Prepare your heart for the Sermon by looking through these suggestions that will assist you in making the most of our time together hearing God's Word.

You will find suggestions for thinking more critically through the passage, meditating more intently on the text, and prayerfully seeking wisdom to deepen your understanding of the passage to be preached this Sunday.

Carefully Think

• Read Hebrews 12:3-11. What key word is repeated through this passage? What is the topic of this passage?
• Who is referenced in vs. 3? What event or events are referenced in vs. 3 and 4?
• What does this passage indicate is present in the lives of all believers and absent in the lives of unbelievers?
• Why are believers disciplined by God; what is the goal? (vs. 10-11)
• How does the topic of this passage connect with the preceding exhortations in vs. 1-2?

Prayerfully Meditate

• What is to be “resisted” in vs. 4?
• Considering the results of discipline in vs. 10-11, what is absent from the lives of those not disciplined by the Lord?
• Why does the Lord discipline his children?
• How have you received discipline recently and what was the result?
• Consider how this passage would impact the original audience. What was the discipline they were receiving?
• Recall a time when you did not respond well to discipline. What could you have done differently and has that shaped how you respond now?