God At Work In You

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 want to be possessed by the Holy Spirit. You want Him to animate you, you want Him to control you. You want Him to be the governor of your life.

00:23 - Speaker 1
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.

00:52 - Speaker 2
Philippians, chapter 2, verses 12 to 13, says this Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation. Apply yourself to the fact that you're saved. Do it with fear and trembling. The word means with awe and reverence, knowing that we will give an account. It doesn't mean work out your own salvation because that's how you get saved. It means, now that you're saved, move in the awe and reverence of God, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

01:27
I love verse 13. Just when verse 12 scares you to death, verse 13 says but don't worry about it, I'm the one working in you, and so for that you know. It's blatantly right there before your face, but it seems to be a secret and it shouldn't be. And that is Lord, god. Then then, if that's the, if that's the way you do things, then you do all of this by your spirit's work in my life, uh, you do whatever you want to do, god, uh, but I'm yielding to you, I'm going to submit to you and every single one of us as believers. The Holy Spirit will see to it in your life that we are in hot pursuit of the nearness of God in our lives and the work of the Holy Spirit is such a great comfort. Remember, I told you that's one of his names in the Bible the paracletos, the comforter, the one who comes alongside you, and we know from Jesus, as we'll see in a moment again, that he's the one that dwells within us. But it's a wonderful thing to be, listen, to be possessed by the Holy Spirit in life. You say possessed? That's kind of scary, yeah, that's if you just watch scary programs. No, you want to be possessed by the Holy Spirit, you want him to animate you, you want him to control you, you want him to be the governor of your life. And so the beautiful thing is is that God at work in you, is the spirit of God, and you experience him by this nearness, by this interaction.

02:58
Genesis, chapter 3, verse 8,. The Bible says and they, that is, adam and Eve, heard the sound. Listen to this. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The best we can do is imagine the nearness of God. Imagine what they experienced, adam and Eve, before they fell, before they went into sin, that they heard the sound of God. What does that sound like into sin, that they heard the sound of God. What does that sound like? Pretend for a moment I'm teaching the fifth five-year-olds in class. When you're teaching children's ministry, it's amazing.

03:33
You cannot get away with quoting that verse and moving on, because a little hand will pop up and say what did he sound like? What did that look like? If God's walking through the garden, is it like this? Or did his feet touch the ground? You think about that for a moment?

03:56
We have no idea what that was like, but Adam and Eve knew God so close and so well and so perfectly that when they heard the sound of him, that was a common thing. Unfortunately, the Bible tells us, when they had sinned, all of a sudden the sound of him walking in the garden in the cool of the day was not a happy sound. It's a sad day when things are blessed and precious in our lives Listen, I'm going somewhere with this when things are innocent, as they ought to be, and then evil comes in and pollutes it from the outside. When somebody introduces something that taints and makes ugly the things that God has made beautiful, you know God's greatly offended at that. You're not the only one offended at it. God is offended at that. And all of that comes from Adam and Eve's rebellion against God. And God, in his great redemptive work, introduces to us, in his salvation and sanctification of the believer, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, church.

05:00
Remember just quickly last time, way back in verse 23,. Regarding we're on our way, is that we saw the heartbeat of heaven, heartbeat of heaven number two, in verses 20 to 20, 24 and 25. We saw that there's a hope of heaven and then we left off with this argument last time and that is the help of heaven. And the help of heaven is none other than the holy spirit, and it says in verse 26,. Likewise, the Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, also helps. Remember what that word means. He comes alongside and he picks up one end of the plank. Remember how we were hoping and wishing that he picked up the entire plank. No, he picks up. The word means he picks up one part of the plank and you and I, as disciples, pick up the other part of the plank. Of course he takes the heavy end, I'm sure. But he comes alongside us to help us. He doesn't snap his finger and you do.

05:59
Christianity, His spirit fills you with the power of the spirit to live out Christianity. Big difference. It says he helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings, sounds that have no earthly application, which cannot be uttered or understood inarticulate, technically. Now, he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we looked at this fact that verse 26 tells us that heaven is listening. Do you remember that? Heaven's listening? Heaven's listening, heaven is listening. Heaven wants to hear from you, and I pointed out to you the dichotomy between the believer and the unbeliever. If you're a believer, heaven is listening to hear your prayer, to hear your cry, to hear your joy, to hear your worship.

06:58
I said something last week it made some people upset, and so I'll say it again that when we worship worship proskuneo is the word, which is the root word to pray, that prayer and worship is the same thing to God, he's blessed by it. And so there are people who don't go to prayer meetings they scarcely ever pray and there's people that take worship as something that just gives us more time to park the car, and worship should be top of the list, it should be the preeminent thing, because worship for us is the encompassment of all things. When we witness, when we pray, when we study, when we love our husbands and our wives, when we love our community for what is good and what is right, it's all an act of worship. Do you guys remember when Pixar did that cartoon One of the very first ones where the guy was in the little European courtyard? He had his gestures hat on, he had a big drum in the front, he had all these musical instruments and he had tambourines and everything. He was a one-man music machine and he just began to move and all of these sounds and all of these incredible things came from him.

08:10
And when I first saw that Pixar, I immediately thought and I still do of the life of the believer. When you and I move, we should be moving in an act of worship. Are you going to go to work tomorrow? It should be an act of worship. What are you doing this afternoon? It should be an act of worship. I believe it doing this afternoon? It should be an act of worship.

08:28
I believe it is, by the way, if we realize it or not, and so we understood this, that heaven is listening. We saw also that heaven is speaking. That's where we left off, that the Holy Spirit himself makes intercession for us. And that word intercession is this in the Greek language it means to obviously intercede, but to make petition for or on the behalf of another. This is very encouraging. People Listen for the believer when we pray. God is listening. For the non-believer, god is not listening, except but for one prayer. Listen up. So I'm not a Christian, but I've been praying for years Into deep space. You have been praying According to Isaiah, chapter 59,.

09:15
The Bible tells us that God's hand is not short, that he can't save you, neither is his ear deaf, that he cannot hear you, but your sins have separated you from God so that he will not save you nor will he hear you. That's a very terrifying verse. But when the believer comes along, the Bible tells us that when Christ forgives us of our sins, you and I are in worshipful prayer, and that's how we maintain fellowship. And that part of that great fellowship is please mark this down part of this great fellowship that you and I enjoy is based upon the intercession of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit, according to the Bible, is speaking to the Father constantly. All about you, all about me. Constantly, without ending the word means without ending. The Spirit of God never stops talking to the Father about your life, my life. That brings me great comfort. Does that comfort you? I hope it comforts you. If you believe the Bible, that's gonna comfort you, because do you have problems? Anybody have any problems? Four of us we're going home with the rest of you people today. In all of our problems, he comforts us.

10:39
We had part of our Christian family this week. Several of our Christian family meet Jesus this week and family weeps, family cries. Of course they do. They're going to miss them, but we have to remember that their lives, listen. They may have been sick in this world or that accident may have happened, but the fact of the matter is they had just passed through the valley of the shadow of death. The moment they passed through the valley of the shadow of death, the moment they passed, they were in the presence of Almighty God and every day the Holy Spirit is interceding on behalf of we, the believers.

11:15
Man, if you're not a Christian today, you need to change that now, because all you have is luck, right. Luck and the grace of God. Luck's a joke. I'm just. Even as a non-believer, you're existing by the grace of God. Luck's a joke, I'm just. Even as a non-believer, you're existing. By the grace of God, he could snap your fingers.

11:31
The Bible tells us that those who are without God, that in due time their foot will slip. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah that hell opens up its mouth wide to receive those that are coming into it. That's terrifying. You say, yeah. That hell opens up its mouth wide to receive those that are coming into it. That's terrifying. You say, yeah, that's scary. Well, is it scary enough to get you to run to the arms of Jesus Because he loves you? But his love will not override your will. I find that fascinating and sometimes, at the same time, frustrating.

12:03
I love God, but only like this much. Be honest, I'm saying this for you too. So don't even look at me like that. I love God, but only like this much. Be honest, I'm saying this for you too. So don't even look at me like that. You love God about this much. The moment you say God, I love you so much, it's not listen. If we loved God so much, things would be different. We must confess that the love we have for him is genuine and honest, but it's like a candlelight compared to a raging fire. I think one of the great pleasures of heaven is being able to love God perfectly, without distraction. What an amazing thing. But he prays for us and we need prayer Apparently. We need it constantly.

12:42
Listen to what FF Bruce has to say. It's a long quote but it's beautiful Through our inarticulate groanings. Now listen carefully, because there's beautiful Through our inarticulate groanings. Now listen carefully because there's various theologies on this and I don't want to sound like some sort of compromiser, but I actually embrace the two prominent arguments, even though they're diametrically opposed.

13:04
Ff Bruce, the pastor of yesteryear, said through our inarticulate groanings, either in sighs or utterances, we speak to God. That is a fact, no matter what your theology is, if you are of Reformed theology or if you are Pentecostal in your theology, whatever your persuasion is. That first statement is a fact Because you can groan on the inside of yourself. You can just look at the world around you and be grieved and without saying a word, you can just be just. Or you can visit the Children's Hospital of Orange County and you see those babies that are there and the condition that they're in and you just there's no words for that Grieved.

13:53
It also indicates that there is a prayer or spirit language that is unbound by earthly words. It may be included in this teaching that expressions, longings, pain, sufferings, aspirations coming from the spirit of our new man, that's the born again us that has been created within us, that which wells up from inside the depths of our spirit as our prayer is offered. Having now been born again by the spirit of God, we can no longer be imprisoned by human limitations. I find that that powerful Such prayer, prompted by the indwelling Holy Spirit who communicates our true need, this God-ordained intercession which comes forth from us, is immediately listen, immediately heard and understood by God, the Father, to whom the prayer is addressed, and in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom the prayer is addressed. And in the name of Jesus Christ through whom the prayer is offered, god, the Father, is listening to the Holy Spirit who is speaking from within us. He, being transcendent of our frail human nature, prays on our behalf. And all God's people said have you ever been to that place in prayer? Pain, suffering, sorrow, and you don't even know what to pray. You know you should. You know you have to, but you don't know what to say. Well, whatever your theology is, if you're Pentecostal or not, we can agree on this. We're grieved and we groan. We're also clearly taught that the Spirit himself groans. That is the Holy Spirit. To think that he, who dwells within you, grieves over sin, grieves over the horrible things that we witness, we see in this life. Can you imagine? Can you imagine the control of God?

15:56
I was talking to a police officer recently and he was telling me about an investigation that he was involved in with a child molestation ring. And he was telling me about it and I'm listening. And I asked him. I said when you came in upon this, did you have a gun? And he said, of course I had a gun. And I said okay, he goes. Why'd you ask me that? For I said, well, to me, I'm beyond impressed listening to you tell me this story, this event, this account, and it's clear why I'm not a police officer. I mean, I'd start shooting people and then turn myself in and I'd be smiling about it when you catch these people in the act, seemingly God does nothing. Oh no, no, he's doing something. Remember, he doesn't move according to our time God will bring justice.

16:53
And Jesus said, in any way, shape or form, it'd be better for a person to have never been born for that person in the day of judgment, when Christ gets a hold of them. If you offend a child, well what about God's children? Are we not offended over the sin and the grief of this world? Of course we are, but we're reminded. We're not home yet, we're on our way.

17:12
But that word groaning, groanings that word means grieving, sighing, to mourn, to bemoan or to lament. We all know what that's like. Maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's a child's illness. And the word uttered, inexpressible words, words that cannot be understood by human means. There are no words. Is what it means? It means that it's too deep to express. The Spirit of God does that? It's amazing. So you, I don't understand, understand it. But this, all I know, is what I feel, what you feel, what we go through, what you're going through right now. As a believer, the Holy Spirit inside is grieved that you are going through this. The Spirit of God turns to the Father and speaks to the Father with words that cannot be articulated. That's the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about you jumping up and speaking in tongues. That's not what we're talking about. That's not even the same thing. We're talking about prayer. The context is prayer, and to think that when the Spirit of God speaks to the Father of God, it's considered prayer. You never think about that. Huh, you never think about that.

18:39 - Speaker 1
Huh, you never think about God, in a sense, praying to God, but he does for you, for me. 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.