(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) And when I got in trouble with the law, I was saved and I knew what I'd done, I'd known better. I knew better. And what the normal punishment would have been for someone in my shoes and doing what I had done, would have been very minimal. I had more than twice as much penalties and hardships, and it lasted way longer by years of dealing with the ramifications of what I had done, where no one else was getting that type of punishment. I know that that was from God. I know that personally. That was what I had to do with my circumstances and what I knew and what I didn't know, what I knew as a saved person, what I shouldn't be doing. Definitely God chastening. You know what? I thank God for that. I do. I thank God for loving me enough to make me go through a much harder time. Now, it didn't fully sink in. That's why I needed it. God loved me enough to give me that disciplining and it didn't even fully sink in, but then it finally clicked and now it's settled. Now I don't need to be punished for that anymore. It's a long time ago, but here's the thing. As a child of God, you need to expect to be disciplined, to be chastened, especially in areas when you know something is a sin and you do it anyways. Expect to be punished by God. Expect to be chastened and don't get upset when you're going through now dealing with reaping what you've sown. And when God just comes in and scourges you because you know better and you did something wrong, just be thankful that God loves you enough to make you go through that hardship so that you could go, okay, I'm going to stop doing this. I'm not going to do this anymore because you might have if it wasn't quite as bad. But now you've got to realize, man, I don't ever want to go through that again. I'm sorry, Lord, and you can repent and get right. Verse number seven, If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. But He for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness. So when God chastens us, what does He want us to do? He wants us to be a partaker of His holiness. God's holy. It means He's set apart. God is not a sinner. God is holy. He's perfect. He's pure, right? So God wants us to get the sin out of our life. God wants us to live a little bit more holy like He is and be able to partake in His holiness, which is why He chastens us. Because in the end, it's supposed to be for our profit so we can stop doing the bad things that make us unholy. So we can start getting more righteous and more holy and partake with His holiness. That's why He chastens us. It's for our own profit, our own benefit. Verse 11, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous. Nobody likes getting the whooping. When you're getting the whooping, you don't like it. It's grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. And look, I can attest to this with my children. Nobody likes getting a spanking when it's time to get a spanking. Nobody likes it. But you know what I have noticed? What I have noticed is that after they get that, after some time goes by, they become very loving and their attitude changes tremendously. And they get much better and much more loving and come up and give you a hug and everything else. And you think, you know, parents who don't spank their children might think, oh, but they're going to hate me and everything else. Look, if you give them proper discipline, they're actually going to love you for it. They're going to ultimately deep down, they're going to realize, even if they can't articulate it and don't fully comprehend and understand it, that's the way that God made it. When you receive that discipline, these kids will, when they're being appropriately chastened and scourged, then it afterward will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Verse number 12, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Verse 15, looking diligently, lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. Don't allow the rebuke, the chastening to allow a root of bitterness to spring up within you. Because that's going to only cause you more problems in the future. Because if God's trying to rebuke you for something and you become bitter over that, your heart's not right. You can expect more chastening and more disciplining from God if you're just going to be bitter about those things that you need to be corrected over.