We’re finishing up our message series on how to align ourselves into a positionally correct life under God’s covering. It is there in His Presence that we receive all that we need to live a purpose-filled and abundant life that produces all of the fruits of the Spirit.
We covered humility and receiving a new heart which is required before we desire to live in obedient trust in God preparing the way for Him in the lives of those around us.
We’ll end this series on the topic of discipline. Discipline is the tool that God uses to get us back into alignment when we begin to stray away from His plans for our lives. It is an act of love that is ultimately for our good, though it may not seem like it at the time. Receive the Lord’s discipline requires humility and trust and faith so that the Potter can mold and shape us into our destined purpose in life.
Job 5:17
Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
Proverbs 3:11-12
11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,
and do not resent his rebuke,
12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in.
Hebrews 12:4-13
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
Proverbs 3:11-12 quoted
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Again with aligning our lives so that we make a way for the Lord. Level paths where the valleys are raised, mountains and hills lowered, and rough places smoothed. A harvest of righteousness is only produced if we endure the seasons of preparation where we become good soil for the seed of God’s word to grow within.
This is the path to healing! This is the path to a full and abundant life. It’s not an easy life, but a life positioned to receive the goodness of God!
Jeremiah understood this and prayed a prayer that I doubt that many of us, if any at all, have ever prayed!
Jeremiah 10:23-24
23 Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own;
it is not for them to direct their steps.
24 Discipline me, Lord, but only in due measure –
not in your anger,
or you will reduce me to nothing.
Discipline me, Lord. What a prayer!
How else, though, can we discern the error in our ways?
How else would we be willing to change; to repent?
What else would guide and direct us from our ways to His?
God’s discipline is like the guide/guard rails on the sides of the road. They are intentionally put there. They are intentionally placed there knowing that they will inflict damage on any vehicle that comes in contact with them. However, the damage is nothing compared to the damage that would have been experienced if the vehicle went down a hill or into a tree or into a river or head on into oncoming traffic.
The guide rails inflict the minimal damage needed to guide us away from far more serious danger, even death, and back onto the path that we should be following.
That is what God’s discipline does for us. It isn’t pleasant, it is painful. If, IF, we allow ourselves to be trained by it and stay on His path for our lives, it will produce righteousness and peace in our lives.
Discipline guides us away from sin.
Most, if not all of us, have heard the gospel message before. We all have sinned. God sent His Son into the world who lived a sinless life in the same flesh that we all live within. Then, He willingly gave His life on the cross to pay the penalty for sin that He did not owe. Salvation is now a free gift available to anyone who will receive it from Jesus by faith.
What is the verse that we usually quote to begin sharing the gospel? Before the good news, we start with the bad news that:
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
To be honest, most of us never really stopped to think about the enormity of this partial sentence. We were created and purposed for the glory of God. Our souls are in desperate need for it! Our lives are empty without it.
We were born into sin, however; separated from that glory. We live lives of depravity sensing that we’re destined for more, but not sure for what. We try to fill our lives with things that just never truly satisfy. We’re alive, but not truly living.
We need to be born again! Born not of flesh and blood, but of Spirit and Water! Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Holy Spirit gives birth to spirit within us (John 3). Holy Spirit, a source, a spring bringing forth rivers of living water from within!
Only then will we be fully alive! Physically AND spiritually just as we were created to be! Once our sin is atoned for by our faith in the blood shed by Jesus and only then, can God’s glory come and fill our lives. No longer are we separated, but we become one with God (John 17)!
The Message translation says:
Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.
That’s the gospel message! It’s all about God’s glory! Let’s read this familiar verse in its full context regarding God’s law, sin, and righteousness.
Romans 3:19-26
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Once we put our faith in Jesus, we can experience the glory of God! Just before calling Lazarus out of his tomb, Jesus said:
John 11:40
“Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
Many Christians receive Jesus’ salvation as a way to be forgiven of their sins and then just settle there. However, forgiveness is just the beginning! Forgiveness is just the way for us to be freed in order that we might boldly and confidently enter into and explore God’s Kingdom!
Do we want to see God’s glory?
Do we hunger and thirst for it?
Are we willing to lay down our lives so that His glory might fill and overflow through them?
In Exodus 33, we find that Moses meets with God face-to-face as one speaks to a friend. The more time that he spent with God in this way, the more that he realized his need for God’s Presence within his own life. He asked God to teach him God’s His ways so that he might know Him and continue to find favor with Him.
He said that if God’s Presence didn’t go with him that he didn’t want to leave that place. He confessed that it was God’s Presence alone that made him any different from everyone else on the face of the earth.
Even after having that degree of closeness with God, even after freely meeting and speaking with Him like friends, even after the signs, wonders, and miracles that he lived through; he still hungered and thirsted for more. Moses knew what it was that he needed.
Moses said, “Show me your glory!”
Moses had experienced the glory of God before and he wanted more!
Exodus 24:15-18
15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Now I’m just speculating, but I’m willing to bet that if you asked Moses how long he was on that mountain, it probably only felt like moments. When we experience the genuine, manifest glory and Presence of God, we don’t want to leave it!
It’s a taste of eternity where time stands still. It’s so consuming that everything else just disappears. All cares, worries, fears, anxieties just melt away. It’s a heavy weightiness and yet it releases a freedom and peace that lifts all of the weight of our sin and worldly cares away.
The glory and Presence of God cause us to become like the bush that was on fire and yet was not burned. We become consumed by the fire of God and yet we stand within it merely refined and purified and not burned up by it.
We are consecrated by glory! Consecrated by glory!
To be consecrated is to be set apart, to be holy, to be sanctified, to be made sacred. Just as Moses confessed, the only thing that makes us any different from the rest of the people is the glory of God. God’s glory sets us apart, makes us holy, sanctifies us, makes us sacred. It’s not about us, it’s about God!
Under the Old Covenant, God set apart a place where He could meet with people. His desire is still to dwell among us with nothing separating us. However, every day, sacrifices were required to prepare the place for God’s Presence.
Exodus 29:38-46
38 “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. 40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning – a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.
42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.
44 “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
Under the New Covenant, Jesus is the lamb who once slain once for all. Now, His glory fills our lives consecrating us to be a place for His Presence to dwell. In this way, all can see that He is the Lord our God! We are consecrated by glory!
In fact, now, we can and should bring glory to God through whatever we are doing!
1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
God’s glory consecrates us and as we go out into the world, we get to share that glory with others! We become like lighthouses shining the glory of God for all to see.
In fact, this is a little more than just an analogy. God’s glory literally radiates!
Revelation 21:23
Heaven does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
2 Corinthians 3:7-8;18 (TPT)
7 Even the ministry that was characterized by chiseled letters on stone tablets came with a dazzling measure of glory, though it produced death. The Israelites couldn’t bear to gaze on the glowing face of Moses because of the radiant splendor shining from his countenance – a glory destined to fade away. 8 Yet how much more radiant is this new and glorious ministry of the Spirit that shines from us!
18 We can all draw close to him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into his very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
We get to radiate God’s glory throughout our everyday routines. Just being physically present changes the atmosphere because we carry the glory of God with us wherever we go!
Whatever enters God’s Presence becomes holy. God cannot be defiled! He is unchanging; the same yesterday, today, and forever! In fact, when Ezekiel is describing a future temple, he gives this warning to the Levitical priests who alone are able to enter into the sanctuary and minister to the Lord at His table as His guards.
Ezekiel 44:19 (HCSB)
Before they go out to the outer court, to the people, they must take off the clothes they have been ministering in, leave them in the holy chambers, and dress in other clothes so that they do not transmit holiness to the people through their clothes.
Transmitting holiness to people just because their clothes were in the Presence of God! Their clothes would not become contaminated or unclean because they came in contact with people. Rather, the people would become holy by coming in contact with their clothes.
Christianity should be contagious! It should go viral just as it did throughout the New Testament!
Healings breaking out just because our shadow falls on people as we pass by (Acts 5). Demons driven out and people healed just because they come in contact with our handkerchiefs and aprons touch them (Acts 19). These things literally happened in the first church!
When we align ourselves into positionally correct lives, God can do these things and so much more! In fact, God can do immeasurably more than we can think ask or imagine as His power works in and through us (Ephesians 3:20)!