Why Real Growth Hurts And Why It’s Worth It ("Prepare" Day 3)

The Bible describes sanctification as a painful process that we should embrace. That can be a tough truth. Nobody asks for more trial, struggle, or pain. But we know from God's word and from our own experience that God's greatest works come through the refining fire of being transformed over time by His word. Today Rachael and Matt discuss sanctification, what it is, why it hurts, and why every believer should desperately want it. 

Click Here for Week 1 Homework Sheet

BEFORE this episode: Complete DAY THREE Homework (Hebrews 4:12)

AFTER this episode: Complete DAY FOUR Homework (Matthew 6:33 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)

Transcript

Vision For Fruitful, Effective Faith

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Do you ever feel like your life just isn't as productive or effective as it should be? As followers of Jesus, we want our short time on earth to have eternal impact, but often we feel like we're falling short. The good news is that Scripture gives us a promise, a life that's never ineffective or unproductive in knowing Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter 1, we're told to build on our faith, adding goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. As these qualities grow, they keep us fruitful and effective for God's kingdom.

Meet Matt And Rachel

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I'm Matt Morrow, and my wife Rachel and I have spent nearly 20 years teaching God's Word and walking with people in every stage of faith. Our passion is to see lives permanently and radically transformed by Scripture applied. Adding to your faith is here to help you understand biblical truth, practice it daily, and grow to look more like Jesus. We're glad you're here. Let's walk this journey together.

Study Setup And Homework Cue

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Hi friends, I'm Rachel, and this is Matt, and we are here for week one, day three of How to Study Your Bibles. So if you have not done day three homework, hit a pause now and go spend some time with your homework, and then you can come back and add to and be a part of this conversation. So if you haven't done that,

Hebrews 4:12 And Sanctification

SPEAKER_00 1:38

do that now. But if you have spent some time in Hebrews 4.12, which is our focus verse this week, it says, For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. So our question today, Matt, is what is sanctification? And when you read Hebrews 4 12, you think, why on earth would I want that?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

It's a fair question because what's being described here sounds kind of painful, right? Sounds like it's, well, maybe more than kind of painful. It sounds brutal.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Absolutely. Dividing joints and marrow does not sound pleasant.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

No, that's awful. So so

Conformed Vs Transformed: Toy Illustrations

SPEAKER_01 2:24

we'll start with what sanctification is. And we talked about this a couple of days ago, a little bit in day one of this week, but um, but to go a little bit deeper with that, if we know that the purpose of God's word is to have a transformative effect. So he, in other words, he gives it to, it's supernatural in nature, he gives it to us because he wants it to be an instrument he uses to change us into his likeness, then sanctification can be described as the process through which we become less like our old sinful flesh-filled selves and more like the character and nature of God. And that's a process, plays out day by day for all of the time, this side of heaven that we're here, but it's a but it is God's purpose to work in our lives through his word is to sanctify us. Is that a good description? Or what am I missing there?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

I think it's a it is a good description. You know, I I I guess kind of often think about sanctification and the difference between like being conformed and being transformed. And I think understanding that difference is a really important part of understanding what sanctification is. You know, when I was a kid, there were two toys that I loved to play with. So one of them was Stretch Armstrong. I don't know if you remember Stretch Armstrong. Yeah, I do. I remember Stretch Armstrong. My sisters and I had had a version of him, probably not the Was it the green one?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Did you have the green one?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

I thought ours was red.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Mine was green. It was the stretch monster. It was in the Stretch Armstrong family, but Stretch Armstrong was the first. Okay. And the the OG.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Well, and we may have had one of the knockoffs.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

That probably, but I'm not gonna ask you if you ever cut into him because that was fun too.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

But we would pull on that thing, you know, one would take one arm and one would take the other, and we would go as far apart as we could and just try our ever loving best to rip the arms off of that of off of that toy. And you know what? As soon as we let go, every single time he snapped right back into place.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Just kind of move right back into his normal form.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

I mean, sometimes it took

Aligning Desire With God’s Purpose

SPEAKER_00 4:33

him a while, but you know, but he always got there, right? Sometimes it was slower than others, but he always got back to his original form. And that is being conformed, right? Like that is what conforming is that when there's a constraint, it keeps the shape, but as soon as the constraint is gone, it goes back to its original shape. That is different than the other toy that I really enjoyed playing with, which was Play Doh. And Plato was awesome because it kept its shape. So you could make a whole tea set and have a tea party and made tea sets with Play-Doh? I've made tea sets. We would make food.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

It's like the most boring thing you can make from Plato, but it's fine. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

We would make food and set it out. If you left it out long enough, it was it was transformed forever into that shape. It would no longer be pliable. But right, that is transformed. Right? Transformed is something that keeps its shape when the constraint is gone. And and sanctification is designed to be a transformation process. It's designed to actually change our original shape, not just put us into a place where we've got these constraints on us where we're being kind of stretched to fit. But as soon as those constraints are gone, we just snap back into the form that we were in. And so I think, you know, when we think about the difference between the two, that God is always

Fearing Sanctification And God’s Heart

SPEAKER_00 6:04

calling us to be transformed, right? He's always calling us to be changed because you can only fight against like your heart and your feelings for so long. And you know, I think there are a lot of believers out there that have mixed those two up. And so they're working really hard to conform to something, you know, to expectations or to who they think they should be or or who they they want to be, even, you know, maybe sometimes those are self-imposed constraints. But if it's not transformation, if it's not really a heart change, at some point you're gonna go back. You go back.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah, that's I mean, that's the sort of tragic reality of the lives of so many believers, I think, and and people who genuinely wonder and and are troubled by why they're they seem to not grow spiritually. And and and with compassion, I would say, because I've been in this in this boat from I was in this boat for many years myself, but with compassion, I would say, do you want as your deepest desire, do you want the same thing that God wants for you or do you want something else? Because we know from his word and from what we've just discussed the last couple of days, that his purpose for giving us his supernatural word is to change us, is to form us, is to sanctify us, that that's his purpose. It's why he went to all this trouble of put of of giving us his supernatural word. And so the the question, the difficult, again, with with as much compassion as I know how to muster, the difficult question is do you want the same thing for you that God wants for you? And so we start by so if we we say why

Embracing Necessary Discomfort

SPEAKER_01 8:06

would we want sanctification, it starts with because that's what God wants. What God wants for me is is my sanctification. So it starts there, and then how do I align? We talked about coming under the authority of God's word instead of coming over God's word. This is a good, a good test to say, well, if if I want things out of my life and what God wants out of my life is to sanctify me and to change me from what I am to what to what and more like him, is that what I want too? So I it's a good test to say, am I coming under that authority? And then the a great question to ask, and I have you know, is why would why would we engage God's word at all if we don't want to be changed? Like why go to the trouble? I mean, it's not like it's not like it's easy, right? So why try to engage with God's word at all if we don't want to be changed? So so we do, I mean, in our heart of hearts, we know we do want to be changed. That's why we're engaging in this way. If we if we if we've been if we've been saved by Christ, then we want we want to be in his likeness. There are just these other things in our life that are that are from our flesh, that are from an enemy, that end up sort of competing for that. And then, and then we don't, we don't embrace that that painful process. And it and it can be a very painful process.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

It it can be, but I think that's why the order is so important is you know, beginning with the authority of God and understanding who he is, right? His his glory and his love and like

Surrender Over Sheer Commitment

SPEAKER_00 9:40

his incredible love for us. And then from there, you know, like learning to apply his word and seeing his power displayed in our lives, right? Learning to walk with him and and to taste and see that the Lord is good, right? Like out of our experiences, that that that order is really important because when you get to that place of dividing out things, you know, dividing out soul and spirit and bone and marrow, that is a a painful process. And so if you haven't settled who God is and his and like just his immense love for you and what he has done to save you and to bring you into his kingdom, if that's not the foundation of it, then it can be really scary to think about sanctification, right? It can really start to feel like stretch armstrong, that you know, that God's really just trying to pull me apart. And that's not helpful for me either. And so I think sometimes we because we misunderstand the heart of God, we fear sanctification. And and I can speak for my own life that that was something that that I always, you know, I think I had a well, it it started in a misunderstanding of the nature and character of God and and not beginning with God as a good father. And

Hebrews 12:11 And Peaceful Fruit

SPEAKER_00 11:09

when I misunderstand that, then sanctification was terrifying to me because, you know, I kind of bought into this idea that God's never happy unless I'm miserable, you know, because that's where you grow. Like you don't grow where you're happy, you grow when things are hard and when things are are difficult. And so it it kind of became this this fear of the Lord that that I wanted to be sanctified, but I was also really fearful of the process. And and I will say, if if there's anybody out there that that's like me and and has kind of that thought, get into the word, like because understanding God's heart and and who he is and his glory is the beginning of the wisdom to to be transformed. Because God is not trying to to tear, like just to tear us apart for the sake of tearing us apart. He talks about refining, right? He talks about, you know, in in Matthew 6, right? He says, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Like he says that he is

Practice Gratitude In Discipline

SPEAKER_00 12:19

gentle and humble in spirit. That's who he says that he is. And you know, as you start to to get into that process, what you learn is that the Lord is a gentle teacher. He's he's not a harsh teacher. The world is a harsh teacher. Yeah, but Jesus is not a harsh teacher, and so he invites us in to come under his yoke, to come under his teachings, to come under his authority and his word. And then he says that's actually where your soul's gonna find rest. And so if you're somebody who's like me that that sometimes finds yourself a little afraid of the process because you believe things that aren't true, I I would just challenge you to not stop there. Like let the Lord

Teaser: Your Role In Sanctification

SPEAKER_00 13:09

do the thorough work that He wants to do in your life.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I mean, I love how you describe that. And I mean it's it it's a great illustration of how our fears or our you know our trepidation around around what God might do, or or how you know how that might or might not be what I want for me, or or even the even the lie that what I want for me is best. I mean, all of that is it's it's just believing things that aren't true. And and the word of God is true. So I love your solution. I just I love that heart of just saying, let's just go into the word, let's, let's let truth take it take over, let's let light expel darkness so that we can so that we can reckon on the true character and nature of our loving Father and what he has for us. Nevertheless, Hebrews 4 does describe a process that's that uses some pretty painful imagery, right? I mean, it does. And and so how do we embrace pain and discomfort when pain and discomfort are part of a process that ultimately is absolutely for our good? So how do we embrace the the sort of land between there? You know, between the the the glorious outcome and where we are today, there's going to be some pain and some discomfort. How do we embrace that? What's the what's the secret?

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I mean, I think, right, realizing that you are being transformed. So ultimately, God wants to change your heart and your thoughts and your mind, which will change your feelings. And and that, but that process is hard. I mean, I remember some days like kind of early and when the Lord was doing a kind of a different work in my heart and just showing me, I it felt like just kind of showing me failing after failing after failing, and uh having the conscious thought, like, if I weren't doing, like I didn't notice any of that before. And it was, you know, so I'm like, if I weren't doing this, I would feel a lot better about my life and about myself. Ignorance is bliss, right? Yeah, right. Like kind of having that sense of like ignorance is bliss, or you know, just even that, like I didn't struggle with this before, you know, this wasn't even something I knew to struggle with. And so getting discouraged in that and thinking, you know, and so I think part of it is just like understanding that the refiner's fire is a fire, but it's only designed to burn off impurities. And so, like as the Lord is at the same time doing the work in you to align your heart with his and making that your desire, because that's a work of him in your life. We don't do that on our own. But if those two things are coming together and he's changing what you actually want, then you get to a place that you can welcome the pain that it it takes to get there. And and it it is a little bit about transforming your mind, right? That Romans 12 talks about that that you have to you have to be thinking differently about it. And you know, and we know that in in other areas, like right, like we know it's actually a good thing when you're sore after you exercise because that means that things are happening, right? So, so there's some pain in that, but when you know that pain is actually means it's working, then you don't mind the pain so much, you know. I mean, I remember you and I years ago did a book called Body for Life, where we tried those workouts and we would wake up.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I think I was conformed, not transformed. We were, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Because we would wake up and we were like, this is not body for life, this is body for death. And eventually it didn't stick, right? You know, even though we knew it was a good thing, we didn't persevere with it.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

And so I mean, I think about like you know this. Some of my my favorite moves of movies are Rocky movies. I love the Rocky movies. And my favorite part of the Rocky movies is always, you know, the victory in the ring. That's that's the great, glorious thing. But my second favorite part of the Rocky movies are the training montages, right? Where they go back and you see Rocky and and he's going through this intense training and he's just brutalizing his body to get ready for this great showdown in the ring. And he's suffering. I mean, he's but but he's pushing himself, he's persevering through it because he knows what it's building in him. He knows what it's doing, and he embraces that in that training montage. And I love it. I just love watching it. That's it's the same principle, right? I mean, you're it's it's the the glory on the other side is so great that you embrace it, that you embrace the training montage that goes with it, even though it's painful, even though there's even though there are you know there's there's pain involved.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

It is, and you know, and and it has to be more than just our commitment.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Right?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Like, I mean it That will fail eventually, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:14

It it will fail. And you can only fight yourself for so long, and that's why we didn't we didn't stick with our exercise routine because eventually it it we weren't being transformed, we were being conformed, and so eventually we wore out and the commitment didn't last. And so that's why sanctification has to be right, like come to the Lord, right? Like he's inviting you in, and it is through his power. And so the key to persevering, the key to sanctification is always surrender, it's not more commitment. And I think sometimes we get that backwards, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah, that's a great, I mean it's a great contrast too, because commitment is try harder, try more. Yeah, surrender is the opposite of that. It's it's give up, it's it's it's give yourself over, not to not to your flesh, but to the Lord and to the spirit. Just just give yourself over to him.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

And I think, you know, and and especially I think in the way that that I kind of the tradition that I grew up in, I think that I understood that salvation was an act of the Lord. And I certainly understand that I can't get to heaven without an act of the Lord, right? Like God will bring me into glory, and there's not anything that I can do to step into glory. And and I understood that there wasn't really anything that I could do to save myself, that that was a complete act of grace. But that land in between, I think it was often kind of described to me as kind of pick yourself up by your bootstraps and dig in and do it. Do the work. It is work, right? And that is not a biblical picture at all of sanctification. It's not just uh muscling through it to try to to make it happen, right? That's just con that's just conforming. And so you can put some of those constraints and commitments and and try to keep up with all the things. But but if you're not being sanctified, if you're not growing to be more like Jesus, then it's it's not gonna at some point it doesn't stick. At some point our human will wears out. And and so that that is it's it is like it's a painful and a glorious process, but it's also an eternal process and it's one that is powered by the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

So our our focus verse for today's for today's study was Hebrews 412, which you read earlier and and but there's another passage in Hebrews a little bit later in Hebrews 1211 that speaks to this principle a little bit and and and we read there for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. And so there's so much in that little short verse but I one of the things that really jumps out to me is that it yields the peaceful fruit. So discipline and the things that go with it are with purpose and they can seem unpleasant when they're happening. But that there is a there is not there is glory we've talked about that there is also peaceful fruit that comes at the end. And we're going to talk in the in the days ahead we're gonna talk about the about the fruits of the spirit and some of the things that come and how those how that arrives you know how you know attain that how you receive that from the Lord. And this is the beginning of it is embracing discipline. So one of the things that that I hope can be helpful to people as you think about this is even as you read through Hebrews 4 and the painful imagery that's there, how do we embrace that pain, that discomfort that can be a part of the process and is a part of the process is first to just recognize what we're what we learn in Hebrews 12, which is that our Father loves us enough to discipline us for our good for our good. He loves us enough not to just leave us to discipline us for us for our good. And if we believe that one of the things one of the very active things that we can do to really embrace that pain and discomfort on the way to his purposes is to actively thank him to thank God and praise him for for the love that he has for us to discipline us for our good to to do those things for our good. I mean it's a good practice for me to thank him even for the stuff that in my in my moment in that one moment I would I would reject or not not want or not choose for myself to thank him for it because I know his character I know his nature and I know that he's doing these things for my good his word says so I just read it. And just to be able to thank him actively thank him for those things that'll change your heart pretty quickly as well. Well that's going to be it for today tomorrow we'll come back with the with day four of week one and the question for that is what is my role in my own sanctification? Is it an active process or a passive process? I mean God does this work in us some of it is painful along the way we know that from today so what's my role in my own sanctification? And for that we're going to be in Matthew 633 we're gonna be in 1 Thessalonians 516 to 24 so hope that between now and tomorrow you'll read those passages do a little bit of your own homework to try to kind of work through some of those things and understand what my role is in my own sanctification and how active or passive that is and what that looks like going forward. So sound good Rachel absolutely okay well we'll see you tomorrow all right