 Let's begin reading at verse 1 here in chapter 12. I'll read to verse 11 and we'll get into our study. Hebrews chapter 12 beginning with verse 1. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking into Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted the bloodsheds striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 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? So they indeed for a few days chastened us and has seemed best to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to whom those who have been trained by it. And so as we begin here, notice verse one, how he simply says, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Who are these witnesses that he's speaking about? There are people who would say that perhaps heaven is looking down upon us. The people in the grandstands will say in heaven are looking down at you and looking down at me and cheering us on as we are endeavoring to serve the Lord. That's an interesting idea, but that isn't what he's speaking about. I mean, to be honest with you, frankly, I would not really want someone to be watching me that closely. And I wouldn't want my dad who's in heaven to be watching me constantly. He'd be bummed out all the time when he sees the way I live. I mean, maybe I shouldn't have said that. I'm supposed to be holy, right? But I think about that. And is that what he's talking about? Well, the answer is no. What he's speaking about is chapter 11, because in chapter 11 he's given to us that hall of heroes, the heroes of the faith. And he would be speaking concerning them. It would really be simply saying that there's a tremendous heritage of saints who persevered. And because they are like witnesses to you now, you ought to see the life that they lived. And you ought to use that as an example in order that it might provoke you to move in the things of the Lord with much more zeal. These are the people who have lived in a wonderful way and therefore you ought to use them as an incentive. Now, when he uses that image, it's true that we normally will try a little harder when somebody is watching us closely. When I was in the military, we used to run. And I would run on my own. Sometimes I would run or I would run with some friends. And as we would be running, I can still remember that I'd get real tired. I'd get to the point of exhaustion. And I'd want to stop running. I would be talking to myself, saying things like, this hurts. Stop. Why are you doing this? This is painful. No big deal. Just go ahead and stop. And there were times that I would when I would kind of stop and I would walk. And I was rationalizing and justifying and all of that. And I'd say, I don't really need to run. But I can still remember running with two friends. And as we were running out of the woods, as we ran out of the woods and we hit the asphalt and turned and started going back to our barracks, I was thinking that. I was thinking, man, this hurts. Why do this? Might as well stop. It's not that far to walk. But off to my right, there were several young people who had come out of one of the cities, Fayetteville, that was right there next to the fort that I was in. And they were there. And one of the guys said, well, there go some airborne guys. And all of a sudden, I forgot I wanted to die. I forgot that I was in pain. And I've learned this. And you have to. I learned it a long time ago that you always try a little bit harder when somebody is watching you. You know, you're in Little League and you're playing ball. And your dad shows up for the game. And you try a little bit harder because somebody who loves you is watching you. That's the way it is. And so what we do is we use those who have gone before us to encourage us to do our best. And that's what the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 5. The Bible tells us that we're to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our might. I mean, this is a complete devotion to him. Colossians 3.23 says, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to man. And so you run this race and you're running in such a way as to win. And so he says, we are surrounded. We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. What are we to do? Well, he says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And so we lay aside every weight and notice he says, and thus sin which so easily ensnares us. We remove anything that might trip us up as we run. And that includes weights. And that includes what he refers to as the sin. In other words, if something's a hindrance to your walk, get rid of it. Get rid of it even if it isn't classified a sin. You see, when he says, lay aside every weight, that word weight there is speaking of an encumbrance. It speaks of a burden. It is something that divides your attention from the Lord in an unhealthy way. There are things that will divide your attention that are not necessarily sinful in and of themselves. It can be a relationship, somebody that you prayed and asked the Lord to give you. Somebody that you're dating and you love them and you serve together with them. But it's a relationship that perhaps begins to take more of your attention than ought to be given to it. It becomes a weight in your life. It can be a friendship. It can be a health club. It can be a kind of music. It could be a habit or a personal pleasure. It can be a place that you like to go. It can be a form of entertainment. It might be a hobby. It can be educational goals. It can be a desire for marriage. It could be a variety of things. And he says, you have to make sure that you run unencumbered. So don't have any unhealthy relationship or any unhealthy thing that might take you away from the Lord. So his point would be simply if something lures you downward, forsake it. Now that's extreme but necessary if you plan on winning the race. If you plan on running to win, you need to remove all encumbrances. But secondly, he speaks of the sin, the sin which so easily ensnares us. I want you to notice it's referred to as the sin. It speaks of unnamed but specific acts of sin that produce bondage in lives. And it can be a variety of sins. For example, in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 1, Peter says, laicite, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking. It can be a variety of things. But it's a besetting sin. It's a sin that is something that you get tripped up by. And there are some things that do trip us up. Somebody might be a gossip. Somebody might habitually lie. Somebody might be entering into sexual relationships outside of marriage is a variety of things. He says, get rid of sin. Get rid of the things that are encumbrances and deal with the sin in your life, the sin that so easily ensnares you. Confess it, forsake it, reject it. It's not worth it. You have to think in those terms. It has to be something very serious. Jesus said, if your hand offends, you cut it off. He said, if your eye offends, you pluck it out. Now he's not saying literally to do that or else every person in this room would have one eye and one hand. What he's saying is, deal with sin seriously. Don't look at it as something that's just a habit or just the way you are. Deal with it. Why, because it trips you up in your race. And what are you to do? He says, and let us run with endurance. When he says, let us run, that word run is in the Greek tense that means let us keep on running. When he says, let us keep on running, he says, we are to keep on running with endurance. In other words, the Christian race is not a sprint. It's a marathon. Christianity takes determination and it takes perseverance to the very end. And we have a race that we're running. We run against sin. We run against the world. We run against the devil, if you will. And if we're gonna win, we run with determination. Now, how am I gonna win? Well, I run without distraction. Notice what he says in verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised in the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We are running without distraction. Fix your eyes on the Lord. After a glance at this cloud of witnesses, because he's our goal. In Philippians 3.20, the Bible says our citizenship is in heaven from where we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're looking unto him. And we keep our eyes fixed on him. I was mentioning in the earlier services today of a great runner by the name of Carl Lewis. And he was running a race against the Canadian sprinter by the name of Ben Johnson. And I remember the race very well. And I mentioned it, and some of you perhaps are with us this morning. I remember the race very well because they were rivals and they ran against each other constantly. And it was always close and everything. But on this one particular occasion, Carl Lewis was running the 100 meters. And as he was running, he happened to look over his shoulder. He glanced back. And when he glanced over his shoulder, that was enough distraction for Ben Johnson to pass him and to actually win that race. And I remember the commentator very well. As he said, that glance cost Carl Lewis the race. The point he was making is you have to keep your eyes fixed on the goal. You don't look over your shoulder. You don't look back. You look straight. You look forward in order that you might be able to hit that tape. And the finish line is Jesus Christ. You're running to him. Now he is the author and finisher of our faith. When he says he's the author, that's the originator. And when he says the finisher, he's the one who completes. He begins and completes our faith. In other words, Jesus laid faith's foundation in our hearts and he's able to continue that work until he completes it. Philippians chapter one, verse six says, he who began a good work and you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. So he began that work and continues that work and will complete that work. Now in reference to him, verse two says, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame. He endured for the joy of finishing his course, obtaining salvation and going home, returning to his father. Remember his prayer in John 17. Remember how he said in verses four and five, I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now Father glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. And so the Lord Jesus Christ went home. He completed the work and was willing to endure the shame of that cross because in doing so he won us. He was able to purchase us. He redeemed us. His blood was shed for us in order that he might be able to bring us with him to heaven. And so he did that. He endured that cross despising the shame in order that he might be able to win salvation and return to his father. So what do we run for? Well, what is our prize? You know, the prize isn't heaven itself because heaven is a gift to us. We run for the joy of glorifying God. We run in a faithful and holy manner in order that we might glorify him, that our lives might be pleasing to him. And God receives all the glory when he is free to shine from our lives. You see, we run with patience. We run with this endurance. And we run towards him because we wanna be with him. And as we do so, people will see the work of the spirit in our life and glorify the God we serve. And so the Christian life is a continual move forward to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. So we look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He is seated there in a position of power and authority. Verse three, for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, that you become weary and discouraged in your souls. When we are weary in this race and when we can go no further, you have to put your sight back on Jesus Christ. And one of my favorite scriptures is Philippians chapter one, verse 21. It's a simple scripture for me to live as Christ and to die as gain, to follow the Lord with all of your heart, to pursue him with everything that is within you and to realize that we're just passing through, to realize that this life is just a moment, it's a vapor, it's here right now and it's gone tomorrow. And therefore the only thing that lasts is our relationship to him. And so we consider him. He endured hostility from sinners and therefore we run this race even when we get weary. Now notice verse four, you have not yet resisted to bloodsheds driving against sin. That's interesting. You see, they have been rejected. They were rejected by friends, they were rejected by family, they're rejected by society because of their love for Jesus Christ. Now, some people are rejected by friends and family and society and they say it's because of their love for Jesus Christ. Now, some people are rejected because sometimes they're jerks. I'm sorry. But that's true. You know, sometimes, oh, I'm being persecuted for Jesus. You know, you're a jerk. Stop being a jerk if they like you. And then sometimes people will say, well, listen, if people in the world love you, then you're really not a Christian. You know, because the world is supposed to hate you and if the world likes you, you're not really a good Christian because there's still darkness in you. That's nonsense too. Jesus, well, there was something about him. It was the righteous people who didn't like him. It was the self-righteous ones who didn't like him. It was the self-righteous ones who would look at Jesus and speak to his disciples and say, how come your master eats with these tax-gatherers and these sinners? It was the self-righteous ones that Jesus had the most harsh words for. But when you think about it, Jesus would be in places where the sinners would hang around. And he loved them. And there was just something about him that made them curious about him. When you love the Lord, you can become somebody that, that definitely does repel people who love sin. There's no doubt about that. But there are others who become curious about you and what is it about you that you have? And they're the ones who approach you at work or at school or perhaps in the store in the neighborhood wherever and say, I've noticed that there's something about you, something different, and I just would like to know what it is. And that gives you a great opportunity to say, you know what it is, is the Lord, I got saved. My life has been changed. He forgave me of my sins. And he took the sorrow from my heart and replaced it with joy. He took the mourning that I had and gave me garments of praise. I mean, he did a work in me and they said, well, can you explain that to me? And then you share the gospel. That happens all the time. It happens all the time. And so when you're serving the Lord, it's true. There will be those who do reject you. Your friends may and your family may and society may. But as he's speaking to them, they are being rejected by friends, family and society. And yet the pain of rejection, though it is incredible, and though the persecution is growing, notice he says, but you haven't resisted to bloodshed striving against sin. Don't get discouraged because none of you, he's saying, has paid the price that Jesus paid. Not one of you is enduring such pain as he. I remember years ago, I was ministryed to a neighbor, a lady who lived down the street from us and her son had been very ill and she'd been praying that the Lord would heal him and the Lord hadn't healed him and he was the baby of the family and she was very concerned. And I remember her speaking to me and she said, David, I've been praying for my son to get well and he's not getting well. And she says, I just don't know. She says, I don't know what to do. Where is God? She said that. I'll never forget that. Where is God? Where is God as I cry out to him? Where is God? And I remember as I looked at her, I said to her, she said, where is God when I'm going through this pain and when my son is going through such pain? And I said, he's in the same place that he was when he watched his son die on a cross and he hasn't moved. He hasn't moved. He watched his son die and he's aware of your pain too. Sometimes we think that our pain is worse than anybody else's in the world, in the history of the world. The fact is our pain is not. None of us have lived sinless lives. Jesus did. And his point he's making is this. Since you haven't lived a sinless life, well, some of the suffering you're enduring it may be deserved. It may be something that you're reaping, but remember this, God can use it for spiritual discipline and growth in your life because God often uses suffering as a means of growth for his children. You see the process of suffering builds us and forms us more completely because we're being conformed into the image of what we call the wounded healer and Jesus who suffered for us allows us to suffer too. And that's one of the ways that you actually grow in your depth and understanding and things of the Lord. Obviously I'd prefer reading a book about it than going through it. But as I go through it I discover that the Lord is with me every step of the way. And he never leaves me nor does he ever forsake me. And the lessons that I've learned through the times of pain and crying and tears and the rest of those things have been invaluable lessons in my life and I'm sure for you too. So God uses suffering as a means of growth for his children. In verse five he says you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him for whom the Lord loves he chasens and scourges every son whom he receives. You have forgotten the exhortation. Forgetting what God has already taught us causes great pain and sorrow. He's saying you have forgotten that God has perfected faith in the Old Testament through sufferings. Now when he quotes the scripture here in verses five and six he's actually quoting the book of Proverbs chapter three verses 11 and 12. And it speaks concerning the father chastening his children. And the word chastening speaks of instruction that naturally includes correction and punishment. And he's saying that God as a father will chasten his children, he will correct them. But he says you've forgotten this exhortation. Now if you take notes you might want to note this. There are two purposes. There are two purposes in chastening. And there are dangers in forgetting the purpose of chastening. You see the dangers in forgetting the purpose of chasing is one is that you might despise it. You might care little for it or regard it lightly or make small account of it. If we don't see our problems as the Lord disciplining us we won't profit from chastening. We can become calloused. When we encounter difficulties we'll start blaming God or we can complain. We can fail to see his mercy towards us and speak out against him. We can question as if he's unjust and give an account to us for his actions. We can grow indifferent because we're disappointed and we can lose our fire. And so if we don't understand God's work in us and the purpose of chastening we can despise. And secondly we can be discouraged. When he speaks of discouragement it means to grow weak or weary, to be faint-hearted. Under his chastening hand they can become immobilized and simply give up trying. You see chastening is in order to give us strength not to take it away. So he says if you endure chastening God deals with you as with sons. Chastening reveals two things. God loves you and you're his child. Notice verse six he says for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. Discipline hurts when it occurs but it's not intended to hurt us forever but to help us. He expects to do a work through us. God wants to do a work through us and sometimes he disciplines us. I don't know. I like the fact that God is a father and not a grandfather because I didn't mind spanking my kids but I have a kind of unspoken rule in my house. You don't spank my grandson in front of me or I'll spank you, I'm still dad. I just don't like it. I just do not like it and no boy I could tell you a story after this about this. I don't like it because no chastening for the moment is pleasant like he says in a moment here. And when I spanked my kids I used to say to them not every time but once in a while I'd say something to the effect it hurts me more than it hurts you and so my kids were pretty smart so they'd say well then hit yourself. Save yourself the pain dad. But you know when in a way there is some truth to that I don't know if it's true with you or not but for me it was. I have never been one of those who liked spanking my kids. I didn't spank all of them. My Korean, the oldest for little things she was our experiment. She's the first one. You work out with the first one and you get better by the fourth. And so Karini got her share of spankings and as I've told you before my second my David was something else. My David was something else. Oh he was something else. He really was something else. I mean I would spank him that's true and he had this attitude like is that the best you can do. You know he just had this attitude like oh man you know you make me so mad and oh now Joseph Joseph says I spanked him once. Joseph's a liar. I'm just teasing of course it's not a liar. He's a fiver. No I've never spanked Joseph. He says dad yes you did. You told me this the other day. Yes you did dad you spanked me once. You spanked me once. You hit me once. I said I have never spanked you in your life Joseph. You're the kid that all I had to do is say stop it. You disappoint me and you cry. I've never had to spank you. Anna my youngest has never received a spanking from me. Never. You know I was growing up. My dad in my entire life only spanked me less than three or four times that I can remember. My dad just never did. My mom says it's cause if he started he might have killed you but thank God my dad never spanked me. You know my mom she pulled out that slipper and let me have it but not my dad. My dad didn't you know but chastening is for a purpose and chastening is intended to reveal a couple things and when we are chastened and this is interesting when you look at it because when we are chastened by the Lord it one it reveals that he loves you and we'll see this in a moment a little clearer and two it reveals that you belong to him. Now notice what he says in verse seven. He says if you endure chastening God deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom a father does not chasten but if you are without chastening of which all have become partakers you're illegitimate and not sons and so God loves us for whom the Lord loves he chastens. God loves us but two it proves that we belong to him. An undisciplined child is an unloved child. Proverbs 13, 24 says he who spares the rod hates his son but he who loves him is careful to discipline him and he does discipline us because we belong to him. I read about a man who came upon two boys who were fighting in a park and he took one of those kids aside and he began to spank him for his behavior and there was a bystander who walked up and saw what was going on and had seen the two kids and all that they were doing and so he approaches this guy and he says to him why aren't you doing something to the other boy? And the father responded this one is my son and the other one is not and that's the truth. I mean if my son is doing something wrong and he's young enough to be chastened in that fashion and he's with one of his friends I never spanked his friend, you know? There was a time when I grew up that that would have taken place on our neighborhood. You know the mother's felt the freedom to spank anybody's kid who was within striking distance. I mean that was the old way it used to be, you know? Then you'd be taken home and the woman would tell on you to the mom and then your mom would spank you twice, you know, once for doing something wrong and the other because you got spanked by somebody else and that's how it would work. I mean it was a killer but it was a good system. You spank your own but you don't spank somebody else's. And so he shows us one that he loves us and two that we belong to him because correction reveals a father's love for his child. And so then rather than me getting upset because God chastens me and God brings a discipline in my life and then I begin to say God doesn't love me because if he loved me he wouldn't spank me. The writer here in Hebrews would say you're wrong in that. You're wrong because the chastening that you endure demonstrates that God does love you because you belong to him and what somebody else may be getting away with he gets away with for a short time but he doesn't belong to the father. The father wants to make sure that you don't use inappropriate language, that you don't go to the wrong kinds of places and you will discover the chastening hand of the Lord when he corrects you. Notice what he says in verse nine. He says we have had human fathers who corrected us and we pay them respect. Shall we not much more readily be subjection to the father of spirits and live? Well, of course. No, when he speaks of that he speaks of having human fathers. The disciplined child shows respect for the parents but an undisciplined child never does. So shall we not be more readily in subjection to the father of spirits and live? Now that's an interesting phrase to the father of spirits. The term father of spirits speaks of the one who created us meaning that we belong to him. He is our father. Isaiah 42.5 says thus has God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it. So he created us. Zechariah 12.1 tells us the Lord stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him. And so we are yielded to him. He's the one who created us. Verse 10. They indeed for a few days chastened us. It's interesting how he says this. As seemed best to them but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness. You know sometimes you may get upset at the kid for making noise while we're watching the game and you discipline him because he interrupted you. It was really what was best for you. It wasn't always best for him. But God isn't that way. God doesn't discipline us with that attitude. God disciplines us in order that we might be partakers. And notice how he says this. That we might be partakers of his holiness. God intends to work in a holy life. He wants us to have a righteous life. And so he says, no chastening, verse 11, seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it. Who likes to get spanked? You know, I didn't wake up in the morning as a kid saying, you know, I think I'll do something today to make my dad mad enough to take out the belt. I don't think so. I think I'm gonna do something today to get him so mad. You know, I mentioned to you that my father didn't spank me. One of the things about my dad that you know that I still remember when I was a kid is part of the reason that he didn't spank me is because when he would take me by the hand, he only did this a few times and discovered that I'm very difficult to spank because he would take me by the hand and I would jump towards him wherever his hand was and I'd jump at it like that. So he couldn't get my rear end because I'd be turning forward. And I am not kidding, man. And I would be bouncing around like a marionette when those puppets, you know, and I'd be screaming, you know, oh, don't dad, don't dad, no dad, no dad. And my dad would laugh. My mom, oh man, I got away. But my mom would come in and say, whack, you know. I don't care, you know. I couldn't dance fast enough to get away from her but my dad would be cracking up. I don't know why I told you that and it just came to mind. But it wasn't something you liked. I've never liked to be spanked. You know, another reason why I got few spankings frankly from my dad when I was a kid is because I tried to learn the lesson the first time. I'm still that way. I'm still that way. I just didn't like getting spanked. I didn't like getting disciplined. I didn't like that. I didn't like it at all. And when it happened, it just really disturbed me. And so I actually did one of two things. Before I got saved, I just perfected my sinfulness. So I didn't get caught. So that was wrong. But I did that. I'd say, well, you know, I got caught because I did it this way. Well, next time I'll do it in that way and I won't get caught. So I got away with an awful lot of things just by perfecting my sinfulness. But when I got saved, I started realizing that when the Lord wants to chase in me, it's for my well-being. So what lesson does He want to teach me through this? So I don't go through this time again with Him so that I don't sense that there's a distance between Him and me and have to discover what I've done confess for sake, repent, and return to Him. What am I going to do? And so it's a simple thing like that. And I'm still that way now as a Christian and as a Christian man. I desire the Lord to, if He teaches me a lesson through chastening, to really not have to repeat that throughout my life. Because one of the things I've discovered about the Lord is when He has a lesson to teach you, He keeps working until He does teach you that lesson. Have you noticed that? He does. Some of you right now are going through a hard time and you're saying, when is this going to be over? It's going to be when you repent and turn away from your sin. And if you keep on doing it, you're going to keep getting chastened. That's how it works because He's that way. He wants to teach you that there are repercussions for the things that you do. And He's not a grandfather. He is a father. And as a father, He wants to form your character. And He does, though, through chastening. Why does He do that? Because He loves you and because you belong to Him. So what is it the Lord is teaching you today? What is it that He's been trying to get across to you? Well, whatever it is, learn your lesson. Listen to what He has to say. Turn away from the sin. Embrace Him. Confess. Say, I'm sorry. Move on. And then it's over. My kids can tell you this because it's true. When they have done something wrong, I'm one of these bulldog-type dads who will say if they're not copying to it, if they're not admitting, they're going to. They're going to admit what they did is wrong. You just can't pull the wool over my eyes. You just can't. You can't con a con. Been there, done that. I'm not stupid. I wasn't born yesterday. Please, OK? So when the kids would try and get over on me, I'm not a mean-spirited man. But I would just say, nope. Nope. Nope. That's not how that was. And we will stay here until you deal with it. Now, Anna will tell you this. My daughter will say, I wish my dad would have just thanked me because we would have two-hour sessions. And she hated that. And the first hour was kind of like first, second, third point. Then we'd receive an offering. And then we'd go into a second service. I mean, she just could not stand it because I would not let go until she dealt with it. Now, if I was that way with my kids, you know what the Lord is that way with us too? And I would do that not because I was angry at them. Frankly, I would just as soon have them just cop to it from the beginning. And let's save the lecture. Let's just save the lecture. But if you're going to insist on saying you didn't do something wrong and try and pull the wool over my eyes, then we're going to stay here until you admit it. And if I have to go point by point with you until we get to the place where you say, all right, I'm guilty, then we'll do that. And I did that because I love them, not because I like sitting there for two hours doing that, but because I want them to see what they did is wrong. And I want them to understand there are repercussions for that. And I want them to know that when they're in sin or they do something wrong, it breaks fellowship with me. And I want them to value fellowship with their father. I want them to be able to have relationship with me. And therefore, if this sin is going to cause a break of fellowship, then let's deal with the sin. And as a father, I would do that. And I would stay there until they finally said, I didn't. And then I'd actually repeat. I'd say, OK, so you did what? I did this. And is that right or is that wrong? It's wrong. Why is it wrong? Now, you would hate me as your father, because they would have to say it's wrong for these reasons. And I'd say, that's right. It's wrong for those reasons. That's right. And the right thing to do is what? I should have this. That's right. Now, if you just do that, you shall live. And if you don't, then your life is going to be penalized because God wants to bless you. And until you learn there are repercussions for the things that you do, then you're going to go about life thinking you can get away with things because it doesn't happen that you're chastened immediately or that repercussions hit you quickly. Sometimes the Lord will wait for a while. Sometimes he may wait. In the case of King David, he waited for a year after David had fallen with Bathsheba until he actually brought David to a place of repentance. Sometimes God will extend some time to you, but he always deals with the sin. He never ignores it. And the reason that he deals with it is because he loves you and because you belong to him. And I, like I'm saying, just agree with the Lord quickly. Agree with him quickly, deal with it, and move on. But if you hold fast to things and don't want to let go of them, I promise you, then your life isn't going to be, it's not going to have joy. It's not going to have the sense of God's presence because sin is clouding the picture. God loves you, God chastens you, and God will form your character, and he does so through chastening.