Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. We look at everything, including COVID, on a horizontal plane. God doesn't look at it like that at all.
He doesn't see it that way at all. But what's happened to us is we've ended up defining ourselves as children of God, as believers in Jesus Christ. And when it comes to this, we take virtually what I'd call a YouTube perspective.
I heard a guy on YouTube say, and that's, there we go. And so it's ended up causing all kinds of secondary and difficult issues in the context of the church. 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.
Whenever any of us have decided to take a very long road trip, say to a destination like the Grand Canyon or Disney World, and you have children in the car. And so as you go along, what you end up hearing is a familiar chorus from the backseat. Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Well, for the last 17 months, we've all been like those little children. All anticipating the end of our journey here with COVID. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Well, it's clear to me that I have to deliver some obviously bad news, and that is that we have more miles to travel down a bad road. It's all ahead of us.
And like children, we're running out of patience as a people. And to make it much worse from my point of view is simply this, that other issues are beginning now to surface that I don't think I would have ever expected, especially as it deals with the Church of Jesus Christ. Last Wednesday, we had a surprise visitor come to the offices and he was part of our church way back in the beginning when we started and then decided a little bit later in life even to go to Dallas Seminary. And so he went to Dallas Seminary and graduated.
And he and his wife have been serving the Lord ever since. And he attends a mega church, very, very large church in Dallas. And we were just talking and then all of a sudden he said how sad it is to see what COVID and vaccines have done to the church. He said brothers and sisters in Christ are now emotionally divided and in conflict. And then something very profound, he said, I'm afraid that the enemy has found a way into the church and he's dividing the body of Christ. The next day I was talking to a friend and he had told me that just two days before or that day, I think it was, he had breakfast with a pastor, Dallas grad, middle of Texas, large church. And he said that pastor told him that it's cost him a lot of people in their church and there's a tremendous division in the church. My son goes to church in Georgia and he's talked to me about what's happened in their church. Something's going on that's having an enormous effect on the church, which it should never have. The question is, what do we do about this?
And how do we handle it? And I'm sort of going to approach it from the side door instead of the front door. I'd like you to open your Bibles to First Samuel, Chapter 16. First Samuel, Chapter 16. Chapter 16 of First Samuel is one chapter ahead of the David and Goliath story. So that's a very famous chapter in First Samuel.
And the context of Chapter 16 is simply this. Saul has become a complete and utter failure as king of Israel. In fact, if you look at the last verse of the last part of the last verse of Chapter 15, it says the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. So Saul has he's done.
He's finished. So the Lord wants to talk to Samuel, who's one of the most unique characters in the entire Bible. Samuel is high priest over the nation Israel, and he's also a prophet of God.
So he had two of the three offices you could have. And and the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn, he said, with oil and go and I will send you to see Jesse the Bethlehemite, he said, for I have selected for myself among his sons. Now, what's interesting about that, the king is going to be selected from Jesse's sons. Samuel's first response is so human. He said, how can I go when Saul hears somebody will kill me? So we know how paranoid Saul was. So God says, no, don't do it that way.
Go and say you're making a sacrifice as the high priest in Bethlehem and it'll all be covered. So that's what he does. And then it says in verse six, when they entered, he looked at Eliab. That's the oldest son. And he thought, surely this is the Lord's anointed before him.
That's the way he did it. Look at him. He looks like a king. Now, this is the high priest and prophet Samuel.
Now, think about this. What did Saul look like? The king. The people looked around and said, look, it's all he's the king. He's a head taller than everybody.
Handsome man. He's the king. He looks like a king, but he wasn't a king. So Samuel makes the same mistake. He looks at Eliab with what I call and it becomes important in the context of what I'm talking about this morning.
Worldly wisdom. He looks at it the way the world looks at it. That's just the way he sees it. And so he said, the Lord said to Samuel in verse seven, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
Wow. What's God saying there? I don't see life like you do.
At all. You see for what you see, you look on a horizontal plane and you come to conclusions. I don't do that. God says, I don't see life like you see life. So then they brought a couple more out and God said, no, no, no. And then verse 12, it said he sent and brought him David in. And it says now he was ruddy with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him.
That's the guy. Now, think of that, just read it carefully and look at it. At first you look at it and say, didn't God just do then what Samuel did? Notice the description you get of David.
He's ruddy, auburn hair, reddish tint to it, beautiful eyes and he's handsome. Now, what's interesting about it is his family thought so little of him that Jesse didn't even have him there. He's the last of the sons.
He's ten and a few sheep. I can't be one of them. He can't be the one.
Well, he is. But when you look at this a little bit closer, you come to the realization that's not the case. Let me read from Psalm 78 verses 70 to 72. This tells you what God saw. He also chose David, his servant, and he took him from the sheepfolds, from the care of the ewes and suckling lambs he brought him, to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
And so he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and he guided them with his skillful hands. That's why God picked him. The point that I'm going to make from this, though, is we look at everything, including COVID, on a horizontal plane. God doesn't look at it like that at all. He doesn't see it that way at all. But what's happened to us is we've ended up defining ourselves as children of God, as believers in Jesus Christ, and when it comes to this, we take virtually what I'd call a YouTube perspective.
I heard a guy on YouTube say, and that's, there we go. And so it's ended up causing all kinds of secondary and difficult issues in the context of the church. God sees it very different than we do. And so what we have to do when we go on this COVID journey is I believe we have to start seeing ourselves and seeing our role in this the way God does, not the way we do, and that's caused almost all the problem.
Let me illustrate, just let me put out the first question. You know the answer. Does COVID-19 surprise God? No. When did he know?
Before the creation. So there's no shock here. Oh, what's going on? It's not like that.
He knows. But let me ask another question. Where does it come from?
How do we answer it? There's a big fighting debate among people about this. Okay?
It either is man-made, see, or it's natural and comes from another animal. All right? So there's fighting about that. You say, well, what are ramifications? They have different opinions. That's true. However, let me look at it from this point of view.
Why is this important? I have heard people say to me that, and take one view and say, I hate those people who made this. But they don't usually say it that way. They'll say, I hate those people, and then they use a derogatory adjective to describe the whole nation. I hate those people.
Okay? What did Jesus say? He said, love your enemies. Pray for them. I didn't hear Christians say that. I hate them. Jesus said you love them. See, his perspective is completely different than our perspective when it comes to something like this. We take a completely different perspective.
How bad will this get, and how long will it last? Now, I'll give you my simple one. I don't know, and I don't even care.
Because it doesn't mean a thing to me that way. But I know who knows. Go with me to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. Starting in verse 6. Peter says, Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time. This is an interesting thought, all through the New Testament. If you want God to approve of you or exalt you in life, the one thing you can do is humble yourself.
You see it over and over and over again. You humble yourself, God will exalt you. You exalt yourself, God will humble you. He says, look, you've got to figure out how this works. He then goes on and says, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Do we have much anxiety in our country or in our church?
Yes. The studies are showing right now that in the last 17 months, the mental health of America is at an all-time low. Americans are full of worry and anxiety. Now, I'm not saying we should be at all, but that's what they're coming to the conclusion.
Unfortunately, I think many of us are. He said, be sober of spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He says, in any kind of situation you find yourself in, Lucifer is going to have an agenda. And he has one when it comes to COVID. And accordingly, what's happening in the church right now, it's working. He's dividing the church. It's amazing over this issue.
He said, resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. We're so myopic that a lot of Americans think this is our issue. That's a joke. That's why we had Ranjit and Deepa here from Delhi. It's not only an issue in India for 1.4 billion people, but it's infinitely worse than it is here.
It's an issue worldwide. He said, yeah, believers are suffering this all over the world. Here's God's answer. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you to him.
Be dominion forever and ever. Amen. So how long are we going to go through this? From God's point of view, a little while. That's God's point of view.
Now, I can tell you this because I know enough of you. How many of you think 17 months is a little while? Not a little while. Oh, God's lying? You see, God's wrong about this.
He doesn't understand. From God's point of view as an eternal being, no matter how you and I suffer, it's a little while. You see, it's a little while. No matter how long it seems to us.
We get preoccupied with the temporal. God says, no, I have a better perspective than that. Paul said it differently when he said, I don't compare the sufferings of this world. It can even be compared to what's awaiting me. That's a perspective.
That's a godly perspective. So I don't know how long it's going to last. God knows exactly how long it's going to last. But I can tell you this, that after I've suffered a little while, God will apply his grace once again to me.
The real question, most importantly, is this. What should we remember as we take this trip of more miles than a bad road? What should we remember? And that's what I want to talk about today.
Five things I want you to remember. First one is found in James chapter one. James, just a few pages to your left, chapter one. Verse two, we've been here many times. This is a little different context. Okay, first word in verse two, consider.
Now, one makes that word unusual. It doesn't mean, hmm, doesn't mean that kind of consider. It's an imperative mood. It's a commandment. God is going to command you and me to consider this. And he's going to give it a context. Consider it all joy.
Not have some good moments. He said, consider all joy. He said, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Is this one of those various trials? Yes. Is this, are we all experiencing this together? Yes. He said, you consider this all joy.
Now, if you think on the horizontal plane, you go, what? What? I just can't understand that. Well, God says this. Knowing that the testing of your faith. What does God say a trial does? Test your faith. Why do trials come into your life?
Collectively or individually? Test your faith. I've said it over the years that a lot of times God, a test of your faith or a trial, God uses as a spiritual mile marker.
So that you know how far you have gone down the road. That we have a capacity, an innate capacity, to think we're way more spiritual than we are. And as long as the circumstances of our life are good, I'm spiritual.
Then they go bad and what do you have? Worry, anxiety, fear, panic. Well, then I'm not as spiritual as I thought, am I? God does that not so he'll know how far we are, but so we'll know how far we are. So, he says, knowing that the testing your faith produces, here's a word we hate when it comes to a trial, endurance.
Wow. See, what's one of the things God wants you and I to do through COVID? Endure it. With your faith, endure this. What would it take for me to endure this? Faith. I can't look on the horizontal plane.
I can't do that. You see, but he says, notice, and then he says this, let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete and lacking in nothing. That word complete is the word teleos, it means mature. So, God says, when you pass the test and you endure the trial, you grow spiritually and you become more mature. In other words, God says that a trial is good for you and for me. That's God's perspective, a trial. That's why I can consider all joy because it's to help me become more like my Savior and to grow me in my faith. How many times has that thought crossed your mind in the last 17 months? Be honest.
How about this? If we're to consider it all joy, and that's what he says, I'll ask you a more penetrating question. How many times in your prayer life have you thanked God for COVID-19? Serious.
How many times did you thank him? Thank you, Lord, I know this is for my good. We don't think like that. You see, we don't like the idea of enduring and that type of... When we get a trial, all we want is it, we want it over.
You see, I want it eliminated. Then I can get back to my happy way. God says, consider it all joy. I mean all joy, not some joy. In other words, if you thought just like God thinks, when you find yourself in a corporate trial or an individual one, you'd be joyful. You see, you'd be joyful. And one of the reasons I'm joyful is I know that I'm only going to suffer for a little while from God's perspective, even on a terrible prognosis for me. It's just going to be a little while and I'm going to be forever with the Lord.
See, he sees things from a very different point of view than what we say. So God wants to use this for an opportunity for me to grow. Secondly, I want you to go with me to Philippians chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2 and verse 2. The second thing that God wants you and I to think like and act like during this COVID crisis. The first thing he does, he starts out with some conditions, by the way, that if you don't want to do this, you're really in bad stead when it comes to your relationship with God. He says, therefore, verse 1, if there's any encouragement in Christ, is there any encouragement in Christ? Just imagine saying, no, I don't think there is. I mean, it doesn't make sense, right?
It's first-class conditions of assumption. You could translate it, since there's encouragement in Christ, if and it's true. If there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, he said, here's what I want you to do. Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit in 1001 purpose.
What's Paul saying? You and I must be unified. The body of Christ must be unified. By the way, over all the centuries, how has the Christian church done on this?
Oh, my goodness. How many denominations are there in Christianity? How many church splits happen in Christianity each year? No unity at all.
Why? We don't see it the way God does. We see it the way we see it.
That's what ends up happening. We go by worldly wisdom, not by divine revelation at all. 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.
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