The Choice Is Yours, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

You're not alone. I'll be your shield. I'll protect you. I'll be your power. I'll strengthen you. I'll be your provision.

I'll be your rest. I'll be the goodness in your life. Notice what he says, all things are going to work together for good. These are my promises to you.

Here's your choice. Do I want to believe these promises or do I want to say the circumstances just scare me to death? Just like the Canaanites scared them. Warren Wiersbe said this, he said, when God permits his children to go through the furnace, he keeps his eye on the clock and his hand on the thermostat.

His loving heart knows just how much and how long. But you have to believe 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. See, what do you lack? See, we often get all confused with this.

We keep saying, you know, if I only had, if they only did, if that only happened, if I only got that diagnosed, if he would only say this to me, if this would only happen. The Bible says you don't lack anything. You have everything. And notice the guarantee of it. He said, seeing that his divine power. That's the that's what backs us up, his divine power. How much power does he have?

He has everything. He said, yeah, I've given you everything according to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him. See, you have to know Christ to know this.

You have to know the word of God even to know what God's given you. For some of us, we know Christ died on the cross. We know he's our savior and we say that's good.

It's like fire insurance. I put my faith in him and when I die, I hope I go to heaven. But that's not the true knowledge of him. You have to know him.

See, that's an important thing. He said, if you want to appropriate this in your life, he said through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and his own excellence. The basis of all this is his power, his glory and his excellence. How does he do this?

How does this work? Verse four, for by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent what? Promises. What a great way to describe this. He has given us his precious and magnificent promises.

This is the key to life. I've given you my promises, but you have a choice. You see, precious, the word means valuable and costly, magnificent, megastas. It means superlative, the greatest. He says, look, I've given you these huge promises.

They should make all the difference to you in your life. But you have to choose whether you believe it or not. He has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises so that by them we become partakers of the divine nature.

Having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. He said, there's your choice. You see, when it comes down to your belief system and the promises of God, it comes down to when I believe that I become a partaker of the divine nature. Once I'm a partaker of the divine nature, I can face what I have to face, just as Christ did. That's what the promises of God has promised me.

Think of all the promises. Jesus said this. He said, he that believes in me. Has life.

This is what he said. Who says that? Jesus does. He that believes in me has life. You want eternal life?

Believe in me. Jesus said that. Even after you have eternal life, I've come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly.

That's his promise to you. I want to give you an abundant life, not just any life. I want to give you an abundant life that's filled with joy and hope and peace.

Not anxiety and worry and turmoil and conflict. He said, I want to give you this life. He's promised us life. He's promised us blessings. He's promised us the heavenlies.

He's promised us abundant grace upon grace. He's promised us joy. He's promised us strength. He's promised us guidance. He's promised us help. He's promised us instruction. He's promised us wisdom. He's promised us his Holy Spirit. He's promised us heaven. He's promised us eternal rewards. It's all yours.

He said, I promise all this to you. You have a choice. You can make your own mind up. You see, you can allow the kinds of things that sneak into your life and give you insecurity and fear.

You see, you can just fill your life with worry and tension. Or you can believe the promises of God. I love what Peter says. These are precious. These promises are magnificent. And yet so many of us sort of just ignore them. I think some of us even trivialize them or some of us minimize them. Oh, they're just words in the Bible.

These are promises of God, promises of the Lord Jesus Christ. You ever feel lonely? Ever? You shouldn't. He said in Hebrews, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I never will. He promised you that, but I feel so lonely.

Oh, and then it's worse. We say, I feel so lonely. I don't feel like I'm close to the Lord anymore.

I can't seem to find him. Listen, he never moved. You moved. You moved in your own doubt. You see, these circumstances make me feel lonely.

He said, I got that. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. This person, my spouse was so disappointing to me and condemning to me. I'll never leave you or forsake you. I'm right here.

I mean, that's why he said, look, I'm the I'm the husband of the widow. I'm the father of the orphan. I'm right here. I'm worried about what might happen.

Genesis 15. I am your shield. I am your shield.

I know I'm really worried about what could happen to crazy world out there. He said, I know I'm your shield. And Isaiah 41, he said, I will strengthen you and I will help you.

His power and his provision. I'll strengthen you. I know when you're weak.

I'll help you. Jesus said in John 10. He's a shepherd and we're the sheep. He said, I'll always go before you. Let me lead.

Jesus never said, hey, God in the world and tried on your own. What do you always say to everyone he met? Follow me. Just follow me. I've got this. How often do you lack rest? Peace.

You remember Jesus said, Come unto me, all you that are heavy laden. And what? I'll give you rest. Yeah, but you don't know what I'm going through. He does. He does.

He knows exactly what you're going through. He said, You come to me, I'll give you rest. That's his promise to us. No good thing. Why withhold from them who walk uprightly? Psalm 84.

You won't get up. I'll get sure every good thing comes your way. Now, his definition, a good thing and yours might be different. But I want to tell you something.

His is infinitely better than yours. He said, I will guide the meek in Psalm 25. Romans 828, all things work together for good. It's my promise. He said, I'll take the worst things that ever happened in your life.

I'll redeem them for good. That's his promise. He knows what life's like. Go with me to Psalm 34 for a moment. Psalm 34. Highlight this in your Bible.

Make a refrigerator magnet, whatever you need. But this is a great verse. Because it's the truth. It says here in verse 19 of Psalm 34. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. That's a fact. Don't let somebody on TV tell you that God's children don't have any afflictions.

That's a lie. It's not like that. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

But the Lord delivers them out of the ball. There's the promise. Hey, it's rough out there.

It is. Bad stuff happens out there. Many are the afflictions.

But I delivery out of them all, not some, all. Question. Do you believe it? You see, when you start facing an affliction, do you believe that or no? No.

Am I going to cope? No, I don't know what I'm going to do with this. I don't know how to handle it.

So you can believe me or not. What are we most anxious about? What's our greatest fear? Dying.

Some of us are terrified about dying. We don't even like to be around it. I don't even want to go and see a dead person. That won't help you. You're going to be dead. You say, I don't want to talk about it.

You don't have to. You're still going to be dead. We're all going to be dead. That's anxious. Jesus knows that. Remember what he said? Let not your heart be troubled.

Why? He knows our hearts troubled. You see, he knows that death scares us.

It really does. He said, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in me. Believe. You see, believe in me.

I didn't believe in my father. He said, Let me explain to him. In my father's house are many dwelling places. And I'm going to go and prepare a place for you. That's his promise. So that where I am, there you may be also.

And when it's time for you to go, I'll receive you to myself. Now, if you believe that, you're not afraid of dying. But if you're afraid of dying, you don't believe that.

You hope it's true, but you don't believe it. You see, that's why these promises are so important for us. It sort of gives us a whole different perspective of our lives.

It works over and over the same way. What is it that keeps us in the wilderness? I know what it is. It's the pain of living the difficult circumstances of life. It chokes out. It suffocates our faith. It chokes it out.

We're overwhelmed by it. I'm sure some of you are aware of this, but David Jeremiah, some years ago, was given a diagnosis that he had fatal cancer. They do the best they could for him, but it looked like David Jeremiah was going to go home and be with the Lord. And so he wrote a book about his experience of going through the whole thing, and the Lord delivered him.

But he writes this. He said, in every life, at some time, a person finds himself in that dark tunnel where there's no light that's visible. You weep and you cry out of frustration and you plead, Lord, I can't take anymore. I have no more patience, no more strength to hold out. I must hear from you today. If you don't resolve this issue, I don't know what I'm going to do. Can't you see that I'm desperate? Why don't you help me? He said, most of us have been there.

How about you? He said it may have been because of a long, drawn out sickness like mine. It may have been a long term financial problem. It may have been a struggle with grief. It may have been an alcoholic spouse or an unsaved loved one or dysfunction in your family. Or perhaps you've suffered through the problem at work. A demanding, unreasonable boss or a jealous, spiteful fellow worker whom with you you have to cope with every day.

There doesn't seem to be any resolution in sight. But the problem for us is when we do that, he says, we always forget what God has promised. I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

You're not alone. I'll be your shield. I'll protect you. I'll be your power. I'll strengthen you. I'll be your provision. I'll be your rest. I'll be the goodness in your life. No.

Notice what he says. All things are going to work together for good. These are my promises to you.

Here's your choice. Do I want to believe these promises or do I want to say the circumstances just scare me to death? Just like the Canaanites scared them. When Wiersbe said this, he said, when God permits his children to go through the furnace, he keeps his eye on the clock and his hand on the thermostat. His loving heart knows just how much and how long. But you have to believe it.

Last verse, First Peter, Chapter one, First Peter, Chapter one and verse three. You may wonder, why does God give us these circumstances that are so difficult for us? Why does he allow it if he can do anything?

I can tell you why. Everything out there in life should test for you and me. God uses the trials, the tribulations, the suffering of this world to test your faith.

Not for him to know he already knows, but for you to know. You see, he wants you to know where you really stand with God. Hey, you look like a fine bunch of spiritual people in here on Sunday morning.

But I got a hunch that away from here might be a little bit more of a struggle. God says, yeah, I want you to know that. So things like this can happen. That's what Peter's writing about. Peter says this. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to reveal in the last time.

That's the truth of the whole thing. You're heirs. He promised Israel the promised land. He promised you heaven. He promised you eternal life. He promised you that you will inherit everything that Christ does. He promised you that. That's his promise. Notice how he describes it in verse four, an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled. It will not fade away.

It's reserved in heaven for you. Do you believe that? See, I wonder.

That's why I say almost ad nauseam. Things like the worst thing that could happen to you can't happen to you. I wanted to reinforce that promise. I read the end of the book.

You win. You see, that's the truth. You have to believe this. If you don't believe it, it won't help you. It still will be true, but it won't help you.

That's what you find here. Then when you describe the way life really is, he said in verse six, in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials. I don't care what you're going through. By the way, some of you people go through things that are unimaginable to me.

I spent some time this week in a person's house in our church, and when I saw the depth of the suffering, it was unimaginable to me what this family is going through. But notice the truth of it. Even though now for a little while, if necessary, a little while. I mean, what's a little while?

It's us. Remember what Paul called it? Paul said, you know, when I think of my momentary light afflictions, wait a minute. If you read the story of Paul, they weren't momentary and they didn't seem light. He said, no, no.

He said, why? Because they can't be compared to the glory that's coming. So if I suffered for 20 years, that's nothing.

In light of eternity, it's nothing. Make that statement, you have to have faith. Paul had faith in this.

That's exactly what he said. He said, notice then verse seven, so that the proof of your faith. That's what the light afflictions do. That's what the temporary trials are like. They prove my faith, not to God, to me.

See, that's what happens in this. Whether or not you believe the promise of God has you, you know. You see, whenever you're facing a real trial, no matter how painful it is, if your basic attitude is one of peace and joy and hope. You believe the promises of God. If it is fear and anxiety and chaos and anger and all that, you're not believing God. You just don't believe.

It's like, I'd like to believe him, but I don't. Boy, the Canaanites are big. They're tough.

This is rough what I'm going through. That's what the story of Joshua was there to tell us. It'll prove your faith. All of us are going to go through trials.

Every time we do, you have the choice for each and every one of us. You can allow the trial to dominate your life. You'll live a life of grief and worry and anxiety and fear. And I hate to say it, you'll live and die in the wilderness. You'll be saved. You're out of Egypt. You went through the Red Sea, but you're in the wilderness. You never experience the land flowing with milk and honey.

What the writer of Hebrews calls the faith rests life. You never get in. Or you can believe in the precious promises of God. And I'm just telling you, once you do, you're in.

It makes all the difference in the world. I'd like to close with a story that maybe illustrates my point. During World War II, the King of England ordered the evacuation of all children from London because of the German bombings. Since many of the children had never been away from home before, you can imagine how nervous and upset they were. A mother and father had just put their young son and daughter aboard a crowded train and then said goodbye to them as they left. No sooner had it left than the little girl just started crying. And she told her brother that she was scared because she said, I don't know where we're going.

And brushing his own tears away, he put his arm around his little sister and he said this to comfort her. I don't know where we're going either. But the King knows. So don't worry. Our King knows. Let's pray. Father, this lesson is so powerful for us because it's the truth. This really is the watershed of our spiritual lives. What do we believe? How do we allow our faith in your promises to shape us? Or do we allow the circumstances and the tension and the chaos and the conflict and the fears of the world around us to shape us and to fill us with things that only do us harm? Father, I pray that each of us examine our own hearts and say, do I really believe in these promises?

It's such an essential thing that I do. Every promise, Father, that you have ever made that has a time of fruition where it can come to an end has already been proven to be true. These things that you promised in Jesus Christ are all finished except for his second coming. And all of them were true. We have to believe in all your promises the same way.

We have to put our faith and our trust in what you've said rather than how we feel because of the circumstances of our life. Thank you for this poignant and great book of Joshua and the lessons that we can learn. For our good and for your glory, in Christ's name, Amen. 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. .