It's No Life Without Power

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. The 23rd Psalm, which we had earlier in the service, even though I walked through the shadow of the valley of death. I'm not going to be afraid of anything.

Why? For you're with me. You see, and he even uses the term shadow because we don't really ever die. You see, even the fear of death is not great enough to destroy our peace.

Everywhere in God's Word, he says things like this. Let me be your refuge. Let me be your fortress. Let me be your security. Let me be your safe place.

Cast all your cares upon me because I care 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. Hurricane Ida is now permanently etched in my memory that I will take to the grave. Velma and I were on the North Shore. I made a last minute exit from Kenner and was glad I did. But the wind, the noise, the devastation ended up being quite complete. And I kept thinking in the beginning, it can't get much worse than this. And then the power went out and it was much worse. Pitch black.

Noise seemed even louder than it was before. And then sometime after two or three days after we had lost power, Velma said something that is the reason for this sermon. It's no life without power.

Think about that. It's no life without power. And then after we lost the power, then we came to the realization that we had lost the Internet and then we lost our cell phones where they didn't work at all. And so Velma said when we did that, she said that I feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway now. You're not in touch with anybody.

You're just trying to make the best of it. Ironically, I think that God agrees with what she said, but he means it in a very different context. But I think God believes it's no life without power. Open your Bibles to the Book of Acts, chapter one, verse six. Luke writes that when they had come together, they were asking him, saying, Lord, is it this time that you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it's not for you to know the times of the epochs which the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Why do you say that? Because we need it. As children of God living on a cursed planet, among other sinful people, Jesus said it himself. In this world, you're going to have tribulation. Some of it, like Covid and Hurricane Ida, we face collectively. A lot of it we face personally. How are we going to deal with all this?

You see, how are we going to deal with this? He said you're going to need power. And he said you're going to get that power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Think of how often when Jesus tried to teach his disciples, how many times he taught them in a storm. He used storms to teach the idea of the importance of faith.

Why is that? Well, it's because we lose our mind in storms. You see, we're so afraid. Even fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were afraid in a storm. And so he uses storms to teach this because there's something that he wants to teach us is extremely important to the growth of our faith. Go with me now to James in verse two.

James says this. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when a hurricane comes. How many of you all joy? Just overflowing with joy. That's what God said. Were you all joy?

It's an interesting thing. He says, Well, why would I feel joyful? He said, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect results so that you can be perfect and complete and lacking in nothing.

We hate that word. One of the most amazing things that I've learned in studying the New Testament is the greatest measure of your faith that you have is what will you endure? That's the test. God always tells you, what will you endure? Whether it's something pandemics or storms, a terrible diagnosis, what will you endure? And it's always been that way because endurance is also something as you endure, it grows your faith. You see, it's such an important thing from God's point of view. And it's something we'd rather not have to go through.

Let me show you this from a different perspective. Turn back a couple of pages to Hebrews Chapter 11 and we'll start in verse seven. That chapter is famous because it's called the Hall of Fame of Faith. It's there, but it's not so much the Hall of Fame of Faith. It's the Hall of Fame of endurance.

That's what it is, which becomes the Hall of Fame of faith. But this chapter is all about endurance. You see, and that's what God recognizes and says. Look how he starts in verse seven. By faith, Noah, being warned by God of things not yet seen, prepares an ark. Remember, Noah lives in a place where there is no water. He's got to build an enormous ark.

And, by the way, when you live in a place that has no water and you're building a big boat, a lot of people will ridicule you on a pretty regular basis. So, how long did it take him? A hundred years because God called him until he believed God and he endured it. You go down to verse eight and it says, by faith, Abraham. Verse 11, by faith, Sarah herself received the ability to conceive. They wanted heirs.

They couldn't have them. And so, they're 75 years old. And God tells them they're going to have a tremendous offspring that's going to be a blessing to the whole world.

So, let's go. No, God said, we're going to wait. What do you mean, wait a year or two? No, 25 years.

How do you do that? You start second guessing. First of all, you're wondering if you can conceive at 75, right? But the second thing is 25 years have passed. What's God expect of them? I expect you to endure. See, it's an interesting thought as you look at each one of these. You can go down to verse 22, by faith, Joseph. When he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons. You know the story of Joseph.

His brothers hated him. They sold him into slavery. He's put into Egypt. He ends up in prison. How do you endure all that? You don't see your father who you love. You don't see your brother Benjamin. You're in Egypt.

You're in prison. He just endured. And it turned out he became the prime minister of Egypt and all those great things happened.

But all those years of loneliness and endurance. He says in verse 23, by faith, Moses. And then in verse 25, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God.

He was the prince of Egypt, raised by Pharaoh's daughter. He said, I'll endure the treatment of slaves. Each one of these is about endurance. Even a funny one to me is verse 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled. They're going into the promised land. Took quite a while to get there.

As you remember, they were delayed for 40 years. But they get into the promised land. God says, I'm going to give you Jericho. He said, OK, let's go get him.

He said, well, here's how you're going to do it. The first day, I want you to assemble everybody, get all the musicians there. And I want them to play their music and I want you to circle the city. And then go back to your tents.

Oh, and I want you to do that seven days in a row. Now, Jericho is a very fortified city and very, very difficult for anyone to conquer at that time. Do you think there's some heckling going on from the walls of Jericho? Here they come again.

They're playing their instruments. They walk around the city and then they leave. But on the seventh day, he said, we'll make it different. You have to walk around the city seven times.

Imagine the discussions among the Jews. Here we go again. Seventh day, lap three. What in the world are we doing here?

He just has us walking around. I want to see if you will endure this. You see, and they did, and the walls fell. But as you go on, look down at verse 37. It says for many of them, they were stoned, they were sauna, too. They were tempted. They were put to death with a sword. They went about sheepskins, goatskins, destitute, afflicted, ill treated.

Verse 39. All these having gained approval through their faith and they never received what was promised. All these examples, how long did they endure? Till they were dead. They endured their whole life. They never received what was promised.

They died. God honored that. He said, I wanted to see if you would keep your faith and endure.

Now there's an example for that. If you go over to chapter 12 and verse two, notice what the writer of Hebrews says, Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary, lose heart. The perfect example of endurance, the son of God being crucified, experiencing the wrath of God, spiritual death, the judgment of God on all the sin of the world. And he endured it. You can see how endurance is such a crucial thing to God. And that's what makes it so difficult for us.

All of these endured. How do we do this? Well, back to what Luke said. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. See, that's what the Holy Spirit does.

Think of his role in our lives and how crucial it is. When you became a Christian, you had to be convicted of your own sin and that Christ was your savior. Who convicted you of that sin? The word of God says the Holy Spirit did that. Then the word of God says the Holy Spirit regenerated you. He made you a new creature in Christ.

He had the power of regeneration. Then it says he indwells you and me. He's not in the temple anymore like with Israel. He indwells us. It doesn't just say that. It says he also baptizes us. He identifies us with Jesus Christ. We are identified with Jesus Christ.

It even says more. Then he sealed us to God forever. That's the ministry, again, of the Holy Spirit. After he does every one of these kinds of things, then we find out that he's the teacher of God's truth. The truth of God that we have or we're taught is by the Holy Spirit of God. Paul said the natural man cannot perceive the things of God, nor can he understand them. So if you constantly go to church and never understand anything that's being said, you better think about your relationship with God because a natural man can't perceive these things.

So he teaches us, and then he empowers us to live a victorious, peaceful, joyful, hopeful, enduring life. That's the power that he has. You see, there's a big difference between the Holy Spirit of God and Entergy or Clicquot. The circumstances just shut the power off, and we don't have any. The Holy Spirit of God never shuts the power off, not ever. But it's my suspicion that many of you, when you were going through this event and even the COVID and everything else, you didn't have the power of the Spirit of God because you shut it off. That's our capacity. We can shut the power of God off of our lives, and we have to be careful with that.

We're even warned about that. Go with me to 1 Thessalonians 5, and I want to begin in verse 14. He says, We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly. Encourage the fainthearted.

Help the weak. Be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another evil for evil. But always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Then he says, Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

All of these are positive. Then this. Do not quench the Spirit. Why does he tell us that?

Because we can. That's what it means, that word quench. If I gave you an illustration of it, you got a candle that's burning and you just squeeze the top of your fingers. You put the candle out. He says, Don't do that. You turn the power off. And we do that all the time.

We just turn the power off. You see, and once we said, Don't don't do that. Whatever you do in Ephesians, chapter four, verse 30.

Paul told them, Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit has made you and I a new creature. He teaches us the word of God. He wants us to apply the word of God, to believe the word of God and eventually to mature spiritually and to be conformed in the image of Christ.

That's his goals in our life. But you and I have the capacity just to quench that. We just turn it off and we don't pay any attention to it. And then we don't have any power when we find ourselves in really difficult circumstances.

It's just the way the thing happens and it happens often to us that way. He's grieved by the sin in our lives. See, that's why Paul said, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Why does he say that? Because he believes it. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

What's he saying? I don't quench the Spirit. See, I don't grieve the Spirit.

I don't shut the power off of my life. You see, and the question is then, what does the Spirit of God create in my life when I have his power? Go with me to Galatians, chapter five, verse 22. He said the fruit of the Spirit, in other words, what does the power of the Holy Spirit create in my life?

It's singular. The fruit of the Spirit is one thing, and it's all these. It's not the fruits of the Spirit.

Notice what he says. Is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law. We often look at that and say, well, I'm pretty good in self-control and I'm pretty good in kindness. That's not the fruit of the Spirit. That just means you're pretty good in it. The fruit of the Spirit is you're good in all these.

And boy, when we're tested, you can see it. Two in particular there for me, one somewhat and one profound, peace and patience. The fruit of the Spirit is peace. So if you were here and you were riding a storm out, how's your peace? Were you peaceful?

In your heart, in your spirit, did you have real peace with this? Now, if you got out of time, the second one more applies. If you drove out of time, patience. You see, do you get patience?

See how this works. Peace and patience are two of the things here. And I've got to be honest, I confess this.

I have not been very patient for the last year and a half and much less patient in the last three weeks. It's almost as though I've said to the Lord, you know, I've surpassed my endurance capacity. That's all I can stand. I can't stand no more.

That type of thing. You know, I'm just past it. But I believe when I've done that, I think this is what God said to me. I know, Bill, you're past your endurance capacity, but you're not past mine. You see, you're not past mine. You're just past yours. Wow.

You need to give this to me. You see, the point is the only reason as a child of God that I'm not peaceful or patient is because I don't believe God. It's unbelief. You see, I have no belief.

I know what the passages say, but I don't believe it. Not in these circumstances. You see, not when the wind's howling like that. I don't believe it. And that ends up becoming an enormous problem for us as we try to work these things through.

What do I have to do to tap into the power? Go with me to Ephesians, chapter 5, in verse 15. Therefore, be careful how you walk. He's telling Christians, like you and me, we better be careful how we live. He said you have two possibilities, not as unwise men but as wise.

Do you live with wisdom or do you live with no wisdom? He says, let me be more specific. He said you need to make the most of your time because the days are evil. You're going to have trouble. There's always going to be a storm.

There's always going to be something. Then he says, so then do not be foolish. Stop living like a fool.

From God's point of view, when you have the Spirit of God in your life and the power of God in your life and you're living a life full of fear, anxiety, worry, dread, you're a fool. Why? Because you have the capacity. You see, you've turned it off.

And because you've turned it off, you don't get the flow of it. He says, do not be foolish. Understand what the will of the Lord is in this. He says, don't get drunk with wine that is dissipation but be filled with the Spirit. You need to be controlled by the Spirit of God.

That's what he says we have to do. In other words, when the Spirit of God teaches me a truth of the Word of God, and then he convicts me to apply the truth of the Word of God, then I'm filled by the Spirit of God. See, it's not mystical. You see, I don't need to go to a monastery to be controlled by the Spirit of God. It's not like that. I don't have to abide by a set of rules.

I don't have to become a legalist in order to do that. That's not what it is. It's God teaches me his truth through his Spirit and then empowers me to be able to live that.

And now the question is, but what kind of power? Well, just turn back a page or two to chapter 1, verse 18. Here's what Paul prays for the Ephesians and for us. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, with the result that so that you will know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. I want you to know who you are.

I want you to know what your future is. You're part of the inheritance. You're a child of God. You're part of the bride of Christ. You want to inherit everything that he does. I want you to know that. Then he says this, And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe?

Now Paul thinks they may not still get it. So he goes on, These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. All the power you have is all the might that God has.

And he goes on, Which he brought about in Christ when he raised them from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly places. So what kind of power do you have to change? Resurrection power. What power is greater than the power to raise the dead? There's no greater power. Oh yeah, but you should have heard the wind.

And I heard my roof creaking. That's power that compares to raising the dead? That's the power you're afraid of?

You see, it says it's resurrection power. We end up going on and on and saying, but I just, I didn't feel it. I know you didn't.

If you didn't feel it, it's because you quenched it. You started listening to the creaking roof instead of the word of God. That's what you decided. That's what I believe. He says don't do that. Whatever you do, don't do that. One more last verse.

I'm going to make my point. Colossians 3 verse 16. Paul writes a parallel passage to the Colossians that he's writing to the Ephesians. To the Ephesians he says you have to be filled with the Spirit of God, controlled by the Spirit of God. Here he says in verse 16 of Colossians 3, Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.

That's his command. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing another, with psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. The consequences of letting the word of Christ dwell you richly is exactly the same as when the Holy Spirit fills you and controls you. Because it tells you how the Holy Spirit fills you and controls you.

He teaches you the word of God and then he empowers you to be able to obey the word of God and reap the benefits of that. It's almost as though the Spirit of God says to us on many, many pages of scripture, Look, it's no life without power. You don't have any power. Boy, when tribulation comes your way, storms of every sort, you fall to pieces. Everything happens. You get the terrible diagnosis. Someone you love gets a terrible diagnosis. Someone you love dies.

You see, and you can't really cope with that. You find yourself in circumstances professionally. You lose your job. You're given a pink slip. Someone you love has run away with someone else and left your marriage. What do I do?

How can I do this? They're all coming. Those kind of storms are coming. And the only way that you and I can deal with it is I need to let the word of God indwell me richly. I need to let the Spirit of God fill me, control me by teaching me the word and then empowering me to do this. God has provided power for every single challenge of your life, from the moment you came to Christ to the moment you're absent in the body and present with the Lord.

He has provided the power. The only thing that can stop it is you. You can quench it. You can grieve it. But then you can't use it. Terms like walking by the Spirit, abiding in Christ, being filled with the Spirit, let the word of God indwell you richly, all saying the same thing, every one of them.

Let me illustrate this. If you wrote it out and your house was suspect, you might have filled your heart and thoughts with, I'm afraid. I'm genuinely afraid. What's the word of God say? How many times does Jesus say, fear not? He says, fear not. I'm with you. Listen. See, that's what we do. I'm not listening to this. No, these circumstances. I mean, you heard a doctor.

The prognosis is almost surely fatal. You heard it. And that's what you're listening to. You see, that's what we end up doing. Boy, at some time during the night, you could be thinking, this could be really bad.

Twelve hours of wind is bad enough. But we're in the middle of this could be really bad. But what's the word of God say? He says, Bill, all things work together for your good. So why are you saying this could be bad? I just told you all things work together for your good.

Yeah, but not this. I shut the power off. You see, that's just the way this works. Often we do this when we find ourself in difficult circumstances. Lord, where'd you go? Where are you?

I mean, it's interesting. I'm filled with anxiety. Where are you?

He says, let me remind you, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I'm right here. I didn't go anywhere. In fact, I didn't move.

You did. You see, and we're saying, where are you? I need, where are you? He said, I've always been. What if the roof fell in and killed me? What would the Lord of God say? I'm absent from the body. I'm present with the Lord.

What have I said for 20 years? The worst thing that could happen to you? It can't happen to you. You'll be in the Lord's presence.

So why is that so terrible? You see, even death is covered. The 23rd Psalm, which we had earlier in the service, even though I walked through the shadow of the valley of death, I'm not going to be afraid of anything.

Why? For you're with me. You see, and he even uses the term shadow because we don't really ever die. You see, even the fear of death is not great enough to destroy our peace.

Everywhere in God's word, he says things like this. Let me be your refuge. Let me be your fortress. Let me be your security. Let me be your safe place. Cast all your cares upon me because I care for you.

Were you able to do that if you rode this out in the middle of the storm? Because it tells you something then. And see, that's one of the reasons you can consider it all joy when you have various trials. You don't reveal who you really are to God. You reveal who you really are to you. You see, that's what the trial is for. It's a test for me to understand where I am.

Over and over again in the word of God, God's spirit uses God's word, and he says the same thing over and over. Trust me. Why?

Because a life is no life at all without power. Trust me, and it will give you the power. 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. .