The God Who Works

The God Who Works | Hebrews 13:20-25 May 21, 2023 Good morning. I want to do this a little bit differently this morning. Please open your bibles to Hebrews 13:20-25. Let's begin with the reading of the passage, and a word of prayer before I teach through the passage. If able, I invite you to stand for the reading of the Word. 20 NOW MAY THE GOD OF PEACE WHO BROUGHT AGAIN FROM THE DEAD OUR LORD JESUS, THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP, BY THE BLOOD OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT, 21 EQUIP YOU WITH EVERYTHING GOOD THAT YOU MAY DO HIS WILL, WORKING IN US THAT WHICH IS PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, TO WHOM BE GLORY FOREVER AND EVER. AMEN. 22 I APPEAL TO YOU, BROTHERS, BEAR WITH MY WORD OF EXHORTATION, FOR I HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU BRIEFLY. 23 YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT OUR BROTHER TIMOTHY HAS BEEN RELEASED, WITH WHOM I SHALL SEE YOU IF HE COMES SOON. 24 GREET ALL YOUR LEADERS AND ALL THE SAINTS. THOSE WHO COME FROM ITALY SEND YOU GREETINGS. 25 GRACE BE WITH ALL OF YOU. [prayer] You may be seated. Early in my career, I was infamous for acting out the phrase, "if you want something done right, do it yourself!" Over time I realized that if I have a team, and they do their part, then I don't have to do it all myself. Our passage today reminds us of that very thing, we're not in it on our own, rather we have the best possible advocate, God the Father working in us. Sometimes, however, we don't let Him work. As we finish this sermon series this morning, I pray that we can all see why God works, how God works, and our role in that work. We'll be primarily spending our time in verses 20-21 this morning, as this set of verses provides such an amazing prayer from the author to this church. Verse 20 identifies the source of our main theme of this sermon series and one of the primary themes of this letter: Jesus is greater than anything and anyone. That source? The God of Peace. Paul uses this Name of God in several of his letters, and what it really does is points us to understand what true peace is, and where peace comes from. Romans 5:1 says it this way: THEREFORE, SINCE WE HAVE BEEN JUSTIFIED BY FAITH, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. So not only do we see the source of peace, but we also see the reason we can have peace - even amongst trials, tribulations, sickness, or other circumstances - which is, salvation through Christ alone. Notice what the author does here: he draws our attention back to the cross and the empty tomb. The final and only sufficient sacrifice for us to be saved from eternal destruction. There were several topics and themes that the author brought forth in this letter, and what he seems to do here is bring these into focus in his prayer for them. What a way to close out this magnificent book. With that background in mind, here's the main idea of our text: The God of Peace works in us for His glory. In two short verses, there is a lot to cover, so just as the author said in verse 22, bear with me. First thing I want to discuss is ... THE RESULT OF GOD'S WORK • God equips us. o The word "equip" here is translated in other versions as "be made perfect," or "make you perfect," so the implication here is that God is preparing His saints for a purpose. This word was used in the early Christian's lives and alluded to mending together something, like a broken bone for a doctor or a net for a fisherman. o So, what is God equipping us to do? o Verse 22 reminds us that this letter was written, in part, as an exhortation. Which implies that he's been exhorting the Hebrew Christians this entire time. While we see God's discipline and warnings throughout the book, we see here that He's been equipping us all along. o Furthermore, as we've seen throughout the entire letter, God is equipping us for proper and acceptable worship - to include the One to Whom we direct our worship, and He reminds the Hebrews - in its simplest form - to go away from the old self. o This requires total surrender. o I can remember in a past job in which I was unhappy, I did the bare minimum to get through the day. Over time, I realized that I wasn't doing the company any good, the employees any good, but most of all that I was not honoring the Lord. So even though I was unhappy in the job, I knew that I had a responsibility to surrender to the responsibilities that I agreed to. * Now, in now way am I comparing a disgruntled employee response to the proper response to God. What I am saying is that once I refocused and did what was expected of me, the job became more enjoyable and bearable. o That's because I surrendered. o What's holding you back from total surrender to the Lord? o The next thing we see here is that ... • God enables good in us. o A moment ago, we talked about this idea of equipping. God preparing us. Here, we see a little more of what He is preparing us for, doing good. o We spent some time on this earlier in this chapter on the idea of good works and performing good deeds. o What's tricky about "doing good" is that many have the wrong heart attitude. o My wife and I walk the dog around the neighborhood a few times a day. Often times, various neighbor's trash bins get knocked down, so we'll usually pick them up and put them aside for our them. But guess what, I'm fairly certain that no one knows that we do this. We do this because there is a need, not because we're searching for a pat on the back or an "atta boy!" o Like we've previously discussed, we do good as a response to God's work. In fact, as we've seen here - it is God who enables us to do so. o Look what Paul says in Galatians 6:10: SO THEN, AS WE HAVE OPPORTUNITY, LET US DO GOOD TO EVERYONE, AND ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO ARE OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH. o When? When we have time? When we feel like it? No - as we have opportunity. o As a result, we see that ... • God is pleased with His work in us. o This is a product of obedience, and the Bible says that we will in fact be rewarded. o In fact, Galatians 6:9 says this: AND LET US NOT GROW WEARY OF DOING GOOD, FOR IN DUE SEASON WE WILL REAP, IF WE DO NOT GIVE UP. o But again, what is the heart attitude? o Are we doing good works to show our love to God and our love to our neighbor? o Earlier, I mentioned that in this letter there were several warnings. Scholars call these the "warning passages." o These warnings were addressed and written out of love for the saints. o It's really quite sad that in our culture today, when someone says something is wrong or sinful, it's labeled as insensitive, or mean, or harmful, or even worse bigoted or misogynistic. o Sin is celebrated all around us, and the author of Hebrews, even then, knew the dangers of our eyes coming off Jesus and back to the old way of our lives. o But this verse reminds His children, followers of Jesus, that when we do His will, it pleases Him. o When I was a kid - and even early in my adulthood - I loved when my parents said they were proud of me. o Most of us are familiar with the story of Noah and the flood. One of the saddest verses in the Bible is at the end of Genesis 6:17, where God said, "... FOR I AM SORRY THAT I HAVE MADE THEM" [mankind]. o When we are about the business of the Lord, it pleases Him. o Is there something preventing you from doing the Lord's work? So, we have clearly seen what God's work produces in us, but the question remains, and we must discuss ... HOW GOD WORKS • Through Jesus Christ. o Here's a modified version of our passage this morning that brings us to this point: * NOW, MAY THE GOD OF PEACE ... EQUIP YOU ... THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. o You see, it is wholly through the work of Christ that we can be equipped, for good works, and for His purpose. o What was the work of Christ? * The BLOOD OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT. o You see, when we look at the totality of the Scriptures, we see that God's plan of redemption always included Jesus. o There is this physiological concept in our world today called "relativism." * In its most simple form, relativism says that good and evil are subjective and that there is no absolute truth. * Relativism says that your truth is true ... to you, and my truth is true ... to me. o This is why many are not reached by the Gospel, because the Gospel says that we are saved from eternal punishment through Christ alone. o We like to be in control. We like to have options to choose from. And submitting to Christ removes those options and that control. o Now, I can't speak for you, but to me ... this is comforting. If all that I have and all that I am is because of God's work through me because of the work of Christ ... then, that means I'm exactly who God wants me to be. * Now, of course this doesn't mean that my sin doesn't get in the way, but even then, the work of Christ enables forgiveness through repentance. * So even when I sin and get in my own way, Christ's work gets me back on track. o To build on this a little bit more, we see that this is also done ... • By grace. o Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 2 (8-9, NLT) where he says: 8 GOD SAVED YOU BY HIS GRACE WHEN YOU BELIEVED. AND YOU CAN'T TAKE CREDIT FOR THIS; IT IS A GIFT FROM GOD. 9 SALVATION IS NOT A REWARD FOR THE GOOD THINGS WE HAVE DONE, SO NONE OF US CAN BOAST ABOUT IT. * I read this in the New Living Translation since this is the memory verse for our Upper Elementary class. o I love these verses. The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows that we'd boast about how good we are and how much good we do if we controlled our eternal destinies. o I sincerely used to hate interviewing for a job. Why? Because you have to sit there and boast about all of your accomplishments. * At one point, I managed four departments and more than fifty employees. * Obviously, the overall success, and the individual successes weren't done alone, but when I interviewed for that next position, I had to show how that I drove that success. * That was difficult for me. * Now imagine if we all needed to do that to gain access to heaven? * God said "Nope! I'm going to remove that from you, and for those who acknowledge My Son as Lord, surrendering to Him, that's the one who will be with Me for eternity." o That's what it means to have Jesus as your Lord. o So, to close our time, let's talk more about some ... IMPLICATIONS FOR US ... what do we do from here? First, • Follow Jesus. o Notice what the writer call Jesus in the middle of verse 20. What does he call Him? Right! The "GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP." o What does the Shepherd do? * He protects the flock, he guides the flock, he feeds the flock, he guards the flock at night, and he counts the flock. o We - as the sheep - must follow our Great Shepherd. o On the other side of this, if you are not a Christian - if you are not a follower of Jesus - then as we said earlier, you must confess and repent from your sins. Then you can ... • Surrender to the Lord, so He can work in you. o I really love this passage. It's a message for both the Christian and the non-Christian. o We both need to follow the Lord. o We both need to surrender to the Lord. o And this whole section reminds us that it is God's work in us that enables us to do good. Enables us to worship Him. o We cannot do it on our own. o One of my favorite verses is Genesis 2:18, where God said, "IT IS NOT GOOD THAT THE MAN BE ALONE." o I love this because it reminds us of much of what we've seen in this book - the need for community, the need to not only serve one another, but to be served. o But this also reminds us that God has designed us to for community. o I can tell you right now, I couldn't imagine being in a position of being a single parent. Natalie and I need each other. Each of us has a role, and each of us have to fulfill that role. o Think about how things go when all things are working as they should. Things seem to go smoother, and better overall. o When we fully surrender to the Lord, it means that we're open and available for the Lord to work through us. o Finally, we must ... • Give God the glory. o In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra. While they ministered there, they healed a crippled man. And the people of Lystra saw what was done and began to worship the gods, and even associated Paul and Barnabas as gods. They were quickly rebuked because Paul and Barnabas were going about the work of the Father. You see, the people were robbing God of His glory. o We do that when we do not acknowledge the hand of God at work in our lives or the lives of others. o We can easily fall into that trap as well. When we use the skills and abilities that we have to accomplish something, we can become proud. That is especially true when we take our eyes off of Jesus. * When we're busy and our calendars are full, many times, God is among the first to be moved from the calendar. * When things are going well, we tend to forget to stop and give God the glory. * Maybe we're having a rough stretch, and instead of looking to Jesus, we get upset with Him. o It's easy to fall into that trap, and that is why the author prays this prayer for these Christians. We've learned a simple truth this morning: the God of Peace works in us for His glory. Isn't that neat? That God uses us to do His will? Maybe more than that, He doesn't leave us up to our own devices, it is He who works in us. This requires surrender. It requires dependence. It requires letting go and letting the Lord work in you and through you. Are you ready to let the Lord work? Let's pray. 2