Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Wow. What's he implying?
He's implying something I think we all know. Suffering proves your faith. You see, I think something, oh no, no, I thought Bible memory proved my faith. If you just can remember enough verses, that really means you're a person of great faith. Well, how about church attendance? You see, that proves my faith.
No. God says there's another way to prove your faith. It's called suffering. 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. The ultimate blessing is to be protected by the power of God.
That's an amazing thing. Protected by the power of God. Chuck Swindoll writes this, no matter what the calamity, no matter what the disappointment or the depth of the pain, no matter what kind of destruction occurs in our bodies at the time of our death, our souls are divinely protected by the power of our God. James Moffat said, God stands between you and all that menaces your hope or threatens your eternal welfare.
You see, he's trying to tell us, I am protecting you. But somehow for many of us, we never have a way of appropriating that for ourselves. What is it we need? Well, I think it's implied in this verse, we need to accept our life the way it is.
We need to accept that. The mystery of hardship and suffering and misfortune. One of the things we often do as Christians that I just don't quite understand, no matter how deep the suffering, we always want to explain it.
You know, sometimes the explanations are not readily available. You see, it's a matter of whether I accept it. And the other thing is, the second step would be, do I trust God? See, do I trust them in that sense to ultimately deliver me and ultimately save me?
Yes. We have a living hope. We have an ironclad reservation. We have divine protection. And we have what we all know in verses six and seven, a developing faith. He says in this, you greatly rejoice. What a paradoxical thing to say. These people are suffering.
They couldn't wait to hear a word from Peter. And he says, and in this suffering, you greatly rejoice. Seems like an oxymoron to us, doesn't it? He said, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. The implication is that joy is not circumstantial. You see, that's a different kind.
That's the kind everybody has. Everybody is happy, by the way, when you're done suffering, no matter what the event is in your life. And that finally comes to an end.
You're just so happy. The joy that he is talking about here. Is only in the New Testament. This this word is never used by the Greeks in their own secular writing, because this word means joy, no matter what the circumstances are. And the Greeks thought that's not possible.
You can't have joy if the circumstances are horrible. Peter said, I beg to differ. You can. You see, you can. And he says, in this, you greatly rejoice, even though now and notice the explanation for a little while.
He qualifies it. If Peter were here today and you were explaining to him your suffering, he would say, yes, I know my child, but it's just for a little while. And you might say, well, I don't understand that I've been I've been suffering for 10 years. Yes, he said, that's just a little while. See, how can he say such a thing?
He sees it in light of what? Eternity. You see, eternity is the absence of time. It is forever. But if I were using a number and I said, how does 10 years compare to 10 trillion years?
You see, what percentage of 10 trillion years is 10 years? It's not even a millisecond. But see, that's the eternal perspective. The apostle Paul, with his own suffering, called it momentary light affliction. See, he saw it from a different kind of perspective. He says, in this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while. And then these words, if necessary. It's different for all of us.
Have you noticed that? Your suffering is uniquely tailored to you. Every once in a while, you'll be suffering and you'll think, man, no one around me is suffering like I am. But there are other times in your life when you hear about somebody suffering and you go, I have never suffered like that.
Not ever. You see, it's if necessary. God's hands all over this. In this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed. That word is not good enough. That idea for distressed that were literally means. Anguish. Heavy.
It has this idea of a weight that's so great you can't bear up under it. That's what he means. In other words, what is God saying? I know how painful suffering is. You see, I know how painful it is.
You can't deny it. He said, if necessary, you have been distressed. And then he says, by various trials. Poikilos is the word, interesting word. It means variegated.
It means multicolored. In other words, we all get our own trials. They're all unique to us.
By the way, poikilos is the root word for the English word polka dot. The idea of it is it's just variety of things happen to all of us. Trials. We have a developing faith. He says in verse seven, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Wow. What's he implying?
He's implying something I think we all know. Suffering proves your faith. You see, I think something, oh, no, no, I thought I thought Bible memory proved my faith. If you just can remember enough verses, that really means you're a person of great faith. How about church attendance? You see, that proves my faith.
No. God says there's another way to prove your faith. It's called suffering. You see, suffering proves your faith. You've heard me say this over all the years, but if you're in intensive care, you really can't fake your faith.
You can't. The suffering is so great. And if that's the time you prove your faith and you prove your faith to yourself. And you prove your faith to others.
You see, that's what happens in that kind of suffering. There is a context there of proving our faith. And God says, this is a big deal to me. He said, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, you prove your faith through suffering. And God says, and I reward that forever.
Even gold one day will not be here. There'll be a new heaven and a new earth. He said, this is what proves your faith. This is what's precious to me. That the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire. Everybody knows the anguish of fire. It speaks often of judgment in the word of God, but everybody knows when you say fire and you say flesh, you say suffering. And he said, that's the way it sometimes feels.
Tested by fire. And he said that you may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not only praise and glory and honor for Christ, but at the judgment seat of Christ, praise and glory and honor for you. It's so precious to God. How we handle suffering. We have a living hope.
We have an ironclad reservation. We have divine protection. And we have a developing faith. All of this is to produce hope in our lives, even when we suffer, because without hope, our suffering can overwhelm us.
And we can even let it define us. And then he says in verse eight, and though you have not seen him, you love him. And he said, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him. Peter says that in almost an envious way.
Maybe even more so than you think. Peter uses the word there, agapao, agape. He says to these people, even though you've never seen him, you love him. Remember, after Peter denied the Lord the last time, three times the Lord said to him, Peter, do you agapao me, do you love me? And Peter said, yes, Lord, I phileo you.
You see, I brotherly love you, you're my friend. He said, no, no, Peter, do you just unconditionally agapao love me? Yes, Lord, you know I phileo you. Finally, Jesus said, Peter, do you phileo me?
He said, yes. Peter says to this group of people, you've never seen Christ and you love him. Isn't that an amazing thing? You've never seen Christ, and yet you love him. He says, and though you do not see him now, you believe in him, you trust him. He says, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full, he said, of glory.
What an amazing thing. The imagery that I would use for this is from the Old Testament, the Book of Daniel. If you remember, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not bow to the great image of Nebuchadnezzar, and so he said he's going to put them into the fiery furnace.
And he heated it up seven times hotter than it ever had been before. Then they threw them in. And they said when they looked in, they could see in there, there was a fourth image with them.
And they came out unscathed. That image was the Son of God. The image that I see is whenever I'm in the crucible of fire and suffering, and for you, you'll never suffer alone.
Never once. He's always in there. You see, he's always in there with you, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you.
I'm right here. You see, that's why I love him. That's why I trust him. And that's what Peter says. We have an unseen Savior. Verse 9, he says we have a guaranteed deliverance. He said obtaining as the outcome of your faith the deliverance of your souls or the salvation of your souls.
He said that's what you have. He said you'll always arrive home safely. Always. There'll never be an incident when you won't. That's the hope of Christianity.
You see, that's what we have. That's why in the song that we sang, we never can think of it this way, but we can think of it from God's point of view. And if we think of it from his point of view, that last day of your life is by far the best day of your life. We often think of it as the worst day. No, it's the worst day for those who love you.
But for you, it's the best day. You have arrived safely home. Christ is coming to receive you.
His arms are open. The place is secure. The reservation has been made. And he said because of all this, we can have hope even in the midst of suffering. We will not allow hope, suffering to overwhelm us or even define us.
That's not going to be what's going to happen, he says. We have a living hope. We have an ironclad reservation. We have divine protection. We have a developing faith.
We have an unseen Savior and we have a guaranteed deliverance. You see, suffering is universal. If you're not suffering now, I can tell you something, you will. Every single one of you will. You'll suffer.
It's coming. Every single time you suffer, you're going to be faced with a choice. You can either resent or you can rejoice. That's up to you. You see, every time you suffer, every time you're overwhelmed with pain, you can either resent or you can rejoice. And I can tell you this, the choice is totally dependent on how much hope you have. You see, how much of that living hope have you acquired in your own life?
Because if you haven't acquired much, I guarantee you when suffering comes your way, you're going to resent it. You're going to point fingers. You're going to blame. You're going to be angry.
And you'll be angry at God, but you won't admit it because good Christians don't admit those things. Ray Johnston writes this. When people lose hope, they lose their ability to dream for the future. Despair replaces joy. Fear replaces faith. Anxiety replaces prayer.
Insecurity replaces confidence. Tomorrow's dreams are replaced by tonight's nightmares. It is a lousy way to live. When spouses lose hope, they give up on their marriages. Parents give up on their teens. Leaders give up on their people. Healthy emotions like contentment and peace are replaced with toxic emotions like confusion and shame and worry and disappointment. In short, it is impossible to be spiritually, psychologically, emotionally and relationally healthy when you are in the grip of discouragement.
Some wise person once said that we can live 40 days without food, three days without water, eight minutes without air, not a single second without hope. He then goes on and says, that's why the greatest gift leaders can give their people is hope. The greatest gift parents can give their children, hope. The greatest gift a teacher can give a student is hope.
The greatest gift a coach can give an athlete is hope. It's also why the greatest gift you can give your family is hope. The greatest gift you can give your friends is hope. The greatest gift you can give your neighbors is hope.
The greatest gift you can give your co-workers is hope. This past Thursday, Monty Williams gave me that gift. And he gave everybody there that gift. And millions now on the Internet and TV he gave that gift to. He gave the gift of hope.
In a context that seems unimaginable to you and me. One of the things that he said over and over again is, this is going to work out. A paraphrase in Romans 8-28, this is going to work out.
A 44-year-old wife who lost her life, five children remaining. And he stood up there before everyone and said, this is going to work out. How can you say that? Hope. You see, I have hope. Near the end of the time that Monty spoke, and he only spoke for seven minutes, he said this, we didn't lose her. When you lose something, you can't find it.
I know exactly where my wife is. How do you say that? Hope. You see, that's the context. The context is hope. You know what's amazing?
Not just people in the media, but even people I've talked to from our own church. You know what I keep hearing? I don't think I could have ever said that. You know why? Because you don't have enough hope. That's what Peter is talking about. It's not about denying the despair, the hole in his heart, the deep sorrow in his life.
It's there. It's overwhelming. It's a burden too heavy for him to bear, but he has hope. Don't let disappointment and suffering, don't let it destroy you.
Don't let it define you. Peter is telling us that there's a difference between us and all those out there, and what we have to offer is hope. One of the thoughts that I had was simply this. All of these people, most of them secular, many of them have never heard of Christ. They don't know them at all, and they keep saying, How did that happen? How could he say that? But shouldn't that be what all your friends and neighbors and family members should be saying when you suffer? Just think of the impact.
None of us may make that impact individually, but just think collectively the impact we would make. Wow. Where do you get that from?
How can you do that? I have hope. I have a living hope.
In the end, it makes all the difference. You end up with peace. They end up with a witness, and Christ ends up with glory. Let's pray. Father, first of all, I pray for those in this room this very day who are suffering. I just pray that Peter's words reach them. Of all of the reasons that they can have hope in the midst of their pain, in the midst of their agony, that if they know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, if they recognize that His death on the cross was for their sins, and they have put their trust in His finished work on that cross, they are born again into your family. They are your children forever.
Their place is reserved for them by Jesus Christ Himself. And no matter what this world throws at us, in the end, we have victory through Christ. And because of that, Father, through this whole process, we have hope. That hope benefits us immeasurably, and it makes us such effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. Peter, in this very epistle of the Apostle Peter will say that all of us need to give an account for the hope that is in us.
I challenge each person here to ask themselves the question, how much hope is in me? Because it certainly is available. And one day, we will need it. And we pray this in Christ's name.
Amen. 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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