God's Fatherly Discipline

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Discipline – Discipline is training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character.

Hebrews 12:5-11
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." (Proverbs 3:11,12) 7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, 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 our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No 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.

A. Two Incorrect Responses to Discipline

1. Making Light of it
2. Being Crushed by it
   
   Both responses to discipline show a fragile inner spirit man.

The lack of understanding the loving and accepting heart of the discipliner is the cause for both extreme responses.

As the discipliner we need to communicate our love and acceptance for our children in a way that communicates to them.

5 Ways we can show love and acceptance to our children.

1. Words of affirmation.
2. Acts of service.
3. Quality time.
4. Gifts.
5. Physical touch.

1. Words of Affirmation
Saying, I love you and other encouraging words will build a strong inner person
Saying good job
You look pretty
You are smart
Etc.

2. Acts of Service
Coming along side someone and helping them with whatever they are interested in says, “I Love you and accept you.”
For some people this is the way they understand love.

3. Quality Time
Sometimes our loved ones just need some hang out time. I’ve noticed if we’re going to watch a family movie together, it’s not good enough for me to be in the same room sitting on the couch next to my children while I work on the computer. I have to shut down the computer and pay attention to the movie even though nobody is going to say anything, just laughing together is important.

Sometimes going places together and paying attention to each other is a great way to spend quality time. I’ve noticed that things that aren’t that important can vie for that quality time. Make it a priority to spend quality time with your loved ones.

4. Gifts
God sent his one and only Son Jesus Christ as a gift for us. While we were still sinners Christ died for us. Nothing says I love you like a gift. Some children receive a gift and feel loved and accepted. Especially a well thought out gift.

5. Physical Touch
I believe it’s important for us as parents to touch our children in proper affectionate ways. I like to wrestle with my kids and I think they like it more than I do. It’s one way I say, “I love you.” With a body slam on the bed!
Hugs and kisses, holding hands also. Back scratches and rubs are also good ways to say, “I love you.”

B. The Lords Discipline comes as hardships

I believe the majority of the hardships that come our way are the direct result of cause and effect relationships that are already laws of sowing and reaping.
Every hardship is not necessarily a discipline from the Lord.
God is not standing over you meting out hardships. Your choices, when they are out of God’s will, can bring these hardships due to the laws of sowing and reaping.

Sowing and Reaping
Galatians 6:8
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
The Discerning and Foolish
Proverbs 17:10
10 A rebuke impresses a man of discernment
more than a hundred lashes a fool.
How we respond to the Holy Spirit determines how he disciplines us.

C. God Cares about us so He Disciplines his True Sons
From verse 8 we know that fathers discipline legitimate children. If he didn’t it would mean he didn’t care about their outcome. As it is, God deeply cares about us and desires a relationship with us where we develop into his image and likeness.

True Sons of God
Matthew 5:9
peacemakers will be called sons of God.
Romans 8:14
those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Galatians 3:26
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

Romans 8:19
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.


D. The Purpose for God's Discipline

God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
Hebrews 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

E. The Results of God’s Discipline

It produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

In conclusion
Our prayer should be, “Lord Soften My Heart so I can respond to your voice.” If I can hear your voice and obey you I can avoid your discipline.
Dad’s our prayer should be, “Make me the father or grandfather you want me to be.” Help me discipline my children and grand children skillfully and lovingly.

Jubilee Family Church

Sheila Taboy Testimony

To view this powerful testimony of God's power to transform a life CLICK HERE.

This version of Sheila's testimony is a re-record due to poor audio quality on the original video. The people of Jubilee Family Church gave the Lord a standing ovation and many here were touched by God's work in Sheila's life. Sheila was also water baptized this Sunday!

Jubilee Family Church

A New Life in Christ

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The Key to Living for Christ is Dying to Self and the World

Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

The Living Dead
1. Dead people aren’t enticed by cravings that come from the world.
2. Dead people can’t be moved by what their eyes desire from the world.
3. Dead people aren’t controlled by the desire for worldly prominence and worldly ambition.
4. Dead people are controlled by the Word of God.

When Eve was tempted we see these four components.
Genesis 3:1,6
4. "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was 1. good for food and 2. pleasing to the eye, and also 3. desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
What the Apostle John has to say about these 4 things.


1 John 2:16
For everything in the world—the 1. cravings of sinful man, the 2. lust of his eyes and the 3. boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.


From this scripture we can conclude that a person who genuinely receives the fullness of God’s Love won’t be interested in having their heart filled by anything else.
However if a person is lacking in love from God they will pursue worldly fulfillment. They will seek out worldly things to fulfill their hearts.
When Jesus was Tempted
We see these four components again.

1. Cravings
Matthew 4
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

4. Bringing into question God’s Word
Matthew 4
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

2 & 3 Eyes & Worldly Ambition
Matthew 4
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

Romans 6:11
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Living Sacrifices
Romans 12:1,2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Paul, a Living Sacrifice
1 Corinthians 15:31
I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.

New Creations in Christ
2 Corinthians 5:17
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

John 3:3
In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. “

The Kingdom of God being a present tense reality.
65 times in the NIV Kingdom of God appears. 9 Times it’s speaking about a future kingdom. 54 times it’s speaking about a present tense reality, relative to the time it was written.

Born of Water and the Spirit
Born of Water speaks of Natural birth as well as the birth into the kingdom of God via repentance, symbolized by water baptism.
Born of the Spirit speaks of a life controlled by the Spirit of God.

The way to joyfully die to your old life is to take up the life that is truly life.
We must receive spiritual information about the kingdom realities all around us.
These kingdom realities will transform our lives by altering our wills so we desire what God desires.

Our desire coming in line with His causes us to make society altering changes to the region starting with our own hearts and then spreading out into the community and ultimately to the uttermost parts of the Earth.

Let’s be Like Apostle Paul
Galatians 2:20
20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.


Jubilee Family Church

Bud Avants; Missionary to Burma Tailand

Bud Avants our missionary to Burma Thailand was with us in service today. He ministered from the heart with a tremendous amount of grace and authenticity.

To listen to this message please CLICK HERE.
Click here to see his ministry to us at Jubilee Family Church. Be prepared, his ministry is very powerful.

Jubilee Family Church

Self Centered or Christ Centered?

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Two Paradigms of Living and Thinking

Paradigm - a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind.

There are a multitude of ways these two paradigms, Christ centeredness and Self Centeredness manifest themselves in our lives.

When Christ is Lord He rules our lives.

Jim Elliot a man who was Christ Centered (End of the Spear)–
He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.

To watch a 2:28 video about Jim Elliot CLICK HERE.

1. A person who’s Christ Centered is thinking about kingdom advancement.

Matthew 11:11,12
11I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

I believe God’s more concerned about your availability than your ability but He does empower you with his ability when we violently surrender our lives to him. This empowerment makes us more valuable to the Lord in the sense that we have a greater kingdom influence in the world.

2. Christ Centered people are Thinking about the development of others or the development of self for others.
We should be the best we can be for the Lord so when he calls us we can bring the best sacrifice we can. We want to be as valuable to the Lord as we can be.

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We go from empowering communal time with the Lord to sacrifice and back to the Holy Spirit for a “recharge”.

Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Hebrews 5:7
During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

3. Finances
1 Timothy 6:17-19
17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

We’re commanded to take temporal wealth and convert it into “coming age treasure” through giving.

This allows us to take hold of the life that is truly life. This implies strongly that there is a false life.

The false life that comes from a servitude to money.

Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

People serve money because their identity is in the things of this life. The more toys or things they can amass around themselves the more successful they feel.

For the believer their identity should be in Christ. From communion with Christ comes life and fruit as well as productive and effective ministry.

4. For a Christ Centered Individual Fulfillment is Found in Doing God’s Will and Work

Fulfillment for the Christ Centered life
John 4:34
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

5. Self exaltation or Legacy?
One other key thing that you see with people who have Christ at the center of their lives is they are focused on leaving some kind of legacy for the next generation or generations to come.

Legacy - something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past

A person with a kingdom paradigm will want to develop others in the faith who can replicate the spiritual DNA they are carrying.

2 Timothy 2:1,2
1You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

1. Jesus
2. Paul
3. Timothy
4. Reliable Men
5. Others

Very often self centered people abort their own ability to leave a legacy because they put all their energy and thought into themselves instead of those around them who are potential ambassadors for the next generation.

They can also abort their ability to leave a legacy by careless acts of sin. These acts can embitter the next generation causing a hardness to resist the possible impartation.

We also must try and learn the love language of the potential legacy person so they know you are preparing them for something. Many children become embittered toward their parents because the parents don’t know how to communicate their love and intentions for their children.

The importance of a legacy.
Imagine if 3 generations of people before you had progressively left an inheritance for the generation following.
Each family member took the inheritance and made it bigger.
The financial legacy easily illustrates the spiritual legacies we can leave for our spiritual children.

Who do you leave a legacy for?

1. Willing/Called
2. Humble
3. Faithful
4. Submissive
5. Gifted

Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

How many people will be at your funeral?

Take some time to reflect on what percentage of your heart Jesus has captured and dedicate some time to deal with the areas of your heart that may still be outside the Lordship of Christ. Let him rule and reign all of your thoughts, attitudes, actions and ideas. Make it your ambition to violently surrender your life at the feet of Jesus like John the Baptist. You must become lesser so he can become greater. Why don't you pray about it?

Love,

Pastor Tony

Jubilee Family Church