The Road of Brokenness Leads to True Living

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 Every single one of us, in conjunction with all that we've talked about, have this part of us every day. There's the old part of you that wants to take control. Are you a Christian? Yes, you're a Christian, hallelujah. But you're not in heaven yet. But the proof that you're a Christian is the war that you're involved in with yourself. That's the battle of the believer. That's proof that Jesus Christ lives inside of you by the Holy Spirit. Are you at war with all of those things that you once used to live for? 00:41 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbscom/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. 01:09 - Speaker 2 Philippians, chapter four, verses eight and nine. Finally, my brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are, just by the way, just like 1 Corinthians 13, you can put Jesus's name in here. True Jesus, noble, yep, his name goes there too. Just mm-hmm. Pure, that's him. Whatever things are lovely, yep again. Whatever things are of a good report, that's right. 01:34 If there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Verse nine the things which you learned. Paul said to them and received, received and heard and saw in me. Wow, what a witness these do, and the God of peace will be with you. In other words, God will bless obedience. Every time we choose to obey God, instead of our anger, our emotions, it ends well. 02:02 Secondly is in verse 20, and that is that coming to the end of us is that we guard against being bitter. We who are bitter. Bitterness boy, this is a big one. How do you fight and ward off bitterness? And you think about this. For example, Jesus Christ was the epitome of all that is good. 02:23 All was Was Jesus in the Bible You've read. You've read the Bible. You've read the prophecies about him. You've read many of those prophecies being fulfilled as they plucked out his beard, ripped open his back, crucified him through his hands and his feet, pierced him in the side, ripped his skin open with the Roman cat of nine tails, spit on him, put the crown of thorns on him, beat him then blindfolded him and slapped him. 02:58 Was Jesus ever once? Is there any indication that he became bitter? Never once. In fact, from the cross, what did he do, father? Forgive them. They know not what they do. I submit to you today that you and I could never have done that. Only the Holy Spirit, only Christ, only God can do that, because we would have been angry. And yet Jesus, for God's great plan of redemption of eternal life, as an offer to you to make that decision of your own, willfully and it must be by you, willfully personally he provided that path for you. 03:39 Listen, friends bitterness will destroy you. Listen, satan lies to us and he says things like this don't ever forgive them for what they did to you. You, just you don't ever let them have the satisfaction of knowing. You know what happens. You start thinking about what they did, think about it. You get up in the morning. You start thinking about what they did to you. You think about all day long what they did to you. You know what happens. 04:07 The Bible says a little root of bitterness begins to sprout up and it begins to defile you. The Bible tells us that bitterness can destroy an entire church because it spreads like a cancer Bitterness. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, starve him. That's what bitterness would do. No, feed him. You want to counter the temptation to be bitter? Feed your enemy man. 04:37 Don't miss this next part. Here, God gave you and I the ability to forgive those who have sinned against us. So we don't become bitter. The ability to forgive those who have sinned against us. So we don't become bitter. Don't believe the lie to think that you cannot forgive that person because you're not going to let them have the satisfaction of knowing that you completely flubbed it up. God gave you the ability to release that person's control over your life because you issue forgiveness to them, though you may never see them again. They might even be dead, and there's a weight that they hold over you, there's a cloud they hold over you. You know why. How can they do that? Think about it. How right is being said is you can prove it. They're dead, they're gone. Why are you angry? Why are you bitter. Why are you hurt? Because you are the one allowing them, the deceased, to still control you. Why would you do that? God gave you the ability to forgive others, even if they're dead, so that you can go free from their control. It's liberating and you won't grow bitter. There won't be that little hook, that little you know. 05:53 When you have, you can have the greatest pair of shoes, which I'm at my age now, you know, I've already got. All the greatest shoes are sold at I don't know shoe stores. But is it Nordstrom's? They sell nice stuff. Is it Nordstrom's or Aldo? Is that, as you know, what's nice? I guess, if Gucci makes shoes, do they Gucci shoes? Oh, you got to have Gucci shoes. So what? How comfortable are they? See, it's great. Being old, I don't care if it's Gucci shoes, I don't care what it is. 06:23 You know what I have found out? I have found out that Skechers are awesome, you wanna know? And they just keep getting awesomer. Here's the proof they're really gushy and stuff on your feet. It's just like, oh, this is fantastic feeling. 06:41 And then, when you thought this can't get any better, they invent the slip-in. You don't even have to bend over to put your shoes on, you just slip in instant comfort and somebody looks and says you're wearing Skechers. I go that's right, man, slip-ins, they're awesome, they're amazing, oh yeah. Well, go ahead and wear your Skechers. I'm wearing these, you know million-dollar Gucci shoes. And they walk away and their feet are hurting. I'm okay with that If that's how you want to live. 07:13 Really, do you want to live like that? I forget what the saying is in Israel, but it's a beautiful saying. But it means this the guy's got the best shoes in the world, but he's got a pebble in his shoe. How is that? You can have the best shoes in the world, but if there's a little pebble in your shoe, you're in pain. You can be the best of the best, but because you haven't given it to Jesus, you're still carrying it. You got a pebble in your heart. Don't be like that. 07:45 Colossians 3, verse 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, this is the believer, this is you. Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. You'll be free from bitterness. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15, looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up, cause trouble and by this many become defiled. And then, finally, church. It's this, it's verse 21. 08:17 When we consider, are we busted or are we broken, we need to come to the end of ourselves. Come to the end of us, we who are evil, we who are evil, and immediately there's the temptation in your mind to say something like well, speak for yourself, pastor. I'm talking about the evil that is you and the evil that is me. Let me be more specific the evil that is you, that is native to you, the evil that is me, that is native to me, every single one of us, in conjunction with all that we've talked about, have this part of us. Every day, listen. Every day, there's the old part of you that wants to take control. 09:10 Are you a Christian? Yes, you're a Christian, hallelujah. But you're not in heaven yet. But the proof that you're a Christian is the war that you're involved in with yourself. You got to admit you most often war against yourself. 09:24 Isn't that what Paul, the apostle, said in Romans, chapter seven? Paul said in Romans, chapter seven the very thing that I do not want to do, that's the thing I wind up doing. The thing that I hate is the thing that I wind up saying or doing. And then he says who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death? Notice, paul put the blame where the blame was due. Who shall deliver me from this body? See, you've been born again. If you've trusted Christ, if you believe Jesus died for you on the cross and rose again from the dead, that you're a sinner but he's the savior, you've received him into your life. You've said I'm going to walk with Jesus. Now You're new. But why the trouble? Why the problems? Oh, because the old you is still hanging around. The new you, it's the you, it's the two of you. You know, the two of you like the two of me. The two of me is this, I'll tell you. Here's the two of me. 10:24 So I told Lisa I've gained so much weight lately, I've got to knock this off. I've been eating too much bread. You know, when you're in a hurry you just throw stuff down your mouth. And traveling is terrible. It breaks up your routine. So it's like I've got to go. I've got to go this way. Oh, I'm hungry, I'll pull over and drive and so and so. No more bread, no more of that stuff, okay. So yesterday we had to. Yesterday was our appointment to walk the plank. It was our tax day. You know they call it taxes, but I think it's really tithing. It's tithing to these gods called politicians, but that's a message for some other day. 11:12 So we walked the plank, we did the thing, and so we're driving home and we saw this place and I don't know French, but it was, it was something like and we saw it, what's that? And then, in english, underneath it said, uh, bakery and cafe. And I and I had just told lisa earlier, I asked her earlier, I said you want to get some coffee? She goes yes, let's just find a coffee place. And so we didn't understand that part. But we saw the word cafe. 11:46 So we pulled in there and you can't see inside. We couldn't see inside. We opened the door and the first thing, this pastry smell hits you in the face. I'm going to tell you where the place is at some other time. I'm protecting you from yourself. We walk in and it's amazing, and right there in front when you walk in, there's these trays with these spoons for you to pick up these, and it's like, immediately I had said no more bread. And then you walk in and we're totally innocent Coffee, we're gonna get coffee. Oh, the coffee was over there. You had to go through. Look when I tell you about it and you'll go there because you're evil like me. You're gonna see how smart Satan is. He put the coffee down there and you got to go through a gauntlet of pastries and they're all European, which is the best in the world. 12:55 Americans do not know how to do pastries like Europeans. And there's the chocolate avalanche and there was the apple explosion. It was all this, like my goodness, and we're going like this, and so there's a tray, and there's a tray with this spoon that you pick things up and I'm thinking we have to blend in, and so we're just like well, this is my. You know, I'm going to try this. We actually said this to ourselves, to each other. You know why don't we try this one? And we can, because they really like that, and our granddaughter likes this, the grandsons, and then our friends, they like one of those raspberry things. We'll try that, we'll try it for them and we'll report back to them. 13:36 And we had this thing. We got our drinks, we sat down and it's like oh wow, all this. And then guess what? Oh wow, boo, all this. And then guess what? By the time we got to the car, this is what came out of our mouths. Why did we do that? What is wrong with us? And I told her I'm not eating bread anymore. I've got to tell you Listen, our flesh, there's a part of our flesh that is saying let's do this. And then there's the part that's new, that's saying we don't need that, we don't need that, sit down, we don't need that. That's the battle of the believer. That's proof that Jesus Christ lives inside of you by the Holy Spirit. Are you at war with all of those things that you once used to live for, evil? Don't think that evil is some maniac with a chainsaw and a hockey mask face. I think it's Joanna Michelson who wrote the book the Beautiful Side of Evil about witchcraft and those little things that are silly little games are demonically engineered to hook you. Wow. 14:51 Well friends, psalm 34, 18 says the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and give such as have a contrite spirit. Can you be honest enough with yourself to say to yourself you have sinned against the almighty God, you have offended God, you have broken his law and you just go down the 10 commandments? Sexually immoral, idol worshiping, having to live for things that's your identity. If this thing's out of your life, you don't know what you're gonna do with yourself, honoring others, honoring your parents, and you get convicted. That conviction, you should thank God. If you don't understand, you should thank God that the Holy Spirit is still trying to reach you by conviction. 15:54 Some people listen. Some people hear the words I'm saying right now and these scriptures that I'm saying right now and all they can think about is going to the pastry cafe store. They have no, they just don't care, they just want out of here. Then there's some of you that it's actually stabbing you in the heart and you're saying I feel like God's got a search light going on inside my soul. If that's you, that's him speaking to you and you should be very happy that you feel so bad Because he's saying I love you and I'm angry with the wicked every day, but I'm calling you out into my family. Please say yes to me. Come to me. I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to me and you should respond to me. Come to me, I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to me and you should respond to him. You should say yes to him and that's a very, very powerful truth. I leave you with this. Psalm 51 says. 16:58 By the way, I'm going to read Psalm 51. David wrote it after he got busted. By the way, I'm going to read Psalm 51. David wrote it after he got busted, after he got broken. These are the words of a man who got caught and then took his guilt before God. Are you guilty? Listen, don't say anything, just think this through. Are you getting caught right now by the Holy Spirit, though nobody knows what you're doing, and the Holy Spirit's saying fix this now. You're busted. What you do with it right now will determine if you stay busted or if you're broken. If you're broken, you'll live forever. If you're broken, you'll come to him. 17:36 And to be broken is what David shows us here in Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, o God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions. That's called confession, and my sin is always before me, against you and you only. Have I sinned and done this evil in your sight? Verse 10. Create in me a clean heart, o God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. And then, finally, psalm 147, verse 3. The psalmist writes he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. This is our God.