The Spirit of Discipline

Christ Redeemer Church

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The Spirit of Discipline

selected passages; June 30, 2024; Ryan Bouton

June 30, 2024 • Ryan Bouton • Hebrews 12:5–11, Proverbs 1:8–9, Ephesians 6:1–9, Proverbs 19:18, Proverbs 29:15

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

~ G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain

“How, then, are people to behave at home? If a man can’t be comfortable and unguarded, can’t take his ease and ‘be himself’ in his own house, where can he? That is, I confess, the trouble. The answer is an alarming one. There is nowhere this side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse’s neck. It will never be lawful simply to ‘be ourselves’ until ‘ourselves’ have become sons of God… home life has its own rule of courtesy—a code more intimate, more subtle, more sensitive, and, therefore, in some ways more difficult, than that of the outer world… The alternative to rule is not freedom but the unconstitutional (and often unconscious) tyranny of the most selfish member.

In a word, must we not either cease to preach domesticity or else begin to preach it seriously? Must we not abandon sentimental eulogies and begin to give practical advice on the high, hard, lovely, and adventurous art of really creating the Christian family?”

~ C.S. Lewis, “The Sermon and the Lunch”

SERMON PASSAGE

selected passages (ESV)

Hebrews 12

5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly

the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Proverbs 1

8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,

and forsake not your mother’s teaching,

9 for they are a graceful garland for your head

and pendants for your neck.

Proverbs 19

18 Discipline your son, for there is hope;

do not set your heart on putting him to death.

Proverbs 22

15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,

but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Proverbs 29

15 The rod and reproof give wisdom,

but a child left to himself brings shame

to his mother.

17 Discipline your son, and he will give you rest;

he will give delight to your heart.

Ephesians 6

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

The Story of Christianity

September 1, 2024 • Don Willeman • Matthew 28:16–20

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “This may surprise many, but Christianity is growing around the world and is growing faster than the rate of population. From 2020 to the mid-point of 2024, the world’s population is expected to grow from more than 7.84 billion people to more than 8.11 billion, a 0.87% growth trend. The number of Christians worldwide is expected to climb from more than 2.52 billion to 2.63 billion, a 1.08% growth.… The fastest-growing areas for Christianity are in the global south, particularly Asia and Africa. Asia is home to more than 415 million Christians and growing at a rate of 2.11%. Meanwhile, 734 million Christians live in Africa, where the faith is growing at a 2.64% rate.” ~Summary of the “2024 Status of Global Christianity” report “It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history, …that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount…. Jesus is the most influential life ever lived….” ~Kenneth S. Latourette (1884-1968), President of the American Historical Association “Jesus loves sinners. He only loves sinners. He has never turned anyone away who came to Him for forgiveness, and He died on the cross for sinners, not for respectable people.” ~Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983), Nazi concentration camp survivor “The church is…made up of natural enemies…who love one another for Jesus’ sake.” ~D.A. Carson in his book Love in Hard Places “If I love God, I must love people. I don’t have the choice to choose when.” ~Jackie Hill Perry, poet, writer, and hip hop artist “When we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus.” ~Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983), Dutch watchmaker, writer and speaker “…but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” ~Jesus to His disciples (Acts 1:8) SERMON PASSAGE Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV) Matthew 28 16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Genesis 12 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 2 Samuel 7 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth…. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Isaiah 2 1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Matthew 1 1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Revelation 7 9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 22 1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Protecting Against Identity Theft

August 11, 2024 • Jonathan Crane • Genesis 1:26, Isaiah 53:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 15:1–5, Ephesians 4:20–24

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ. Becoming like Christ does not mean losing your personality or becoming a mindless clone. God created your uniqueness, so he certainly doesn’t want to destroy it. God uses His Word, people, and circumstances to mold us.” ~Rick Warren, What on Earth am I Here For? “Your core identity is that God chose you. He knew everything about you, yes even what you don’t like to admit to yourself...Jesus is not disillusioned with you, because He never had any illusions about who you were in the first place.” ~Adam Ramsay, Pastor of Liberty Church Australia “Man became a living being capable of embodying God’s communicable attributes. In his rational life he was like God that he could reason and had intellect, will and emotion. In the moral sense, he was like God because he was at inception good and sinless. Woman was created to meet man’s deficiencies and to be an equal in the job of caretakers of the creation.” ~William Barclay “Michelangelo was asked how he could make a beautiful sculpture like his ‘Moses’ out of a block of marble. His response was that he simply chipped away everything that wasn’t Moses. We must allow the Lord to chip away everything that is not of Him, or of the person He made us to be.” ~Mgsr Charles Pope, Dean of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC “Artificial Intelligence’s ultimate accomplishment will be to remind us who we are by revealing what it can’t do. It will compel us to double down on all activities that make us distinctly human: taking care of each other, being a good teammate, reading deeply, exploring daringly, growing spiritually, finding kindred spirits...” ~David Brooks, Op. Ed. In The New York Times 8/4/2024 SERMON PASSAGE selected passages (NIV) Genesis 1 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Isaiah 53 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 2 Corinthians 5 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! John 15 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Ephesians 4 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Gospel Hope for an Anxious Heart

July 14, 2024 • Mike O'Leary • Luke 12:22–34

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” ~Jim Carey (1962-present), Actor “Worry is like a rocking chair; it keeps you moving but doesn’t get you anywhere.” ~Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983), Author and Holocaust Survivor “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” ~Matthew 6:34 (ESV) “Our anxiety often reveals a refusal to trust God’s fatherly providence. And, whenever we start ignoring that, there’s always a devil along to adopt us, to promise us bread instead of stones, fish instead of snakes. We don’t recognize the reptilian voice, but we look into our future, or into our Bibles, and wonder nonetheless, ‘Has God really said?’” ~Russell Moore (1971-present), Author and Theologian SERMON PASSAGE Luke 12:22-34 (ESV) 22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.