The Next Test

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
Hey everybody, God has been on the move in these last few years of shaking things, and we've just gone through the latest shaking. There's a seismic shift taking place and I'm loving it, I'm embracing it, because the Bible tells us that God is going to shake things in the last days. What's going to be shaking next? And so much so that we've just been unburdened by what has been. So, wow, let's see what's next.

00:41 - Speaker 1
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.

01:10 - Speaker 2
Hey everybody, really, really, I think I hope to the point type of a quick infusion of our podcast together. Thank you for joining us for the Jack Hibbs podcast and I just want to give a shout out to everybody who is so kind and encouraging. I just recently trafficked through a couple of airports and had strangers come up to me and say we watch the podcast, we love the podcast. We've got our college age kids now watching the podcast in their dorms at school and it's just like what. That's awesome. So excited about that kind of stuff and so, listen, we're just going to do a run-through very quickly and won't take much of your time, but let's talk about real quick where from here. Where are we going from here? This is a post-election podcast. This is a post, a lot of dynamic going on podcast, the news that's breaking around the world. You just absolutely cannot keep up with it right now.

02:20
In some strange turn of events, by the time you hear this podcast, I'm just reporting something to you today, moments ago, where the stock market has exploded, there's other stock markets in the world and those nations have exploded in light of the fallout of the election, because people believe the economy is going to start picking up Americans. This makes sense. Let's be honest. Americans are going to actually start buying stuff right now for Christmas. Nobody was going to buy. I'm just talking about us. I told Lisa we are going to have a very minimal Christmas gift buying season because of the inflation, because of the horrific economy in America. And all of a sudden, just with the Trump election the other day, within 24, it wasn't even 24 hours the stock markets opened up on Wednesday morning through the roof. And just so, so important. Why, why? Why? Why? Because change this type of change, even in Democrats. Now, look, there's the rabid Republicans and there's the rabid Democrats. They're the fringe nut jobs. We don't even listen to that. The common Democrat, the common Republican are saying wow, man, look at the economy. This is awesome for the nation, this is awesome for the middle class. This is awesome. Watch this. This is awesome for big business, because they're going to start buying land, they're going to start building warehouses, they're going to start building, expanding their companies. And why is that important? Because it's great for the poor man. I've never worked for a poor man in my life. I've never had a poor man hire me. Neither have you. You've never gotten a job for a poor man. So the rhetoric of oh man, trump just wants to bless the rich, excuse me. I want the rich blessed because they build companies that my kids can work for. So let's just stop whining about that stupid rhetoric invented by some socialist Marxist. It's insane. When the economy does good, people start jobs. Middle class business drives America, middle class, they own businesses and they hire more people than DuPont and Boeing. When you put all the middle class businesses together, the small businesses of America, they dominate. And so this is really, really great news On top of it moments ago, ladies and gentlemen, before this podcast broke, the Federal Reserve just dropped interest rates in light, they said, in light of the Trump election.

05:27
People are excited about that. What does that mean? That means listen. It means that you're going to reach into your wallet and you're not only going to buy food for your kids. You just might buy a new TV set, you just might tithe more, you just might take a vacation. That's how it all works, ladies and gentlemen, and we're excited. But what do we do with it? Where do we go from here? Some things I want to both recap and prepare and promote. Number one where have we come from.

06:02
In recent years, you must admit, life has been on a fast track dynamic. Sometimes we thought it was on a dynamic to insanity. And I do believe. By the way, when we look back at the COVID years, I got to tell you my friend, listen, and I'm not just saying this because I'm a Christian, I'm not saying this because I'm an American, I'm not saying this because I'm a pastor. The COVID drama as a believer, I never lost hope. During the COVID drama because I've read my Bible, I knew my Bible, I know my Bible and Jesus said there'd be days like this. He didn't say COVID's coming to you. He said there's going to be a time of pestilence, that's sicknesses and diseases. He said there's going to be a time, coming before I return, of wars and rumors of wars. So the great thing is the COVID dynamic.

07:07
What effect did it have? It radically affected the professing church and the professing Christian. It had a lot of effect in all kinds of ways. And pharmaceuticals, and the vaccine or not, is it safe? Ivermectin? You know all the whatever.

07:30
I want to talk to you about the church side of it. Covid, satan may have thrown it at us, but God used it for good and the church was shaken and listen people who are churches and pastors who are living on the edge of the church and the world. They fell off. We just saw churches and Christians, air quotes, fall off into oblivion when COVID hit Because they weren't rooted and grounded in the word of God, and we saw pastors, ministers, just cave in and give up. The church was shaken and what remained was good Number two.

08:15
What followed after that? The race baiting and the race card that came out of the. What's his name? I'm sorry, I'm forgetting yeah, george Floyd stuff. The Eric Chauvin is that the other guy's name? The officer, all of that dynamic I think that's what his name was, doesn't matter thing that was catapulted and trafficked and pimped by the media and blown up into something that would create riots and then intimidation.

09:02
And what happened? The church was shaken and some pastors turned their screens on their phone black. I know some of them, I mean I know of them, I'm happy to report. I don't know them anymore, but they blacked out their screens and then, when they decided to open up their churches, their first sermon was I'm sorry, I'm black. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm white, I'm sorry, I confess, you know, I'm so white and we've been white and they should have stayed closed and those churches and pastors just sailed off into oblivion. God's still shaking the church. What's real and what's not, god knows, we don't. So when he shakes the church, things fall off.

09:52
A couple of days ago I was up in central California and I was actually walking through a little portion of a 4,000-acre olive or I should say almond Sorry, it was almond orchard. They had just finished harvesting the almonds in California here and I was walking through the orchard and not one tree had one almond on it, because I'm not sure if you knew this, I didn't know this. I didn't know this, but my daughter lives up there and her house is in this property and when the harvesters come, did you know that these machines grab a hold of the tree and they shake the tree like this? She said the ground shakes. She said you could feel it in the house. The ground is shaking from this machine that reaches out and grabs this tree and grabs this tree and then shakes them and all of the almonds go falling to the ground. That's how they harvest almonds in California anyway, on a mass scale. By the way, california is the almond producing capital of America, for, for that matter, of the entire North American continent. And so the shaking caused the almonds to fall and, in like manner, god is shaking the church, and in this case, what falls is not good. And COVID was a shaking, blm was a shaking.

11:36
How would the church handle COVID? How would the pastor handle COVID? How would the church handle BLM and racism? How will that pastor of that church handle BLM and racism? And you know how your church handled it. To what degree did your pastor say listen everybody.

11:57
I know this is going to sound uncomfortable, but we will not jump to conclusions. We are going to stick to the word of God. The Bible warns us not to be a fool and come to quick judgment. So we're going to wait to see how this goes. We know this. So we're going to wait to see how this goes. We know this we're not racist. Jesus is not a racist, and racism's from Satan.

12:17
Wouldn't it have been great if all those woke churches and all this rotten media in America would have said you know what this comes from, satan? Or they could have had pastors like me on their news broadcast saying where does racism come from? Instead, they immediately pivoted that it comes from these statues that we've got up across America. Take down Christopher Columbus, a racist. All these ridiculously dumb actions under a bunch of lunatic leaders, of which California breeds them. We breed loonies in Sacramento and then send them out into the world. One was even running for president. Uh, one was even running for president and thank God, california politician failed to win the presidency. Boy yikes, Crazy, crazy stuff. Knee jerk reaction. Close the listen to this. Watch Seriously, I'm not joking, gavin Newsom.

13:31
Close the close the beaches. Close the churches. Close everything except strip clubs. Got to keep. Got to keep triple X strip clubs open and keep the pot stores open. Got to have that closed. Closed down the pizzeria. No, church gatherings. Closed the beaches, I'm not kidding the guy. Closed beaches.

14:01
Doctors were telling us go outside in the sun, breathe the sun, breathe air that has been exposed to UV light by the sun. Breathe it into your lungs and exhale it through your nose. Let the sun hit you on the back of your, it into your lungs and exhale it through your nose. Let the sun hit you on the back of your neck for 15 minutes and you'll do so much better during this COVID season. Gavin Newsom says no, stay indoors and close the beaches. But don't worry everybody, every liquor store can be open. And when you get drunk, you can go to the strip club. It's all good. And when you get drunk, you can go to the strip club, it's all good. And pastors said, yeah, yeah, listen to the authorities. Romans 13. We have to close our churches. I've come to the conclusion. Those pastors wanted a vacation. They wanted to close the church, but they're gone now, most of them.

14:56
Third test that shook the church still is October 7th 2023, israel is invaded by Hamas and the church began to waffle on its commitment to Israel and the Jew, which were commanded to be committed to Genesis, chapter 12. Oh, pastor, our church doesn't read the Old Testament, our pastor doesn't teach on it. Then you don't attend a New Testament church. How dare you say that? Oh, it's so easy. I'll say it again If you are not studying the Old Testament and reading it, then you don't even know if the New Testament's true.

15:42
And let me ask you this question the first century church, right, God's kickoff of his church, where the Holy Spirit came down from heaven and possessed the believers, was the first century church. Tell me, what New Testament book did they study and preach on when the church was born on the day of Pentecost. Did they study the book of Romans? Paul hadn't been saved yet, had not been written. Did they study John's gospel Hadn't been written yet. Are you hearing me? The New Testament church only had the Old Testament. That's what they preached Christ from the Old Testament, but churches who didn't believe or teach the Old Testament? They crumbled under this dynamic of Israel and it being at war and the replacement theology clowns, violated the word of God and insulted God. And they're just beginning Now. Nobody's listening to them anymore, nor should they be listened to. And then what about this one? And this is where we'll wrap it up what about this one? The election. What about this one? The election.

17:04
I got more pushback from so-called Christians than I did from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, who threatened to sue us. I got more pushback from so-called Christians and pastors. You can't get involved in politics. It's no longer politics when the politicians are talking about abortion. I'm going to repeat that it's no longer politics. Nor is it political when politicians make abortion an issue in their campaign. They've invaded a place of sanctity that's reserved only for God and his people.

17:43
The reason why they did is because they knew the church would be so fearful, so timid and so weak. They knew that already because when they saw the church fail during COVID and stumble from one blunder to the next of cultural events that were shaking our nation, and the church was irrelevant pastors who did not stand and speak up for the truth, who did not stand and speak up for the truth they became irrelevant and they're irrelevant still. Listen, for example, I'm not going to name you, I'm not going to, I'm not going to call out your name, I'm going to spare you right now. But there are pastors who closed their churches down and said we're not going to reopen for a year. I mean, fauci didn't even have that information, but apparently you did and you closed your church down for a year. You said so we're not going to open up for a whole year because of COVID, wow, newsflash. You never had the authority to say that or do that, because it ain't your church, it's Jesus's church. But you did it anyway and in my opinion, you proved yourself to be an idle shepherd. That's warned about in Scripture.

19:04
Derelict and notice your sermons, or notice the sermons of your pastor who took that position. Your sermons, or notice the sermons of your pastor who took that position. Notice how he's defending now. Oh, almost every Sunday you hear him mention some form of statement that defends his woke position. I'm not a prophet, but I predict their eventual inevitable demise, their eventual inevitable demise. And that's a good thing, because God is shaking everything to see what's real.

19:39
And so when the Christian was told to stand down in this election, you know what we did. We did what we've always done. It's so funny, guys. I got to tell you, when we were just a little home Bible study, we still did. We still did voter guides as a home Bible study. Right, that was 35 years ago. Did it at every election? Got involved, interviewed candidates.

20:06
Should we endorse those who stand for a biblical worldview, even the atheist? Are you running for mayor? Yes, are you an atheist? I am Fine, it's America, you can be an atheist. Where are you on abortion? Yeah, abortion is a little extreme.

20:23
In my book, I thought you said you're an atheist. Where are you on abortion? Yeah, abortion is a little extreme. In my book, I thought you said you're an atheist. I am an atheist, but I don't think you should kill babies. All right, we're going to let your statement be known to the entire church and we did that. And so the atheist gets elected, but he's pro-life. We're good before God Because you know what, when we vote for people, we're not voting for a pastor, we're not voting for a pope, we're not voting for a priest. When we vote, we're voting in the political realm someone who's closest to a biblical worldview value.

21:02
And when we began to experience success in this area and from about 2014 on, we were seeing successes from school board to other races, including state assembly, other races, including state assembly and US Congress seats in California elections in California we began to get noticed by the Democrat National Party. They didn't like what we were doing. We began to get noticed by the California Democrat Party. We began to get noticed by media. We began to be noticed by pastors who said can you just like not talk about this? Can you like be quiet? You shouldn't be doing this.

21:47
I preach the gospel, pastor, you should do the same. I find that hilarious, because they were assuming we didn't preach the gospel. Also, and I found it kind of funny for a pastor to criticize us. You should preach the gospel and he's got 50 people in this church and we've got 10,000 plus people in our church. How do you think so many people have come to our church all this time his church all this time? Because after we preach the gospel, we make disciples. The Bible is really big. It's bigger than John 3.16. That's where you start. And when you make disciples, guess what? They have to go to the water cooler. On Monday at the company they got to deal with conversations at lunchtime. They live in the world where pastors don't live. They live on the front lines. Public school teachers, pastors have got it easy compared to a public school teacher who knows the Lord, and yet it's his job to prepare him, to prepare her for that moment.

22:51
So when we did this and that began to replicate all over the state of California and then Arizona, and then Oregon and other states and Virginia and everything like that, and pastors like minded, who let the Bible rule and reign in their hearts, began to talk and coalitions were formed. And well, we have the post, we have the post election results that we have. And all the while we honored God, we didn't get political. And all the while we honored God, we didn't get political. We were not about to surrender to the woke, demonic ideology. So what do you do when you're losing? You label people, and so we were all labeled Christian nationalists.

23:40
The moment I first heard that term, I first of all asked does that mean pastors are getting involved? That's what I thought it meant. Pastor Jack, did you read this article on Christian nationalists? I thought, oh my gosh, that's awesome. Christians are getting involved in the dialogue of the nation. And what's going on with policy? Silly me, how naive could I be. It was a label being placed on people like me because they didn't want us to succeed when we said vote for him, vote for her, she's pro-life. So they labeled us as Christian nationalists. What a badge of honor that turned out to be. I'm really grateful for all the wokesters out there. You were really loud, but your arguments were really weak.

24:44
Because theory, you know. Listen, I don't know if you've ever studied a theory in school, but do you know what Remember after class or after theory? What followed after theory? What did you do with theory? If it was political theory, if it was biology, if it was physics, if it was some form of philosophy, what did you do with it? You took it into the lab, remember, and you tested the theory. That's why, by the way, darwinianism fails when you take it into the lab. You never an evolutionist never goes to the lab to see if their theory, if their religion, works.

25:38
When you take a theory into the lab, you find out if it works or not, if it's true or not. And so when you take the theory and you test it in the lab, you find out if it's true or if it's false. And so what happened was a lot of people began to take into the lab, as it were, what the Bible teaches. It were what the Bible teaches. We are going to not just preach the gospel on Sundays, but we are going to encourage our people to go out and live it now and speak up for truth. They took what was, in a sense, theoretical and they went out into the world on Monday and did it. They did Bible truth and it convinced the minds of people. And those people rose up and they voted for sanity, they voted for what works. Some people even voted against their feelings because they knew that this would be better for the nation.

26:49
And so the remarkable thing I want to leave this with you is Galatians, chapter 6, verse 10, starting there. There, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially those who are of the household of faith. See with what large letters Paul writes that I've written to you in my own hand. I love that because he wanted them to understand. He says as many as I desire to make or to have a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. Paul announces do what's right, honor God in doing it and don't be swayed by those who will attack you and say you can't do this or you can't do that, or you got to do it our way. No bottom line. He said in everything that you do, you do it for good and you do it especially for the household of faith. And then, finally, this it's Ephesians 5 and it is verses 16.

28:15
Starts there by saying redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is and I'm trying to turn the page and do not be drunk with wine in which there's dissipation. If you drink wine, you get a little effect, but then you eliminate it. Paul says why waste your time with that, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. And so I want to leave you with this Do all that you do to the glory of God.

28:53
Make sure that what you do is done by the Spirit of God. Every opportunity you have, do the right thing that honors God. Don't do the thing you feel. Listen, I'm wrapping this up. Don't do what you have. Do the right thing that honors God. Don't do the thing you feel. Listen, I'm wrapping this up. Don't do what you feel.

29:06
I know I'm flying in the face of a lot of emotionally based theology, but it's theory. It doesn't work. Well, I feel, I feel that I should do this Stop it, take your feeling and judge it against the Bible and then do what the Stop it, take your feeling and judge it against the Bible and then do what the Bible says and cause your feelings to become subject to what the word of God says the Bible and you will succeed. So I just wanted to leave that with you guys. I know it's strong medicine for some who find themselves today on the wrong side of the fence, like, for example, the evangelicals for Harris, for those who told pastors to be quiet, for those who said we shouldn't vote.

29:54
Yeah, you missed it. You missed out. You took your opportunity and you buried it. Now you got a lot of repenting to do. I would imagine asking God to forgive you for taking the opportunity he gave you and you buried it in the ground. That's okay. Listen, you can repent. God will forgive you. Just don't do it again. Obey him and not yourself. It's obvious that we believe it's time for us to live out what we believe in. It's time for us to live real life, and that's what we're doing here. Thank you, guys. God bless you. If you've enjoyed this or any one of our podcasts, hit the subscribe button, give us a five-star review rating and share it with others that it matters. God bless you, guys, until next time. Share it with others that it matters.

30:42 - Speaker 1
God bless you, guys, until next time 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.