Do not underestimate the discipline of the Lord

Let's go to the word of the Lord. Remember that we are talking about the trials, the tribulations, the struggles in life, and how the Lord uses these things many times in a positive way. The Lord Jesus Christ said that there would be trouble in the world. The world is crooked by nature, the world we live in is a fallen, distorted world and when we walk in this world there are going to be difficulties. That is not strange to the life of the children of God. We have to be ready when the trials come, the tribulations, and we have to know what to do when that time comes. And that is why the Bible has many passages that tell us about tribulations, trials.

Look, for example, at Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 10. What happens is that many times in evangelical churches, Pentecostal churches, we talk a lot about the power of God, victory, Almighty God, trials, spiritual warfare. but we do not prepare people for the times also when tribulations come, trials come, struggles come in life. And many times people are not prepared for that, when a disease comes, a bad diagnosis comes, from a doctor or something like that, and then we feel that God has abandoned us.

When we pray for a healing from an illness and it doesn't come, then we say, oh, God doesn't love me, God isn't faithful, or someone we've been praying for for two years died, and we say, oh, what happened? No. I believe that the tests must be pointed out, they must be recognized, we must know that this is part of life but that God can take these situations for our good. Trials are part of the work that God uses to polish us and prepare us to be stronger, better, to reflect the character of Jesus Christ.

Last Wednesday, I think it was, we talked about that parable of the vinedresser where this owner of a vineyard comes several times and the vineyard is not producing fruit for him, and he says to the vinedresser, who is like his worker, he says, "Cut it down What are you making the earth useless for? We can plant something else.” And the vinedresser tells him, "No, leave it for a while longer, I'm going to dig it around it and I'm going to work it and when you come back again if it bears fruit, fine, and if not we cut it down."

I said that this was like a symbol of the Holy Spirit that the Father expects fruit from us and when we do not bear fruit, the Lord gets upset and the Holy Spirit is there telling the Father, we can see it that way, "Hold on for a little while, we are going to see… let me work on this person's life, let me…”

And that digging around it, there is a sense of doing violence to the earth, you have to insert the hoe and remove earth around it, you have to prune the bushes sometimes so that they bear fruit. And that's how it happens in our life, sometimes cuts have to come, sometimes tests have to come, sometimes it has to come as violence in certain ways in our life, so that one can reconsider, so that one changes one's way of thinking because if God left us to what we want, we would go down a path of destruction. And when God loves us, God squeezes our hand a little to teach us.

Before I go to that passage, because it seems appropriate to me, about that, that many times God knows that we are going in the wrong way, for many different reasons. Sometimes when, for example, we have a good job and we are making money and everything is going well for us, sometimes we tend to forget about God, so we start with friends, and we believe that we are the great thing and then people come who help us. search and then we begin to stray from the path of the Lord. and what happens? That if God loves us, he disciplines us. So many times God in his mercy returns us to the path, sometimes one can be in bad relationships or one begins to drink and drink or take drugs or whatever, and then he says, no, I have a purpose with this person, he I'm going to give her a little touch to get her back on the right track.

Now, many times if God doesn't have a purpose with a person, He lets them run wild. When God does not have, because there are people with whom God does not have a call, that is the sovereignty of God. Honestly, I don't know why, but the Bible says that there are people with whom God has no purpose. God is not working directly in that individual. And then God leaves them many times to thrive in evil and become big drug dealers or whatever, and one day they get shot, die and go to hell.

But when God has a purpose with a life, he is continually dealing with that life and many times the discipline to bring it to the ways of the Lord, I tell you, in my life I have seen the hand of the Lord... years ago, when I was In graduate school at Harvard, I…

Well, I always loved the Lord, this is a personal testimony, I always loved the Lord from a young age, but for a while, when I was at Princeton University and then when I came to Harvard, I lived my life…I wasn't like a Christian, I loved the Lord but I did not give a correct testimony, I was not living as God wanted. And I remember that on one occasion I felt clearly and that the Lord spoke to me and it was an interior voice. I was about 27, 28 years old, about 8 or 10 years ago, more or less… what are you laughing at?

These people have no mercy. Dissemble. The fact is that I had spent many years living my life as I wanted, in the vanity of the world and many things. But the Lord grabbed me, God speaks to me like this sometimes, from time to time, an internal voice, and what I felt that the Lord told me is, look, up to here I have freed you from the consequences of your walk because you master, but if you continue I will abandon you to the consequences of your actions. That was something that I felt deep in my spirit. And then I said, well, I'm going to reform. So I changed my ways and gave myself fully to the Lord. And that changed my life, and there began a radical change in my life to this day. It was like the Lord told me, I have kept you from things of a perversion and a... it was more like a degeneration of my person and of consequences of what I was involved in, and it's like he had a purpose, he was trying with me, and he told me, from now on, I'm going to remove my cover from you.

And it is what happens many times that when God does not have a purpose with a person, the person can continue doing a number of things and God leaves them, they run amok for evil. Before going to the word of Ephesians, look at what Hebrews says, it says in chapter 12, verse 5, it says:

“…And you have already forgotten the exhortation that is addressed to you as children saying, 'My son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him, for the Lord disciplines and scourges everyone who receives him who he loves. for son.'

There are times, not always, that trials are an expression of the Lord's discipline. There is a difference between punishment and discipline. Punishment is when they whip you or make you suffer to pay for something you already did. But discipline is more like a method through which God passes you to shape you in a way. And also sometimes to correct you in a way that can cause you some pain, but it is done more with a benevolent purpose of rectifying something in you. It is very different, discipline can hurt but its purpose is rather corrective, looking to the future, the formation of a character.

I could compare it to the braces that people put on their teeth to straighten them. They hurt, right? that's what they say Someone here who dares to say, yes, I had braces and... Doesn't it hurt when you have them? You are eating and you feel safe… it hurts or it is uncomfortable. What is happening is that these wires are little by little exerting force on the denture to insert it in a way that is more suitable, as one needs it. And it hurts, it causes discomfort, it's not the most beautiful thing in the world, but after you have your little teeth fixed, wow, your smile, then you're smiling for the whole world to see. What a bless! That is discipline. Your teeth are undergoing corrective discipline.

So, many times there are occasions when the tests are the discipline, it is the training of the soldier. The soldier is subjected to a number of tests, difficulties, efforts, exercises so that the character of a warrior is formed. An officer has to have a certain way of conducting himself, of speaking, of projecting himself, of treating his subordinates, and to produce that in any civilian, you have to put him through a process that makes him a man and gives him that temper of a soldier. and official.

Well, God wants to produce in us a temper, a character, an attitude of a child of God, a servant of God, a person who reflects the character of Jesus Christ, the attitudes, the way of seeing, speaking, thinking. Then, God submits us to a formative process to go removing and straightening and leveling and raising everything that is not in accordance. And that process is uncomfortable and can manifest itself through financial situations, health situations, human relationship situations, work situations, interior drought, there are many ways that God uses to provoke us to look for something in the word, put more attention to spiritual things, come to church more time, be more attentive to things of the spirit.

Sometimes God has to fast us from things we love so that we are then more attentive to his voice. It removes a number of distractions around us that are very pleasant to us, but that distract us from the look that we have to have towards spiritual things. So for a while the Lord removes this, removes the other, and we say, but what is happening? It is God who is passing you through discipline, training. Or sometimes, he's finding out that you're pulling away. That job that was taking away your time from coming to church because you were putting 60, 80 hours into it, he says, you know what? I'm going to take it from you for your own good. You see, oh, I lost my job. No, look at it like maybe God is telling you something.

So, there are many reasons, brothers, for which discomforts come to life. It's not like oh, the devil is beating me up. No. Many times we give the devil credit for what is rather God's.

Now, there are times when of course yes, we also have to fight. But we have to have a more complex way of looking at the painful experiences of human life. Then the writer of Hebrews says:

"Do not despise the discipline of the Lord," do not despise it, do not speak against it, do not speak ill of it. Sometimes God is dealing with your life. When difficult situations come into your life, ask the Lord, “Lord, are you trying to tell me something with this? What can I learn from this time that I am going through. Is there something in my life, Lord?

That is why the psalmist says, examine me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there is a wicked way in me. That path of perversity is anything that is not pleasing to the Lord within you, paths of perversity, that is, a wrong direction. See if there is a wicked path in me and guide me on the eternal path.

See, God has to discern sometimes. We sometimes do not understand. There are things in our life, there are character traits, there are behaviors, there are attitudes, there are mental patterns that are not for our good, they are not pleasing to God, they do not lead to a good marriage, to good parenting, to a good administration of the money, to a holy life, and God says, you know what? I have to dig around that vine, I have to remove a few things from it, I have to prune it a little so that it can come out more leafy. That is the discipline.

Then the Lord disciplines the one he loves and whips the one he receives as a son. The one whom God does not discipline is the person he is not interested in and the one he does not receive as a son, but know that if God received him as a son, he will be dealing with his life. Not everything is sweet and jam in God's dealings, sometimes God's dealing is the dealing of a Father who disciplines his son so that he can become everything he wants him to be.

So look at what the next verse says:

"... if you endure discipline then God treats you as sons..."

When discipline comes into your life, my brother, my sister, bear it. Endure means put up with it, submit to it instead of rebelling against it and denying it.

“…For which son is he whom the Father does not discipline? But if he leaves you without discipline in which all have been partakers, then you are bastards - a strong word - and not sons. On the other hand, we had our earthly parents who disciplined us and venerated them, why not obey the Father of the spirits much better and live. Those certainly disciplined us for a few days as they pleased, as they saw fit, but this one disciplines us for what is not profitable, so that we may participate in his holiness…”

Go, so that we may partake of his holiness. What does it mean for us to partake of his holiness? Precisely, so that we are like him, so that we can reflect the traits of his character. And how can we come to reflect his character traits? If he treats us, he prunes us, puts us in a straitjacket, puts us in spiritual braces, grabs us and bothers us and shapes us and cuts us and directs us on the path he wants, so that we become like Christ.

Remember that I told you a long time ago, when I began this series of meditations, that what God is most interested in is training us to become like Christ. What interests God most is that you and I reflect the character of Christ. And that is something that I do not see that is preached so much in the churches. People are sort of not alerted to what the true purpose of the Christian life is, that what God is most interested in is not that you have a lot of money. Today there is so much preaching, God is going to give you this, he is going to give you a Cadillac, ask him for two cars, ask him for a house and an extra one on the beach. Ask him for healing, this and that, but it's like today there are preachers who come to people to be told that God is going to give them money, that God is going to do this to them, and they don't speak to the people. people of... No, what God is most interested in is forging men and women who express the character of Jesus in their way of acting.

He is not interested in your comfort, he is interested in your holiness. Write that down before you forget. Not your comfort but your holiness. Now, in the process, God can also give you a blessing. I believe that God gives money, God gives health, God gives provisions and blessings, but that is not the priority of a child of God. The priority is to reflect the character of Christ.

So that is why God disciplines you, he says, so that we may participate in his holiness, so that we may also be like him, so that we may have part in that holiness. He then says:

"... It is true that no discipline at present seems to be a cause of joy, but rather of sadness... "

Look how beautiful that passage is, mark it and save it in your Bible.

“…But afterwards it bears the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained in it…”

Learn if possible, that verse because that is the key to a blessed life. At first, when you are going through God's dealings in your life, it seems like the most uncomfortable, most unpleasant, most terrifying thing many times, but when you have completed your purpose, when you have fulfilled it, when you have absorbed it and endured that burning medicine in there, and the doctor says, “No, don't let go, hold on, a little while longer until…” and then when it finishes its purpose, it produces a peaceful fruit.

What happens many times, look, in the family is where the Holy Spirit does not work. I know Christian families, right now I could point out families that come to church and have spent years in the Gospel, they serve the Lord, serious people, they are not embarrassed, but there are a lot of problems in that family, there are conflicts, arguments, bad feelings, mistreatment, injustice, oppression, continuous arguments with each other, lack of harmony in that family. Because? Because the character of Christ has not been formed in them.

Wherever you see people not dealt with by the Holy Spirit there are quarrels, the works of the flesh... look in Galatians in chapter 5, what are the works of the flesh? He says, quarrels, arguments, violence, bad words, resentment, jealousy, all the things that often happen in families. Because God's deal has not come in to polish and heal and break. Those families, the only way they are going to be healed is through God's treatment.

I compare it to a rough stone, unlike a stone at the bottom of a lake that when the water... why are the pebbles smooth at the bottom of a river? The water is constantly running and smoothes the rough edges. Look at that flat stone, you take it soft. Now, take one of the stones that are on the road, hard, rough, pointed, unlike the treatment of that water that is always running, filing it down.

The children of God have to be like those smooth stones, throughout our lives we must allow the Holy Spirit to deal with us, cutting us and smoothing out the rough edges. Wherever you see a family or a marriage or a community where there are quarrels, problems, fights, jealousy, strife, it is the flesh that has not been dealt with by the Holy Spirit.

We, by dint of submitting to God's discipline and God's dealings, are going to become like Christ. So, those families, those marriages, those homes, those churches where the Holy Spirit has been allowed to work in them, what a big difference! I tell you, that is what I want for my church, for my own life as well, is that I can reflect and you and we, as a community, the character of Jesus Christ. I am not interested in a famous church or with a lot of money, or with a lot of apparatus. No, what the Holy Spirit desires most is a church that when people come will say, wow, what a fragrant smell of God's grace there is among these people! They love each other, they treat each other well, they forgive each other, they tolerate each other, they don't talk badly about each other, they are not always trying to criticize each other but rather they support each other. And that comes through the treatment of the Holy Spirit in an environment.

The treatment of the Holy Spirit can sometimes be a bit rough, it can be, as I say, it has to tame us, it has to break us, it has to bleed us, so if you want God to make you an exceptional and blessed man, woman , let the Lord submit you to his deal.

What does the word say? When it says, take up your cross each day and follow me. It says take my yoke too because my load… because my load is light and my yoke is easy. Why does the Lord speak of yoke and burden and take up your cross? What are these expressions referring to? Do you think that this is simply poetry, metaphor, beautiful, poetic expressions? No. He is referring to that element of the Christian life which is dealing. When you enter into a relationship with Christ he puts his yoke on you.

What is the yoke? The yoke is what is put on the ox so that it threshes and does its work. Since you enter the ways of the Lord, if you are a legitimate son, you have to put a yoke on yourself. I tell you, and that yoke is going to take you where you don't want to go, but that yoke is going to form you into a man, a woman useful for the Gospel and also blessed in your life.

Do you know which people are truly happy in the Christian life? It is the people who have been treated and who have allowed themselves to be polished by the Lord, who have put on the yoke and who submit to God's treatment. That treatment will include times of incredible blessing, peace, prosperity, joy, tranquility, joy, and also times when the Lord will say, come, come for a little while that I have to treat you a little. And then there will be a time of struggle, sweat, suffering, suffering, whatever, something unpleasant and you, when the Lord says, okay, Lord, I'm going to mess with you. And that time you spend in prayer, fasting, seeking the Lord, crying out, Father, what are you saying to me? How can I be better? Tell me. What's going on? Because? What do you want from me, Lord? What do I have to give you? Spend that time like this, receive it as a time of treatment, lock yourself in with the Lord in that time of trial and sweat whatever it is, sweat whatever sin it is, or the attitude that does not please the Lord, sweat what God is giving you getting into that sauna to sweat, and when the sauna is over and the temperature drops, and then, now go out. All those salts, all that filth stayed there, he takes a good bath and is fresh, light and now comes the time of freshness, a time of blessing, a time of refreshment, a time of celebration. The time for discipline has passed.

And then perhaps a few more years or months will pass, blessing, prosperity, joy, and now again, a little more, come, I'm going to give you a little more training and come back again. And that's how life goes by and that being treated by the Lord, each day becomes more and more like an angel. Those are the people that when you are 40, 50, 60 years old you want to stick with them, you want to listen to them, you love to visit them and wherever they go they bless a community. They are the people who are counselors, they are the intercessors, they are the people who exemplify the greatness and beauty of the Gospel, they are the people who pass the years and become more beautiful because, as the Bible says, because this slight momentary tribulation produces in us an ever more excellent and eternal weight of glory.

The most beautiful people in their old age are the people who have allowed themselves to be treated by the Lord, that is why what he says here, which produces that peaceful fruit that is precisely the peace that comes to the home, to the lives of those people.

It is true that no discipline seems to cause joy but rather sadness, but afterwards it bears the peaceful fruit of justice for those who have been trained in it.

Brethren, that is one aspect of the test. Go to Ephesians and that's done with, again, look at what it says here in chapter 6, verse 10, it says:

"... For the rest, my brothers, strengthen yourselves in the Lord and in the power of his might, put on all the armor of God so that you can stand firm against the wiles of the devil..."

This is another aspect of trials and sufferings and difficulties. Here he does speak of times as well... sometimes difficult times come from God, disciplining us and treating us, sometimes it can be an attack, sometimes we go through a period or a streak and the enemy may also be attacking our lives. But what do we have to do? It says, verse 13:

"...Therefore, take on the whole armor of God so that you can resist on the bad day, that having finished everything, stand firm...."

There are times that a bad day can come in life, it is not a 24-hour day, it is a time, it is a streak of difficulty in the life of the believer. What does one do in that case? He steps down, he stops coming to church, he stops serving, he stops praying, he stops crying, he stops worshipping. No! You say, I'm going to stand firm, I'm going to hold on to everything I know of the word. I am going to do spiritual warfare, I am going to adore, I am going to seek support from my brothers, I am going to cry out to the Lord, I am going to resist.

It is the resistance of the soldier when he is being attacked that says, “I am not moving from my post. I'm going to stay here firm, holding on. But not a hold to grit your teeth. No, it is protecting your position, standing firm and fighting and not moving from your position. Never turn your back on the devil, brother, never run from Satan, never stop dropping your hands or stop bending your knees. When trials come, it is time to take on the full armor of God, all the resources you know from the word: fasting, prayer, praise, service, positive confession, communion with the saints. All these are the weapons, faith, the word of God, everything that it says here, the armor, many different things, all of that you use and resist, and stand firm and wait on the Lord, and trust in the Lord . He does not move from his position, he does not turn his back on the devil.

Then he says, "...on the bad day, and having finished everything, stand firm..." He says, stand firm, girded your loins with the truth, clothed with the breastplate of righteousness, shod your feet with preparation of the Gospel, etc.

He then says, "... praying at all times with all prayer and supplication in the spirit..." praying in tongues, praying deeply in the Lord, watching over it for all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

You have to be using all those resources and then when you pass the test you are found exactly where you were at the beginning of the test. Because life is going to be like that, brothers, difficult situations are going to come too. And what you have to do is maintain your position. Sometimes suffering will come from God to bless you, treat you, train you, sometimes it will come from the enemy, but no matter where it comes from, you maintain your position and know that in the long run, those who love God, all things work for good.

The devil is going to end up doing God's work eventually. If he tries to trip you, forget it, you are going to use it for the glory of God and to improve your walk. We are not afraid of tests. Amen.

Glory to the Lord. Let's stand up. We are going to pray, thank God and we go to our little house in peace, sleep well tonight, thank God. The Lord is on his throne everything is fine, no matter what you are going through, believe that God has a beautiful purpose in your life and continue living this wonderful Christian life.-

Father, thank you for your goodness, your love, your mercy, thank you for this town, we bless it in the name of the Lord. Father, we expect great things from you in the days, weeks, and months ahead. We believe that the best is ahead, Lord, we believe that you have good things for your children. We bless this town.

Father, we aspire to all the blessing that you have for us. We believe that Satan has nothing to do with us. It has no influence on your children's lives. I declare healing over your people tonight, Father, I declare miracles in your children. Thank you because life in Christ is one blessing after another, from provision to provision, from joy to joy, from victory to victory. We seize all the good, Lord, that you have for us. We believe that the best is ahead and we thank you for that, Father. Bless this town and take them with your blessing, Father, to their homes tonight and give us a week off until we come back here to your house on Sunday, to declare your blessings in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. I bless you my brothers, see you here on Sunday. Come by sleigh, come whatever you like, but we'll wait for you here. God bless you. Amen.