Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.
to you abundantly. And yet, as I said last time, so many Christians and even more tragically so many that I know do not have that life. They do not have a life filled with joy and peace and hope. They have a life full of guilt, regret, anxiety, worry, fear.
And it's like, how does this happen? And we can't blame it on the resources because last time we saw this, I said that God said, and through Peter, He has given us everything that we need pertaining to life and godliness. Not some of the stuff, I've given you everything. Everything you need for life, everything you need for godliness, I've provided for you. 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 past week, I came across the book. It was written by a Yale law professor. The title of the book was Risk, Reason and the Decision Making Process. And it's not really a book in a normal sense. It's a compilation of case studies. And he wrote the book because he wanted it to be used at Harvard Business School and at MIT to help their graduate students learn how to make better decisions.
And so the book is a whole compilation of different case studies, and I'm simply going to read one of them. John is a 32 year old engineer who loves to go to estate sales and look for antique furniture and other potentially valuable items. One particular weekend, John found himself in an estate sale in the southern part of the United States.
All of the items in the house were going to be sold for a single price. John, after doing some research on the Internet, determined that the winning bid would probably be somewhere around ninety five thousand dollars. So the house was old and in disrepair. The architecture and the antiques scattered from room to room indicate that it was probably built in the Civil War era. And John had been a history buff his whole life and recognized a collection of rifles from that exact period. As John continued his investigation, he proceeded downstairs into a damp basement. Using a small pocket flashlight, he sees an old roll top desk located in the corner covered with cobwebs. As John searched through the poorly lit desk, he discovers there's a false drawer and in the drawer, a small leather pouch. John's heart begins to beat more quickly and his blood pressure rises as he begins to ponder what treasure he might find.
John, far from being disappointed, opens the pouch and finds 22 very rare, pure gold coins minted by the Confederacy during the Civil War. To his knowledge, they are likely to be worth millions of dollars. Now, John has to make a decision. What should he do? He has about ten thousand dollars in savings. If he sells his car and his house and everything else he owns, he believes that he could come up with enough money for the ninety five thousand dollars and the winning bid price.
But what should he do? The students at Harvard Business School and MIT then they discuss the case study. As they're discussing it, they say that they one must weigh both the risk and the reward of any decision, especially John's.
And so as they talk about it, they come up with these questions. What are the risks? Secondly, what are the potential rewards?
And thirdly, most importantly, what would you do? Their conclusion was the criteria must be based on truth or authenticity. You really have to know. Secondly, you do have to have a certain knowledge. And John, by the way, was very knowledgeable of history. And he did understand that in the Confederacy, at the very beginning of the war, they had minted pure gold coins. Now, when they quickly ran out of money, they decided to start printing money.
And the paper money of the Confederacy, as you know, is worth virtually nothing. But the third step was it said it takes faith and courage to make this kind of a decision. To sell everything that you have. And to purchase the antiques. What would you do?
If you were him. Now, I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 13. Matthew Chapter 13. Verses 44 to 46. The context of the chapter is that Israel has formally rejected Jesus Christ in Chapter 12.
They want nothing to do with him. They said he is Beelzebub. Jesus now through parables, nine different parables here, is going to teach that the whole program is going to change. That no longer will he be simply Israel's Messiah.
But now the message of Jesus Christ is going to go worldwide. And he teaches this in all these parables. But he wants and needs in verses 44 to 46 talk about the value now of the kingdom of God. And he says in verse 44, he said the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which a man found and hid again. And from joy over it, he goes and he sells all that he has.
And he buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had.
And he bought it. Jesus isn't describing John here, though he's describing you and me. And what he is describing is what happens when you discover Jesus Christ. What are you willing to decide or choose when you discover Jesus Christ?
What are you willing to do? And he says, I'll tell you what you should be willing to do to sell everything you have because of the enormity of the value of the kingdom of heaven and of Jesus Christ. By the way, in the aftermath, and you read on in the book, John did it. He made the choice and he became a multimillionaire based on his choice.
But Jesus is saying something here. He is saying that what I offer is even more valuable than that. And the question I have is, will you make the choice? Would you make this kind of choice? Would you be willing to buy the field by selling everything you had or the pearl? Because without it, without this choice, there's no treasure. And there is no pearl. This requires on your part a total commitment.
Webster says of concerning commitment, total commitment is the alignment of one's motives, resources, priorities and goals to fulfill a specific mission and accomplish a specific task or to follow a specific person. That's what Jesus Christ said. I want to talk about that.
I'm sort of playing off of what I talked about last week. This morning, I want to talk about three choices that you have to make if you want a wonderful life. And in fact, I'll say this. If you don't make these three choices, I can almost guarantee you you'll never have a wonderful life. That's how important these choices are. Now, obviously, this first one, I'm going to liken this choice that when you became a Christian, you made this choice.
You made this choice. You put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ in his finished work. And the Bible says you now have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And it's a good thing to have everlasting life. At the end of this life, you will be so happy you have everlasting life. And the consequences of not having everlasting life are unbelievably devastating.
So it's as valuable a choice as you could ever make. But I'm not talking this morning about everlasting life. What I am talking about is a wonderful life.
What are the choices you have to make if you want to have a wonderful life? Jesus said, I've come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly. And yet, as I said last time, so many Christians and even more tragically, so many that I know do not have that life. They do not have a life filled with joy and peace and hope. They have a life full of guilt, regret, anxiety, worry, fear.
And it's like, how does this happen? And we can't blame it on the resources, because the last time we saw this, I said that God said and through Peter, he has given us everything that we need pretending to life and godliness. Not some of the stuff I've given you everything, everything you need for life, everything you need for godliness.
I've provided for you. And he said that comes through my power and you get it when you have a knowledge of me and you acquire a knowledge of me when you understand and believe my promises to you. That's what God said. And I said the problem was, was us.
God provided it all. But Peter said you and I have to apply a certain amount of diligence. In fact, in another passage, you said we have to gird up our minds. You see, gird up our loins, the loins of our minds for action. You have to be committed to this. And if you're not committed, even in spite of the fact that everything God's given you, it won't make any difference. And I'm afraid for so many of us, that's the case.
We never get past that. I want to talk about two more choices we have to make. And I'd like you to turn now in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, verse one, Romans chapter 12, verse one. And as you see, the first word of verse one is the word therefore. And as I often say, when you see a therefore in the Bible, you have to ask yourself, what is it therefore? OK, it's a conclusion.
He's concluding. Now, he's spent all these chapters talking about man being separated from God. All men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death.
Man can only be declared righteous or justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross. And he talks about all these things. And then at the end of verse 36 of Chapter 11, Paul breaks into a doxology. He said, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever.
Amen. His conclusion is every good thing that happens to us comes from God. God gives us everything. He provides everything that we could possibly want, not just for eternity, but for tomorrow. And so he breaks into this doxology and he says, therefore. You and I, if you want to acquire this, need to make two choices.
That's what we need to do. And that's what he says. He said, therefore, I urge you.
Parakaleo. That's the emotional content. If Paul were here today, he'd say, look, I beg you make these choices in your life. You have to make these choices because if you don't, you'll never get there.
These are choices that you have to make. Therefore, I urge you, brethren. This isn't a choice an unbeliever can make.
The unbeliever can't have this life. This is a choice for the family of God. I urge you, brethren. By the mercies of God to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice. You have to present your life to God as a living and holy sacrifice. He said, that's that's what I urge you.
That's the command. It's an interesting thing. The word present is Paris to me. And it says present. But the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, it was used when priests in the Old Testament made offerings to God. Paul picks up on that and wants to use that analogy. It's like making yourself an offering.
And that's why we have this language. He said that you offer your bodies. That means your life, a living, he says, and holy sacrifice to God. Now, what's amazing about this is that it's not a present tense. He isn't saying to you and me every morning when you get up, offer yourself to God. Now, you can do that, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's not talking about present tense again and again and again. Keep offering yourself to God.
What he's talking about here is an heiress tense. One time. Offer yourself to God. You have to make this decision.
Think about it. When you became a Christian, you made that choice at one time. At one moment in your life, you chose to put your faith and trust in Christ. That moment changed everything in your life after that.
That's what he's talking about here. There must be a moment in your life when you say to God, I'm yours. I offer you my life. I'll do anything, anywhere, anytime, at any cost. Lord, I offer myself to you. Now, what's the motive for this? Notice what he says. By the mercies of God.
That's the motive. Have you ever thought about that very much? The mercies of God. I thought about it a lot this week and I started writing him down.
I had so many I didn't know what to do. How many mercies has God given you and I? Not just his love and his grace.
Ephesians chapter one. Paul said he has blessed us with every heavenly blessing. Every heavenly blessing, he said, I'll give it to them. Peter told us last week he's given us everything we need in pertaining to life. He's not only given us forgiveness from our sin and eternity is our destiny with him. He's given us all of this.
He's given us his powers, forgiveness, his promises, his assurance. When I thought about it, I thought my sins are forgiven. I've been imputed righteous because of Christ. I'm in the God's family. I'm a son of God. I move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
God's spirit indwells me and I become a son of the living God solely by the grace of God, provided because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. God gave us so much through his mercy. Shouldn't that motivate us in some way? But apparently it doesn't.
For so many of us, it doesn't. This is a very interesting thing because notice what he says then. He said it's acceptable to God. And he says, which is your spiritual service of worship. Now, what's so unique about that is the word spiritual isn't spiritual. It's not the word spiritual. The word spiritual is pneumatized.
You see, pneuma, spirit. He's not talking about spiritual. This actual word is the word logikos. We get an English word from it, logic. The King James translators understood this and they said reasonable.
Notice, I'll say it that way, though. He said, present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your logical service. Of worship.
Consider what God's mercies have done in your life. Why wouldn't you? Isn't it logical? What God has done for you isn't that logical that you would do it? Notice, he says, when you do that. That's worship. I think about that. We not only don't do it, but we redefine worship in all kinds of other ways. Not this way.
We don't we don't care for this much. So we define worship and worship is if I attend church most Sundays. I'm worshiping. That's worship. You know, worship is liturgy.
If I can go through a liturgy, that means I worship God. Worship is stained glass windows or flowing robes. That's worship. Not worship at all.
A worship is really snappy music. That's worship. That's really what worship is. None of those things are worship.
They can be in the context of worship. But worship. And by the way, this is so important to God. Remember, Jesus talking to the woman at the well in John four said, God is seeking worshippers. Now, God doesn't have many needs. There's very few things that God is seeking. He's seeking worshippers because of his grace, his love, his mercy. He's seeking worshippers. It's an important thing to God.
So what is he saying here? He's saying, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable God, which is your logical service of worship. Worship is total devotion to God. You want to know what worship is? That's what it is.
I'm all in. I'm totally devoted. That's what worship is. It always begins with this choice.
You don't make this choice. You don't worship. That's what God is saying. If you're going to worship to me, you're going to give me you're going to give me logically what's mine. I've given you all the mercies, all the grace, all the love.
Now you present yourself to me. That's what worship really is. And he goes in and to the next choice, the third choice. And he tells us it's in two spots, what not to do and what to do. Look what he says next then in verse two.
He says, and let me continue my idea. Do not be conformed to this world. This is part of the choice.
This is the second part. Do not, he says, be conformed to this world. Not is the word may strongest negative to the Greeks. He said, absolutely. Do not be conformed to this world.
The word conformed is sus commit. It means an outward expression that doesn't really reflect what's going on in the inside. And this is really a neat play on words of what he does here. He said, do not allow the world to make you look like you're of the world. Because that's not who you are. You're a child of God. You're a new creature in Christ.
All the old things have passed away. That's who you are on the inside. He said, don't let the world make you look like you're one of them.
Whatever you do, don't let that happen. Don't be conformed. J.B. Phillips, in his great paraphrase, the Greek scholar said, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. This is hard for us.
Kenneth Wiest, the New Testament scholar, says, stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after this world, an expression which does not come from nor is representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God. This is where we fail. We don't do it. We allow the world to squeeze us into its mold.
And we look just like the world. In the New Testament, there was only one church that did that, and that was the Church of Corinth. It was the worst church. And Paul said, you know, when I look at you people and the lives that you live. I can't tell any difference between you and unbelievers at all.
I just don't see it. He actually called them the word carnal. They were carnal Christians. He said, you look just like people in the world. Every study that's done, every poll that's done in the last 40 years says the church in America is exactly like that. We look just like the unsaved world in every way they can measure. We divorce at the same rate. We abuse our children at the same rate. We're under psychotherapy at the same rate. Everything about us. We're as materialistic at the same rate. We're just like them. We've been conformed. They've squeezed us into the mold, and it all happens between our ears.
This is where it happens. We'll come back here, but go with me now to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 3. Listen to what Paul says.
Paul says this. He said, for though we walk in the flesh. That means we live in the real world. You and I live in the real world.
We're real people in the real world. We just walk around in the flesh. He said, we do not war according to the flesh, though. That's not where our battle is.
He goes on. He says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying, now watch, speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to obedience of Christ. Where's the war? Between our ears.
The war is how do you think? We're trying to destroy, as he says here, speculations of what the world says. You see, that's hard for us. God says, consider everyone else is more important than you are. The world says, look out for number one and you're number one. You see, which one do we do more often? Which one do we allow to be part of our lives? We conform to the world. The only time we're different in the world is they're probably sleeping or golfing this morning and you're sitting here.
Like that's the difference. But it has to be more than that. There has to be much more than that. 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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