Clay Smith JFBC
Hebrews 12:4-13
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” - Mike Tyson.
Discipline has its rewards. No pain no gain.
What do you do when God allows something bad to happen? Why? God challenges us to change us into the people He wants us to be.
Why God disciplines us:
A. He loves us. Verse 4-5. What we are going through is nothing compared to what Jesus went through.
Proverbs 3:5-6 and 3:11-12: Learn from the things you are going through. Harder to learn when the times are good. As believers we will never fully experience the full wrath of God. He doesn’t want us to remain immature.
B. We are His children. He wouldn’t be a loving Father if He didn’t discipline us.
Example: Veruca in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Many have imperfect parents. But God in Heaven is the perfect Father.
C. It has an eternal payoff. We can share God’s holiness.
Three types of discipline:
1. Formative: through God’s word.
2. Preventative discipline. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
3. Corrective. If we confess our sins, we are forgiven but still have to face the consequences.
Two goals:
1. Share in his holiness.
2. We’re given His righteousness.
Nothing worse than suffering through discipline and not learning from it.
Verse 12-13 switches metaphor from a runner to a boxer. Strengthen one another.
Our response: encourage one another in the Lord. Help those around you to keep their eyes on Jesus.
Churchill: if you find yourself going through hell, keep going (through trials).
After the sermon there were baptisms. Pastor Clay baptized his youngest daughter, and couldn’t do so without crying. A sweet moment. I think it was Palm Sunday when Clay was preaching about the death of Jesus that Clay also started crying.
JFBC only had baptism in our service. When Clay started preaching he said “fortunately for you, I’ll be cutting the sermon short due to the baptisms. You can go online to hear the entire message”. As he preached I could tell he was kinda rushing a little more than usual, but he did get in all the points in the outline.
My friend Lee thinks Tripp Mullen may be in his class, along with Scott Condra. Not sure if John Flack is in a Sunday School class.
I remember Mrs. Gillis. I taught 5th grade Sunday School in the SPdL children’s building with her around 1982-1983, just after college. Tripp Mullen, Billy Curran, and others. Learned I was better suited working with junior and senior high students. After that year Mrs. Gillis would always keep up with me, and ask how I was doing.
Tripp remembered me taking him and Billy to a Braves game. I remembered that, sitting in the upper deck outfield bleachers. I didn’t remember (but Tripp did) that Leah had gone to the game with us. I hadn’t noted that on my calendar. June 22, 1984 versus the Dodgers. That was the month I had started working at Jim Suggs company. It was also right around the time Leah and I stopped seeing each other.
JIM GILLIAM [SABR Bio] was the first 20th-century senior circuit rookie to walk 100 times as a NL rookie in 1953. He never had 100 again in his 14-year major league career, coming closest in 1959 (59) & 1960 (59). No other player has drawn 100 BB in his rookie season. He was part of the majors’ first all-switch-hitting infield (the 1965 Dodgers), with Wes Parker (1B), Jim Lefebvre (2B), and Maury Wills (SS). Gilliam was the first 20th century second baseman to have 12 assists in a single game, on 21Jul-1956.
No comments:
Post a Comment