Sharing The Word Of Truth – B

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Today on Real Life Radio.

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Every person born into this world has a spirit and a soul lodged, anchored inside this body, this biological machine. Every one of us. Your heart can’t think and be deceived and sing a song and love and hate. Your heart can’t do that. When the Bible mentions your heart, it’s talking about the real you inside.

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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. We all know that life is full of noise. The TV is on with news you often can’t trust, dishes are clanging in the kitchen, and blaring sounds of rush hour traffic whiz by. It’s enough to make your head spin, really, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. We have special programming that can really soften the day’s hectic pace. It’s our real-life network. It’s designed to give you relevant, life-changing programming for the whole family that you really can trust. Titles like Ignite Your Life by Barry McGuire, Washington Watch by Tony Perkins, Happening Now with Pastor Jack, and Star Spangled Adventures for the Little Patriots. You can relax and enjoy entertainment for the whole family. The Real Life Network, it’s available on your favorite device anytime, anywhere. So don’t miss a moment that really can enrich your life with shows that inspire instead of wear you down. Sign up today for free at reallifenetwork.com. That’s reallifenetwork.com. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called The Book of James, with a message titled Sharing the Word of Truth. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter that was sent to those Jews who chose to follow Jesus Christ. And as new believers, James was warning them that performing religious duties are only ways to appease our conscience. You see, false religions demand our time, our money, and are a works-centered form of worship. But Jesus demands nothing. He only invites us to love him. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that Jesus is our example of what pure and undefiled religion looks like. As our model, Jesus honored the Father on earth by doing the Father’s will, and he calls us to do the same. Now, with his message called Sharing the Word of Truth, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes.

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Salesman comes out there, he brings out the contract, you sign that thing, you give him a check, he walks back to his office, the people, there’s an announcement, someone just bought the race car on the showroom floor, he’s gonna be pulling out any moment. People are there, it’s away, hold in! And you get behind, you’re sitting there, you’re strapped in, you take the key, you got the key and you put it in the ignition, you turn it over and there’s nothing there. Well, I must have forgot to hook the batteries up, it’s a safety thing. You get out of the car, you open the hood, there’s nothing under the hood. It’s a big empty hole. And you look back at the salesman and he said, that’s why it was 20 grand. You gotta buy the engine over here in the corner of the lot. That’s $8,000 for the motor. You got a great looking car, but you got no power, no engine, no source of strength. You’re stuck, friend. You tow that car home. You call your friends. Hey, I got an awesome 1998, 99, whatever it is, Mustang convertible race car. They all come over. You know what you’re going to have to do? You’re going to have to tow them around the block from behind your pickup truck. You think they’re going to want to come back and drive in your car? No. Oh, you look great. Oh, man, you look great going to church. Look, this Bible’s got a pinstripe on it. He knows how to sing. Look at him. His tears are coming down his cheek. His arms are lifted up. Why can’t I worship God that way? Don’t look at somebody else and how they worship the Lord. Because James is suggesting the person that’s like this can be one whose religion is in vain. There’s no power under the hood. It’s empty. The word useless is this Greek word empty. The word means to have been created for greatness, like that Mustang, but in reality has an emptiness in it, which renders it vain or useless. Some of your Bibles interpret or translate, I should say, the word vain, doesn’t it? His religion is vain. Why? Because the word vain or useless means it’s only good for display, right? to look at. Well, who wants a car like that? And God says, who wants a Christian like that? You know, just sit. Jack, I love the Lord, but I don’t know what to do. I understand, and that’s where you guys are at. That’s where I’m at. Lord, what do you want me to do? There’s so much to do. And here’s what you and I struggle with, don’t we? Lord, there’s so much to do, I don’t know where to begin. And if we’re not careful to step out and follow the Lord, guess what we do? Lord, I’m 20 years old. I don’t know what to do. And so we pray. Lord, I know the church is asking for children’s ministers and parking lot guys and ushers and this and that. I just don’t know what to do. So now we’re 25 years of age and we’re still asking the same question. Lord, I don’t know what to do. Now we’re 35. Now we’re 40. Now we’re 45. Lord, what do you want me to do? That’s a good question. Listen carefully, people. Sometimes God doesn’t show us what he wants us to do until we get up and move. God told Moses to take the people across the Red Sea, didn’t he? I love that. I love that there in Exodus. Moses gets them right to the sea. They’re all there. Some two and a half million people. What a PA system he must have had. He gets right there and he goes up on top of this high ground. Ladies and gentlemen, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And there’s silence. And God says, Moses, excuse me. I didn’t say stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I said, get thee up and go across. Now, hurry. Moses, stand still and see the salvation. God says, shut up and go. Where are you going? They’re closing in on you. Moses puts his foot in the water and the sea opens up. But he had to put his foot in the water. Many of us were, Lord, what do you want me to do? Sometimes he sits silent. Have you ever asked him? Sometimes he doesn’t answer. And you’re looking at the bulletin that says, ushers needed, ushers needed in my church, where I go, my fellowship, my friends, ushers needed. Anyway, Lord, what do you want me to do? Sign up. Watch this. This is so sweet. Sign up. You know what? In about a month or two, you may find out, I don’t like the usher. Then the Lord’s not in it. Try the children’s ministry. What about three months after that? You don’t think that’s your place either. It’s just not working out. It might take you three or four tries to find out that God wanted you in the tape duplicating room to send the messages out around the world. I like this. You’re going to love it. Oh, I love it. And you know, it’s yours. You love it. Took you a couple of tries, but you found your spot. You’re so happy you did. I think God looks down on that kind of Christian and goes, that’s cool. Watch him. In fact, Gabriel, Michael, get a load of this. He’s going to bump into three ministries before he finds the one that I want him to do. And I’m just going to be testing his heart to see if he perseveres. Then there’s those who God loves. has a great, great design and creative plan for, but they never step out to find out what God wants them to do. Because they didn’t know what to do, they didn’t do anything. And Jesus comes back and he says, what did you do? Oh, didn’t do anything. I didn’t know what to do. Kind of stood around, you know, watched the clouds go by and didn’t do nothing. And you’re saying, Jack, does that mean we have to do something? Well, we don’t have to do something to do something’s sake. We are to be truly religious. We are to truly worship, and that is meeting the needs of one another. And he’s going to show us how that’s done right now. Verse 27, second point to the message is that our worship needs to be performed publicly in this regard. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this. One thing I want you to see, it’s pure. It’s not tainted. Undefiled, it has not been molested. It doesn’t have false motives, false doctrine. It’s pure, it’s simple. It’s got Jesus first. And he says, this is the kind of religion that’s acceptable. You see the word before God, the pure and undefiled religion that stands in the presence of God. This is what God has approved. God says, this is what I want. How many of us love the Lord? We love the Lord. How many of us would do exactly what he said? We would do exactly what he says. Guess what he’s saying right now? This is it. You ever wonder what God’s will is? Here it is. It’s this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep yourself safe Unspotted in this world. Let’s read it backwards. Unspotted in this world, stop hanging out with your friends who pull you down. You know that you shouldn’t go out and be drinking or be doing this or, you know, your wife or your husband wants you home, but you’re out with them and it’s a bad thing and you feel God saying you need to be home or you need to stop doing this. James says, just stop that stuff. Tell God now you want to stop it. I don’t want to be tainted by this world. That doesn’t mean you’re some kind of a snooty goofball like, you sinners. I’m not going to talk to you. Oh, no, no, no, no. You get right out in the middle with them. You get right in there with them. And they go, oh, Jesus Christ, this or that. And you say, hey, Jesus, I heard you. What did you say? Were you praying? You’re laughing. I did that one time. And then after I got up, I told them, no, I’m kidding. No, I was with a bunch of people. It was at work. And we had to go to this happy hour thing because there was going to be a company presentation. I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to go home. I had a long commute home from Newport to Chino Hill. I don’t want to be there. And for some reason, because cursing was not allowed on company grounds. Couldn’t do it. And I don’t know if they still hold to that rule. I would venture to say that they do. And anyway, for some reason, they thought at the happy hour place, they could let their happy self be. And Jesus Christ. And I said, hey, what was that? What was what? What? What? Everyone’s looking like, what, we missed something? What? You just mentioned Jesus. Are you praying? Because man, I haven’t heard that name used so much. I don’t even hear that much in church. Oh, shut up. Just shut up, man. Holy moly. It’s fun. But the thing is, if you’re going to be in the world, and who of us do not get out into the world? We’ve got to go into the world. Do you and I infect the world for God, or do they infect us for sin? Let’s make a difference.

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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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So let’s make sure, as Romans chapter 12, verses one and two state, Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you can see Paul like this, to present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord, which is your reasonable service or thing to do. And then he turns in verse two and says, but be not conformed unto the image of this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you might be able, to know or to discern the perfect will of God. So we decide that, now watch. He says to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. Well, when I came across this for study, I’m thinking orphans, orphans? This is written to other people. I don’t know, there’s no orphanage around here. And then the Lord said, excuse me, how about two miles down from the church called Hillview Acres? You know where Hillview Acres is at? There’s a lot of kids in there. Some of them come here. They come. People go to pick them up. They bring them. Hillview Acres is the place that you take Christmas gifts to every Christmas. They’ll light up and freak out. There’s kids in there with no moms and dads. There’s kids in there who moms and dads have been killed or have abandoned them or they’re so doped up and drunked up on stuff so high, they forgot they had kids and the kids have got to be taken away. Some of their kids are in, some of those children, their parents are in prison. Now, wait a minute. If I’m going to do God’s will, if I’m going to obey the Bible, if I’m going to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only, then you know what? Now watch, I’m going to go visit some orphans. That’s the spirit. Or, well, if I’m going to be a doer and not a hearer only, Then I guess I better go visit some orphans. Oh, keep your wretched religion to yourself. God doesn’t want that. Oh, here comes the offering again. I guess I better fill out the check. Keep your rotten money. It’s gotta come from your heart. God says I want a cheerful giver. No grumpy givers. What do they do with all the money they probably get in this church? Well, we run the air conditioning for one thing. There’s lights on right now. I can’t believe this is going on. I’ll keep it. Visit orphans? Yeah, that person, that young boy or that young girl might be super blessed, but not as much as you’re going to be blessed. You can never out-bless God. And I thought about this Interestingly enough, and we’ll be ending this very shortly, the word orphan and the word widow in our culture, in our society, has a totally different meaning than what it does in the word. The New Testament Greek definition of widow and orphan is a child, as I said, who has been abandoned, whose parents do not take care of them. They’re parentless in actuality or in conduct. They don’t have parents. They’re like a latchkey type child over and over again. And then the word widow is someone who has lost their spouse from death, of course, but also from abandonment or divorce, and they’re in trouble. Changes it a little bit, doesn’t it? Makes it a little bit more close to home, huh? Listen, every week on my desk, benevolent requests come in. There’s one on my desk, there’s two on my desk right now. From mostly women who have been abandoned by men, 90% of them are that way. And it says, you know, something like, Pastor Jack, I’m writing this with tears, I’m so embarrassed. In fact, I hope that when you read this, you’ll just forget my name. But I was in the church a year ago, never been more happy And three months ago, my husband ran off with his secretary. I haven’t seen him, heard from him. He’s left the company. They’re gone. I don’t even know if they’re in the country. I have no food. I have three children under the age of eight. I don’t know what to do. I’m scared. The church is my only family. And they’re about ready on Monday to turn off our water and our lights. And I don’t want the kids to be in the dark. A man who is religious and thinking of himself, the man in verse 26 says, well, maybe she deserves it. Who knows what she’s done in this life? Maybe this is God getting back at her. But the man in verse 27 says, you know what? This is what we can do. The Bible says that we, you and I together, are to take care of the household of faith first. You may or may not know it, but a portion of your tithe that you put into this church, a percentage of it goes into what’s called a benevolent fund to fulfill James 1.27 and 1 and 2 Timothy. And that may bother you if you’re just a religious man. I don’t want my money going like that. Then keep it. But for some of us, it’s like, you know what? Praise the Lord. It’s so important. Hey, you and I, you know what? We have a ministry called Gentle Grace, and they go out and they visit people. They just visit people in the name of the Lord. It’s awesome. Wonderful ministry. Then there’s a ministry called the CIA. We tap all of your phone lines and listen to everything you talk about. No. Christianity in action. In fact, Kelly, who heads that up, she said, you know what, Jack, we need people who are gifted right now with swinging a hammer and doing light appliance repair because we’ve got some women in the church, their toasters aren’t working properly. or they need this hinge put on their door. They don’t know how to put it on. See, you might be sitting there going, well, what’s my part? I’m really quiet, I don’t have much money, but I really know how to use a screwdriver, and I really know how to use a hammer. Hey, the CIA needs you. You can sign your name, Johnny Johnson. My phone number’s this, and this is what I like to do. I like to hang doors that fall off of hinges because of teenagers who live with just mom or just dad or whatever the case might be. You never know. The needs in this body are huge, huge. And then finally this, we’re all done. We’ll head off to the beach any moment here right now. I thought orphans, widows, orphans. And the Lord goes, yeah. And it cut my heart to the quick. Friday, last week was such a crazy week and this week will probably just be just as crazy. But Friday I got home from a meeting and was kind of late. I had missed dinner, got home and my oldest daughter, Rebecca goes, with no, there was nothing mean about it. She was incredibly sincere and loving about it. She said, hi dad, I’ve been seeing you in three days. How you doing? And the Lord says, you got a couple of orphans living right underneath your nose, pal. You need to be home more. What shall it profit you if the whole church goes to heaven and you miss your kids? I said, okay, Lord, take it easy. Okay, okay, uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle. Okay. Gone before the sun comes up, gone before they wake up, home after they go to bed. Many of us are in that condition, in that situation. Some of us have to be. But listen, if that’s your case, I’m not putting a guilt trip on you. I want to give you some help. You know what? You and I need to pull over and grab a telephone and call Junior during the daytime hours and say, hey, partner, how you doing? What’d you call, Daddy? I want to talk to you, buddy. Well, what’s up? Hey, I’m going to be in Pasadena on this business thing and I’m going to get you something. Where do you want me to put it? Because you know what? I’m going to be getting up early tomorrow morning because I got this stuff going on, pal, but I’m thinking of you and I’m missing you big time. And I want to just let you know how much I love you, buddy, until we’re able to be together. Where do you want me to put your surprise? And you know what a little kid will say? Put it right by my pillow, daddy, when I wake up. I want to see it. That’s what it’ll do. When I come home from a trip, I always get something. If it’s a femble or a spoon, because they collect those things, or beanie babies.

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Did you get me a beanie baby? They don’t say, hey, how was the trip? They say, did you get me a beanie baby? But you know, that’s cool. That’s okay.

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Let’s be careful to do our religion at home. Let’s be careful to be true worshipers of God in spirit and in truth. James is a tremendous book. It sure is cutting to the heart. Let’s be hearers that do. Father, we come before you and we thank you for your word and for the lamp that it is to our path. And Lord, we pray that you would use it to cause us to stand up and be so incredibly blessed that we are your children. And also, Lord, that you’ve given us a great sphere of influence that’s We have the opportunity to touch people for you, but Lord, what about those little ones that are around us? And Lord, what about the widows in the church? They don’t know where food’s gonna come from next week. And they’re so grateful that the church has got a warehouse for food for them to go and freely get the things needed. Lord, I pray that you’d shake us all up to see things as they are. And Lord, that we would really be doers and that we would not become complacent. And Lord, that we’d be a church completely head over heel, wild, crazy, nuts over loving one another. Father, I pray that you’d make us the most loving congregation there is. And I don’t mean that, Lord, as though they’re not. I know they are. I know that we are, Lord. But I pray that you’d magnify our love and our care one for another. Lord, maybe people might even come and tolerate the duration of the services just because the value of the love that’s here to be a part of it. We thank you, Lord, and we pray that you’d bless this afternoon in a wonderful way. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Sharing the Word of Truth. 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 being doers of the Word and not just hearers only. 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 if today was the day that Jesus returned? Well, that’s the life-changing perspective explored in One Day Nearer by Steve Miller. And it’s this month’s featured resource from Pastor Jack. Now, this inspiring book helps you focus on the hope that Jesus is returning. And this book offers practical encouragement to live each day with faith, purpose, and joy. One Day Nearer by Steve Miller, available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. 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.