Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.
Over the years, it's amazing. One of you will share with me this. You know, I was at this family meeting, and my agnostic slash atheistic brother-in-law started a discussion with me, and, boy, I wish you were there. I said, what do you mean? I wish you'd have been there.
Weren't you there? You see, yeah, but I don't have, I just don't have the ability. I don't know Hebrew. Come on. It's not about you. You see, it's never about you. It's always about God. You see, that's the whole point. It's always about God.
It's not about your ability. It's about God's ability. 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.
It all starts with a choice. Notice again verse 20, and immediately they left their nets and followed them. Verse 22, immediately they left the boat and their father, and they followed them.
They dropped their nets. They left the boat. They left their father, and they followed him. Notice there's no discussion.
No discussion at all. Jesus called them, and they just dropped their nets and got out of the boat. They left their father, and they followed him. That's a choice. What's that choice? Jesus is first. He says that over and over again in the Gospels. I'm first. He said, in fact, he said, if I'm not first, you can't be my disciple. You just can't.
You have to make that choice. You have to, in a sense, live for God. That's exactly what Johann Sebastian Bach did. Gifted as he was, he lived for God. He lived for an audience of one. I think so often for us, we don't see the Lord that way. I think for some of us, we see the Lord as like a hobby. For some of you, he may be your favorite hobby, but he's just a hobby. You have your life, then you have a hobby. Your hobby means that most Sundays, if you can, you get here and give him a few tunes for him to sing, and be nice to people, and then go on your way.
He's like a hobby, but that won't do. For some of you, it's even worse. You view Jesus as sort of a passport to heaven. You live your life totally the way you want to live it, and then you say, but the good part is when I die, I'm going to go to heaven.
That's going to be better than the option, obviously. But the point of it is, that's not what Jesus is talking about at all in any sense of the word. The reason they responded is of who he is. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. He was your savior, but don't forget who he is.
He's the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, Jesus once said to his own disciples, why do you call me Lord and not do the things I ask? In other words, it's kind of written into my name, Lord. You see, when you're the Lord and you tell someone, they expect them to obey, and Jesus did too.
For many of us, that's not the case at all. You see, but whenever you do that, you have no idea where it's going to lead. One of the best choices I ever made in my own life was a happy-go-lucky chemist in Pennsylvania enjoying everything about my life and decided to drop the net, get out of the boat, and leave my father. If I had not done that, I would have never known the joy of pastoring such a wonderful group of people as you guys. No, I wouldn't have.
Almost anyone I would have talked to would have said that was fine. You belong here. This is where your family is. You've got to get out of the boat.
You've got to drop the net. I don't mean everyone has to leave. I just mean everyone needs to make the choice. You have to live for the audience of one. Hampton Keithley writes this. He said, That's all we need to know, isn't it? If God is force, who can be against us? God plus one equals a supermajority. His name is the solution to every problem. His name is the answer to every question. His name, he said, calms every fear. It seals every prayer.
It wins every battle. At his name, angels bow and demons quake. At his name, our sin is vindicated and our authority is validated. He said, it's not about who you are. Who you are is absolutely irrelevant. God doesn't use us because of us.
He uses us in spite of us. I can testify to that, and I'm sure you can too. You see, what's stopping you? What's stopping you? Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. Living your life for an audience of just one. That that's all that really matters. What's stopping you? We come up with all kinds of excuses.
I want to look at a few of those. Let's go to Exodus chapter 3. We run into Moses. He's very famous, and you know his story. He spent 40 years in Egypt. He was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. He was raised as a prince of Egypt. And now he has spent 40 years in the land of Midian. All he does is tend sheep. 40 years of tending sheep in the wilderness. And so he's out there one day tending sheep, and a bush begins to burn. And that's not too unusual in the Sinai. Spontaneous combustion with bushes can occur. What made Moses notice this one is no matter how much it burned, it wasn't consumed.
It just stayed there. So Moses meanders over and wants to get a better look at this. And it's kind of an interesting thing. He and God have this wonderful interaction. God says in verse 7, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now, it's interesting. He says in verse 9, Now behold, the cry of the sons of Israel have come to me.
Furthermore, I have seen the oppression by what the Egyptians are oppressing them. He says, Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. There's his calling. Now, I want you to understand the calling here. It's a little unusual. Okay, it's one thing to have a burning bush. It's another one to have a burning bush that talks. The burning bush that talks says he's the Lord.
This is really unusual. But notice what the Lord said. I'm going to deliver my people, and I'm going to use you. Now, after he said that, what should your response be? Use me. Now, if God says he's going to use you for something, what do you think? He's going to use you for something, right? So is it possible that Moses could fail here?
No. God said I'm going to use you. But Moses is just like us.
Notice what he does. His first response, verse 11. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?
His lack of identity. He says, Who am I to do this? You ever think of that?
You ever say that? Who am I? Who am I to be used in this way? I mean, I'm not a major league Christian.
I'm a minor league Christian. I mean, who am I to do that? Notice the patience of God. He said, Certainly I will be with you. He says, And this will be a sign to you that it was I who have sent you. When you are brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain. By the way, that's a guarantee again.
You're going to be successful. You see, and by the way, you're going to bring him back to this mountain. You're going to worship me here. God gives him prophecy. Says, OK, you're going to come back. You're not going to stop Moses at all because he's so much like us.
I don't know about this. So he says, Moses said to God, Behold, I'm going to the sons of Israel. And I say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now, what they may say to me is, What is his name? What am I going to tell him? He has a lack of a message. What am I going to say?
What am I going to tell him? Got to love the Lord. God said to him, I am who I am, Yahweh. He said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, Yahweh has sent me to you. Notice the patience of God, lack of identity, lack of a message, but he's not done.
Chapter four, verse one. Then Moses said, What if they do not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, The Lord is not appear to you. You have no authority over us. The lack of authority. The Lord never appeared to you. Lack of authority. You see, who am I to do something like this?
Now, this is wonderful. The Lord said to him, What's that in your hand? By the way, it's a rhetorical question.
God knows. He said, What's that in your hand? And he said, A staff.
What's a staff? It's the identity and the authority of a shepherd. You saw a man with a staff. You knew he was a shepherd.
You don't walk around with staffs unless you're a shepherd. Moses said, A staff. He said, Throw it on the ground. So he threw it on the ground. It became a serpent. Moses fled from it.
Like, What? It says, And the Lord said to him, Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail. So he stretched out his hand and he caught it. And the staff became a staff again in his hand. Now, why did God do that? Because God likes the show.
He got stuff, right? He's just... He's showing them, Look, this isn't about you. This is about me.
I have seen the oppression of my people. I'm going to deliver them. I've chosen you to do this. This isn't about your ability, your nothing. This is me.
You see, I want you to understand this is me at work. He tries over and over again to convey this to us. God can take anything like a staff and make it miraculous. Why do you think Jesus fed the 5,000 and then fed the 4,000? Because Jesus said, The most important thing I can do in life is feed 9,000 people.
One time. If I feed 9,000 people one time, that'll do it. That's nothing to do with it. In fact, the people were incidental. Why did Jesus feed 5,000 and 4,000 for his own disciples?
He reminds them of that. You see how many fish did he have? Instead of five. How much bread?
Too low. How many people did he feed? He fed 5,000. How about afterwards?
He had 12 baskets full. Why do you think Jesus is saying that? This is about me. This is what I do.
This is who I am. You don't have to worry about your lack of ability. You don't have to worry about a lack of ability. That's not the case at all. It's not your ability anyway.
It's his. That's the whole point. You might say, If I was Moses, I'd have done better than that. I doubt that. But let me apply it in a different way.
Over the years, it's amazing. One of you will share with me this. I was at this family meeting and my agnostic slash atheistic brother-in-law started a discussion with me. Boy, I wish you were there. I said, What do you mean? I wish you'd have been there.
Weren't you there? You see, yeah, but I just don't have the ability. I don't know Hebrew. Come on. It's not about you. You see, it's never about you. It's always about God. You see, that's the whole point. It's always about God. It's not about your ability.
It's about God's ability. Notice then, he goes on. Moses says in verse 10 of chapter 4, he said to the Lord, I've never been eloquent, neither recently, nor in the times past, nor since. He said, You have spoken to your servant.
I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue. Now, if you read in the book of Acts, you're going to find out that's not true. Now, he's resorted to telling fibs. Stephen says before he's martyred that Moses is eloquent, and it makes sense. He's educated as a prince of Egypt.
He's a highly educated man. I don't think I can do it. You never do it anyway.
It's not you. You see, how many times have you said that? Well, I just don't think I could do that. You see, some of you will even say something like this.
Well, you've got to understand. I don't really like babies. I don't care. This isn't about you liking babies. This is about the Lord loving babies. You see, you're just a servant.
Yeah, but I don't think I could handle it. You see how we do this? We do the same thing that Moses does. We take ourselves right out of the equation by talking about our own inadequacies. Look, let's start at the beginning. You're completely inadequate.
Now, let's build from there. God uses inadequate people for his glory. That's the way this works. Well, then, notice what ends up happening in verse 13. He says to God, he says, Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever you will. Lack of faith. This time, God's not patient.
It says here the anger of the Lord burned against Moses. He's patient with your excuses, but, boy, when you lack faith, he's not patient. That's why Jesus says so many times to his disciples, Oh, you men of such little faith.
Come on. You say you lack identity, but you're God's instrument. There's the identity you have. You say you lack a message, but he gives us the gospel, and he even says, I'll direct your words. You lack authority, but, again, it's his authority, not yours.
You say, I lack ability, but it's his ability and not yours. See, what's stopping you from living your life to an audience of just one in every single thing that you do? You see, what's amazing to me about this whole thing is if there was a missions map in heaven, I don't believe there is because God doesn't need a map, but if there was a missions map in heaven, do you realize at your house there's a pin in it?
That house, that's yours. God says, that's my missionary right there. That's them. Wherever you work, there's a pin there. That's you again.
You go to school, there's a pin there. That's you again. You see how this works. God decides, I'm going to use people.
That's his plan. I'm going to use people to change this world, and you and I are plan A, and there is no plan B. You and I are going to change this world for its good and God's glory. He said, this is the way this works.
You see, that's what I want from you. That's why whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Why do you think Jesus said to us, don't you know that you're the salt of the earth and the light of the world?
Wow. You see, because we are. You're the light of the whole world. You are. So am I. Jesus said, whatever you do, please don't hide your light under a bushel. That's what so many of us do. You see, so many of us, we have this tendency to have this dichotomy of the idea that really serving the Lord is something full time.
It's something on a mission field. It's not. It's not the way it works at all. It's just you, your family, your friends, your job, your school. Whatever it is, it's you. That's God's plan.
It's you. Now, if you could learn what Bach learned and say, soli Dio gloria, to God be the glory here. I'm going to live for an audience of one.
You would do so much better than you are right now. Go with me in the last verse. Matthew, 16, Matthew, 16. Two verses, 24 and 25.
Short verses before they have a lot of ramifications. Jesus says to his disciples. If anyone wishes to come after me.
That's anyone. Do you want to follow Christ? You say, do you want to be a follower of Christ? He said, anyone. If anyone wishes to follow me, he must deny himself. Wow. He must take up his cross and follow me.
We've talked about that in the past. To take up your cross doesn't mean, by the way, your mother-in-law. She's the cross I have to bear.
That's not what he's talking about. To take up your cross means, are you willing to be humiliated publicly for me? Because that's what the cross is. It's a public humiliation. It's not a piece of jewelry back then.
It's something everybody looked at in a different light than we do today. He then says this. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake, he'll find it.
We see this all the time. Over and over in the gospel, Jesus talks about the end of me. If I'm ever going to make it, there has to be an end to me. I have to deny myself. I have to lose my life. He says that over and over again.
How do you do that? Well, one step would be like Johann Sebastian Bach. I have to believe there's no difference between sacred and secular at all.
There is no difference. To lose my life means I die to myself. Or more importantly, the world dies to me.
But what happens when you're dead? I've had to go to way more funerals than most people ever have to go to. It's just part of my job. But you've been to enough. So you've noticed this. Did you ever notice the cadaver laying there? And I'll say it that because the person's long gone.
You see, the moment they left this world, they're gone. But did you ever notice anything about the cadaver? Did you ever notice that the cadaver doesn't care what people think of it?
Not at all. Cadavers never think, I wonder if they like me. Cadavers never worry about how they're dressed.
Now, people will do that. Oh, doesn't he look handsome? Isn't she lovely? Now, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me, the cadaver just is a dead tent. The person's long gone. Dead people don't worry about their investments.
I wonder how my investments are doing. See, what would you say? Wait, wait, it ain't going to matter to you, you're dead. That's why the scripture tells us to die to self.
You see how freeing this is? Once I die to myself, I live for an audience of one. I only care about what God does. It doesn't mean that I'm not a good steward. It doesn't mean that Johann Sebastian Bach wasn't an incredible composer, incredible at what he did. He worked hard at what he did.
But he only did it for an audience of one. We all benefited from that. The same thing can happen to you and I. You see, when you die to yourself, it doesn't mean your circumstances will necessarily change at all. When you drop your net or get out of the boat or leave your father behind, it doesn't mean you're going to move away. It doesn't mean any of that necessarily. But it does mean you're going to change.
That's what happens. This morning's message is real simple. Ask yourself the question, do I live for an audience of one? And what I mean by that is, the way I live every aspect of my life, do I consciously think in my own mind, is this for the glory of God?
Let's pray. Father, I believe that if we're truly honest with ourselves, we have this tendency to compartmentalize you. We think you're separated from our real life.
And the only time we want to bring you into our real life normally is when we have great problems in our real life and we need your help. But Father, that is not from the word of God. The word of God makes it clear that we have been born again into your family. We are children of God.
We are called citizens of heaven. We are said to be ambassadors for you here on earth. We are salt and light, and we are to let our light shine among men in such a way that they would glorify you. Father, I would pray that we live our lives that way, that the whatever of 1 Corinthians 10.31 means everything in our life.
It means the way that we treat our spouse, the way that we treat our children, our parents, our siblings, our family, our friends, the people we work for and the people we work with. All of this makes a difference if we do it for your glory. Father, impress on us how important it is that we live for an audience of one. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. 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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