Freedom

0:00:01 - Speaker 1 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 0:00:09 - Speaker 2 Wouldn't it be great if we could just pay people to get saved? You know, don't we have loved ones that are not saved? Wouldn't it be great? How much? What is this? Oh, she's 39.95. Okay, alright, I'll pay that Boom stamp, you're saved. Wouldn't that be great. But listen, god's not a pimp. You can't prostitute salvation. Just pay this and you'll go free. Are you hearing me? 0:00:46 - Speaker 1 A Christian can't think that way you can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com 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. 0:01:19 - Speaker 2 In John, chapter 16, verse 5, the Bible tells us but now Jesus said I go away, I'm leaving you guys to him who sent me, and none of you will ask me where are you going. But because I have said this, these things to you, sorrows filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper the word is paracleto. Paracletos, the Holy Spirit. He will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him to you and when he has come, he will convict the world. Watch this of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they do not believe in me. If God is convicting you, my friend, you need to make a decision right now for Jesus Don't let your heart grow callous and of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see me no more. It's a declaration. Jesus Christ literally was born in Bethlehem, actually lived, trafficked up and down the Galilee into Judea 33 and a quarter years. The entire Roman Empire, believers and unbelievers alike, both religious and civic, watched his crucifixion an actual, legal, recorded, secular event and on the third day he rose again from the dead. That's not only recorded in the Bible. Rome had to cope with that, and even to this hour, the name of Jesus is a threat to unbelievers all around the world. Pagan governments, godless nations, communist regimes think about it. And, by the way, those things don't have to be far, far away. It could be in your own home. I met a woman after last service. She says I'm the only believer in my home. I come here for peace, study of the word, and then I go home and I get a whole mouthful of it. All you go how was it? Did you see God, amazing, and then also listen. We've been liberated, set free from sin that grieves us. Of course it grieves God, but it grieves us as well. There's no condemnation, though, in Christ Jesus any longer. This is a beautiful example. It's Acts, chapter two. You got to love this, the Holy Spirit, remember this. Jesus said I'm leaving. I just read that moment ago. I'm going. In Acts, chapter one. He says goodbye, listen, I'm going to go to the Father and he's going to send the helper I was just talking to you about in John. In John's gospel. I'm going to send the helper and when he comes, you'll receive power. And that day that he came, by the way, the day the Holy Spirit came was the 50th day after Jesus had left 50. Do you know what Pentecost means? 50. In some parts of the world, pentecostal believers are called 50-day Christians. Isn't that cute. What do they believe in? They believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. So I guess I'm one of them. So Peter said now Peter, this is fishermen Peter. Up until now he's done nothing but make mistakes. Do you know that? Open mouth, insert foot, peter, but the Holy Spirit's come upon him just moments ago. Watch what happens. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they had heard this, they were cut to the heart, convicted, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren what shall we do? That's the answer, everybody, what do I do about what I'm hearing? Not, when are you going to shut your mouth so I can get out of here, pastor, and you harden your heart? It's not me. You're looking at the truth of God. What will you do when God says I found you out? These guys were tender enough to say what do we do? Then Peter said to them repent. Everybody gets offended at this. What do you mean? Repent? The word simply means change your mind. Your mind has been going the wrong way. Change it. Change your mind. Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off. As many as the Lord, our God, will call, is that awesome, amazing and beautiful. Isaiah 45, verse 22. I love this verse, isaiah 45, 22. I'm going to read it in the Geneva Bible 1599. Geneva Bible, 1599. This is the Bible. By the way, that the pilgrim fathers, when they sailed over from Europe to Plymouth, they had this Bible Look unto me and you shall be saved. This is God speaking through Isaiah. Look unto me and you shall be saved. All the ends of the earth shall be saved, for I am God and there is none other. Don't you love this? This is God speaking. God is saying watch, hey, the whole world, look to me. I want to save you everybody. And then look. Look unto me individually. Look unto me, be saved. Hey, whole earth world, look to me and be saved. I want to ask you something. How much money does it cost you to look? You know what the thing is about looking. You have to have a will. Wouldn't it be great if we could just pay people to get saved? You know, don't we have loved ones that are not saved? Wouldn't it be great? How much? What is this? Oh, she's 39.95. Okay, all right, I'll pay that Boom Stamp, you're saved. Wouldn't that be great. But listen, god's not a pimp. You can't prostitute. Salvation. Just pay this and you'll go free. Listen, I'm stepping on some toes pretty heavy right now. Just pay this and you can do that. Are you hearing me? A Christian can't think that way. You know why. The Holy Spirit wouldn't allow it. That thought might end in your mind, but then he says knock it off. And you take the conviction and say Lord, forgive me, I'm so sorry, that was terrible. Thank you, lord, for forgiving me on the blood of Jesus. I thank you, god, amen. And you're free. Okay, but he doesn't take his gospel and monetize it. Now you know what? How in the world? It's gotta be relational. You gotta wanna, you gotta be willing, you gotta see the answer. So look unto me. Legalists get upset with that verse in Isaiah. It's gotta be more difficult than that For you. It is For me. I'm gonna look, it's amazing. Next, he frees us from the burdens that lead to suffering. Christian, you don't need to be carrying burdens that you have installed upon yourself in your relationship with God. No, I don't pray long enough. Okay, so show me where it says how many hours. Prayer is not something you do. Prayer is an attitude you have. Talk to God constantly. It's not for an hour. Why limit it to an hour? All the time the Bible says just keep communicating with him without ceasing. I'm gonna paraphrase this so you can write it down. Here's the address. It's Acts, chapter 16, verses 22 to 31. This is what happened. Paul and Silas are preaching the gospel. They got in trouble. The religious leadership got ahold of the Roman Empire and they said you gotta shut these guys up, created some story about them, got them arrested and had them thrown in jail. And it says that they were ordered to be put in the stocks. We were in Boston and they had. Do you guys know what stocks are or do what that's like Stocks? So your feet are here and your hands are here, and this wood and you're hanging there. Let me tell you, I lasted 10 seconds. It's excruciating, painful, terrible. And they were there. And the Bible says that all the prisoners were there as well. And the Bible says that midnight, paul and Silas began to pray. Can you imagine who knows what they said, but, knowing Paul, it's something like Lord. I hate these stocks. They hurt my body, but my life is more than my body right now. So you've got a plan for this, because I'm gonna later on write in the book of Hebrews all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to his purpose, and apparently this is your purpose. So, god, we're just asking you to show yourself what's up. What do you want us to say or do? And maybe Silas? It doesn't say. It says they began to sing songs. Can you imagine? Hey, you know what I feel like we should sing some songs now. Can you imagine, silas? You're in pain, total pain. Let's sing a song. Let's sing a song about that. They start singing a song in worship to God and the Bible says an earthquake hit the prison. And it says all of the doors to the prison, doors of all the prisoners, opened up and all of their shackles fell off. The problem is Paul and Silas. They were in stocks, everybody's free. And they're singing this little light of mine. And all the doors open up and the jailer, who's responsible, sees what's happened. And a jailer in the Roman Empire. If prisoners got loose and you're the jailer, the Bible says that he pulled out a knife to kill himself. That's the right thing to do, because the Roman Empire would have tortured him to death for blowing it on the job. Can you imagine HR rules today? Ha ha ha. Can you imagine in and out? You didn't flip that right. You didn't flip that burger right. Ha ha. That's what they did then. So the guys, that's not gonna kill myself, they're all escaping. And Paul said don't do yourself any harm, we're all here. Why would a bunch of prisoners not run away? They were free to go. They stayed and the jailer ran and fell down before them and said what must I do to be saved? Let me tell you something right now. If God is gonna move among his people, that will be the result A lot of people talking about revival right now. We'll see. We have to wait and see. What I've seen in a lot of conversations is that people are experiencing church who have been deprived of church for years now, last couple years, and now they're having church again. That's great, god bless. Let's do it, and let's do it across the nation. But here's the thing when you talk about revival, we need to be careful about what we're talking about. It's not about you feeling good. It's about you being revived. You know what Revival can only happen to believers. Did you know that you never wanna have the world revived? That's not a good thing. All you have to do is go to Sacramento to figure that one out. You don't want the world revived, you want the church revived. And when the church is revived it gets so beautiful that you can sing songs at midnight and the world says what must we do to be saved? Revival leads to an awakening. Don't ever confuse it. Revival must lead to awakening and revival must have holiness and the world will say I want what you have. By the way, the whole country can be lost, but you personally can have a revival all by yourself as you walk with Jesus. You can have it. You can be in that prison and have a revival and you'll affect other people everywhere you go. Listen, he takes away our sorrows that would tend to consume us. There is no condemnation. You have the sentence lifted from you. You're no longer ordered to prison. It's been lifted. We also know that we should and ought not to worry, worry. That blinds us. You know why you can't see God's favor, sometimes Christian. You know why you're not celebrating and enjoying the fact that you're not condemned, you're liberated and free. It's because you worry. And when you worry listen, we all know this when you worry, it blinds you to the reality of things that are right in front of you. It's hard to trust God when you're worrying and you're not going to have any peace when you're worrying. Are you Christian? Yes, I'm a Christian. Oh, just worried, sick about that thing. Trust God oh, I trust the Lord. I'm just worried, sick about that thing. Dude, you got to pick one Worry will blind you. You're Christian, you're going to heaven, but you've been derailed and hindered. Yesterday I had a chance to speak to a great gathering of Christian children's ministers from all over, in fact, some from Japan and Canada and Australia. It was amazing and the passage of Scripture I used was Jesus said Forbid not the little children to come to me. And that word forbid not is don't put stumbling blocks in front of the little kids so that it's hard for them to get to me. Don't you love that about God's heart? God says Don't put an obstacle course between me and kids. They need to be able to run straight to me. What's wrong with you guys? And he was rebuking his disciples. Peter, you, bozo, what are you doing? Don't do that. Don't hold the kids back, james back off. Let the kids come straight to me. You guys, come on. It's awesome. I would love to have seen that God doesn't want any hindrances. He doesn't want any stone walls between you and him. We're going to meet that woman who was caught in the act of adultery. We're going to meet her in heaven. Can you imagine? Hey, I read about you in chapter 8, john's Gospel. What was that? How'd that come down? She'll say. Can you imagine? She'll say do you know? I was this close to being stoned to death. And here's the thing, jack, they would have been completely justified in stoning me to death, because that's what the law said. But the moment I saw Jesus, he looked up and he looked at me. When he looked at me, I knew something was going to happen. I didn't know what, but I knew with one look he was going to do something and just with his actions and his words he rescued me and I determined right then and there I'll never be the person I used to be. I don't want to be that person anymore. I want him to have all of me. And he told me to get up and go live my life, and I lived the rest of my life for him. Can you imagine the story she's going to show? She's going to be able to point out to people. You see, all those people. They came to Christ because of what Jesus did in my life. What about the thief on the cross who was guilty of all kinds of crimes that the last minute get saved? Kind of stories he's going to hear from people for eternity. People are going to be saying I was on my deathbed and somebody read me your story and I gave my heart to Christ, just like you did, in that last moment. And then we end here. It's freedom from fear. Fear produces hopelessness, people. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. 0:18:26 - Speaker 1 This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities our listeners supported, Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.