Pull Back From The Edge

Real Life presents the Jack Kibb's podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Stop, listen, pull back from the brink and know something that God in your life until your life is finished by God's decree, you're invincible! You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibs.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 Hibs. Philippians 413 says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now I've got to tell you, that is probably one of the most famous Christian verses on T-shirts and bumper stickers and you may, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And so, and I know, I know, but you know we see the application of that verse in all kinds of ways that's sweet but little out of context. Well before you ever read Philippians 413, it goes like this, Philippians 411 starts out by saying, not that I speak in regard to need, this is Paul speaking, in other words, he's telling them, I'm not telling you guys this because I didn't want anything from you. For I have learned in whatever state, including California, I'm in, to be content. I know how to be a based, stop right there, Paul the Apostle is saying, hey, as a believer, I know how to handle seasons of prosperity. That's what Paul is saying. There's been times when I had more than enough. How did he do that? He, Paul lived the same way if he had two denari or one widows might, he lived the same way. It's beautiful. I know how to be a based, that's without and I know how to abound, that's with. He says everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Verse 13, now it says, I can do all things through Christ, you strengthen me. That verse means, listen, friends, grab this. It doesn't matter right now if in your life you are abounding or you are a based. If you can hardly rub two pennies together or this has been the most prosperous year of your life, listen, the bottom line is this, to walk with Jesus, understanding that God has us living and he works in the impossible, listen, that he's got this taken care of. He tells us in the Bible not to worry, that's just not a cool saying. When you and I worry we're doing something very, very wrong and to prove it because I know people who are big warriors, they get offended with what I just said. You mean worrying is wrong, that's ridiculous, I don't think it's wrong. Those people who say that, they're the warriors and they worry because they think they can control the situation and even when they can't, they'll fool themselves by worrying and convince themselves that somehow they had their hand in the mix. Worrying is assuming something to yourself that you were never supposed to be concerned with. We've just become accustomed to it. Stop and pull back and know that God moves in the impossible. He really does, that's how you know the word is because God exists, listen to this. I have a hard time, I'm going to read this to you, I can't even fathom, I actually almost hyperventilate when I think about this woman, this is terrifying. This is said by Helen Keller, do you know who Helen Keller is? Please say yes, even if you don't, please, just say yes. This is an end Sullivan, her teacher, both are miracles to me. I may be off, but I'll be close. Helen Keller had a severe fever when she was either 16 or 19 months old. She lost her sight and she lost her ability to hear. At 19 months old, you cannot hear and you cannot see. Think about that for a second. That is a living prison. Just the thought of it, I'm not kidding you, just the thought of it causes me to, okay? She said, because you know, an Sullivan taught her how to write, taught her how to communicate. She said, the best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart. A woman who's blind and deaf said that, and I think I got problems, I'm having troubles right now, my computer's not working right with my printer, they're not communicating. Of course it's not, because I updated my computer to the next, I think my computer has COVID now. Should have put a mask on it. Number three, we need to stop and know. And I love this one, we need to stop and know, friends, pull back from the edge, we just need to stop and be reminded and know that he's going with us, he's going with you, he's going with you. God told Jonah, go preach to Nineveh and Jonah said, I'm not going. If you knew Nineveh, the Ninevites, you would know why Jonah said that. He'd off Hitler and Eichmann and all of his teams studied the Ninevite tactics. You know, listen, you think making lampshades out of human skin was a Nazi idea? They studied that from the Ninevite empire because the Ninevites used to do that with Jews. So when God told Jonah, go tell the Ninevites, Jonah knew something, he knew something about the nature of God, you know what? Because the message was this, go tell Nineveh, 40 days, they're going to be destroyed. And Nineveh, that's the message God told them. You would think, with all the Ninevites had done to the Jews, that Jonah would have said, that's it, 40 days and they get fried by you. Okay, we would have ran straight there. Hey, guess what? You bunch of losers? 40 days and you fry lights out. You know what, Jonah, listen, God said, go tell them, they're going to 40 days and it's over. Jonah, it's not even sad. It's not even sad in the text, Jonah, I'm not going. You know why he said I'm not going to go? Because he knew the nature of God. There's a chance he knew if they repent, God's going to give him mercy. I'm not going. So what does he do? He gets on a boat and he heads to Tarsha, he heads to Europe, he heads to Spain. That was the end of the world in those days. That was it. I'm going to go to the ends of the earth to flee from God. That's what he's thinking. And the Bible says, God prepared a great storm and the poorest sailors, they're trying to spare Jonah's life and finally, Jonah says, look, this whole thing, this whole storm, we're going to go down, we're going to sink because I'm running from my God. And they said, man, that's some God you've got. So we've got to save our lives, so off you go, over, over you go. And Jonah goes over and the Bible says, God prepared a great fish. It wasn't a whale, my friends, don't tell your kids that, but it wasn't a whale. The word in Hebrew is a fish, it was a big fish, not a whale. That's a scary fish. It says God prepared it. Can you imagine? I need a big fish. Swallows Jonah. Listen, all because he didn't want to do what God said, listen, all along the way, Jonah was trying to run from God, Jonah was with him the entire way. God was with Jonah the entire time. Jonah's underwater in this belly of a big fish and God is totally aware of it and Jonah's totally aware of that God is aware of it. He's with you. He's with you. Pull back. Pull back from the edge of despair. He's with you. Slow down your breath, take a deep breath, relax, understand, God can't leave me and he's even with me right now. It's not like you ran away and you out ran, God, while you're running, you ran right into him. Listen, he's going with you. Deuteronomy 31 verse 6 says, be strong and have good courage. Do not fear or be afraid of them for the Lord your God. He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. God says this throughout the Bible, throughout the Scripture, he says this. I'm going to give you another quote. I got a couple of them tonight. The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes and say, oh God, forgive me or help me. Sid Billy Graham, that's an honest prayer. I love that. Number four, stop to know he will make you. Listen, what's the word? Invincible. See, come on. No, it's true. Listen, now look, when I say invincible, I like what George Whitfield says in his writings. George Whitfield said, we are immortal until our work on earth is done. I believe that, by the way, with all my heart. I read that decades ago and I believe it's still now, I believe it now more than ever. George Whitfield said that. I believe it. Here's the thing. Stop. Listen, pull back from the brink and know something that God in your life, your life is absolutely invincible until it's time for you to go home to heaven. Think of it. It says, oh, it's real. It's real. Jesus is our perfect example. In fact, Satan tried to use the scripture against him. Satan tried to quote the Psalms and messed it up, intentionally. Do you remember when Satan told Jesus to throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple? Because the Bible says that his angels will charge over the less than bare thy toe or hit or stubbed thy toe on a stone, Satan was misquoting scripture, but listen, Jesus was exactly living out the power of that psalm in life. And so should we, he is our prototype. He's the one that we should walk after and like, and it's this way, until your life is finished by God's decree, you're invincible. Read the writings of George Washington. He understood that perfectly well. Listen, right now more than ever, we should probably end right here because this is so important. Our world is crippled and the church at large in America is crippled by fear. We do not believe that God has got this. We don't believe it. We really don't buy our actions. We don't believe that God really knows exactly what he's doing because this whole thing caught us way off guard. You say I would never say that good, but as a nation or I should say as a church in America, the church at large, it's acting like that. Oh my goodness, this is so big. Throw your Bible out the window. This is huge. This is nothing. This is nothing. This is warm up. Think of it. What are we going to do? We're going to do what we've been trained to do and that is stay in the word. Oh, it's so simplistic. It's not simplistic. It's simple, but it's not simple. The bombs are going off around you and everything's exploding, and the temptation to grow weary. And you realize, wait a minute, I'm going to pull that from the edge. I would love, especially if the younger generation would actually believe that when the Scripture says in Joshua chapter 1 verses 5 through 6, listen to this. If you're young tonight and you're crippled by fear, and by the way, don't you think people that we've watched and then entire young generation be hit so hard by fear, they're crippled, they're terrified. They're terrified and they're fall because this fear makes you believe things. This breaks my heart to say because it's so true, and yet the people I wanted to hear at the most won't hear it. That when fear gets inside of you, the paranoia sets in, and it doesn't matter what anyone says, including God, this is overwhelming, it's over, I could go outside of my bedroom, make it killed. No, no, really people are living like this. Well, they're not living. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. Take up his word and when he says something that jumps off the page that you grab it, you grab it, you write it down, remember, well, no, you don't remember, but in the olden days, when we got in trouble in school, we would have to write out what we did 100 times. That's crippling today, you could probably get a lawsuit for that now, bro. But you grab that Bible first and you print it out, write it out if you want to, but print it out, put a stick at places, when you shave in the morning, it's right there, or when you get on your skateboard to your car, it doesn't, it's right there, really, it's right there. Print it in reverse, put it on your mask, look in the mirror, you can read it. Fear not, fear not. Joshua 15 says, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life as I was with Moses so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you, be strong and of good courage, stop standing at the edge and looking over. Pull back. He is with you, he's not going to leave you, don't let your heart be troubled, he will bring you comfort, make sure you're focusing on him. This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcasts out reach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.