Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Proven By Fire Pt.2

Richard was telling me that Jerry came up this morning and nailed some more of the platform here to stop it from squeaking. I thought that was me. I was getting concerned. I went home and shot some WD-40 into my joints and found out it was the platform, so praise God for that.

Let's turn to—we'll be at Jeremiah later—Revelation, chapter 3. I was just reading Jeremiah. Revelation, chapter 3—pick up where we were this morning. You've been meditating on this letter to the Laodicean church and some very interesting truths that come forth. We'll begin at verse 14, "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot." I'm going to see to it that you're cold or hot. God is not going to leave us lukewarm. There's no such thing in the true body of, you know, riding the proverbial fence. You either love Him or you hate Him. You're for Him; you're against Him. He says that in his faithfulness He's going to manifest this.

Then He goes on and tells us in verse 16, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."

Jesus, you see, experienced the chastening of the Lord. The hand of God was sore upon Him. He was chastened and bruised, afflicted. He knows what it is to experience this hand of God upon Him for an eternal purpose. Then He says in the final statement, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto thy churches."

We were talking about the fact this morning that there is going to need to be in every one of our lives the experiencing of the love of God. The statement of verse 19 that we're going to go over time and time again in the study, that as many as I love, I rebuke and I chasten. Now, a lot of us have trouble identifying with that kind of a love. In our society especially, we seem to think that love is coddling, and love is always giving positive reinforcement. Isn't that the emphasis in today's society? We need to give some positive reinforcement. Well, the only reason there seems to be that real need of positive reinforcement is because there's an actual trust lacking in the relationship. I have to continue to reinforce you to make you feel good about yourself and that you will be a success and that everyone does love you just like you are, etc. If you have to keep trying to sell that to somebody, then it's obvious to me that one thing hasn't occurred, and that's the actual acquisition of that truth as a reality. If you know that your Father loves you, He doesn't have to continue to try to positively reinforce that.

As Tony was leaving, he was getting ready to walk out the back door, and he said, he said, I'm leaving in a different status than I left last time. As I went out last time under discipline, and this time he said I'm leaving under different circumstances. He said so often in my life you've spoken a statement at times like this that's carried me and given me strength. He said is there anything that you can share with me as we're getting ready to leave? I said I believe the one thing that Father's wanting you to learn at this particular juncture has been this. You have to understand that you are accepted in the beloved. Performance is not an issue. You don't have to earn your position. You're a son. You're loved. Go be about Father's business. As he went encouraged, he really believed that that was what God had for him at that particular time.

When you come to that, then you're in a position now of being able to grow. I know that one of the things that as a young man and growing up, playing ball, there was this—you've heard me refer to him many times—this one football coach I had in college that I respected, just a—one of the greatest motivators of men that I've known. This was the type guy that you would go to the trenches with and die for. He had that ability to motivate and to inspire people. I really admired him and his opinion in different things. It was an interesting thing that early on in our relationship, I was able to understand that this man saw something in me of worth. Because of that, he wouldn't allow me to be less than what he thought I should be. He wouldn't take anything less than excellence in my life. He rode me harder than anybody else on the team. If you want to talk about verbal abuse, it was a constant barrage of verbal motivation. He was a guy that stood—he was just about 6' 6"; he weighed 325 pounds. He had a head that looked pretty similar—I'm trying to think of some of the cartoon characters that—his neck was like this, and it went up to his head, that was kind of just a little round spot, and some hair shooting out. He looked like a cartoon figure. The one thing that stands out in my mind about Tor over all of those years was how big his face was, and it was always in mine. I can still see him to this day. He was one of those guys—he was a BIG man. I've showed some of the guys pictures of him—a BIG man, BIG face.

When he spoke, he spit all over the place. He was one of those—he had big lips and puhh—sprayed. I can't tell you the times that he's walked up and grabbed me by my face mask and pulled me into himself and said, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU!? I thought this is I hope the last! He would scream into your—and spit all over you. That was the worse part. I remember missing a block on one play, and very vividly as I missed this block, and I'm laying on the field—the guy's tackled for a loss—I was suppose to pull and block the defensive end, and I missed my block and he's thrown for a loss. I can still hear those thousands of people of laughing at this comment—SCOTT, YOU DONKEY!!!—and thousands of people roaring. As many as I love, I rebuke, and I chasten.

I came to know his love for me because when I first experienced this coming up to play, I thought what in the world does this guy have against me? I thought he was out to get me, and it turned out he loved me like a son. He saw something in me that I wasn't aware of. I was getting by. What I was producing was adequate, but it wasn't excellence. I think that's what God is wanting to do in our lives today as we're preparing for the soon coming of the Lord Jesus. I think many of us here are adequate Christians, but are we excellent? I think can even play first string, but are we going to be all-American, all-pro? Is there a place for us in God's Hall of Fame of Hebrews 11? You won't acquire that without chastisement, without rebuke.

I think in the church, and I look many times at the way we try to motivate individuals in pursuit of God and in building character. Richard came to me the other day about a young man. He said this—he said we're doing everything possible, and this young person he's just lazy. I said does laziness seem to be what it really is? He said yeah, and we've spanked him. You know, spanking doesn't require a lot of energy. You just go—boom! Then you go be lazy. I said well, after you spank him, make him run laps, and make him do some push-ups and some sit-ups. Make him run the stairs after you spank him. Then don't let him go home till the work's done. If mom and dad sit in the parking lot until midnight, maybe they'll find a way to motivate him. As many as I love, I rebuke, and I chasten.

You see, there's a standard of excellence that God has put upon us of perfection, and nothing else is acceptable. To think, beloved, if any of you are seeing the way that your children are being disciplined, and the standards that are being held, you think, you know, it seems too hard, or I don't understand. Beloved, please, hear. It's the love of God. It's the preparation of our lives for the coming of the Lord Jesus. The Scripture makes it very clear, doesn't it? That this chastening is grievous for the moment. Turn over to the book of Hebrews for just a second. The passage that all of us are so familiar with, and yet, we have to understand that it's applicable in all of our lives, in every area that we're talking of here—where he speaks to us and talks about the necessity in chapter 12 of this great cloud of witnesses that has gone on before us. Now, we talked about some of this great cloud this morning. We talked about Job. We talked about the motivation of the whole nation of Israel, didn't we, as they were learning in the wilderness what God was desiring to prove in their hearts about being able to trust Him on a daily basis, and the manna that had been given forth, the proving of the forty years of wandering and a whole generation having to be lost because of hearts so influenced by Egypt that they couldn't enter into the promise.

Let me share something here with you tonight, and this is important. You may be out of Egypt, but how much of Egypt's out of you? I mean that's—how much of the world still influences our thought processes? We don't smoke anymore. We don't drink anymore. We don't do drugs anymore. We don't cuss anymore. That's not the issue. Are you trusting God for the daily manna? Are you trusting God for the daily bread? Can you begin to rejoice in this walk in the unknown, following He that's invisible, looking for that city? Are you comfortable in that? If not, you're going to keep looking over your shoulder for Egypt. You're going to turn back to Sodom, and you, your family, turning into pillars of salt. If not, involved in incest and the escape because there's still so much of the world's system that's influencing our behavior at crunch time because it's not been purged out of us because of these vexations.

We have a great cloud of witnesses compassed round about. He says because of what we've understood through their journey, that you and I are being formed into that same image of Jesus Christ, and we're in the same crucible of trials and tribulations. He says let us lay aside every weight and the sins that do so easily beset us, and let us run with patience, consistency, with some endurance, the race that's set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, looking unto Jesus, the captain of our salvation. He who learned obedience by the things that He suffered. Looking unto Jesus. Letting Him become the example to each and every one of us. He endured all of these trials, the Scripture says, and the afflictions. It says He endured them even to the point of the cross despising all of the shame that came with it because of the joy that had been set before Him. You see, He was looking into the eternal realm. He was looking for that city whose builder and maker was God. He was being governed by the eternal and not the temporal.

Richard taught on this awhile back, just a few weeks ago, on this aspect of not resisting the blood. So many of us seem to think, you know, that we're involved in some great trials and tribulation. You haven't resisted unto blood yet. The Scripture talks about these light afflictions that are but for a moment. Everything that you and I experience is in that category of light afflictions when it's compared to the captain of our salvation, the author, the finisher of our faith who finished the work for us, proclaimed the victory, said it's finished. You and I are living now in assured victory. There's no reason for any one of us to ever be defeated in this journey.

He goes on in this passage and gets to this well-known verse, "For whom the Lord loveth [verse 6] he chasteneth, and scourgeth [whips] every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all [true sons] are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." Now, we begin to see right here what it's all about. Chastisement, the afflictions that are coming upon us, the temptations, the tests, the trials, the actual discipline of God at the hand of God is for one reason. What's Hebrews say that is the reason for all of this is? That we might be partakers of what? Okay, and without holiness—say it—nobody's going to the Lord. Let's say it another way. Without chastisement you'll never see God. Without affliction, trials, hard times, you're not going to see God. You're not going to walk up Easy Street into the presence of God. Everyone before us was a partaker, all of this great cloud of witnesses, and you and I are going to walk in the same steps that have been set before us by the Lord, and it says that this is being done by God for our profit, for our eternal good.

Now, the temporal circumstances are not pleasurable. He goes on in verse 11, says, "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward…" Afterwards—say that with me everybody—afterwards. Is that what we're looking for? Afterwards. I'm looking for after the trial. I don't like the trial, but afterwards, praise God. In due season, the Scripture says, if we don't faint, what's going to happen? We're going to reap. So afterwards then, not in the moment—it's not joyous for the moment—but afterwards "it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are [what?] exercised thereby." We understand that this exercise—it's by reason of use that our senses are exercised and that we have the ability then to draw on the character of God.

Turn back, if you would, to the 5th chapter of Hebrews. Keep your finger there for just a moment, but look at the 5th chapter of Hebrews for just a second, verse 13, "For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised [see it—exercised] to discern both good and evil." We see this need of exercising or putting to work or putting into effect. Compare, if you would for just a second, the wisdom of God in this 5th chapter of Hebrews with this statement over here in chapter 12, and he makes it very clear that there will be a yielding of the fruit of righteousness unto those that are exercised by the chastisement. Not just endure it, not just get through, but take what God was teaching you, and put it to work. That's what brings the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It's not enduring the paddle; it's going in the direction that it takes you that brings the peaceable fruit of righteousness, that brings the praise of God, that begins to solidify the confidence between a father and his child, that you're someone who's willing to be taught and receive instruction. There's this growth that's necessary in our lives, and we receive that chastisement, and we have to be willing to take it.

I had a flashback as we were out in LA just a couple of days ago. We were driving through Ventura, and I remember in Ventura some trouble that I had gotten into as we were driving through that town. I won't belabor this particular point, but I remember we were playing in college ball. We were down there, and we had all gotten pretty well lit after the game. Some of us were found downtown on Main Street, basically with just our Levi's on, no shirts, no shoes or whatever, jumping out of trees on pedestrians that were walking by, later discovered throwing empty bottles from the hotel at the police down below and fined for the destruction to the hotel rooms, and the discipline that followed was very interesting. It was a very interesting thing. I won't go into all of that, but it came right up to the line of torture. As well-conditioned athletes as we were, taken to the brink literally, physically, of every individual either passing out, throwing up, incapable of moving any longer, physically taken to the place of sheer exhaustion to bring that flesh into discipline. I still remember the one hundredth 100-yard sprint consecutively without stopping. I remember the people passing out and vomiting and put to exercise so that you could begin to discern what your flesh could, couldn't do, and the ability to control it; the disciplines were there. That was because of a lack of character.

I can remember discipline one time that was being put upon me for some mistakes that were made in a game. You know, you're going to make mistakes. Mistakes are different than a lack of character. I was talking to someone today. They came up, and we were talking a little bit again about basketball after the service this morning. The one thing we'd mentioned—the one thing that we were talking about, and we'd agreed upon was this—defense is an attitude. There's not—it's not as much a skill as it is an attitude. It's something that you can do with a lot of effort. You're going to miss shots. There's all of the hand, eye coordination, all of that kind of stuff. There's times—we're not perfect; we're not machines. You're going to make some mistakes, but discipline makes you be in the position you're supposed to be in at the time that you're supposed to be there. Discipline is what causes you in a basketball game to always be in a place where you're going to block out. You're going to find the right position. The other person may have a higher skill level, but you're going to be in the place that you should be. You're going to be conducting yourself in the manner that you should. Those are all things that are expected of us. We're going to make errors. You're going to drop balls; you're going to miss shots, etc.

When you begin to be disciplined for those mechanical mistakes rather than the attitude and character, it can begin to cause a resentment. We were playing a game, and we were winning handily. There was just seconds left in the game. The other team's getting ready to kick an onside kick. They put all of us that have good hands in to field the ball, so I'm in there to field the ball. The ball's kicked. It's an onside kick; it's coming. I've recovered, I can't tell you how many of those, but all of a sudden, something clicked in my mind. We all know that footballs don't roll exactly straight, and this ball's coming down spinning and bouncing like a football does. I'm getting ready to fall on it, and just as I do, I look up and I see some daylight. Now, we're already three touchdowns ahead, but I thought I'd like to score one. So rather than falling on the ball like you're trained to do, I was going to scoop the ball up, run it for six, and for a defensive lineman and an offensive lineman, that's something you don't get to do a lot. So I thought, you know, in those days we didn't have great celebrations in the end zone, so we couldn't have done any of the great Smurf dances and all of the other things that we've seen over the years, but the glory was there. Well, needless to say, as I began to scoop the ball up, it went off of my knee, they recovered it and scored. Now, we're two touchdowns ahead. There's about twenty-eight seconds left in the game, so they onside kick again, and they kick it toward who do you think? Tor, having threatened me with death if I tried to pick this up and run it for a touchdown, communicated very clearly what my task was. In obedience, I go to fall on the ball, and as I do, and I'm falling on the ball, at the last moment, it takes this weird bounce, hits my shoulder pad, they recover it and scored. We're now one touchdown ahead. My uncle had never seen me play football before. This was the game he came to watch, and it's time for another onside kick. If you're wondering whether I recovered it or not, I am still alive. That wouldn't have been the case had the third one been muffed.

It comes Monday, and everyone's running off the field, and Tor says get back here; you're not going in. We're going to practice onside kicks. He brings our kicker out. I'd fumbled two onside kicks; my uncle was at the game. I wasn't real happy. The kicker kicks the onside kick. It comes toward me. As it takes a short bounce just in front of me, I kicked it into the bleachers. Tor didn't come over to me and put his face into mine and scream. He looked at me and said okay, go on in. Nothing was ever said about that day again. I think he realized that we're human. We're going to make mistakes. We can learn from the correction, the discipline, all of these things when it's a matter of character, but when it's just a lack of perfection, it's responded to differently. We realize that God deals with us in the same way. He won't accept rebellion, and He won't accept less than our best, but He understands our frame and that we're dust. When you begin to see these admonitions toward the chastening that's for the purpose of our partaking of holiness, the character of God, the ability then to by reason of use and the exercise of putting these things to work, there's going to be fruit. There's going to be character that manifests itself at another time down the line. I'd already learned from the humiliation. I'd already learned from the problem of having to exalt myself that it almost cost my teammates a perfect season. You begin to learn from those experiences. The reason for chastisement is to teach the lesson. It's not punitive. That's why Tor never pursued the discipline any further because he was aware that the lesson had been learned. He was aware that what he was requiring at that time was beyond what was necessary for the lesson, and that my response was negative rather than positive because it was a provoking unto wrath.

This is God in his wisdom—never makes those kind of mistakes, those kind of judgments in dealing with us. The Hebrews passage says that fathers after their own, for their own purposes, fathers of our flesh, who have corrected us and have brought about admonition for their own purposes, we've given them respect, and we've understood what their motive was, and it was to better the house, the family. It was to better our lives. What Paul's really saying here or the writer of Hebrews, what's really being spoken here is this, saying don't you understand that God, from his eternal perspective, has for you a plan that you can't comprehend, an eternal good which is the partaking of his holiness, without which you'll never commune with Him. That's the whole reason for all of these adversities. When we realize that, beloved, it should cause us to experience what James says to count it all joy. Thank God that what I'm experiencing right now, as hard as this may be, even though I don't understand it, is for my eternal good.

I like what the Psalmist said. Turn over for just a second, if you would, to the 119th Psalm, verse 67. This passage is one that most of us are familiar with, but it helps us understand again the motive behind the chastening, the motive behind God bringing this affliction into our lives. The Psalmist says 119, verse 67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word." Have you spent hours meditating on that passage? If you haven't, you should. "Before I was afflicted I went astray." Let me explain that going astray just a little bit here unless you misunderstand it. Really, I think it could be understood even better this way: Before I was afflicted I went my way. I wasn't aware of what God's eternal purposes were, what He was really doing in my life. Proverbs 3:11 says it this way, "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." Why all this discipline? Why? If somebody's on your case all the time, why is that? It's because they see good in you. Amen? Not bad, they're not trying to just give you a hard time. If your parent, kids, are always coming and requiring of you excellence, you say when are they going to be satisfied? You've got to understand, if what you're asking is when are they going to get off my case, the answer is never. You're misunderstanding what's happening here. You're not trying to gain their approval. You have it. That's why they're sowing this correction into your life—because they love you, because they see worth in you, because they know that you can bring forth glory to God in your life.

The natural man just says I don't understand why you just keep requiring more and more. It's because the standard's perfection, and it's because—look, and this is very important—if you don't receive the chastisement, you're a bastard. Look what Proverbs 3 says, "My son, despise not." If you're my son, you will not despise the chastening. You'll understand that you're accepted. You'll understand that you're loved. You'll understand that you're not trying to gain approval, that you're mutually working together for your perfection. Not enough of that taught in our child psychology today. There's not enough of this that's being promoted by our sociologists today. You see, what's being promoted today is tolerance. Tolerate me like I am. No, you're not going to stay like you are. You're going to be better. I'm not talking about a parent trying to live vicariously through their child and say because I was a failure, I'm going to try to make you a star. We're not talking about that. We're talking about really understanding the parental role of bringing a conformity of our children to the image of Jesus and not sparing for the crying. Probably the most difficult thing is to be able to be effective in this communication. It's going to be done by us becoming a living example and not just speaking it but doing it and saying follow me as I follow Christ.

Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but after I was afflicted, after I was disciplined, what's it say? How does it end? What's the consequence? "But now [what?] have I kept thy word." What does affliction do then? What do trials in our lives do? It causes us to gravitate to the word of God. The word becomes our solace. We get our comfort, our peace, our strength from the word of God in this affliction. There's no other place to turn. How easy is it to leave the word of God on the nightstand when everything's going well? How easy it is to pick it up in the wee hours of the night to gain your solace, when your kids are on drugs, when you don't know where they are, when there's no way to pay the bills, when you don't know whether you're going to live or die? You're in his presence and his peace and faith begins to rise in your heart that regardless of what happens in time and space, He's gone to prepare a place for us, and we delight in the eternal and in the invisible. The salve that's been given for our eyes causes us to see in the realm of faith where others can't see, to where we call things that are not as though they were. "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word." Don't despise, son, this chastening. Don't be weary in your well doing. Don't be weary of his correction. He's not going to let up. A good father's not going to let up.

Now, we talk about positive reinforcement. Where is that in the Scriptures? What we need to understand—positive reinforcement is positively reinforcing them with God's ability in them, with the promise and the truth of God's word. It's not telling them they're something they're not. It's not catering to weakness and to ignorance, but it's making God big in their eyes. That's the positive reinforcement, so that they could look to God, the author and the finisher of their faith. For whom the Lord loves He corrects even as a father in whom he delighteth. If you're being chastened, it's because God delights in you.

Kids, let me tell you something. In the natural, if mom and dad are putting the pressure on you, it's because they delight in you. They're for you. They love you. They see some good in you. They see that you can do something positively for the kingdom of God. They're not going to let your life be destroyed by the devourer. A number, in the multitude of those who are going to a devil's hell, who did it the path of least resistance, who just grew up generation after generation just like the parents and just like the grandparents, and they all turned out the same. It stops here. As for me and my house, we're serving God. Amen?

You see, that's where my heart's been in trying to raise my kids. I get around my natural family, I say dear God, who wants more like this? The path we're on is not easy, and the decisions that are made are not easy, and the requirements are hard on the flesh, and they're grievous for the moment, but they bring the peaceable fruit of righteousness, the Scripture says. When? "Unto them which are exercised thereby." In other words, bottom line is this. You can get all the chastening you want. You can get all the instruction and reproof. Mom and dad, the Lord Jesus himself, our heavenly Father can speak. They can say you're going to do it this way; the word of God says this. If you don't do that, here's going to be the consequences, but I want to tell you something. Ultimately, it's whether you choose to put it to work or not—"exercised thereby." If you'll do it, if you'll put it to work—that's what exercise is talking about, putting this thing to the test, putting some energy to it—it'll bring a peaceable fruit of the character of Jesus Christ and the eternal rest that will bring about what nothing else can in our lives.

These promises begin to manifest themselves to us, and God's looking for a people in whom He can show himself mighty. One last passage for this evening. In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 5, it says, "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." This is what Father's wanting to do in our lives. John 15 calls it pruning. There's the pruning—if there's good in you, that God's going to prune you to bring forth more. Why is it that the flesh always says the reason they're on my case is because they don't like me, they've got something against me, when the whole biblical principle of John 15 is this: If there's any worth in you, it's going to pruned. There's going to be chastisement. There's going to be pressure put on you so that you might do something? What is it? Bring forth more fruit. Now, the flesh is always going to say hey, there's enough fruit, man. I don't need any more pressure. I don't need any more weight hanging off my branches. Well, then you need to be rebuked because it's not for you. It's for the glory of God. It's not how comfortable you are. It's how much God is being glorified in our lives. Those who are overseers, those who are God's agents in our lives—moms, dads, brothers and sisters in Christ, the ministry gifts—continue to bring the chastisement of the Lord, and the consequence then is that peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Chastisement, reproof, rebuke also requires—verse 12 of the 12th chapter of Hebrews. When you're bringing about these requirements of holiness and perfection, the process can cause us to become very weary, and, therefore, verse 12 says, "Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." You see, if you don't understand the love of God, all of this chastisement, all the reproof, all of the requirements being placed on you is going to bring about a root of bitterness. I would that you be hot or cold. It won't leave you neutral. You'll thank God for those in your life who have disciplined you. As I look back now over my life being middle-aged—which means I'll live to at least a hundred, if fifty's middle-aged, I'm only halfway—I was thinking about death. Somebody just told me that it was kind of a strange coincidence that Charles Schultz, the cartoonist, that on the very day that the last Peanuts cartoon was circulated, he died. He wasn't expecting to die; he was expecting to retire, and he died. They say that he was a Christian; I don't know. They say that about a lot of folks, but if he was, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Death's not to be feared. I kind of envision, though, you know, you have—you envision people, and I can just kind of—you wonder what people's last words are, and I can just see him just kind of going ARK—little words coming out.

The people that influence you in your lives—my mind goes back to primarily coaches that I had, a couple of coaches. The two coaches that most influenced my life was the one I was talking to you about, Tor, and the other was my father. He coached me for many years. Father-son coaching they say isn't always the most productive. I never could understand as a young man, as a boy and a young man, why he was always harder on me than everybody else. He wasn't very communicative and really never verbalized it. He was of the generation that just assumed you should know. As a young person I didn't know. I don't think it's a weakness. I think it's great to bring this truth to our kids, but to be able let them understand that if we're overseeing their lives spiritually, and we're overseeing them in any other ventures whether it be in areas of employment, whether it be in coaching, whatever it might be, that the reason you're going to be harder on them possibly than anybody else is because you see more good in them than anybody else and more potential and more worth. Hopefully, it's not for your own pride and for your own lust but for their own good is what Hebrews 12 says. The older I get, the more I see that wisdom, and the more I see the motive. You're thankful for those who have put the most pressure on you because it brings all of the crud to the top. I believe that in many ways God allows in each of our lives those people so that we can come to grips with who we are and why God gifted us, placed us as it pleases Him. Don't despise the chastening of the Lord.

Father, we thank you for the word of God. In our lives, as brothers and sisters bring reproof and instruction, moms and dads, the circumstances, the pressures on the job, some of us who just despise and almost have a root of bitterness toward our employers—they're put there for your good. They're put there to reveal in you those things that are lacking. You're sitting there and wanting to somehow just bring forth judgment and God to rain destruction upon them, and all they're doing is bringing out all the crud in your life that needs to be exposed. I'm not saying they're righteous. I'm saying that they might be one of God's instruments, such as a Pharaoh or whoever else it might be. It's not them; it's you. What are you doing with the circumstances of life that you find yourself in today? Are you letting it make you bitter, or are you letting it make you better? That is what determines our sonship. Father, make it real in Jesus' name. Amen.

As Gary plays, we'll just rest a moment in the Lord and allow Him to speak to us. What's God think about you? I was disappointed as I walked into Tor's office one day and sat down. I said I think I've been rooked, man. Missed out on a postseason position, as they were giving out the all-American. I said I don't understand, and he said here's the rules. No team can have more than two players. Nate Wright, who played so many years for the Minnesota Vikings, one of the great defensive backs in the NFL, played with us. A young man who was going to be better than O. J. Simpson who ended up in prison. I was disappointed, and he said those two were consensus. I said I agree. I said what do you think about my ability? He said there's absolutely no question in my mind that you can play for anybody you want. He didn't say I'd play and make the Hall of Fame, but he answered my question. Do you believe I can play professional football? Yes. You may or may not believe what I'm going to share with you next. You will because you know I don't lie. I walked out of that office in the natural somewhat disappointed of not personally getting the recognition but with a fulfillment because a person that I respected, his words gave me my worth.

When Jesus says He's pleased, then what's it matter what anybody else thinks? When your mom and dad tell you how they love you and how good of a job you're doing, then don't believe any other source. Those that you respect, when they speak the truth to you, bring that fullness and that contentment. Don't settle for a JC all-American, and don't settle for a Heisman Trophy when there's the Hall of Fame. What's the analogy? What am I saying? We get so distracted by whether we accomplish something at a lower level. It's not over yet. People who receive fame, people who receive recognition, people who acquire goals such as the Heisman Trophy never went on to even become a formidable player much less a Hall of Famer. It's not over yet. God's still working in us, and I want to tell you something. Listen very closely. If you finish, you're enshrined. You read it: And even as I have overcome, I will grant you to sit with me on my throne. It's not over yet. God's got some chastening; He's got some reproving. There's things in us that need to change, but, beloved, we're going to be like Him when we see Him, and we'll rule and reign with Him and hear well done.

Let's stand together and sing it. [Singing song, Immanuel.] Oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father. I love you, Jesus. Sing it one more time and bless Him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Father, make it a reality. Hallelujah. Father, make it real in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Before you go, turn to somebody and say, "Don't despise the rebuke." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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