Full Throttle

00:00 - Speaker 1 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 00:09 - Speaker 2 You and I live in a world that's a battle of the will. God is inviting you and Satan is pulling you. God has got his arms open, saying I love you, and Satan has got his arms open and he's saying let me lie to you. And that's the world we live in. 00:29 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com/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. 00:58 - Speaker 2 According to the Bible, god made you and I a three-dimensional creature. We have a body, we have a spirit and we have a soul, or we would say mind, interchangeable, and in that there's like an umbrella that is over us and that is our will. So, for example, for you to do your will, it takes all of you to do that. I think you know that. Do you remember when Jesus was telling the disciples we're gonna go to Jerusalem, I'm gonna be betrayed and I'll be arrested, I'll be beaten and I'll be crucified and on the third day I'll rise from the dead. And you gotta remember Jesus Christ was the literal, eternal God who visited this world in human skin to bring about our salvation. And he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, which Gethsemane means? The crushing. That's where you crush the olive, olive, olive. What is an olive? Is it a fruit? Is it a fruit? Yeah, olive. Is it a vegetable? Oh, no, sorry. Is an olive? Is it a fruit? Is it a fruit? Yeah, olive. Is it a vegetable? Oh, no, sorry. Who cares? Gethsemane means where you crush the olives. And Jesus is in that garden where you can go to. Today it's still there. And he prayed Listen, he prayed, father, if there's any other way for this cup to pass from me, let it be. And there was silence. The father didn't answer him. What was Jesus praying, father, if there's any other way for mankind to be saved apart from me going to this cross, let's do it. And there was no answer. Why? Because he was no answer. Why? Because he was the answer. And then Jesus said those words not my will, but thy will be done. And Jesus got up from that moment and lived out his life to the point of death, doing the will of the Father. But how did he do that? His spirit, his soul and his body acted in harmony. As a believer, you and I are to walk in this unison of God's will for our lives. Look, apart from Jesus, there's an unholy trinity that makes up you and I, me myself and I. An unholy trinity that makes up you and I, me myself and I, and we all scheme and plot together to try to pull off what's best for me. And you, look at me, so pious it's you too. You did that too. In fact, that's what we fight with today in our walks with Jesus. 03:40 Is that our will, our will is challenged by, sometimes, the appetites of the flesh, and we've got to turn to our flesh and school our flesh. We've got to remind our flesh about the Bible and that the flesh is no longer in charge and so that all incorporates our will. And the Bible says in verse two and do not be conformed. Please mark down that word conform, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and accepted and perfect will of God. Well, we have our own will. The Bible tells us that we were created in the image of God and you have a will and what you do with your will matters. Your decision that you make has to do with your will. The life that you live listen, the lifestyle that you live has to do with your will. Someone has said that the will is very powerful, but that also there's this desire to not will that is even more powerful and that comes from God. When our body says this or our minds say this or whatever's going on, we resist, we fight because we are believers. What about your will? And of course, I'm talking about the very essence of who we are as human beings. 05:06 I'm gonna give you you some verses. We're going to go kind of quick on this. Are you guys okay today? Okay, I'm going to need you to. I'm tired today. I'm just telling you straight. I'm fine, by the way, I'm not sick or anything, it's just sleep's been a rarity this week and so I'm going to need you guys. You can be Pentecostal during this service today. How's that? Okay, that's enough. 05:30 Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66. Listen to this. Thus says the Lord. Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me and where is the place of my rest For all those things my hand has made? And all those things exist, says the Lord, but on this one will I look On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word? Let me clarify something for you in this modern age. 06:06 God is not saying that just because you're poor, you have a special place in my heart. That's not what it means. He's talking about that very thing you know in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirits. He's talking about those who don't see themselves as much in light of the grandeur of God. When it says they have a contrite spirit, it means they're quick to repent of the grandeur of God. When it says they have a contrite spirit, it means they're quick to repent of the wrong that they do. 06:32 God says I love that person. Are you hearing me? God is not saying I love the person that never sins no-transcript. Does such a person exist? Nope. God says I love the person that looks upon themselves and understands the fact that in them they need me. In them they know that they cannot save themselves. 06:51 The Bible goes on to say that in them, in us, dwells no good thing and that turns us into those of a contrite spirit. That's the key, by the way, to walking before the Lord in humility. Realizing how wretched we are of ourselves causes us to be of a contrite spirit, which means we need him. And God, thank you for giving me. My very breath at this moment that life lived causes us to tremble at his word. This is not a terrible trembling, nor is it a tremble like we might tremble today and a cold, wintry day like it is here. To tremble is not to tremble because you're cold, it's to tremble at the greatest joy is the word of God, the very Bible. That's why you see our dear brothers and sisters wanting nothing more. When all comes to the end. They want nothing more than to read me the Bible. They say they want to hear the Bible on audio. Just play the Bible. I want to pass into his arms. I want to hear the Bible. 08:01 Lisa's dad was dying at USC and he said just sing hymns, will you? I remember he moved his mask and says sing hymns. And he wanted to go into glory singing hymns and that's all that matters. Why? Because listen. Your will, when it's brought under the control of Christ, is a glorious thing. But notice, in that verse God says I don't need a place to live, and this actually has to do with your will. 08:26 Look at the next verse in John's gospel John 15, verse 4, and John 14, verse 18. Jesus said abide in me, live in me, take up your residence in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Chapter 14, verse 18, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. Jesus said that just before he went back up into heaven. He said I'm going to go to heaven, but I'm going to send to you my Holy Spirit, and by the Holy Spirit I will live in you. That's a sermon for another day, but that screams the doctrine of the Trinity. I'm leaving, but I'm going to come back and be in you. I won't leave you orphaned. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to be with you forever. What an awesome truth that is. In other words, god says you can build me a building. That's not what I want. You can feel better. If you feel better, david Solomon, build me a temple. I don't need it. I love that. Does God need this building? Absolutely not. But Jesus says true relationship is when you allow your will to invite God into your life. 09:50 How many of you are single? Anybody single in here? Raise your hand, go ahead, it's okay, that's it. Well, listen, if you're interested in somebody, the first thought that you have being single is you hope they're interested in you. But how are you going to know? By the way, take notes on this Gee whiz. I have guys all the time, pastor, and they're like sweaty, they're like freaking out. I think they're going to say God's called me to the dark jungles of the Amazon and I'm waiting to hear that I go. What's troubling you? 10:23 I think I like a girl. You think you like a girl you think, or you know which one is it? Have you talked to her? No, you know why you're in doubt. Why? Because you don't know, because you haven't talked to her yet. 10:42 I can't stand rejection. Get used to it, it's just the way that it is. Who cares, it's not a crime. You walk up to her and you say would you like to go out for a cup of coffee? If she says no, ask her 10 more times, ladies, is that not true? Pursue her. She might think you're as ugly as sin. But you know what? As you pursue her, she might say he's starting to look a little attractive to me. But, guys, you gotta go for it. 11:13 Man and listen, that whole dynamic of relationship. I thank God that he has pursued me in my life and before I was a Christian. He was pursuing me then and he pursues me now. And listen, every day God has invited me to get alone with him. That's the God we have. He's a relational God and that's a matter of your will. 11:38 Jesus said I don't want to live anywhere else, but in you. God said in the Old Testament I don't want to live in a house, a temple. I've been to some tremendous temples in Europe cathedrals, great ones, famous ones. They have coffee shops in them. Now Some of them are in mosques Dead, great building, 800 years old, dead. And then, if they do have a service, no Bible, and you wonder why it's dead. I don't wonder why it's dead, I know why it's dead. The autopsy's obvious. It's printed on the wall Today. Five steps on how to be happy no Bible. Listen, I'll give you one step how to be happy Read your Bible and God will take care of the rest on that. 12:30 And then 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 18, tells us flee sexual immorality. We're still talking about your body being presented as a living sacrifice. Isn't that amazing? Watch, this Say wait. What does that mean? It means, see the word flee. It's where we get the English word fugitive Become a fugitive to sexual immorality. Sexual, you mean like sexual sex. Sexual, like get together. Yep. You mean flee that, yep. Get together, yep. You mean flee that, Yep, it's immoral. You know it. 13:07 And now, if you're a husband and a wife, that's a whole different thing. If you're not married and you're having sexual immorality, which is what you're having, you think, well, really, I mean, can I be a sexually immoral Christian? God says it'll destroy you. It'll kill you. It will destroy you. You want to know why. It's an idol. There's a place for it. God created it. He loves that. There's confines. There's a place. You don't drive your Ferrari around the dump, if you have one, and you don't take your dump truck on the Indianapolis race course either. Your body belongs to God. 13:45 To take it outside the realm of unsanctioned sexual relationship is to violate God's design for your body. Think about that and all of a sudden we're talking about being conformed to the image of this world, aren't we? This world says go out there and do it, and do it as much as you can, with as many as you can, and God says it's death that leads to death. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body. 14:11 Notice how the Bible here is saying there's sins that are outside the body and those are things to repent of. But there's a sin that a person can commit and watch what happens that he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Some of your Bibles render this commit sins against their own soul, because sexual immorality messes up the way you think and it messes up your ability to present your body as a living sacrifice, because you are now all jumbled up and confused, and we're living in an age that is confused and jumbled up, and God's word tells us, or do you not know, that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own Watch, for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Isn't that amazing? 15:07 I talked about younger people earlier and they're nice young bodies and that's fantastic. But listen, you think you can do what you want with your body. Where'd you get your body from? God gave you your body and even this body of mine. I'm patching it up and sewing it together and all that it's still. Listen, apparently, to the moment you're laying on your deathbed. 15:27 If you know the Lord, jesus Christ, you can tell your doctor doctor, you need Jesus. I know exactly where I'm going when I breathe my last breath, do you? And then you see doctors get all nervous, why? Because they don't know the answer. Apart from Christ, jesus loves you, he came and he made the way for you, and so we give God our will. And so when you begin to think about how intricate all of this is. 15:54 The detail of the human body. Think about it. What is our human body for? What is our human mind? For the mind? The body's the easiest. I mean the body's amazing. Scientifically it's amazing. But the mind? What are we talking about here? The mind, you know this is one of the great arguments, of course you know this, against evolution is evolutionists to this moment cannot give you a definition of human consciousness. 16:23 They don't know where it comes from and, frankly, you and I wouldn't know where it comes from either, unless God says so. God says I've created you, the human, in my own image. That's where your consciousness comes from, your self-awareness, your thoughts, deep thoughts, whatever they may be. God says I did that and you think about that for a moment. Here's it's either God or evolution, or God or atheism. There are people in the world around us that we want them to think a certain thing about us. Then there's the person that we think about us really being, and then there's the person that God knows, and God is all about you being, not a contradiction, but a unified trichotomy body, soul and spirit. 17:15 And it's amazing to think, because there's also the human will, as we've been talking about. And it's amazing to think, because there's also the human will, as we've been talking about, and all of that comes together. The body simply becomes obedient to the command what's coming down from the central processing unit, and the mind is thinking, and the mind will make a decision. But all of that is based on the will, your will. What will you decide to do with your life? What do you will to achieve in this world? Or what do you will to think about? What do you will to do with your opportunity or your time? This is true for all of us. He says do not be conformed to the image of this world. And write this down, if you would, and meditate on this. It almost sounds insane, but you got to look at it and it's this your mind controls your body and your will controls your mind. What's the answer to this? It's circular, yes, it is, but in the middle you can put an axle, you can put a centerpiece, and that centerpiece is does Jesus Christ truly live inside your life? Are you a real follower of Christ? I want to avoid the title Christian. I'm fed up with Christian. Everybody's a Christian. This is a Christian. That's a Christian. 18:41 I went to a place out of state, I won't say just some state. They had Christian donuts. What is that? Christian donuts? And I thought that's weird Christian donuts, and I wouldn't think it was so weird. But then I walked down the street and there's a Christian coffee shop. Everything about it was Christian. They had a Christian theater and I'm just like what makes a theater Christian? Can there be an actual Christian donut? And then the answer came to me In the Greek it's the language Krispy Kreme. So of course there is. Yes, there are certain donuts that are saved and go into heaven. But we have to be careful. We say why do I bring this up? We're careful that we don't Christianize everything, Because you and I live in a world that's a battle of the will. God is inviting you and Satan is pulling you. God is speaking and Satan is pulling you. God is speaking, satan is yelling. God has got his arms open, saying I love you, and Satan has got his arms open and he's saying let me lie to you. 19:56 - Speaker 1 And that's the world we live in and that's the world we live in this Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.