Having A Life Worth Living

real life presents the Jack Kibs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth equip the saints and impact our culture. There's a slavery of this world and there's a slavery to Almighty God and let me tell you one will leave you completely dead gutted and ruined and the other one will leave you absolutely fulfilled joyful and will lead to eternal life and there's one thing for sure you and I are absolutely slaves of one or the other and you can't sit it out. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to Jack Kibs.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 Kibs. You guys remember years ago because I had his album Bob Dylan slow train coming you got serve somebody remember remember he's going he's talking about slavery he's talking about yielding to Jesus it might be the devil it might be the Lord but you got serve somebody remember that and it's true he was absolutely true and saying that and what's amazing to me is we got a Bible in our hand right here and we're reading Paul the Apostle and some people might pride themselves in saying well I studied I studied Socrates good that's awesome and you should well I studied Plato he was the student of Socrates that's fantastic that's great and somebody might say why studied Aristotle that's awesome and somebody might say well I studied Aristotle's student Alexander the Great okay that's great guess what not one of them the great philosophers of mankind and throw in there by the way all of the Oriental mystics and the enlightened ones the gurus not one of them have the audacity to take on what we're looking at in this section of Scripture that they're sin that there's righteousness unrighteousness that there's the grace of God there's the law of God there's eternal life there's liberty and freedom think of it you and I possess such an awesome eternal power in the word of God in fact Hebrews 412 says for the word of God is living in powerful I love that statement now maybe it's because I have a cartoon mind but when you go to breakfast today after service you had to take your Bible into the restaurant and set it on the table right there well he opened it up kind of a hangover like that look you could take a magazine you could take anything you could take a library book nobody will pay any attention to it you take your Bible to breakfast this morning and take it into the and just set it there the server is gonna freak out why because that thing is it's like speaking when people are not even aware that it speaks what is that the Bible just do this please side note if you take your Bible into the restaurant and put on your table you have to tip big right don't be some don't be some crummy tipper if you're representing Jesus you got to give a wapper you know but the word of God is living in powerful it goes on to say that it's sharper than any two-hit sword piercing even to the division of the soul and the spirit the Bible does this and of the joints in the marrow and is a discernor of the thoughts and the intense or the intentions of the heart and there is no creature hidden from its sight listen but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account what a powerful statement that is two things the Bible teaches us that in the book of Revelation chapter 20 all those who are not born again will stand before the judgment of Almighty God it's called the great white throne judgment and here's what that means about we must all appear before God naked it's not naked like you don't have clothes on oh no no no no it's it's way worse than that it's naked because the inside of who we are is turned inside out that's that's what's being implied no one will be able to hide no one will be able to pull the wool over God's eyes the Bible says that those that stand before the judgment of Almighty God their insides are turned outward and God sees it all and the Bible says that they'll have to answer for that now that's the judgment of the unbeliever that's the great white throne judgment on the other side there's the judgment of the believers those who are you and I born again believers going to heaven we appear before the judgment seat of Christ big difference mind you but even still he will turn us inside out why did you do what you did did you do anything at all what were you thinking what who were you worshiping what was going on was there a real connection between what the Bible says and how you lived your life when you claim to know the name of Jesus this really matters when God goes to work he transforms Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23 this is fantastic by the way you should put the you have a teenager you have a school you have a classroom you should put this on the inside door and on the outside of the door this is just good period Proverbs 4 23 keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life wow that's powerhouse scripture number one the word keep here is to garrison it's to have a military dispatch deployed imagine that picture well we're talking about our hearts yeah the Bible says you need to have an army around your heart to guard it you want to know why our hearts our hearts they're pretty our hearts can be pretty stinky that's why God needs to give us a new heart he says they keep your heart with all diligence fortify it strengthen it how do we do that with the word of God but why should we do it well because for out of it that is the heart spring the issues of life the way that you live your life and for whom or what you live your life for is answered right here in Proverbs 4 verse 23 you're you are living out what's in your heart remember what the Bible says Jesus said out of the mouth out of the mouth or out of the heart the mouth what speaks oh I'm sorry you have to forgive my French no that was actually your heart and why do the French always get blamed what's with that kind of funny anyway I don't think they appreciate it but oh you know what you know nobody's perfect you know I understand we all get that but how are you living your life what is your lifestyle and what's so important is do you have a life worth living are you living a life worth having because if you're living in life worth having it speaks of momentary and then it's gone but if God goes to work then it's all together different very powerful so church here we do or here we go let's mark this down verses 12 to 14 is this and that is having a life worth living is having the power of God and I want to stress the power of God not the power of man not your power not my power do you have the power of God now if you're Christian do you know this if you're Christian the power of God has been given to us but listen the power of God in the life of the believer only works right when we use that power it's available think of it think of the power of God being in a in a box or in a can or in a container you got to pull it out it's right there in front of you the power of God not the power of man this is very very exciting I think for us to understand is that Christianity is the exhibition of the power of God in our lives Jesus in Acts chapter one said go wait and Jerusalem until the coming of the promise the Holy Spirit I'm gonna send to you and you will be empowered with power from on high and that power will come and be upon you every are you guys okay you're very quiet you know it's because you're so focused is that what it is okay I hope so every believer you know so many times oh God I need power and God looks over a cloud and says already gave it to you right think about it oh God I need peace he shouts down and says I already gave you peace you need to wake up to the realization you are a child of the living God and he's not bankrupt you're not walking around you're like a popper the peace of God is yours to have now the reason why you're a believer and you don't have it is because you have not taken it out of the box and the power of God imagine how tragic it is for ministry to say you know what if you do this this this and for other things you'll get the power of God that's called religion you can find that down the street that's not here we want you to meet Jesus in his book and the power of God is what does Christianity in your life stop pushing the brick up the hill it's absolutely amazing it's his power look at the first thing in verse 12 therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lust now I'm gonna have to explain this this sub-point or subtitle to this now hear me out I've never used this before ever in 32 years of teaching so let me explain it so having the power of God and that is the power over my demons now this is what I'm not saying I am not saying you mean you mean that demon and the nicotine no you mean that you mean that demon of of I'm trying to remember you know lust no you mean that demon behind the door over there no I'm not talking about some little spiritual fang fuzzy thing running around you know I'm not talking about that I'm talking about when I say my demons this is us together the things in our lives that seem to just dog us as believers and we never get victory over them I'm not talking about demonic activity though it it is a fact in fact I should say this if you're here today and you're saying I don't believe in that stuff I don't believe in Satan I don't believe in demons I don't believe in fallen angel I don't believe in that stuff well boy they sure got you sucker you just fell right head long right into it you're on a battlefield and you're getting shot at and you've been shot you don't even know it and then listen and then there's the believer on the other side that the Bible over and over again tells us we're in a battle and we're not in a battle against flesh are we the Bible says that we're in a battle against invisible things principalities and powers it's a much pressure jacked can you not mention that right now this is exactly the point we need to stop beifying the powers of darkness and realize that God's power for those of you who've been with us to Israel and that one trip I don't know what trip it was but we were heading up to the Temple Mount area and there was a bus load of Nigerian Christians who just got off the bus they have they had their beautiful Nigerian robes on and they were going up the hill and they're going they're singing a song and they go they were singing this song say it's power power this power Jesus power super power and we're like like yeah I mean it's kind of hard I'm like white guy I'm trying to like but man they were like say it's in power power this power Jesus power super power and it's like I mean yeah you know it's like that is true things got power but Jesus has super power and that's super power he didn't keep it in the box he gave it to us in his word and the Holy Spirit's job in our lives is to have that power active listen with all due respect Jesus Christ died in the cross for our sins how do you for that but listen the Bible says greater love is no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends and that is Bible and that is true John 15 here's the deal listen carefully it's not enough it's what the death of Jesus Christ as awesome as it was is not enough unless what do you mean unless what are you adding to this I'm not adding anything to it here it goes this is the gospel Jesus Christ died in the cross and rose from the grave listen the one who died on the cross cancel the power of sin that was upon our lives he died in our place God went to the cross in human skin for us but listen if you and I got to heaven solely on that then that's all that's needed but he rose again from the grave that promises Jesus physically rose from the dead he busted the grave think about that he broke it the very thing that hunts you Jesus broke it death in the grave it's not just that he died he died and he rose again from the grave thank God praise the Lord we have a living Savior he's alive and that empty tomb in Jerusalem is proof of that you know I just got a funny feeling I don't know you know this world you were living in a wacky world right now and people are believing the dumbest things you can just throw you can throw noodles against the wall and people will go look at that map it's like what I wouldn't be surprised in this day and age because listen if you can destroy the resurrection of Jesus Christ you can destroy Christianity don't you think Satan knows that okay listen don't you think that Satan is probably already engineering some national geographic archaeologist is going to find Jesus' body when the Hilton was trying to build a hotel in Jerusalem and they open an old look the body of Jesus that's what Satan listen he's a liar and that's the problem listen every religious leader's body is somewhere come with us to Israel we'll run into the tomb and look and it's like there's nothing there what are we looking at absolutely nothing travel 15 hours to go to his tomb and see nothing why he's not there he rose again from the dead he's alive he lives the power of Almighty God and the Bible says do not let sin rain in your mortal bodies mortal this body now because why what does it say that because we have a tendency to have sin rain in our bodies you see Pastor Jack I love the Lord I'm walking with God I understand that and I hope we can dig a little deeper today God has worked in our lives and he's put all these horrible things that we want you to do behind us but what about those things that still plague us things that are so they're sin and they rain but they are so subtle we don't pick up on them we've even we've even said that's just part of my as part of my personality which we justify it away we have to be careful about that that it keeps us from what God wants to do in our lives next do not let sin rain the word and Greek actually says this stop it stop it stop it stop allowing sin to rain in your life and church guess who who is Paul writing to anybody remember the believers in Rome they were Christians he's telling them it's like him writing to the church of Chino Hills and saying stop letting sins rule in your mortal body stop it are we allowed to say stop it anymore you know do you love your kids so your kids when your kids say I want I want cheesecake for breakfast no you're not having cheesecake for breakfast I thought you loved me I do love you that's why you're not having it if I didn't love you you could have the whole cake I don't care but because you are my kid I love you you ain't eaten cheesecake for breakfast how about for lunch I'll think about it how about what about dinner most absolutely but if you notice listen if a kid wants to have cheesecake breakfast lunch and dinner and you give it to them you don't love them a diet of cheesecake it eventually kill you and when you have this stuff in your life it's just there it just keep it keeps you back it doesn't keep you out of heaven keeps you from growing and I don't know maybe I'm pushing it too far but as a Christian my fear is not if I'm not growing I just might as well be in heaven right if I'm not growing I'm terrified of not growing I'm my biggest fear is not growing as a believer this jack hips podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported will you consider partnering with us through a special gift go to jackhibs.com to learn more and stay connected