Keep On Keeping On!, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Do you feel that I'm no longer tired and weary at all?

Does that describe how you feel? Then you're waiting on the Lord. You see, you can have decision fatigue and moral fatigue and be waiting on the Lord.

You can't. You see, as soon as fatigue in some way sets in on you, you are simply waiting on the circumstances to change. And so the short answer to how do we deal with decision fatigue and moral fatigue is simply wait on the Lord. 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. Everything continues to go on. Six months into the pandemic, it just goes on and on and on. I find this article this week describing what's happening to us as a people. The article reads as such, six months since the United States declared a coronavirus pandemic, a state of emergency, millions of Americans isolated and all of them are at their wits end, exhausted from making a seemingly endless series of health and safety decisions for themselves and for loved ones.

There is a name now for that phenomena. The researchers call it decision fatigue. We're not just making a greater number of daily decisions. We're also making high stakes moral decisions, said Elizabeth Yuko, a writer and staff member of the Fordham University Center for Ethics and Education. It's fatigue with making decisions that have consequences we've never had to deal with before. Yuko said he's these are things that come with such a moral weight on them and all it does is produce more stress for us. There's a pastor that Velma and I follow in New Jersey, his name's Pastor Marty Berglund, and he writes a great Facebook page and he wrote this.

He said, I heard a pastor use the term I'd never heard before. He said in light of the present situations and all the tensions and turmoil in our country, he felt like he was experiencing moral fatigue. I don't know about you, but I could totally relate to that feeling. Everybody is arguing or so it seems about what is right and what is wrong and who is right and who is wrong.

I just get tired of all the arguing. I get moral fatigue. I feel like Rodney King. Remember him?

He was the black man that was unjustly beaten by police officers and it caused the people to retaliate in L.A. many years ago by rioting and marching against all the injustice. And I'll never forget a news reporter interviewed him after he was physically healed and being bombarded by news reporters. And I remember a tired look on his face and he pleaded with reporters and he simply said, can we all just get along? He was suffering from moral fatigue. As believers, what are we supposed to do when we suffer from moral fatigue? Decision fatigue, moral fatigue.

Those are great descriptions for many of us. We feel worn out, kind of overwhelmed, and perhaps most of all, we feel kind of helpless. As believers, we turn to God and we ask God to give us the answers. To show us the way. But what do we do when we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel? And we surely can't now. I think the answer is clear in the word of God.

But I think it's difficult for you and I to deal with the circumstances. So I don't invite you to open your Bible to Psalm 39, verse seven. Just a very short part of the verse.

But it sort of encapsulates all of our problems, what we're all facing. Verse seven, the psalmist says, And now, Lord, for what do I wait? For what do I wait? He's tired. He's tired of waiting. How about you? Aren't you tired of waiting? I am.

I'm just tired of it. And so he goes to the Lord and he asked the question. For what do I wait? The answer is in the very next part of the verse. My hope is in you.

Here's the answer. What am I waiting for? No, my hope is in you. Remember, hope is always thinking about the certitude of the future.

Again, Marty Berglind writes this. He said the Corona virus waiting game. He said that we are all caught up in right now is the perfect time for us to hear this verse and obey it. We need to anchor our hope in the Lord and stop all this fretting and worrying. We have a chance to stop playing the waiting game for the recovery from the circumstances and decide that the Lord is in control and that our hope is fixed solidly on him.

So today I challenge you to stop the waiting game and go through the day resetting your hope on the Lord. That's what we're doing. Think of all the sequencing and especially in every state.

I'm sure the other states are like our state. And then every few weeks the governor is going to tell you something in our state. And so you wait in between it and then you hope he's telling you something different. And each time he speaks, you keep hoping whether you were in phase one, you get the phase two.

And if you're in phase two, you'd get the we just keep waiting. And what we're waiting for is the circumstances to change. But I think we know that God is ultimately in control of this.

And so our hope. Should be in God. Isaiah 40, verse 31.

Listen to this. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will want mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired and they will walk and not become weary. That's what Isaiah says.

Those who wait on the Lord. My question to you is this. How do you feel? See, how do you feel right now? You weary?

Tired? You see, if you say yes to that, let me tell you something. You're not waiting on the Lord at all.

You're not. You see, this is what the scripture says. Notice again. Those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength, mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired and they will walk and not become weary. Do you feel the new strength in your life? Do you feel invigorated? Do you feel that I'm no longer tired and weary at all?

Does that describe how you feel? Then you're waiting on the Lord. You see, you can have decision fatigue and moral fatigue and be waiting on the Lord.

You can't. You see, as soon as fatigue in some way sets in on you, you are simply waiting on the circumstances to change. And so the short answer to how do we deal with decision fatigue and moral fatigue is simply wait on the Lord. But that's the short answer.

But that's passive. That's that's part of it. I need to wait on the Lord and passively just wait. But there's more to it than it for you and I than that.

There is a longer answer. You and I need to keep on keeping on. That's what we need to do. You and I need to keep on keeping on. We need to persevere. We need to endure. That's what we need to do. And that's active.

That's not passive. Turn with me now to Luke chapter eight, Luke eight and verse 10. Actually, I'll pick it up in verse 11. The Lord is speaking a very, very famous parable. Verse 11 says, Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. We're talking about the parable of the sower.

The seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they will not believe and be saved. Those on rocky soil are those who, when they heard, they receive the word with joy and yet have no firm root.

And they believe for a while. And yet in time of temptation, they fall away. The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones that have heard. And as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity. And then this verse. But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word and he said in an honest and good heart.

And hold it fast and bear fruit. Then those two words with perseverance. They have good soil. They have the right heart. They're full of faith. They hold it fast.

They wait on God, but they hold it fast and they bear fruit with perseverance. They keep on keeping on. That's our responsibility. No matter what it is we're bearing, we are our responsibility is to keep on keeping on.

That's what we're supposed to do. And it's all over the scriptures. The word perseverance. Is a word that simply means this. It means steady persistence in adhering, he said, to a course of action or belief or purpose.

That's what the dictionary says. Turn with me now to Romans five for a moment. Romans five. Jesus says that if your heart is full of faith, what you would do is you will keep on keeping on. That's what you'll do. You wait on God, but you'll keep on keeping on.

You persevere. Paul is going to tell us something here is very important for us. When we keep on keeping on, we are transformed. When we keep on keeping on, we are transformed. That's why this kind of test or trial is so important to God.

See, he went to see with his own children. How many of them are going to keep on keeping on? Or how many of them are just going to wait for the circumstances to change?

Or how many of them are going to be disgruntled every day because the circumstances haven't changed? This is what Paul writes. He says in verse one, he says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we exalt in hope of the glory of God. We exalt in the future certitude for us.

And then he says this. Not only this, we also exalt in our tribulations. Why would we exalt knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance? Tribulation is the only way in which you and I can keep on keeping on. If you have no tribulation in life, everybody keeps on keeping on, even the heathen do. All you got to do is keep on keeping on. He said, Yeah, that but that won't transform you. But if I put you in tribulation, will you keep on keeping on?

Will you do this? Notice then what happens and perseverance brings about what? Proven character. So my keep on keeping on transforms me. It changes me. It makes me more like my savior. You see, I grow spiritually.

You see, that should have an enormous effect on us. That word perseverance is the word who will Monet and it means to remain or abide under. I can remain and abide under this tribulation as long as the Lord wants me to. But I can know this.

It will transform me and make me better for it. Now, I'm not saying none of you think that way, but many of you that have talked to me don't think that way ever. You don't even look at this pandemic that way. That's not what I'm looking at. I'm waiting for the circumstances to change.

Let's just get back to normal. Turn with me to James one very familiar passage because it backs up what Paul said. James one versus two and three. James says in verse two, consider all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. We've been this verse many times and it's just one of those verses that we don't like much. Because when you and I go through tribulation or trial, the one word that never seems to describe us as joy.

That's not the word. He said, consider it all joy. He doesn't even want to just say joyful.

All joy. When you encounter various trials, why? Knowing that the testing of your faith produces. Endurance.

You know what that word is? Well, Monet translated perseverance, translated endurance. In English, it means endurance means the act, quality or power of withstanding hardship or stress. So the translators can translated perseverance or they can translated endurance. But I'm simply saying that the testing of your faith will allow you to keep on keeping on.

That's what it does. Will you keep on keeping on in the midst of your trial? Now, notice the result. Let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect, complete and lacking in nothing.

That were perfect. And that's the word tell us when Jesus said it is finished on the cross. It means complete, perfect, or it also means mature. Coming to fruition. He said, yeah, that's what if you face this trial.

With an attitude of keep on keeping on. You, Paul said to Romans, have proven character. He says here you will mature in Christ. That's why this is the kind of thing that causes you and I to mature as believers and become more like our savior. Hence, we can consider it all joy. See, this is hard for us.

It's easy to get our eyes on the circumstance. Remember, Paul was in prison when he wrote to the Philippians. Didn't know if he was going to live or die at that time. And that's when he wrote two things in that book, one to live as Christ. And to die, that's gain.

Now, what can you do with a man whose life's perspective is that way? If that's what you really believe, my life is Christ, and when I'm dying, it's going to be better. I mean, we sang the song earlier, the last day of your life, right? The last day of your life will be the best day of your life. That's a lot easier to sing than it is to believe in the intensive care unit, isn't it?

But it's true. That's what Paul had as his perspective. That's why Paul said, I've learned the secret of contentment. I just keep on keeping on. I've been content in the palace and I've been content in the prison.

I've been content with a lot of good things in my life and I've been content with a lot of terrible things in my life because my contentment doesn't come from the circumstances. And whenever, and this is the classic case, when life feeds you lemons, you make lemonade. And that's the whole point. He said, I just keep on keeping on. That's what I'm here for.

That's what I'm doing. And that's what you and I should be about. Chris Tigrain writes this, and this sort of describes this. The psychological advancement has made travel, communication, and daily chores incredibly time efficient, if not instantaneous. The result is that we're not trained to persevere.

We're not accustomed to pains that can't be relieved and problems that can't be corrected. When they come, we send up prayers with almost the same expectation as when we press the buttons on our microwaves. I just love that.

I just need them. Okay, God, I want my meal. A few seconds, we think, and that should have done it. God usually doesn't work that way. He is thorough and precise and he's never rushed. When he tries us in a fire, as he did Job, nothing can get us out. The time cannot be shortened and our growth cannot come more quickly. We must learn to persevere or keep on keeping on. He said no one has ever become a true disciple of Jesus Christ without perseverance.

He's right. There's no way to be a disciple of Christ unless you persevere. There is no other way. This idea of what we need to do is we need to keep on keeping on because we're transformed. And we are to pursue this trait. Turn with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 11. 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 11.

Paul says, right in the midst of this talk about money and all those kind of things, he says, but flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue, this is what we should pursue, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, there it is, perseverance, and gentleness. We are to pursue, and by the way, that means we are to make this choice that we want to keep on keeping on. Lord, I want to keep on keeping on. I should pursue this. You and I should pursue perseverance.

That's what we should be about. Notice the analogy he uses in the next verse, fight the good fight of faith. What's he telling you about pursuing perseverance or keep on keeping on in the middle of trials? It's a fight. It's a fight. You see, this isn't natural.

This isn't something, oh, yeah, I got it. I'll be fine. This is a fight because any time we are suffering and any time we are in pain, we have tremendous instincts to avoid it at all costs. And when we don't have any control to avoid it, we become very despairing. And that's what's happening to so many in our country. They're becoming very despairing because they can't control it.

They don't know how to control it. That's the way this works. Go with me now to 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 16. Paul again, but this time with a little bit different perspective. He starts out in 2 Corinthians 4 16 with these words. Therefore, we do not lose heart.

I'm not losing my heart. Now, you got to understand, Paul suffers immensely. He has a thorn in the flesh. Everywhere he goes, he's hated, beaten with rods, stoned and left for dead. I mean, shipwrecked, snake bit, everything that could happen to this little old man. And he said, I don't lose heart.

I mean, I'll say it another way. I just keep on keeping on. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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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.