A New Mindset

Have you ever heard this quote: “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” Perhaps someone has said it to you, or you’ve said it to someone else. When you said it, you said it because you were going through something very difficult. Do you know where this quote originated? I was spoken originally by German Philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche. His original quote goes like this: “Out of life’s school of war—what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” Now, why would I begin a message from God’s Word with a quote from a 19th century philosopher who opposed God?

The reason I’ve quoted it, it illustrates a mindset that God wants us to embrace to help us endure the hardships and difficulties of life. In other words, once in a while, ungodly philosophers stumble upon truth that can actually help us. Now, I’m not saying we should learn this saying. But what I am saying is this: God uses trials and hardships in our lives to chisel away worldly values so He can make us more like Jesus.

In other words, God allows hardships and difficulties in our lives, not as things to grudgingly accept with a defiant resignation, and not as something to face with self-pity, thinking, “what did I do to deserve this?” and not as something to blame God for, as if He’s abandoned you. Instead, God allows trials and suffering in our lives not because He’s forgotten about you, but because He actually loves you. Now, this may be a whole new thought for you today. But for years people have been told that if you follow Jesus, then God’s going to make your life wonderful, that you’ve never have any problems, and that your life is going to be filled with happiness. But as a result of this false teaching, as soon as something bad happens, you think God is angry with you, or God doesn’t really care about you. And what happens to most people when they’ve been swayed by this kind of thinking, is that they turn their back on God and walk away

This is precisely the problem the writer of Hebrews has been addressing this entire letter. Many Jews had come to faith in Jesus. They’d even experienced the joys of God’s grace, but now that they were suffering hardship for their faith, many were deciding that following Jesus wasn’t worth it, so they were turning back to the religion of Judaism: where they were trusting in their own righteous behavior rather on the righteousness of Jesus. And now in instructing them on how to endure in the race of faith, he wants to correct their false mindset about the role of trials in their lives. He wants them and us to see the role of trials with a completely new perspective – that trials are not meant to destroy our walk with God but to strengthen our walk with Him. As such, he’s going to show us the mindset we need to embrace when we face the trials and hardships of life. A mindset we need that will not only help us endure when bad things happen, but also a mindset that will help us succeed in winning the race of faith. So, if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open it to Hebrews 12:4-17, where we’re going to begin by addressing our false way of thinking about the role of trials and hardships in our lives, by revealing…

The mindset needed to run through hardships: In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 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. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:4-7 The writer begins by acknowledging that the race of faith we are in is a real struggle. Here he changes the metaphor from that of a race to contest in a boxing ring. It’s a real battle. We are in a fight against sin in this battle. But he wants to give us some perspective. The battle we are engaged in is nothing in comparison to the battle Jesus went through to save us. Jesus shed His blood and gave up His life for us on the cross to save us. Our battle may be difficult, we may even be weary and feel like giving up, but our battle is nothing in comparison to what Jesus went through for us.

This is a good reminder for us. Sometimes we have tunnel vision toward what we are going through. It’s hard, and our pain or hurt or confusion as to what we are going through can be overwhelming. Imagine what it must be like to see your home burnt to the ground from the fires in LA? Imagine losing your security, your comfort, everything you’ve poured your hard work and efforts into all your life – gone in moments? It can be devastating. But then, when you take a moment to see that you are still alive, you can actually be thankful rather than being devastated. That’s the idea: No matter how bad things are, they’re nothing in comparison to what Jesus went through for you.

But how do you respond when something devastating happens to you? When circumstances outside ourselves destroy the peace and security of our carefully crafted lives, how do you respond? Do you get mad at God? Do you feel like God has abandoned you? Do you blame God for not taking care of you? If you have, that’s kind of normal. That’s why the author now reminds us about God’s relationship with us and asks this question: And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

He writes, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:5-6 What’s he doing here? What he’s reminding us of is that as God’s children, God allows trials, unforeseen hardships and crisis that come our way as means of disciplining us as His children. He’s wanting us to have a whole new perspective on trials, reminding us that “The Lord disciplines the one He loves.” Then, later on in this passage he describes the purpose of His discipline is to bring “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” into our lives. He doesn’t want us to think that God has forgotten us or betrayed us. Instead, He wants us to see these difficulties ways that God is disciplining us, as a father disciplines his child. In other words, He wants us to flip the script on the role of difficulties in our lives – rather than seeing trials as an absence of the Father’s love, we can now see them as instruments of His love.

Think of it this way:When a parent loves his child, he always disciplines in a reasonable, firm, and yet loving and righteous way. A father shows his son that he loves him through discipline. If he did not love him, he would just let him run wild. But a loving father would never do that.

The famous football coach Tom Landry put it this way: “The job of a coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to be what they’ve always wanted to be.” This is a pretty good description of what God is doing for us when He allows difficulties to come our way. He allows them to come our way, because He loves us. And He uses trials to grow us in ways we would never grow if our lives were always easy.

For example: One of the hardest things I ever went through was being asked to resign my pastorate in Albany, Oregon. I was asked to resign, not because of my leadership style, not because of my preaching, not because of my character. I was asked to resign, in their words, “Because I was not the right fit for them.” So, I resigned with nothing on the horizon. No way to support my family. This was a pretty a devastating time or me. I had always had successful ministries wherever I had been. So, this turn of events hurt me deeply and caused me to question my calling in the ministry. But in retrospect I learned to see God’s purpose in it. He was disciplining me. Not because I had done something wrong. But because he needed me to be more dependent on Him. He needed me to be emptied of my pride. He needed me to become more compassionate and caring for the hurting. All things I needed in order to become more like Jesus. All things I needed to be a more godly shepherd. Yet, for the longest time, I was ashamed of what happened to me. I was ashamed because I was still full of pride. But over time, God used this event to humble me, and now I see that God was loving me as a Son. It hurt, but God used it to make me a better man.

And that’s the point God wants us to see about the role of trials in our lives: The very presence of the Lord’s discipline in your life is evidence that you are loved by God. That’s a pretty heavy thought, but that’s what God’s Word teaches. Now, Along with discipline, God also employs fatherly correction. Verse 6 tells us: “He chastises every son whom He receives.” This word for chastising is the word is mastigoi, which means scourging or whipping as an intense form of punishment. If we think God would never do that, we are obviously mistaken. While we are not judicially punished by God as Judge – God as Father sometimes gives painful, corrective punishment the way any loving parent does, because He wants us to grow up the right way.

Many Christians have gratefully testified that the only way God got through to them in their sin was to allow a painful ordeal – the loss of a job, a severe illness, persecution for their faith. Eventually they recognized this as a sign of God’s Fatherly care, the kind that only beloved children receive from Him. Pastor J. C. Ryle says, “By affliction He teaches us many precious lessons, which, without it we should never learn. By affliction He shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, and makes us long for heaven.”

Every Christ follower needs this kind of discipline. On our own we become comfortable with the world and even with sin. J. I. Packer once said, “This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort or another – it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold Him fast… God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on Him. Therefore, He takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in Himself.”

For some of you, this may be a whole new way of seeing the place of trials and hardships in your life today. But here God’s Word is clear! We have a Father who loves us and therefore uses the tough things of life to discipline us so that we find our comforts in Him, and not in the comforts of this world. Therefore, God is calling us to see the role of difficulties in our life from a new perspective: Not as God abandoning us, but as God helping us become more like Jesus.

So, this is a call to a change of attitude in our race of faith. Rather than being weary and ready to give up when faced with difficulties, we are now to see those difficulties as God’s loving correction. So, the writer concludes with this word of encouragement: Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Hebrews 12:12-13 God doesn’t want His people to be lame, to be taken out of the race. He disciplines us, corrects us, and changes us, so we can be victorious! Our God doesn’t want to coddle you. He wants to heal you, strengthen you, create the kind of character in you, so that you will run a kind of race that will endure to the end.

Let me conclude this section with one illustration from this verse. God’s Word calls us to strengthen our weak knees. Weak knees are a universal illustration of fear. Fear is one of the greatest enemies of faith. When you are afraid, what do you do? You retreat. You run and hide. Sometimes I think that the number one tactic of the enemy is to instill fear in us. Because if he can do that, then we just won’t run. And his tactic works pretty well. How do I know this? Because everyone I know, including myself, do everything we can to safeguard our lives against the hard things of life. And because we put so much energy into safeguarding our lives, when trials or hardships come, we struggle in our faith, rather than run the race God calls us to run. This may be one of the biggest reasons why God calls us to change our perspective on hardships and trials. He doesn’t want a bunch of lame Christians who are crippled by fear. He wants a bunch of courageous Christians who are unstoppable in their race of faith. He wants us to have the kind of mindset that will run through our hardships, no matter what comes our way.
Now, that’s the first attitude adjustment God’s Word calls us to make in our race of faith. Here’s the second mindset God wants us to embrace as we run the race:

The mindset needed to run an effective race: This is the winners mindset God wants us to strive for in our daily living. He begins by commanding us to: Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

“Strive for peace with everyone” God wants us to live peacefully with every person we come into contact with. This is something Paul stressed in his letter to the Romans: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). As we run our race of faith we are to seek peace in every relationship. We are to be intentional about this. God has made peace with us through Jesus Christ. He no longer holds anything against us. We were made right with Him through the blood of Christ. So, what this means for you and me today, is that we are to be peacemakers. In a world of conflict, hatred and division, we are the ones who are to step across the divides and seek to heal relationships. We don’t put up fences with people, we break them down. This is part of our race, a determined pursuit of peace. An as we live this way, people will see that we are different from the rest of the world. Which leads into the next part of this command. We are to…

“Strive for holiness” The basic meaning of holiness is to be set-apart; to be uniquely different from the world. This is now part of our race. We are to pursue becoming like Jesus in everything we do and in every relationship we have. That’s what God wants to see in our lives as we run our race. He wants us to run the race in a way that show others the love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control of Christ in every relationship we encounter. When we live this was, we live holy lives. God wants our race to show the world that there really is a different way to live. Along with this pursuit of holiness, God also wants us to

“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God” This is a call to be mindful of our fellow racers – about caring for them. One early Greek theologian, Theophylact, puts it in terms of a band of travelers engaged in a journey and notes that they must periodically make sure that everyone is still there. “Has anyone fallen out?” he asks. “has anyone been left behind while the others have pressed on?” So, as we run our race, we are to be aware of other Christ followers who are in the race with us. If they’re falling behind, if they’re struggling in the race, we need to come alongside them, learn about their struggle, and encourage them with the grace of God and our love for them, sharing their burdens, praying for them, encouraging them. In this way, we help one another stay in the race.

Finally, we are given a couple of warnings. First: that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; And second, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Let’s look at the first one: “the root of bitterness” Dr Albert Mohler describes this bitterness by saying: Bitterness is a deadly contagion and a sign of serious spiritual trouble. It’s an on-ramp to the way of sin, not to the way of righteousness, tearing apart the church as it spreads. This is an allusion to Deuteronomy 29:18, where Moses said, ”Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.” Deuteronomy 29:18 This kind of bitterness defiles a church, by spreading false teaching. This is actually rampant in the church today, for many people who have followed Jesus, but have never been grounded in truths of the gospel, are leaving the faith today. This then is why we need good oversight in the teaching of God’s Word today. This is why we need Pastors who are committed to teaching the truth. This is why, we want to help people engage with the truth of God’s Word in our Journey Groups. This is another reason why it’s so important for you to be in the word and become a student of God’s Word, so that we help one another stay in the race and not turn away from God.

Now the final warning: “See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy” These two terms describe a profane attitude about life, that which is sensual and earth-bound, that which pursues carnal cravings of all sorts, sexual and otherwise, rather than spiritual blessing. This attitude is all around us today; indeed, our nation’s economy is practically built upon these twin pillars of worldliness: the sensual and the godless. One example of this mindset, as well as a warning against it, comes from Esau.

We are not to imitate his example; for his example was one of unfaithfulness to God. Esau traded away his birthright in order to alleviate the physical discomfort of hunger. Trading it away to Jacob demonstrated his disinterest not just for his birthright, but for the holy things of God. In fact, Moses says that Esau’s actions show that he ‘despised his birthright” (Genesis 25:34). Thus, the author of Hebrews appropriately identifies Esau as irreverent, unfaithful, and unworthy of emulation.

There’s a lot here today that God wants us to grasp. He wants us to have a unique new perspective toward trials and hardships; and a new mindset as to how we run our race.
Today we have seen “the kind of attitude we need” to keep running the race of faith:
To see that God uses the hardships to make us more like Jesus and how they can help us find our comfort in Him rather than in the things of this world.
To see how our fears can take us out of the race, but how God’s love can keep us in the race.
To see how we are called to be peacemakers as we run our race and how much we need to come alongside one another to help us stay in the race
To see how much we need God’s truth to keep us on course in the race and how easily the profane ways of the world can take us off course and out of the race.

The next time trouble comes your way, or your fears start to get the best of you, rather than run away from God, run to God and let God carry you through your trials. For when you do, He won’t just comfort you, He may just change you and make you more like Jesus.