Love's Correction
Foundation: The enemy has worked to get us to think wrong about correction so that
we miss out on all the benefits that come from receiving it. Your perspective
determines your response and therefore if you see correction wrong, then you’ll
respond to it wrong when it comes.
Do you see correction like God sees correction?
I.
One huge thing that will
help us respond right to correction is to renew our minds to this truth: God corrects
me because He loves me
A. Proverbs 3:12, Hebrews 12:6,
Revelation 3:19-When God is correcting me, He’s loving me
1.
Every
time we are corrected we need to remind ourselves, “God is correcting me
because he loves me.”
a. Proverbs 3:12-ERV-A
father corrects a child he cares about; NIRV-The Lord trains those He loves; VOICE-The eternal proves His love by caring enough to discipline
you
b. Revelation 3:19-AMP-Those
whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I rebuke and discipline [showing them
their faults and instructing them]; so be enthusiastic and repent [change
your inner self – your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior –
seek God’s will]; CEB-I correct
and discipline those whom I love; MSG-The
people I love, I call to account – prod and correct and guide so
that they’ll live at their best; NLV-I
speak strong words to those I love
2.
God’s
correction is inseparable of His love, however, when we think of God loving us
we rarely think about him correcting us
a. We are inundated with how
much God loves us, but one of the main ways God demonstrates His love for us is
by correcting us
b. People have tendency in
their minds to create a Jesus that they like and one who is comfortable to live
with – Jesus corrected people- Matt14:31-O ye of
little faith why did you doubt; Mark4:40-How is that you have not faith;
Mark11:14-Turning tables over; John13:9-Peter got corrected about getting his
feet washed; Matt17-You couldn’t cast him out because of your unbelief; Mark
10:13-16-Jesus corrected them about allowing children to come to him; Luke
9:51-56-Jesus corrected them when they wanted to call fire down from heaven;
Luke 10:38-42-Jesus corrected Martha; Mark 16:14-He rebuked the 11 apostles for
their hardness of heart and unbelief
B. Real love does not
withhold correction – Because God is love and he doesn’t withhold
correction
1.
Proverbs
13:24-There’s a belief that has seeped into people’s minds, “If someone is correcting me, they are being
mean to me.”
a. CEV-If you love your children, you will correct them; If you
don’t love them, you won’t correct them; ERV-If
you love them, you will be quick to discipline them; ISV-Whoever loves him is diligent to correct him; MSG-A refusal to correct is a refusal
to love
b. When God’s correcting you
he’s not being mean to you, he’s not being hard on you, He’s loving you
2.
God
has a great plan for your life, great things he wants you to accomplish, great
blessings he wants you to walk in and anything that is going to keep you out of
the fullness of God’s plan and from His best for your life God’s going to
correct you about because He loves you and wants the best for you
a. Proverbs 3:12-MSG-The
people I love, I call to account – prod and correct and guide so
that they’ll live at their best
3.
2Cor7:8-12-He loved them enough to correct them; Withholding the
correction would have revealed that he loved himself more than them
a. 8-Sorry with a letter; The word sorry is the same word in
Hebrews 12:11, “No chastening seems joys,
but grievous.” – This
letter made them sorry (grieve, offend, uneasy, annoyance, heaviness, grudging)
because it was a letter of correction
b. 8-I do not repent, though I did repent-Correcting
someone can be taxing on your flesh, because your flesh wants to be liked
1)
Prov23:13-Withholding correction makes you feel better but it actually
hurts the one who needs it (ERV-Always
correct your children when they need it)
2)
To
correct someone (in the right heart and spirit) you have to love them more than
you do yourself
c. 9-The purpose of godly
correction is not to leave you down but to get you to acknowledge that what you
did was wrong and repent
d. 9-Had he not corrected
them then damage (injury, loss, lose) would have come in their life and it
would have been by him – Obvious they were on a path that if they
continued on they would have been hurt and lost out and love stepped in and
said I don’t want you to be hurt and lose out
e. 10-Repentance lead to
better life and that’s correction’s purpose-Salvation-Deliverance,
preservation, make well, rescue from danger/destruction
f. 12-We wrote this to you
to show you how much we care about you-2 Corinthians 2:4
II.
Growth by repentance-The
purpose for correction is repentance and the result of repentance is growth
A. The currently reality for
every believer is that none are just like the master yet and therefore
correction needs to come/light needs to shine and constant changes need to be
made and when God shows you things if you harden yourself and resist the
correction you will not grow
1.
2Cor4:16-We are actually supposed to be changing everyday; If you
don’t change you stay the same, if you stay the same you don’t grow
2.
2 Corinthians 3:18-AMPC-Are constantly
being transfigured into His very
own image; AMP-Progressively
being transformed into His image; ICB-We
are being changed to be like him; TLB-We
become more and more like Him; NLV-All
the time we are being changed to look like Him
3.
Romans 12:2-AMP-And do not be conformed to this world
[any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and
progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind;
KJ-And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
B. There are things that you
are doing right now that aren’t like the master and you don’t see it or know it
and God has to show it to you-Psalm 139:23-24
1.
Search-Examine thoroughly; Know-To perceive and see and find
out; Try-Examine, prove, scrutinize
a. There’s a lack of
awareness that goes with being a child – You can’t change something
you’re unaware of
1)
2
Corinthians 13:5-Examine yourself; Psalm 26:2-Examine me Lord
2)
We
need to be self-aware (aware of areas of weakness)-Luke 21:34, Acts 5:35, Deut 4:23, 11:16, Joshua 23:11, Jeremiah 17:21
2.
You
gain awareness by the light and by the truth; Eph5:13-All
things are reproved by the light (PHIL-The light is capable of “showing up”
everything for what it really is; GW-Light exposes the true character of everything)
a. When the light shines and
correction comes if you’ll repent and change you’ll grow
b. Truth is light and light
enables things to grow and if you run from the light you won’t grow – If
you can’t take the light you can’t grow – The same thing that exposes
your faults is the same thing that empowers you to grow out of them
c. People that really want
to grow go in search of the correction they need to grow and love it when it
comes
C. 2 Timothy 3:16-4:3-This
is what the Word of God does to the man of God; Grow up you so that you’ll be
thoroughly equipped for every good work
1.
When
you are exposed to the word of God you will encounter these things
a. Doctrine is teaching, instruction, you are
learning
b. Reproof is correction (convict, show one his
fault, bring to the light, expose, chasten)
c. Correction is to restore you a
right state and to improve your life or character
d. Instruction is training (The whole training and
education of children, Cultivating the soul by correcting mistakes and curbing
passions, instruction which aims at increasing virtue)
2.
When
the word is coming forth it’s correcting and challenging, but I don’t care
because I want to grow; I’m not proud, I’m not insecure, I’m not weak, I’m not
I wimp. I’ve made some mistakes, I’m not perfect, I’m not just like Jesus yet
and guess what I knew that coming in; I’m not going to let my feathers get
ruffled when somebody tells me I need to grow up or somebody preaches something
that challenges me because I want to be like Jesus and I recognize for that to
happen I’m going to have to be stretched, challenged and corrected and it
doesn’t bother me because the prize I’m after is well worth whatever I have to
do to get there
3.
2
Timothy 4:4-The stuff they are turning away from is the very stuff they need to
hear to grow up
III. Is it correction or condemnation? – The enemy has also
worked to get people to see all correction as condemnation and when someone
corrects you, you say, “You’re condemning
me.” – And that causes people to resist the correction they need
because they think it’s condemnation and they know God doesn’t want condemned
A. The end purpose of
condemnation is to leave you down, feeling pathetic; It doesn’t care about you
changing and living better it just wants you to feel bad for how pathetic you
are and for the wrong you’ve done; The end purpose of correction is to get you
to change and live better; Correction pushes you toward repentance; Correction
doesn’t want you to miss out on good things your good God has prepared for you
1.
Romans
8:1-Condmenation-Damnortory sentence – That’s the end, there’s no
repentance and getting better and it just leaves you down
2.
1
Samuel 2:27-29-Correction comes to get you to change because if you continue on
that path it’s not going to go well with you
3.
Jeremiah
5:3-They refused to receive correction and wouldn’t repent and missed the whole
point of why correction came; God sees them heading down a path that will be to
their destruction and so God in His love for them corrects them, but they
wouldn’t receive it and repent
B. One place where people
miss it when it comes to correction is that they are so feeling conscious that
when something is said that doesn’t make them feel good the immediately equate
it to being condemnation and not from the Lord
1.
Godly
correction can prick your heart, cut you to the core and bring godly sorrow; Just
because it hurt or you felt sorrow doesn’t mean you were condemned and it
doesn’t mean that what you heard wasn’t from God
a. Acts 5:33 (AMP)-Some
times the truth will cut you to the heart and when that happens it’s time to
repent not get mad
b. Acts 7:54-When they heard
these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed their teeth and they
should’ve repented
c. Acts 2:37-They were
pricked in their heart and it hurt, but they asked Peter what to do and he said
repent and they did and got free
2.
Just
because it doesn’t make you feel good doesn’t mean it’s condemnation –
Sometimes correction cuts – Hebrews 4:12-It’s a two-edged sword
a. It is true that God
doesn’t want you walking around being conscious of your sin and feeling guilty
and walking in shame – But also if he has corrected you about something
and you’re ignoring him and you’re not going to change He doesn’t want you
walking around feeling like everything is alright, because everything is not
alright and something should be bothering you on the inside; The Holy Spirit
bears witness with your spirit and if you’re doing wrong outside the Holy
Spirit isn’t going to be saying it’s okay inside
3.
Titus
1:13-There’s a time and a place to rebuke sharply