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    Jan 19, 2025

    Benediction at the Beginning, Part II

    Benediction at the Beginning, Part II

    Passage: Hebrews 13:20-21

    Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

    Series: Worthy: His Worth, and a Life Worthy of Him

    Keywords: peace, shepherd, glory, covenant, worthy, pleasing

    Can one verse capture what it means to embody the worth of the life of Jesus? We think so and we turn to Hebrews 13:21 to find that simple, profound way of responding, not transactionally, but adoringly to the worth of His Life.

    CENTRAL TEXT:  Hebrews 13:20-21

    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.

     

    PREPARATION:   Psalm 37:3-6

    LEADER:  Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

    ALL:  Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

    LEADER:  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.

    ALL:  He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

     

    PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH:   John 15:12-17

    LEADER:   This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

    The Word of the LORD

    ALL:   Thanks be to God

     

    CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

    CONFESSION OF SIN:  

    LEADER:  We have sought to make a name for ourselves since Eden. We have been building towers to our own glory since Babel. We have tried to find ourselves worthy in what is vanity since Solomon. But you have shown us what is good and what you require. And you have given us Yourself to show us a worthy life, and the power to know it. Forgive us the sin of reaching for some substitute to Your pleasure. Above all, help us to see Your worth that we then long to live worthily of the gift of your grace.

    ALL: Thanks be to God.

    ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Hebrews 10:12-14

    LEADER: But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,  waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

    ALL: Thanks be to God.

     

    RELATED SCRIPTURES:

    • Isaiah 63:11
    • Matthew 10:37, 38
    • Mark 1:7
    • Luke 15:19-21
    • Acts 5:41
    • Romans 15:33, 16:20
    • 2 Corinthians 5:1-6
    • Ephesians 4:1 / Philippians 1:27
    • Philippians 2:12-14
    • 2 Thessalonians 1:11

     

    DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

    1. Who in your life did you most fear disobeying? Who in your life were you most willing to obey? (Maybe it was the same person!) Is there a difference between gladness in obedience and fearfulness of disobeying? Make your case.
    2. We used the word “embody” Sunday. Before we get to Jesus, name someone many of you would know who embodies some quality. Have fun. Name as many as you can. Now transition: what first comes to mind when we start the sentence, “Jesus embodies ______”? Why that?
    3. Name several ways God equips–matures and completes–people to do his will–both ways they “sign up for” and ways they would “never sign up for”? How does that process work?
    4. What does it mean to please the Lord? How does that idea first strike you? As an impossibility or as an inspiration?
    5. How does He work in us to do what is pleasing in His sight? Why is that a comfort and a compelling idea?

     

    ILLUSTRATIONS:  

     

     

     

    QUOTES:  

    • As a great Christian writer (George MacDonald) pointed out, every father is pleased at the baby’s first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same way, he said, ‘God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.’
      - C.S. Lewis,       Mere Christianity 

     

    • That man is perfect in faith  who can come to God in the utter [lack] of  his feelings  and  desires,  without a  glow or an  aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, "Thou art my refuge."
      - George MacDonald

    • Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, 
      That to be low is to be high, 
      That the broken heart is the healed heart, 
      That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, 
      That the repenting soul is the victorious soul.
      - The Valley of Vision

     

    • I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, Praised for you or criticized for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service. And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,  you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, Let it also be made in heaven. Amen.
      - John Wesley

    • May the Son of God 
      who is formed in you 
      grow strong 
      and immense in you 
      and become for you 
      great gladness 
      and exultation 
      and perfect joy
      isaac of stella

     

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