THE GOOD SHEPHERD GUIDES YOU ON THE PATH TO PEACE
Hebrews 13:20-21
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – May 7, 2017 (Confirmation Sunday)
Abigail Bruce recently turned 10-years-old, and for her birthday she wanted a goat. A real goat. And even though Dad didn’t think it was a great idea and wasn’t excited about having another mouth to feed (especially one that was likely to eat their clothes), she got one. His name was Speedy. And one evening at about 1:00 in the morning, after the goat had been with them only two days, Abigail woke up because Speedy was bouncing up and down on top of her and screaming. As Abigail woke up and saw the goat, she also noticed that her room was filled with smoke. So Abigail ran down the hallway to her father’s room, woke him up, and told him it was smoky and that she could hardly breath. The smoke was coming from their garage, which was on fire. The fire quickly spread to the house and burned it almost entirely down. But not before Abigail, her dad, and Speedy safely got out. And, of course, the only reason they got out safely was because Abigail got a goat for her birthday. Dad says they can keep the goat.
Don’t you wish getting to safety was always that easy? Don’t you wish you could just buy a goat and give it to your children and know that, as they grow up – go to school, get a job, learn to drive in Milwaukee, and start dating - it would never fail to get them to the safe place they need to be? Don’t you wish, for those times that your life feels more like a nightmare than a happy dream, you had a goat that would start jumping up and down on you in order to wake you up and take you to a place where you don’t need to be afraid of anything? Don’t you wish, for those times a relationship is going up in flames, or when you feel like you’re choking on bad news, uncertainty, worry, or pain, that you had a goat that would basically give you the ability to breathe again? Abigail and her dad are sure glad they had a goat.
But today we’re reminded that you don’t. Even if you worry about your kids. Even if you feel like a nightmare is what you’re currently living. Even if your heart, your joy, or your hope feels like it’s constantly choking. Even if the future is entirely uncertain. Today the writer to the Hebrews reminds us that we don’t need a goat named Speedy watching over you and me, as long as we have a Good Shepherd who is guiding his fragile sheep.
Our sermon text is only two verses from near the end of the book of Hebrews. It is a closing prayer the writer of this book offers for his precious sheep, and a reminder that no matter what type of pasture you walk in, whether it’s dark and dungy or bright and sunny, you really are never alone, and you never really have to be afraid of what’s going to happen.
20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
You know what they say about weddings, right? You should have something old, something new, something borrowed, and something … hooved. Right? That’s what they say? They might now. One of the latest trends in weddings is to invite a llama to your wedding. Apparently they’re a lot of fun. And not very expensive. $200 for one llama for one night, which, in the big picture of wedding costs, isn’t really all that much. Nowadays, if you want to have a memorable wedding, you need to rent a llama.
But if you want to find peace in your life, you don’t need to do anything. Did you catch that in what we read? God is called “the God of peace.” Literally, he’s called “the God of the peace.” In other words, there is only one place, one person, who even can provide you with true, lasting, never-failing peace. And that is God. And in these verses, there is absolutely nothing God says you must do in order to attain it from him. Rather, these verses remind us that God is the one who promises to equip you with everything you need in order to live and work and serve with peace. Just like he did for David. When David announced to Saul that he was going to confront Goliath, Saul wanted to equip him with heavy armor and a shield that would protect him. But that’s not what David stepped in front of Goliath with. David stepped in front of Goliath with a sling, a stone, and with a lot of confidence. God knew everything David needed, and he did not fail to equip David with those things.
And that’s important because, over the course of your life, you also are going to face giants that are going to threaten your feelings of peace. The giant of regret for past decisions. The giant of fear as you lose your job or step into retirement. The giant of worry as your kids get older and your schedule gets more crazy and more time-consuming. But just like David stood in front of Goliath knowing that his God would equip him with everything he needed to slay him, you have the right to step in front of your giant believing the same thing. God will equip you with everything you need.
And if you would like some help in figuring out how he would equip you, then open up the Word, read through all the psalms David wrote, and take note of how often he answered two questions. Firstly, he regularly answers the question: Who is my God? I don’t know how many times the psalms refer to our God as “the Maker of heaven and earth;” the God who can do anything; the God who can make a planet and starts and a universe where previously there was nothing, and so also the God who can create make peace even when his people can’t see how it could happen. David also uses many adjectives to describe who his God is. He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He is forgiving. That’s what kind of God my God is.
And question number 2 – “What has he done?” I would like you to answer that question. In your mind, go to any place you wish in the bible, where we are told so many things that God has done. Pick one thing God has done and share it with someone you’re sitting next to. I bet I can tell you something that all of your answers have in common. Nobody mentioned a time when God failed to do what he said. Our God does keep his word, which not only means you can walk through life, no matter who you are or where you’re going, knowing he will equip you with everything good for doing his will, but it also means that you can walk through life knowing that he will equip you, just as you are. Youdon’t have to be anyone other than who you are right now in order for this to happen.In order to find peace in life, you get to be yourself. You don’t have to try to be or work hard to become anyone else. God will do all the work in giving it to you.
There are really only three reasons you might ever fail to find peace. Firstly, look at these three phrases: “God’s will” – “pleasing to him” (to God) – and “to the glory of Jesus.” The writer to the Hebrews is pointing out that you will not find peace if you go through life making decisions based on answering “What’s in it for me? How can I get the most attention? The most likes? The most pleasure? The most personal glory? Our goal in life is to gain glory – just not for ourselves. Look again at David. When he came into camp and asked the soldiers what was going on, they pointed to Goliath and said, “he is defying the army of Israel.” David looked at them and said, “No, he is defying the army of the living God.” There’s a reason David had peace going against this giant and the other soldiers didn’t. David made a decision based on what best serves God. David wanted to honor God more than anything.
A second way you can lose peace is if you walk away from it. And you might wonder why someone might ever walk away from peace. But I’ll tell you. You might know that David was a shepherd, and that he wrote Psalm 23, in which he says, “he makes me lie down in green pastures.” You might be tempted to walk away from peace if the green pastures you’re picturing in your mind are different than the ones David was seeing. When most people think of green pastures, they picture rolling hills of lush green. But that’s not what David was thinking when he wrote this psalm. His green pastures looked more like a desert. The rolling hills on which he led his sheep were brown and dry and ugly. That’s not to say there wasn’t anything green. There just wasn’t a lot of it.
But there was some. You just needed to know where to look. It didn’t rain very often in that area. And most of the rain would evaporate pretty quickly. But a small amount of moisture would remain around the base of the rocks where there was some shade. And if you looked at the base of the rocks, you would find a few blades of grass growing. Not enough to fill the stomach of a sheep for a whole week, but just enough to feed them that day. And in order to be filled tomorrow, the sheep would need to keep moving, and moving in a particular direction – behind the shepherd, who knew where to find the green vegetation.
It wouldn’t be unusual for a sheep to become bored with this routine, wishing they could rest a bit more often, or wanting to see exactly how they were going to be fed and how their needs were going to be met in the future, and then leaving the path on which the shepherd led them to go looking for greener pastures in some other direction – greener pastures that only existed in their mind. And since a sheep isn’t smart enough to look under a rock for their satisfaction, their journey away from the shepherd would always make them more vulnerable and weaker when they were attacked by the mountain lion.
Psalm 23 is an encouragement to follow the voice of your Shepherd, and to hear it every day. But here’s the truth: You alsocan walk away from him. You can neglect God’s Word. You can stop making the time to listen to his voice. You can go searching for greener pastures that promise more wealth and more pleasure. You can come to church just every once in a while. You can. Just know that if you do, it will be so much harder to find peace, and you won’t put up much of a fight when you’re attacked by Satan, because you will have walked away from the God who who promises to give you everything you need today as you follow him, and then tomorrow, and then the next day. But one day at a time. He wants us to be patient as we go through life, sometimes not having what we’ll need for tomorrow, but trusting that we will, no matter how difficult our tomorrows might look. And sometimes they do. Sometimes our todays look pretty difficult as well.
You may know that last Saturday, there was major flooding in the southern part of our country. There was one incident that you may have seen on the news. A car had flipped over with a little baby inside of it. The car was becoming filled with water, and the water was moving so fast along the side of the car that it was impossible to open the doors and get inside. One person got out of their car to help, and then another, and then another, and then another. They started pushing on the car, rocking it back and forth, trying to get inside until, finally, a man emerged from the water holding the little baby in his arms, who was not breathing. The man struggled to walk through the rushing water, before handing him off to an emergency worker who performed CPR, while a woman started praying out loud that God would give breath to that little kid. And he did. The baby lived.
When was the last time you felt like the little baby trapped in that car? Drowning, maybe not on water, but on regret, or worry, or doubt, or some life situation that you did not see coming?Think about all the things that needed to happen in order to save that little kid.First, someone had to notice, then they had to do something about it, then they needed help to come, then they needed to struggle through the water, then the child needed CPR, then someone needed to pray and put the life of the child into the hands of our heavenly Father. If any one of those things had not happened, I think this would have turned out far different. But they all did. Everything that was needed to save that child happened.
And the writer to the Hebrews points out the same thing about you. Everything that needed to happen in order to save you from a life in which we pretty regularly feel like we’re drowning did happen. Someone needed to shed their blood. And he did, but only after he noticed us struggling to keep our heads above water, struggling to follow him, and struggling to love God and one another. And only after he decided to do something about it. He put on human skin and jumped into the world that is overwhelmingly flooded with danger, because that was the only way to put our lives into the hands of a God who is compassionate, gracious, abounding in love, and slow to anger. But unlike the little baby, Jesus did die. He really was dead; because he really did want to forgive you for ever doubting the strength of his love.
Do you remember I said there are three ways you can fail to find peace? The first was if you make decisions based on what best serves you. The second is if you walk away from the shepherd. And the third way that you could possibly fail to find peace is if the shepherd would choose to walk away from you.But look at him. Look what he did. He never will. We see his cross. We see his pain, and we see all the reasons the writer to the Hebrews called our Good Shepherd of the sheep “great.” He’s great because he will never walk away from you, and you will always be on the path to peace as you follow him.
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