The Commissioned Life

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 Let's be honest God people got troubles, you got troubles, you got troubles. We all got troubles. Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you're not going to have any trouble. Maybe, as a Christian, you're going to have more trouble, but thank God, this isn't our home. We're getting out of here. That's good news. 00:29 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbscom 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. 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. 00:58 - Speaker 2 Look at the book of Nehemiah, chapter 8. This is very interesting, by the way. Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared For. This day is holy to the Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. That's an awesome verse. And what's amazing about all of this? Nehemiah is doing something here to the people of God. He's saying listen what God has done in your life, in our lives as a nation, as a people. He said this is the day to celebrate. Watch, I'm not joking so much. So Nehemiah tells the people and you can even eat the fat. 01:39 Did you know the fat of the sacrifice was reserved solely for God? Did you know that you were not allowed to eat fat in the Old Testament? You want to know why? For two reasons. Number one it tasted really good. The taste is spectacular, but it's not healthy for you. Remember what Moses says sin is pleasurable for a season. Remember that when God says I get first all the fat that's burnt on the altar, did you know that when you burn fat, it's carcinogenic. It smells great. When you have a barbecue, your neighbors are smelling the fat. Oh, they're barbecuing again. It smells so good, but God doesn't want you to eat it because it'll kill you. You don't eat the fat, but God says I'll take the fat, always give me the fat. In this case there's a breaking of the rule. 02:30 Nehemiah says this time for us to rejoice is so amazing that today, like today, and today only, you can eat the sweet or drink the sweet and eat the fat. What is God saying? Because the joy of the Lord is your strength. What is God saying? Because the joy of the Lord is your strength, we are to be people of God, representing him in this world as a kingdom of priests, of leaders, of lovers of God, in such a way that people are actually bothered by our level of joy. Because we can have joy when everything goes wrong. Will you be happy? No, that's silly. But can you have joy when everything goes wrong? Will you be happy? No, that's silly. But can you have joy? Absolutely, God is at work in all these things. The Bible tells us. This is kind of fun. I think it's fun anyway. 03:19 The Bible tells us in Joshua, chapter six, how it says and Joshua rose early in the morning and the priest notice? The priest took up the ark of the Lord, the ark of the Lord you've seen Indiana Jones right that ark of the covenant. That's what they're talking about. So the priests are carrying can I put it this way? This is what it means the priests are carrying the presence of the Lord. That's what that signifies. Then, seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams horns those are shofars before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew with the trumpets, and the armed men, the warriors, the commandos, went before them, but the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord while the priest continued blowing the trumpets. What's the deal? It's a mix of warfare and worship. Quite awesome, verse 20,. And the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpets. And it happened. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. We're talking about Jericho. 04:27 Worship and warfare, spiritually speaking, are also inseparable and we need to remember that. You may be going through warfare right now in your home. What's going on? Listen, worship. I have to be clear about this. If you're under demonic attack or emotional, mental attack, it doesn't matter If your life is being stressed and challenged with God. Putting on a Christian artist album is not going to help you all that much, okay. So, for example, I'm a big Danny Gokey fan, I love Danny, I love Danny, I tell Danny all the time, I text him all that much, okay. So, for example, I'm a big Danny Gokey fan, I love Danny, I love Danny, I tell Danny all the time, I text him all the time. I love you, love his music. 05:14 Worship there's praise and there's worship. There's a time, listen, praise is more exuberant and it's more joyful and loud and it's more expressive. Worship sometimes comes when you're on your. It doesn't have to be, but it can come on your knees when you don't know which way's up or down, which way's left or right, and you say, Lord, naked I came into this world and naked I'll depart if that's the deal. But, Lord, I'm gonna trust you even though I don't feel like it. I choose God to put my life in your hands because I don't know what's gonna happen next. And you are worshiping and doing warfare at the exact same time. Worship you wanna know why worship is such a big deal In the Bible and in your life? Watch, even if it's not, it's because it's such a big deal. Worship, really, what? What is it. 06:10 Some people come here. I hear it all the time when I visit your church. Okay, first of all, it's not my church, it's a good little note. I came and only three people said hi to me. I always want to say, how many people did you say hi to? But I try to control my Christian self. And then they say and the music? Did you know? Are you aware, pastor, there's drums in your church? Yeah, because of Psalm 150, every church has to have drums. 06:46 Well, the songs, the songs. I really didn't like the songs. They were not to my liking. We didn't sing them to you. Were you thinking that they have people who are here for you? They're not here for you, they were here for him and you're supposed to get caught up in the direction of where they're taking you. So think of these worship guys when they go like this don't you love that? With their guitar, man, I see, and they sing and it's going out there and the angels are rejoicing and hell shudders. Listen. There's nothing more damaging to the kingdom of darkness than a joyous Christian, even in the midst of difficult times. And let's be honest, God's people got troubles. You got troubles, you got troubles, we all got troubles. Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you're not going to have any trouble. Maybe, as a Christian, you'll have more trouble, but thank God, this isn't our home. We're getting out of here. That's good news. Maybe today? I hope so. Today we're to be patient. 07:49 I'm going to run through these four words very quick, verse 12. We're to be patient. That means we're supposed to stay behind Jesus because he's leading. The word implies that we want to run ahead. Do you want to run ahead of God? Think about it. You want to get ahead, to run ahead. Do you want to run ahead of God? Think about it. You want to get it. I got it, Jesus. I know what to do, or listen. We don't admit it, but this is what we do when we don't pray and ask for God guidance. We're running ahead of him. When we think I got it, I know what to do. She said this to me. He said that to me. Well, I'm going to. I know what to do. You know what you're doing. You're getting ahead of him. That's not the patience. Look, let's be honest. We don't like the word patient. We don't even have patience for the word patient. 08:27 God says this regarding the word patient just stay behind me. It implies that we want to get ahead of him, don't we? Emotionally we want to get it. I'll take care of it. God no need I got it. And God says, excuse me, stay back. It's like a little kid wanting to run ahead. Like you take your kid to Disneyland and you're waiting in line and the little kid wants to run in there because he sees Mickey Dude. Wait, you have to wait. You have to wait, stay behind me, because who's going to pay $1,000 a ticket. You can't do it. We have that in us. We want to run ahead. God says wait. 09:09 And then tribulation is just the hardships of life. Be patient in tribulations, why? Because we have a nasty tendency to try to jump out of the frying pan and go right into the fire. And then look at the word steadfast, so rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. And here it is continuing steadfast. In your Greek Bible there's only one word. English has two words. Continuing steadfast, it's just one word. And we're to continue steadfast in prayer. The Bible tells us. And that word prayer, it's an opportunity to talk to your heavenly father who loves you, and you can do that steadfastly because it's not an order. You will pray to me steadfastly. No, we get to pray to him all the time because he's always listening, always listening. 10:00 And then we also see this in verse 13, that you and I go through this life now with love. With love, it says, distributing to the needs of the saints. We not only have that opportunity every day here at church, which I'm very grateful for for all of you as you love on each other but it's one of the great reasons why you should be involved in a church. And we can all agree that there's no perfect church. I think it's Warren Wiersbe that says if you think you found the perfect church, it's no longer perfect because you're there. Isn't that true? We're to be loving on each other throughout this life as believers. Okay, you guys listen. If you're prone to fainting, you might want to leave now because the next couple of verses are a shockeroony. 10:51 Okay, how do we know we're real believers? How do we know that we're real Christians? God doesn't want us to talk about it. In 1 John 3, verse 16, it starts here by this we know love Because he laid down his life for us. We also ought to lay down our lives for our brethren, but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him. 11:18 How does the love of God abide in you? It implies it doesn't. It means that you are a false believer. What does that mean? When a Christian brother or sister is in need and you know about it, you go. What happened? Oh, my car ran out of gas, or this situation, that event took place and this is where I'm at now. I have no place to live. Oh man, that's a bummer. Let me pray for you. Lord, help this guy and all this stuff. Oh boy, this is empty and God you provide. You're amazing, Jesus, you know, you're so good. You see my brother's suffering. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. I'll be praying for you and you walk away. John would say, excuse me, if you knew God, you would help this person in their hurt. Okay, you made it through that verse. 12:22 Here's the next one. It's James. James is the guy. When you read the book of James, he rolls up his sleeves and James, he has no problem doing this. He grabs you by the collar and he punches you a few times. James is amazing. The book of James is the book that he says. So you said you're a Christian. Huh, I'm going to move into your house, I'm going to live with you for 30 days. I'm not going to say a word, and at the end of 30 days I'm going to tell you if you're a Christian or not. That's James. 12:51 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? That is, can faith save him alone? If a brother or a sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Listen, you can come to Christ right now, today, and be born again and drop dead and go straight to heaven. Boom, done deal. But if you accept Jesus Christ today and you live three more days or 30 more years, your life is supposed to be a life that backs up your actual original decision. Works do not save you. Works proves that you're saved. Does that make sense, everybody? 13:53 So when we have the opportunity to do good, we should get excited about it as believers and say, oh my goodness, this is great. That's why a church family is so wonderful. We've got the Lord in our heart, we know his word. But what do I do with this? You love one another. You lay down your life for the other. By the way, it starts in marriage first, everybody. Hello husbands, it starts in marriage first. Yeah, pastor, show me the way. Tell me how do I save the world? Sit down, let's see what your wife and kids think about your Christian witness first. Okay, let's start there first. Let's be for real. That's settled, Lord, what do you want me to do? And a church look, when there's a little church, then there's opportunities to serve. When there's a big church, there's opportunities to serve. Just some are bigger than others, but every one of us have needs, every single one of us. 14:52 And then, finally, it's this, verse 13, given to hospitality. Oh, I like this. You and I are to go through life now with faith. That is, we put all of this into practice. Faith is a verb, it's what we do. And so when the Bible here tells us give into hospitality, this is pretty epic because real quick. The word hospitality is, frankly, simply making someone feel extremely welcome. Some of you listen. There's people who are hospitable, but did you know that a pastor? It says in the book of 1 and 2 Timothy that a pastor has to be someone who is given to hospitality. Did you know that it's one of the requirements for ordination? Has the individual proven his life to be hospitable, among other things? But there's a general hospitality that we share among one another as brothers and sisters, because we love one another. And that's a general hospitality that we share among one another as brothers and sisters, because we love one another, and that's a genuine church. 15:52 Your first encounter with this church is the parking lot. It's contrary to popular belief. They're not wearing orange vests for you to target them. That vest is to keep them safe. They're not targets. They're there to help you and they hear it all. They're actually like the Christian barometers. They're like okay, car 29. You know, use extra grace because this guy's fired up. 16:20 People come in where in the blank is my parking spot and where in the blank and it's like hello, they get it all up front. But here's their deal. They're there to smile. God bless you. Can you please move this way? We've got parking over here. Just keep coming this way. And some people are like and then the greeters are here and they're welcoming you in and you're smiling and it's awesome. And then I hope you come in and you sit, or you find that you're here and somebody says, hi, what's your name, and you're safe. But even if you weren't safe, you're loving Church. Let's stand right now, if you would, and we're going to go through a quick checklist before we lift off. It's our pre-flight checklist, in fact. Welcome aboard Romans, flight 12913. 17:17 From verses 9 to 13, these are all of the exhortations. Like you would in an airplane Flaps right and then you check or whatever it might be In this love without hypocrisy Got it Evil, abhor it. Abhor evil. Got it Good, I'm clinging to it Right. Next on our checklist affectionate kindly. Remember we talked about that lady in Tennessee who said thank you kindly. That was so sweet. I'll never forget it. Brotherly love doing it. Preference towards others, given Diligence. I'm not gonna be lazy about this Spirit. Hot hearts fervent. The Lord himself serving him. He's the one I'm serving. When I'm loving you, I'm actually serving him. I mean, I love you but I love him more. Nothing, sorry, but him. I know, I don't know. I'm not sure if I know you Him, I know. 18:21 But his love wants to love through me. Hope I'm rejoicing in it. Tribulation, I can be patient in it. God on his throne Prayer. I'm gonna make it an ongoing dialogue of conversation. Needs distributing to the saints. Just show me somebody who needs help. I wanna help Hospitality exactly that. How can I help? 18:47 What a beautiful thing for us, as believers, to practice in our life. Father God, we pray right now, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would descend upon us. We need the strength to do this, we need the power to do this, we need the reminder, Lord, of your Spirit to do this. And so, Lord, I pray that our Christian experience would be exactly that an experience lively, active, doing Faith that is so rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus that we get to do all these things. We get to love on others, we get to find out what the needs are, we get to pray, we get to be involved and, Lord, we get to hang on to you because you're hanging on to us even in the darkest hours. Thank you, Lord, for loving us. We pray in Jesus' name and all God people said amen. God bless you, church. 19:50 - Speaker 1 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.