discipline session. There they go kicking and screaming and fighting the discipline tooth and nail. This is not right. Children in our homes should learn to fight against the discipline of the parents.
Just like that, we too need to learn not to fight against the discipline of the Lord. There is a humble, submitted spirit when the trial comes. There is a “yes Lord” in the heart of a believer who does not despise the trial and is not angry with God over a trial that has come. The believer recognizes God’s gracious hand in it all to make me like His Son.
Or reject the discipline of the Lord would be like someone who is in despair or is overly miserable, as if they have no confidence in God. Someone who is in a trial who responds this way seems to respond like eternal life not longer maters, God’s great promises are no longer true, and they are in despair ….miserable, saying … “woe is me.”
The trial came and God has kept the trial there and it seems so prolonged, yet we do not turn to God to receive comfort he desires to give to us. We keep trying to operate in our own strength.
ILL: This kind of like what happened to our girl Haddie, this week. Our 5 year old girl had a little sliver in her foot this week, a splinter right near the back of her heel. It was really a small little thing, but it was causing a significant amount of discomfort.
Well, there’s really only one way to fix the problem. And it’s not a delightful process. And our little five-year-old girl was overly despairing and miserable over the thought of me or my wife fixing it. It was very small little thing and Haddie was despairing over the thought of what it would take to get it out.
The night that it happened, we decided that we would let Haddie decide whether or not she wanted us to fix it; to see if she’d come to us. And, boy, she did not want us to fix it. That was Friday, and so yesterday morning she woke up, and began to play like normal. However, she was limping the whole time. She would run outside on her tippy toes trying to avoid the pain of the trial she was going through. And the whole time, I was saying to her… “Haddie, let me fix it. I can have it out in no time.”
And if she would just embrace the trial and embrace the sorrow and misery of me taking that bad thing out of her foot, then she herself would be much more happy and she could play so much more freely. She was still scared and did not embrace the trial of what it would take for me to fix it.
And of course, we had to fix it anyway. So we got out the necessary tools to get that little splinter out of her foot. And she kicked and she screamed, miserable and in despair, and I even had to force her to thank me for getting out. She did not embrace the trial so that she could receive great benefit.
Does that not sound like us? There’s a trial in our lives, whether great or small, whether it’s the frustration of not being able to find something, or bigger life trials than that…. So, when there is a trial in your life, do not reject or feel dread or disgust over the trial. Embrace it the discipline of our loving Lord. He wants to make you more like His Son. God is using the trial to fix some issue in your heart and you can go to Him for comfort. But go to Him to take out some issue or sin that’s in your heart!
Get a Correct View of Discipline
What we really need is a correct view of what’s going on in times of sorrow and trial. We need a correct view on what is going on in God’s mind when trials of life seem to overwhelm. Here is what God is thinking: I love her. I take pride in that man. I will bring him this trial or I will bring this sorrow into her life so that Christ-likeness will come. He values your Christlikeness more than your comfort and happiness, more than your feel-good faith… do you? Do you value that more?
The Lord Loves You!
And this is what our verse says isn’t it? Proverbs 3:11-12 11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord Or loathe His reproof, […why? Why should we not feel discussed over the Lord’s discipline? … Well because, verse 12….]12 For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
Know then, to have a correct view of discipline in your life, you must know and believe and understand that through it all, the Lord is expressing love to you. That is preeminent in your thinking in trials. The Lord loves you and it is because of this very fact, His love, that this trial is happening to you. The Lord is bringing discipline into your life to make you more like Jesus Christ because he loves you.
ILL: What loving father is there when his son strays off, will not seek to correct him? Do we expect less from our heavenly father? In order to teach us new skill, what loving father would not make his son uncomfortably work hard? A loving father brings unpleasant things into the life of his son in order that his son might grow to be the man that he should be.
Shall we expect less from our heavenly Father? “Whom the Lord loves he reproves.” It’s those who are the special focus of his delight that receive correction and instruction. Does that not comfort you?
If you did not receive discipline and instruction, one would begin to wonder if you were a believer. If a supposed believer wanders away from God and no discipline entered into his life, one would have to wonder if he was really a child of God. So in trials, understand and now primarily that God is loving you as a father would his son. He wants you to attain skill in your heart and wisdom in your soul and he loves you enough to bring this kind of thing to you.
But if you respond like many children in homes do, if you just want to have a good time and think that everything in your life should be hunky-dory and everything should feel good, and whenever difficult time comes you balk at it and grumble at your Father, you will not have a good relationship with Him. He loves you and has brought this trial to you for your benefit for the express purpose to demonstrate His love to you. Embrace the trial as from a loving heavenly father.
And that really is the extent of what our text here says. However, I would like to give one final consideration in order to help us view trials correctly. The Scriptures inform us that every trial is for our benefit. Not only does God express his great love to us and to prove to us that we are his children, but he also, like we’ve already said, He wants you to become more like his son. He loves you and he wants you to be like Jesus.
Do you love your path Christlikeness?
Now, the second point here to get a right view of trials is this: do you love your growth in Christ? The first point was know that God loves you. He is loving you in the trial. And secondly, know that every trial is for your benefit. You know that. But do you love that?
Hebrews 12:9-10 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
… That we may share his holiness! Wow! We actually get the privilege of sharing in God’s holiness. Trials and sorrow bring this to us. Will you choose to value that? When the trial comes, will you make that choice and determine to value God’s holiness?
No… you… won’t. You will not if you wait until then to value sharing in God’s holiness. You must start yesterday to value sharing in God’s holiness. God’s holiness actually infused into your very being, think of that…
Do you love verses like this…. Do you value these verses?
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
You know that verse. Do you love and embrace with open arms the fact that God is causing everything in your life every trial he brings your way, do you care that he is working that out together for good? And that good is Christ likeness.
Romans 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
God will work out everything for your good because he has predestined that you are to be conformed to the image of His Son. The good is conformity to His Son.
…and how ‘bout this one…in fact turn over here, Ro. 5. This is a section in the book of Romans where Paul is giving the benefits of justification.
Romans 5:1-2 1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
And exulting in the confident expectation of the glory of God to be revealed yet into the future is not the only thing that we exult in. Verse three…
Romans 5:3-5 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, [do you exult in your tribulations? That means to boast about or take pride and or glory in. Do you glory in your tribulations? No I don’t! It’s because you don’t know something…you don’t intimately know in the depths of your being….that keep going …]
knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
See, if you intimately knew or embraced the fact that tribulation or trial brings about perseverance or endurance and that perseverance brings about proven character. And then, character brings about hope or confident expectation….ok, if you really embraced with open arms that process that trials can bring …and you embraced it to the point that it is a treasure in your heart … If you valued this process like you should, then you would have patience in trial wouldn’t you? You would actually glory in those things that make you more like the son of God.
ILL: Back to the story about my little girl Haddie and your foot. If she valued the freedom to play without that pain in her foot, if she valued that, she would have endured the trial of me getting out that splinter from her foot. In fact, she would have embraced it because she valued the freedom to play freely without pain in her foot.
And so after we finished, I described the pure joy of playing so freely in the yard. I helped her picture herself out in the yard with the wind in her hair and the joy of each foot gently landing heal first, barefoot in the grass without pain with the sun shining….smile on her face….How she could run and jump … … … And finally land was no pain. As we did that, she began to imagine all that value with me. She described how she enjoyed doing this and doing that.
I was trying to create in her heart an appreciation of embracing a little bit of pain in order to live more freely.
Will you embrace pain and the sorrow of the trials of life so you can grow? If you do, those tribulations will bring about perseverance and perseverance your proven character and your proven character, confident expectation so that that confident expectation that you receive will prove itself not lead you to disappointment. Then, you will know the love of God that it has been poured out with in your heart.
Are you willing now to embrace trials because you love your own godly growth?
To the degree that you value growth in Christ, to that degree you will be able to remain steadfast in trial. It is only to the degree that you value your growth in Christ that you will be able to remain steadfast in trial.
It is only when you understand that trials in your life are brought to you by God because of the very fact that he loves you. Do you know that he loves you? What earthly father would not bring unpleasant circumstances into the life of his children in order to teach them to be the adult that he desires them to be? Do you doubt the love of that kind of earthly father? Okay, will you doubt the love of God?
And will you, secondly, will you value the growth that this loving father desires to give you? Will you choose not to despise, but to embrace, yea, exult in the fact that the trial has come so that you can be more like Jesus Christ? Only by God’s grace can you make that choice. All of this is impossible without the Lord’s help.
CONCLUSION What is the Meaning of Proverbs 3.11-12
By God’s grace, he will enable your little heart to glory in the trials because you see the love of God and you value the benefits of his discipline. Embrace, do not reject the discipline of our Loving Lord.
It would really be something, wouldn’t it, if a young child gets up from a discipline session from her dad and says “thank you daddy.” Give it up. Embrace His love and value the benefit He wants you to have.
If a daughter does that, that daughter has grown to value the discipline from her dad and knows that he loves her. Can you thank the Lord for the trials in your life because they are making you more like Jesus Christ? Do you see how much he loves you?
God cares. He sees your trials and his heart breaks over your fearfulness and despair and he cares. He loves you. He wants the best for you, yes Jesus cares. Let’s sing about that.
Hymn #491, Does Jesus Care?
