Jump Start # 3669
Hebrews 13:20-21 “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
And, to those verses, we say, “AMEN.” What I really want to pull from these passages is the idea and concept that God equips us in ever good thing to do His will. And, not just that, but that God is working in us, with us and through us. Similar to the Ephesian 4 section which also tells us that God provided teachers to equip us for the work of service.
Some thoughts for us:
First, God provides what we need. God understands the work. God knows how it must be accomplished and it is God, through His divine word, that gets us to the place to do that work. This is important to understand. I was talking to a young college girl who was attending Harding University. I asked her about what classes she was taking. The history of women ministries; organizing ministry models for today; ministering through changing cultures—and classes like that. And, that reflects the spirit and tone of many today. Business practices, models and emerging paradigms, the stuff of so many books, introduced into the church omits one key factor, God is doing the equipping. Run through the list of business books on Amazon, and the list is exhausting. Church growth. Church leadership. Church functions. Before long, the line between the business world and God’s kingdom becomes very fuzzy and things begin to be introduced that work well in the office space but not in the congregation.
Do we believe that God has provided what we need? Do we feel that the Scriptures equip us? Is the Bible sufficient to carry out and complete the work that God has intended? Has God’s equipping grown old? Have we outgrown the need for the Bible?
The church is a flock of God’s people. It’s not a corporation. God’s leaders answer to God, not a board of executives.
Second, we must not give up on God’s plan. It works. It worked then and it will work now. Preachers need to be quoting Scripture more than they are quoting the thoughts of others. I’ve sat through sermons and heard this guy quoted and that guy quoted and this book referred to and that book referred to, and I wondered if I was sitting in a college psychology class or in the house of God that was supposed to be praising the Lord. It’s God’s word that builds faith. It’s God’s word that will change lives. It’s God’s word that will equip us to do His work.
Third, we start to get wiggly when we leave God’s way of doing things for what we think is a better way. The history of the church in America is littered with the ideas and attempts to bring changes that were not part of God’s equipping. Ideas that looked great on paper, led to departures, division and trouble because they were not based upon God’s word.
God doesn’t just point to a shovel and tell us to dig a hole. Our passages remind us that God is working in us. It’s not all Him. Nor, is it all us. But a partnership, a fellowship. Together, the divine and the human. The perfect and the imperfect. His power and His plan with our energy and our efforts, together, accomplishing His will. God won’t do it alone, nor can we try it on our own. But, in this divine partnership, incredible, amazing and wonderful things can happen. Doors that we cannot open, God can. Connections that we do not understand, God does.
When we get this and understand this, we first will thank the Lord. Thank the Lord for having such trust to include us and work with us. Then, we will see amazing things taking place. Lives change. Congregations grow. The word touches hearts and nothing is impossible.
Working in us…equipping us. God’s not done with us yet. He’s got plans and those plans include doing us working with Him.
Roger