Fellowship in the Word

Guest (Male): Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bil Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Bil Gebhardt: Paul said whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. And he says for this very reason you have to apply all diligence to your faith. You have to add diligence to your faith because if you don't add diligence, all the things I'll talk about in the weeks ahead, you'll never get there.

Because there is no diligence in your faith. We have become extremely passive in that way. It's almost as though once I told the Lord I believed in Him, I've done all my work, my sins are forgiven, I'll live the way I want and I'll go to heaven when I'm dead. That'll do it. That'll get you to heaven, but that'll never give you what Jesus said of "I've come to give you life and I've come to give it to you abundantly."

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bil Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bil Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Let me give you a picture of diligence. If you're old enough, you'll remember, and if you're not old enough, you'll just have to believe me. But the point is, 1984 in the Olympics, Rodney Ganes, he won a gold medal in swimming. And he talked about how do you win a gold medal in swimming because that's his goal.

He said that in 50-yard increments, for eight years, he swam roughly 25,000 miles. 25,000 miles around the world for one race. And here's what he said about it. He said, "I swam around the world for a race that lasted 49 seconds." But that's how you get a gold medal.

You see, you can't get a gold medal without the diligence. That's the way this works. He said, "That's what I did." Paul would have said, though, "You know Rodney, the only problem is you did it for a perishable crown." But he tells us in 1 Corinthians 9, if we're successful, we get an imperishable crown that is for all eternity.

So we should be extremely motivated and that's where I want to go next is, how do we get motivated? You see, why aren't we motivated for this kind of thing? This motivation. Because remember what he said back there in verse 3, seeing that his divine power has granted us everything. Everything that we need, He has granted it.

Do you know what let me put what that means practically. God has granted you everything you need to be a better husband, a better wife, a better parent, a better child, a better neighbor, a better employee, a better employer, a better ditch digger, a better servant. It doesn't matter what it is.

He's given you everything for you to be the best at that particular thing. That's what He has done for all of us. And that really in a sense should motivate us the best that we possibly can. But what motivates us now? I was reading about motivation in business and it said in the late 1800s, probably because the robber barons and the American business scene was happening, here's the motivation.

They came they studied and said we know what motivates people. By the way, it still works for a lot of you today. It's a tricky word but follow it. Money. We're motivated by money. I always say we're motivated not by money, more money. Just more. That's what motivates us.

Then after that, then after that in the early 1900s, Elton Mayo studied businesses and he said, "You know what motivates people?" He said it motivates them if the boss is watching. That's what motivates if no one's watching, you're not very motivated. Some of you have probably been there and done that.

Abraham Maslow said that we're motivated later by our core needs, but he had a lot of trouble describing them. But today, they found that they found out the secret to motivation. Why some people are more motivated than others. It's dopamine in our brain. If you have more dopamine, you have more motivation. You have less dopamine, you have less motivation.

So by the way, if someone's questioning your motivation in the future, all you have to say is, "Hey look, my dopamine's low. There's nothing there's nothing I can do about this." Now I don't think that's true at all, but that's exactly what they say.

So this diligence thing, showing how big it is for Peter. Verse 10, he says, "Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent," same word, *spoude*. "Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you." Now this is interesting. You have to be diligent in this way. Your diligence is a very important way to prove that you belong to God.

It goes back to your diligence. And you're going to see how this diligent builds in the weeks ahead in all these other areas. But he says and it even applies to me because look at verse 13. Peter's ending the section. He said, "I consider it right as long as I am in this earthly dwelling to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent."

Peter's going to die and he knows he's going to be martyred. So he said, "As also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me, and I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to your mind." So Peter says, "Look, I have to be diligent when it comes to this. You have to be diligent, I have to be diligent. We all have to be diligent when this occurs."

So what does that look like? How does that work? I want to look at a parallel passage. Go with me to Philippians chapter 2, a little more practical way Paul speaking in verse 12. Philippians 2:12. And here the Apostle Paul writes, "So then my beloved," talking to us, "just as you always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but he says how much more in my absence. He said, here's what you need to do: work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Now he's not talking about work out your salvation by works to get saved. What he is saying, and because he says in Ephesians, that he says you have been saved completely by God's grace for good works. We are saved not to get good works will never save a person. But if a saved person is living the way they should, their life should change and there should be good works.

It's the result of our faith. You see, that's the way this works and he said, "Yeah, that's that's the way this thing has to go." Now let's think about this whole idea of the how-to of this. How does this really work? Back then just to the original passage in Peter, 2 Peter, and he says there's an interesting word there.

He says, "Now for this very reason," and then he uses this word in the New American Standard, I don't like it but I'm going to you may know it there, it says applying. I don't think that's a very good word. *Choregeo* is the word. *Choregeo* is the verb, the word. A lot of the new translations (NET, others) use the word "add" and I think that's important.

And this add thing is implied in every step we go in the weeks ahead because he says, notice what you need to do is add to your faith. You have to be diligent to add to your faith. If you are, then you then you add to your moral excellence, and in your moral excellence you add to your knowledge, and in your knowledge you add to self-control, and in your self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness to brother kindness and finally into love.

He uses this whole all these are implied, but that's exactly what the word means. And he uses it six times as he applies it. Now what he means by that, there's an extravagant way of adding to this and it's that word, the verb is *choregeo*.

But in Athens, when the Greeks were using this, they used to put out these outdoor plays that are phenomenal, wonderful plays. And they had huge choruses to do the singing through these plays. And there were always patrons of Athens, people who loved Athens, loved the people, and at their own expense, they would put these choruses together.

They would have these choruses rehearsed, they would find leaders for these choruses, and they would spend an inordinate amount of money and time that these choruses were perfect. And William Barclay says that when it came to that, he says the men who undertook these duties out of their own pocket and out of their love for the city are called the *choregoi*, same word.

Those are the ones who supply richly. It means you should lavishly pour out everything you have for what the intention is. So when he says applying all diligence, it's everything you have. Notice it's not even be more diligent. It's all diligence and then he says and it give it everything you got.

That's that's an amazing thing. So what does that look like in my life if I'm applying all diligence and growing? Go with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, verse 23. He says, Paul writing, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive a reward," he says, "of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom we serve."

Wow. Yeah. Where does this apply in my life? Do you see that first word? Whatever. Now what do you think whatever covers? Anything. It's every single thing in my life. Whatever you do to be diligent about this. You see, it's it's kind of an interesting thing.

He says that we're also to do it heartily. I find that an interesting term. That's the word *psyche*, from your heart or from your soul. He said that's where this should emanate from. This should come from within you. It's an interesting thing. And he's saying whatever you do, do your work heartily.

It doesn't matter what it is. Let me use another analogy. Whatever our lives are—husband, neighbor, work, whatever—you and I should be Michelangelos and Beethovens in that field. We should be. Now how are we doing? You see, we don't even do it.

And he said, "Whatever you do," I'll give you an easy thing because notice he said you're doing it as you're doing it to the Lord. Let's just say tomorrow for some of you, because you put it off for Friday and Saturday as long as you could, you have to do a load of clothes. You're going to have to wash the clothes. Okay.

Now you go out there like you always have and, you know, got to be done, someone's got to do it, why me. Then you get out there and the Lord's standing there. And He said, "I'd really like to see you wash these clothes for Me." What would you do?

Well, you're not throwing the colors in all one big load, right? I mean, see if you did it for the Lord you'd be like, "Well that was for the Lord though." He's saying that's what you do with everything that you do. You do it all for Me. That's what happens here. You do these things, he said, for Me. And you do it from your heart.

You see, it takes that from your heart. Think of this for a minute. The church of Laodicea in Revelation 3, Jesus was describing their heart and remember what He said, it describes a lot of us. Your heart is lukewarm. You're just lukewarm. In fact, He said, "I'd rather you be cold or hot, but not lukewarm."

See, lukewarm is nothing. It requires almost no effort at all. You see, I mean for some of us, diligence is you know I gave up an hour and a half on Sunday morning. I mean that's diligence. Hmm. Not really, not from the Lord. He said, "Whatever you do, you're to apply this kind of diligence to it." It doesn't matter what you do, he said. That's the way this whole thing works out.

Show you what our heart should be like. Jesus is resurrected from the dead and two men on the road to Emmaus are walking and they're complaining that Jesus was crucified. And they had left Jerusalem. And Jesus walks up and they don't recognize who He is.

So He said, "What's going on?" "Oh, it's been so terrible. Everything's awful." Jesus keeps walking with them and they start having a conversation. So then Jesus says, "I'd like to talk to you more." So they invite Jesus to stay with them for a period of time where they go in for shelter.

And then Jesus just keeps talking to them and then He vanishes. But listen to what they said after He did that. They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"

That's the concept God wants from us. Is your heart burning for that kind of thing? You see, there's you can have a lukewarm heart, you see, or you can have a burning heart. Remember I said last week in Second in Chronicles 16, it says the Lord, the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the earth looking for what? Anybody whose heart would be completely His.

Why is He looking so hard? Because so few of us have hearts that belong to God that way. That's just the way this whole thing works out. That's the way it comes about. So he says, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord, knowing that you'll be rewarded for this." It's an amazing thing as for the Lord.

So is that how you live? It's an important thing to be reminded. I was reminded about three weeks ago, I got a I get interesting things from radio listeners in around the country and I got a a lady and her mother from in Charlotte, North Carolina and they had sent me a t-shirt. They owned a little shop and it was a t-shirt.

And they said, "You've reminded us of this, but we would like you to remind you of it." So they sent me the t-shirt and it was a nice shirt and it says on the front of it: Live for an audience of one. That's a great t-shirt. Because that should be our that should be us. I live for an audience of one, not everybody else.

I you see we live for everybody else. What does everybody think of me? And really, shouldn't it be mostly what does the Lord think of me? What does He think of me? So he says live for an audience of one. That's the way this should work.

When I said earlier a Michelangelo, Michelangelo was painting a very obscure corner of the Sistine Chapel. And he was taking days on this corner. And one of his helpers finally said to him, "What are you Michelangelo, what are you doing up there in the corner? Not even from the ground, no one will even see this." And Michelangelo said, "God will see it." That's why I paint it.

You see, it didn't matter if anyone else saw it. He said, "God will see this." That's why I paint it in that way. And he does and you can receive a reward. So the challenge this morning, and I'm making over and over again, is are you diligent?

You see, I came to the conclusion and I thought I was, but I don't think I am anymore. Not just because of this passage, but sometimes the Lord does this to you. I'm working on the passage and then He gave me something else to read that had nothing to do with the passage, but a whole lot to do with me, okay, and this whole idea of diligence.

So I'm reading about Charles Spurgeon. Now Spurgeon is the great preacher out of London in the 1800s, middle 1800s. And Spurgeon, by the way, he was saved at 18. At 19, he started preaching. By the time he was 20, there was not a church or an auditorium large enough in London to accommodate the crowds that came to hear this young man preach. 20 years old.

I mean just imagine this. Well Spurgeon lives his whole life and he's now on his deathbed and he says this: "If I have any message to give from my own bed of sickness here, it would be this. If you do not wish to be full of regrets when you are obligated to lie still, work while you can. If you desire to make the sickbed as soft as it can be, do not stuff it with the mournful reflection that you wasted time while you were in health and strength.

People have said to me over the years, 'You will break your constitution down by preaching ten times a week.'" That's how often he preached. Ten sermons a week. He said, "And the like. Well, if I had done so, I'm glad of it. I would do it again. If I had fifty constitutions, I would rejoice and break them down in the service of my Lord Jesus Christ.

You young men that are strong, overcome the wicked one and fight for the Lord while you can. You will never regret having done all that lies in you for your blessed Lord and Savior. Crowd as much as you can into every day and postpone no work until tomorrow. Whatever your hand finds, you need to do it with all your might."

Well let me explain something. That part was convicting enough. He not only preached ten sermons a week, almost never did he have any notes. That's pretty amazing. Sometimes some. Well then someone started taking shorthand of every sermon he ever did. And then they handwrote them all out.

And they said they'd like to get them published. So Spurgeon said, "I want to edit them though." So he edited tens of thousands of sermons of his while he was preaching ten times a week. Now this is another thing I need to add. He had a personal library of 10,000 volumes in the 1850s and he read six books every week.

He reads six books a week. How you doing? Six books a week, ten sermons a week. So here I am. Yeah, I'm thinking I thought that if you had enough duration and you lasted long enough, that would mean you were diligent. And God said, "Well Bil, there might be another definition of diligence here."

You see, so I find it extraordinarily convicting. I mean there's no doubt about it. And I come to the thing that you know Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 10 that's where I'll close with. Paul said whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

But the point of it is, this whole thing has to start with this. And he says for this very reason you have to apply all diligence to your faith. You have to add diligence to your faith because if you don't add diligence, all the things I'll talk about in the weeks ahead, you'll never get there.

Because there is no diligence in your faith. We have become extremely passive in that way. It's almost as though once I told the Lord I believed in Him, I've done all my work, my sins are forgiven, I'll live the way I want and I'll go to heaven when I'm dead. That'll do it. That'll get you to heaven, but that'll never give you what Jesus said of "I've come to give you life and I've come to give it to you abundantly."

And see and I can't argue. He said we're to be partakers of our divine nature. And he said, "Oh by the way, in case you think you can't do it, you can't. I'll indwell My Holy Spirit in you so you can do it." So that's why Paul said, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." You see, there's no excuse for us other than this: Lord, I don't apply much diligence to my faith.

There I've said it. You see, that's the honest approach to our life. And so I've asked each and every one of us, just examine your own heart. Are you diligent in the way you walk with the Lord you worship? Join me in prayer.

Father, diligence is difficult for us. I think often we consider ourselves diligent when we're not. Sometimes, though, we simply say, "I know I'm more diligent," and then we name some other people. So you get a sense of satisfaction of our relative diligence.

But Father, in these verses, You say You've given us everything we need, that we're part of Your divine nature. We know the Spirit of God dwells us and all You're asking us to do is to apply all diligence in our Christian life. And the blessings will flow from You through us to others. Father, I pray that we take our Christian life as seriously as You do. And I pray it in the magnificent name of Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Pastor Bil Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you'd 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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Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 70006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bil delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnoia.org. That's fbcnoia.org.

At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bil'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 fbcnoia.org. For Pastor Bil Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.