Enjoy Great Moments, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. By the way, don't take my word for it, take Solomon's in the book of Ecclesiastes. He'd be the king of the hedonists.

He tried everything. He said, when I got done trying at all, I came to this conclusion, vanity, vanity, it's all vanity. It will not produce joy.

That's one of the great disillusioning things about a hedonistic lifestyle. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. We welcome Pastor Bill Gebhardt now, as once again, he shows us how God's word meets our world. The birth of your child. Share joy. The birth of a child.

You notice how you connect? The wedding. Share joy. You see, graduation. It's a moment where you share joy. The holidays. Share joy.

Events. Share joy. I can still remember as a very young man watching Neil Armstrong step down the surface of the moon. One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.

And boy, you know what I felt? The same thing you did if you were fortunate enough to be alive then. Joy. I wasn't alive then, but I've seen the old news clips, the newsreels, VE Day and VJ Day. Victory in Europe. Victory in Japan.

And you see the people in the streets. What were they doing? They're celebrating. And you know what made it great? It was shared joy. It's shared joy. That's one of the great things about joy. Joy connects you with other people in such a positive way. And that's why, by the way, other people love to be connected to joyful people. One last thing that joy does.

It's very important. It's found in Proverbs Chapter 17. Joy renews us. Joy is good for you. Joy renews us. Proverbs Chapter 17 and verse 22. A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Wow. A joyful heart is good medicine. What does that imply?

It implies at least this. I need medicine. You see, I suffer from a terrible disease. It's called life.

You're probably a carrier yourself. You see, I need something. He says here that a joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. Boy, science has proven this. I mean, they talk over and over again that people who laugh often have stronger immune systems. You know, that's an amazing thing because of how positive it is for them.

That's not a surprise to God at all. A joyful heart is good medicine. And there's something else you might not have thought of, but you should hear. No side effects. No dizziness. No nausea. No irritability.

And yes, you can operate heavy equipment. You see, joy is good medicine. It's good for you. It's available to you. It's there for you. It not only reminds us of God's goodness, it sustains us in adversity.

It honors the source of joy. It connects us with other people and it's good for us. Why don't we have it? You see, why don't we have it? Why are so many of us discouraged, weighed down, glum, solemn? How do we miss out?

I think there may be more, but there are at least three reasons why we miss out. The first one is found in Luke 15. Luke 15 is a chapter of these great parables. Lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. The lost son parable is called the prodigal son. It's a very famous story. And I'm not going to go through the whole parable.

I just want to show you something that happens. Beginning in verse 20 of Luke 15. This is the prodigal who went away, took his father's inheritance that he'd given him, squandered it, and then eventually came back. And so verse 20 says, So he got up and he came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him. And he ran and he embraced him and he kissed him. The nature of the father. I remember when I preached this parable many years ago that something that I'd never known until I prepared for it was Jewish men never run in public. It was not dignified. But this father sees this wayward son, pulls up his garment and runs to him.

Embracing him and kissing him. Of course, the father represents God. And then we go on and he says, And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called a son.

Haven't we all gone there? But the father said to the slaves, Go quickly now and bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf, kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine who was dead has come to life again.

He was lost and he's been found. And they began to celebrate what God say. Let's have a party. Let's have a party.

And by the way, what happened when they found the lost coin or the lost sheep? They had a party. And what happens when every person who converts to Jesus Christ converts? And what happens in heaven? There's a party. You know why? It's full of joy.

And so there's this tremendous joy. Now, his older son, who was in the field when he came in and approached the house, he heard the music and the dancing, and he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, Your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound.

But he became angry and was not willing to go in. And his father came out and began imploring him. But he answered and he said to his father, Look, for so many years I've been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours. And yet you have never given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him. And the father said to his other son, Son, you have always been with me and all that is mine is yours.

Why don't we enjoy the great moments of life sometimes? What do we share in common with the older brother? A distorted view of God. He had a distorted view of his father. You see what he thought it was? He thought the relationship was based on duty. But it wasn't. It's based on love. He did not understand the unconditional love and the unmerited favor of grace.

He did not see it. And so he was miserable. Maybe that's how you see life. Maybe you're jealous when you see other people, other believers blessed.

Maybe that bothers you and you think somehow you're more worthwhile. Maybe you live under this distorted idea that you earn the love of God. Listen, nothing you could ever do from this day forward will ever make God love you more than he does right now. Nothing and nothing that you have ever done in your past will make God love you less. You see, don't have that view. He is a loving, forgiving, gracious, merciful God. And if you miss that in your life, you miss the joy.

Because of that distorted view. There is another thing that cost us the joy. Look at Second Timothy, Chapter three with me for a moment. Paul says, Realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self, narcissist, and they will be lovers of money, materialist. And then in verse four, he says they will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

They will be hedonist. You see, one of the reasons a lot of Christians aren't joyful is you have a warped view of pleasure. You actually believe that pleasure is something that inherently is wrong. And it's not. It's not at all. You see, hedonism is wrong. Hedonism is this idea that through either my sexual appetite or addictions or acquiring fame or money or power, that will make me important and give me meaning in life.

It will not. And by the way, don't take my word for it. Take Solomon's in the Book of Ecclesiastes. He'd be the king of the hedonist. He tried everything.

And he said, When I got done trying at all, I came to this conclusion. Vanity, vanity, it's all vanity. It will not produce joy. That's one of the great disillusioning things about a hedonistic lifestyle. And in fact, it's a sad thing when you see a hedonist, because what happens to a person who has a hedonistic lifestyle is if I really enjoyed five beers this Friday, I need 10 beers next Friday.

If I enjoyed this drug, I need another drug. It is the law of diminishing returns with hedonism. It's the same thing with addictions, the pornography, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Hedonism never produces the joy that you think that it promises. Hedonism is a very bad taskmaster, but it's a very good fringe benefit to the Christian life.

Listen to what C.S. Lewis says, The problem with Christians is not that we enjoy too much pleasure, but we enjoy too little. We've equated pleasure with sin, and that makes it hard to have fun or relax without feeling guilty about it. We even refer to many of our enjoyments as guilty pleasures.

We have reacted to the false association by throwing the baby out with the bathwater. God designed you to have pleasure. And he knows exactly the way you should have it, not as an end in itself, as a fringe benefit of your relationship with God.

God loves to see you have pleasure. You know, as I was thinking about the Old Testament, they have more holidays in the Old Testament than we do. They have more parties and more celebrations than we do. And the kind of things that they get all excited about, they have a big celebration or party if there's a birth. We understand that, right?

But how about this? They used to have a party, a celebration, when they had a weaning. A weaning.

The baby is now weaned. Let's have a party. Everybody came together. I'm sure they were thankful, wasn't it? They celebrate manhood. Bar mitzvah. They celebrate womanhood. Bat mitzvah. They celebrate it.

How about this? They have a party when they have sheep shearing. That's a celebration. We're going to shear the sheep. Let's have a party.

Let's enjoy this. You know why? Because it means God has provided.

You see how this works? The child is born, God has provided. The child is growing, God is providing. The sheep are here, God is providing. The harvest is here, God is providing.

That's pleasure. And God wants us to have that kind of pleasure. Don't have a warped view of pleasure. Have a biblical view of pleasure. There is a third reason, and maybe it's the most important when it comes to you, and it's found in the book of Acts, chapter 7. A distorted view of God, a warped view of pleasure, and then this one found in one little verse. Stephen is giving this tremendous sermon right before it cost him his life. And he speaks to these people, and he says something to them that certainly applies to us if you are a joyless Christian.

Verse 39 says, Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt. Unwilling to be obedient. The only thing stopping you from being joyful is your own unwillingness. Do you understand that? God is giving you the power, the capacity, the example, the words, the life to be a victorious Christian and enjoy the great moments of your life. And if you don't, it's very likely because you're just unwilling.

And you know why? Because you look back to Egypt. You measure your life the way the world measures their life. And you think by having a worldview of life, that was what Egypt represented, you see life for the way it is, but you don't. Let me show you sort of four kind of outgrowths of that unwilling spirit. You probably have an unwilling spirit if you have workaholic tendencies. You see, the mantra of the workaholic is I am the job.

That's blasphemy. You are so much more than a job. We may live in a culture that says you are the job, but we have a God that says you are my son. You are my daughter. You are a child of the king.

You are an eternal spiritual being. You are not the job. And the trouble is when I take this view of I am the job, then I think all of my self-worth is based on how much effort I give to the job, and I never get the joy. Another outgrowth might be you have perfectionistic tendencies. That is, you take the worldview that it's good to be a perfectionist. The only trouble when you're a perfectionist is nothing is right unless everything is right. The only trouble is nothing is ever right, and so you're never happy. You see, how can we demand a perfectionism of those around us that we know we don't have in our own hearts and in our own lives? And it steals the joy.

Workaholic tendencies, perfectionistic tendencies, a victimization persona. Boy, that's big in our world. Life is out to get me. Everybody's conspiring against me.

It doesn't matter. Everything about life has been bad from my parents on, siblings, parents, friends, employers. Everybody's out to get me. Oh, poor me.

Boy, that'll suck the joy not only out of you but everybody around you. Well, let's think about poor you. Inside of you dwells God Almighty. And as far as I understand it, you can do all things through Him who strengthens you. You see that? There's no poor you if you know Jesus Christ.

Only a rich you, spiritually rich. Don't let yourself be victimized. And the last one is sort of the twin sister victimization, a selfish orientation. That'll steal joy. And that is pretty much what our, it's all about me. You are all here for me.

Everybody I meet is there for me. People like that are never joyful. You know why? Because everybody else knows it's not about them. Everyone else is going to treat them like it's about them.

And so they're just so disappointed. You see, it's not about you. It's not about me. It's about Him. It's about Jesus Christ.

It's never going to be about me. You see, and if I have those views, it takes, it sucks the joy right out of you. A good view of God, a warped view of pleasure, and an unwilling spirit. Let me close by just sort of trying to help you along this line.

What can I do about this? If you're not joyful, what can you do about this? I'm sure there's many things.

Let me give you just four. The first is this. Slow down and reflect. Psalm 46 10, be still and know that I am God.

Slow down and reflect. When I told you the story earlier about Velma yesterday showing me the album in the kitchen, we hadn't planned on this. She was just in there, and she said, hey, let's look at this.

And we were standing here by a little counter, and she's opening it up. Now I'm on my way through. So I'm thinking, I don't really want to do this right now.

But I'm also thinking of the consequences of choices that you make. And so I stopped. I didn't say anything. I just stopped and started looking at it. And then I thought, boy, that's pretty thick. And she starts turning.

She starts turning. And by the second page, I'm hooked. And by the fifth page, I'm humbled. Because I think, how great a life God has given me.

You see, how wonderful. What did I need to do? Just slow down and reflect. You see, slow down and reflect on the life that God has given you.

Start your own photo album. Take some time. Think about it.

Write it down. Do whatever it is, but do it. Secondly, simplify your life.

So many of you just don't have time to be joyful. You've got to make God time. You've got to make family time. You've got to make friend time. And you've got to make your time. You've got to be.

You've got to have that. Simplify your life. Thirdly, open your eyes to the beauty and the joy that's around you. Look at joyful people. Let that be an encouragement. Look at what God has created. Just look.

Don't miss it. You know, I can remember, I grew up in the mountains. And I can remember driving all the time.

You know what? I never even saw them half the time. But I remember going back after living here.

And I can remember going from the airport to home and just simply fixed. Look at that. You see, take time. Look around. See the beauty.

It gives you joy. Slow down. Simplify your life. Open your eyes to the beauty.

And the last one, and this is the one that makes sense to me. It's just the way I think. Be a pragmatist when it comes to joy. What does that mean? Look. As far as I understand it, when you get to heaven, you're going to be joyful forever. You understand that? Forever.

So why not start now? You see, wouldn't it be great that someone saw you in heaven and they recognized you because of the joy you had on earth? I swear there are some Christians that I have known that when I see them in heaven, I probably won't recognize them. I've never seen them with a smile on their face. I've never seen them joyful. You see, you're going to be joyful for the rest of eternity. So why not be joyful now? Victorious Christians, enjoy the great moments of life.

Let's pray. Father, joy is such a paradox to us. It's something we all want, but so few of us have.

And I'm afraid, Father, it's because we look in all the wrong places. That we can have a life of joy and laughing as we have a life that's close to you, which allows us to be close to others. Father, may we each assess our own heart and ask ourselves the question, is my heart willing to be filled with joy?

In Christ's name, amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.