Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. He emptied Himself for you, taking on the form of a bondservant for you, and being made in the likeness of men for you. And being found in the appearance of a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross for you.
He's already submitted. Jesus submitted Himself. He died for you. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.
Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. What a great prayer. Lord, keep revealing to me how much you love me. Father, convict my heart of my need to love you. You see, we miss this. And it's easy. The Church of Ephesus right there, Paul says, look, you're a great church.
Got a great start. But I'm praying that you really love the Lord. Thirty years later, what does Jesus say? He says, you know, you're a wonderful church in so many ways, but I have this against you. You don't love me. You see how this works? The longer you're in the faith, by the way, the easier it is to fall out of love with Christ.
If you don't nurture that relationship, you fall out. Listen, the first time I realized what the grace of God meant, what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was for my sins, I didn't know anything much other than the gospel, but I know this. I loved Him. I thought, wow, you saved me once forever just because I trust you? I was overwhelmed. But you know what? As time goes by as a Christian, that becomes underwhelming. Yeah, yeah, Christ died for my sins. But I'm a Christian man, and you know what Christian men do? They show up in church. You see, you show up in church, you ask to do something, you volunteer and do it.
And you give some money, too, to make sure everything works. You could do all that for nothing, for absolutely nothing, if there's no love. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13? What good is it without love? You see, what good is it without love? It doesn't matter what I do, but if I have no love, that's exactly what Jesus said. So what does it take to establish on your part an intimate, loving relationship with Christ in your life?
It probably takes a lot. I have three things in mind. The first thing will show up in Psalm 63. So turn with me to Psalm 63. Psalm 63 in verse 6, David. David says this in verse 6 and 7.
He said, when I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches, for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. The very first thing it takes to establish an intimate, loving relationship with the Lord takes time. It takes time. And I don't mean decades. That's not what I'm talking about are years.
I'm talking about minutes and hours in your day. That's what I'm talking about when I say time. It takes time. You see, you can't have an intimate relationship with anyone without time. If you don't spend time together, you don't have an intimate relationship, believe me. And no matter what your Facebook friends say, that's not intimacy.
Intimacy requires time. He says, when I'm in bed in the middle of the night and I wake up, I think about you. What do you think about? You see, what do you think about? David says, I think about you. That's what I think about. I think about you. And he says, and how you have been my help.
It's an amazing thing. What a man. You see, no wonder David is called a man after God's own heart.
It's certainly not because of his performance. David commits sins that you and I would blush at. But David loved the Lord.
He loved the Lord the way the Lord loved him. Let me ask you this question. What do you think about when nothing is forcing you to think about something in particular?
What do you think about when nothing is forcing you to think about something in particular? It reveals a lot about our heart. There's more. Let me to Psalm 143 again, David. Psalm 143.
And David says in verse five. I remember the days of old. Nostalgic.
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I muse on the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you. My soul longs for you as a parched land. David says, when I think back.
And this is kind of interesting. Notice this is David in private. He's all by himself and he starts thinking and meditating on how much God loves him and how involved God was in his life. And David says, you know, I respond, I stretch out my hands to you. Oh, Lord, I need you. You see, I know what you've done in my life. I need you. Like water in a parched land.
He said, that's how I need you. You see that nostalgia. I meditate, I think on that. It's an astounding thing.
We don't do it nearly enough. Often my wife and I will start talking about how the Lord put us together. And we go back to the nostalgia of how that event occurred and then all the events that ended up occurring and all of the strange circumstances where I ended up in a working in a place where a fellow led me to Christ. And then a whole bunch of unbelievably loosely linked circumstances by which I ended up teaching a Sunday school class and then getting up for a pastor who had Hodgkin's disease.
And so they asked someone to get up and speak to the congregation because the pastor had Hodgkin's disease and the chemo was too tough on him. And I did it. And then the next thing you know, I was doing it in other places and other places. And then I find a home church and then I ended up at somebody and the Lord just kept doing all this. And you know what happens whenever we start feeling sorry about ourself.
Hey, my life stinks. And I start thinking about that and we talk about that. I think, wow, Lord, thank you for loving me. Your hands been on my life.
It's there. David says, that's what I do. You see, and what what does that make you do? It should make you love him.
That's the point. It takes time. Paul said, pray without ceasing. He didn't mean to go into some room and get on your knees 24 seven. He meant just pray without ceasing.
In other words, constantly dialogue with the Lord in your mind all day long. Takes time. There's something else it takes.
It takes transparency. We're not real good at this. Even with the Lord, we should be.
We're terrible at it with each other. It's so easy to sort of talk the talk of Christianity. Oh, bless you.
I just bless you. Isn't God good? Well, if he's so good, then why are you crying your eyes out last night? And angry with the Lord.
You should be careful. He is good. I'm not denying that he's not good, but I'm denying that so often we put a face on our faith.
And it's not real. Notice what David does in this. I love him in verse seven. He says, Answer me quickly, O Lord. He said, My spirit fells. He goes, Come on, come on. Answer me quickly, Lord.
I'm going to fall apart here if you don't answer me quickly. See, he's honest. He says, Do not hide your face from me, or I'll become like one of those who go down to the pit. Look, if I don't get to hear from you soon, I'm going to act like an unbeliever. He says, Let me hear your loving kindness in the morning.
Hesed, one of the greatest words in the Bible. Lord, I just want to hear how you have this loyal love for me in the morning. He says, For I trust in you.
Teach me the way in which I should walk. Lord, just tell me how to live. He said, For you, I lift up my soul, deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies. I take refuge in you. Teach me to do your will. He said, You are my God.
Let your good spirit lead me on level ground. For the sake, he said, of your name, O Lord, revive me. He said, In your righteousness, he says, Bring my soul out of trouble. And it's like, wow. David says, Lord, make me the man you want me to be.
And it's like, wow, that's great. Oh, David's a man after God's own heart. He's one of the religious guys who gets his name in the Bible.
How do I relate to this? But what's what he does in the last verse? And in your loving kindness, the great word has to be says this. Cut off my enemies, destroy all those who will flick my soul, for I am your servant. What is that? It's real. That's what it is. The psalm here isn't advocating hating your enemies.
The psalm is advocating transparency before a holy God. Look, you feel anger in your heart. Tell him. When you're very much afraid, tell him you're afraid.
When your life is full of envy or lust, let him know. And here's why it's so important. He already knows. It's for your sake. You see, you're not going to change unless you come to an honest evaluation of yourself. You will not change. You'll continue to mask it. And so the whole idea is that he just says, you come to me, you just talk to me honestly. You be as transparent as you want. And when you read David, he is as transparent as a human being could be.
He deals with all these issues. Look, when life is tearing you apart, come with humility before the Lord. Psalm 34, the Lord is near the broken heart. Psalm 51, a broken and contrite heart.
Oh, God, you will not despise. Be transparent, be real. Obviously, with God, you want to be.
It takes time, it takes transparency, and it takes one more thing. Turn to Ephesians 5 with me for a moment, Ephesians chapter 5. He sets the whole section up in the first verse and a half of chapter 5. He's winding down this great epistle. And Paul writes this, he said, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. We're beloved by who?
By God. He said, I want you to imitate God as those who are the recipients of the love of God. And then he says this to us, walk in love. Walk is a metaphor for live. Live your life in the context of love.
And then when he goes over to verse 18, he says, do not get drunk with wine, that's dissipation, but be controlled, filled with the Spirit of God. And then he gives the key, the most powerful relational dynamic in this world. What is the key to all relationships? Submission. It's the key to all relationships.
All of them. It's submission. It's amazing how he puts us together. We have a tendency to think about it in different terms. Notice the overriding verse is verse 21. He says, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ, out of respect for Christ. Be subject to one another, all of us.
And then he starts giving examples. He said, wives, you be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. And then in verse 25, he says, husbands, you love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.
You see, how does that work? My wife is to submit to me as unto the Lord. I'm to submit to her by loving her as Christ loves her. What was Christ willing to give up for her?
Everything. He gave his life. It's an act of submission, but he doesn't stop there. He says, again, what we would all understand, children, obey your parents.
Oh, yeah, that's submission. But then he says in verse 4, father or parents, do not provoke your children to anger. Bring them up in the discipline and instruction or admonition and nurture of the Lord. See, how do I submit myself to my children?
I don't provoke them to anger. I admonition and nurture of the Lord. He then says, slaves. Oh, yeah, we understand that part of submission. He says, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and sincerity in your heart as to Christ.
And then he says in verse 9, in masters, do the same things to them and give up threatening. In other words, the whole idea is submission. Be subject. Consider everyone else as more important than you are. Line yourself up under. Submit. He goes, that's the key, and that's the key in our relationship with the Lord.
The key element is submission. For some of you, that terrifies you. It's always amazing to me how we get terrified. You mean if I totally submit myself to the Lord? Oh, my goodness, what would happen? I mean, there are a lot of things I like doing, and maybe I wouldn't be able to do those anymore.
Or how about this? He might want me to do something. I might end up in the Congo or somewhere. You see, I mean, yeah, I mean, that could happen. All the things that I have to give up, all the places I might have to go. Well, the Lord can take away every single thing you have at this moment, including your life.
You have nothing then. He could do it any time he wanted, whenever he wanted. He's hardly going to do it in loving when you submit yourself to him.
There's something else about submission, though. He's already done it to you. The Lord has already submitted to you.
You see, he's already done his part. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2, a couple pages to your right, Philippians chapter 2. In verse 3, setting up relationships, notice what Paul writes. He said, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourself. There's the submission. He says, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interest of others.
There's the submission. And then he says this, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ when he submitted. Then we read it a little different way. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself for you. He emptied himself for you, taking on the form of a bondservant for you. And being made in the likeness of men for you. And being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross for you.
He's already submitted. Jesus submitted himself. He died for you. You see, that's part of all human relationships. The way to have an intimate relationship with the Lord, it's a matter of time and transparency and submission.
That's the challenge. Remember, Jesus was asked to summarize the whole law. And what did he say? He said, you need to love the Lord your God.
You know that? That's all he said. You need to love the Lord your God.
How? Oh, with all your heart. You see, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. You know why he said that? Because that's the way he loves you.
He said, you need to love me the way I love you. You see, that's what you need. It's the key to the Christian life.
You see, let me just say it this way. Every morning when we start the morning services, Pastor Brad always says that we want to do all we can to help you become a follower of Jesus Christ. And that your life will be marked with things like peace and joy and hope. Because those are all biblical truths. But do you know what? The clarity of those biblical truths, they don't give you peace.
Some of you have probably heard him say that every single week for years and years and years. And I've been with you and you have no peace. For many of you, you have no joy. And for some of you, you have no hope.
Well, but it's right there in the Bible. What's missing? You see, what's missing?
I can tell you what's missing. The intimacy of your relationship with the Lord. You see, that's where you draw the peace from. That's where you draw the joy from. You see, that's what happens when you have an intimate relationship with the Lord.
That is your preoccupation, not the circumstances of your life. That's how you end up if even if he slays me, I will trust him. He says to me, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, he's never going to leave me nor forsake me. I know him. You see, I know him. He tells me that when I seek him first as the priority of my life and his kingdom, all these things will be added unto me.
And I have peace about that. You see how this works? It comes down to the relationship. The Lord wants us to love him the way that he loves us. The real question comes down to this. We know what he wants. The question is what do you want? By the way, he won't force a thing.
You just come to the door of your heart and just wait for you to open it up. Maybe now is that time. Let's pray. Father, my fear is that we are so good at pretending even before you that our heart becomes callous even to this truth. Father, I pray that we're transparent before you this morning, that we honestly tell you and ourselves how we truly feel about you on a day in, day out basis, that we demonstrate with our thought life, with our actions that we love you because you first loved us. Father, for those of us that need to repent of an unloving spirit toward you, give us the conviction that we need. Father, for those of us who love you, reinforce the necessity that we must continue to pursue an intimate relationship with you.
All of the things that seem to matter in this world, all of the other relationships, all of the tasks at hand, all of the substance of life, all become manageable and clear when we are truly and deeply in love with you. I pray that we love you like you love us. 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.
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