Join Pastor Jack Hibbs on this episode of Real Life Radio as he delves into the topic of internal conflict and the essential role of humility and grace in overcoming life’s challenges. The episode begins with an urgent update on the devastating fires in Southern California, urging listeners to support relief efforts through Samaritan’s Purse. In his series on the Book of James, Pastor Jack explores the internal battles faced by followers of Christ, highlighting pride as the root of our struggles and teaching that true victory is achieved through a humble spirit that receives divine favor.
God has given us all that we need. He says there, verse six, but gives grace to the humble. This word grace encompasses all that is needed for victory. What a God we have.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible.
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Hey, Pastor Jack here. I want to give you guys a quick update on what’s going on in Southern California in wake of the devastating and forever life-altering fires that have ravaged the Southland. Things have never been like this before. And I mean that where a fire has never been seen like this before, where the sky was aflame and the winds were blowing 80, 90 miles an hour, flames and fire horizontally. has devastated homes by the tens of thousands, and there’s over 150,000 people without a home. And I say all that, my friends, to encourage you to consider this. Please, please consider giving to the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Franklin Graham, We’re working with them. We’re on the grounds here in our own neighborhood, so to speak, of Los Angeles, Malibu, the Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Altadena, areas of Pasadena. And it is overwhelmingly epic. I promise you this. Give what you can to Samaritan’s Purse. SamaritansPurse.org. Go there and send support to them regarding the Southern California fires. Please do not send us any of your money. Do not send it to Real Life. Do not send it to Real Radio. Please send it direct. Your contribution is a 501c3 tax-deductible contribution to the right people. Samaritans Purse, and you can go to SamaritansPurse.org. Thank you very much.
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On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Book of James with a message titled Our Internal War. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James shares with them that internally, there’s a great battle going on. You see, as a follower of Christ, we see the conflict within us. Fighting off old nature is a constant battle, isn’t it? Our desire for pleasure begins with us wanting what we want and wanting it right now. But what does God want for us? So today, Pastor Jack teaches that pride is the root of our internal war. But victory comes from a broken and humble spirit. The humble can expect a deep rest and divine favor from the Lord. Now with his message called Our Internal War, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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James says that we have this thing within us that causes us to lust after things. Listen, it’ll lead to destroying the reputation of the person that has what we don’t have. And we covet that thing. Hey, did you see Bill? He just got a brand new Dodge Viper. Yeah, he probably stole it. Why did you say that? Because you’re jealous. You’re covetous. Bill’s not a thief. He works hard for his money, you see? Oh, yeah, I see. I see. Inside the old nature of every one of us is this thing that drives us to the temptation of lusting for something, character assassination is within us, and coveting something is within us. These three misleading things. Look at their, they’re actually methods. Why are we not always content? Look at our method. Our method is that we murder. Our method is that we covet. Our method is that we lust. Why are we not always content? Not only our method, look at our motives. Our motives are wrong. James says here in verse 3, you ask. By the way, the word in the Greek to ask means to beg uncontrollably. Please, please, please, please, please. You wear somebody up. Please give me, please, please, please, please. Okay, shut up and take it, will you? It’s not a knowledgeable request. Begging, begging, begging, begging. And you don’t receive it. Why, he says, because you ask amiss. The word amiss means to ask badly. You’re asking, the word means to give a request that’s diseased. You have a diseased request. Why? The heart is corrupt. Even in the Christian? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, come on, let’s lighten up a little bit on our holier-than-thou attitude, you know? The fact of the matter is, read your Bible correctly, the fact is, when we get over to the other side, we’re going to march through the pearly gates by God’s grace, we’re going to step and turn around and look at the back end of the gate, and it’s going to say, Saved by the grace of God. Sinners saved by the grace of God. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying, well, if that’s the case, let’s go live it up. A Christian doesn’t think like that anymore. We hate the sin. We don’t plan on sinning. When we trip up because of the old nature, there’s that war. Trip up how? Lusting. Assassinating someone’s character. Coveting things that God either doesn’t want us to have or he’ll give it to us in his timing. And we approach him with the wrong motives. We ask amiss. We ask badly. Why? That we might consume it upon our own lust. We might get it for ourselves. To spend it. Some of your Bibles say to spend it upon ourselves. The word there means to misappropriate what you’re asking for. He’s not going to give it to us because we’re going to misappropriate it. You say, well, I’m not guilty of that. Yeah, you are. We all are. James says we all are. And I thought about this for a minute. I said, okay, Lord, I’m going to do this just for teaching purposes. I’m going to sample myself. And three things came to my mind. If I were to do this, now this is a blatant way, but we’re all guilty in some respect, and that is, okay, Lord, if you bless me with a new Suburban, I will bring kids to church on Sunday. You see, I’m asking with a diseased motive to consume that vehicle upon my own lust. So what? So I could drive down the street saying, I have a Suburban, and you don’t have a Suburban. Now, the next thing that came to my mind was, and Lord, if I just owned an In-N-Out burger franchise, then I would feed the hungry. You see how we think? This is how we think. Now you say, no, that’s how you think. No, the fact of the matter is, I am making a really gross example of what is very subtle and internal in all of our lives. The third thing is… The third thing is… The third thing, Lord, just to round it all off, if I had that home that overlooked the sea there at Corona Del Mar… I would see to it that I would bring a homeless person home with me. You see, that’s all wrong. Oh God, if you’d just give me a wife, then Lord, I’ll serve you. No. The Bible says you shall have no other God before him. The Bible says that we are to seek first the kingdom of God. And all of these other things can be added unto us In God’s time, in God’s will, Matthew 6.33. Our methods are wrong. Our motives are wrong. We don’t even know how we ought to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. We so often miss it. We’re not always content because we desire to have that very thing, whatever it might be, for our own selfish gains. Real quickly, I love this story. To me, it drives home the point, and you’ve heard it before, regarding this method and motive of us not being content. There’s a little boy who wanted a bicycle terribly, and his parents informed him, honey, we can’t afford a bike this year, but mom, it’s Christmas very soon, and I’m sorry, sweetie, money’s low, and we don’t think we can do it, but you pray to God and see what he might do, but we can’t buy it. That little boy was so hopeful for a bike. As he approached the end of the December classes before Christmas break. Mom picked him up from the school and was taking him home, but she had to stop at the market. And she said, are you praying for your bicycle? Are you seeking the Lord? Oh, yes, Mama. I’m asking. She just keep on asking him. He was a little frustrated in his prayers. Things weren’t going as quickly as he had hoped. He didn’t see any evidence of a bike box or maybe some hints, you know, that a bike was near. So as his mom left him in the car for her to run to the market real quick, on the dashboard was a statue glued to the dash of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. So that little boy looked around and he opened up his lunch bag. And he grabbed that statue and he snapped Mary off at the ankles and put her in the lunch bag and rolled it up holding baby Jesus. And then he bowed his head and folded his hands and he says, Father, if you ever want to see your son again, you’ll get me that bike. He was praying, looked good. He had the wrong method and the wrong motive. And we’re so often like that. James says, be careful. It dwells within all of us. The third and final point is in verses 4 through 6, and it’s the victory that we should be enjoying. I say that the victory we should be enjoying because it is absolutely available for us. You actually can live this life without desiring someone else’s wife or husband or car or home or income or status or influence in life. The Bible says that if we come in taste of the Lord, we will see that he is good. Jesus says, I offer to you bread that if you eat it, you will never be hungry again. To those of us who have come to Christ and received him, have you noticed how filled you are? It’s a wonderful thing. You are filled with his presence. You are filled with assurance. He is my God. I know the creator of the universe. Thank you, Lord. And you’re filled. You’re content. And yet in that same wonderful thing, there’s this hunger that once you… wants to drive you on to know him more. Jesus also said, if you drink of the water I have to give, you’ll never thirst again. And the woman at the well who had five husbands said, Lord, give me this water to drink. She had gone through her life experiencing one need after another and finding out that nothing could fulfill her need. And then she met Jesus. That woman was sampling life maybe because I don’t know the woman. But maybe she sampled life trying to find fulfillment. And fulfillment only comes in Christ. And I’m not talking about a church affiliation or denomination or a membership. Christ, Jesus, is not this church. Christ, Jesus, is not you or I here. Jesus is the second person of the Holy Trinity, God come to earth in human flesh, died for our sins, rose again from the dead for our justification that any of those, any of us who would put their trust in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Who qualifies? You gotta be a sinner to qualify, honestly. The only way you can go to heaven is if you first become a sinner. And there’s some good news about that qualifications. The Bible says we’re born one. So we all can go if we just ask him.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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I want to wrap it up by going through just a few things, and this is extremely interesting. I want you to look at your Bibles carefully. I’m going to give you four principles, and I’m going to go through them very fast, so mark them down. The first principle that we see in verses 4 to 6 is that our relationship to God must be singular. Our heart cannot be divided. He says, adulterer and adulteresses. What’s he saying? He’s saying that we as Christians, when our hearts divided in the pursuit of things, we have taken Jesus out of our engagement relationship that we do have with Him according to the Scripture, and we insert something of the world. And God says we’re adulterers when we do that. Christians, we, us, commit adultery spiritually when we have some other love on the throne but Jesus. The scriptures say here that we become at war with God. The word enmity is to war with him. We’re resisting and fighting him. He says, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Thinking that you can be a Christian and live another way. The Bible says, no, you’re at war with him. Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So our relationship with him must be singular, number one. Number two… regarding our victory is that it’s based upon the reaction of the Spirit. And this is extremely important. Everybody wake up and look down at your Bible and watch this one. Very important. Some of your Bibles read it this way. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the capital S Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? That would lead you to believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and he yearns jealously. And you might say, like some scholars say, that means he is jealous and only wants to be number one. And certainly that is true. But that’s not how it appears. And by the way, this scripture is under great, great controversy. One of the most debated scriptures in the Bible, this verse right here. Most scholars, though, say that it’s a capital, or it’s a lowercase s, that the spirit that dwells in us, that is our old spirit… Yearns jealously. And you might say, well, I don’t know if I buy that. Well, you better listen carefully because the words here, yearn jealously, are connected with sin and evil. Now, the Holy Spirit’s sinless. Another argument for this being our spirit and not the Holy Spirit is found in verse 6. But he gives more grace. The word but is in contrast to grace. Your spirit wars inside you toward jealousy. It yearns in that direction. But don’t be swallowed up with defeat and fear. Why? But he gives more grace. It’s a victory. He gives us more grace. Grace to make it through. Grace to overcome these things in the midst of our lives. And then he says in verse 5, just backing up for a moment, do you think that the Scriptures say in vain? And then he makes the statement that the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously. Another thing that we know about is very interesting. You are not going to find a verse in the Bible that says the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously, except right here. So what’s James saying? Is there a part of the Bible we’ve missed? No. What James says here in verse 5 is that the Scriptures… The scriptures, all of them. The Bible gives witness to the fact that we have this tendency for jealous yearnings and sin in this area. But don’t be swallowed up with defeat. God gives more grace. You see that? It’s very important. Very, very important. So we end with this. Did I give you the third one? I didn’t. Three and four are those four principles. The third one is God resists the proud. Simply put, the Christian who is proud and independent from God and not dependent upon the Lord, God resists. He resists the Christian. The word is stick out the chest or to go chest to chest. Humble yourself. The Bible says, humble yourself under his mighty hand and he will exalt you in due time. The very things that you might want as a Christian, you ought to put God first and humble yourself. And maybe in time, God will give you the things that you are desiring his way. It’s got to be his way. And finally, number four was, God has given us all that we need. He says there, verse six, but gives grace to the humble. This word grace encompasses all that is needed now. For victory. Wow. What a God we have. Close our Bibles and let’s ask ourselves this question. Inside of you, is there a battle going on between the flesh and the spirit? If there is, then you’re wonderfully saved and I know it doesn’t feel like it, but the Lord is working in your life. If this morning you’re sitting here thinking, well, none of this makes any sense to me. I’ve never had a battle inside. I’m just going to do what I want to do, and life goes on. And it’s the way it is, and I don’t get this thing. There’s a good chance that you don’t even, because you don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a good chance of you not knowing God at all. This could look like a barometer right now for you. Because Paul tells us that there’s a struggle in the life of every believer. The old Jack fights against the new Jack, and the old Barbara fights against the new Barbara. Well, who wins? Whichever part of Jack or Barbara eats the most. If the spiritual Jack gets to eat, then he’s stronger and he wins. If the old man Jack eats more, video games, goofing off, no thanks of the Spirit, not sowing to the Word of God, then the old man gets stronger. So who’s winning in your life? Who’s winning in our lives? May it be the Lord working through us always. Let’s pray. Lord, we do yield ourselves to you and we would ask that you might touch us by first of all opening our eyes to the fact that your Bible lays it out clear that the Christian has a battle an internal war but Lord thank you you told us that we are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ for the Bible tells us that sin evil shall not have control over us so Lord right now we would confess that if we are bound to something it’s because we are letting it win We’re not giving it to you. We’ve been protecting it or stroking it or somehow making it seem not as bad as it is. And yet, Lord, today you would say to each of us, give that thing to me. Perhaps this morning your life is in desperate need of Christ. And you heard this morning that it is Jesus and him alone who died and rose again from the dead, but you must receive him, says the scripture. While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed this morning, you’ve been convicted by the Spirit of God to make a decision for Jesus Christ. Jesus called all of his converts publicly. Will you now go public with Christ? We’ve certainly gone public with our sin and the fulfillment of it. But what about Christ now? Will you vote for him? If you in your heart can say to God right now, I’m a sinner and I’ve send Lord and I need you to save me and I give you my life that is you’re not going to take it back you’re going to give it to him wherever you’re at right now will you raise your hand and I’ll see your hand and I’ll pray for you this morning God bless you up front anyone else you in the middle you off to the side and you in the very very back anyone else at this last moment you’re saying Jesus I want to go to heaven when I die I want to have my life changed I want to be a Christian God bless you on the side over here. Those of you who lifted your hands, I pray for you. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would bless these who have raised their hands signifying that they want you. And Lord, I pray that you’d bless them with the courage to pray the prayer of invitation now for their lives. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, those of you who raised your hands and the Christians that are around you, they’ll join in and Pray with you. But will you let these words fall from your lips right now? Lord Jesus, come into my life. I ask you to save me from all my sin. Change my life. Take me, mold me, and shape me into the person of God that you’d have me to be. Lord, today, I claim you as Lord and Savior. And I thank you for saving me. In Jesus’ name.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Our Internal War. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on true Christianity and how it really creates a new lifestyle of living. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you’d like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com slash know God. That’s K-N-O-W, God. And there you’ll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you’ll find in knowing God. Don’t miss out. That’s the Know God tab at jackhibbs.com.
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What does it take to be a great leader? Whether you’re managing a business or running a household or navigating relationships, leadership is about so much more than titles and tasks. In The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman, you’ll discover some timeless principles of biblical leadership that really apply to every area of your life. Through some compelling storytelling, Dr. Lehman shares seven powerful secrets that’ll help you lead like the Good Shepherd does. Those secrets include understanding the people you lead, assessing their strengths, building trust, ensuring safety, providing direction, implementing correction, leading with compassion, Personally recommended by Pastor Jack Hibbs. The Way of the Shepherd is available today for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Get your copy of The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you like. It’s called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you’re going to love him on TV. So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. That’s jackhibbs.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
