Shotgun Exhortations

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 Here's the amazing thing about the God of the Bible he takes the life that you lived pain, warts and all and when he gets done with you, you become an incredibly powerful tool to minister to others that otherwise no one else could reach. Powerful tool to minister to others that otherwise no one else could reach. 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. 00:57 - Speaker 2 Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. And so, church, today we look at verses 10 and 11. It says be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. So, church, write this down, would you? That we're to do the acts of the Father? This is how we're to be. When the Bible here tells us that we are to do what we are now as believers, what is that that we're to do? Well, number one, we start with the Father. Jesus made that clear to us a moment ago that the father loves Jesus. The father loves us. Jesus loves us. Jesus loves the father. And in all of that, there are the acts, there are the actions that we do as believers. Now, when it says be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. Why is that important? Because this is the love of the father that the father has for us. 01:46 Now I need to clear the air right now, and that is this area of father, the concept of father. I guess I should start here. You might say well, Jack, I don't like that. I try to keep that word father out. I had a very bad father experience, you might be thinking. Somebody might say I grew up in a dysfunctional home, I would say get in line. No matter, even if you grew up in a wonderful home, do you understand what dysfunctional means? Dysfunctional means it wasn't perfect. None of us grew up in a perfect home. But I want to just say something loud and clear, and I'm telling you from experience you can either choose to come to know and to enjoy the Father of heaven, the Father of love, the Father of light, the Father who sent his son to live in righteousness and to die on the cross for you because you and I are not righteous and to purchase for us eternal life. 02:50 The extravagant father, which is what is behind the parable of the prodigal son. You know, we understand that in the West to be the parable of the prodigal son In the Middle East. It's the parable of the prodigal son In the Middle East. It's the parable of the prodigal father. Did you know that the word prodigal means extravagant? Did you know that we always mess things up? We get things in the West and we mess it all up. It's not about the son. Everybody focuses on the son because that's kind of our culture. It's about the father's love. The father loved the boy that stayed. The father loved the boy that stayed and the father loved the boy that ran away, and the father paid the price. Notice, it's the extravagance of the father. 03:33 But see you and I might have a picture of a heavenly father that's corrupted, because we've translated the life of the earthly father that wasn't maybe all that good onto our heavenly father. And so we say, Jack, I don't want to talk about the father anymore, can you just move on? No, I will not move on, because all of us need to know the truth about our heavenly father, no matter what kind of example we've had in this life. There's a father in heaven who loves you and his love is unconditional. And you say well, if that's true, then why did I go through the pain and sorrow I went through? Because, listen, God knows and you know this is a fallen, messed up world, but God didn't abandon you. Here's the amazing thing about the God of the Bible he takes the life that you lived pain, warts and all and when he gets done with you, you become an incredibly powerful tool to minister to others that otherwise no one else could reach. Well, I was locked in a cage, I was beat up, I was left for dead, yes, but now you're in Christ and God wants to turn that horrible story around and allow you to preach and to witness and to speak what God can do. 04:43 You see the things of horrific sexual abuse and violent abuse and you say, where's God in all this? God redeems it. He didn't cause it, he didn't bring it. Maybe you're all upset and you're disgruntled against God. I get it. Just let me correct your view. Just let me kind of adjust your eyesight a little bit. Let me correct your view. Just let me kind of adjust your eyesight a little bit. You need to level that on Satan. He hates your guts. He wants your life destroyed. He doesn't want you to come to God. But God is the great redeemer and the one who has suffered the most at the hands of this world and at the hands of others. When God gets done with you, you wind up being the person who loves God the most. Only in Christianity can we announce with confidence the end is way better than the beginning, way better. This all ends well for us. 05:35 We read the back of the book Guess what? We win because Christ conquers and we are in him and it's a wonderful thing. And so the father loves us and he's good and he's kind and he's gentle. And the Bible says be kindly affectionate to one another. Why? Because God is toward you. That's why when you and I are not all that kindly loving one another, God says excuse me, is that how I treat you? And then we have to repent. But the word affectionate when you look at this word affectionate, it means a family affection, a beautiful family affection. That's who we are. 06:16 By the way, just for argument don't be offended at this, but I'm going to assume all of you are Christians here today. You might say well, I'm not. I'm a proud atheist. Well, just play along for a minute. Being a hypocrite wouldn't be that big of a deal to you anyway, because you have to deal with God every day in your thoughts. You keep hoping he's not real, but too late for that. Anyway, just play along. 06:42 Family affection we're to be tender toward each other, caring, practical love Don't you love practical love? Practical love is awesome. Don't tell me you love me. Show me, think about that, right? If you love me, then you'll let me get in front of you when you're leaving the parking lot. No, that goes both ways. If I love you, I'll do the same, and then we're at an impasse, nobody's moving at all, and then you're saying after you, and then the other car says no, after you, and it's like, okay, well, then somebody will go around us Expressed, expressed love. 07:25 I heard a woman many, many years ago you probably heard something very much like the same where the husband the woman says I don't know if he loves me, and he says I pay the bills, don't I? Well, that's not an answer to the question. And expressed love is when you say to one another I love you, and it's practical and I'm telling you right now, and according to the Bible, this is the way a family ought to operate. Hang on going somewhere with this and to be lovingly devoted. 08:00 Now, God showed me something decades ago. If you've ever read it or heard about it, it came from me. God gave it to me a long time ago, and it was this because I was going through something, and one of the few moments where I got something from God that was unique and direct to me, it was an original thought from God and it was this Jack, you need to cheer up because, listen, if blood is thicker than water, then spirit is thicker than blood. If, in a relationship, blood is thicker than water. In other words, a relationship is strongest among those who are of blood. That's my blood. If you and I were blood related, I would say that's my sister you're talking about. You see what I'm talking about, but there's something higher than that, and that's the relationship that you and I have as believers, brothers and sisters. 08:56 I don't need to know your name for this to be true. I'll tell you this. If we hung out today in a matter of short-ordered time, each of us would know if we were believers or not. It is called koinonia. It is a divine revelation that the Holy Spirit gives, even to this very hour, when two believers are talking to each other. They may not even know that they're believers. They may be strangers and they converse and there's something that happens, and then there's code words that are dropped Like oh, that blessed me, oh, blessed. When you hear the word blessed, it's like hmm, hmm, code words In spirit. The spirit is thicker than blood. You and I have relationships with these brothers and sisters around us in this room that are stronger and closer and eternal bonds than flesh, and I love that, and so does God. We are a family, and when we do well, we rejoice, and when we do poorly, we hurt. When we celebrate, we celebrate, but when someone is hurt and weeping and injured, we do the same and we have this affection. It's built by God and that's part of the father's relationship that works with his children. 10:30 Now mark this down, this passage of scripture Revelation, chapter 3, verse 7. Revelation 3, 7, if you would, and to the angel of the church, in where? Philadelphia, that's in Turkey, write these things, says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, that's interesting. He's writing to a Gentile church. And he says that he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one's open. Verse eight I know your works. Behold, I've set before you an open door and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength. Watch this. You've kept my word. You've not denied my name. Indeed, I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not that's interesting, that's replacement theology who say they are Jews and are not Interesting, but lie, indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet to know that I have loved you. 11:25 Verse 10. Because you have kept my command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the face of the earth. By the way, guess what happened after Enoch left. God took Enoch, and then what happened? The flood came. God took Enoch, and then what happened? The flood came. Interesting Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast to what you have that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name. So all tattoos are not bad. Those are some amazing words Jesus said. I am going to mark you as my own. 12:20 In the city of Philadelphia, in the Agora, in the way that they shopped and in the way that they did business and in the way that false worship was, the various deities would literally tattoo the deities on the back of the neck of their adherents. They would have a tattoo placed on the back of the neck of, like Zeus or Diana or Athena. And isn't it interesting? Jesus communicates to them. Some of you might have a hard time with this. Jesus communicates to them in their language and says I'll write my name on you. You might say, well, I'm not up for that. They would have said that's awesome. I want to be owned by him. Sometimes we flip things up by him. Sometimes we flip things up. Sometimes God wants to express his love and his compassion and his joy upon your life and we kind of get uppity about it when God wants to move. In this case, God is speaking and he says to them I want to mark you as my own, I want to put on you the mark that shows to whom you belong to and to where you'll live forever. And the Bible tells us that we're to do the acts of the Father. It's pretty amazing. 13:36 Listen to this in John, chapter 13, verse 1. I love this. Listen how tender this is. This is right before Jesus goes back to heaven. Now, before the feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come. Wow, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who are in the world. He loved them to the end. Is that not awesome, thank you, Lord. 14:02 Moving down that chapter, we come to this next verse, verse 31. So when he had gone out, Jesus said now the son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him immediately. In verse 33, little children, he says I shall be with you a little while longer and you will seek me and, as I said to the Jews where I am going, you cannot come. So now I say to you a new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are my disciples. 14:50 If you have love for one another, can you say amen to that Love, active love, action, God love that he bestows and shows to us Church? Do you know God loves you? If you don't know that, you need to wake up to the realization. You need to meditate on the. You know God loves you. If you don't know that, you need to wake up to the realization, you need to meditate on the fact that God loves you Even on your worst day, God loves you. In the worst circumstances, he shows you evidence of his love. I'm often most impressed by God's keeping power communicating to me that he loves me, by God's keeping power communicating to me that he loves me. Imagine for a moment, if we can't, we can't even attempt it. To think for a moment what would happen in my life if God ceased to love me. What would become of your life if God didn't love you anymore? Just the thought of it makes me sick. He's so good. 15:45 And then, secondly, it's regarding the son. We are to do the acts of the son. Look at verse 10. Jesus the son in honor, giving preference to one another In honor. Verse 10 tells us this is a great word honor. Look what this word means To value. Watch this. This is how you and I in living like the son, right, so we're to love one another because the father loves us. We see the love connected with the father and the son. But also, regarding Jesus the son, we are to value one another, to value or to be valuing others. Having placed a high price upon that's what I'm supposed to have you in my estimate, is a high price upon you and, let's be fair. You're to have a high price upon me and then I'm supposed to have one upon you, and that's supposed to go like this. To have a mark upon others, to honor another is to have the awareness that you are conversing with another whom Jesus Christ loves. Wow, the person sitting next to you. God loves them and we're to be conversing with them, walking and talking as brothers and sisters all the way until we get to you. God loves them and we're to be conversing with them, walking and talking as brothers and sisters all the way until we get to heaven. Now, listen, this is going to build, this is going to come together. 17:01 The word preference I love this when it says honor, giving preference, bestowing preference. The preference is this this is cool To pioneer I don't know what comes to your mind. That's an old word pioneer. To pioneer, to pioneer before as a leader. Watch how interesting this gets. 17:22 To give preference to by leading the way, a servant leader that leads by living ahead of. The word means being in front of, or by making a pathway for the others. Let me explain. I am to give preference to you In doing so. This is what it means. Watch this. I'll live it out here right now. 17:48 So, as a pastor, I'm supposed to lead you, but at the same time, didn't the Bible say that whoever's in the first should be last and the last should be first? Right, that dynamic church. Are you listening? That dynamic is to be a constant. At some points, listen, you are first and then you're last. At some points, you're last and then you're first. This word fulfills it perfectly. 18:17 Watch how this works In giving preference to one another. I am to be, you are to be pioneering the way ahead of others that are in your life. So don't raise your hand, but are you a husband? You are to lead the way in a mode of servant leadership, all the while as a pioneer. Watch, you're cutting through the jungle and you're leading the way so that your wife can follow. It's sacrificial, it's hard work, so that her walk can be safe and direct. There's nothing gender sensitive about it. 18:59 What about this? 19:01 A mother with her children, a father with his children? What about a leader of a company? The pastor of a church, the elders of the church, the church itself? It's a circle that never stops. I cut the way through the jungle. I say to you come on everybody, it's safe. You move ahead of me because I've cut away. Are you with me Now you move ahead? I'm in the back. It doesn't mean that oh, I'm sorry, listen you're going to fall into a hole because, wait, you got to wait till I'm in the front. No, that's nuts. Loving one another, being a family of God together, we are doing church together, which means the person that happens to be in the front is the one that's cutting the way. Look, there could be a cliff at the end of the bush. It's sacrificial, and the son, Jesus Christ, is sacrificial and he makes a path for us and we never have to worry in life about going down the wrong path. If we're going down his path, we are to be working together as a body of believers, and it's quite beautiful. 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.