Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. There's the analogy that he uses. And I can remember when I was preparing this, I had one of those rare but wonderful aha moments.
Like you've ever done that, I'm reading scripture and I go, I see something I've not seen here before. And it's this. Happiness is an outcome. Happiness is an outcome. It's a process of sowing and reaping. That's what happiness is.
It's an outcome. Notice what he says. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house. You know, you can't wiggle your nose and put a house on the rock. It's not instant.
You have to build it. 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. Do you have a spiritual appetite or not? You see, if you don't have a spiritual appetite, you'll never be spiritually satisfied. And if you're never spiritually satisfied, you'll never be happy.
You see, that's just the way this works. He said you have to have an appetite for this. You have to hunger and thirst.
Very, maybe the strongest of all human motivations. You have to hunger and thirst, he says, for righteousness. You see, you just don't absorb it. You don't absorb it.
You have to initiate. Verse 7, happy are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Don't you love mercy as long as you're receiving it? Remember, grace is getting what you don't deserve and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. You see, and don't we just love that? Someone says you're okay.
Trooper bends down over your window and says, this is just a warning. Mercy, I just love mercy. Yeah, the receiving end we love, but Jesus isn't speaking about the receiving end. He's speaking about the giving end. Happy are the merciful. Extend to people what they don't desire.
People who are relationally generous. Forgivers. Happy are those who forgive. Maybe the most prevailing, damaging thing I've seen in believers' lives over all these years is a spirit that's unforgiving. It's amazing what it does.
It just comes into your life like one little seed, and then just like one cell going bad with cancer, it begins to metastasize and spread. Before you know it, you're an old, bitter person and your bitterness defines you. All because you would not show mercy. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said, we need to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Wow. Every single day God forgives me. Every single day. And what's amazing, and you know it in your own life, he forgives you for the things you do over and over and over and over and over again. And we say, look, I can forgive you once, but not twice. See, if that's your attitude, you're not happy. And you won't be.
You know why? You are surrounded by sinners. They're everywhere.
There are people that will hurt and offend you everywhere. He says, happy are the merciful. And God says, that's so important to me.
Notice what he said. He said, but happy are the merciful. They'll receive mercy. You don't want to be merciful. Don't expect a great deal of relational mercy from God.
He might turn it up on you just a little till you learn this lesson. Then he says in verse eight, happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Boy, that was one of the ones that I read that I thought, that can't be me. You see, that's a hard word when you think of yourself, pure. You know, if you have any conscience at all, you know one thing you're not. You're not pure.
You see, you know that. But that's not exactly what Jesus means. That term pure in heart is an idiom in the language. And it means, if I was going to say it in a way that we would all understand, that he would say, happy are the authentic as opposed to the hypocrites. If there's one thing Christ detests, it's hypocrisy.
He just detests it. You see this idea, the pure in heart, kind of an interesting thing. He warns us about that, by the way. He warns us in chapter six in verse one.
He says, beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your fathers in heaven. See, are you authentic? Non-hypocritical.
This is hard to tell, especially in this context. You guys are your absolute spiritual best in the lobby when the service ends. You're like wonderful people. You are, they're all wonderful. Good morning, how are you? Good to see you.
Wow, look how wonderful they are. Then you get in your car and it's not as wonderful. Then you get to the restaurant or back home and it's not as wonderful.
You go to work tomorrow and it's not as wonderful. The Lord calls that hypocrisy. You see, the idea of being authentic, just being real, being transparent, those are the kinds of things he says that you really have to watch. It's an amazing thing when you think about it. Why are we hypocritical? Our pride. You see, it's our pride. One of the worst things about being a Christian is this, I want you to believe I'm more spiritual and righteous than I am.
It's almost like I'm dedicated to that. That is hypocrisy. Turn with me, we'll come back here, but go with me to Luke 18. Luke chapter 18.
You see, this is all coming from our pride. Notice verse 9 of Luke 18. Luke writes, he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves and were righteous and viewed others with contempt. These are about self-righteous people, people who are hypocrites. The poster boy for a hypocrite in the New Testament is the Pharisee. So Jesus says this, two men went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax gatherer.
He says, the Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. God, I thank you. Now that's a great way to start, right? Gratitude. God, I thank you. I want to thank you. God, I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust adulterers, and even like this man, the tax collector. Wow. See, what is he saying? He is saying, God, I thank you for the miracle of me.
I'd just like to thank you for that. Now Jesus is using hyperbole here in a sense, but I wonder how many of us do that kind of thing, how much better we are than those people. At least I don't whatever the blank is. I'm not like that person. Notice what he says then, how religious he is.
He said, I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get. I am a good religious person.
I love this. But the tax gatherer, tax collector standing at some distance away was even unwilling to lift his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. There is a man poor of spirit. There is a man who has a purity of righteousness.
You see, just God be merciful to me. I know who I am. Notice what Jesus said. I tell you this man went to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. You see, how do we see ourselves? Back to the attitudes, pure in heart. Then he says in verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers.
They would be called the sons of God. Happy are people who make peace. Happy are people that go about reconciling, people to themselves and other people.
Does that define you at all? Are you a peacemaker? Now some people, by the way, are peacemakers but that's only because they're so passive.
In other words, that's called passive aggressiveness and that is I'll let you do whatever you want if you just leave me alone kind of peace. That's not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is a prince of peace.
Jesus has brought the reconciliation of a holy God to sinful people. He's a peacemaker and he said happy are people who make peace. On the other hand, think of how many make people sow discord.
That's one of the great dangers of gossip, by the way. You sow discord in friendly little whispers or as Christians do it in prayer requests and you sow this discord among other people and then you're happy with yourself but not really. He said blessed are the peacemakers.
You see, people who make peace. Why? Because that's what I am. You see, he keeps saying this over and over again. You want to be happy, be like me. If you want to be happy, see happiness the way I see it. Then he says this in two verses. He says blessed are those or happy are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Notice how that's not our categories. You never think of getting up, I want to be happy today. I hope someone insults me. I hope someone really criticizes me for being a Christian. You see what he is saying though. He is saying this, I am happy to be persecuted for the sake of my king and his kingdom.
I am happy to do that. You see, so often we care so much about what other people think of us, we don't really care what the Lord who saved us thinks of us. Either through apathy or indifference or a plan, we don't stand for him. In order that other people will like us better.
Boy, that's not the road to happiness. I can remember facing the tension of this when I went to the University of Pittsburgh and the first few times I was in philosophy classes or whether I should, during the discussion times, let people know that I'm a warning or an evangelical Christian. And I decided to do it. And when I did it, I thought, oh boy, because soon as the professor found it out, then he was going to have a lot of fun with me. And it started just sort of belittling the whole idea that there is a God, that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, all that kind of thing.
But do you know what? The thing I liked best about it was simply this. Once I did it, how much better I felt about myself. Instead of just sitting there nodding my head all the time when some atheistic existential guy's up front telling me that life stinks and then you die.
That's pretty much all he had to say. And so to stand for Christ made me, it felt good. And by the way, sidebar, gave me opportunities to share the gospel with other students.
It's just the way it works. But the idea of it is, are you willing to do that? Are you willing, in a sense, to not be with that crowd or that group because you believe in Jesus Christ? And you'll stand for him. You see, Jesus said that's what can make you happy. Notice then he says, rejoice and be glad. See, it's all about happiness. Happy, happy, happy. Now rejoice and be glad, he says. For your reward in heaven is great.
It's just terrific. The idea of happiness. You'll be happy when you're totally dependent on God. You'll be happy when you mourn sin and its consequences. You'll be happy when you're content to be what God intended you to be. You'll be happy when you have a spiritual appetite and you're committed to the right thing. You'll be happy when you're relationally generous and forgiving and merciful to others. You'll be happy when you're authentic and not hypocritical, and you'll be happy when you embrace the ministry of reconciliation, peacemaking with other people, and you'll be happy when you're persecuted for your king and his kingdom. The question comes then, if I just can convince myself of that, am I gonna be happy?
Not right away necessarily. I wanna go to the end of the sermon, chapter seven, verse 24. That's the beginning of the sermon. Now let's go to the end of the sermon. All the things that Jesus says between the Beatitudes and now, he puts them all together and he's basically gonna say now, I wanna tell you how to utilize this in your life.
I wanna tell you what it's gonna be like in your life and what it's gonna require from you. He says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. There's the analogy that he uses. And I can remember when I was preparing this, I had one of those rare but wonderful aha moments.
Like you've ever done that, I'm reading scripture and I go, I see something I've not seen here before. And it's this, happiness is an outcome. Happiness is an outcome. It's a process of sowing and reaping. That's what happiness is.
It's an outcome. Notice what he says. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house. You know, you can't wiggle your nose and put a house on a rock.
It's not instant. You have to build it. That's the analogy used, building the house. Building the house is a process.
You have to build the house. It takes a certain amount of time. It takes a certain amount of effort.
He even goes further though. He says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them. Boy, I can't tell you how important that is. I realize at times in my flesh I can be a little cynical. I get that. But one of the things I have a tendency to say is someone will come up afterwards and as Dr. Hendricks would say, glorify the worm. That's when they say nice things to me. And they'll say, wow, that was really a great message or that was really convicting.
And again, my response is almost always non-verbally my thought is and sometimes I'll be cynical enough to say it. We'll see. You see, don't say that was great.
We'll see. Jesus didn't say, you said to Jesus, I'm going to tell you something. That might be the best sermon I ever heard. Jesus would say, we'll see. You're going to act on these words? Are you going to act on these words? Because if you're not going to act on them, all you're going to, listen, you don't become spiritually, biblically happy because you memorize verses or you go to church. That's not going to happen.
James knew that. He said you have to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer. You actually have to act upon them. We all want the happiness. We just don't want to put in the work. We don't want to act upon these things.
The action becomes almost everything. Let me put it this way, and this is so important for you. There's a man that is a unique human being. His name is Forrest Fenn. He's a multimillionaire from New Mexico. And in 1988, he was told he had terminal cancer. And so, sort of leaving his mark, he thought at that time he'd go into the wilderness and die. But to leave his mark, he thought of something he would like to do. He took and put a treasure chest full of gold coins, diamonds, emeralds, incredible amount of wealth, and he buried it and hid it somewhere in the Rockies.
And then he wanted to let everybody know. By the way, he didn't die of terminal cancer. He's still alive today. He's 82 years old.
He wrote a poem, and in that poem, he put nine clues of how to try to find that treasure. And since then, 1988, people, what are you taking notes for here? What a first... Now you're saying something. See, do you realize how against the theme of happiness that is? Anyway, people are looking. And his reason for doing it is this. He said, too many people just sit, soak, and sour.
They just sit in a chair and live vicariously through other people. I want people to have a joyful life and an adventure in their own lives to do something worthwhile. So you can't get this unless you go out and start looking for it. Isn't it ironic that in Matthew 13, Jesus likens the kingdom of God as a treasure hidden in a field? You see, it's a treasure. And he says, you've got to go look for it. You've got to do something. You've got to act upon it. You've got to build the house.
Because if you don't do that, you're never going to be happy. And by the way, he gives in this little section here a great test of happiness. Here's the test. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against the house and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell and great was his fall.
What's the test? Storms. The biblical happiness that I'm talking about is storm proof. So it's the kind of happiness you can have when you had the worst week of your life. You see, there might be sorrow in it.
There might be mourning in that week and that's appropriate. But you could still be, as Jesus said, blessed, happy. So the question comes down to whether you have the kind of happiness that Jesus is talking about or you're pursuing the kind of happiness that you instinctively think you want. How have you done when the storms have hit you? You say, how have they done?
How have you done? Do you have that inner joy, that sense of peace and hope? Or do you come all apart and pray that God would just change the circumstances so you can be happy again? The one great lesson for the whole series to me, at the end of me, I can find happiness in him.
Let's pray. Father, we live in a world that is tremendously motivated to be happy. The problem with it is, Father, that it's not the kind of happiness that lasts. It's not the kind of happiness that is real. It's certainly not the kind of happiness that is described by Jesus Christ. We live in a world where we think that pleasure itself will give us ultimate happiness and it never does. We live in a world, Father, that believes that if we can only get the circumstances to agree with our agenda, then we can be happy.
But somehow that never really happens. Father, I pray that each one of us are challenged by the words of Jesus Christ. Each one of us look at these beatitudes and they say, look, I can see that this describes my Lord and Savior, but the most important question is, does it describe me? And if it doesn't, Father, maybe listen to his words and ask ourselves the question, do we act upon this? That whenever you say something to us that's very, very clear for your glory and for our good, we not only memorize it or highlight it, we, through the power of your Holy Spirit, act upon it. Father, when we do, we find this wonderful, rich treasure, the treasure of the kind of happiness you intended for every one of your children. Father, we pray for that outcome in each and every one of our lives.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. 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.
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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