Take What Is Yours, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Remember the Summer on the Mount? Jesus goes after one of our favorite recreations and hobbies. He tells us that we're not to be anxious for anything and not to worry about anything.

Anybody here violate that? Jesus said, don't do that. You realize what you're doing when you do this. I don't care what you say. I'm going to do it. Remember, Jesus said, I'll even give you the solution.

It's free. Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all this will be added to you. I'll give it all to you.

Seek me first. You don't understand. I've got kids in college. The bills come due. He does understand.

You see, the priority of your life is Him. He said, I'm telling you the truth here. Over and over again the Bible says, be anxious for nothing. 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. You're an heir of God. You're not just a child of God. You're an heir. And guess what you inherit? Everything that Jesus inherits. Everything the Son of God inherits.

And what does He inherit? Everything. That's you.

Do you feel like that? Because that's the truth. You see, that's the truth. You overwhelmingly conquer your joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Let me now read Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3.

Paul says this. He said, Blessed be the Lord God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then these words, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Notice the word blessed.

It's past tense. The moment you became a Christian. He says he has blessed us with what? Well, it says right here, every spiritual blessing that exists in the heavenly places. That's you. And me.

He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Now, if you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven, how nonsensical does it seem to you that you say, I can't. I can't. I can't get through another day. I can't. I can't. I can't deal with this anxiety and stress. I can't.

Really? You have every. What do you need? You know what that verse says what you need?

Nothing. It's all provided. God says, I provided it all for you. In fact, if you look down to verse 11, it says, also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. We have an inheritance.

Israel had the inheritance of the promised land. You and I have the inheritance of the abundant life living in the promised land. He said, it's yours. I've given it to you.

He says to them. And he says to us, you have to take what is yours. You just have to take what's yours.

I've given it to you to take it. You see, when you live the Christian life. You don't fight for victory. You fight from victory. The battle is already won. The Lord is already the victor.

We don't fight for victory. We fight from it. Think of what the scriptures say. You're a new creature in Christ. It says, how much of my past is gone?

All the old things have passed away. You're a new creature in Christ. Paul even said, look, we can rejoice in tribulation even in the worst times. James said, consider all joy, my brethren, when various trials come your way. Is that your experience?

You see, is that really what you do? As long as you live in the wilderness, your life's going to be a struggle. But if you live in the promised land.

You're going to be blessed because your life's going to be marked by faith and trust. You see, that's the problem. Back to Joshua. He alludes to it in verse three when he said, I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses. He said, Joshua, I'm not telling you anything new. Forty years ago, I spoke the same words to Moses and these people. It's yours.

Go get it. And they didn't. They couldn't do it at all. They simply said, we can't we can't do this.

He doesn't want to be that way. And they ended up struggling in the wilderness for 40 years. The reason this message is so important is if we're a typical average church, the majority of you are living your lives in the wilderness.

So much so. Last week, I was doing with a survey that was done from a church in Chicago and I said it was they had about 12 percent. But this week, I find another survey done in 2007 by the Reveal Research Project. And they started out and said, we're looking for Joshua's.

That's what they wanted to find out. And they wanted to know the percentage of evangelicals that go to church that are actually live out the idea of loving the Lord our God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and their neighbors themselves living in the promised land. And here's what they decided after they surveyed hundreds of thousands of Christians around our country. Eleven percent do. Of all the people that last week was 12 percent. These figures don't lie. Eleven percent.

Wow. Not nearly nine out of every 10 believers live their whole life in the wilderness. No joy.

Unless the circumstances give it to you. You see, no hope, no peace, unless the circumstances give it to you, just like an unbeliever. The same thing. Eleven percent. Now, just imagine, by the way, if a high school graduated 11 percent of their students.

What would you call that school? If it graduated, 11 percent of our students graduate. Well, what about if a hospital only healed 11 percent of the patients and the other 89 percent died that went there? Would you go there? What if your favorite baseball football team only won 11 percent of their games? Would you consider that a success? Those that number describes us.

Eleven percent. Now, we know God wants all of us to live in the promised land, and yet we don't. Now, I do believe this. One of the problems is the way we view conversion. I think a lot of us view conversion, I'll use a car wash analogy. A lot of us view ourselves as a very filthy, dirty old clunker. And then you go into the car wash, you receive Jesus Christ in his finished work on the cross, and you're forgiven your sins, and you come out of the car wash a clean clunker.

You went in a dirty clunker, you come out a clean clunker. But that's not what the word of God says. The word of God says you come out a new creature. The word of God says you don't come out just with your sins forgiven, you come out with the presence of God in your life. You come out with the Holy Spirit entwilling you, the word of God guiding you, your brothers and sisters in Christ supporting you. That's what you come out with.

But you end up living your whole life in the wilderness as a clunker. How often do we say, you know something? I'm a child of God. And I'm more than a conqueror. Bring life on. Boy, I wish you said that more.

You know what I hear? I can't. I'm a victim. There's people around me that make me miserable.

Oh, if you knew my boss. It's just so terrible. No one deserves the neighbors I have. That's how we live. When you make statements like that, you have decided you wanted to spend your whole life in the wilderness. That's what he says. Now he goes on. He tells him what he's given them.

Verse four from the wilderness of this in this Lebanon, he said, even as far as the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, as far as the great sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail or forsake you. This is God talking.

You got it. You see, it's interesting. Now, the question is, that's God's part. He said, I'll do it all. What's your part? This is where God comes in. Here's what God says. Here's your part. Verse six, be strong and courageous.

He said, for you should give this people possession of the land, which I swore of their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous. Now, I know what some of you are thinking, there it is. That's the fine print.

That's why my life is such a mess. You see, I got it. God said, I have to be strong and courageous.

You're misunderstanding it. You see, God says, be strong and courageous. Okay, Bill, I'm going to muster up the strength. I'm going to be a better man.

Don't waste your time thinking like that. You see, it's not you. It wasn't you that saved you, and it's not you that keeps you.

It's him. You see, well, what do you mean? He says, be strong and courageous. Okay, this is what God's going to say. You know what I want you to be strong and courageous? You know what kind of courage I need you to have? You need to believe me when I tell you something.

That takes courage. When I tell you something, you need to believe me. That's what God is saying.

Notice what he does. He goes on, and he says this. He said, only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. He said, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you will be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous. You'll have success. Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous. Don't tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Here's what he tells Joshua. Joshua has something in common with us. Joshua has a Bible just like us.

Well, not exactly. His Bible is five books. He has the first five books of the Bible, the law, written by Moses. He has the Genesis, the Deuteronomy. God says, yeah, that's the whole key to this.

You and I have all 66 books. That's the whole key, he said. That's it. You need to be courageous in this. Notice what he says. He says, you need to do all according to the law of Moses. He said, don't turn from it to your left or right. If you do, you'll have success. He said, don't let it depart from your mouth.

Meditate it on day and night. Be careful to do all that's written in it. And then you'll have prosperity.

You'll have success. He said, the courage you need is the courage to believe me. But do you? Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus goes after one of our favorite recreations and hobbies. He tells us that we're not to be anxious for anything and not to worry about anything.

Anybody here violate that? Jesus said, don't do that. You realize what you're doing when you do it.

You say, I don't care what he said. I'm going to do it. Remember, Jesus said, I'll even give you the solution.

It's free. Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this will be added to you. I'll give it all to you.

Seek me first. But you don't understand. I've got kids in college. The bills come due. He does understand. You see, the priority of your life is him.

He said, I'm telling you the truth here. Over and over again, the Bible says, be anxious for nothing. Now, if you live in the wilderness, I can tell you something. You live with anxiety and worry. You wake up in the middle of the night, anxiety and worry. It's your constant companion through life. Once in a while, when circumstances are good, you forget about it. Then you're reminded again, and you're right back there again. Oh, what am I going to do now?

How is this ever going to happen? And God says everywhere in his word, look, I got you. I'm right here. I got you.

Theoretically, maybe. You see, we don't do that. That becomes our problem.

And the worst thing is sometimes we even come up with a different kind of antidote and think that'll work, but it won't. Last week, I was dealing with Greg Hawkins, who had that study from Chicago. And he writes this, and I find this interesting. He says, nothing has a greater impact on the spiritual growth of a believer than reflection on scripture. If churches could only do one thing to help people at all levels of spiritual maturity and to grow in their relationship with Christ, the choice is clear.

They would inspire, encourage, and equip people to read their Bible. He said the key to spiritual growth is not increased church attendance or involvement in spiritual activities. People do not grow in Christ because they're busy at church.

They grow in Christ when they read and trust and do the word of God. That's what this is. That's why he said, look, you've got to meditate on this. You've got to think about this. He said, I want you to do this the best that you can. I want you to read it.

I want you to believe it. I want you to meditate on, and then I want you to do it. And if you do that, the land's yours.

Go and take it. And that's not just in the Old Testament. Go with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3, the last thing that Paul writes. Paul writes. Here Paul was describing the last 2,000 years, but our culture for sure.

And here's what Paul tells us first. Life's difficult out there. Life stinks out there. Life's a challenge out there. It's hard. Now remember, we're on a cursed planet, surrounded by sinful people, and we have our own sin.

So don't expect it to be smooth. Paul says this. Timothy, realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. You could say that from my own life.

Bill, I just want you to understand. In your life, difficult times are going to come. I don't want difficult times to come.

I'm happy when there's no difficult times. That's true, but they'll still come. He said, men will be lovers of self, narcissists. They'll be lovers of money, materialists. They'll be boastful and arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited. They'll be lovers of pleasure, hedonist, rather than lovers of God. It's going to be awful. Sin is going to be rampant. Pain is going to be real.

We suffer in a real suffering world. What do I do? What do I do? See, if I'm Timothy, and this is the last thing Paul's writing, Paul, tell me what I need to do.

How do I deal with this? Here's what he says. Verse 14. He says, you, however, continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired, or literally, God-breathed. All scripture is inspired by God.

It's profitable for teaching and for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, with the result that the man of God will be adequate, equipped for every good work. Timothy, you want to counter all that? Read the word, meditate on it, believe it, and live it. He said, you want to counter all that.

That's all you have to do. The writer of Hebrews said, the word of God is alive. It's powerful.

It's sharper than any two-edged sword. He said, it pierces the center of the soul and the spirit. It's a critic of the thoughts and the intents of my own heart. The word of God helps me understand me. The word of God helps me understand you. The word of God helps me understand life. You see, and he says, that's what I want you to do.

What's the antidote? You need to be in the word of God. That's what you need to understand. That's how you live a promised land life. It's all the way from Genesis to Revelation. One last passage I want to look at is Psalm 1, the first Psalm in the Psalter. Remember, the book of Psalms, like the book of Proverbs, is in the wisdom literature. They're very pragmatic books. One of the great disciplines you can do in your life, and many of you have done that, is there's 31 Proverbs, 31 chapters. On a good month, just read one chapter of the Proverbs a day.

And as you begin to read it and you start seeing it, wow, there's just so much common sense wisdom here. But this great Psalter starts out the book of Psalms, and notice how he starts. He said, how blessed.

That word means happy or joyful. How happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit at the seat of the scoffers? Bad company corrupts good morals.

How happy is the guy who stays away from bad company? We all know that to be true. But notice what else he says. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

He said, that's what he does. His life's all about the word of God and what it says. He said, he'll be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season.

Its leaf does not even wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers. Want to have a great life? He says meditate on the word. The most important thing you can do, though, is to believe the word. Now, here's the one last thing I want to say. How do you know if you believe the word or not? Now, I know what you say.

I think that's right. As long as I have a mental acquiescence toward it, I believe. I mean, I believe it. Jesus said, no, not exactly. If you want to know if you believe the word, do you do it?

You see, do you do it? That'll tell you whether you believe it. That's why James wrote, don't be a hearer of the word only, but prove yourself to be a doer of the word. You see, it's the matter of doing the word of God. When I do the word of God, it tells God I believe this. You see, the big problem that we have is, if you live your whole life in the wilderness, it's a self-imposed life. The reason you're in the wilderness is you. And the reason it's you is, one, you don't know the word at all, so that'll hurt you. I don't even know what the Bible says.

Well, good luck then. Or two, I do know what it says, but I don't believe it. Theoretically, I believe it, but pragmatically in my life, I don't. And whenever we live that way, we never get to the Promised Land. God wants all of His children to live in the Promised Land. He says all you need is the courage to believe what I'm telling you.

Let's pray. Father, it's a sobering thought that the realization may be that so many of us who know you languish our whole lives just like Israel did for 40 years in the wilderness. You sustain us and you keep us, but we never have the abundance that you promised. We never cross the Jordan. We never overcome the enemy. We simply wonder.

Our happiness becomes circumstantial, not relational. Father, I pray as we look at this great book of Joshua that you have given us a picture of what it means to be a child of God who believes what you say, and that belief brings tremendous blessing into our lives. Father, we must believe that the Word of God and the Son of God are the answer to all of the anxiety of our lives. This we pray for our good and your glory 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 and 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. .