"Discipline: Precious and Painful"

I. Advil, anesthesia and avoidance                                                 (Introduction)

Message: The discipline of the Lord, while it may be painful; it demonstrates His commitment to grow us up to maturity in Christ."

• It is always purposeful
• It will bear fruit
• Embracing His discipline

II. Purposeful discipline                                                                 (verses 4-11)

     A. Remember as you resist

     B. Recognize who is at work and why

     C. Receive it from His heart

"If God is love, He is, by definition, something more than mere kindness. And it appears, from all records, that though He has often rebuked us and condemned us, He has never regarded us with contempt. He has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense."            C.S. Lewis

     D. Responding to God's best for us

     E. Reaping the fruit

III. Embracing His discipline

"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold." Job 23:10