Heaven Is Listening

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Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.

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There's no sin that Christ did not pay for. And he says come to me, heaven or hell, you decide, but come to me, and I love you come.

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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
Psalm 46, verse 1. God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar, and be troubled though the mountains shake with its swelling. Look at that. Last word is selah. The word means there in Hebrew to wait, ponder, think about this, slow down. The Bible warns us we do not know how we ought to pray.

01:25
Always Listen to what William Barclay wrote in his commentary and he's quoting, by the way, someone else. So this is Barclay quoting Xenophon. He says from history we learned that Xenophon of Athens wrote that Socrates taught his disciples simply to pray for good things and do not attempt to be so specify or specific. I would think he's saying but leave God to decide what the best things are. Isn't that wise? That's good People, and I'm grateful.

02:01
People often ask me Pastor, how can we pray for you? And they think I'm joking when I tell them. I simply say this All you need to know is this prayer for me and my family and for this church is pray for God's favor. You say well, it sounds kind of that's it. Are you kidding? That's all you need Because, listen, god's favor takes care of my health. God's favor takes care of my marriage. God's favor takes care of my health. God's favor takes care of my marriage. God's favor takes care of you. God's favor takes care of my grandkids and my kids. Are you with me? You get that. God's favor is the greatest request you could ever ask, and I think that's an extravagant prayer To have the favor of God and listen. I so often pinch myself. I can't believe the things that happened in my life, and it's none other than your prayer is being answered by the favor of God. So remarkable, he's, so good.

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In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 8, jesus says For your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask. Now, this is fun, see, Jack. You just said to ask because heaven's listening, and now you tell me that Jesus says the father knows what I have need of before I ask. So why ask? He doesn't give anything unless you ask. He knows what you have need of before you ask. Right, he knows what you should ask.

03:28
For example, let's say God wants to do a deep work in your life regarding your faith. He needs to take you to the next level. I hope you know that your spiritual development upward is always preceded first by a trip downward. If you want to grow up in Jesus, you're going to get cut off at the knees. That's how we go up. It's an opposite thing. You want to be in the front of the line, you got to go to the back of the line. You want to be in the back of the line you go to the front of the line. You want him to increase. We decrease. So watch this. If God knows what I have need of before I ask, then what's the purpose of me asking? And yet the Bible says you have not, because you ask not. So what is this a game? Not at all. It's for your faith. And, by the way, when you pray, I want to encourage all of you pray specific, start praying specific, and the more specific you pray, the more sensitive you'll be to when God answers your prayer.

04:34
Listen, young ladies in here, are you looking for a man? You better pray, ask God. Lord, I want a man who loves you. How about this? Be specific. I want a man who loves you more than he loves me. That will be the man for me and show me a man whose spiritual leadership is something that I can applaud, that I am impressed by Young ladies. Don't be satisfied with some guy. Yeah, I believe in God, but his biceps are like 19 inches and he you know. So, seriously, this goes both ways. Don't listen, don't, don't even get interested in people that you're not impressed by their spiritual maturity. And you don't have to be old to have spiritual maturity. That was free. It's not even in my notes. You can have that. But you know that sometimes we get everything jumbled up by our pursuits and, instead of calling out to God and praying and seeking his face, heaven is listening and we don't take as much advantage of that as we ought.

05:59
If you're a Christian today, church, if you're a Christian today, the Bible says in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's written to the Christian, not the non-Christian, only to the Christian. But the Bible says to the non-Christian that you need to repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what do we have going on here? Number one the non-believer who's becoming the believer must hear this first Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. And the word repent means change your mind. A lot of changing of the mind needs to happen in our world today, don't you agree, my goodness? Change your mind, Change the way you think. You've changed your mind on other things. Change your mind on this.

06:53
God is who he says he is and you're alienated from God and you need his salvation. He died on the cross once, rose again from the dead once, and you need to run to him now, while you still have a breath. That's to the non-believer, because what Jesus did is he took away the power of sin and death at the cross. And look, god died on the cross for your sins, god, the son. And it had to be him because he knew that. When he just think about this, there have been billions and billions of people that have lived since Adam and Eve, and when Christ went to the cross, it had to be God. It couldn't have been a good man.

07:31
God at the cross literally thought about every individual. He loved them and every one of their sins. He paid that price, and you and I have no clue what that means. It's beyond our imagination, it's beyond our scope to comprehend. There's no sin that Christ did not pay for. And he says come to me, heaven or hell, you decide, but come to me and I love you come. But to the believer, we're already in the family, we're secured, we're in him. And when God says to us, you need to repent.

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When we go to watch, when the Christian goes to pray and it feels like you're hitting a block wall, don't be surprised when God says things like this Listen, you're still at odds with your husband or you're still at odds with your kids. I don't want to hear from you. Go set it straight and you come back to me later. You know he says that in the scriptures. Go set it straight and then I'll talk. I'm not going to listen to you right now. Did you know that? It shouldn't be a surprise to us? You know, if you have kids, think about your kid.

08:47
Your kid does something terribly wrong. You say no, just stay home, I'll be back in five minutes. You come home and they've painted the garage door pink or something. What are you doing? Go to your room. Your kid goes to the room. When your kid is in his room, is he still your kid? He's still your kid, but you hear the door open up and he comes down the hall and he says while I've been in my room I went online and I saw what I want for Christmas. What are you going to say to him? Back to the room, get back to that. We're not talking about Christmas. We're talking about punishment, not blessings. Get back to the room. Our fellowship is get back there. Our fellowship has been broken. But, dad, do I belong to the family? Yes, get back there. Are you gonna throw me out? No, get back there. Come to me when your heart is humble, when you've repented, and then when they come. I'm sorry that I did that. What happens? Fellowships restored? That's true in the Christian life.

09:59
Many prayers are not being heard because you've had it out with your family friend, neighbor, husband, wife, whatever it is and God is saying to you I'm not talking to you right now. You got to go fix that. Lay your gift at the altar, go settle the score with your friend, with your enemy, with whoever it is, and you come to me. Our God is good. Isaiah 59, verse 1. Isaiah 59, verse 1, says Behold, the Lord's hand is not short that he cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. And I cannot help but think that lived out friends.

10:41
My mind jumps to a moment in time 2,000 years ago, when I believe was the fulfillment of Habakkuk 1.13, when the Bible says God's eyes are too pure to behold evil, he cannot look upon wickedness. 2,000 years ago, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ, yeshua Messiah, jesus the Messiah, went to the cross and died fulfilling the Old Testament. Prophecies in our place on that Passover weekend. Prophecies in our place on that Passover weekend. And when you think about that, you know, as a Gentile believer, that one of the things that Jesus cried out from the cross are those funny words you have written in your New Testament that you can't quite make out. It's a foreign language of some sorts, but you have learned that it means my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Eloi, eloi lama shabbat v'nai. Jesus Christ from the cross.

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Which is a fascinating statement because, number one, jesus had done nothing wrong. Number two, jesus had shown everyone the way of the Father. Number three, jesus had ministered under the power of the Holy Spirit and no one could bring an accusation against him. Everybody scrutinized him and came up with nothing against them. Everybody scrutinized them and came up with nothing. And he says why have you forsaken me? Did you know that? That was an incredible announcement to the Jews that were there? That's Psalm 22,. People and every Jew would have known it. They would have recognized the messianic psalm of Psalm 22. Listen to this everyone. Psalm 22, verse 1.

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? Do you know what that is? That's Psalm 22. It's also Mark 15, 34. By people, all those who see me, ridicule me. They shoot out the lip, they shake their heads, saying he trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him, let him deliver him, since he delights in him. Friends, that is Matthew 27, verse 42 and Isaiah 53, verse 3. Because you can now be forgiven. Heaven is listening. You can have your sins taken away if you recognize who was on the cross and what he was doing for you, what he was doing for me. The Holy Spirit dwells in you as a believer. Psalm 22, 31. They will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done this. Well, that would be Matthew, mark, luke, john, peter, paul and Mary, including you. That's the New Testament account, and then we'll end at this.

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Heaven is speaking. I'm convinced of it. Heaven is speaking. He said, jack, I'd love to hear the voice of God Answer. Pick up his word. I don't understand it, church. I can't explain it to you, those of you who know what I mean. You know what I mean, but how is it that you pick up the Bible and you read it, and how is it that the words that he wants to speak to you will somehow jump up, almost as though they are done by a graphic artist? They'll lift up off the page to announce to you this is the answer, and you'll put it down and you'll fall to your knees and you say God, thank you. Thank you for that answer. That makes perfect sense and you can go in confidence. You can be rest assured and people will attack you and people will give you alternate ideas. You don't have to worry. You got the answer from God because heaven is speaking.

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In Luke, chapter 22, verse 31,. You want to see how practical heaven can speak. The Bible says in Luke 22, 31,. And the Lord said to Simon Peter, simon, simon, indeed, satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you. Notice, I, jesus, have prayed for you, peter, that your faith should not fail. Isn't that amazing, you guys? If you've heard me comment on this before, to me this is absolutely fascinating. I can't see it happening any other way. In fact, if you read the context, all the guys are there, all the disciples, they're all hanging out, they're all talking. And Jesus just says Peter, satan has been asking me to have you. Can you imagine? He's been asking me by name. Satan wants to rip you one. He wants to lay into you and destroy you.

15:28
Peter, now, I don't know what was going on, but in my head I'm thinking if I'm peter, I'm just like. I mean, I don't know what he was doing. Was he mending a net at the moment? Was he doing his nails? What was he doing? So jesus says peter, satan has asked me if he could have you to tear you to shreds. Whoa, really, james, did you hear that Satan's not asking for you? No, peter, satan's been asking you by name. Yeah, that's crazy, right? You told him. No, I'm sure, right? No, peter, you're not hearing me. Satan has been asking for you by name and I've prayed that your faith not fail. What does that mean? That means he asked for you and I'm going to allow it. So wait a minute. We didn't. I don't know if we signed up for this. Friends, listen, are you okay with God using you any way he wants to? Hmm, that was kind of weak, and so it should Think about it. Christian, yeah, yeah, jesus, I love Jesus. Yes, I do, I love Jesus. Think about it. Christian yeah, yeah, jesus, I love Jesus. Yes, I do, I love Jesus. How about y'all? Hey, how about this? How about Jesus saying tell you what. Jack, satan has been asking me for you by name. So here's the deal when you return, strengthen your brothers and sisters. That's what he told Peter.

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What if the pink slip from your doctor means you have to go to the radiologist and they find a lump? What if the blood draw shows an incredibly high amount of white blood cells? What happens if the job that you are supposed to have tomorrow? By the time you pull up, there's somebody else's car in the spot? I prayed about it.

17:41
Is it possible that all of these fiery trials of life, god is literally using you, his tool, his instrument, to communicate the gospel of life. God is literally using you, his tool, his instrument, to communicate the gospel of God. Has to speak to a radiologist or someone otherwise would never tune into a Billy Graham podcast or go to a church. But God will allow you to go through this to get the gospel to that nurse or to that co-pilot. Are you hearing me? Oh Lord, I'll follow you anywhere. Listen, let's be honest, lord, I'll follow you anywhere so long as you give me the grace and the ability to follow you. Because I can't follow you, I'll run so fast away from you if I get a chance because I don't trust me. So, god, hook me up, don't let me go. And so, as long as we understand that, I'll follow you wherever you go, because I don't trust me. And he says I will not allow you to be tested beyond that which you are able.

18:50 - Speaker 1
And he says I will not allow you to be tested beyond that which you are able. 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.