Correction: Nobody Wants It! But Ask God For It! Hebrews
12:10-12 by Kelly Durant
1. Hebrews 12: 9-12 9
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them
respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of
spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to
them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now
no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless,
afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been
trained by it.
2. ‘Nothing Short of Right is Right’…was written on the
entire side of a huge factory back in the 1930s. In the factory if some machine
did not work right, if some fabricated part came out wrong, the boss was to be
notified immediately so the problem could be corrected to make it right. It was
a perfect system and little waste was produced and the standard was excellent
for the production of the airplane parts.
But as progress would have it, one day they got a new 50
million dollar machine. The boss, Fred, told floor manager Joe that it was more
important than ever to always do it the right way, and the right way was to
call the boss when the machine needed attention. (repeat slogan)
As pride and human nature would have it, Joe one day did have
a problem with the machine and he did not call Fred. Why? Because he was a
know-it-all! He thought, I’ve been here for 20 years, I can fix it, but the
thing is he had no experience with this new complicated machine, it was foreign
to him. You probably can guess the next part, the extremely expensive machine heated
up and broke and Joe was fined and fired! He cost the company millions all due
to his pride and for not wanting to accept help and correction on how to run
the machine right.
This story may be an urban legend based on factual events but
it can be applied to our personal lives as well as be applied to the community
at large. The reality is most people think they know how to do everything, and
they hate having someone offer them advice, criticism, or in particular correction,
but the fact remains prideful uncorrected people are destined to make some huge
mistakes in life due to their incorrigible attitude that accepts no correction.
3. Something that has always troubled me about correction is…have
you ever noticed that it usually does not restitute nor repair the damages
caused? Like the employee who drives the forklift without the OSHA permit and
crashed into a pallet of merchandise. The store lost several thousand dollars
on the merchandise but the fine of several thousand, paid by the same store,
goes to the federal government?! What kind of correction is that?
Man’s laws and corrections are often unjust, but God’s
correction is always fair. There is a message to be learned with correction,
however, that there is a standard to meet and if you fall short of it, it will
cost you with a price. God’s standard is to live a holy life in love and peace.
4. The price of correction is often abasement or humiliation,
and the imposed embarrassment and status reduction limits the person’s
potential for a certain time period. Jails are even called Correction Facilities,
and despite how certain people may impose discipline and standards on other
people, the authentic correction of character flaws in itself depends upon the
individual’s admittance to his or her errors and the changing of them to a
higher standard.
Why are we studying this? Because it is a part of your
holiness growth! You may recall I mentioned I wanted you to learn more about
holiness this year. The verses of today contain “that we may be partakers of
His holiness,” (implying with correction). Clearly deducted, if you do not
change and learn and grow from the correction God and others offer, then you
may be fooling yourself that you are in good standing with God. God is Holy,
and nothing unholy will stand in His presence, and to get holy you and I need
to be corrected daily of our errors!
Are you hearing from God in silence in prayer every day?
Correct yourself before God does!
5. Do you recall the life of Saul and how he did not stop to
listen and learn from God? He was a tall handsome man, a natural born
charismatic leader, but what caused his downfall? Pride! He was a stubborn king
that got many corrections but just ignored them. As king of Israel he was supposed
to always submit to God, and follow the counsel of the anointed one, the priest,
which was Samuel, to prosper the nation. Here is one part after he disobeyed again.
I Samuel
13:13-14 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done
foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now
the Lord would have established
your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue.
The Lord has sought for Himself a
man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His
people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
What happened in the preceding verses is that the Philistines
were attacking with 6,000 horsemen and 30,000 chariots and it seemed that the
nation of Israel could not get a victory against so many and the military went into
hiding. Saul was supposed to wait 7 days to proceed with the blessing from God
by Samuel doing a sacrifice to God before attacking, but instead Saul took
matters into his own hands. He set up his own altar and sacrificed to God on
his own and that was not his job to do. He was a know-it-all that would not
accept correction.
In other words, for disobedience, there always comes a
correction and it may be one of an undoable judgment. In Saul’s case, he
predestined himself to lose the battle and part of the kingdom. But wait, wasn’t
this Israel? Weren’t they God’s people and God wanted Israel to win?
6. God was in control then as He is now over all nations but
He would not tolerate a leader that was insolent, disobedient, and one that
over time became full of his own pride not willing to accept correction and be
a humble man who honored God. What a bad example to everyone!
Saul disobeyed many times and by rejecting correction he died
in shame; he lost battles and the whole nation suffered! The sin of one
rebellious incorrigible person trickles down to influence the entire group.
What a sobering and frightful lesson that is!
David followed Saul as king and he obeyed God and won many battles! But what was the difference between Saul and
David? David failed as well at times but
when David disobeyed he would accept correction and repent with sincere prayers
and sacrifices, and he accepted his punishments as coming from a just God. Saul
on the other hand, never would recognize his mistakes. Pride comes before
failure and a downfall!
7. Do you know someone in your family that is stubborn and
they reject correction for their mistakes? All families seem to have quite a
few people like this in them! But how mature spiritually are you concerning
this matter? Maybe one of the persons in your family that does not like
correction could be you! As humans we want to run away from being made
uncomfortable, but that is not the right attitude, you and I must welcome God’s
correction.
Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the
present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The spirit
should be convicting you and me personally day after day over how to accept and
respond to correction. Military personal get yelled at and corrected, so why
not you and me?
When things just don’t turn out right, you need to ask God
about it. Some people just seem to always end up in bad situations. Have you
ever noticed a person that everything they do seems to come out wrong, sort of like
being cursed, or something? Have you
ever met people in hard times, but their terrible situation was not brought on
by outside unavoidable circumstances but rather brought on by their own
disobediences to God, local laws, or from being so proud they would not listen
to anyone?
8. Like a sister in the other Corps that would say, “Well, my
husband is in jail again!” I’d reply, “Oh no, what happened”? She’d reply, “I
told him not to drive that car he just bought without a tag but he never
listens to me and it serves him right to just sit there a few days to learn his
lesson!” Many things happened to this poor man over and over. He was rebellious
to come to learn about God, and he seemed to get correction all the time from
society, God, and especially his wife, but still he would not repent. Do you
know of cases and of people like this one?
With repentance and correction there is hope for a person or for
a nation, but without correction from the Word of God people are doomed to self-destruct
and destroy many others in the process bringing on much pain due to their insubordinate
pride.
9. The sad reality is we live in a world full of
incorrigibles! There are people who create huge problems over and over and no
one ever seems to ever correct them. Usually these people do wrong over and
over until one day they go off to jail! The problem is our society is not
growing leaders who correct as they should. There are half the homes of the
U.S. with no fathers so the children grow up without a stern correction and
then the teachers and Sunday School teachers, police, and jailers are later all
having to deal with these rebellious hyperactive kids and it is all due to
someone else’s sin of a lack of giving correction. Giving and receiving correction
is important!
Now, let’s make this more personal. I want you to reflect a
moment and recall a time that the Lord was correcting you. Can you pinpoint an
event in your life that came to your mind that the Lord had you under the fire?
I accept that the Lord allowed me to suffer through hepatitis B for 6 weeks one
time for not wanting to do the mission as I needed to in a certain city but
instead I just wanted to work on a farm in the Amazon in Brazil. We all know
how Jonah got corrected, so never think you can escape the plans God has for
you! I have learned the hard way too!
10. Psalm 106:15 And He gave them their request, But sent
leanness into their soul. This verse expresses my experience. I got to be on
the farm but in a tent separated from everyone else. I thought, well, I can’t even
walk 10 feet without getting tired so now that you have got my attention Lord,
what do you want me to do? The Lord showed me to study His word all day and
read the Bible from cover to cover so I did. While under correction, God
prepares you and me!
I want to put you again under the spotlight. If you cannot
pinpoint any moment in your life in which you know the Lord was dealing with
you over some failing or sin, then you need to repent of the sin of not
listening to God, of not seeking spiritual understanding from the significant
circumstances that God allows in your life, and for not praying appropriately
allowing God to speak to your mind about your shortcomings. All God’s children
do get correction!
11. What everyone needs is to always be in tune with God asking
for the Holy Spirit to be your guide and teacher. Have you ever prayed, “Lord
if I have wronged someone today, if I have spoken harsh words, if I have hurt
someone, if I have been a bad example of your love, show me and correct me”. Almost
never do you or I hear of a person asking God for correction in prayer, but we
must ask God for correction! David did
it. Psalm 51:1-4
Have mercy
upon me, O God,
According to
Your lovingkindness;
According to
the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my
transgressions.
2 Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me
from my sin.
3 For I
acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is
always before me.
4 Against You,
You only, have I sinned,
And done this
evil in Your sight—
That You may be
found just when You speak,
And blameless
when You judge.
Sometimes I pray, “Lord please reveal to me anything that is not
of you so I can purge it out of my life, before you have to! I want to be pure
and Holy, so please help me to correct what is wrong before you have to correct
it!”
12. God is like a father and if the father expects the
bedroom clean, the best thing to do is to clean it up so the father does not
have to come home later and see the mess and punish you and then make you clean
it up anyway!
Here is verse that has always caught my attention. Hebrews
5:8 Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He
suffered.
Imagine what this verse implies: That even though Jesus was
divine and human, He still had to get correction and learn how to obey His
Father! So if Jesus had to learn by suffering, how much more do you and I need
to learn correction as well! Jesus prayed to His Father all the time!
13. I’ll be honest with you, what I feel about correction is
I don’t like it, as the scripture says, Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. I
really do not like to get correction nor give it but it is a fact of life, we
must receive it and also give it to others especially when dangerous or sinful
circumstances require it.
And check your feelings over correction, are you
self-righteous and condemning? Do you get happy when you conclude that someone
is getting correction from God? I have heard people when they don’t like someone
say things like, “You see that problem they have, I knew this would happen, its
about time God punished them!” We all despise hypocrites, especially Jesus!
Be careful to judge or speak, because when you are having
hard times others may have the same attitude towards you because we reap what
we sew. Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be
judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Do
you need advice or correction? In the end, God is a loving Father and He wants
to protect you and guide you into all truth, love, peace, and holiness and that
process began the moment you accepted Jesus as the ruler of your life. Focus on
the correction coming in your life and you will prosper spiritually! Pray for
others and leaders, and pray always against pride!
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