Fully Engaged - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. So this idea of letting the word of Christ into all you richly is in whatever you do.

There isn't anything in life that you would do that this doesn't happen. The reason Paul was saying that, because he wants to get to verse 23 and he says, and whatever you do, do your work heartedly for the Lord rather than for men. It's an amazing statement. Twice in verse 17 and in verse 23 he uses the same word, whatever.

The word is pass. It means everything. In other words, what does your relationship with the Lord entail? Everything. Everything. It entails the kind of wife you are, the kind of husband you are, the kind of child you are, the kind of parent you are, the kind of boss you are, the kind of employee you are.

It doesn't matter. Whatever. There isn't any aspect of your life and mine that doesn't fall under this.

Every single thing falls under this. Whatever you do. He said that's the way this works. 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. Well, here we are starting another year. Seems like a lot like the start of last year. They obviously, as you're aware, the pandemic is raging all over the world. And certainly here in America, some new things are being added all the time. I heard earlier this week that a term called flu-rona, and they say there's a lot of people that have a combination of the flu and the coronavirus. And that that's been very difficult for them.

And just this morning, reading the New Orleans paper, the new word from several doctors in this area was delta-rona. And that there is a hybrid of the virus which gives you the symptoms of delta, which were bad, and the contagiousness of corona. And so let's just hope that that's wrong. But it always seems to be something going on here. And that's sort of understandable why everywhere there's such an enormous long-term effect on people as they're trying day in and day in and month in and month out trying to deal with this. But something has been happening that I've watched that sort of bothers me. It appears to me, not for everyone, but for a lot of folks, that how the coronavirus is affecting the country is almost identical with how I hear it affecting the church. It almost has the same effect on the church people as it does the country.

And I find that regrettable in that sense of it. It appears that many Christians really believe that the only relief they could ever get in this situation is herd immunity. Let's just keep praying that's the only relief we're ever going to get. In other words, the answer to get relief is out there. Now, I don't know if you know this, but there are several people who call themselves experts that say they're not sure there could ever be herd immunity with this particular virus.

So if you might be waiting for a very long, long time. But we keep thinking it's outside and it's circumstantial. And the reason that that bothers me is that I don't believe for having peace through this virus has to do with the circumstances outside. I think for having peace through this pandemic is what's going on right here.

What's going on in your heart? What's happening in you is going to have a much greater effect than what's happening out there. Let me give an illustration that I'll use throughout this message this morning. I learned to drive a car with a manual transmission with a stick shift, which meant I learned to drive a car that had a clutch. Now, for those of you who have only ever been in an automatic car, you have no idea what I'm talking about except you knew there was a third pedal down there. But the whole idea of the using a clutch and a manual transmission is that whenever you engage the clutch, you disengage the engine from the drive train. You see, and then at that time the transmission changes to the next gear. And then you disengage the clutch. You see, the whole idea of the clutch is extremely beneficial, but the clutch needs to be fully engaged and then disengaged. And if you do that, you go right through the gears and you end up moving forward at a very good rate. Now, what can happen with some people is that, you know, there's only two positions on the clutch. It's fully engaged or it's fully disengaged that you should ever have.

So you have choices when you think about it. The first one would be that never engage a clutch. Just start the car and once it's gone, just leave it there. Now, you'll go eight miles an hour at about 5,000 RPMs, you know, but that's all that will happen. You'll never get out of low gear. Then there's another thing people sometimes do is they decide that the halfway point would be good. In other words, I'll just partially engage the clutch.

And you can do that. And of course, you burn the clutch up. And once the clutch is burned up, you're not going anywhere at that particular stage. All you can do, use the clutch the way the clutch was designed to use. Push the clutch all the way in and then disengage it.

The clutch has to be fully engaged. And if it is fully engaged, the benefits are enormous. Now, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, what I'm going to try to say to you this morning is, if you want real progress in your Christian life and you want to be able to deal with something like this pandemic that we're dealing with, you must be fully engaged. And if you're not, you're never going to get there.

You must be fully engaged. I'd like you to start today by looking at Colossians chapter 3 and verse 23, the book of Colossians chapter 3 and verse 23. The context of this particular part of Colossians starts in verse 16 of chapter 3. The apostle Paul was speaking and he says in verse 16, he says, And let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. He says, let the word of Christ has to indwell you richly. It's the exact equivalent of what Paul says to the Ephesians when he says, you and I need to be controlled by the Spirit of God. That you and I need to be under the control of the Holy Spirit of God because the results are identical. So to be controlled by the Spirit of God is exactly the same as letting the word of God indwell you richly.

And notice what this touches, everything. He said, wives, be subject to your husbands, husbands love your wives, children obedient to your parents, fathers do not exasperate your children, slaves in all things obey those who are your masters. You see, he goes on and he says this affects every aspect of your life. Now you see that in verse 17 when he says, whatever you do. So this idea of letting the word of Christ indwell you richly is in whatever you do.

There isn't anything in life that you would do that this doesn't happen in. The reason Paul was saying that because he wants to get to verse 23 and he says, and whatever you do, do your work heartedly for the Lord rather than for men. It's an amazing statement.

Twice in verse 17 and in verse 23 he uses the same word, whatever. The word is pass means everything. In other words, what does your relationship with the Lord entail? Everything, everything.

It entails the kind of wife you are, the kind of husband you are, the kind of child you are, the kind of parent you are, the kind of boss you are, the kind of employee you are. It doesn't matter, whatever. There isn't any aspect of your life and mine that doesn't fall under this. Every single thing falls under this. Whatever you do. He said that's the way this works. Now whatever includes whatever or everything.

So let me just say this. Our whatever includes the last couple of years of our lives, a pandemic. This whole idea of COVID, I mean you know this, is this any shock to God? He's like, I don't know, where did that come from?

Who do I blame? God knew exactly when and where this was going to go. He knows exactly how far it will go and how long it will last. And he also tells us in the Word of God, I'm sovereign over everything. And so from that point of view, that includes these circumstances. And see what we keep thinking is, well, I know I'll be a lot better once these circumstances change. But what I'm trying to say to you this morning, you can be a lot better right now.

And that's when you want to be a lot better. You see, our faith is a little different than we often think it is. Robert Batterson, he wrote this. He said, when did we start believing that God wants to send us the safe places to do easy things? That faithfulness is holding the fort. That playing it safe is safe. He says, Jesus Christ didn't die to keep us safe.

He died to make us dangerous. Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It's storming the gates of hell. The will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan, and the complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ is not radical.

It's normal. Fully engaged. He then says it's time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death's door.

That was really interesting. It's time to go all in and all out for the one who's all in all. Being fully engaged.

That's what ends up happening. We see how this affects almost everything in our life. This whole idea of whatever. It's everything mundane that you could imagine. Tomorrow morning you show up at work. That's part of the whatever. I don't like my job.

It's okay. That's part of the whatever. Changing diapers, whatever. You see, it's every kind of thing you do. There's nothing you do that's not covered in this. How you drive, same thing.

What kind of patient am I if I'm in a hospital? It all is in this, whatever. You see, that's what I'm all in.

That's the way this whole thing works. Martin Luther King Jr. said this once in one of his sermons. If it falls on your lot to sweep streets in life, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here live the great street sweeper.

He swept so well. He's exactly right. Doesn't really matter. It's a whatever.

You see, and he goes on then and he says, whatever you do, do your work heartedly. And what's that mean? First of all, let me say, it's not the word heart. That's not the word heart.

It's a word that can be translated that way. The word is suke. Suke is the word for soul. Our soullessness, where our mind, emotions, and will are. Our soullessness, suke. He says, notice, you have to do it heartedly. It's from the inside out. You see, you'll never be fully engaged thinking, you know what, I got to be fully engaged and I'm just going to do how much I hate it. That's religion.

This is something I want to do. You see, it's heartedly. Psalm 103, one, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. See, everything I have, it's all in all. Deuteronomy 6, you know the passage. You shall love the Lord your God with what?

Yeah, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. New Testament added, with all your mind. Jesus asked, what's the greatest commandment? He said, that's it.

Love your neighbor as yourself. What's his implication? It's all in. It's fully engaged. You see, one of the problems we have with so many of us with our Christianity is we're not fully engaged. We're partially engaged. We have this life, and then we add to it our Christianity at all different levels of commitment. I mean, some of us are just happy. We're going to heaven.

We have fire insurance. And so that's it. I did that. I made my choice. I did that, and that's all I want in my life. Well, I can tell you this.

You're not even close to fully engaged. Some of us treat our faith like it's our favorite hobby or one of our favorite hobbies. Like, that's not my life, but I have a, you know, hey, look, Jesus is not my favorite hobby.

I like it even more than golf. Well, unless the guys are golfing Sunday morning. Then maybe not then. You see, you can't treat it this way. It's God's expectation of you and me, and we'll see it clear as we go on. It's an all in expectation. You have to be all in.

It's just not something you dabble in from that point of view. So we know this idea of your heart is really important to God. We know there's an unbelieving heart. You see that in the Word of God, and it's often said that way. There's also a hard heart, and that often occurs, he said, for a believer who doesn't get things that go in their life the way they want, and they harden their heart toward God.

That can be detrimental. But I want to show you how important a heart is in being all in in this. I want you to go with me to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24 and verse 17. The context of Luke 24 is it's the very first Easter Sunday.

It's probably more likely in the afternoon now. Christ rose from the dead that morning, and there's two men on the road to Emmaus, and these men are going home. And Jesus encounters these two guys, and that's where we pick it up in verse 17. Jesus said to them, what are these words that you're exchanging with one another as you're walking? Now, it's interesting because that's probably a pretty rural spot. All of a sudden there's a guy walking right up close enough to him, and he hears what they're talking about.

They stood still looking sad. Don't miss that because that's what we do when circumstances aren't going what you think your way. See, what is this? This is the first Easter Sunday.

Now, let me ask you from your perspective. Is that an important day? Is that a happy day? Well, why are these guys sad? See, why are they sad? Well, circumstances. These circumstances, they're going to describe to Jesus, look, you've got to know why I'm sad.

Here we go. One of them named Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem unaware of the things that happen here in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, the things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel.

Indeed, besides all this, it's the third day since these things have happened. But also some women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. And they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels. And he said, who said that he was alive? And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him.

Now, this is interesting. So why does that make you sad? Why would that make you sad? Well, this is not the circumstances that we wanted.

They put it in that one verse. See, we thought he was the Messiah going to redeem Israel. See, that's what we thought, and look what we got. That's why we're so sad. This is exactly what we do when we have circumstantial happiness. You ever been around anyone or even yourself?

Someone this morning said to you, good morning. And what's your thought? What's so good about it?

I mean, what's so good about it? You see? Why? I don't know my circumstances. Then you get a sad face.

I've got some really hard stuff that I'm dealing with. See, we allow that. Now, notice what Jesus would respond to it. It's not compassion. Oh, foolish men.

What's the next term? Slow of heart. Your heart's slow. You're foolish. You're foolish to allow circumstances to be the thing that guides your emotions.

You should be sorry for that. And the reason that you're so foolish is that you're so slow of heart. You see, your heart's wrong. He said then, in all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into the glory? The thing that should frame your life is you're all in relationship with God and God's word to you. You're not letting that happen. You're looking at the circumstances.

And when you look at the circumstances, you say, this is really sad. He said, didn't the prophets tell you this stuff? That's why God sent the prophets. That's why he gives us the word. He gives us the word so that we're not in the dark. We're always in the light.

Therefore, we don't have any reason to be sad. Notice then. Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself and all the scriptures. And approaching, as they approached the village where they were going, he acted as though he were going farther. But they urged him, saying, stay with us, for it is getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over. So he went in to stay with them. And when he reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and he blessed it, and breaking it, he began giving unto them. And then their eyes were open, they recognized them, and he vanished in their sight.

My work's done here. Now watch. They said to one another, we're not our hearts burning. Ah, heart transplant. We're not, wait, he just said you were slow of heart. Now they say our hearts are burning.

Why? He just explained to them what the Old Testament said about them. And they believed him. They believed the word of God.

Now their heart's burning. He said, when our hearts not burning within us, while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us. That's why God gives us the scriptures. He reveals to us who I am, who he is, what's going on in life. He reveals it to us. He lets us know this.

Should have an enormous effect on our heart. Notice how it affected not just what they believed. And they got up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem and found, gathered together, the 11, and those who were with them and saying, the Lord has really, he said, has risen and has appeared to Simon. And they began to relate their experience on the road and how he recognized them in the beginning. Now, did they sound excited? When did they take off back?

Evening. It took them all day to get there. Now they're heading back.

That night. Now you think they were tired? They don't know that. You think they walked back or ran back? You see, what changed? They just went from this awful, terrible, horrible, rotten day looking sad. And now they're all wound up and excited.

What changed? Their heart. Now their heart changed. You see, that's what God is telling us. Now their heart is a completely different kind of heart and they find themselves fully engaged.

That's why I said for so many of us, it has to do with our heart. It's extremely important to God. 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 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. ... ...