Fellowship in the Word

Bill Gebhardt: Isaiah writes, "The steadfast of mind, You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting rock." The steadfast of mind, the promise is God will keep in perfect peace. Question: Have you had any moments in your life where you don't have perfect peace? Hours? Days? Weeks?

You see, what does that tell you then? Your mind is not steadfast. You see, your problem is: what are you thinking about? You see, what is your thought life like? You see, what is your thought life like? Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): 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.

Bill Gebhardt: About a month ago, I started a series of sermons that I titled Practicing the Presence of God in Your Life. And the reason that I did the series is that over the years I have found that many believers that I know in the church know the word of God and they're willing to serve Jesus Christ. And yet, when something really difficult comes into their life, they just fall to pieces. They're filled with worry and anxiety and fear.

And my thought was, why is that happening? And it came down to me to think about that maybe the problem is that that moment-by-moment walk with Christ, practicing the presence of God, is not happening in their lives. So we embarked on a series of messages; today will be the last one.

The first message that I gave was that we need to learn to strengthen ourselves. And the strange thing is, just as David and Paul had, through prayer. We often think of prayer as, well, prayer is me just telling God what I want to have happen. That's not necessarily what prayer is at all. It's part of it, but more importantly, you can strengthen yourself through prayer. David did; Paul did. And by the way, Paul's prayer was answered no. He entreated the Lord three times for the thorn in the flesh, and the answer was no. And yet he talks at the end of it and says, "I was strengthened through this whole process."

Secondly, I said that we have to have a prevailing attitude of gratitude. We have to be thankful people. And it's not being thankful for the things that are just going well in our lives. In fact, Paul writes and says we have to be thankful for everything, and we have to be thankful in everything. And that's quite difficult for us to do.

Thirdly, I said that we have to be careful that we don't allow certain what we call "little sins" in our lives in a prevailing way. And I used the example of lying. Christians have a tendency to view lying as something everybody does, and it's not that big a deal. But if you don't—if you live in a perpetual state of lying, you forfeit your day-by-day fellowship with God.

Then last week, I talked about the idea of how do we cultivate an attitude of joy in our lives. And I said at that time, you do that by remembering God's presence, God's precepts, His providence, His provision, His protection, and His promises. But the key to that was you have to be able to remember, in other words, to call to mind.

And this makes sense. The final sermon I want to do is simply this: If you're struggling with anxiety and worry and fear as a child of God, it's all because of what's between your ears. It's your mind; it's your thoughts. Solomon wrote in Proverbs, he said in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinks within himself, so is he." How you think is who you are.

And by the way, there's nothing unique about that. Everybody knows that. The Hindus say, "Man becomes that of which he thinks." The Buddhists say, "The mind is everything; what you think, you become." Marcus Aurelius said, "Your life is what your thoughts make it." Descartes, famous philosopher, said, "I think, therefore I am." William James, the philosopher, American philosopher, pragmatic philosopher, said, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering the attitudes of their mind." And the British philosopher James Allen said, "We cannot overcome anxiety unless we learn to replace worried thoughts with worthy thoughts, thoughts that come directly from the mind of the God of peace."

And so that's what I want to talk about. Open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 26. And I want to start out with a promise that God makes. Isaiah 26 in verse 3. Isaiah writes, "The steadfast of mind, You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting rock." The steadfast of mind, the promise is God will keep in perfect peace.

Question: Have you had any moments in your life where you don't have perfect peace? Hours? Days? Weeks? You see, what does that tell you then? It tells you you don't have steadfast—your mind is not steadfast. You see, your problem is: what are you thinking about? You see, what is your thought life like?

And so I'm going to now talk about this idea that in a sense, we have two directions: a natural one and a supernatural one, a fleshly one and a spiritual one, of how we think. So turn with me to Romans chapter 8 in the New Testament. Romans 8 and verse 5.

Here Paul writes this: He said, "For those who are according to the flesh"—that's simply unsaved people; that's what all of us are before we come to Christ—"for those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."

Now he says that in verse 5 because of the truth of verse 4. In verse 4, he said, "So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." We're new creatures in Christ; we're indwelt by the Spirit of God. He said, "Now you have two ways of thinking: the way you used to think in your flesh, and the way now you should think in the Spirit."

He said, "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. It does not subject itself to the law of God, for it's not even able to do so. And those who are the flesh cannot please God." You see, that's the point that he really wants to make here. That's what he's trying to say, how important this is from his perspective.

Now, in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 2—you don't have to go to it; I'm just going to read it—Paul there says, "Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth." So the issue comes down to: how do you think? Do you think according to your flesh, or do you think according to the Spirit? Now, it's pretty clear for us that our default is flesh. Now, it doesn't always show up. You see, the kind of things that produce the spiritual life within us or the presence of God within us, we're not sure if it's there or not there when everything's going great.

You see, when you have perfect health, marriage is surviving, kids are behaving, you see, everything's good, got the promotion—isn't it all good? Until it's not good. And see, what really reveals our thinking is when it's not good. You see, that reveals how we think. That becomes very important. Turn to Romans 12 with me for a moment. And Paul, I think here, will tell us just how important it is for us to change our thinking.

Very famous passage. First verse says, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." After the whole book of Romans, especially those first eight chapters, Paul tells us all about God's plan, God's grace, what it means to be saved, how we get saved, how are we justified.

And now he says as justified people, he says, here's one thing you're going to have to do. And it's interesting that word "present" is an aorist tense. It's sort of like a point action. It doesn't mean every day we do it—we do it that way—but there has to be a time in my life when I say I'm going to do this. And he said what we have to do is present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice.

Now, what that would entail, and I could tell you what it entailed for me, but what it entails is there has to be a point in your life now that you're saved and you know Jesus Christ that you have to say, "Lord, I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere, at any time, at any cost, for You." And I can remember when I did that. I'm going to do that. And notice what he says. It's not like, "Oh wow, that's really special." No, it should be all of our lives because he says it's acceptable to God, and it's your spiritual service of worship.

Now we say, "No, I thought worship was singing a few songs on Sunday morning together." No, that's only a small part of it. This is true worship. Worship is: I'm the sacrifice; I give myself to You. That's the first step. Now notice the next step. Verse 2.

He says, "Do not be conformed to this world." J.B. Phillips, the great Greek scholar, paraphrases that and says, "Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold." And what he means by that in this context is this: Do not let the world control your thinking. Do not let that happen. If it controls your thinking, it'll squeeze you into its mold. You will be just like the world because you think just like the world.

So he says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed." *Metamorphosis* is the word—caterpillar to butterfly. "Be transformed." Well, that makes sense. I'm a new creature in Christ. I've come to Jesus Christ. All things are made new. Now he says, "Yeah, but you're now going to have to experience this in your life. You're going to have to become transformed in the way in which"—and now notice how he says, "How do I get transformed? By the renewing of your mind."

You have to think differently. You see, you absolutely have to think differently. About what? Everything. I have to think differently. Now remember, I've been doing this illustration for so long that when I first started it, I used the term "cassette recording." So that'll tell you how long this illustration's been going. We moved on to CDs. But the point was, when I became a Christian, one side of my thinking, the dominant side, was all I had ever been as an unsaved person. That's all I knew.

On this side, I knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I knew that. But on this side, that's everything. Now, the more that I, as we'll see in a moment, learn of Christ, the more I grow as a Christian, I begin to change. I have now mixed thoughts. I have the thoughts of the way I always thought, and now I have new thoughts. As I continue to renew my mind, eventually this side becomes dominant over the old side, and I begin to think differently.

Let me give you an illustration. You've heard me say this before. The Apostle Paul, once he became a believer, had a pretty rough life. In the beginning, the church didn't—did not trust him at all. He was a Pharisee who arrested Christians and all that; they did not like him. But he then went out and started spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles. He was hated by the Jews in every city. He went there first, then to the Gentiles.

And when he talks about what happened to him, he says they not only rejected me, they beat me. They not only beat me, they beat me with rods. Now, the beating with rods can break bones. He got beaten with rods several times. He was stoned and left for dead. They stoned him and thought they'd killed him, but he hadn't been. He was shipwrecked. He had—when you read the whole list of what he went through, you've got to realize you've never been through that much in your life. Not at all. You see, that, not at all.

So what did he think about that? What were his thoughts? Guess what he called all the suffering combined: momentary light affliction. Is that what you'd call it? Momentary light affliction? How could he say that? That's the way he thought. You see, his perspective was eternal. He said, "This is just momentary light affliction." Oh my goodness. You see, it changed the way he thought because he thought from an eternal perspective, which allowed him to view things in the temporal world differently.

Last week, I talked about Jesus Christ as our example in Hebrews chapter 12, who endured the cross. Now, that's so far beyond us, we can't understand that kind of suffering. He who knew no sin became sin on the cross; He experienced the wrath of God for the sins of the world. It's unfathomable that you and I can understand what that must have been like. But it's said then he endured the cross for the joy set before him.

How did he endure the cross? Where's his thought life? The joy. What's the joy? You and me, the bride of Christ. "I can do this because of the joy." You see the eternal perspective versus the temporal perspective. And so that's what he's talking about. It's a very different kind of thing.

Now, let's look at the focus of this. Go with me to 2nd Peter chapter 1 and verse 5. A whole list of things here, but I'm going to zero in on one word. He said, "Now for this very reason, applying all diligence, in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence"—and here's the word—"knowledge." *Gnosis*. You need to have knowledge. You need to have *gnosis*. What kind of knowledge are we talking about? What do you mean, knowledge? Where do you store your knowledge? That's right. You can't miss—if you miss this question, then you have a different kind of thought process than I can address today.

Yeah, we store knowledge. And he said, "And in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in"—what?—"the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

You see, what do I need to change my thinking about? Where's the focus? My Lord Jesus Christ. That's the whole point. In fact, in chapter 3 of the same thing, Peter says this: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity." Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. That's my thinking. I have to know Christ. You see, I have to know Christ if I'm going to change my thinking. You see, that's the way this thing works. It's an extremely important aspect for you and I to know Christ.

If I were to reduce what my philosophy of ministry is from me to you for all these years, I could put it in one sentence: It is my goal or ambition that you fall totally in love with Jesus Christ. That's it. I don't need anything more than that. You love Jesus Christ. If you love Jesus Christ, all the other things take care of themselves.

If two people love Jesus Christ that are married, what do you think their marriage is like? It's not a trick question. You see how this works? I love Christ; I'll fulfill my role, she'll fulfill hers. What kind of parents would we be? What kind of neighbors? What kind of employee? Do all for the glory of God. You see, once I love Jesus Christ, I know Jesus Christ and I love Jesus Christ, there's the motive of my faith. You see, and all this takes place within the context of my own ears.

So I want to look at some particulars now of what to be really thinking about. Go with me to Philippians chapter 4, and we'll start in verse 4. We've been here several times in this series. As I've said in the past, Paul is in prison; he doesn't know if he's going to be executed or not. He writes these prison epistles, and the theme of this epistle that he writes from prison, what he thought on death row, is joy. Paul is filled with joy when he thinks on death row. Didn't change anything for him.

So he says to them and to us in verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" By the way, it's an imperative mood in the Greek. It's a commandment. You are commanded by the Word of God, just like the ten, to rejoice. Hmm. Does that seem odd to you? I mean, just imagine if you came into my office and you're describing just how terrible your thinking is and how you find yourself defeated and you have no peace and you're full of anxiety and fear and all that, and I say, "What can I do for you, pastor? Okay, I'm telling you, be happy." Would that work? You see, though, that's what God's telling us. Paul says, "Rejoice." Now, there's good reason for that, but I'm commanding you to rejoice. I'm not saying, "Hey, look, I hope you feel some joy now." No, he said you need to rejoice.

Guest (Male): 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'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. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well.

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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 F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. 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.