Equipped to do His will

The book of Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 20 Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus That great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant Make you perfect in every good work to do his will Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight Through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever Amen Now I just like to read those two verses again now the God of peace That brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep Through the blood of the everlasting covenant Make you perfect or complete in every good work to do his will Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom be glory forever and ever to him to whom be glory forever and ever amen Now I'd like to continue what I started yesterday about pleasing God only Looking at it from a different angle today in verse 21 we read about His will And that which is well pleasing in his sight lots of difficulties challenges to Doing his will Pleasing God we were talking about this yesterday But notice this starts out and this is really a prayer from the writer from the author He's asking That this would happen in the lives of his readers. And of course we come into that today applies to us It starts out with the God of peace God is characterized by peace And he wants you and I not only to have peace with God That comes with salvation But he wants us to experience peace with God And a lot of challenges to that aren't there I mean circumstances It seems often our own inability to measure up to the will of God It can cause anything but peace But notice it says now the God of peace That brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus We have a living savior The one who died for us. Thank God, but is the one who is alive brother sister.

We have somebody for us With us in us the living Christ and that can make all the difference In accomplishing God's will and pleasing our God and then it says That not only did God bring again from the dead our Lord Jesus, but he says about him that great shepherd of the sheep Now i'm more or less a city boy unlike some here I don't know what it is to raise sheep But I think I know this that if a sheep Has a good shepherd That sheep has everything it needs. Do you have a shepherd? One you love so well as we sometimes sing Isn't it so easy to forget about the fact that he wants to be our shepherd He wants to take care of us and yet If you're like me so often I try to handle things on my own. I try to serve God on my own And then I wonder why it doesn't work out too well David the king Could say the lord Is my shepherd I Shall not want I shall not lack But I must go on here and then it finishes verse 20.

It says through the blood of the everlasting covenant in spite of our failures In spite of the thorns that we might have as we've been hearing that paul had That brought him consternation we have an eternal relationship with the living god that's been blood-bought Through the blood of the everlasting covenant, so this is the kind of god we have God characterized by peace We have a living savior. He brought again from the dead our lord. Jesus He's a great shepherd We have an eternal relationship now This is what this god wants to wants to do for you and for me if we will let him He says in verse 21 Make you perfect make you complete In every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight Well, what's that mean? The god of peace make you perfect or Make you complete It's interesting how the spirit of god uses this word in the new testament The greek word is found somewhere around 13 times And i'd like to look with you now just a few times Uh where this word is used and it helps us to get a little sense of what's involved in God making us complete.

This is what he wants to do Now, you don't need to turn to it unless you want to but first of all In matthew chapter 4 and verse 21, we read about james and john They were in their fishing boat and they were mending their nets And the lord jesus called them But the this is the same word that's translated Make you complete in hebrews 13, but it's translated mending there in matthew chapter 4 mending these men were Mending their nets that I take it were broken Maybe had holes in them Brother sister, this is what the lord wants to do with you and me Do we have areas in our lives that? have tears Aren't we a little broken in different ways Sure we are sin does that there's Holes in our character And it needs to be mended needs to be repaired We can be so thankful that the lord wants to do for us in our innermost being What nobody else could do what nothing in this world can do? Well, this world offers help here and there but it's all external but this is from the inside And this is from god himself our creator and sustainer I don't know exactly how these men these fishermen mended their nets, but I would take it that They were sitting down in that boat and the nets were on their laps And uh, they were mending them well unlike us these nets Didn't have a will of their own. So They were on the fisherman's lap, but it makes me think we need to bring ourselves to the lord To let him mend us instead of just going our own way trying to do it our way It doesn't work I remember when I was first saved I'd never read the bible before and christianity was all new to me, but When I realized what the lord was doing I wanted to serve him and so in my Exuberance and not too much wisdom. I tried to serve the lord and Couldn't understand why it was falling flat on my face all the time And unfortunately, I probably still do that too much We need to draw near to him to let him mend us brother sister We need to be repaired We need to be mended and he wants to he wants to change our character those things that bother us and Maybe bother other people too He can fix Little by little I know we'll never be perfect here below one day.

We will be perfect, but the god of peace Wants to make us complete in this sense. He wants to mend us secondly in galatians chapter 6 and verse 1 We read the words that if a man is overtaken in a fault Restore such a one in the spirit of meekness and so on but here the words translated restore And uh that word man and the king james at least isn't just males it means a person male or female but They've been caught off guard. They've been tripped up some fault some sin and They're away from god possibly away from Their fellow believers they need to be restored to fellowship with god and with the lord's people I remember I first came into fellowship in windsor ontario canada and there was a older brother that often used to pray Lord restores in the measure We need to be restored I'm, so glad god is a god of restoration again, psalm 23 david could say He restores my soul God can do that in different ways restoring us As we're reading his word at a conference like this maybe another believer gary's just been saying about maybe another believer coming along writing a letter or Coming along and just giving some help And god can use circumstances as well Now my understanding is this word also has the thought of Adjusting what's out of place and where i'm going is this just imagine if you have a bone that's dislocated Uh, whether it's your shoulder elbow.

I mean, it's pretty hard to use that limb You can't because it's painful and isn't that what happens when We get out of whack as far as god is concerned. We get away from him There isn't that communion And we god can't use us And it's painful Just read psalm 32 psalm 51 about david's experience after besheba He went through agony In his soul, what happens if you got a dislocated joint or bone? Needs to be put in place Needs to be adjusted That's the word that's what god wants to do he wants to restore us he wants to adjust what's out of place in our lives Do you have areas like that? Our thought lives our thinking Attitudes How good we can read the word of god and see how god wants us to view things view others Behavior that's needs to be adjusted It's sure it is for all of us, but this is what he wants to do the god of peace and The author really the holy spirit isn't saying this if it wouldn't be if it's not possible the god of peace Make you complete Adjust you restore you. This is what he wants to do thirdly in hebrews chapter 10 Said of the lord jesus When he comes into the world, he says sacrifice an offering you would not but a body You prepared me and here the word is translated that same word.

That's translated complete in hebrews 13 It's translated prepared And the thought seems to be there the lord jesus was When he came in this world, he was equipped with something. He never had before a human body his incarnation He was given what he didn't have So he could do the will of god. That's what he goes on to say there.

I come to do thy will oh god as i've already said We often have the difficulty of trying to do the will of god on our own God wants to equip us give us what we don't have innately So we can do as well Our brother was just reading in second corinthians chapter 12 God says to paul My strength my power is shown most effectively in weakness God's strength Has made perfect in weakness Brothers these areas that we lack When we realize our lack and we look to the lord for help then he can come in and equip us In a way that we can't equip ourselves. Nobody else can but he can do this So that we can bring glory to the lord a body has thou prepared me the lord wants to equip us With what we don't have I guess a parallel would be i'm no hunter By any means I like the outdoors, but i'm not a hunter But if you're going to go on a safari whether it's to photograph or hunt um I think you would need to go to a nut fitter to get what you don't need Another to do what needs to be done well Maybe a poor analogy of God wants to Help you brother sister In your sphere service and god's will for your life. He wants to equip you With what you don't have yourself.

He wants to equip you so that you can do his will for your life Now sometimes we want to do god's will for somebody else. We see somebody doing something. Well, i'm going to do that Well, that may not be god's will for you particularly the god of peace equip you Make you complete but just one more the fourth In the next chapter in hebrews chapter 11 We read this yesterday Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of god So that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Now this is speaking about god creating the universe and To me what I see here.

He put it in order. He arranged everything This tremendous earth this planet Even under the curse such tremendous beauty such variety Even in the human species To say nothing of the stellar heavens God arranges it. He put it in order And I what I enjoy about this is god wants to put our lives in order now I can relate to this because when I was first saved my life was total chaos disorder Before I was saved.

I because I never read the bible. I thought things were wrong that are really right. I found out and things that are right, I thought were wrong my life was total disorder Disorder and it's not perfect yet.

I know But i'm glad we have a god a god of peace Who wants me to enjoy his peace he wants you to enjoy his peace He wants to arrange our lives If we let him sometimes we don't like his arrangement We think we know better sometimes we have to learn the hard way That his way is the best way So let me close by just saying um god's purpose In making us complete in mending us restoring us equipping us Putting our lives in order. Look what it says there at the end of hebrews 13 The god of peace make you perfect notice in every good work to do his will God wants to make us complete in every good work. Not just on a sunday morning, but in our personal lives our family lives assembly life School or work life to do his will May the lord give us brother sister a deep desire May it be a priority in our lives to do god's will the god Who created us? The god who sustains this universe He knows what he's doing and he knows what's best for you And sometimes we experience things in life and we wonder which way is up and we can't understand why is this happening But if we continue to trust him, we'll look back and see why he allowed that Can we trust him even when the way is dark? The god of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight It's him working in us I think that's tremendous.

It reminds me of philippians 2 where it says it's god who is working in you both the will Both the want to and to do of his good pleasure. So god not only Helps us to do what he wants but gives us a desire to do it You know, sometimes we might not have a desire to do god's will at first but if we Are looking to him walking with him Little by little he will give us a desire. He will not ask us to do something and that we don't want to do like Suppose i'm wondering does god want me to be a missionary in the amazon Well, i'm glad god hasn't asked me to do that because I don't like snakes for one thing but if it was his will I think he would give me a desire to want to go there the god of peace Make you complete Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight And then he ends up by saying it's through jesus christ It's all about him Him living his life out in us Can't do it ourselves.

You can't do it. I can't do it. Paul couldn't do it God's ways are so good.

They are just what we need salvation. Just what we need Our savior just the kind of person we need And the way god does things i'm so glad It's so different from all the religions of the world. I was involved in eastern religions before I became a christian christianity was the last thing on my radar and some of those religions, it's just like Trying to get your head To god it's trying to get yourself up there yourself so frustrating God's ways are so much better so he says through jesus christ To whom be glory forever and ever This is the ultimate purpose of god making us complete to do his will To do what's pleasing in his sight, but it's spring honor and glory to the lord jesus christ