Don't Be A Useless Christian

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. You may own stuff and you may have stuff. God bless you, that's great, as long as you own that stuff and it doesn't own you. Use it to the glory of God. What is it? Is it influence? Is it a big mouth or is it money? Is it knowledge? What is use it to the glory of God? But no, your identity. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now, open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. When it comes to the identity of the truth, verses 17 to 20, the identity of the truth. Am I me as the question I'm asking? God, how can there be this relationship? I know who you are now, but yet there's this war inside pulling. I want to do the right thing, but I wind up doing the wrong thing. And the wrong thing I say, I'll never do. I wind up doing that thing and I hate it, God. God, help me. Well, you got to stick around to Romans chapter 8 verse 1 for that. But he's crying out. God, I see truth. Today, a lot of young people are saying it's so funny. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I don't know if you ever watched college debates and things like that. I find it incredibly entertaining. You should do that. It's better than TV. Go to YouTube, type in college debates. Just pick a topic. It's awesome. And so now we've got this interesting wave, history repeats itself. Right now, there's this wave going on where people in college are saying things like this. And they think it's original, which is so fun. That's a, that's this mitigating side of getting old. What do you know? Really? I know stuff. You haven't even come to do yet. As an old person. Give an example. People today, they, oh, look at this. I'm going to wear my shoes like this. I'm going to wear my shoes untied. Where do you did that? Oh, yeah. Well, what about putting these flared out parts down at the end by the shoe? We're going to call them bell bottoms. Yeah, you want to buy some? I've got about 900 pair of those. They're a great being old. They just recycles. And now if you notice Doc Martin with the real thick soles now, oh my gosh, we bought those in the 80s. Do you remember? It's hilarious. So young people and now it's this. Excuse me. What is your question? Yeah, ask away. What is truth? So what are you serious? Yeah, yeah. What's truth? You're rather in the Bible, right? And they're like shocked. What? I thought I thought of it. No, the Bible says when Jesus was under trial, he was asked, what is truth? And the answer basically was this. Truth is standing in front of you. Jesus says, I am the truth. The truth, not a truth. Friends, listen, not a truth. Christ is the truth. That's why again, Jesus is banned in many countries of the world. That's why following Christ is illegal and could get you killed. Why? Because he's the truth. And there are tyrannical governments and tyrannical leaders who don't want you to find that out. And I'm convincing this nation. They don't want you to find that out either. Jesus is the truth. All men will bow their knees to him. He's the king and kings and lord of lords. He's the alpha and the omega. He's the one. He's the one. The identity. You and I are in him now, the Bible tells us. In Romans, verse 17 here, it says, but now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. But here's the good news. There is sin that dwells in Jack and in you. The awesome thing is as a believer, so does the Holy Spirit. That's why there's the war. And only the Christian knows what I'm saying. And you know, I'm kind of laying it on kind of heavily. There's some sarcasm in that. I'm hoping you are realizing, holy cow, I've been nothing but a religious person. I don't even know what he's talking about. I got people around me nodding their head, agreeing with them. What is this? What's going on here? You are religious. But he's not in you. If he was in you, he would be colliding with the sin that's in your life. See you guys, you don't do Christianity. Sign up. Don't sign up. He shows up and he gets inside of you because he's alive. And the Holy Spirit gets inside and he goes to work. You don't do it. Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit does it to you. That's why you hang on. Put a mouthpiece in and strap on your helmet and hang on. He's awesome. He's truth. So just keep this in mind. It sounds like a mafia statement, but there's two of yous in there. Why am I struggling like this? I want to do this, but because there's two of yous in there. There's you, the old Jack, and there's you, the new Jack. You had a pair of jacks. And it's not a win-win until it's over. But sin will lie to me. It's sin will trick me, seek to deceive me. And by the way, my flesh and Satan will always say, no, Jack, you know what? This is who you really are. Now, this whole faith thing in Jesus, you know. Now, I want to remind you who you really are. The identity is it rooted in truth in my life. Let me tell you, no one, let's no wonder it's actually an incredible statement, because it's more than just an awesome word. It is absolutely true. Jesus said that if you have the son, him, S-O-N, he will sit you free. And the truth of that son, Jesus Christ, will sit you free. Your identity, where is it? Listen, is your identity in the stock market? You're getting nervous right now. Oh, it's okay, by gold. Yeah, James said, just before the world comes to an end, men will go about saying, buy gold and silver and heap it up. It says in the book of James. But the Bible says they won't be able to eat it. It said, man, I got gold. I got gold. I don't care what the dollar does. I got gold. Yeah, yeah, you're going to go down now, for instance, with your gold? You're going to say, here's some gold. Right. I want a loaf of bread. Good luck. Your identity. Is it in that business? Is that you? Is it in your income? Where's your identity? Is it in your car? That's a funny one. I tried that once when I was a kid. I got a new car. I barely drove it because I would go from my apartment. I would go and park it at the mall. I had to park so far from the mall. I had to walk so far because I didn't want anybody to park next to my idol. I mean my car. Why? Because I knew anybody would put a dent in it. Is it the clothing? Is it the label? I've got to have that label. I've got to shop only that store. Are those stores? Just those. No other stores. What's wrong with you? Listen, Tom Brady's wife told them. NFL are your kids and me. NFL are your kids and me. And he retired. And realized it was the NFL. So they got a divorce. He's back in the NFL. And since he's been back, he's stunk. So where's he now? Does Tom Brady need money? He doesn't need a dime. Handsome guy. He can do anything. Young. Amazing. Famous. He's lost his kids and his wife. Because listen, his identity was a piece of pig skin, shaped an an oval on the field performance. The cheers of the crowd, the exhilaration of the moment, the touchdown score, the championships, how many Super Bowl rings do you need? How many Super Bowl trophies do you need? How much notoriety? But if you've got something in your life whereby that is your identity, it's an idol and you don't know the truth. You may own stuff and you may have stuff. God bless you. That's great. As long as you own that stuff and it doesn't own you. Use it to the glory of God. What is it? Is it influence? Is it a big mouth or is it money? Is it knowledge? Use it to the glory of God but know your identity. And the great thing about your identity in Christ is that you'll never have to suffer with insecurity because Christ loves you and you know that. No matter what the world says, it's awesome. Yeah, it's true. You know what? We're at war. We're at war now. I don't think I need to belabor that. The fact of the matter is we fight and we close with this. You and I, verses 19 to 20, we're actually the proof. We're the living proof that we are children of God. He says, for the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil that I will not to do, that I practice. He's announcing to us this bizarre truth reality. And he's confessing to us something we better grab. This is the lifestyle of a mature Christian. This is not a carnal Christian. This is not somebody without Christ. This is the life of the active believer pressing on, moving on with him. I have so many verses. You can look them all later online. All the notes are posted there. You guys, I'm just, I'm going to end with this kind of a crescendo stuff, but I'm missing a whole bunch. But I want to read this one to you before I give you the final close. You guys all know this. Most of your Bibles, I think, are stamped with this on the cover. Galatians 220. It's incredible. Memorize it. Tattoo. T-shirt. Whatever you want to do. We should put this on a balloon and send it around the world. Notice this. I look into the Christian. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. Positionally, I have been. Past tense. You too. Christian, I have been. It's already happened. I have been crucified with Christ. When Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago, he had me on his heart. I didn't wake up to that reality until 46 years ago. But it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Really? So am I me? Yeah, but also Christ is living in you. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So church stand if you would. That's going to remind me to finish this. So pastor, you're asking, how can I know if in fact I'm a true follower of Christ? That's your question. Here's your answer. You ask yourself. Think now. Don't look at the person in front of you. Don't forget about their hair. Your clothing. Close your eyes if you have to. Listen. This is the home art of a true Christian. Ask yourself. The true follower of Christ is sensitive about grieving the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 430, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who you were sealed for the day of redemption. The true follower of Christ is concerned about dishonoring God. 1 Corinthians 6, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You're not your own. For you've been bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. The true follower of Christ is fearful of becoming useless. I have to confess this is my greatest fear of becoming a useless Christian that almost gives me nightmares to think of being unusable. 1 Corinthians 927 says, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection less to when I have preached to others I myself should become disqualified. Yikes. The true follower of Christ is concerned about pleasing God. We want to please him. Jeremiah 525, your iniquities have turned these things away and your sins have withheld good from you. Many of you are suffering from not having good in your life. And if you search and look inside you'll see that what's withheld God's goodness is unbelief. The true follower of Christ is concerned about losing their joy. You don't want to lose your joy as a Christian? What do you have? How can you lose the joy of the Lord as a Christian? Because you're supposed to tell people about Jesus. Can you imagine? You have no joy. Hey, why do we come in Christian like me? Why don't we go to heaven? It's going to be awesome. It's like, I don't know. Psalm 51, restored to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your way and sinners shall be converted to you. Is that awesome? Almost done. Almost done. The true follower of Christ is burdened with growing up. We want to grow up. First Corinthians 3 tells us in our paraphrase that we need to get off of the milk and get under the meat of the word. The true follower of Christ is concerned about being disciplined. The Bible says in Hebrews 12-7, if you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom, at Father, does not chastise or discipline? No Father disciplines somebody else's kid. But the thing about God is that we don't want to bring about discipline on us, even though he's justified in disciplining us because we don't want to upset him. We love him. Don't you want to stay as close to him as possible? If you find yourself in that place of being disciplined right now, thank God for that. It means you're a child of his. But listen, if you're getting away with stuff, you think, oh man, church today, nobody knows. Nobody knows. They drop into this for a year. This is great, man. I just can't wait for tonight. Did you know that there's a high probability that you're not even a child of God and probably never will be? Because you've never felt this thing of his chastisement. He's not disciplining you because nobody disciplines somebody else's kid. If you find yourself getting pulled by the ear when you get three inches off course, then sing hallelujah. The true follower of Christ does not want to pollute his spirit. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, your body cannot be a dwelling place of demons. So stop goofing off. That's my paraphrase. Follow Jesus, stop playing with the demonic activities of this world. The true follower of Christ desires to revere the Lord's supper. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11, when you partake of communion, Christian, make sure that your heart is right with God and with others. If you don't do that, that's the Bible says God will deal with you. Christian is his own child, and it says some of you have gotten sick in judgment and some have even died. Wow. God hates hypocrisy, you know? And then finally, and here is the true follower of Christ is concerned about finishing well. Aren't you? I am. I want to finish well. Paul said, I have fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Man, that's an awesome tombstone piece right there, man. Don't you want to die like that? I mean, we're Christians. I want to, I would rather be finishing well and die than be like King Hezekiah and plead with God for 15 more years and He turns those 15 more years and He totally backs slides and messes up. I want you to rather die winning across the tape and you just fall through the tape right into heaven. That'd be awesome!