Giving Yourself Away

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Look, I've come to give you life and give it to you abundantly. I want you to have your joy, he said, complete, fulfilled, your joy made full. And I'm telling you, this is how you do it. Emptying yourself.

Give yourself away and you'll be one of those happy people. 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. This may seem like pure science fiction to some of you. There was a time when you could pull up to a gas station and your tires would run over a hose and a bell would ring inside and an attendant would run out to pump your gas. And while the gas was pumping, clean your windshield and check your oil. And if need be, they could check your tires and even a coolant level in your radiator. And if you believe the commercials of the day, they did all of this with a huge smile on their face. They were called full service gas stations.

Now, if you're fortunate, the machine will read your credit card because if it doesn't, you have to go prepay with a clerk inside the station. Full service gas stations are very rare today, and sadly, it seems just as difficult to find full service followers of Jesus Christ. Tony Evans says this so often today, believers simply want to be served, blessed, helped, encouraged, counseled, loved and the like without feeling any need whatsoever of serving anyone. Now, you might be thinking maybe I should have stayed home this morning because I'm sure somewhere he's going to ask for volunteers for something.

You would be mistaken. This has nothing to do with volunteers. I've been preaching on the subject of what makes you happy. And I want to say to you that when you serve as a lifestyle.

I guarantee. It makes you happy. Now, do you realize how counterintuitive that seems to some of you?

That seems almost bizarre. You see, if you don't give yourself away, you will never be as happy as God intended for you to be. That's not how most of us define our happiness or how we search for happiness. You see, the point is, you can't acquire or consume or look a certain way or exercise yourself into happiness.

But many of us try all kinds of things. I would call a lot of us composite people. Let me explain what I mean by that.

We sort of say, if I had that job, if if I had that education, if I had that house, if I wore those clothes, if I dated that person, if I was married to him or I was married to her, if I had that look or if I was at that weight, then I'd be happy. Usually, by the way, when I talk about composite people, we don't want to trade places with anyone. We don't want to be another person. So we pick and choose. You see, there are certain things about some people. I'd like to have that and I'd like to have that. I'd like to live there.

And I'd like it's sort of that idea. Therefore, I composite people. You see, the research backs me up. University of Chicago did a long term research on the most fulfilling careers. And they found out that as they kept questioning people over the course of years, that people who cared for others, people who taught others and people who protected others, were by a mile the most content and happy people they surveyed. United Kingdom did a huge study of 40 different studies brought together that were over a 20 year period. And they wanted to draw some conclusions about this evasive thing we call happiness. And they concluded after putting these 40 studies together over 20 years, that they said the parent key to happiness is found in just one word, service.

Amazing. They found that these people had less depression and less stress in their lives. They even said this. If you would take a teenager with a bad attitude and force them to serve, it would still benefit them. And the ones who were forced to serve with a bad attitude, use less drugs and had less unplanned pregnancies. Service. They concluded the people who serve people have psychological well-being, a higher self-esteem, a much higher quality of life and this one always important to us.

They had greater longevity. Are you sure? I mean, it seems counterintuitive to what we think makes us happy. How can emptying myself make me fool? It doesn't seem right now.

But you know what? It never seemed right. It didn't seem right 2000 years ago. Open your Bibles to Mark chapter nine and verse 30. Now, in verse 30 of Mark nine, it's a very important turn of events and something Jesus has been preparing them for a long period of time as disciples for. In verse 30, it says, From there they went out and began to go through Galilee.

He did not want anyone to know about it. It's getting near the turning point now. He's heading to Jerusalem. He says, For he was teaching his disciples and he's telling them that the son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him.

And when he has been killed, he will rise three days later. Now, of all the different things that Jesus was teaching them, there may be nothing he ever taught them more important than that. That's something they really need to come to grips with. The next verse. But they did not understand this statement.

Now, it's kind of interesting when you think about it on the surface. How could you not understand the statement? He just said, They're going to come and get me. They're going to kill me.

I'm going to rise in three days. Don't get it. Don't understand how much it says. But they were afraid to ask him. Now, I think probably the reason they were afraid to ask him is I don't think this is the first time they ever heard that.

And you can imagine their conversations with each other. Did you understand what that meant? No.

How about you? No. Hey, John, do you know what that meant?

I mean, he always calls you the beloved. What's going on with this statement? I don't know. You know the situation. You decide to keep your mouth shut because you don't want to appear foolish rather than to opening your mouth and make it obvious to everyone just how foolish you are. Now, that's what's going on. But here's something else. They had something else on their mind. They were a little bit distracted by that statement. This great statement. They said, I don't really want to think about that. See, I would much rather think about me. I know we should be thinking a lot about you, but I like thinking more about me. Next verse.

They came to Capernaum and when he was in the house, he began to question them. I love this. What were you discussing on the way? Now, the answer should be what?

What it means. We thought you were the Messiah. We thought you were going to set up a kingdom and all of a sudden you say they're going to come and get you and kill you.

And then somehow you're going to come up back from the dead in three days. They're not thinking about that at all. And Jesus knows they're not. He said, what was it you were discussing? Says, but they kept silent. They kept silent for on the way they had discussed with one another, which of them was the greatest? Wow.

You see, because they're pursuing happiness. You see, what makes me happy is I'm the greatest. I'm like the greatest.

And could you imagine this? Peter's probably the first one. Look, it's real clear. I'm in charge. I'm the greatest. I'm not so sure about that, Peter.

You see, a lot of really stupid things, you know. By the way, I think if they were going to take a committee vote at that time, who was the greatest? Probably Judas. That is said Judas, because remember when Jesus said one was going to betray him, they had no idea it was Judas. And after all, Judas was the treasure. He kept the money.

Jesus trusted him with the funds, so he might be the greatest. And sitting down, let's sit down. I want to talk about this. He called the 12 and he said to them, if anyone wants to be first. Wow. It sounds like an American slogan, doesn't it? We're number one. We're number one. I'm number one.

Because that's what makes us happy. If anyone wants to be first, Jesus assumes that's OK. He doesn't say it's awful to be first. He said, if you want to be first, I'm going to tell you how.

I mean, if that's what you want, you want to be first, you want to be happy. Let me tell you how. Here we go. If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and the servant of all. Well, there it is.

I'll tell you how to do it. Consider yourself last and serve everybody. And you will be the greatest inference and you will be happy.

You see, you finally get that elusive thing you're looking for because that's what service does. Happiness is giving yourself away. No one knows that more than Jesus. By the way, that's so consistent through scripture. The apostle Paul talking to the Philippians, this epistle of tremendous joy that he's writing and he's in prison at the time. But he says to them, what you need to do, like if you want to be as joyful as me, consider everybody else as more important than you are. You see how counterintuitive this is to us.

No, no, no, no, no. That can't be the way it is because I want to be happy. And it's all about me. You see, I'm going to be happy when all of you get this idea that I am the center of the solar system and you all revolve and rotate around me. And when you all do your thing, I'll be happy.

How can this be right? Because that's the way you were designed. God designed us. To be very happy, giving ourselves away. Sin changed all that. Sin made us selfish. Sin separated us not only from God, but it separated us from each other. Therefore, God said in a place of plan of redemption and he redeemed us. And now that we are redeemed, he goes right back to square one and says, look, Jesus says, look, I've come to give you life and give it to you abundantly. I want you to have your joy, he said, complete, fulfilled, your joy made full. And I'm telling you, this is how you do it. Emptying yourself.

Give yourself away and you'll be one of those happy people. Paul reinforces this. Go with me to Galatians Chapter five, verse 13. The apostle Paul says, for you were called to freedom. Grace has set you free. You are free. You have been declared righteous by God. You are heaven bound.

Wow. Neither sin nor the law has any effect on you now. You are free. But the warning, he says, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. Notice that you see, we can be so free in Christ that we say, wait a minute, just what Paul said in Romans. Wherever sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

Hey, I've got an idea. You see, the more I sin, the more grace about I'm free. He says, yes, you could do that, but you would never be happy.

He says, let me tell you how you can be happy. Do not turn your freedom into opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. You see, through love, serve one another. By the way, that's one of the great things about love. Love isn't love unless you give it away. You see, that's what love is. He said through love. You need to serve one another.

The same exact idea. What do I mean, serve one another, come alongside, help others out spiritually, emotionally, physically? That your actions make someone else's life better. That's serving one another. Paul says, look, that's what you need to do. He said, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in one statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You see, the whole idea of it is, he said, you know how your flesh wants to say, I want the whole world to revolve around me and I want to make everybody contribute to me being happy? He said, that's the way you love you? How about loving them that way?

And guess what happens? If you love them that way, guess what you get? Happiness.

The thing you're looking for. Unfortunately, though, it's the thing your flesh does not want. He said, if you bite and devour one another, take care. He said that you're not consumed by one another. This is so important to Paul. Over 50 times in the epistles alone, one another. All these one anothers, 25 to 30 of them distinctly different.

Love one another and care for one another, confess your sins to one another, serve one another. You know, it's an amazing thing. It's over and over again.

Why? Because this is how we're designed. When we give ourselves away to one another, one of the byproducts, not just the glory of God and the benefit of the person, but you and I become happy.

It has a tremendous effect on us. He then goes on and says, look, there's two approaches to life. And as a Christian, by the way, you're going to have a choice. He says, but I say walk in the spirit. You will not carry out the desire of the flesh. He's warning them they can carry out this desire. He said, for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please. You've got to be careful here. He said, if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

There's no law. He says, now the deeds of the flesh are evident. They are immorality and impurity and sensuality and idolatry and sorcery and enmities and strife and jealousy. An outburst of angers and disputes and dissensions and factions, envying and drunkenness and carousing and things like these.

He goes on and says, I want to warn you something. People who live that practice that that's what you were before you came to Christ. You can't get into the kingdom of God with that kind of thing.

So please don't go back to it. What makes you happy in your flesh, by the way, is pleasure at someone else's expense. Somebody always pays for your happiness. How do you measure the value of a life?

How are you going to measure the value of your life? Isn't it always the same? Aren't we all aware of this? It's what you did for others. And you know this. I know that you've attended a number of funerals and if you're in ministry, you attend quite a few.

And isn't it interesting that when they do a eulogy, just imagine if we just told the truth. I want to tell you, by the way, about my Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe is an immoral man. Everything about his life is immorality. He was impure. He was an indulgent man. He was hateful. And he was a jealous, jealous man. He was vulgar. He was a drunk.

He was selfish. Does that sound like a eulogy? But it does sound like Uncle Joe, doesn't it? See, we never want to know. We don't want to say that. Why? Because we know instinctively the value of a life can never be all of this self-absorption.

It can never be the flesh. We know that has no value. So we all say the best things we can possibly say about Uncle Joe.

And by the way, if he has no goodness and he never really served anybody, never emptied himself and never helped people, then we say things like he loved fishing and boy, he loved the LSU Tigers. That's your life? That's your contribution to life. You see, we know instinctively that the value to life is what you give away.

We know that. A life all wrapped up in itself has almost no value at all. Happiness is giving yourself away.

And you become full when you become empty. Boy, this was important to Jesus. John chapter 13, the king of kings and the Lord of lords, the creator of all things.

Amazing when you think about who he is. But I want you to think about when this is. This is the night before the crucifixion. Now, do you think Jesus had some things on his mind that night? Well, how about when he went to the Garden of Gethsemane just a few hours later than this? What happened?

Remember what he said? Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. It said that he was sweating droplets of blood. That's the kind of stress that he knew was happening the next day. The most incredible, unimaginable amount of suffering any human being would ever take on, and he's going to take it on the next day, and he knows it. So when they get together, verse three, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God.

There's the context. He got up from supper, and he lay aside his garments. And taking a towel, he girded himself. And then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel, which he girded. And so when he came to Simon Peter, he said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?

See what Peter's thinking? Hierarchy. This is hierarchy. You're the boss. You're the king.

You're in charge. You don't wash my feet. That's for the lowly. Jesus said to him, what I do, you do not realize now, but you understand hereafter. And Peter said to him, never shall you wash my feet.

Once again, foot and mouth disease. Peter thinking he's saying the right thing. Jesus said, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me.

Wow. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but you can wash my hands, my head, everything you want. Jesus said to him, he who has bathed needs only to have to wash his feet. You are completely clean, but not all of you. Peter, this isn't about that.

This is about something else. He knew that one was betraying him, and for this reason, he said, not all of you are clean. And so when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table, and he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? That's an amazing statement.

All the things that are on his mind, all that's going to happen in the next few hours and the next day, he says, do you understand? You call me teacher and Lord, and you're right, so I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I gave you an example that you should do as I did to you. You've got to serve. You've got to serve one another, and no job is too low. You have to. You have to empty yourself. You have to be last if you want to be first. But more importantly, in the context of this message, if you ever want to be happy. You see, you've got to do this. This is the key.

This is everything. You know, it's amazing to me that the church looks on something like that, and the debate of the church is astounding over the years. The debate of the church is, is foot washing an ordinance or not? And some of the traditions of Protestantism, like Grace Brethren, people like that, they have foot washing.

And they say, we have it, and you guys are wrong if you don't have it. Now, I'm not at all today trying to talk about the ordinance of foot washing, because I don't think that was his point. The point is service. You see, just because you have the ordinance of foot washing, you have a whole bunch of people that don't serve anybody, you're not doing anything with this passage. This is about serving one another.

You see, it's consistent. Look, I did this to you, and I did it under the most unbelievable circumstances. Just imagine if you were given an unfair, but that you, in a sense, were going to face execution tomorrow, or someone you love was having the most difficult surgery they could ever imagine.

Are you even going to have a baby the next day? Would you take time to be the lowest servant in the room, or would you be preoccupied? You see, Jesus is saying, that's how important this is.

That's why I did it at this time. You can only be as happy as God intended you to be by giving yourself away. The value of your life is measured by what it gave away. You see, that's what God did, and here's the advantage we have. The Spirit of God resides in us. You see, when you came to Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God came into your life.

Maybe you can see it better with an illustration. The Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth, enormously high salt content. The only thing that lives in the Dead Sea are microorganisms.

It does not and cannot sustain life. Now, if you go 87 miles north of the Dead Sea, you go to the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee, for the past 3,000 years, has been abundant in life. Generation after generation have made their livelihood fishing, the Sea of Galilee. Now it's not just a great fishing place, but it's recreational and all that.

Now, there's interesting distinctions between the two, but I want to make one particular one. The water from the north flows into the Sea of Galilee, and you have the sea. At the other end of the Sea of Galilee, the water flows out of the lake, the Jordan River. Now, it comes in, Sea of Galilee, it flows out.

Life and abundance everywhere. The Jordan River flows south and flows into the Dead Sea. Same river, except there's one thing different about the Dead Sea. The water never flows out. The water just is stagnant. And over the time, the water produces no life.

Which one are you? You see, the Spirit of God just flows into you the moment you become a Christian. Whether you're a Dead Sea Christian or a Sea of Galilee Christian, the Spirit of God flows into you. The real question is, does the Spirit of God flow out of you? Because if it does, you have life, you have happiness.

You see, you have exactly what you were designed for. Jesus called it the abundant life. As Paul made it clear to the Galatians, it's up to you. Sea of Galilee or Dead Sea, it's your choice.

Happiness or continued frustration. 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. .