WOW Outline for 5/5/04               HEBREW 12:1-13

KINDS OF ADVERSITY:

FALLEN WORLD

DESERT OF OUR OWN MAKING

DESERT OF HIS DESIGN (Deut 8)

DISCIPLINE/PRUNING

· to share His Holiness (12:10)
· reveals our Old Sin Nature
· Teaches dependence (Paul, II C 8)
· Encourages perseverance (James 1)
· Strengthens us for service
· INTIMACY (Phil 3:10, the Psalms)

(FOR CHRIST)


JERRY BRIDGES, TRUSTING GOD



Hebrews 12: 1-13            "RESPONSE IS EVERYTHING"

I. The RACE

A. The Witnesses

B. The weights

C. Watch HIM!


II. The REALITY-"sonship involves discipline"

"Response is everything."

A. The perils of response:

1. v. 3 "lose heart, fainting"

      2.  v. 5 "regarding it lightly"

3.  v. 5 "forgetting"

4. v. 13  lameness


B. The pattern of response:

1. see Jesus first (v. 2-4) Ex in Suffering

2. Sonship! Remember.. ( v. 6-7)

3. Submit  (v. 9)

4. Strengthen arms & knees (corporate, v. 12)

5. Straight paths (v. 13)


III. The REWARD: v. 11

A. A righteous harvest

B. Peace

Elisabeth Elliot, A QUIET HEART

"Purity of heart, said Kierkegaard, is to will one thing.  The Son willed only one thing, ran for only one purpose-to fulfill the Father's will for Him. That's what He came to do. We can have the same pure aimâ.and a completely quiet heart, as the Psalmist said, 'Lord, You have assigned my portion and my cup, You have made my lot secure.' I know of no greater simplifier for all of life; whatever happens is assigned by Him.  Does your intellect balk at that? Can we say there are things which happen to us outside of our lovingly assigned 'portion?'  Are some things, then, out of the control of the Almighty?

Never mind whether things come to us from God Himself directly or through other people, everything come to us by His ordination or permission.  If I mean to be obedient and submissive to the Lord b/c He IS MY LORD, I must not forget that whatever He allows to happen to me has become for me, His will at that moment.

RESPONSE IS EVERYTHING. Remember that our forefathers were all guided by the pillar of cloud, passed through the sea, drank the same spiritual food and drink, but God was not pleased with most of them. Their response was all wrong. Bitter about the portions assigned they engaged in gluttony, idolatry, and rebellion. And God judged them with snakes and a destroying angel. The same Almighty God apportioned their experience.  Some responded in faith. Most did not.

A spirit of resistance cannot receive from God. I believe it is this spirit which is the reason for some of our greatest sufferings.  Opposing the workings of Our Lord in and through our adversity only exacerbates them..

If I am willing to be still in my Master's Hand, can I not be still in everything???