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In this compelling episode, Pastor Jack Hibbs takes us on a journey through the Book of James, emphasizing the role of trials in testing and strengthening our faith. Discover the profound difference between joy and happiness and how enduring life's difficulties can develop patience and perseverance. Listen as Pastor Jack shares personal stories and scriptural wisdom that reveal God's hand in our trials and the ultimate purpose they serve in our spiritual growth.
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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You want to be really happy, be a Christian. Because what happens is if you have God in your life and you understand that trials are going to come to the believer and God has engineered them to the perfecting of our faith, then here's the good news. You'll have joy in your heart. And that joy is something other than happiness. But joy can generate happiness.
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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. 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. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack begins his series now called The Book of James with a message titled, Faith Well Done. Before it came one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent out to those Jews who had received the gospel and had followed Christ, but they had a limited understanding of God's grace and how it works in the life of a believer. You see, these believers misunderstood the theology behind grace. You see, they thought that they could sin freely because grace could handle it, and that being forgiven only magnifies the grace of God. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that every time the world gets angry at our right living, God's name is blessed. The world is against us, even persecutes us, but the result is pure and sincere joy in our lives. Now with his message called, Faith Well Done, here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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Trials come into our lives to prove our faith. We say we have faith. James says, let's put it to the test. It has to be that way. And so realize this morning that trials are determined for the life of the believer. He says, count it joy. Come to a conclusion. And then he uses the word joy. The word means pure joy other than happiness. This is not the word happy. Oh, I want to be happy. Good luck. Honestly, good luck is all you have. Good luck on that. You want to be really happy, be a Christian. Because what happens is if you have God in your life and you understand that trials are going to come to the believer... and God has engineered them to the perfecting of our faith, then here's the good news. You'll have joy in your heart. And that joy is something other than happiness. But joy can generate happiness. Happiness will rob us of our joy because it often is fleeting. It flies away with the latest bad news. But not joy. You can be standing outside of that house that burned down and everybody, you know, is there and somebody who doesn't know the scripture might say, you know, you're to be happy in all things. That's not true. We're to have joy in all things. But for some reason, we've been taught, or maybe we just think, that when our house burns down or a family member dies, that we're not supposed to cry, that we're not supposed to have emotion, that we're not supposed to be grieved. We're supposed to say, we're happy. Oh, praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for burning my house down. No, God uses the difficulties of life to perfect our faith. He may not have burned your house down. And it would be silly if a father said, come on, kids, let's gather around the fire heap, get out some marshmallows and sing Jesus a song. We're in the joy. That's not right. That's not what we're talking about. You can be standing at the gravesite of someone with tears flowing down your cheeks and have deep abiding joy, knowing that there's a peace that flows deeper than a river. That's joy. You know, even in our declaration, our constitution says that we have the freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. That's a bummer. I wish he would have wrote in there joy. And then they should have put a parenthesis saying, see Jesus Christ, page 92, you know, for joy. But trials are going to come into our lives. In 1 Peter 1, verse 6, the Bible says, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved, you see, grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to the praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Trials, God mixes them up and prepares them just for your name, for who you are. And it may seem like it's overwhelming. It may seem like you're gonna die, but you won't die. He'll see you through. This last service, someone handed me a note. Unfortunately, my heart broke over this because there is no name or phone number to respond to this. It says, Jack, I'm aching. I wanna express my anger, but I'm afraid. I'll be rejected. I can't endure anymore of these trials. I'm not a hypocrite. I know that what I'm choosing not to do is right, but sometimes I just draw near to it like a moth to a flame. One day I'm on top, and the next day I'm literally in the pits, literally a holy roller coaster in my life. My heart is screaming out, but no one is hearing me. I want out. That was handed to me last service. Don't, if this is you or you feel like this person, don't bail out. The Bible tells us in the book of Corinthians that God will not allow you to be tested beyond that which you are able. He'll see you through. Make your hope in God. I know it's tough. You're hardly able to make the month's payments at the end. And you're wondering, well, how is this ever going to break off of our lives? Are we ever going to be free of this yoke? I had a family just so concerned about that one time. They said, you know, are we ever going to just break even? And I said, you know what? I don't know. And I felt God spoke to me in that moment because I'd never thought about this before. I said, could it be that God has placed you in the midst of this body to test our love, to test our commitment and our selfishness, that we might free ourselves up and bless you guys back as a family? Could you possibly be placed here in this church to test our commitment to God? Could it be that those that are around you and I, remember the 25 of us who are going through hard times? Could it be that God is using these things in our lives to test the love of this body? This last week, last service, there was a man here all in a wheelchair with a serious surgery. And he couldn't wait to get to church because you guys all sent flowers to him and prayed for him and made phone calls to see if he wanted his trash cans taken out. Our meals cooked. And he said he couldn't wait to get here today. He's all bandaged up in a wheelchair. Like he fell off a truck. Love brought him here. Faith does things like that. What's an irritant in your life and in my life where we're saying, man, I want out from underneath this thing. God says, wait, just wait a minute. This irritant called the trial I'm going to use to great things in your life. We've all seen an oyster, haven't we? Aren't they about the ugliest thing you've ever seen? Have you ever seen an oyster in its shell? They are one goofy looking deal. Looks like a bunch of burnt potato chips all stuck together. And that oyster is happy as a clam, his next door neighbor. He's living down there in the ocean. He's fine. And then he opens his yap one day and gets some sand in his mouth. And that little grain of sand sits there and he's saying, hmm, what is this? This is an irritant. If I were a Christian, I'd call it a trial. And this really bugs me. In fact, I can't stand it anymore. And what happens is he begins to secrete a solution or an emulsion that's inside of his own being, his own body. And he spits on this thing of sand and begins to coat it, spits on it again. He keeps spitting on it. What he winds up doing, listen, he winds up investing part of his own life and energy into the dealing with the problem that's right in the middle of his very life. And he begins to respond to that irritant until it's completely coated, and we call it a pearl. And at the center of every pearl is a grain of sand. And that oyster hated it. But at the end, it was able to burp up this wonderful pearl. In our Christian experience, God puts a grain of sand in there and we're going, I can't stand this. How long is it going to take? And God wants us to take what's inside of us. Jack, I don't have anything left. Wait a minute, friend, listen. You've got tons left. No, I can't go on anymore. Yes, you can because you're not the one that's to be putting forth what's inside of you. The word of God has been placed inside of you. Remember, we're Christians. If there's one verse that lives inside our heart, God wants to bring that verse up and make it a reality in our lives. It can rattle around in our little head all our lifetime long until a trial shakes us and it falls down into our heart. You can hear it go ka-plunk, and all of a sudden it goes out of head knowledge and into life knowledge, and we produce pearls. The word of God comes out to the problem. You see, that's why it's not our strength. I can do it. Oh, don't say you can do it because you can't do it. I whipped it. You didn't whip it. God whipped it. You want to get through your trial quicker? Yes, please let me know how. Take it to the word of God and apply the word of God to the trial and watch what happens. You see, you and I need to start doing this with our lives. If you're like me, I wake up five days into the trial. What happened? They come so camouflaged so many of the times. Then you wake up. It's a pearl in the making. You don't need to stress. We need to be so much closer as a body. When somebody's got the hiccups in this sanctuary, everybody around here is going to know it. If your phone goes off or your beeper goes off, we all know it, don't we? Why can't we broadcast things like, you know what? I need my lawn mowed because I broke my leg. I'd never do that. I got too much pride to do that. That's part of our problem, isn't it? We need meals because we can't make our own food. We're so sick. The body wants to love and minister to the body. And your trial, God is using. Let's keep going on this. The third thing that we need to see is the development of our faith in verse 3. And he says, knowing... that the testing of your faith produces patience. Well, can you circle the word knowing, testing, faith, and patience? All of this is swung into action by the work of God because of the end of verse two, there's a word called trial, trials. And the word in the Greek means multicolored. Multicolored, the trials are various trials, multicolored trials. Have you ever seen a carpet, a woven carpet? It's a beautiful thing, but you see it from the backside. Have you ever seen like a montage carpet where there's all these different colors under the rainbow and more? And then you go to the back end of the carpet and it's like, what is this? It's like somebody lost their lunch on this thing. It doesn't make any sense. All these things are hanging. It doesn't make any sense to me at all. And you're sitting there criticizing it and wondering what is with this thing? And the guy goes, excuse me, but you're looking at it from the wrong side. Oh. Yeah, I knew that. And you walk over to the right side of the carpet and it's a beautiful, beautiful carpet that tells something. You're looking at it from the back side, from the wrong side. Where we're at, a trial looks insane. It's multicolored. It looks wild. And we have fallen into it. And that word fall means surrounding us. So we're looking at, oh my goodness, no, listen, we gotta get outside and view it from the outside looking in and it's a beautiful pattern. We need to remember that. So knowing that, he says in verse three, no, and by the way, here is James again. He's got the chalkboard out in front of us and he's commanding us. This is not a suggestion. Can you please maybe get to know this? He's saying, know it. Know this, that the testing of your faith produces patience. And the word testing is what we would think about that gold, gold that's found, that you'd pour acid on that gold. The more the acid is poured on the gold, what happens? The more pure the gold and its purity is released or revealed. If you found a gold nugget, let's say you were digging around, you found a nugget of gold, you'd run down to the assayer's office. That assayer would pour acid. And wouldn't you think, what are you pouring acid on it for? It's gold. Come on, take it easy, will you? Put some milk and butter on it. Don't pour acid on it. No, the guy knows what he's doing. He's the assayer, and it means a lot what he says. He pours acid on there, and he says, you know what? This is gold of very high quality. This acid ate away all the impurities. And that assayer would turn and say, this is worth $200,000, but your claim could be worth multi-millions of dollars. And so God says, I know you're in the middle of a trial, and it's worth a lot to you right now, but believe me, where you've come from and where you're going, buddy, is worth an eternal weight of glory. And so you just hang in there. By the way, you know about the working of gold. The more you heat up gold... Under the pressure, the greater the dross comes to the top. They scrape off the dross and they heat it up more. They scrape it off, they heat it up more until the artisan or the goldsmith looks into the molten gold and he will continue to scrape off the junk until what? Until he can see his face in the reflection of the gold. Once he sees his face, he says it's pure. It looks like a mirror, a gold mirror. And that's when he knows he's done. And God is doing that with our lives. Every trial that comes into our life, that's what Philippians 3.10, jot it down if you would. Philippians 3.10, you're gonna love this verse. The Bible says there, Paul is speaking that I may know the power of his resurrection. And everyone said, amen. And the fellowship of his suffering. And everybody said, oh no. I want the power, but I don't want the pain. Amen. that we might be, it says, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. When God scrapes our lives and removes the dross and he looks over the bucket, he sees that gold in there and he says, I can see me in there. God looks at your life and he says, now I can see me in there. They're walking by faith. They're leaning on the word of God. I can see me in there. It's a wonderful thing, the development of the Christian faith. And then finally, verse four, the maturing of the Christian faith. But let patience have its perfect work. that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. The word patience is the word perseverance, the stick-to-it-ness, the heart to keep on going. God is so wonderful, and those of you who are kind of just wondering where you're at and can this stuff be true, I want you to consider this one thing. Have you noticed when a Christian comes to Christ for the very first moment, what do they do? They take off like a skyrocket. And then God is waiting. And if you're a new believer, I want you to hear this. God is waiting. And you're so excited. You know what you wind up doing? You wind up memorizing John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. And you're telling your friends. You're telling your neighbors, your enemies. You're telling your dog and your cat. You're telling everybody. You're so excited. You're a new believer. You're like a skyrocket. And you're telling everyone about it. And God is smiling, and he's smiling, and he's happy. And so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to give you a little trial. I'm going to have the, you know, inner tube blow out on your bike. and you're going to get all bummed out. Let's see if you really believe what you preach. And by the way, the word that's used for testing is to prove its value, not to test it to destroy it, not to test it to break it. That's a whole different Greek word. It's to test, to confirm its assurance and its validity. It's a good thing. For God so loved the world. God, don't you love me anymore? Yeah, I'm giving you a little trial. But God, how can this be happening to me? I've been preaching your word and I get a blowout? It's because I love you and I want my word to become a reality in your life and I want you to believe what you preach. But God, can't that be done some other way? No, it can't be done any other way. And as you grow along and go from trial to trial, God turns up the flame. Well, I'm just going to stay kind of a remedial believer all my life then. I want to stay in the slow class. Let me give you a secret here, a little tip. It doesn't work. I've tried it. It doesn't work. He'll force you out of the class. How? He gives you a trial that makes you want to leave the class just to get you in another class. He will not let you sit idle. He will work in your life until he has accomplished that which pleases him. That's why we're supposed to grow. You know, and if you're not growing at this church, go to a church where you grow. It's all important. Well, Jack, aren't you afraid somebody's going to leave? Gee, let me think about that. You wind up going to some other church, you get stronger in the Lord, and you wind up leading somebody to Christ or helping out with the homeless or blessing some person that's in the hospital. Let me see, how do I lose? Have you forgotten we're one body? If you know somebody who's at a place who's not growing, they, not you, not me, they owe it to God to find some place where they can grow or to be maturing. And what's implied here is that we grab this wheel and we hang on and we say, Lord, keep me on the straight and narrow, man. Let's go for it. I want to grow. I want to mature. You just put me on that path. Be patient while he does this. I got to tell you, last night on the way to the church here for the Saturday night service, I had a blast. I was driving down this road, and it was a two-lane road. I mean, two lanes going one way and two lanes going the other way. So maybe that's a four-lane road. Is that four-lane? So I'm driving along, and there's these two guys in front of me, and they happen to be side by side. They're certainly going the speed limit. And I was driving, and I'm just sitting back there, and this guy comes up behind me with this brand new black BMW. It was really nice. Tinted windows, and it just looked great. And I think, those are really spiritual cars, because it says BMW, be my witness, is what that means. And This guy in this BMW comes up behind me, and he does what every BMW commercial does. He blinks his headlights at me. He goes around me. He comes up to these two guys that are in front of me, and he blinks his headlights. Then he moves over behind the other guy, blinks his lights on him. Nothing happens. He moves back behind the other guy. He's blinking his, and he goes, then he gets right in the middle of both the cars. Behind them, blinking. Now, I don't care if you're driving a Rolls Royce. At this point, this guy starts honking. That's zero class. He's... And I'm thinking, oh, bad witness. This is not good. You were okay blinking. Because, you know, that's a big thing in Europe, too. You're supposed to blink and they move over. And he's driving a European car, so he's got to be European about it, right? Now he starts honking, which is a very pagan thing. Very pagan. Honk, honk, honk, honk. Oh, and you can see his now. His head's going like this. He's like. And all of you can see these superlatives and adjectives and verbs coming out of his mouth. Blinking, honking, BMW. Just going through this thing. And in a moment, I'm watching going, this is great. This is so great because I'm on my way to teach a study on patience in the midst of trials and tribulations. Thank you, God, for this man, whoever he is, Lord. This is so good. This is like something I can share with the church. This is so good. And at that moment, I noticed the two drivers up front and the two separate cars, they looked over at each other. And in that moment, an eternal bond was created. There's no way. So now I'm fully committed. I'm going to stay on this chase. And they would not, it was obvious, they would not let this guy by. And if I would have had a camera, I could have like won $10,000, you know. And this guy's going back and forth and he's like wearing the tires out in that car. He was so stressed. And I mean furious, honking and blinking and getting right up on their tail end and hitting their brakes and And then I had to turn off and go park at church. I was having the best time. Be patient. If we would have crawled in that guy's cockpit and said, are you having a trial right now? Oh man, look at these idiots. I can't believe these guys are on the road. I can't believe they give their license. Calm down. Look somebody calm down. This is a BMW. Just take it easy. See, that's so many times it's like us. Come on, come on, come on. Things aren't happening. Come on. It's not happening fast enough. Oh, man, come over here. And we jump right out of the fire pan into the fire. And God says, just hang on. Believe my word, will you, for a moment? I'm going to reveal some awesome pearl in your heart in a moment. And we get right there so often. We pull the ripcord and bail right out of the deal. And God says, oh, man, now we've got to start this over next month. Let's pray now then. Oh, let's pray. Father, we come before you and we would ask you, Lord, that you would cause us to see you in it all, that you engineer trials. So Lord, today, tonight, this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, next year, whenever it goes wrong, we may not understand it. It may look like a bunch of woven together cloth. We don't see the pattern at all. May we remember that your word invites us to look from your perspective, that it makes sense on your side, and to be enduring patiently to see your hand in it. In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Faith Well Done. We're glad you could join us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Book of James. It's a series on walking in faith by putting it into action. 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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Everybody, brand new year. Listen to this. What a promise. Psalm 65, 11, God there announces that his paths drip with abundance and he makes his way prosperous. So listen, draw close to God. Enjoy the new year in Christ. Celebrate him every day and everything that you do. Listen, let God's work in your life be an incredible witness to other people. Bring them along. Bring them along with you into the kingdom of heaven. Love on them. Listen, the people in your life who are not Christians, start treating them like a Christian. Watch what happens. Share the joy of the Lord because you can. And exalt in his liberty and freedom because he's given it to you. Let's have an awesome new year in Jesus Christ together. Amen.
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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.
Pastor Jack's desire is to see your relationship with Christ deepen and your effectiveness for His purposes maximized. His bold preaching will encourage and challenge you to walk with Jesus.
In this compelling episode, Pastor Jack Hibbs takes us on a journey through the Book of James, emphasizing the role of trials in testing and strengthening our faith. Discover the profound difference between joy and happiness and how enduring life's difficulties can develop patience and perseverance. Listen as Pastor Jack shares personal stories and scriptural wisdom that reveal God's hand in our trials and the ultimate purpose they serve in our spiritual growth.
SPEAKER 04 :
Today on Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
You want to be really happy, be a Christian. Because what happens is if you have God in your life and you understand that trials are going to come to the believer and God has engineered them to the perfecting of our faith, then here's the good news. You'll have joy in your heart. And that joy is something other than happiness. But joy can generate happiness.
SPEAKER 04 :
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. 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. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack begins his series now called The Book of James with a message titled, Faith Well Done. Before it came one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent out to those Jews who had received the gospel and had followed Christ, but they had a limited understanding of God's grace and how it works in the life of a believer. You see, these believers misunderstood the theology behind grace. You see, they thought that they could sin freely because grace could handle it, and that being forgiven only magnifies the grace of God. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that every time the world gets angry at our right living, God's name is blessed. The world is against us, even persecutes us, but the result is pure and sincere joy in our lives. Now with his message called, Faith Well Done, here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
Trials come into our lives to prove our faith. We say we have faith. James says, let's put it to the test. It has to be that way. And so realize this morning that trials are determined for the life of the believer. He says, count it joy. Come to a conclusion. And then he uses the word joy. The word means pure joy other than happiness. This is not the word happy. Oh, I want to be happy. Good luck. Honestly, good luck is all you have. Good luck on that. You want to be really happy, be a Christian. Because what happens is if you have God in your life and you understand that trials are going to come to the believer... and God has engineered them to the perfecting of our faith, then here's the good news. You'll have joy in your heart. And that joy is something other than happiness. But joy can generate happiness. Happiness will rob us of our joy because it often is fleeting. It flies away with the latest bad news. But not joy. You can be standing outside of that house that burned down and everybody, you know, is there and somebody who doesn't know the scripture might say, you know, you're to be happy in all things. That's not true. We're to have joy in all things. But for some reason, we've been taught, or maybe we just think, that when our house burns down or a family member dies, that we're not supposed to cry, that we're not supposed to have emotion, that we're not supposed to be grieved. We're supposed to say, we're happy. Oh, praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for burning my house down. No, God uses the difficulties of life to perfect our faith. He may not have burned your house down. And it would be silly if a father said, come on, kids, let's gather around the fire heap, get out some marshmallows and sing Jesus a song. We're in the joy. That's not right. That's not what we're talking about. You can be standing at the gravesite of someone with tears flowing down your cheeks and have deep abiding joy, knowing that there's a peace that flows deeper than a river. That's joy. You know, even in our declaration, our constitution says that we have the freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. That's a bummer. I wish he would have wrote in there joy. And then they should have put a parenthesis saying, see Jesus Christ, page 92, you know, for joy. But trials are going to come into our lives. In 1 Peter 1, verse 6, the Bible says, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved, you see, grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to the praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Trials, God mixes them up and prepares them just for your name, for who you are. And it may seem like it's overwhelming. It may seem like you're gonna die, but you won't die. He'll see you through. This last service, someone handed me a note. Unfortunately, my heart broke over this because there is no name or phone number to respond to this. It says, Jack, I'm aching. I wanna express my anger, but I'm afraid. I'll be rejected. I can't endure anymore of these trials. I'm not a hypocrite. I know that what I'm choosing not to do is right, but sometimes I just draw near to it like a moth to a flame. One day I'm on top, and the next day I'm literally in the pits, literally a holy roller coaster in my life. My heart is screaming out, but no one is hearing me. I want out. That was handed to me last service. Don't, if this is you or you feel like this person, don't bail out. The Bible tells us in the book of Corinthians that God will not allow you to be tested beyond that which you are able. He'll see you through. Make your hope in God. I know it's tough. You're hardly able to make the month's payments at the end. And you're wondering, well, how is this ever going to break off of our lives? Are we ever going to be free of this yoke? I had a family just so concerned about that one time. They said, you know, are we ever going to just break even? And I said, you know what? I don't know. And I felt God spoke to me in that moment because I'd never thought about this before. I said, could it be that God has placed you in the midst of this body to test our love, to test our commitment and our selfishness, that we might free ourselves up and bless you guys back as a family? Could you possibly be placed here in this church to test our commitment to God? Could it be that those that are around you and I, remember the 25 of us who are going through hard times? Could it be that God is using these things in our lives to test the love of this body? This last week, last service, there was a man here all in a wheelchair with a serious surgery. And he couldn't wait to get to church because you guys all sent flowers to him and prayed for him and made phone calls to see if he wanted his trash cans taken out. Our meals cooked. And he said he couldn't wait to get here today. He's all bandaged up in a wheelchair. Like he fell off a truck. Love brought him here. Faith does things like that. What's an irritant in your life and in my life where we're saying, man, I want out from underneath this thing. God says, wait, just wait a minute. This irritant called the trial I'm going to use to great things in your life. We've all seen an oyster, haven't we? Aren't they about the ugliest thing you've ever seen? Have you ever seen an oyster in its shell? They are one goofy looking deal. Looks like a bunch of burnt potato chips all stuck together. And that oyster is happy as a clam, his next door neighbor. He's living down there in the ocean. He's fine. And then he opens his yap one day and gets some sand in his mouth. And that little grain of sand sits there and he's saying, hmm, what is this? This is an irritant. If I were a Christian, I'd call it a trial. And this really bugs me. In fact, I can't stand it anymore. And what happens is he begins to secrete a solution or an emulsion that's inside of his own being, his own body. And he spits on this thing of sand and begins to coat it, spits on it again. He keeps spitting on it. What he winds up doing, listen, he winds up investing part of his own life and energy into the dealing with the problem that's right in the middle of his very life. And he begins to respond to that irritant until it's completely coated, and we call it a pearl. And at the center of every pearl is a grain of sand. And that oyster hated it. But at the end, it was able to burp up this wonderful pearl. In our Christian experience, God puts a grain of sand in there and we're going, I can't stand this. How long is it going to take? And God wants us to take what's inside of us. Jack, I don't have anything left. Wait a minute, friend, listen. You've got tons left. No, I can't go on anymore. Yes, you can because you're not the one that's to be putting forth what's inside of you. The word of God has been placed inside of you. Remember, we're Christians. If there's one verse that lives inside our heart, God wants to bring that verse up and make it a reality in our lives. It can rattle around in our little head all our lifetime long until a trial shakes us and it falls down into our heart. You can hear it go ka-plunk, and all of a sudden it goes out of head knowledge and into life knowledge, and we produce pearls. The word of God comes out to the problem. You see, that's why it's not our strength. I can do it. Oh, don't say you can do it because you can't do it. I whipped it. You didn't whip it. God whipped it. You want to get through your trial quicker? Yes, please let me know how. Take it to the word of God and apply the word of God to the trial and watch what happens. You see, you and I need to start doing this with our lives. If you're like me, I wake up five days into the trial. What happened? They come so camouflaged so many of the times. Then you wake up. It's a pearl in the making. You don't need to stress. We need to be so much closer as a body. When somebody's got the hiccups in this sanctuary, everybody around here is going to know it. If your phone goes off or your beeper goes off, we all know it, don't we? Why can't we broadcast things like, you know what? I need my lawn mowed because I broke my leg. I'd never do that. I got too much pride to do that. That's part of our problem, isn't it? We need meals because we can't make our own food. We're so sick. The body wants to love and minister to the body. And your trial, God is using. Let's keep going on this. The third thing that we need to see is the development of our faith in verse 3. And he says, knowing... that the testing of your faith produces patience. Well, can you circle the word knowing, testing, faith, and patience? All of this is swung into action by the work of God because of the end of verse two, there's a word called trial, trials. And the word in the Greek means multicolored. Multicolored, the trials are various trials, multicolored trials. Have you ever seen a carpet, a woven carpet? It's a beautiful thing, but you see it from the backside. Have you ever seen like a montage carpet where there's all these different colors under the rainbow and more? And then you go to the back end of the carpet and it's like, what is this? It's like somebody lost their lunch on this thing. It doesn't make any sense. All these things are hanging. It doesn't make any sense to me at all. And you're sitting there criticizing it and wondering what is with this thing? And the guy goes, excuse me, but you're looking at it from the wrong side. Oh. Yeah, I knew that. And you walk over to the right side of the carpet and it's a beautiful, beautiful carpet that tells something. You're looking at it from the back side, from the wrong side. Where we're at, a trial looks insane. It's multicolored. It looks wild. And we have fallen into it. And that word fall means surrounding us. So we're looking at, oh my goodness, no, listen, we gotta get outside and view it from the outside looking in and it's a beautiful pattern. We need to remember that. So knowing that, he says in verse three, no, and by the way, here is James again. He's got the chalkboard out in front of us and he's commanding us. This is not a suggestion. Can you please maybe get to know this? He's saying, know it. Know this, that the testing of your faith produces patience. And the word testing is what we would think about that gold, gold that's found, that you'd pour acid on that gold. The more the acid is poured on the gold, what happens? The more pure the gold and its purity is released or revealed. If you found a gold nugget, let's say you were digging around, you found a nugget of gold, you'd run down to the assayer's office. That assayer would pour acid. And wouldn't you think, what are you pouring acid on it for? It's gold. Come on, take it easy, will you? Put some milk and butter on it. Don't pour acid on it. No, the guy knows what he's doing. He's the assayer, and it means a lot what he says. He pours acid on there, and he says, you know what? This is gold of very high quality. This acid ate away all the impurities. And that assayer would turn and say, this is worth $200,000, but your claim could be worth multi-millions of dollars. And so God says, I know you're in the middle of a trial, and it's worth a lot to you right now, but believe me, where you've come from and where you're going, buddy, is worth an eternal weight of glory. And so you just hang in there. By the way, you know about the working of gold. The more you heat up gold... Under the pressure, the greater the dross comes to the top. They scrape off the dross and they heat it up more. They scrape it off, they heat it up more until the artisan or the goldsmith looks into the molten gold and he will continue to scrape off the junk until what? Until he can see his face in the reflection of the gold. Once he sees his face, he says it's pure. It looks like a mirror, a gold mirror. And that's when he knows he's done. And God is doing that with our lives. Every trial that comes into our life, that's what Philippians 3.10, jot it down if you would. Philippians 3.10, you're gonna love this verse. The Bible says there, Paul is speaking that I may know the power of his resurrection. And everyone said, amen. And the fellowship of his suffering. And everybody said, oh no. I want the power, but I don't want the pain. Amen. that we might be, it says, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. When God scrapes our lives and removes the dross and he looks over the bucket, he sees that gold in there and he says, I can see me in there. God looks at your life and he says, now I can see me in there. They're walking by faith. They're leaning on the word of God. I can see me in there. It's a wonderful thing, the development of the Christian faith. And then finally, verse four, the maturing of the Christian faith. But let patience have its perfect work. that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. The word patience is the word perseverance, the stick-to-it-ness, the heart to keep on going. God is so wonderful, and those of you who are kind of just wondering where you're at and can this stuff be true, I want you to consider this one thing. Have you noticed when a Christian comes to Christ for the very first moment, what do they do? They take off like a skyrocket. And then God is waiting. And if you're a new believer, I want you to hear this. God is waiting. And you're so excited. You know what you wind up doing? You wind up memorizing John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. And you're telling your friends. You're telling your neighbors, your enemies. You're telling your dog and your cat. You're telling everybody. You're so excited. You're a new believer. You're like a skyrocket. And you're telling everyone about it. And God is smiling, and he's smiling, and he's happy. And so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to give you a little trial. I'm going to have the, you know, inner tube blow out on your bike. and you're going to get all bummed out. Let's see if you really believe what you preach. And by the way, the word that's used for testing is to prove its value, not to test it to destroy it, not to test it to break it. That's a whole different Greek word. It's to test, to confirm its assurance and its validity. It's a good thing. For God so loved the world. God, don't you love me anymore? Yeah, I'm giving you a little trial. But God, how can this be happening to me? I've been preaching your word and I get a blowout? It's because I love you and I want my word to become a reality in your life and I want you to believe what you preach. But God, can't that be done some other way? No, it can't be done any other way. And as you grow along and go from trial to trial, God turns up the flame. Well, I'm just going to stay kind of a remedial believer all my life then. I want to stay in the slow class. Let me give you a secret here, a little tip. It doesn't work. I've tried it. It doesn't work. He'll force you out of the class. How? He gives you a trial that makes you want to leave the class just to get you in another class. He will not let you sit idle. He will work in your life until he has accomplished that which pleases him. That's why we're supposed to grow. You know, and if you're not growing at this church, go to a church where you grow. It's all important. Well, Jack, aren't you afraid somebody's going to leave? Gee, let me think about that. You wind up going to some other church, you get stronger in the Lord, and you wind up leading somebody to Christ or helping out with the homeless or blessing some person that's in the hospital. Let me see, how do I lose? Have you forgotten we're one body? If you know somebody who's at a place who's not growing, they, not you, not me, they owe it to God to find some place where they can grow or to be maturing. And what's implied here is that we grab this wheel and we hang on and we say, Lord, keep me on the straight and narrow, man. Let's go for it. I want to grow. I want to mature. You just put me on that path. Be patient while he does this. I got to tell you, last night on the way to the church here for the Saturday night service, I had a blast. I was driving down this road, and it was a two-lane road. I mean, two lanes going one way and two lanes going the other way. So maybe that's a four-lane road. Is that four-lane? So I'm driving along, and there's these two guys in front of me, and they happen to be side by side. They're certainly going the speed limit. And I was driving, and I'm just sitting back there, and this guy comes up behind me with this brand new black BMW. It was really nice. Tinted windows, and it just looked great. And I think, those are really spiritual cars, because it says BMW, be my witness, is what that means. And This guy in this BMW comes up behind me, and he does what every BMW commercial does. He blinks his headlights at me. He goes around me. He comes up to these two guys that are in front of me, and he blinks his headlights. Then he moves over behind the other guy, blinks his lights on him. Nothing happens. He moves back behind the other guy. He's blinking his, and he goes, then he gets right in the middle of both the cars. Behind them, blinking. Now, I don't care if you're driving a Rolls Royce. At this point, this guy starts honking. That's zero class. He's... And I'm thinking, oh, bad witness. This is not good. You were okay blinking. Because, you know, that's a big thing in Europe, too. You're supposed to blink and they move over. And he's driving a European car, so he's got to be European about it, right? Now he starts honking, which is a very pagan thing. Very pagan. Honk, honk, honk, honk. Oh, and you can see his now. His head's going like this. He's like. And all of you can see these superlatives and adjectives and verbs coming out of his mouth. Blinking, honking, BMW. Just going through this thing. And in a moment, I'm watching going, this is great. This is so great because I'm on my way to teach a study on patience in the midst of trials and tribulations. Thank you, God, for this man, whoever he is, Lord. This is so good. This is like something I can share with the church. This is so good. And at that moment, I noticed the two drivers up front and the two separate cars, they looked over at each other. And in that moment, an eternal bond was created. There's no way. So now I'm fully committed. I'm going to stay on this chase. And they would not, it was obvious, they would not let this guy by. And if I would have had a camera, I could have like won $10,000, you know. And this guy's going back and forth and he's like wearing the tires out in that car. He was so stressed. And I mean furious, honking and blinking and getting right up on their tail end and hitting their brakes and And then I had to turn off and go park at church. I was having the best time. Be patient. If we would have crawled in that guy's cockpit and said, are you having a trial right now? Oh man, look at these idiots. I can't believe these guys are on the road. I can't believe they give their license. Calm down. Look somebody calm down. This is a BMW. Just take it easy. See, that's so many times it's like us. Come on, come on, come on. Things aren't happening. Come on. It's not happening fast enough. Oh, man, come over here. And we jump right out of the fire pan into the fire. And God says, just hang on. Believe my word, will you, for a moment? I'm going to reveal some awesome pearl in your heart in a moment. And we get right there so often. We pull the ripcord and bail right out of the deal. And God says, oh, man, now we've got to start this over next month. Let's pray now then. Oh, let's pray. Father, we come before you and we would ask you, Lord, that you would cause us to see you in it all, that you engineer trials. So Lord, today, tonight, this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, next year, whenever it goes wrong, we may not understand it. It may look like a bunch of woven together cloth. We don't see the pattern at all. May we remember that your word invites us to look from your perspective, that it makes sense on your side, and to be enduring patiently to see your hand in it. In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Faith Well Done. We're glad you could join us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Book of James. It's a series on walking in faith by putting it into action. 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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Everybody, brand new year. Listen to this. What a promise. Psalm 65, 11, God there announces that his paths drip with abundance and he makes his way prosperous. So listen, draw close to God. Enjoy the new year in Christ. Celebrate him every day and everything that you do. Listen, let God's work in your life be an incredible witness to other people. Bring them along. Bring them along with you into the kingdom of heaven. Love on them. Listen, the people in your life who are not Christians, start treating them like a Christian. Watch what happens. Share the joy of the Lord because you can. And exalt in his liberty and freedom because he's given it to you. Let's have an awesome new year in Jesus Christ together. Amen.
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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.
In this riveting episode of 'Real Life Radio', Pastor Jack Hibbs takes us through the profound teachings of the Book of James. This epistle, though ancient, holds timeless universality for believers today, urging us to recognize that trials are a part of the Christian journey. With an emphasis on not merely hearing the Word, but becoming active doers, Pastor Jack enlightens us on the compelling commands laid before us by James, who speaks with authority and love, guiding us toward a life of authentic faith.
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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God will allow doubt in your life. He'll allow doubt in your life so it drives you to the answer so that that doubt no longer comes up again. God will even use doubt. And that is a form of a trial.
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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. 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. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack begins his series now called The Book of James with a message titled, Faith Well Done. Before it came one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent out to those Jews who had received the gospel and had followed Christ, but they had a limited understanding of God's grace and how it works in the life of a believer. You see, these believers misunderstood the theology behind grace. You see, they thought that they could sin freely because grace could handle it, and that being forgiven only magnifies the grace of God. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the book of James not only gives us a better understanding of God's grace, but it forewarns Christians to expect trials in the years to come, trials that produce patience, that we may be perfect and complete and lacking nothing. Now in his message called, Faith Well Done, here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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Well, why don't you grab your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of James. And we'll begin by doing a brief introduction. The book of James, he says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James, as we begin this book, is a book written that is comprised or makes up of the general epistles. The word general epistles, the word general means actually where we get the word Catholic. That word Catholic or general means universal. It is the universal epistles, James being one of them. 1 and 2 Peter. are general epistles. First, second, and third John are general epistles. The book of Jude is a general epistle, and of course James. It means by general epistle, it means the universal teaching and doctrine. That this is a writing that was to go out to all those who claim to be Christians. And that's why even in verse 1, it says to the 12 tribes. Well, the 12 tribes weren't existing then. They had gone through the diaspora. That is, they had been dispersed throughout the nations of the world. But James, being a very good Jewish man, who had come to faith in Christ, Jesus as Messiah, was writing to all of his people. fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who were of a Jewish background. And remember, the early church was all Jewish. We forget that, don't we? We've been grafted into this wonderful salvation that God has given. We as Gentiles, God has given us this opportunity. But many of the early church were Jewish believers. And so James, being the Jewish believer that he was, writes to the tribes of Israel. Now they had again been disbanded, but they would have known, hey, this letter has come from James, one of our brothers about Christ. And we need to know that in our study because James was a guy speaking to people who knew about the commands of God. And interestingly enough, there's 108 verses in this book. And he, that is James, makes more commands. And I'm not saying they're suggestions. James is a fun kind of guy. James comes out from behind the rock and he's got a Smokey the Bear kind of hat on, you know, a sergeant cap. He's got bars on his... What do you call these things? Callers, thanks. He's a man, he comes out there and he marches, and James, just by his very wording, are you ready for this? This is not for the weak of stomach here. James says, those of you who are Christians, this is what you're gonna do. And he began to pace back and forth. You will do this, and you will do the other, and you will do the next thing, and you will do the other thing. And you might say, well, boy, that's sure hard. Oh, no, he's a perfect loving commander. He's saying, listen, if you want to have a life that is wonderful and a Christianity that is blessed, this is what you're going to do. So he's like the sergeant of the apostolic boys. Peter, he's just Peter. John, John's deep. John's very poetic. He's kind of a mystic. James, he comes up and says, all right, this is what we're going to do. Tuck in that shirt. Stick out that chest. Here we go. And our walks with God. He's all about walking with God. In fact, James, in a couple of weeks, he's going to tell us to keep our mouths shut. He's just going to come out and say, put your mouth on the back burner, will you? Notice you've got two ears. Listen twice as much as you talk. That's what he's going to say to us. He's going to really let us have it. He's talking to the Christian. You ever been in a halftime talk? This is James. He's got a ball cap on, whistle around his neck, and he's talking to the church. And I love it. The church at that time was erring in some ways, and its view was, well, we've come to Jesus. We went forward at the crusade. We got baptized. We listened to Billy Graham or watched his programs. We're saved. So it doesn't really matter how we live. And James says, oh, excuse me, it doesn't matter how you live. In fact, James is going to go on to say, excuse me, but if you do not visit the widows and the orphans, and if you do not reach out to help those that are in need, James says, don't tell me you're a believer. He says, your faith is in vain and your religion is pitiful. He's going to really let it hit the house. That's the kind of guy he is. James, this book was written between 60 and 62 AD. And it was at the end of the year 62, by the way, that James lost his life to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus. He was a martyr for Christ. This book also tells us about a faith that is well done. A faith that comes to the end of its life. experience, the end of its race, as Paul put it. And it's a faith that really accomplishes something. It's not a recreational faith. James is talking to those who really believe in God, who really need instruction and really need to be growing and maturing, like all of us. But he's gonna address a lot of things that set us back from growing in Christ. One of them is a trial or the trials of life, difficulties. If you're a Christian this morning, and even if you're a non-Christian this morning, you experience difficulties, don't you? But here's the wonderful thing for the Christian this morning. Every trial that comes into your life, God has engineered and ordained in the life of the believer. And that's what we're gonna be talking about this morning. James is talking to us about our faith being encouraged. And by the way, faith in action. James chapter 1 verse 22 is the theme of the entire book. And you all know this verse. He says, do not be... hearers of the word only but be doers of the word. Be those who do the word of God. And I thought about this for a moment and I need you to realize something and you can even go search to see if this is true. But the greatest hospitals and the plethora or the volume of hospitals worldwide, do you know who established them? Christian and Christian organizations. Did you know that? It's a fact. Even in very militant Muslim nations, the most prominent and High-end or best hospitals are Christian hospitals. Even if other nations disagree with the Christian view, they'll allow these Christian hospitals to be there because of the quality of care. What about libraries? Did you know that Christians in the last 2,000 years establish libraries worldwide so people can be educated. And by the way, if you're educated, eventually, if you use your head, you will think hard enough and long enough and you'll be a researcher and you'll be a scholar, all of us should be, to some extent or another, and you'll eventually come to the knowledge of Christ. If you use your head, if you think with evidence and if you think what is true. And based upon what the world shows us through actual science, you'll come to know God. So Christians said, hey, let's establish libraries. What do the cults do? They want to put away libraries. They don't want you to think. What does communism do? Take away your access to knowledge so they can control you. Christianity says, no, use your head, be educated and know. Because knowledge will eventually lead you to Christ. Also, Christian movements or organizations of the Christian faith, because it's a faith that does, has established humanitarian relief worldwide, even to this very hour. Humanitarian relief is going out around the world by virtue of the Christian belief. What about this? Schooling. The greatest schools in the world and the greatest schools in the United States were found on Christianity. Did you know that? Maybe you'll recognize a few of these schools. Have you ever heard of Harvard University? You ever heard of Yale, Cornell, Princeton? These schools were founded, and go back, and you can read about this. I actually had a chance to read about this. Harvard, by the way, at one time, Harvard and Yale shared the same president of the universities, and that was Dr. Jonathan Edwards. known as the greatest thinker that America has ever produced. Jonathan Edwards was an ordained pastor, a great evangelist, who supposedly preached the greatest message that's ever been delivered in America, called the sinners in the hands of an angry God. And the miraculous events that took place in New England when he delivered that message was overwhelming to the community and to the county. It went on to be produced around the world. Jonathan Edwards sat as the head of Harvard and Yale. By the way, he was homeschooled. And this man went on to be one of the greatest Christians of all time. But each one of those schools were all founded upon the Bible, and you had to have your Bible study and your grades up to maintain your other pursuits at those universities. If you were gonna be a medical student, you had to first take Bible, and it was serious Bible. You had to take Greek and Hebrew. You had to. If you were gonna be an attorney or whatever in those universities, you had to know Bible. Even UCLA, the old logo for UCLA has an open Bible talking about how the knowledge comes from God. It's very interesting. Why are we saying this? Because the book of James is about a Christianity that does, and that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. Once you look at verse 1, which is our first point, and that is there are trials in the Christian faith. Are you ready for this? There are trials in the Christian faith. How many of you are having a trial even right now? How many of you have difficulties? About 25 of us. That's better than first service. There were three of us at first service.
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Ha!
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So for the 25 of us, we know what it's like to be in a trial. But how do you handle one? You pass it over to the guy next to you. That's what you do. It's like a potato. Get it out of here. See, that's our thinking. When hardship comes into our lives, press default. Can't I erase this? Can't I highlight it and drag it in the trash can? No. Why? Because they're designed by God. Trials are going to be part of our lives. Those of you who have recently come to Christ, let me be the first to tell you, if you haven't caught on already, there's going to be trials in your life. Some of those trials, as you've just made a commitment to Christ, there's going to be doubt. Gosh, I felt wonderful the day I gave my heart to Christ, and now I'm wondering, what am I doing? Hey, it's normal. It'll pass. Here's how it passes, though. Get your doubt absolutely dealt with by getting answers. Don't let doubt go on without being answered. God will allow doubt in your life. He'll allow doubt in your life so it drives you to the answer so that that doubt no longer comes up again. God will even use doubt. And that is a form of a trial. What about anybody who's gone to... church or out to dinner or somewhere and you come home and you notice all these red lights surrounding your house and there's nothing left but a smoldering ash heap. You left the iron on or something. What's happened? You're in the middle of a trial, friend. You're in the middle of a difficulty. Are you going to think, God doesn't love me anymore? That has nothing to do with it. He loves you very, very much. The Bible says that all of us in this life, especially believers, will suffer tribulation in this world. It's going to happen. How do we deal with it? That makes all the difference in the world.
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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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In verse 1, it says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings. The reason why we selected or put trials of the Christian faith as the first point is because of the name James, his very name. You can, I mean, don't do this really, but you can put your name alongside James. I mean, I was going to say cross up the name James. No, don't do that. Put your name around his name because it can be you too. It can be John, a servant of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can that be? Because listen, God knows you by name. John chapter 10 says that he knows you by name. When the Lord called to Martha, he said, Martha, Martha. When he called to Peter, he says, Simon, Simon. He called Abraham, Abraham. He knows us by name. The reason why trials come to the Christian faith and to our lives is because He knows us. God supernaturally engineers trials to come into our lives. And you say, why does He do that? To perfect our faith. Can't He do it some other way? No. Well, I don't like it. That's why it's called a trial. It's too difficult. That's why it's called a fiery trial. We don't want them. We don't like them. But we can tell you this. When you come out on the other side of them, it's like, all right. It's just the pits gone through it, but it doesn't have to be the pits. And we want to change this by the knowledge of the word of God. James says, James. I like that. He doesn't mess around. He doesn't say, may the grace and the Lord Jesus be with you all from the church at Corinth. He says, James, because God knows his name. God knows your name. A lot of people don't realize this, but you know, those of us who have given our hearts to Christ, the Bible says our names are written down in heaven in the Lamb's book of life. The Bible also teaches us that Satan can know our names. We don't like to hear about this, but he can know our names and he knows maybe our names. So what do you mean? Well, remember Satan came to Jesus and said, I want Peter. Wouldn't it have been great for Peter said, you know, cover his name tag. I'm not Peter. No, Satan knew Peter's name. when the sons of Sceva were watching the casting out of demons by the apostles, they said, this is pretty cool. We can make some extra cash. Why don't we go around and do the same thing? So they went into a house where a man was demon-possessed. And they said, in the name of Jesus, and in the name of Paul, come out of this man. And they probably looked at each other and went, let's see what happens. And the man turned and looked at them. Can you imagine this man's possessed? So actually his head turned a few times and looked at them and said, what? And they said, in the name of Paul and in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, come out of him. And that demon spoke to that man and said, we know who Jesus is and we know who Paul is, but who are you? And at that, it says the demon leapt out of the man's body and onto those guys and beat them up and tore their clothes off. And the men ran out of the house naked. That is classic. Hey, when we have a prayer meeting, do the demons drive by in their little spiritual car and go, oh man, they're praying again. Let's get out of here. I hope so. If they know your name, what do they think? Oh, he's just a pure potato. He doesn't even listen. He falls asleep during half the messages. Just leave him alone. He's doing fine for us right where he's at. But what if you say, you know what? I want to be different. I want to follow God. You know, the halls of hell go, wait a minute. Hold it. We've got somebody who wants to make a commitment. Go up there and sow some doubt and wreak havoc in their lives. And God says, listen here. Nothing comes into your life unless I first filter it. Greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world. You are my child and you've been bought with a price and you are 100% mine. And if trials come into your life, they're engineered by God. Now the non-believer cannot say that. They're kind of like out on their own. with an umbrella that's been like charred with lightning, right? It's just the little metal rods. And they're standing there. God says, those of you who are believers, you're under my umbrella. Everything from the losing of a job to a sickness to, you know, death or to cancer. Last service I had a man come up and say, I have cancer. And I want to thank you with tears in his eyes for this message. Trials of life. God is there. He is going to be working in our lives. Trials will come to the Christian faith. And this is the comforting thing about it before we move on to verse 2. James comes down, so to speak, to the rapids of the river of life. And he comes over to the shore and he's in now still waters. He's got his big bullhorn. And he says to those getting ready to go through the rapids, James says, you're going to make it. You're going to come through this. We've all done it. God's going to see to it. You make it. So you just hang on. I don't feel like I'm going to make it. He says, hang on. I'm scared. I know. Hang on. The doctor just told me I've got leukemia. Hang on. We're losing our home. Hang on. The greatest thing that you possess in your life is not your home, it's not your car, it's not your job, it's not your kids, it's not your parents. It is faith in God. Your faith. When you lose faith in God, you lose hope. And then you lose your life. But faith in God. God's view toward us right now is that our faith might be strengthened. And he says, James, God knows our name. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, he's going to give us new names in heaven. Isn't that good? Some of us who have kind of goofy names. I'm not alluding to my first name, Jack. It's my middle name. Don't even ask anybody. It's top secret. It's classified information. I arrested you to know my middle name. So don't even ask. That name, thank God when it comes that day, we're going to give you a new name. I'm going to run up front. I deserve a new name with the name I had. He's gonna give us new names. He knows our names now. He's for us. And it says that, He's a servant. James is a servant of God. And I just want to point this out because it's kind of beside the point, but it is interesting to know that in the Greek scripture, it says James of the God and Lord Jesus Christ, his servant. That just simply means that Jesus Christ is God and Lord. And there's no other way to interpret it. Those of you who might be doubting the deity of Christ, James chapter one, verse one declares Jesus is God. So does Revelation 1, 17 and 18, and Revelation chapter 2, verses 4 through 8, and many other passages. Titus 2, 13 as well. But Jesus Christ is God. And all of a sudden that changes the position of a bondservant. See, the word in your Bible says servant. Some of your Bibles say bondservant. The word bondservant is the actual word doulos. In the Greek, it means that he is a bondservant of God. He has been selected. The word means selected by the master. Now, a lot of slaves in that culture were purchased out of the slave markets. But then, listen, after six years of servitude to that master, you were to be set free. That's a pretty nice program, isn't it? You weren't a slave for life. Guess what? unless you chose to be. And how do you choose to be a slave for life and why? Because many masters were very, very good masters. And what happened during that time of slavery is that you discovered that you were in a pretty good situation. And at the end of your time, you could go to your master and say, Master, I want to become your full-time servant. I want to become your bond servant. You selected me, and now I'm responding to you. At the end of this term, my six years, which is now, I'm asking you, will you take me on? And if that master decided to take that slave on, he would place his hand on his shoulder and he would make a decree. And he would say, you are now a member of this household. Just like Caesar had his household, so a master could have his household. It was, listen to this, his wife and his children. And when that bond servant came into the ranks, he might have had a wife too and children. A place was set up for them, Pay was to be given to them. They became a hired hand, but also almost a family member, to the point that a bondservant often had jurisdiction over your own children. They made sure that they went to school. They made sure that they were taught. They made sure that they were fed. The bondservant, in fact, it's not too foreign to us if I introduce the name Joseph. Joseph was, so to speak, a bondservant of Pharaoh. And look at all the responsibility he had. You see, all of a sudden it changes. When we're a bondservant of God, that sounds very low, doesn't it? Notice who you work for. You work for God. I thought I worked for IBM. No, you're ministering at IBM. Did you know that? Well, I thought I worked for the county. No, you're ministering at the county. That's where God has called you to be a witness. But you work for God. And all that you do, says the Bible, due to the glory of who? God. That's who we work for.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Faith Well Done. We're glad you could join us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Book of James. It's a series on walking in faith by putting it into action. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. You know, keeping our eyes off of ourselves and on what would please the Lord and bring Him glory takes a special kind of determination and focus. That's why starting the day with devotions is a great way towards a meaningful and lasting relationship with Christ. But with tight schedules and hectic lifestyles, we don't always want to waste precious time searching for inspiring devotional material. So, Pastor Jack has written and provided them for us. Simply go to our website, jackhibbs.com, and click on the tab labeled Devotions. There's a new one every week, along with quick and easy access to previous devotions with titles such as The Eternal Love of the Lord, Our Awesome God, and Blessings in Abundance. You can even subscribe to Pastor Jack's devotional newsletter when you type in your email address. Again, it's available on our website, jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. You can also have access to Pastor Jack's devotions when you download the Real Life app for your smartphone or tablet. 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.
In this special New Year's edition of Real Life Radio, listeners are encouraged to walk closely with God and draw from His strength. Pastor Jack shares insights on how to fortify your faith by hearing the Word, emphasizing the significance of the 'shield of faith' and 'helmet of salvation'. This episode is not just a call to arms against spiritual adversaries, but a heartfelt prayer for grace and mercy as we commit our lives to God's perfect will. Be inspired to live every day with hope and anticipation as we keep our eyes fixed on His promises.
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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It all comes together by praying always. It means being an attitude of prayer. I love that because please don't think that it means you have to bow your knee, you have to go to a closet or a room. It means to have an attitude of prayer, that you're just talking to God.
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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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Everybody, brand new year, listen to this. What a promise. Psalm 6511, God there announces that his paths drip with abundance and he makes his way prosperous. So listen, draw close to God, enjoy the new year in Christ, celebrate him every day and everything that you do. Listen, let God's work in your life be an incredible witness to other people. Bring them along. Bring them along with you into the kingdom of heaven. Love on them. Listen, the people in your life who are not Christians, start treating them like a Christian. Watch what happens. Share the joy of the Lord because you can. And exalt in his liberty and freedom because he's given it to you. Let's have an awesome new year in Jesus Christ together. Amen.
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On today's special edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack brings to us his New Year's series with a message called, The Great Put On. As we enter 2025, let's continue to live with hope and expectancy in our hearts by living a victorious life, equipped and ready for whatever comes our way. You see, as we move forward with expectancy, God wants us to live a victorious Christian life by being equipped. God's plan is to enable us, armored up and ready for spiritual battle. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that faith is what comes when we hear the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, believing that we are more than conquerors, strong and courageous. Now, with his special New Year's message called The Great Put On Part Two, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes.
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God has promised you and I the victory, and that victory is much in part regarding the shield of faith. And as I said in Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Every time you read a Bible verse, hear a sermon, your faith is growing. Imagine your shield getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then the day of battle, you want a big shield. The Bible says in Romans 8, verse 37, yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. How are you going to know that? Read it and then believe it and exercise your faith. And he says, though, about these things above all, very, very important, top shelf priority. Why? Because he says, look at the firmness, look at the stability, look at the readiness of all this, look at the power to this church. He says, regarding your faith, you'll be able to shield or quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. That means Satan is shooting at you. By the way, the word arrow or darts, it's bellows in Greek. And it means this, fiery darts is pyro bellows. Think of an arrow dipped in the tar or the pitch, set ablaze and launched. Do you know what you would do? When that thing was launched at you, you'd see it coming. And so this is what the soldiers did. The Greeks and the Romans, they got down like this and then they put up their shield and and they took the hit, they could do it. When they were advancing against an enemy, do you know what they would do? When the enemy launched the weapons against them, then you would put yours up and your warrior brother would grab his shield and get behind you and he would get down like this and the word in Greek is where we get the word turtle. They would turtle. The launch would come, the fiery darts are being catapulted at you and the command was shouted, turtle! And they would go into the turtle position and they're completely covered by these great shields of faith, right? Shields, but we're talking faith here. They took the hit and they would jettison the shields and fire back while the opponent is getting ready. By your faith taking the hit, you are actually disarming your assailant because now they're taking time to reload, that's when you get them. So you'd launch back at them, we'll see in a moment, the word of God, and you would clear out your shield and get it ready for the next bout. Faith, more Bible, more Bible, more Bible, greater faith. going through difficult times, going through cancer, going through financial, it doesn't matter. Faith is the greatest thing that you possess, and it can quench not some, not a lot, all of the fiery darts of the wicked one. Satan can, listen, it's so cool. Satan is disarmed, really. He could have everything at his disposal to shoot at you, but faith keeps you from getting hit, right? Victorious. Here you go. Memorize this one. Get a tattoo. It's kind of big though, so put it upside down on your tummy. You can read it. 2 Corinthians 10. Now, I'll speak as a man because that's what I am. So, ladies, I don't know. You do your thing on this. But listen to this. 2 Corinthians 10. We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons. Not worldly weapons. Can you imagine using a nuclear bomb in a spiritual battle? It's stupid. A nuclear bomb could go off right here. It doesn't change one thing in the spirit realm. Amen. A nuclear bomb could go off right here and an angel wouldn't be affected. And by the way, neither would your spirit or your soul. Only your body would vaporize. That's all. Hey, look, you're set free. You're set free from this thing that I had to eat Advil this morning just to get out of bed, you know? Well, watch this. Not worldly weapons to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. Coronavirus arguments. Now we've got the new one. Now they don't know what to do with it. They don't know what to do because people have got the flu now. I am not kidding. Do you know where I'm going with this? What has Israel now discovered? Yes, flu-rona. It's not a joke. It's not a joke. They figured out, we can't tell the difference because this guy's got the flu, he tests positive when we test him. This guy's got corona, he tests positive when we test him. This guy's got COVID, we test him and he's not positive. Anyway, and they concluded flu-rona. I'm sorry, I just so went down a rabbit hole there. This is very serious, this is very serious. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God, we capture their rebellious thoughts, listen, and teach them to obey Christ. And after you have become fully obedient, we, this is the least quoted verse in the Bible, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. That doesn't mean you go around and you slap people. It means that you expose wickedness. That's what it means. Every Christian is supposed to expose disobedience to God. Okay? We are lights. We love everybody. We don't hate anybody. The teacher that's lying to your kid, you're gonna expose that. The politician that's lying to us, we're gonna expose that. And listen, it needs, and so many other things, must be exposed. Right? Must be exposed. God would have us to be victorious. Number eight is confidence. Put on confidence. Put on what is confidence. Verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation. I love this. The helmet, look at that. The helmet goes on your head. And the helmet protects the main processing unit, right? The central processing unit of your life is your mind. And the helmet of salvation, for many reasons, has got to be placed at the top. Salvation. I love the fact that the Bible tells us over and over again, as I mentioned regarding Joshua, be strong, be courageous. The promises of those great verses come into our minds first before they take effect. And this is a tremendous truth. Our salvation has a lot to do with how we think, what we think about, what we allow regarding these thoughts. How do we take things captive that are not right and that are not good? What about this? What if we took things captive that are just a waste of time? There's a lot of people spending hours these days on gaming apps. And a moment in the Bible at best. And no wonder why your life is weak and you're losing ground. And you have doubts now. Notice that when Satan spoke to Eve, it was a battle of thoughts. Satan said to her, did God say? Is that what God said? He cast doubts into her mind. He went after her that way. A lot of people today struggle with salvation. There's only one way to fix that, is to immerse yourself in God's promises to save. What God has done at the cross to save. When God says, come to me, I'll save you. You've got to believe him. He can't lie.
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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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Salvation, that glorious helmet. Number nine, we put on the power. He says there in verse 17, take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. This is one of our favorites for all of us. This is that word machaira. Not the big broad sword of the Roman gladiator. This is the machaira. You don't often see it. If it's in a movie, the only time that you would see it in a movie is when... The shield is now cast to the ground. The Roman broadsword has been jettisoned because it's about that long. That's more, that's like a broadsword right there. And you see, watch, you see the soldier now. He is about ready to grapple with his opponent. This is now warfare to the death. No, listen, someone most often, neither one of them walked away from this alive. but the one that did walk away from it alive did it like this. He reached back, it's almost unseen, and he pulls it out, and it's the machaira, and that blade is 16 to 18 inches long. It's not very long. And it has a hilt, is that what it's called? And he doesn't even look at it. He just, he pulls it out, and they were trained in methods on how to go for the vitals and down through the opening in the armor, down through here, right? Pull out, up, if they could, through the armor. If they could, if they could reach around in the back, there was no armament in the back, and bring it in. If they felt it stop... they knew this guy's gonna go down in 30 to 60 seconds. Because when that sword bottomed out, you had struck a vital organ. Isn't it amazing that the Bible says the word of God is what kills the enemy when the enemy attacks. Remember, we're fighting against invisible forces that are demonic, satanic entities. If we stab them with a knife, it wouldn't work. If we know what scripture to use in that situation that applies to that moment, the enemy is slain. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Those of you who know that, exercise that, do that, your faith will grow. Victories will be had. It's absolutely awesome. Listen very quickly, you're doing great, I gotta speed it up. 1 Timothy chapter four, 1 Timothy four verse six. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. But reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things. Having promise of life that now is and of that which is to come, verse nine, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. In other words, do this. One more verse before we do our last point. is Hebrews 5, verse 14. The Bible there says that solid food belongs to those who are of full age. Think of that. You don't give a six-month-old a steak to probably kill him. But as you grow up, you should eat more mature foods. That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. I love that. Look at that verse. That's incredible. Because I know my Bible, I'm speaking for all of us, because we know our Bibles and we use our Bibles, we study it and apply it to our lives, we walk around and we're able to discern what's good and what's bad. Notice today what people are saying, what is good and what is bad. And also notice the correlation. They don't read their Bible. That's how they got to where they're at today. And then we end here. Verse 18. We put on what is alert. And that is prayer. So think about all this armament on you. How does it really work? It all comes together together. By praying always, it means being an attitude of prayer. I love that because please don't think that it means you have to bow your knee, you have to go to a closet or a room. It means to have an attitude of prayer that you're just talking to God. With all prayer and supplication, that is praying for others in the spirit and being watchful to this end. Watchful. with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. What does this mean? We end here, church. You can stand even, I promise. You can stand. This is a good passage to end the year with. 1 Thessalonians 5. I love this. If we do these things, what are we going to look like? What's going to happen to us? What's not going to happen to us? 1 Thessalonians 5, 1, but concerning the times and the seasons, he's talking about the end of the age. He's talking about when Christ comes for the church. He's writing to the Thessalonians. Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you'll have no need that I should write to you. Isn't that an amazing statement? You guys all want to know when Jesus is coming back? Just know this, that when it's soon for his return, you won't need me to tell you. It means the times and the seasons are going to be obvious. Right. to those who are alert, right? Look at verse two. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. Listen, to some people, better not be you. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day would overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep. He's talking about being spiritually numb, as others do. But let us watch and be sober, alert, For those who sleep, sleep at night. For those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. Verse nine, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to attain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, amen. Father, we praise you, God. We pray today, Lord. In fact, church, I'm gonna ask you, I'm going to ask everybody, if you don't mind, to lift your hands. We're going to... Well, you'll see. Fathers, we stand today on the threshold of a brand new year. Last year's gone. It's over. It's in the history books. There's not one thing we can do about it. It's over. This year is before us. We can do anything. And Lord, as believers... We choose to follow you. So, Lord, with our hands lifted up, I ask you, Father God, in Jesus' name, that you bless these people. I pray, Lord God, as your word says now to you, almighty God. You're the one who is able to keep us from stumbling this year and to present us faultless before your presence in glory with exceeding joy. It's you, Lord. Amen. that we're asking you to bless us and to keep us. Lord, that you might make your face to shine upon us. Lord, that you might be gracious unto us. And Lord, that you might lift up your countenance upon us and give us, Lord, your peace, your shalom. Father, may we leave this building today an energized and transformed people. And may we look to the cross of Christ where he died for our sins there and Jerusalem's empty tomb where He rose again from the dead, our Savior lives. And because He lives, we shall always live with Him. In Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. God bless you guys. Have a holy new year.
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Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special New Year's message called The Great Put-On Part 2. Thanks for listening and Happy New Year from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. Our prayer for you is that your 2025 will be full of contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. It's been a great joy sharing our Real Life Radio program with you. And thank you for welcoming us into your home this past year and into your life. 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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Have you ever stopped and thought, boy, what if Jesus were to come back today? In a world that feels more uncertain by the minute, it's easy to lose sight of eternity. But what if we lived each and every day with the hope and anticipation that Christ is coming back? Now, that's the powerful perspective offered in One Day Nearer, written by Steve Millard. And it's this month's featured resource from Pastor Jack Hibbs, One Day Nearer. Through biblical insight and practical encouragement, this book's going to help you face life's challenges with faith and purpose, reminding you that with each sunrise, get this, we are one step closer to being with Jesus. If you're ready to realign your focus and rediscover the joy of living for eternity one day nearer, it's really a must read. The point is this, friend.
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Every day that you get up, you are one day closer.
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This book is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Last January, I was talking to a friend of mine, a young guy, and I told him, I said, you know what? I said, the older you get, the more, he's in his 30s. I said, the older you get, the faster the years go. It's true. And here we are. It was January two weeks ago, right? Feels like it. Let's just pray that God blesses us and that we serve him well in the new year.
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Father, we do exactly what Davey is saying right now. Father, there's those here listening right now. They're on a plane. There are those driving. There's truckers that are heading across country right now. I would love to be able to see what you see right now, Father. Your people connecting together in this prayer all over this nation, if not further. We're coming before you and we're asking you, Lord, for mercy and for grace. As we put one year behind us and the new year before us, Lord, we want to do exactly what you want. Please do not let us—don't allow us, Lord— to live out your permissive will. We don't want to come close to living out your will. We want to have your perfect will done in our lives. So Lord, if it's from the cockpit of an airplane to the cab of an 18-wheeler to a kid on a high school campus to parents in the kitchen right now on a Saturday morning, wherever this word finds them, We dedicate our lives to you, Lord, this year. We ask you to do with us things so radical, so amazing, so beyond us, that next year or this year, ending 12 months from now, that we would just say, isn't God great? So, Lord, we surrender happily. Yeah. In Jesus' name, amen.
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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.
Join Pastor Jack Hibbs on this special New Year's episode as he delves into 'The Great Put On,' a message that calls listeners to live victoriously through faith. Discover how immersing yourself in the Bible and understanding the 'shield of faith' can prepare you for the challenges of the year ahead. Pastor Jack stresses the importance of personal testimonies in sharing the Gospel, encouraging believers to be ready to give a defense for their hope in Christ.
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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The shield of faith is something that you build by your immersion in the Bible. You guys, the Bible tells us in Romans 10, 17 that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You want to be ready? Know the Word of God.
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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 everybody, something that you should know, that in our church and in our media community, in the social media community, we have for decades, as a church, started every year off with the reading of the one-year Bible all the way through. So I'm encouraging you to join us and do the same. If you are not one of the tens of thousands of people that are actually on the same page with me, with my wife, Lisa, with the church and beyond, the entire Real Life audience and beyond, get a copy of the one-year Bible and get started with us on January 1st. You can get a copy for yourself at jackhibbs.com, but by all means, please do this. And listen, get one for your friends or maybe a son or a daughter or a mom or a dad. The One Year Bible, through the Bible and one year together, join us.
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That's the One Year Bible, and it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's jackhibbs.com slash real radio. on today's special edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack brings to us his New Year's series with a message called The Great Put On. As we enter 2025, let's continue to live with hope and expectancy in our hearts by living a victorious life, equipped and ready for whatever comes our way. You see, as we move forward with expectancy, God wants us to live a victorious Christian life by being equipped. God's plan is to enable us, armored up and ready for spiritual battle. So today, Pastor Jack encourages us to tell people this year what God has done in your life. With God in our hearts, we're to always be ready to give a defense for the reason of the hope that is within us. Now, with his special New Year's message called The Great Put On Part Two, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Church family, listen, you enter into that breastplate of righteousness. You go into it. Listen, I went into this jacket. You went into your clothing this morning. Did you not put on your clothing? You went into it. The breastplate of righteousness is a righteousness that's provided by God, not you. This is what's great about Christianity. You don't make your own breastplate of righteousness. That's called legalism and that's called works and it's unacceptable to God. God provides the righteousness for you to step into and put on because as you learned on New Year's Eve, that's Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us the righteousness by going to the cross and being resurrected from the dead. So here we go, we pick it up. Number six is that we put on what is ready. What's ready? Verse 15, it says there, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Having shod your feet, so what's implied is that there are, you may have boots on and you may have protection on, whatever you do have on, this goes over that. And it gives you not only protection, but it allows you, because you're protected, it allows your feet to carry the entirety of who you are into this new year. And I love the fact that you're to have your feet protected shod or wrapped with the gospel of peace. Number one, the gospel of peace, the word means you now have peace with God. So this is an aha moment right now for all of us. It means that whoever the Christian soldier is, and I pray that it's all of you here right now, that the Christian soldier now has peace with God. You understand that? Ladies and gentlemen, keep this in mind, to have peace with God means you're no longer at war with God. You're not contending. You're no more friction with God. You may call yourself a Christian today, but you're always battling with God. Think of a kid in a family, but they're always arguing. They're always fighting. You need to put that down. And God has promised you his peace. Secondly, how can you give out peace if you have no peace? You cannot give away what you don't have. And the beautiful thing is the gospel brings peace. But you've got to be able to be a true believer yourself. Now, watch out. This is going to sting a little bit. It stings me. It stings you. It stings us all. But the truth of the matter is this. The soldier, the Christian in complete armor, according to verse 15, is someone who shares the gospel. Now you listen to this. This is important. And I say this in love. If God has transformed your life, then God has transformed your life. That means you've got something to say. You say, well, Pastor Jack, I'm not a preacher. I didn't ask you to be a preacher. Well, I'm not this, I'm not that. I'm not asking you to be this or that. But have you experienced Jesus Christ in your life for real? Now watch, listen everyone. And again, I don't say this to upset anybody. If you do get upset, then it's probably the Holy Spirit saying, fix that now. And that's a good thing. But if God has touched your life, you could be like Helen Keller and communicate the power of God. And she did. If God has touched your life, you say, I'm not vocal. Then write something. Pray, get out there. Listen, I promise you, starting today, if you say, can you guys hear me? If you guys say today, I'm gonna ask God, I'm terrified, oh, I'm terrified, but I'm gonna ask God to open up doors for me to share the gospel of peace with someone. If you pray that prayer, God will open the door and he's so good because he'll make it just right for you and You'll share and your mind will be blown and the person that you talk to will be blessed and challenged and you will be experiencing the readiness of being able to present the gospel. Because let's be honest, how many of you, how many of us have ever eaten or gone or done something that's so cool or fun and you don't tell anybody about it? See, I'll submit to you a high probability that those who have really been touched by God are the ones who know they have to say something about what God has done. If that's not happening in you, this is the Sunday for you to change that. He wants to transform you and you want to be ready. You go outside the door of your house and and you're ready. God will stir your heart. But if you have that peace of God in your life, you've got something to communicate. And you can invite that young man or that woman or whoever it might be. You might be able to say to them, listen, you need to have the peace of God in your life. And you say, well, how do I do that? And I was expecting you to ask that. I'm By the way, I have to add this. If a church is not an evangelistic church, if a church does not prepare its people in discipleship, and part of discipleship is teaching them how to share their faith, then it is not a New Testament church. Isn't that the Great Commission? Go, therefore, into all the world and proclaim this gospel. If we don't do that as a church and disciple people on how to do that, then we are not a New Testament church. We're just a church. We're 501c3. We're taking up land. I don't want to be that kind of a church. Want to be a New Testament church. More now, more than ever, right? So check this out. I want to read you a few things, and one of them I'll tell you. It's very personal, but not this part. The first part is Luke 8. Luke 8, 38. Watch this. Scripture tells us in Luke 38, this is the northeastern part of the Galilee. Many of you have been there with us. Now, the man from whom the demons had departed begged Jesus that he might be with him or that he might follow Jesus. Sounds like a great request. But Jesus sent him away saying, return to your house. That's what God is saying to some of us today. Return to your house and tell what great things God has done for you. And that man, he went away saying, and proclaim throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. You know what we're talking about? We're talking about a personal testimony. How did you meet Jesus? How did you meet him? Let someone tell you. And by the way, the more you exercise that, the more fluid it becomes, the more it becomes part of your witness. It's awesome. Okay, here's the part that's real personal. When I read this in the Bible as a young believer, I freaked out. And I got to tell you, I freaked out with joy and I freaked out with hope. And I have to be honest with you, I never thought anything would ever happen, but I had hope. It's in Mark chapter seven, verse 31. And you ought to read Mark seven in its entirety. It's incredible. But I love the fact how Jesus just blows excuses away. No excuse works in the presence of God.
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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 Mark 7 31 says, and again, departing, that is Jesus departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus came through the midst of the region of Decapolis or Decapolis means 10 cities. to the Sea of Galilee. Then they brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. Okay, the word deaf in Greek means his ears are plugged. It means that there's, it actually means to, the word means to have fat. plugged into your ears. Now, he didn't have fat in his ears, but it means that he could not hear, just like if your ears were plugged up. If anything, he could hear muffled sound, if anything. And you see the word impediment? Impediment means that his tongue was tied. His tongue was bound. It wouldn't work. It means that whatever sounds he made, people could not understand him. You ever met someone like that? You ever seen that? Somebody . And you go, oh, obviously that person knows exactly what they're trying to say, but it's not hitting my ears right because it's not coming out right. And they get frustrated, right? A lot of children get frustrated when they don't have the words yet to articulate what it is that they wanna communicate. Imagine that, this man's an adult. And the Bible says there, and they begged him, his friends. His friends begged Jesus to put his hand on him. That's great faith. His friends had great faith. Jesus, touch our friend. We love this guy. But he can't hear us and we can't understand a word he's saying. But we love this guy. In verse 33, for any of you who stutters, have a speech impediment, so embarrassing. I stuttered all my life, it's so embarrassing. I was the brunt of the jokes. Back in those days, bullying was cool. How many of you grew up in that age? Remember that? My teacher had me stand on my desk in front of the class to read a book because I stuttered and everybody laughed. Grew up with it. In fact, you know what? It just dawns on me. The book that Lisa and I wrote, there's a part, there's a story in there that I talk about because I stuttered so bad. I put it in the book and the publisher, David C. Cook Publishing said, are you sure you want to put that in there? And I said, it really happened. And they said, well, it's a little graphic. I said, but it happened. And I got to tell you, here's why it's in there. It's in there because I'm glad now. Friends, listen, young people, listen up. Did something happen to you in life? And that's the big excuse. I can't do this because this happened to me. Hey, let me tell you something. When Jesus Christ gets a hold of your life, all that stuff that stinks, he actually transforms it into power. Because what happened then, I'm so glad. I'm so glad because what happened then, if it happens again, it's not gonna harm me at all. If that were to happen again, I survived. I more than survived. I was victimized by it until I met Jesus. And so, verse 33, and Jesus took him aside. I appreciate that. Those of you who have a speech impediment, you appreciate that. From the multitudes, and watch, Jesus put his fingers in his ears and he spit and touched the man's tongue. This is really weird. Then looking up to heaven, Jesus sighed. The word is that he heaved his chest. Jesus heaved his chest and shoulders and said to him, or yes, said to him, Epaphratha, which is the language where the man lives. So everything it turns out that Jesus is doing, This is weird, right? He puts his fingers in the man's ears. He spits and grabs the guy's tongue. What is going on? It just so happens that where that man was from and the language Jesus spoke to him in, that's what doctors would do if they were going to do their doctor magic. Isn't that interesting? But it even gets better. Watch this. Verse 34, looking up into heaven, Jesus sighed and he said to him, epaphratha, that is, be opened. And immediately his ears were opened and the impediment of his tongue was loosed. I love that. The binding, the chain that was around his tongue was untied and loosed and he spoke plainly. The word means he spoke in a way that he could articulate. Then Jesus commanded them, that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. Don't tell anybody. Okay, Jesus. Hey, everybody! And they were astonished beyond measure saying, and here comes the punch. He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. And I got to tell you, in 1983, it was a Saturday night. I was standing on a bridge at Lido Island in Newport Beach. And right in that moment, God touched my tongue and healed me in my stuttering. And... I haven't shut up since. That's what happened. That's what happened. And I got to tell you, I didn't feel like my tongue didn't tingle. It wasn't like, oh, oh my gosh. No, our little team, including Lisa, they were out sharing the gospel, but I couldn't do it because I couldn't speak. So I would pray. I would always pray. But I saw this young woman sitting underneath the light stand on one of the bridges at Lido Island. And I walked over there and it was all, listen, you got to step out. I just felt compelled strongly. Tell that person. I didn't hear a voice. It was just as though God grabbed my shirt and pulled me. It was like that powerful. Do that. And it was like, if I don't, I'm disobedient. That's what I knew. If I don't do this, I'm disobedient. And so I walked up and I said, excuse me, would you mind if I shared with you about Jesus Christ? And she said, no, not at all. And I shared the gospel. We prayed together. I ran and I caught up with Lisa and the group. And I said, I just shared the gospel with that lady over there. And I didn't even stutter. And Lisa goes, you're not stuttering now. And that's how it happened. Just like that. So God has his purposes. So I want to encourage you about that. We can be bold in him. He's powerful. We're not powerful. Number seven, put on what is victorious. Put on what is victorious. Verse 16 says, above all, taking the shield of faith this year, church, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. This is awesome. Look at that shield. Beautiful, spectacular. This is great because here it is. The shield of faith is something that you build by your immersion in the Bible. You guys, the Bible tells us in Romans 10, 17, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You want to be ready? Know the word of God. You want to do the right thing? Know the word of God. Know the word of God. You want to be firm? You want to put on Christ? Know the word of God. Absolutely essential. How are we going to be victorious? Faith. I'm going to say to you today something that sounds bombastic. I guarantee you it's not. The greatest thing that you possess is not the new gifts you got for Christmas. It's not your car. It's not your airplane or your house or your boat or your stocks or your gold. It's none of that junk. Let me tell you something. The greatest thing that you possess is your faith. I mean it. Listen, think of the terror of losing faith. To start, listen, to be falling victim to Satan's lies is, that you no longer have faith in God's word, that some whispering, some new idea, some person said God told them this new thing, and your faith begins to dwindle. I've got friends that went to seminary, Christian seminaries, and wound up having their faith wrecked because of liberal, progressive, non-believing professors in Christian universities. Unbelievable. Be very careful about this. God has promised you and I the victory, and that victory is much in part regarding the shield of faith. And as I said in Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Every time you read a Bible verse, hear a sermon, your faith is growing. Imagine your shield getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then the day of battle, you want a big shield. Yeah. The Bible says in Romans 8, verse 37, yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. How are you going to know that? Read it and then believe it and exercise your faith. And he says, though, about these things above all, very, very important, top shelf priority. Why? Because he says, look at the firmness, look at the stability, look at the readiness of all this, look at the power to this church. He says, regarding your faith, you'll be able to shield or quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. That means Satan is shooting at you. By the way, the word arrow or darts, it's bellows in Greek. And it means this, fiery darts is pyro bellows. Think of an arrow dipped in the tar or the pitch, set ablaze and launched. Do you know what you would do? When that thing was launched at you, you'd see it coming. And so this is what the soldiers did, the Greeks and the Romans. They got down like this and then they put up their shield And they took the hit. They could do it. When they were advancing against an enemy, do you know what they would do? When the enemy launched the weapons against them, then you would put yours up and your warrior brother would grab his shield and get behind you. And he would get down like this. And the word in Greek is where we get the word turtle. They would turtle. The launch would come, the fiery darts are being catapulted at you and the command was shouted, turtle! And they would go into the turtle position and they're completely covered by these great shields of faith, right? Shields, but we're talking faith here. They took the hit and they would jettison the shields and fire back while the opponent is getting ready. By your faith taking the hit, you are actually disarming your assailant because now they're taking time to reload, that's when you get them. So you'd launch back at them, we'll see in a moment, the word of God, and you would clear out your shield and get it ready for the next bout. Faith, more Bible, more Bible, more Bible, greater faith.
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pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his special New Year's message called The Great Put-On Part 2. Thanks for listening and Happy New Year from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. Our prayer for you is that your 2025 will be full of contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. It's been a great joy sharing our Real Life Radio program with you. And thank you for welcoming us into your home this past year and into your life. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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Everybody, I want to thank you for being with us throughout this year. And can I just please take this opportunity to pray? Father, I'm asking you to not only heal our land and to... do a tremendous work in each and every one of our hearts, but Father, that you'd send revival to the church and an awakening to our nation. But Father, for all of those who have joined us on these Bible studies this year, that this remarkable time would be a settling in of their faith. And as they look forward to a new year, Lord, may they make sure that they walk the first step in for the new year to come would be with you, that they would determine that they're going to walk now with God close like never before. So, Father, we desire to know you more as we look ahead to the future, and we thank you for the year gone by. In Jesus' name, amen.
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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.
In this powerful New Year's message, Pastor Jack Hibbs encourages us to equip ourselves for the year ahead with the spiritual armor of God. As we step into 2025, learn how to embrace a life filled with hope and expectancy, guided by biblical truth and righteousness. Discover the importance of staying vigilant against spiritual attacks, understanding that the enemy has a method to target our weaknesses. Reflect on the scriptural insights from Ephesians and the wisdom of Paul the Apostle as he draws parallels between the Christian life and a Roman soldier's armor.
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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The way that the enemy works against us and the way that our flesh works against us is that we somehow gravitate to those things that wound us. And we need to be very careful to put on Christ and to put on what is tough.
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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. Looking for real answers in real time? JackHibbs.com is your go-to destination for resources on faith, world events, and everything in between. Explore Happening Now, where Pastor Jack Hibbs takes a timely, no-nonsense look at today's biggest issues, blending biblical insight with the latest headlines. Now, whether you're curious about the world around you or you want guidance on a personal level, Pastor Jack has you covered. And, by the way, don't miss the Real Life Network. It's packed with relatable, family-friendly content that really speaks to everyday challenges and triumphs, offering something really valuable for every member of your family. Now, if you're new to the faith, you want to refresh your perspective, start with that tab that says Know God, an accessible, welcoming space to learn and reflect and find your footing. Now, whatever your path, jackhibbs.com has the tools and the insights and the encouragement that you need. Tune in, log on, find something real. Once again, the website jackhibbs.com. on today's special edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack brings to us his New Year's series with a message called The Great Put On. As we enter 2025, let's continue to live with hope and expectancy in our hearts by living a victorious life, equipped and ready for whatever comes our way. You see, as we move forward with expectancy, God wants us to live a victorious Christian life by being equipped. God's plan is to enable us, armored up and ready for spiritual battle. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that the armor of God brings truth, righteousness, and peace wherever we go. Now, with his special New Year's message called The Great Put On, Part 2, here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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I've got to give you this disclaimer, everybody. Listen, how many of you have come now to this church since, um, since... So a year. You're new here in the last year. That's it? That's it? A year and a half. Okay, I just want you to know in advance that what we do here never changes. Okay, so you're going to see what normally happens here at this church during election cycles. which means we are gonna hit every topic, we are gonna expose every lie, we are gonna use this book to illuminate the path, to shine the light of this word, and every time, it's so fun, every two years, I get slapped with, we're gonna sue you, and we're turning you into the IRS. Listen, we turn ourselves into the IRS. I just want you to know that for real. We know exactly what we're doing. We're going to be exercising our religious freedoms based upon the truth of God. And we are going to be making a difference. We're going to be salt and light everywhere we go. And that even means however we're going to vote. I don't even know how it happens anymore. But when we do vote, because we're going to vote, we're not going to surrender. But there's people that cheat. Let them cheat. We're going to do the right thing. We're going to be equipped to do the right thing. And we're going to do truth. And we're going to not put our light and hide it under a basket. We are going to let it shine. And then we leave the results to God, no matter what that might be. But this is going to be a thrilling year. And we'll go through the Bible. Don't worry. Nothing changes about that. But we'll have special events and we'll bring in some friends. And we're hoping to have our good friend Mike Pompeo to come back. And love that guy. And some other things. Stay tuned. It's going to be a wild year. Father, we pray. We ask you, Lord God, that as we as a people commence this first New Year Sunday to you, Lord, we are excited and we are thrilled. And Father, we pray that you would do things that we had never imagined that you would do. That God, that we're living at a time that we would see you move personally in our lives. In fact, that when we do come together as a church, as a convocation of your people, that we would simply celebrate what you're doing. That these services would be dessert, really, to the meat and the potatoes of our private life with you. God, may this year be incredible. We pray that you would use our teaching your teaching, your word to transform our lives. We pray it in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Don't stand yet, church. Don't stand yet. You'll stand in a moment. But this is part two of a message we started on New Year's Eve and we're calling it the great put on. And the great put on is that we're talking about putting on the armor of God. And what does that mean? And what was Paul thinking about when he wrote to the church at Ephesus regarding the armor of God, Paul's exposure to Roman centurions. You know, listen, we love Paul the Apostle, and if he walked in the room, we would probably have to really get control of ourselves to keep ourselves from, in a sense, being tempted to worship the guy because he was the living epitome of what it is to be a Christian. But little do you remember that Paul that epitome of being a Christian did a lot of jail time. I mean, he had a rap sheet on him and that was for obeying the Lord. He went to jail numerous times, but during those jail sentencing that he experienced, God spoke to him and he wrote what's known as his prison epistles. And you got to be thinking that as he speaks to the church at Ephesus regarding this list of armament, that he's probably chained to a Roman guard and he's looking at the sword and the shield. He's looking at the helmet. And if that's not the case, he was certainly aware of what these gladiator type, Russell Crowe, you've seen that movie? Yeah. That's a great depiction of how they were armored up. And Paul lived in that world. And he looked at it and he said, that's how the Christian needs to live. And he began because he thought and looked at things spiritually, as you and I should, that what he saw in the natural world, he translated and interpreted through spiritual eyes. And that's always a great thing. But before we get into that reading, I want to draw to your attention a great verse for the year. Psalm 65, 11 says... You, that is God, crown the year with your goodness and your paths drip with abundance. Somebody say amen to that. That's a verse you ought to grab onto. I know personally, I'm going to give you three passages of scripture. These are my go-to verses for the year when I have got the wind knocked out of me or I need to refocus. And maybe it'll be a blessing to you as well. Psalm 65, 11. And of course, this is a go-to wonder. It's Jeremiah 29, 11 to 13. God says there to all of us, for I know the thoughts, remember this now in 2022, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil. to give you a future and a hope, then, I love that. Look at verse 12, it's so awesome. Because verse 11 is true, verse 12 begins with, then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. That's a key to your spiritual success in this year. And then finally, you guys, it's Joshua chapter 1, verses 5 through 7. Joshua chapter 1, verses 5 through 7. I want to preempt what I'm reading by telling you that Joshua must have been a very, very faithful young man. He proved himself with Moses. He became Moses' assistant. And yet he was a man just like all of us. Why? Because constantly in the book of Joshua, God speaks to him and says to him, don't be afraid. Why did God say that? Because Joshua was prone to being afraid. God's going to say to Joshua, be of good courage. Why did God say that to Joshua? Because he was prone to not being courageous. Do you find yourself weak? That's a good thing. Find out where your strength is. That's a very, very important thing. Verse five, Joshua 1. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. You thought that was a New Testament verse, didn't you? Wow, look at verse six. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people, Californians, You shall divide as inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all that the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper in whatever you do. Church, those are your verses to hang on to for this entire year. So with that, let's all stand together. Father, we pray in this year that you would fulfill this passage in our lives as your followers, as your children. We pray it in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. You can be seated. Well, as we get into this, there'll be a little bit of recap from New Year's Eve, but we'll finish off this study today. But I want to show you two images that ought to just prime the pump of your imagination, I would hope. And the first one is on the screens as you look at this. And what I love about this graphic is just how gnarly that armor is that this image portrays and I love of course the statement dress for success put on the armor of God and so as I mentioned on New Year's Eve night that throughout the Bible which I find extremely graphic and romantic is that when God's word speaks to us he speaks to us in words and terms such as armor so Swords, shields, horses, dragons, kingdoms, right? He speaks to us in an age that most of us would say is a medieval period of verbiage, of language. And I think there's a reason for that. There seems to be a fascination about all that stuff. And I don't know, but the things that are revealed in scripture, you might say, well, Jack, that was kind of the era in which the King James translators put this together. This is what's awesome. The King James translators took the words out of Latin or Greek or Hebrew and put them into English. And those words and definitions predate by millennia or more, right? That very era in which they lived. In other words, there's something about what God is speaking to us regarding this armament. Next image, kind of a cool, it's a cartoon look, but it gets the picture. The Christian warrior, you see, for example, the helmet of salvation, the foundation for which the warrior stands, true, salvation. We'll talk about why it's on his head. Why is salvation on his head? Why is that important? Notice the sword of the spirit. Listen, used to attack the enemies with the word of God. We'll see specifically, that drawing is a little off, by the way, that drawing, the sword of the spirit is the word machaira. Take that image and cut that sword about half in size. We'll tell you why in a moment. You say, wait a minute, you mean God gave us a shorter sword? Hang on. You're going to be happy about that in a minute.
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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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The breastplate of righteousness to protect the warrior from the evils of the world. There's more to that coming. The shield of faith, remarkable. It extinguishes the arrows of the evil one that is launched against us. Of course, that being faith. The belt of truth, which really is where you begin. The belt of truth, it stands for the word of God. And we'll talk about the sandals or the shoes of readiness or the gospel, always being ready to present the gospel. So church, this is what we did on New Year's Eve. Number one, we saw that we are to put on Christ, that as we go now into this new year, the number one thing is to put us off. Listen, the That's the old temptation, the old person, the old Jack, the Jack that used to live in this world, the Jack that used to live for Jack. Whoever you may be, that's who you lived for. Every day as believers, we've got to put us off and put Christ on. And we saw that beginning in verse 10, that we're to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and to put on the whole armor of God. Number two, we saw that you and I are to put on what's tough. What is tough? I told the New Year's Eve crowd, put on what is tough, meaning get control of your emotions and your feelings and stop being so sensitive about what people say about you. Because in 2022, we've got to woman up and man up. We've got to soldier up. And we've got to stop allowing the world to intimidate us. Okay, you can't do that. You cannot fight the Christian fight if the world says something about you and you wither like a little flower because some stranger posted something about you. Listen, note to self. Go ahead and have social media if you can handle it. But don't read the comments. Because 100 people can compliment you and you won't be able five minutes later to quote anyone of what they said. One person will say you're ugly and that's the person that you're gonna remember for the rest of your day. Is that not true? Come on, come on, come on. It's totally true, isn't it? Absolutely true. The way that the enemy works against us and the way that our flesh works against us is that we somehow gravitate to those things that wound us. And we need to be very careful to put on Christ and to put on what is tough. And that is learning how to walk in the Spirit. And we learn that we're to stand against the wiles of the devil. We learn that that word means methodology. That the devil has a method on how to attack you. Now watch this. The devil has a method... as how to attack Peggy. He's got a method on how to attack me. He's got a method on how to attack Mike. He's got a method. And listen, a lot of it runs in the same genre, but there's some outliers. And the main attack is pretty dependable. But Satan studies you, and he looks for those areas of your life whereby he will track you, he'll hunt you down, and he'll wait. Somebody told me recently, this guy, I couldn't believe it, I saw it, where this guy on TV, they showed this guy taking a picture of a mountain lion, mountain lion puma lion, Right, it's all the same thing. Depends on where you live in America. We have them here in Chino Hills, mountain lions. Listen, when you see one say, oh my goodness, it's so beautiful, it is beautiful. And look, it's looking right at me, it's so big. Hello, it is looking right at you and it is so big. Okay, don't think it's a big kitty. Because you know, you can be on your mountain bike or you can be on your jog and you can an hour later look back and there he is again. And he's looking at you with the same look, except this time he's a little bigger because he's closer. That's how Satan works in our lives. The wiles, the methodology of the devil, he will stalk you and watch you for hours, sometimes days, weeks, months. Maybe he figures out a plan even years. But we need to get tough. And we saw that against this attack that is spiritual, we have the ability by God's grace to wrestle against these spiritual entities. That the Christian experience is one where we battle spiritual attacks that manifest most often, not always, most often through physical people or things. Not always. Sometimes you can be having a just perfectly fine time and everything's just dandy, you know, and yet there'll be some strange depression that comes over you and it's unexplainable. The believer is prone to all of these things. One of my great heroes in the faith is Charles Spurgeon. Whatever Charles Spurgeon wrote, you should read it. But did you know that Spurgeon had severe bouts of depression after he became a Christian? He didn't have the depression bouts until he became a Christian. And he explains them, and they were dark, sinister, hopeless feelings of being alienated from God. God doesn't love me. God's really not gonna save me in the end. When I do die, I'm not gonna make it. He had all the thoughts. Recognize those thoughts? They're on the tip of the arrow of Satan. We need to get tough against those things. In 1 Peter chapter five, verse eight, we learned that we're to be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He's for real and we wanna slay him. We saw also that the great put on is that we're to be firm in verses 13 to 14. We need to put on what is firm. This is a discipline. It says in verse 13, "'Take, or therefore take up, "'take up the whole armor of God "'that you may be able,' listen to this, "'to withstand in the evil day. "'And having done all to stand,' verse 14 says, "'stand therefore.' That is the command. Christian, are you listening? That's the command given to every one of us who name the name of Christ, listen carefully, in this year to come. You and I need to stand, and we need to stand together with one another as a church. This is a big church. Forget about the size of the church. It's irrelevant. How many times have I told you, get to know the people that are around you? There's like, I can get 10 people in this circle right there. If all 10 of you, if all 10 of you began to get each other's names and pray for one another and realize that, listen, we're going to be going into battle this year. We need to be linked up together. We need to be talking. You ought to start asking each other out to breakfast or lunch or whatever and really become friends and share prayer requests. Maybe you only see each other on Sunday morning, but listen, after service, meet for a moment in the parking lot or go to some place or whatever it is and link together. We cannot survive the year to come if we just come here on Sunday and go and isolate ourselves. We've got to link up because we're at war, we're in a battle, and we need to be able to fight the enemy. And listen, we'll learn from this armament in a moment. that there's a reason why all the armament is forward-looking. The soldier here in Ephesians 6 has no armaments in the back end of himself. His back of his legs are not covered, his rear end's not covered, his back's not covered. Think of that. We'll talk more of this in a moment, but we need to be firm. And we need to make decisions that are the best thing for our Christian growth. I understand the feeling, well, honey, don't invite them over. I'm tired. I talk to people all week. And then, come on, just say, honey, remember that Sunday sermon? I love you, dear, but we're gonna invite them over. We're gonna do this for Jesus. And you know what? 10 minutes after they show up, you're glad they're there. God does that stuff. It's amazing. By the way, years ago, we used to do something called Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. We should do that again. Where you, we got your name, you put your name in, and we wound up assigning someone to your home for dinner. You have no idea who they are, but we matched the singles up with singles and all that kind of stuff. But let me tell you. Open the door, and I have to tell you, Christmas Eve, the first family Lisa and I ever went to, wow, in 1992, in 1992, we didn't know they attended the church. We got their address. We drove up, knocked on their door, and they opened up the door, and we've been friends, close friends ever since because of that night, and they were here at Christmas Eve service, and we met after service, And why is that? Because guess who's coming to dinner? Listen, why did we do that? That's such a cute little social thing. Had nothing to do with it. It was our sneaky way of getting you to meet up with other people and find out that you've got friends in Christ and that you can stand together and link arms together. Get to know one another. You're going to be in heaven for crying out loud forever with them. Get to know them now. You don't want to walk around heaven looking dumb like, who are you? Say, I know you. i know you and then we learned in verse 14 that we're to put on what is right put on what is right having girded your waist with truth
SPEAKER 02 :
Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special New Year's message called The Great Put-On Part 2. Thanks for listening and Happy New Year from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. Our prayer for you is that your 2025 will be full of contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. It's been a great joy sharing our Real Life Radio program with you. And thank you for welcoming us into your home this past year and into your life. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. You know, as Christians, we have this desire to live out our faith. to become more intentional in ministry so that others we share with can have the life-changing experience of salvation through Jesus Christ. That's exactly why the Real Life Network was created. Real Life Network offers faith-based content that will strengthen us and the beliefs we value. As big tech, big government, and big business have increased their efforts to silence the teachings of Jesus, the Real Life Network is available on your favorite device. Anytime, anywhere, it really has something for everyone. The whole family can choose from a wide range of categories like culture, current events, faith and politics, as well as programming for kids. So don't miss out on the relevant, life-changing Christian and conservative programming that will inspire you and strengthen your faith. Find the Real Life Network at reallifenetwork.com and sign up for free. That's reallifenetwork.com. 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.
Today, Pastor Jack teaches us that when we put on God’s armor, we are shielding ourselves, putting on what is strong, what is right, and what is bold.
The post The Great Put On – 1B first appeared on Pastor Jack Hibbs.
As we embrace the new year, Pastor Jack Hibbs shares a timely message about the importance of equipping ourselves spiritually. In a world increasingly marked by lawlessness and godlessness, standing firm in our faith is crucial. With biblical teachings and insights from current events, Pastor Jack encourages believers to put on the full armor of God, ensuring we are ready to face 2025 with hope and strength.
SPEAKER 01 :
Today on Real Life Radio.
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I mean, I've got to go to college or I've got to do my job or I've got to do my thing. Yes, you do. And you keep doing that. But as you do that, be equipped to live a real Christian life.
SPEAKER 01 :
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. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com. Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It's a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today's headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening now is not just about information. It's about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what's happening around you. Now, these discussions are eye-opening, they're thought-provoking, and they're a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening Now will help keep you connected to God's Word and what's going on in the world today. Visit jackhibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don't just watch the news. Understand it from a biblical perspective. On today's special edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack brings to us his New Year's series with a message titled, The Great Put On. As we enter the year 2025, let's continue to live with hope and expectancy in our hearts by living a victorious life, equipped and ready for whatever comes our way. You see, we live in a very different culture than we've ever known before, a global shift that's being played out in every single area of our lives, marked by a greater increase in godlessness, apathy, and lawless behavior. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that we are to put on the whole armor of God, which gives us His power and strength for our lives. Now, with his special New Year's message called The Great Put On, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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tonight as we end our year with you and your people together. So Lord, we just begin even now tonight to dedicate ourselves to you. And Father, I pray that you would use, Lord, our time in the Word that we would be equipped that we might be with friends at midnight tonight, we might be with family, we might be sleeping, as I hope I'll be. And we ask you, Lord God, that supernaturally there would just be in the spirit realm a door opened. of light and of joy and of power and of peace, Lord, that as this world is in the condition that it's in, that we would be the ones to send forth the great message of Jesus, that we would love this world. It needs love. The world needs, America needs, California needs a big hug. Yes. from you, Lord, and that's where we come in. So let us be your hands and your feet, your voice, and Lord, may you equip us to do that very thing. We pray in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen, amen. Church, first of all, before we get going in tonight's message, tonight and Sunday's message is titled The Great Put-On. And that's not some sort of a little joke, but I'm talking about the great put on in the sense that you and I are going to be putting on what the Lord Jesus Christ and the word of God has promised us. And by the end of tonight, you will know enough that you don't need to face this year that's coming in any other way but with honest excitement. And so before we do that, I want to remind you regarding the world in which we're in. In 2 Timothy 3, verse 1, Paul told Timothy, but know this, it's a command, know and understand this. That in the last days, how will we know? Perilous times will come. The word in Greek for perilous is times will come that will just slowly grind you down. Perilous times is to grind down. Like sandpaper or like a planer to wood, it just wears on you. And I love the fact the Bible tells us in advance so that it doesn't have to wear us down. But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves. And that's one of the things that we're seeing in the world around us, and that's gonna increase. So what are we to do about it? One more thing before we get into this message. That in the last days, that technically in scripture, the Bible says that when Jesus came, And his first advent, it began what is called the last days. So the last days, technically, theologically, have been going on for 2,000 years. You say, well, then it could go on for another two. It won't. We're at the end of the last days. You say, well, what about that? John said it's the last hour. So wait a minute, what is it? By now, it's probably spiritually the last few minutes, right? What does that mean? I don't know exactly except God has given us incredible things to look around at this world and to realize that the world is heading in one of two directions. It's either heading further away from God or closer to God. And that involves us as well. But listen to this, in Matthew 24, verse three, the Bible says, now as Jesus, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, notice it's a three-part question, tell us, they're speaking to Jesus, when will these things be? He just told them about the end of the age. And what will be the sign of your coming? And third, the end of the age or what is known as the end of the world. In verse four, Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you. And the only way, by the way, that's gonna be True in your life is if you know the Bible. If you don't know the Bible, you're gonna get deceived. The Bible's a supernatural book, and it gives you supernatural discernment on the inside as to what to do, and when you hear things, what are you to believe and not believe? The Bible is it. Listen, it's not some evangelist, it's not a pastor, it's not a pope, it's not any religious figure, it's not your best friend. It's the Bible, you need to know that. Take heed that no one deceives you for many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will deceive many. Down to verse 12. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Jesus said that's one of the indicators. of the last days is that man will lose normal, caring affection for other man, for mankind. Mankind, instead of helping one another, will wind up turning on one another. And we're starting to see the opening throws of all that stuff going on in our world. And so what are we to do about that? And so with that, I'm going to ask you to stand and open your Bibles or look to the screens to Ephesians chapter 6. This is a great portion of scripture. I believe that this is going to be very important for us in the year ahead. Father, bless we pray. In the name of Jesus, Lord God Almighty. And Lord, we invite you to take the lead. to take the wheel, to take control, to take our lives, to take our children, to take our husbands, our wives, our businesses, our employment, our situation. All that is ours. We ask you to take these things and sanctify them to your perfect plan. You've got your plan and for us to obey that plan. will be truly an awesome and great year. We ask it in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. You may be seated. So listen, to be a Christ follower in this year to come, it's all gonna come down to the fact that you and I as believers more than ever are gonna need to be suited up. We need to be in fact very, very ready to take the word of God and to apply it to our lives like we never have before, church, that is so vitally important. The most effective thing that you and I can do in this warfare of life that we're talking about, That we be completely girded up, armored up. And the Bible talks about it. And I don't know why, but listen, it's amazing to me when you think about it. That when you look at the Bible, the Bible speaks to us here in the 21st century. It speaks to us with words like kingdom or kingdoms, swords, helmets, swords. breastplates of righteousness, belts of truth. All of these things that the Bible speaks about, these items and this environment, seems to me to be locked in a certain type of almost Middle Ages type of description. Would you agree? Think about that. It talks about these things that you and I would relate to if it was some Hollywood movie, kind of like, I don't know, like... like First Night, or what was the Mel Gibson film, which was awesome? Braveheart. That kind of era. To have these shields, these swords, to be in the book of Revelation, chapter 19, on horses, speaking, and that genre speaks to everything to the believer about warfare. And the Bible's very clear about what you and I should be looking like and being like in these last days. In 2 Peter 3, verse 10, the Bible says, but the day of the Lord will come, listen church, as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? Verse 12, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. With all that is coming into our world, whatever that might be, you and I are to be a people that are aware that God's appearance for us in battle, his defense of us in warfare of life, that he's completely and absolutely committed to you. He will not be abandoning you this year. He's not gonna be turning his back on you this year. God is gonna be using you in areas that you've never thought of in your life. And God is gonna be there for you. And I know how God's word works. It's gonna start exciting you. And you're gonna find yourself in this year to come, literally stepping out in faith and seeing God do amazing things. But know this, number one, in verses 10 to 11, it's put on what is Christ. Put on what is Christ. In chapter six, verse 10, it says, finally, my brethren, be strong, and I love this, in the Lord. And in the power of his might. Notice it's not your might and it is not his strength or your strength. It's his strength. His strength, it's his might that will get you through this year. It says in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God. That's what's available to us and that's what we're going to do. We're going to do that very thing. The Bible tells us in Romans 13 verse 12, the night is far spent. I look at it this way. There's a healthy sense of anxiety. I don't mean bad anxiety. I mean the anxiety like, wow, this is an amazing time. I mean, I've got to go to college or I've got to do my job or I've got to do my thing. Yes, you do. And you keep doing that. But as you do that, be equipped to live a real Christian life, to get ready. And if you and I find ourselves starting to get stressed out and worried, then listen, we got some armor in the wrong place or we've left something off. We need to remember that.
SPEAKER 01 :
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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But the number one thing is that we see in Romans 13 verse 12, the night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness. Think about all the stuff that we used to be involved in that the Bible calls darkness. And let us put on the armor of light. And let us walk properly. Not as in the day. Not in revelry or in drunkenness. Not in lewdness or lust. Not in strife and envy. Verse 14 says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And to do that... And I'm assuming I'm speaking in the positive that if you're here tonight, I'm gonna assume that you are going to be taking on the new year and it's gonna be this way where you are going to get into your Bible and you're gonna know that your Bible get all over you. And you are going to be, as Paul said to the church at Ephesus, finally my brethren. That word finally is a powerful word because it actually means the remaining or this is what remains. It means from now on. That word finally in Greek means from this point forward. I love that about what tonight stands for. And you know, remember all the years, New Year's resolutions, I promise not to eat anymore donuts, and I promise to this, that. We understand that, but there's a sense within us like, hey, the year's behind us, there's a new year ahead of us, and we're gonna do this. And well, according to the Bible, the Bible says that's great. From this time forward, looking into the future, The things that remain. Finally, my brethren, dedicate everything about your life to God. You need not carry this year on your own shoulders. It is his might, it is his strength. And you can trust him for that. He says to be strong in the Lord, the power of God, which is imparted. It's an empowerment that God gives. God has promised to give you his strength if you'll ask for it. Think about that. Well, with all the decisions that we're gonna have to make as a people, what are we gonna do? God knows. He says, don't worry about that. Just know my word. This is what's great about him. He's given us his answers right here, and you and I are to be like miners with the light on and go find these great truths that are here for that very thing. So I was told that just, I guess, last Sunday, getting the one-year Bible out there, you know, you guys have been getting the one-year Bible to start tomorrow, that... You guys bought over 7,800 one-year Bibles. But that brings the total though to something like 15,000. What does that mean? That means if we go through the one-year Bible together, that is a powerful discipline in your life that's maybe something new. And by doing that, you're putting on Christ. You're gonna put him on and he's gonna respond in your life by the Holy Spirit. He's promised to do that. When verse 11 says, put on the whole armor of God, between this service and on Sunday, we'll go through the entire armor, that this armor that we put on is something that is an armor that is all that we need. In other words, God says, when I give you the whole armor, there's nothing lacking. Please listen to this. Are there things in life that's just beating you up? God says it doesn't have to be like that. I have given you all the armor that you need to fight the Christian fight and be successful in that, against temptation, against thoughts. I don't know if we'll get to it tonight, but we'll certainly get to it by Sunday. The biggest thing that you and I need to be armored up for, I believe personally, at least this is my own experience, It's not so much things external. That doesn't happen so much to me. It's an external thing. where somebody pulls a gun on me or they try to beat me up or stab me or whatever, that's big stuff, man. That's external stuff. It's not external temptation. It's not that somebody winks at me or says, hey, how you doing, you strong man, you? That doesn't happen. That doesn't happen for obvious reasons. Here's the thing. For me, in this year ahead, I've noticed over the years that the temptations that come in attack, we need armor more than ever regarding our thought life. God's word will surround our thought life. And this is key. Just because a thought enters your mind doesn't mean you're supposed to go with it. You fight it. And you need to know how to fight it. And I think the enemy, because he's very smart and we're late, that he's going to throw the kitchen sink at us, so to speak, right? And the great thing is that we are going to have all the necessary armor regarding these things. You'll see a few of them or a couple of them tonight. But that whole armor means everything that we need. Arm, this is cute. Listen, I think it's awesome. The word means to be so armored up, that it implies that every conceivable part of you has got weaponry for battle. And from this term comes a word that you might, or a saying that you might remember from some good old like swashbuckler type of movie, maybe from Jack Sparrow, I don't know. But have you ever heard this term, to be armed to the teeth? Do you know what that means? This is pretty cool. It means to have all of the armor that you have, you're going into battle, and you're gonna go into it to win. And this is how we as Christians need to approach this year. We're gonna go in, walking with Jesus, putting on everything that he's given us, and I've got all of my armament, I've made myself all ready. Gosh, oh, I still have a mouth. I can take this dagger or this sword and just put it in my mouth and I can carry it that way. Have you ever seen pirate movies where the guy's crawling onto the ship and he's armed to the teeth? That's exactly what that word means, is to have armament so at your ready that you'll even arm yourself to the teeth. You will get a knife or a dagger, spiritually speaking, and you'll bite it as you go into battle because you're gonna need it. And I want you to think of yourself this year as a Christian like that. Against evil, darkness, the horrible things that are going on in our world and in our nation. Insanity, right? Craziness, intimidation, violence, whatever it might be. Get armed to the teeth. It's all there. God says so. Number two is verses 11 to 12. And the great put on is that we would put on what is tough. Listen, we need to put on what's tough, people. It says in verses 11 and 12 that you may be able to stand against... The wiles of the devil. This is your Bible speaking. Listen to this. Put on what is tough, that we might stand against the wiles of the devil. Verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. What does that mean? That believers fight against spiritual entities that are not human. That just should freak you out. The Bible teaches this throughout. And we need to get tough. We need to toughen up. And what I mean by that is this. We need to get tough so that we don't sound like this. Why did this happen to me? My week's been going really rough. I don't know what's happening. Oh, you need to get, listen, you need to get tough. You need to get tough to realize that we're in a war, we're in a fight, and you could be just sailing down Newport Bay. On the outside, everything's perfect. And inside, you can be engaged in a radical spiritual war. You think about that.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special New Year's message called The Great Put On. Thanks for listening today and Happy New Year from all of us here at Real Life Radio. Our prayer for you is that your 2025 will be full of contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. It's been a great joy this past year sharing our Real Life Radio program with you. Thank you for welcoming us into your home and your life. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack came across a friend the other day and witnessing a little bit to him and asked me straight out, well, have you ever read the whole Bible? Yes, I have. Yes, I have.
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Very few people can say that, sadly, by the way.
SPEAKER 01 :
Isn't that true?
SPEAKER 02 :
Very few Christians can say that.
SPEAKER 01 :
But we have a solution.
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We've got a solution. And that is the reading through of the entire Bible. Every year we do it here at the church. We do it in the real life audience. We have honestly sold tens of thousands of copies of the one-year Bible. And it puts us all on the same page, right, every day. And it has been remarkable. So we've been doing this for decades as a church, now the real-life audience and beyond. Absolutely, yes. Get a copy for yourself. It's incredible. I guarantee you, you will read the Bible for the first time, perhaps, all the way through in one year.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, Pastor Jack, have you read the whole Bible? Yes. Okay, so I miss a day in the midst of reading the one-year Bible. What do I do? How could you, Davey?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, my goodness. Sorry, but that's exactly my point. Listen, everybody check this out. You may not hear this from anybody else, but it's something I've painfully learned over the years. When you get a devotion... You get sick, you're on an airplane, you miss it, you forgot it, whatever, you woke up too late. Listen, don't go back and try to catch up because I've learned over 40 years plus of being a Christian, you never wind up catching up. Here's what we're asking you to do with the one-year Bible. Dive into the very day that we are all in. If you miss a day or two or three or even a week because you've been sick or whatever, don't catch up. Dive in where we're at. Keep on the same page that we are all on. Let's be one in the Spirit. It's thrilling.
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That's the one-year Bible, and it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's 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.
Join Pastor Jack Hibbs in this special Christmas edition of Real Life Radio as he delves into the true essence and wonder of Christmas. With a heart full of warmth and joy, Pastor Jack challenges us to share the love of Jesus with everyone, emphasizing that Christmas is the celebration of God's gift to mankind. He beautifully draws parallels between the joy of receiving earthly gifts and the heavenly gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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No wonder why the world's terrified. It doesn't believe in Jesus. No wonder why they're freaking out because they're terrified. They're mortified because they don't know that they could be in his hands too.
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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 Hibbs here, and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and I also want to challenge you. Join me, will you, to share the love of God with everybody we meet at this time of the year. Now listen, the whole world is decorated in colors and in lights, and people are saying Merry Christmas. Let's take advantage of the reality. Let's take advantage of the truth. It's the recognition of the birth that God has sent his son into the world. So we should tell people, hey friends, hey family, this is about Jesus, the Lord's savior, mankind's redemption. Remind them that the baby that was born in Bethlehem is the man who died on the cross for our sins. So please, Merry Christmas to you, but let's not keep it to ourselves.
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Let's tell the world. From Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life, we want to wish you and your family a Christmas season filled with the peace, love, and joy of Jesus Christ. God bless you and yours today and in this new year to come. Merry Christmas. on today's very special edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack now brings to us his Christmas series with a message simply titled, Wonder, a celebration of Jesus, the Son of God, and the Christmas Messiah. You see, the wonder of Christmas is Jesus, God's gift to all mankind who was seen by the angels and who preached among the people the wonder of his salvation, love, and sacrifice. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that there is one word that sums up heaven. That word is inheritance. Heaven is what God wants you to inherit for Christmas. Jesus came to this earth to die, guaranteeing his will for our salvation. And he rose again as our mediator, guaranteeing eternal life in heaven with him. Now with his special Christmas message called Wonder, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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So obviously this is the season of gift giving and so if you go buy yourself a gift and you wrap it and you put your name on it and then you wake up Christmas morning and you open it up and you go, oh, look at this! And it's amazing, it fits perfect! Okay, you probably need a doctor. Now I have to tell you, Lisa and I have been married over 40 years, and there's a good part of our Christmas where, what did I get you for Christmas? You got me this. Because she bought it. And she just, now there's a part where we surprise each other, but that comes with decades of relationships, my friend. But my point is this, Hear me out. If I go out and I take money that is mine and I select a gift for you and I wrap it and I put your name on it and I hand it to you and you open it up and it's exactly what you wanted because I prayed about it and you love it, it dawned on me How much can you actually own that gift? Psychologically. Now, granted, between us, you own it outright. It was given to you, 100% yours. Are you with me? But inside your mind and your heart and what you know about it, how much of that gift do you possess, honestly? And I had that violently, beautifully, I say violently in a good way, meaning that it's very vivid to me. So just this last week, Somebody, a friend of ours, surprised me and planted a tree at my house. Now it's a little tree, but he's gonna grow up someday to be a big tree. But it's gonna be, right now it's naked, it's got no leaves, but it's gonna be spectacular in the spring. And he knows that I love that, and so there it is. And I cannot look past my living room window without seeing it. So since it's been planted, it's only been a few days, I'm so excited about it. It's like, man, thank God the winter just came, but come on spring, I wanna see that thing. I wanna see that thing start and put out leaves, I wanna see that thing. And it dawned on me, he gave that gift out of the sweetness of his heart. But every time I see it, I will think of him. And I text him and I said, you have no idea the meaning and the depth and the magnitude of what you gave. And I promise you this, I've already and I shall forever pray for you when I see the tree you gave me. Now watch this. It's my tree. On my property. I didn't buy it. Someone else did. Someone else had it planted for me. I just saw it. But I get to enjoy it. It's mine and that's legal. But there's a covenant beyond legalities. And that covenant is, every time I see that, that's the tree he gave me. Meaning, that's his tree. It's his tree that he's given to me. And I love him for it. Are you with me? I'm reminded of him about it, regarding it. But it dawns on me that the gift given to you, you can enjoy all the benefits of it, but it's actually absolutely yours, but it's really the property of the gift giver who determined to give it to you. And God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. No wonder it's gonna take us eternity to thank and worship God in heaven. We own salvation, but it was given to us freely. So I possess it, it's mine. but I'll forever be thankful to the one who bestowed it. Does that make any sense at all? It has very much warmed my heart. And the reminder is this tree, but God has been floating clouds over your head for a week. He brought the sunshine out today. The hills are being painted green. Soon the flowers will come. And for the believer, for the believer, you and I will either go up to meet Jesus or we'll someday pass from this world. And it's all a gift. No wonder why the world's terrified. It doesn't believe in Jesus. No wonder why they're freaking out. Because they're terrified. They're mortified. Because they don't know that Jesus They could be in his hands too. If they would just let him in. He wants to own you. I'll never be owned by anybody. I'm my own person. Eh, that's the problem. Let him own you. Submit to him. Submit? Oh no, I can't stand that word. Oh, context. It depends who. He's amazing. He's amazing. And then listen, the eighth argument is inheritance. The wonder of his inheritance. When we surrender to him, we discover there's an inheritance. You say, what? An inheritance. You're an inheritance. It means somebody died and you get something. That's the only way to get it. Someone's got to kick the bucket. In this case... The Bible tells us that it's Jesus who died so that we might receive an inheritance. By the way, look, if you don't have a will, you need to get a will, especially in California. You should read the laws in California. I'm sick enough where I read that stuff and then find out I better get a will like now. Because if you don't have a will, everything that you have, which you don't think is much, but you live in America, so you've got something, believe me, even if it's teacups, all you got is teacups. Do you have two kids? Yeah, yeah. So how many teacups do you have?
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10.
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Okay, there's gonna be a war over the teacups. Get a will, write it out. Okay, because here's the deal. A will is, here's how a will works in my life right now. It only benefits me because I know I've got one. The kids don't care, okay? But when I don't care about that will, means I'm dead. Then they care. Do you hear me? Why? Because it's a directive. I, while I'm living, get to say what happens when I'm gone. That's pretty cool. Have you ever heard of the Old and New Testaments? Have you ever heard of a last will and... Yet it doesn't work until somebody dies, then you inherit. Jesus had to die on the cross so that you could inherit heaven. Everything the Bible promised was honestly beautiful but worthless until he died. The will doesn't go into effect until somebody dies. God writes you the Bible. It's worthless until somebody dies. That somebody is Christ. Here's the cool part. He was only dead for the weekend. He rose again from the dead and the Bible says having him being risen from the dead, he's the one that guarantees the will. He makes sure. He not only died to empower the will, then he rose again from the dead. He's our attorney who applies the will. He makes sure. He takes care of it. Nobody's going to rip us off of eternal life. Oh man, there was a loophole somewhere. Not with him. Inheritance. What are you going to inherit?
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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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You know what? She just gave a Christmas message the other day. What's her? The longest reigning monarch in all of human history. The longest reigning monarch in 6,000 years. The Queen of England. She just gave her Christmas message. And did you know, she didn't say it in this message, but she said it before years ago. The Bible says that God, that when he has appointed salvation, It says there in scripture that God didn't call the smart and he didn't call the powerful and he didn't call what the word is blue bloods, royalty. It says not many. And she says, I was saved by an M. And the reporter said, would you? You were saved by an M? And she goes, yeah, the Bible says not many blue bloods are saved. She said, I was saved by an M because, thank God, it doesn't say not any blue bloods are saved. Not many. And she trusts the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought that was beautiful. I thought that was powerful. You can be the Queen of England and have the realms and the crown and the crown jewels and miss heaven altogether. What inheritance is that? Oh man, you know what? When my grandpa dies, I'm gonna be loaded. Really? So what? By the way, that could be a dangerous thing for you. I got news for you. Jesus died on the cross. You wanna settle well? Turn to him. Turn to him because he grants eternal life. And then very quickly, because I need to wrap this up, is the fact that I find it extremely beautiful that when Jesus, right before, remember, the angel appears and speaks to Joseph and says, now take your wife and take Jesus and go to, flee to Egypt. Remember that? After his birth? God is so good regarding inheritance because he provides exactly what we need. Um... So what did the kings, I'm going to put it that way, what did the kings bring him? Come on, you've been singing it for a week. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Okay. So what's amazing about that is, by the way, we don't know how much gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and we don't know how many kings. You say, I know, my nativity scene in my yard's got three kings. I know. Bible doesn't say how many kings. It could have been 100 kings, but we know that they all brought, whoever they are, they brought the same three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which is awesome. Number one, gold, frankincense, and myrrh speak of royalty. It speaks of priestly, and it speaks of sacrifice or death. What also it is, in all of the known world at that time, it was the only currency that you could take from country to country. You couldn't take shekels to Israel and go to Egypt. What did God do for Joseph and Mary? He funded the trip. He funded their stay in Egypt and he funded their ability to come back. We don't know how much. But God provided that. I think that is a precious thing. And then we end with this church together is that we end with the wonder of his life. The Bible says, no greater love does a man have than a man lays down his life for his friends. And Jesus says, I call you friends. It's one thing to say that you're a friend of God. That's, you know, who cares? But when God says, I call you friends, that means something. Right, you can imagine that you're a friend of God. But if God says, hey, see that guy over there? That's my friend. That's pretty cool. Jesus laid down his life. The Bible says that though he were rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. that we through him might receive the riches of God, his life. The Bible says that it does not yet appear what we will be like, that is regarding his coming for us. People are gonna ask, you know, am I gonna have blonde hair? Am I gonna be taller? You have all these questions. We don't know. We don't know. But the Bible says, it does not yet appear what we shall be like. But we know this, that when he appears, we shall be like him. And that's all you need to be focused on. But think of the beauty of that, that the life that he has right now, as I mentioned earlier, there is a man this morning in heaven. Seated at the right hand of God the Father. His name is Jesus. And he is forever wearing the human body that was given to him in Mary's womb. Now, in all honesty, when he comes in the second coming, at least seven years from today, the Bible tells us that Israel will see him in the atmosphere forever. And they will begin to weep for him as one weeps for an only son. And as he arrives, the Bible says, in Jerusalem, out of heaven. Technically, the Bible says he'll be coming from the east, heading toward Jerusalem. They will say to him, where did you get this? These wounds on your body, on your hands and on your body, on your feet, on your body. Where did you get these? And the Messiah says to Israel, I received them in the house of my friends. The Bible says that by his beatings and by the stripes that were laid upon him 2,000 years ago, we were healed. Someone has said that everything about heaven is heavenly. There's only one thing that's man-made in heaven, and that's the scars that are upon Jesus' body. He literally will come back and his body bears the scars. Your body will not bear any scars. If you were born blind, you will see. If you were born with no legs, like our friend Nick, no legs and no arms. Nick will have legs and arms. If you were born with this scar or that defect or this thing or that, it's all gonna be removed. All the effects of sin will be removed of this world. the ramifications, the scratch that sin leaves in humanity will be gone from us and we will be as he is. If that sounds good to you, then you need to become a Christian because that's the only way you're going to have it. You can't have it unless you give your heart to Christ. If I were to tell you today, oh, isn't it wonderful? God loves everyone. Kumbaya. It's all going to end well. It's only for a group of people that it ends well. It ends well for those who will receive him. And to all those who receive him, to them gave he power or the right to become sons and daughters of God. John 1, 12 says. So I'm so excited about the wonder of him that I hope that this is either my or our last Christmas on earth. Wouldn't that be great? So don't talk like that. Don't talk like that. If you knew where we were going, you'd say the same thing. I was talking to a family member yesterday who's maybe not long for this world. And I said, so I have to ask you, what's the worst that can happen to you right now? Because he said, I got this going on, this going on, this going on, this going on, and this is going on. And I'm this old. And I said, so I have a question for you. What's the worst that can happen to you? And it was a great answer. He said, the worst that could happen to me is that I live. Is that awesome? How'd you like to be in your late 80s? And that's your answer. Oh no, another day. Why? Because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Father, we praise you. We glorify you, God. And Lord, we pray for those that are here and those that are watching right now, Father, that they would say yes to Jesus. Yes to the resurrected Savior. Yes to the God of the Bible. Yes. Wash away my sins, Lord. Yes, make me a new person. Clear and clean my mind. Erase my past. Transform me. Make me new. Because I believe you died for me too, on the cross. And you rose again from the dead for me too. And I wanna become your follower today. Whoever you may be, wherever you may be, God's arms are open wide and he's been waiting. Say yes to him. Church, on the count of three, say yes to him. One, two, three. Yes! In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand together. God bless you.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special Christmas message called Wonder. Thanks for listening today and a Merry Christmas from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. You know, our prayer for you is that your Christmas will be full of contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. 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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Today, more and more Christ followers are living out their faith no matter what. And one way we can help is through our website. At jackhibbs.com slash real radio, you'll find access to Pastor Jack's devotions, YouTube channel, podcasts, Facebook, live streamed events, and so much more. Again, our website is jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's jackhibbs.com slash real radio. And don't forget to download the Real Life mobile app for on-the-go access to all that Pastor Jack has to offer.
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The Christ child came into the world to save us from our sins, offering us hope and his redemption. I'm Pastor Jack Hibbs, and I want to celebrate this Christmas with you about the greatest gift that there'll ever be, and that's Jesus Christ. As you gather together with loved ones and you embrace the spirit of the season, make sure that you spread the right news, the good news, that it's all about Jesus Christ, and may that truth that fills your heart be shared with others around you and your family. God bless you, and Merry Christmas.
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this program is made possible by the generous contributions of you our listeners visit us at jack hibbs.com that's jack hibbs.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
Join Pastor Jack Hibbs as he leads us on a spiritual journey to uncover the true wonder of surrender demonstrated by Jesus. Rich in biblical wisdom, this episode highlights how Jesus's birth heralds a new beginning for humanity, one marked by salvation through surrender. By reflecting on the teachings of Christ, we explore how yielding to God can transform our lives and bring about a profound inner peace during this festive season.
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Today on Real Life Radio.
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Right on time. He surrendered to the will of the Father, and His surrendering brought us great victory. His surrendering to the Father brought Him fellowship with you and I forever.
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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. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com. Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It's a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today's headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening Now is not just about information. It's about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what's happening around you. These discussions are eye-opening, they're thought-provoking, and they're a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening Now will help keep you connected to God's Word and what's going on in the world today. Visit jackhibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don't just watch the news, understand it from a biblical perspective. on today's very special edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack now brings to us his Christmas series with a message simply titled, Wonder, a celebration of Jesus, the Son of God, and the Christmas Messiah. You see, the wonder of Christmas is Jesus, God's gift to all mankind who was seen by the angels and who preached among the people the wonder of his salvation, love, and sacrifice. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that the wonder of true surrender is yielding to everything God has for us. There's joy in obedience when we answer the call to come to Him. Now, with his special Christmas message called Wonder, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Jesus went into places and disrupted. He disrupted things like disease and sickness and death. Every funeral Jesus went to, he ruined it by raising the dead. Lepers who were condemned came running to him and he cleansed them. of their leprosy. It's interesting. He never healed anybody of leprosy. Did you know that? The Bible says he healed people of blindness. He healed people of diseases. He healed people of demonic possession. There's only one thing. He did not, interesting statement. He never healed anybody of leprosy. It says he cleansed them from leprosy, which is a very interesting statement. He cleansed them. It's like he wiped through them some stringent that purified their immune system and their blood. We need that today, by the way. We need him to go through our world and to cleanse our system of stupidity and fear and violence and hatred and all the stuff that's going on that's now native to the human heart. We need to be cleansed of stupidity our soul's leprosy in the world and we saw his grace. How does he do that? He does that by the wonder of his grace. Remember church, it means that God does to you what you can never earn. That he singles you out. As though he were to walk through this congregation this morning and just tap on your head. And if he were to tap on your head, everything that he knows that would bless and fulfill your entire life. Think about what do you want in life? That which is from him he would do. By the way, what you and I want in life may be very at odds with what he wants for us in life. And there is the danger of living life. If I live my life for what I want, I wind up getting hurt and hurting others. If I wind up finding out what it is he wants me to live my life for, I wind up having an awesome life that turns out to bless other people. My goodness, I can admit this because it's such a great film. We saw last night the movie about Kurt Warner's life. The... The Ram, what's it called? It's called the American underdog. And about his faith in Christ, I was impressed. And still to this day, I didn't know this, but still to this day, his life is considered the greatest athletic comeback or underdog achievement known in professional sports. And at the end of it all, he gives God the glory. He gives Jesus Christ the glory. When you yield your life to what God wants to do, that's his grace. And then we saw that his grace brings to us salvation. You and I need to be saved from our sins. You have dirty thoughts and God sees them. Arrogant thoughts, pride, hate, violence, evil, envy. Remember, we went down the list of the 10 commandments, went through those, and we all decided we need his salvation. And then we saw the wonder of his love. His love, which led to the wonder of his sacrifice. And that's how we ended last week. Sacrifice. So now we pick it up in our closing message, and that is the wonder of surrender. Can you mark that down? The wonder of surrender. See, what do you mean the wonder of surrender? The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ, when he came into this world physically, you gotta remember now, he's 100% God. He never ceased from being God physically. But God, the Son, came into this world and he relegated himself to the birthing of being a human into this world so that he would feel temperature like you feel temperature. And you might say, well, him being God, doesn't he know everything? Yes, but listen, he became flesh so he could tell you, I know what it feels like. He knows all things, but you and I know nothing. So when we have a question, we can go and ask him and he can say to us, I know exactly what that's like. I wore your skin one day. And I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like when somebody rejects you or spits on you. He knows things that you and I may never suffer in this life. But he knows things that people are suffering as believers in Christ. Vietnam, for example. Or what if you're a believer and you're under persecution in Cambodia today or North Korea, the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian is North Korea. You think Saudi Arabia is bad or Iran, that's bad. But North Korea, you don't get out alive. And we talked on Friday a little bit about that. I'm tempted to talk about it some more, but I won't. But it's absolutely amazing to realize that when we talk about surrender, we think that the word surrender is like being a loser. But surrender is defined by context. Okay, so for example, Europe very much surrendered to the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler. We grew up learning about this. We saw recently the United States surrender in Afghanistan. Context defines the meaning of surrender. But the Bible tells us that when Jesus came into this world, he surrendered to the will of his Father. He didn't have to do that. This is what's amazing. See, you and I can disobey the will of the Father and not surrender and do great harm to us. What's amazing about Jesus is that though he was God and man at the same time, when it says that he submitted or followed or yielded to the will of the Father, he literally knows what it's like to surrender yourself. his will to the Father. You say, but Jack, wasn't he God? I mean, that's automatic, right? No, no, no, listen. No, it's not automatic. Because even though he didn't have a sinful nature like you and I have, he knew the feeling of pain. He knew that what he was being asked to do would hurt him. or cause rejection and emotions. His emotions were sanctified but they were true emotions. Imagine somebody telling you, you go now and you go over there and they are gonna kick you, they're gonna spit on you, they're gonna throw stuff at you and they're gonna strip your clothes off and they're gonna march you down the middle of the street and then after that they're gonna beat you to a pulp. Now you go. And immediately, you know that feeling you have inside of you, which says, no way. Jesus had that. His emotions said to him, mm-mm. His flesh screamed out. I was reading a book recently, and this man was taken captive in war. And for some of you, this might be too... bring too many memories back, but they systematically pulled his fingernails out with pliers. And if they didn't do that, they hammered bamboo between his finger and his nail. Now that, just that, just think of that for a moment. Jesus had the same cringe that you had on the inside, but he obeyed his father in moving forward on his great mission to go to the cross because Jack's a sinner. That God knew without him going to the cross, Jack would be in hell forever and all of humanity. The Bible says in John 6, 38, for I have come down from heaven, Jesus is speaking, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. By the way, when I grow up, that's what I want to be able to say. Not that I've come down, but that I've been born into this world to do his will. That's why God has me alive. When I grow up as a Christian, that's what I want to be able to say, is I'm doing his will. That's why I have life.
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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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Verse 39, this is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing or none. I love that. In this world, people will turn you out. God will never turn you out. The father moves by the Holy Spirit in the life of an individual and sends them to his son for safekeeping, for salvation, safekeeping, for eternity, for heaven. Jesus takes you up. We have to break our way of thinking. We get so stuck in our Earthly way of thinking, you've got to understand something. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are in the arms of God. You're in the hands of the Father and the Son both. Read John 28, or John chapter 10, excuse me, verses 28 and 29. The Bible tells you that you are in the Father's hand and you're in the Son's hand. And the Bible says nobody can take you out of our hands. I mean, you're like a hot dog in a bun. Or you're like a sandwich. A God hand sandwich, and you're in the middle. And sometimes I gotta, this world's so evil and ugly, I'm glad because that grants me protection up north, south, east, and west. In John chapter 12, verse 49, Jesus says, for I have spoken on, I have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me gave me a command what I should say and what I should speak. Isn't that amazing? Everything Jesus said, he said what the father told him to say. That's why I love, listen, for those of you who don't know who Jesus is, you ought to read the gospels because when you read about what Jesus says and does, you're looking at Who God is. Yeah, but that's what Jesus said. What would the Father say? He said it. Well, what about the Holy Spirit? He said it. As we mentioned on Friday, God who is spirit communicated to us in the flesh through Jesus Christ. Can I use this again? How many of you were here Friday? Maybe none of you were here. A few of you, so I'm gonna do it again. Most of the people won't know, I'm repeating this. So God comes to us in human skin and speaks to us and tells us and shows us the way of eternal life. Remember that, we talked, not angels, not camels, not giraffes, not monkeys. He came as a man to communicate to man. And that should not surprise us because remember I mentioned to you how you and I are prone to that very same thing because when we see something in danger or lost or in harm's way, like I mentioned that dog, when you see a lost dog and you notice, oh, that dog's lost and it's terrified. Oh my goodness, oh, and if it keeps going, it's gonna go to the intersection. Oh my gosh, what do you do? What do you do? Do you roll down the window and say, you stupid dog? No. You don't roll down your window and say, you ought to go home. You should have stayed in the backyard where you belong. What's wrong with you? You don't do that. You know what you do? You get out of the car. You turn into an idiot. You get on your hands and knees. And you change the tone of your voice. And you're faking like you have food. Why are you doing this? There's only one reason why you've come down into his world and you're trying to get low enough because taller scares him down low, try to get eye level. You're trying to tempt him to come because you want to rescue him. You want to save him. And we all do this. If you don't do this, something's wrong with you. Okay, but we all do this. And then we think that God cannot do that for us. And that's exactly what he did with Jesus. Jesus came down to us and he's saying, come to me, come to me, come, come, come, come here, come, come. I will never cast you out if you come. And I could argue that that rescue part of who we are is an effervescent of God's Creation of who we are. It's just a little luminary of what's left over from Eden when God created us in his image. Jesus came and he surrendered and the invitation is for you and I to surrender to God because there's no greater life. I'm telling you right now, I mean this with all my heart, look. Heaven is watching me. My problem, I've had an awesome life. And the reason why is the more I have surrendered to his will, the more awesome my life has been. The problems that I've had in my life have been when I do not obey or surrender to him. I'm telling you right now. I want you and I want angels and demons to hear that. My problems have been when I did not surrender to his will. I thought I could do it. We can do this. And it never goes well. When Jesus surrendered, everything changed. Because he surrendered to the cross. And with his surrender, a new beginning was made for all of us. And I love the fact when Jesus on the cross in John chapter 17, verse four, Jesus said, this is just brilliant, amazing, Logic, listen to this. Jesus said to the Father, I've glorified you on the earth and I have finished the work which you have given me to do. That word finish comes into play powerfully in chapter 19. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he's on the cross. There's only a few moments left. Think of this. The Bible tells us in the book of Habakkuk That God's eyes are too pure to behold evil. God cannot look at evil. Make him sick. Remember, God's not a big human. God is spirit. He's not us. And the scripture says that he cannot look at evil. And so the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 that he, Christ Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us at the cross. Became sin for us that we might receive the righteousness of God which is in him by faith. Think of hell shoveling sin onto Jesus. Like somebody would shovel coal and it's getting heaped on him The book of Isaiah said that when Christ would be crucified like that, he'd bear the sins of the world. And no wonder why Jesus cried out in fulfillment of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And listen, when the Jews heard that, they knew that was a messianic psalm. A lot of scholars believe that Jesus quoted the entire 22nd Psalm from the cross, if that's true. If that's true, it's both beautiful and terrifying. But he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? Because God's eyes are too pure to behold evil, that when his son took your sin and mine, the father looked away. And in that moment, the son, for the first time, had separated fellowship from the father. It had never happened before. You know why that happened? He did that so you would never have to know that. You see, that's what hell is. Hell is eternal separation from God. It is real. And it is a realm that exists where God does not. It wasn't created for humans. The Bible says that God created it for Satan and his fallen angels. Never was it created for you. But people try to get into hell every day. They're climbing over one another to get into hell. Isn't that amazing? Don't tell me about God. I'll take care of this myself. I don't need that stupid religion stuff. You have to crawl over the body of Jesus to get there. And you got to crawl over the working of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Always speaking to you, the Holy Spirit is saying, you need my son. You need Jesus. You drive by a hospital, there's a cross on the top and you turn your face away. You see these things and you go, nope, uh-uh. Don't do that. Change your mind. But in John 19, 30, it says, so when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Okay, that, let me tell you, when you and I die, we're gonna die when we die. Yeah. And the Bible says only God knows when we die. But when Jesus died, Jesus died when he said he was going to die. He dismisses his spirit. He's the one that says, in fact, what's the word? It's finished. Teleo. Teleonomic, the transference of information. We're most familiar with the word telemetry. If Elon Musk launches another Falcon from California here, it's gonna leave Vandenberg Air Force Base and it's gonna go on a certain course headed out past over Hawaii and down towards the South Pacific. What's it doing? It's following a mathematical equation that has been established, and that missile, though it's physical, is riding an information highway. It's invisible to us, but that missile is riding on a road. And it starts at point A, and it terminates at point B, And listen, teleo is the telemetry of the mission of Jesus Christ when he's on the cross and it's all done. All the sins paid for that you can imagine in life. Think of the horror. As soon as it was done, I don't mean this to be disrespectful, but Jesus is hanging on the cross and the moment the price was paid, he didn't hang around a minute longer. He said, , it's finished. Spirit, you're dismissed. And he dies. Right on time, he surrendered to the will of the Father. And his surrendering brought us great victory.
SPEAKER 01 :
Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special Christmas message called Wonder. Thanks for listening today and a Merry Christmas from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. You know, our prayer for you is that your Christmas will be full of contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And quite frankly, it's given us great joy to share our Real Life Radio program with you over the past year. Thanks for welcoming us into your home and into your life. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Pastor Jack Hibbs here, and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and I also want to challenge you. Join me, will you, to share the love of God with everybody we meet at this time of the year. Now listen, the whole world is decorated in colors and in lights, and people are saying Merry Christmas. Let's take advantage of the reality. Let's take advantage of the truth. It's the recognition of the birth that God has sent His Son into the world. So we should tell people, hey friends, hey family, this is about Jesus, the Lord's Savior, mankind's redemption. Remind them that the baby that was born in Bethlehem is the man who died on the cross for our sins. So please, Merry Christmas to you, but let's not keep it to ourselves. Let's tell the world.
SPEAKER 01 :
From Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life, we want to wish you and your family a Christmas season filled with the peace, love, and joy of Jesus Christ. God bless you and yours today and in this new year to come. Merry Christmas. 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.
In this special Christmas edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack Hibbs takes us on a reflective journey into the heart of Christmas and the wonder it beholds. Through the powerful message of Jesus's birth, we are called to explore the depths of God's love, the mystery of godliness, and the grace that comes with the season of wonder. Pastor Jack challenges listeners to ponder the impact of Jesus's life and ascension, inviting them into a life of reflection, wonder, and spiritual renewal.
SPEAKER 01 :
Today on Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
We need him to go through our world and to cleanse our system of stupidity and fear and violence and hatred and all the stuff that's going on that's now native to the human heart. We need to be cleansed.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey everybody, something that you should know, that in our church and in our media community, in the social media community, we have for decades, as a church, started every year off with the reading of the one-year Bible all the way through. So I'm encouraging you to join us and do the same. If you are not one of the tens of thousands of people that are actually on the same page with me, with my wife, Lisa, with the church and beyond, the entire Real Life audience and beyond, get a copy of the One Year Bible and get started with us on January 1st. You can get a copy for yourself at jackhibbs.com, but by all means, please do this. And listen, get one for your friends or maybe a son or a daughter or a mom or a dad who The one-year Bible, through the Bible, in one year together. Join us.
SPEAKER 01 :
That's the one-year Bible, and it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's jackhibbs.com slash real radio. on today's very special edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack now brings to us his Christmas series with a message simply titled, Wonder, a celebration of Jesus, the Son of God, and the Christmas Messiah. You see, the wonder of Christmas is Jesus, God's gift to all mankind who was seen by the angels and who preached among the people the wonder of his salvation, love, and sacrifice. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that we need time to reflect on where we are in life, to stop and look around in wonder, and stop those things that rob us of our time with the Lord. Now, with his special Christmas message called Wonder, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
So today, let's stand today in honor of his word, but I'm going to read one verse. You don't need to do anything today. No second verse for you. One verse as we end today our series titled Wonder that as we look at Christmas and As we continue in the spirit of celebrating the coming of Jesus, this is an incredible verse. It's such a powerful verse, and it just wraps it all up. If there was a bow to put on this series over these last few weekends, this would be that bow. And it's in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. It's a verse that I'll read obviously. I might do a little... conversation on it as I read it, if you would allow me. But this is one of the most powerful scriptures regarding the deity, the mission of who Jesus Christ is. It's one of those few verses that if you had to grab one verse, this would be one of those go-to verses. that proves so much about the heart of God toward you as we look to our series, Wonder. 1 Timothy 3.16, without controversy. The statement is without any debate, without any argument. The word actually means argue all you want. It's not gonna do any good. It doesn't change a thing. It's an incredible statement. Those first few words are... equal to Isaiah 1, verse 18, where there God says, come, let us reason together, saith the Lord. And the word reason is, come, argue with me, says the Lord. Isn't that a great statement? Why does he say that? Because he's gonna win the argument. That's the same truth here. without controversy, you can debate it until you're blue in the face, it's not gonna change anything, that great is the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery of God having revealed to us what godly living looks like. In other words, whoever we're gonna read about in a moment, if you're reading it for the first time in your life, you're gonna be reading about the prototype. Whoever he is, he's the model of what God accepts. This is the picture. This is the standard. This is the bar. God was manifested. God was made known tangibly in a physical world to us in the flesh. That's a huge statement, friends. God is announcing, I have revealed myself in skin. Now you think about who in all of the world and throughout all of history fits the bill. Justified in the spirit. That word justified means everything he did, whoever he is, he did it by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. In other words, he was dependent upon the Spirit of God for everything about his earthly visitation. Complete trust, complete reliance upon God the Spirit. Seen by angels, remarkable statement. Many of you have been bored stiff over the years because those three words I have gone to so many times because of what they mean. Whoever we're talking about was seen by angels. You say, well, that's odd. Don't angels kind of like see everybody? Yeah, they do. Except this one. Whoever we're talking about, an angel seeing him, this is different. The word seen here in Greek is seen. to gawk or to stare or to look at in such a shock that your eyes are wide open and your mouth is open. And I've submitted to you guys before and I say it again, I think it's pretty hard to impress an angel. So whatever's going on in this verse or the angels are very impressed. And some scholars say, and I love the romance of this, I wanna believe that this is true, that when you take that statement, seen by angels, theologically we know that it is connected with the manifestation of whoever we're talking about in flesh. It's a big deal, so big that it made angels' eyes pop open and their mouths drop. So what's incredible about it is many scholars believe that in the presence of God, we read in the Old Testament, the angels that do appear before God are described as with their wings, flying with two wings in his presence, with two of their other wings covering their bodies in his presence, And with the other two wings, they cover their faces. So what many believe, and I tend to believe it just because it's cool, is that what this is talking about is that the Messiah, God, coming into the world, veiled in human flesh, at the birthing of Jesus, Jesus, as Mary's in labor in the invisible angelic world, circled and gathered around her going through labor, imagine at some point the baby begins to crown. They call it in baby delivery. You know that moms, dads. She's crowning or the baby's crowning. What does that mean? You can see the beginning of his head and the hair. He's coming out. And what is suggested is that the angels were gathered around. Big eyes and big mouth open. They're gawking. They're gawking at the manifestation of God coming in human flesh. Whoever we're talking about was preached among the Gentile world. whoever it is we're talking about, his message was picked up and carried to the world. Okay? Believed on in the world. Isn't that amazing? Think of that missionary statement, believed on in the world. trusted in. Isn't it amazing that in all of the religions of the world, you are called upon? In fact, that religious group looks to you to see if they can trust you to be a faithful follower in the group. Not us. We look to him and put our belief in him because he's the one that's faithful. It's not the group. He's the one that rescues us. It's all based on him. Whoever we're talking about, you've gotta be able to unpack this. Who is it in the world who the invitation is, believe on him and you shall be saved. There's no other message in the world that is preached like this message. And if that's not enough to get everything going, Jesus said to the disciples, it's time for me to go back home. My job's done here. Now it's your job to take this news around the world. And the Bible tells us that as they were speaking with him, he ascended back up into heaven out of their sight. And it said that as they looked up into heaven, two angels appeared to them and said, why do you stand here? Look, I think that's so angelically sarcastic. I think it's fantastic. I think that's a total normal thing. Oh my goodness, there he goes. Now what do we do? That these two angelic Representatives say, why are you standing here looking up into heaven? This same Jesus who you've seen vanish from your sight will come again in like manner. And they watched him. Everything right there fits. Of course, I've been a little sarcastic with you. It's Jesus, if you haven't caught on. It's Jesus. Father, we come and we wrap up this last several weeks together as we've considered, Lord, the theme of wonder. And Lord, I think this is our 30th or 31st Christmas together as a home group or as a church family. And every year we've had a theme. And we've never had to sit around and say, I can't think of a theme. Every year we've come up with a theme. And if we had to do that for the next thousand years, we would have a thousand different themes. Because you are the infinite awesome, eternal, living, holy, God almighty, And the evidence of your existence is everywhere. And Father, we pray that today for some maybe who's viewing or some who are here in person, that this would be the day for them. That is a day of great transformation. That the wonder would strike them. So Lord, we give it to you. We pray in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Church, you can be seated. And I do pray that that wonder would strike you. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Noah Webster in his 1828 dictionary, remember I told you if you weren't here, I'll say it again. There's no dictionary worth owning. Yeah, I got my dictionary online. Dump it. Buy a real one. And I'm sure they have it online too where you can access it. But there's only one dictionary for the English language and that is Noah Webster's dictionary of the English language for America. 1828. If you buy the book, it's about that thick. You can get it on Amazon. It's about five and a half inches thick. And it is spectacular. Real English, real meaning. In fact, guess what? It's so cool that the word tolerate, if I were to ask you to give a definition of what does the word tolerate mean, half of you would probably be wrong based upon your age. Because so many people today have defined the word tolerate is you've got to put up with what I want to impose upon you and you cannot have any other opinion that challenges my view. And that is the word intolerate. That's to be intolerant. The modern day definition of to be tolerant is intolerant. The word tolerant means that both of you completely disagree on everything. But you recognize the value and the worth of one another as a human being, and you're gonna love, honor, and respect each other, even though you're completely at odds with each other's worldview, or no matter what it might be in life. And of course, that comes from maturity, and we don't see much of that anymore. But Noah Webster said that the word wonder means that it is the emotion which excites by novelty or by presentation, by sight or mind. It's the observance of something that is new. You're trying to figure out something unusual, brings wonder to you. That which is strange or great or extraordinary. He goes on. He mentions the word astonished, wonderment. In fact, in his dictionary, he uses Bible verses. And in Acts chapter three, verse 10, he says, this is the meaning of the word wonder found in the Greek language. And it says that they were all filled with wonder and amazement when the gospel was preached and the power of God came down. Those who were seeing what was going on, they were filled with wonder. And that's the kind of God we serve. And It's interesting to me that yesterday, we had a little bit of a Christmas morning sort of, but it was, we had the day together. That's extremely rare for us. It was just her and I. And we did, it was just, are you kidding me? What are you gonna do? Watch, watch, I'm gonna put my feet up. No way! And it dawned on us that we actually, in our lives, we actually seek something that to us is more precious than gold, and that is boredom. We can't find it. We would love to find some boredom. That would be amazing to look at one another and say, what are we doing? That would be a great day. Why do I say that? Because our lives are filled, your lives are filled with constant everything. And we had a time to reflect. And you know, last night when we put our head down on the pillow, we made the comment that today seemed to go by so slow. And it was so nice. And we wondered about that. But God reveals himself, God shows himself. And what's amazing, for those of us who are younger in the audience, time seems to be flying. And then you gotta go back to school or you go to work and then time slows down. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that when you're doing something that's really fun, time flies. And then when you gotta do the thing, whatever that is, it just drags on. But this is life. but there's something about it to where you and I have the opportunity, no matter where we are in life. In fact, if this message were to land in a prison in North Korea, maybe somebody is somehow sneaking in a message transmitted that that truth translates No matter where you're at in the world, the fact that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead demands that we as humans stop and look around and understand that we should all be in wonder. But we're constantly robbed by the things that we allow to seep into our lives. So you guys, very, very quickly, we opened up in three different Sunday sermons. We saw that regarding the wonder, it began with the wonder of his word. And if you missed all this, you can go back and view it later. But we argued. in what is known as an apologetic manner, why you should believe in the Bible. And we assumed the position that you needed to be convinced. And so we showed you Bible prophecy, which is God's statement of boldness to you, that he's basically saying, you come and you prove my statements in the Bible wrong. You test, you try, test me. Look, examine my word and find a fault. If you can find a fault, then you don't have to believe in me. The accuracy of God's word, which brought us to the wonder of his power. That God in his power. would come to this world, not only in creation by making it, but of course, the fact that he manifested himself as we read a moment ago in human flesh. And I love that because Jesus went into places and disrupted. He disrupted things like disease and sickness and death. Every funeral Jesus went to, he ruined it. By raising the dead. Lepers who were condemned came running to him and he cleansed them of their leprosy. It's interesting. He never healed anybody of leprosy. Did you know that? The Bible says he healed people of blindness. He healed people of diseases. He healed people of demonic possession. There's only one thing. He did not. Interesting statement. He never healed anybody of leprosy. It says he cleansed them. from leprosy, which is a very interesting statement. He cleansed them. It's like he wiped through them some stringent that purified their immune system and their blood. We need that today, by the way. We need him to go through our world and to cleanse our system of stupidity and fear and violence and hatred and all the stuff that's going on that's now native to the human heart. We need to be cleansed of our soul's leprosy in the world. And we saw his grace. How does he do that? He does that by the wonder of his grace. Remember church, it means that God does to you what you can never earn. That he singles you out as though he were to walk through this congregation this morning and just tap on your head. And if he were to tap on your head, everything that he knows that would bless and fulfill your entire life. Think about what do you want in life? That which is from him he would do. By the way, what you and I want in life may be very at odds with what he wants for us in life. And there is the danger of living life. If I live my life for what I want, I wind up getting hurt and hurting others. If I wind up finding out what it is he wants me to live my life for, I wind up having an awesome life that turns out to bless other people. My goodness, I can admit this because it's such a great film. We saw last night the movie about Kurt Warner's life. The... The Ram, what's it called? It's called the American underdog. And about his faith in Christ, I was impressed. And still to this day, I didn't know this, but still to this day, his life is considered the greatest athletic comeback or underdog achievement known in professional sports. And at the end of it all, he gives God the glory. He gives Jesus Christ the glory. When you yield your life to what God wants to do, that's his grace. And then we saw that his grace brings to us salvation. You and I need to be saved from our sins. You have dirty thoughts and God sees them. Arrogant thoughts, pride, hate, violence, evil, envy. Remember we went down the list of the 10 commandments, went through those and we all decided we need his salvation. And then we saw the wonder of his love, his love. which led to the wonder of his sacrifice. And that's how we ended last week, sacrifice. So now we pick it up in our closing message, and that is the wonder of surrender. Can you mark that down? The wonder of surrender. You say, what do you mean the wonder of surrender? The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ, when he came into this world physically, you gotta remember now, he's 100% God. He never ceased from being God. But God, the Son, came into this world and he relegated himself to the birthing of being a human into this world so that he would feel temperature like you feel temperature. And you might say, well, him being God, doesn't he know everything? Yes, but listen, he became flesh so he could tell you, I know what it feels like. He knows all things, but you and I know nothing. So when we have a question, we can go and ask him and he can say to us, I know exactly what that's like.
SPEAKER 01 :
Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special Christmas message called Wonder. Thanks for listening today and a Merry Christmas from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. You know, our prayer for you is that your Christmas will be full of contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And quite frankly, it's given us great joy to share our Real Life Radio program with you over the past year. Thanks for welcoming us into your home and into your life. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Pastor Jack Hibbs here, and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and I also want to challenge you. Join me, will you, to share the love of God with everybody we meet at this time of the year. Now listen, the whole world is decorated in colors and in lights, and people are saying Merry Christmas. Let's take advantage of the reality. Let's take advantage of the truth. It's the recognition of the birth that God has sent His Son into the world. So we should tell people, hey friends, hey family, this is about Jesus, the Lord's Savior, mankind's redemption. Remind them that the baby that was born in Bethlehem is the man who died on the cross for our sins. So please, Merry Christmas to you, but let's not keep it to ourselves. Let's tell the world.
SPEAKER 01 :
From Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life, we want to wish you and your family a Christmas season filled with the peace, love, and joy of Jesus Christ. God bless you and yours today and in this new year to come. Merry Christmas. 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.
