The God of Peace Makes You Complete, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. This message, titled The God of Peace Makes You Complete, is the final sermon in this series on the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 13, 18 through 25, the author asks God's people to pray for faithfulness and fellowship in his own life and ministry. He also offers up a prayer on their behalf for peace and God's power in their lives. In a time when peace is so deeply sought and so rarely found, Pastor Rich reminds us where we can find inner peace and strength.

Let's listen in. The title of today's message is The God of Peace Makes You Complete. As we bring this study to a conclusion, it is actually a benediction, which will be the focus of our study today. The writer invites his readers to pray and then he prays for them, offering them the benediction, which we find specifically in verses 20 and 21. And then after that, verses 22 to 25, it's like he's going out the door, he's getting up, getting ready to leave, and he's going out the door.

And he says, by the way, here's these things that I want you to be aware of. He says, I appeal to you, brethren, bear with a word of exhortation, for I have written to you in a few words. How many of you think that Hebrews is a few words?

Must have been short for this guy. All right, a little under 10,000 words. It is shorter than Romans and 1 Corinthians, but it's pretty long. But with the information and the topics, the subjects that he covered, the depths, the profundity of redemption. Of the Son of God giving his life for us and becoming our high priest, the new covenant and all of that. He could have written a lot more.

I think that's what he is saying. Verse 23, know that our brother Timothy has been set free. Some people believe that that's one reason why they believe that Paul did not write this, because had Paul said that, he would have said, he would have said, my son, Timothy, the way he always refers to him, our brother Timothy. But Timothy has been set free nonetheless. Timothy obviously followed in Paul's example, because Paul had a tremendous jail ministry in jail. And Timothy seemed to be following in his steps here, but he is going to be set free. He says, with whom I shall see you, if he comes shortly, greet all those who rule over you. The reason why he would say that is because this letter would be read publicly to the congregation. And so it is his instruction to the congregation to greet those who are leading them in the Lord and all the saints.

Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen. And then from there, he walks out the door. So it's kind of like he's been sitting in your living room and he says, let me show you all the profound depths of the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

And why Jesus Christ needs to be your object of faith and you need to entrust yourself to him fully. And then he gets up and he says these few things and he says, OK, I'm done. And he walks out the door. He ends his discourse with a benediction. He ends by asking them to pray, verses 18 and 19. What is prayer? He says, you pray.

I'm asking you to pray. What is prayer? Prayer is invoking God. Prayer is appealing to an infinite, omnipotent hand to move. To move what? To move me.

To accomplish his purpose and his will. And as you've seen in the announcements in the back of the bulletin, the verbal announcements, March is going to be a month of focused prayer for us at Grace Bible Church. Where are we going to pray? We're asking you to pray. We are going to be praying as a church.

When we come together, the classes get together. Pray. Wednesday night, we come together. Pray. And we're asking you, if you might not be a regular attender on Wednesday night, we're asking you, please set some time aside. Come pray with us.

Why? Because we're not just talking about maintenance prayer here. We are wanting frontline prayer. We want God to move among us in a way that only he can do. We're asking him to do things that we cannot do. We are like Jehoshaphat leading the people of Judah. When he says we are powerless and we don't know what to do, as we humble ourselves before God, we want God to be moving among us and leading us in the direction that he wants so that we indeed become salt and light in this community. But it has to be a God thing.

It's not about us and how smoothly we run our systems and our programs and all of this. We want God to do a work among us and we need to humble ourselves before him in order for him to do that. So we're asking you to participate. Make the sacrifice. Set the time aside.

Come pray with us. I'm asking you maybe to consider fasting at work. Choose a day a week.

You know what? I'm going to set my lunch aside. In fact, I'm not going to take a lunch to work. I'm going to spend that time being God. I'm going to pray. I'm going to invoke the arm of omnipotence. God, do a work in me. Humble me.

What would you have me to do? How do you want me to participate in the mission of connecting and growing and serving at Grace Bible Church? Pray for the leadership of Grace Bible Church. The huge task of communicating.

The Word of God. There's huge accountability in that. It is a massive weight on the shoulders. And as pastors we, like the writer of Hebrews says, we watch for your souls and we have to give an account for that. You pray for us. We pray for you. Will you pray with us?

I'm asking you to. Get your family together. Pray. Pray for the church. Pray for our missionaries. Pray that God will do a work so that it becomes unmistakable that this is God at work. It's not our systems.

It's not our programs. It's God doing this. We are but instruments in the hands of the master. Let's pray for Grace Bible Church. Let's pray for God's ministry. Let's pray for the church. Pray for our missionaries. Let's pray for God to do a work among us.

And so that's what the writer of Hebrews says. Pray for us. For we are confident that we have a good conscience in all things, desiring to live honestly.

He gives two prayer requests here. I invite you to pray, number one, that we live faithfully. That we live faithfully.

And he has a good conscience. He wants to make sure that he is living faithfully, as it says in Hebrews 9.14, that he has rescued us from dead works to serve the living God. From dead works to serve the living God.

What are dead works? Meaningless, useless time wasters. Things that do not matter for eternity. To move from wasting time in meaningless endeavors to purpose in pointing to God.

Because that's why we're here. Purpose in pointing to God. That we will indeed, in everything we do, we will be salt and light, not wasting our lives on comfort and pleasure. Our pursuits and our endeavors.

What are they? That they be things that point to God. Even the regular routines of my day. Pray that I live faithfully so that in the regular routines of my day, I'm not just going through the motions.

I'm not just earning a paycheck. I am salt and light. I am pointing to Jesus Christ. And pointing to God just simply means this. Look how great he is.

Look how awesome he is. Can my life say that? After people interact with me, will they walk away from me thinking about God? That's what we pray for. Pray that we will live faithfully. Secondly, pray that we will live in fellowship. Pray that we will live in fellowship.

Verse 19, but I especially urge you to do this, that this is pray, that I may be restored to you the sooner. God's people desire and enjoy being in each other's company. Because of the common bond that we have. Because of the fellowship that we have. The things that God has taught me and is doing in me, I share them with you and you share them with me. And we grow and we are built up. And when he says that I may be restored to you, it's like he's saying, I don't like being away from you.

You know, I got this sense when I was in India. It was just two weeks ago that I was there. And the church, God has blessed Jacob Gadalla with a sweet group of people, 35, 40 people there, including all the children. But these people really rose up to the occasion to help him coordinate a pastor's conference in the morning and gospel evenings at night. Simultaneously going on during the same day. And the church rose to the occasion and they were great support, working out a lot of the details.

And Jacob kept himself busy, keeping other people busy, but they really rose to the occasion. And when it was all over, late Wednesday night, we didn't eat dinner until about 10.30 on Wednesday night. And we were meeting under the tent, which was kind of a dining hall for them. We were eating out there at 10.30 and then we sang songs together and then we prayed together and several prayed. And families would come up to me and they would introduce their families to me, would you pray for my kids? I'd put my hands on their heads and I would pray for them.

I will never forget that night. What an incredibly sweet time of fellowship it was with the bond that God's people have with each other. And they enjoy being each other's company because you know what? The gospel of grace is doing an incredible work of transforming the Indian culture.

And to see the gospel of grace at work in that culture, transforming people's lives, in a culture, in a language where there's not even a word for hello, there's no word for goodbye, there's no word for thank you in the Telugu language. But these people obviously loved being in each other's company. They had a common bond in Jesus Christ and the fellowship was sweet because they had done something together and invested themselves in the work of God's kingdom. And they were so blessed by that. And they were mutually blessed by that.

And what a sweet thing that is. And this is what the writer is saying, pray that I will be restored to you because I hate being away from you. I love being together with God's people.

These were his requests. Pray that we live faithfully, pray that we live in fellowship. And then he comes to the benediction for his readers, verses 20 and 21. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you complete in every good work to do his will working in you, what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, 7 Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. 7 Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m. .