Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTN:

He was called “Praying Hyde.”

A missionary to India at the turn of the century, many people thought John Hyde was always intensely serious because of his reputation for being able to pray and see incredible answers to prayer.

They thought that such a prayer-warrior could have no capacity for celebration.

But they misread him.

“Praying Hyde” was once asked by a worldly lady who wanted to poke a little fun at this man she considered a prude, “Don’t you think, Mr. Hyde, that a lady who dances can go to heaven?”

He looked at her with a smile and said quietly, “I do not see how a lady can go to heaven unless she dances.”

His statement communicated that the Christian life should be a joyful experience that makes you want to dance!

But I always tell stories like that with a little bit of concern.

They really can be misleading.

They can cause some believers to anticipate constant spiritual ecstasy and experience constant spiritual disappointment.

Some people, when they are first saved, are so relieved of guilt and overcome with the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, that they feel a kind of euphoria.

It becomes for them a trap.

Like spiritual junkies trying to repeat that first “high,” they spend their spiritual lives trying to duplicate the experience.

Calvin Miller calls them “Christaholics.”

He says:

Many Christians are only "Christaholics" and not disciples at all.

Disciples are cross-bearers; they seek Christ.

Christaholics seek happiness.

Disciples dare to discipline themselves, and the demands they place on themselves leave them enjoying the happiness of their growth.

Christaholics are escapists looking for a shortcut to nirvana.

Like drug addicts, they are trying to "bomb out" of their depressing world.

There is no automatic joy.

Christ is not a happiness capsule; he is the way to the Father.

But the way to the Father is not a carnival ride in which we sit and do nothing while we are whisked through various spiritual sensations.

NEED

And that’s why some of us have no real spiritual joy.

It’s because what we’re after isn’t joy at all.

We’re expecting euphoria.

We’re looking for ecstasy when ecstasy isn’t what God is giving.

This is why telling a former Crack addict to “get high on Jesus” is a mistake.

What you’re telling him is that this Christian life is as easy as inhaling and as simple as taking drugs.

It’s not!

You don’t have to be a believer for very long to learn that constant euphoria doesn’t describe the Christian life. . .

at least not the real one.

So what happens?

Disappointed by the lack of euphoria, many Christians get depressed and disillusioned.

They have no joy because they’re expecting euphoria.

And then, they have no joy because they’re neglecting the process.

We tend to think, as Miller says that our heavenly is our carnival ride in which we sit and do nothing while we are whisked through various spiritual sensations.

People afflicted with this malignancy say things like:

“I just don’t get anything out of the worship service.”

“I thought being a Christian would make me happy.

It’s just stressing me out.”

“I like this church because it ‘feels’ right.”

These statements reveal two glaringly unbiblical mistakes: First, they reveal a belief that one’s Christian experience is all about emotions.

That’s not true.

Emotions are the by-product of faith, not the goal of it.

Second, these statements reveal a belief that joy is a passive thing.

It is something that comes to me mysteriously and I have no control over it.

That’s also not true.

Actually joy is something that happens at the end of a process.

That’s what Hebrews 12:11 says:

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, (notice!) afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Catch that?

Joy (another name for the “peaceable fruit of righteousness”) comes afterward.

What does joy come after?

It’s right there in that verse: training.

That word comes from the root, gymnazo.

You can hear the word “gym” in that term.

In other words, joy comes after your spiritual work out.

It is the result of a training process.

It is the result of a process of DISCIPLINE

So I want us to take a look at what’s involved in this process this morning.

This process of discipline involves three truths which, if you are to experience it, you must internalize.

The first one is this.

In this training process:

DIV 1: SUFFERING IS THE TOOL OF DISCIPLINE.

EXP

Now the word “suffering” is definitely not one of our favorites.

In fact we tend to run from it and, with good reason.

No one likes pain.

That is the sentiment the Hebrew writer addresses when he begins in v 5, And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him.’

Knowing our tendency to avoid pain, the writer couches suffering in the context of a relationship.

He tells us to remember that we are sons.

He then tells us that we should not despise the “chastening” of the Lord.

That’s an interesting word.

It actually speaks of the training and education of children.

What we are told here is that real learning requires discipline.

If I am to really learn anything, there will be “chastening” or “training” involved which will mean that I will have to undergo discipline.

And we all know that discipline can be painful.

v. 6 goes on to say that ...whom the Lord loves He chastens and (watch this word) scourges every son whom He receives.

The scourge, as you may remember from your study of the passion of Christ, was the cat-o-nine tails.

It’s the instrument of torture that was used on Jesus when Pilate had him beaten turning his back into a bloody mess.

That’s painful!

Now, understand, not all the things that teach us in life are painful, but we have to say that many of them are.

Suffering is the tool of discipline.

That, you might say, is the bad news.

But there is some good news!

Not only does real learning require discipline, but only real sons receive discipline.

v 7 says:

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

If you are going through some sort of spiritual battle or struggle today, take heart!

The presence of pain in your life is a signal that God is at work.

He is chastening you.

He is disciplining you.

Yes, it is painful, but it can also be comforting.

It tells you that you belong to God.

In fact, if you live a pain free life as a believer and never have any difficulty to overcome there is a good chance that you are illegitimate.