The God In You

00:00 - Announcer (Announcement) Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 00:09 - Jack Hibbs (Host) God is not swayed by the ages. The same convictions the martyrs had to die for their faith. Those truths are still available to us today in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is still alive. He still indwells His people. 00:26 - Announcer (Announcement) You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com 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. 00:55 - Jack Hibbs (Host) Ezekiel 36, verse 26. God says I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. Friends, listen, that's what God says. You either believe them or you don't. I'd like you to take them at His Word, friend, and try them out. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I'll take your stony heart out of you and I'll give you a brand new, soft and pliable heart. 01:21 Verse 27, I will put my spirit within you. Did you get that? This is God speaking. I will put my spirit within you. Now watch, and I will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and you will do them. I'd love this. For this reason, verse 27 is glorious. 01:43 Can I read it backwards? It might make more sense. You will do my statutes, you'll do my judgments. You're going to keep those. Really, yep, here's how I will put my spirit in you. That's how it happens. It's the same equivalent to Jesus saying if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And when you hear that, you feel like surrendering, like give it up. No, no, no, no. God says I will put within you my spirit. I will cause you to keep my judgments and do them. This is the born again Jesus said. 02:21 Spirit filled, spirit led life Christianity. Don't sign up for it, don't become a member of it. Let God do it in you by the Holy Spirit of God. It's the spirit's business to make you more like Jesus. You and I are just supposed to cooperate with Him. It's remarkable. He's remarkable. He's also the life-giving spirit. The Holy Spirit is a life-giving spirit. 02:51 In Romans 8, verse two, the Bible says for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. This is so spectacular. The law of sin and death is where I was before I met Jesus. After meeting Jesus, what happened? The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus took control of my life. So how do you know? Because the things of God began to become interesting to me, the things I didn't care about before. Now I care about. You, begin to think different. He begins to work his life into you. 03:37 I remember years ago in Israel there was a tanner. Now that's the old term. It's in the New Testament, book of Acts. But you know, a tanner is someone who works with skins, animal skins, and you've seen like shop, bazaars and kiosk and stuff these purses or these, whatever it is, and it's made out of leather. But technically a tanner did that and they can take hardened skin from an animal and they work on it and work on it and work on it with oils and lotions and movements and they start to turn it into. 04:18 Does anyone know what a shammy is? Can make it as soft and pliable as a shammy. What's going on? That's exactly what God does with the human heart. I came, you come, to God with a hardened heart. We've got pain, we've got walls built up, people have hurt us, people are bad, that's bad, this is bad, and all this stuff. We bring all of our scars right there and God says, okay, let me in and we go. Are you kidding me? But we open the door just enough for him to start going to work and he puts a little bit of oil, he begins to massage and to work in his word. He begins to go to work and your mind begins to get cleared up, the fog begins to lift, your desires start changing. 05:04 Absolutely amazing the life giving spirit of the Holy Spirit. He says in Romans 5, verse 21,. Sin reigned in death. Even so, grace might rain through righteousness To eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It's his righteousness, friend, not yours. Do you want that? Does that sound appealing to you? He's the active Holy Spirit. He is the active Holy Spirit, john 17, 23. 05:32 The Bible says Jesus is speaking. Listen to this. He's talking to his father. It's a prayer. It's known as the high priestly prayer of Christ Jesus. He's speaking to his father and he says listen, I in them, the them as you and you and me, that they may be perfect or made perfect or complete in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and I have loved them. Think of all of you right here and I have loved them as you have loved me. Jesus says man, you want to talk about just love and active and possessive and the spirit of God working. He makes the announcement that he's the active God of loving us. It's remarkable. We also know from Galatians 2.20,. He's the sanctifying Holy Spirit. 06:31 The Bible says, regarding our lives, I've been crucified with Christ. Not only is Christ in me by the Holy Spirit, but the Bible says that I, my life, jack's old world, has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Please, are you guys awake? That's exactly what I'm talking about. I may offend somebody, listen, listen just to be. I'll equally offend everybody right now, just to get this point across. When he says I've been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 07:15 Did you hear me stress that? Why is that important? Because you coming to this church does nothing to get you into heaven. You being a Lutheran, a Catholic, a Methodist, assembly of God, what flavor are you? There's 31 of them. Which one is it Doesn't matter. Are you in Christ? Does he dwell in you? Is he the Son of God? Did he give Himself for you? These are things that we must answer. I know you may not like me after this message, I don't really care. 07:51 I need to say this to you Do you know that if you were to die today, that Christ would invite you or open His arms wide and embrace you into the presence of His heaven? You need to know that. You must know that Christian you are, to know that he's the sanctifying Holy Spirit. Next, he's the working Holy Spirit. This is amazing to me. He never stops working. It's amazing. Jesus was here and he sent it back to heaven. Then he sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit's been working here for the last 2,000 years. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you Ephesians 3, 17, sorry that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all of the saints, what is the width, the length, the depth, the height. To know the love of Christ which passes, knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That's the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Next, he is the securing spirit. Securing. By that I mean just protecting you, wrapping you up, keeping you safe. Philippians 1.23. 09:03 Paul says for I am hard-pressed, listen to this. I'm hard-pressed, I'm being squeezed on every side between the two. What is it, paul, what's crushing you? He's saying this reality. I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. Was he sick? No, was he chained up at what? 09:25 Listen, this is Paul's life. His target, his target was to be with Jesus. And he says, by the way, which is far better. He didn't mean to insult them, the Philippians. He's saying hey, you guys, look, I long to go be with Jesus, like right now. Here's the deal. God wants me to stick around to help you guys grow. Will you hurry up? No, I added that part. But if I were Paul, I would have said can you guys step it up a little bit so I can get out of here. Can you imagine? It's amazing. See, really, jack isn't that kind of morbid. Well, it all depends on what spirit's in you. Yes, all right, look, I told you before, if you Paul, he was the greatest known convert to Christianity the world is ever seeing, probably ever will see. 10:20 He says to live as Christ, all right, so okay, so you want to live for Christ? Huh, that's right. Well, then we're going to kill you. Well, to die is gain, so wait a minute. So what'd you say? I said to live as Christ and to die is gain. So wait a minute. If we kill you, you're happy about that, because you're going to go see Jesus, that's right. Well, we don't like you, so we're not going to kill you. 10:52 To live as Christ, which is it? To live as Christ? To die is gain. You understand, if your target is heaven and the Spirit of God dwells in you, no professor, no teacher, nothing, no cultists, is going to sway you. It's impossible. It's impossible, god. Listen, god is not swayed by the ages, the same convictions the martyrs had to die for their faith. Those truths are still available to us today in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is still alive, he still indwells his people. Then, listen, the fact is this To live as Christ, to die, is gain. We leave this world, we go to his arms. That's not bad, ladies and gentlemen. That's quite awesome, remarkable. The Bible tells us that he is the gracious Holy Spirit. 11:55 Colossians, chapter 2, verse 13,. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together with him. This is that quickening. I told you about Having forgiven you all of your trespasses and having wiped out all the handwriting of requirements. That is the list of sins that you've thought and or have done. That was against us, god knows, isn't that amazing? Well, look what God did with that list, that list which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Wow, that's awesome. Jesus died in our place, took away our curse that was upon us. I'll speed this up. He's the overwhelming Holy Spirit, overwhelming. 12:43 John, chapter 4, verse 14,. Jesus said whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. That's quite a statement, is it not? You drink the water I give you, never be thirsty Really, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. This is not of this earth, friends. These next two passages don't miss them. In fact, write this down. He's the satisfying Holy Spirit, and I want to ask you a question. I want to set you up for this. Do you know, when have you ever thought about what was the first time? If you have to be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus said you do, then when was the first account of people being born again in the Bible? That's a good question. I'm going to show you where. 13:43 John, chapter 7, we'll start with this. John 7, verse 37. Watch this Now. On the last day, the great day of the feast, jesus stood and cried out saying if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of lilies, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. He's quoting the Old Testament, but this he spoke concerning the Holy Spirit whom those believing in him, futuristic, would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Glorified means he was not yet crucified and resurrected from the dead. You got that, everybody. We're almost done. You got that. 14:27 Next passage is the answer when was the first person or congregation to ever be born again? You're going to know the answer. John, chapter 20, beginning of verse 19. Jesus now is resurrected from the dead. Watch what happens. It's kind of funny actually. 14:46 Then, the same day, at evening being the first day of the week, that's Sunday when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, jesus came and stood in the midst of them. The word is Jesus suddenly appeared. He didn't go through the doors. What it means Can you imagine, thomas, are you scared? I'm scared. Peter, I'm really scared. James, james and James, are you scared? We're super scared. Matthew, you're pretty terrified, aren't you? Well, I'm just terrified. And all of a sudden, whoosh. And look. Well, he asked. Look what he says. He says peace, be with you, don't freak, peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands in his side. Look you guys, it's me. 15:41 Because you know what they would have thought, being good Jews, they would have thought this is a spirit. That's what they would have thought. This is a ghost, this is a manifestation. Jesus is here. Look at my hands. What's in his hands? Holes. Open up his robe. What's over here on the right side Hole? Wow. 16:03 Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus, here it comes. So Jesus said to them again peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, here you go. Remember. He breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit. And this receive the Holy Spirit is not to come in upon. That's the Greek word E-P-I, epi. It means to come upon for service God. The Holy Spirit comes upon Christians who are going to go do something for God. He does it by his power, not by their power. This is not that word. This is the word E-N the Spirit of God. When he breathed on them, the Spirit of God moved inside of them in that moment. 16:46 And let me tell you what I'm happy about what it doesn't say. It doesn't say, and Matthew got goosebumps all over his body. I didn't say that. It's not recorded. Do you feel that? Oh my gosh, do you feel that? Whoa, are you feeling this? None of it's recorded. I believe that's deliberate. Why? Because that's irrelevant. The Holy Spirit moved inside. They became born again. 17:12 In that second, the Spirit had moved in and began to go to work. And then we end here. What does he go to work doing? Purifying us. 17:23 So, listen, if you're non-Christian today and Christians have brought you, look, I'm on your side right now, buddy, the Holy Spirit at work in the life of the believer. Listen, none of us will be perfect, but we're not the people we used to be. And, by the way, that hasn't come about because we're getting older or because we've been conditioned. Listen, we're not the same people we used to be because the Holy Spirit's been working. Now we're not, listen, we still mess up, but if we're really walking in the Spirit, you're gonna be the first one to know, because we're gonna turn to you and say listen, louie, I'm thinking Louie, lucifer, louie, your friend. Listen, louie, what I just did, that's not Christians don't do that. That was wrong of me. That did not represent Jesus Christ. That was a bad attitude. I've asked Him to forgive me and I'm asking you to forgive me. Don't judge Jesus based upon what I just did, because that was wrong. Okay, so, unbelieving friend, you can always hold your Christian friends accountable to that one. 18:32 That pastor said that, dave, the Spirit of God's speaking to you. You're gonna say you're sorry. Well, it's true. Why? Because the Spirit of God's purifying us, just cleaning up our thoughts. Thoughts, did you hear me? Thoughts, and I, like you, am concerned. The Bible says that before Christ comes back, people, their lives, will be like the days of Sodom, like the days of Gomorrah, and he says it also be like the days of Noah. Do you know what characterized the days of Noah? God said that every thought of every man's imagination was wicked constantly. Does that not sound like our day? But you know what? We are all in that direction, in that point at one place, and he's been changing us by His power. That's not reformation. You can have more. Reformation Doesn't work. I want transformation. 19:39 - Announcer (Announcement) 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.