This Working Love

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. He's saying, fall in love with me and I will impart things to your thinking and to your heart, to your desires that please me and please you. Well, I'm going to be a Christian and I'm going to follow Jesus and it's going to be a real bummer, but you know, I'm very my cross. It's really a drag to be a Christian, but I am one and here we go and come and follow me. And no thanks. No, it's okay. Listen, that's not what he gave us. If you delight yourself in God, he will put desires in you that you want that are from him. 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 jackhibbs. We're diving in now to this working love for our first argument. In verse 14, we learn that it's having a clean conscience. Your conscience is one of the most precious things that you possess. It's not your money. It's not your youth. It's not your strength. Your conscience. Listen, if your conscience is plagued, you could go insane. Did you know that everybody? I'm not a doctor. I'm not a psychologist. I'm an observer. And the facts are what they are. People with consciences that are weary, down, burdened, and grieved by a life that they've lived in a questionable way or whatever, and their conscience is clouded at least to all kinds of other types of phobias and issues of life. And yet it's only Christianity. It's Christ that offers a clear conscience. And I want you to think about that for a moment. That's why doing all of the religious things that religion demands of you doesn't fix a thing on the inside of you. It doesn't fix you. On the Christ can fix you on the inside. And he clears your conscience of all the things of the past. Isn't that good news that you can be washed of all the memories? Maybe people don't know. Now look, everybody knows something about each of us to some degree. You might say, not me. I pretty much hid in my life down. No, no, somebody knows something. Your mom knows. Listen, mom knows things because everyone knows that once a woman becomes a mother, she grows eyes in the back of her head. How did our moms know what we were doing? Did you ever make a face that your mom when she was walking away, when she made, she had upset you, like go to your room, she turned around and walked away and you went. And she said, I see that face. Listen, if moms can see stuff like that, God can see it. But when we come to him with repentance and we say, Lord, I'm sorry for the life that I've lived for the things that I've done. God's message to us is that he came to relieve us of all the guilt and the shame and the penalty of death and hell. That's all the benefits of coming to Christ and so much more. And one of those glorious things is a conscience being cleared. And having to clean conscience, you cannot buy it. You cannot earn it. You receive it from the Lord. In verse 14 tells us beautifully, look at this verse. Paul says, and I love it. He says, I know. And I'm convinced that strong statement, right? By the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself. So what does that mean? That means Paul must have eaten pork from time to time. That's what it must mean. This is Paul the Jew. This is the Jew, the top shelf Jew. Now born again. He says right here, I know and I'm convinced. Paul, what is it? That nothing is unclean of itself. We're talking not about sin. That is unclean. We're talking about things like eating, drinking, foods, conduct in that way. Paul says, I'm convinced. It's not bad to have a pork sandwich from time to time. Caluapork. He said, Jack, I think that's very offensive. Why do you think it's offensive? Look what he says. He says that nothing is unclean of itself, but to him who considers anything to be unclean to him at his unclean. If you listen, Paul is saying, look, God made it all. I'll eat it. If I'm hungry, I'll eat it. See Paul, but you're a Jew. Yes, I am a Jew and I'm a real Jew now. I'm that Jesus as Messiah. That makes me super Jew. I know who he is and God has made everything. Look, this is amazing. You might say, that's pretty much like me. Really it is. I am not matured to that level because I have actually seen some of you. We've gone out to dinner and you, right in front of me, ordered calamari. You know what that is? Listen, they bring something to the plate. I'm to the table on a plate and it has suction cups on it and people eat and they go, oh, it's so good. You ought to try it and you want it. And they're chewing this thing like it's rubber. Are you saying, Jack, are you offended by that? I'm just sick and buy it. It may not be offended. If you want to eat it, you know, if you got clearance between you and God to eat that thing, that's your business. I'm not judging your brother. I'm just saying this. Why? God, why? God put it at the bottom of the ocean so you wouldn't get to it. You swim down to get it and you bring it up and it looks like it's from outer space and somebody says, let's eat it. That's wrong. But I'm a babe in Christ. You'll have to handle with my weakness where why don't you just eat stuff that God put that walks around on earth. But of course, I'm kidding with you sort of. Paul says, it's not unclean. God gave it. You can eat that. You can have that. But the point is your conscience. Are you cleared in your conscience in this area? And if he's just talking about food things, what about other things that we're not going to bring up in this room right now, that somebody would require you to violate your conscience. Question, are they a Christian? That's requesting you to violate your conscience. It ought not to happen. Christians do not cause other Christians to violate their conscience for this very truth. And the second thing is, as I mentioned last week, even in the world around us, the world itself can say, you must do this thing. And according to the Bible, if it's against your conscience, you're not to do it. Think of that. Your conscience is so precious. And I want to read to you something by the great Albert Barnes. I love this guy. I read a lot of Albert Barnes. And by the way, you know what? He's wonderful to read. He was an American pastor, by the way, who was absolutely committed to abolishing slavery. Not great. I love that. And you, it's great also about reading old guys that are dead. They can't change their mind. So they're safe to read. He says, a clear conscience is often understood as the inner sense of right and wrong. Aligning one's behavior and intentions with moral and divine standards. There is a consistent thread throughout scripture that shows conscience is a God-given faculty. This is very smart. This is very, very insightful. This observable reality of man's struggle with what is right and wrong is one of the most powerful evidences of man having been created by the ultimate morality, which has got himself. Can you say him into that? That's an awesome statement. You can use that today. And he said it so long ago. Why? Because it's eternal truth. And every one of us has a conscience. And God wants your conscience to be cleared. I want to remind you, the Bible wants you free from a dark conscience. Is the God of the Bible good or what? He wants you to be set free from all of that. The Bible tells us in Romans 12, verse 4, for as we have many members, look in this room right now. Every single one of you is a member of one body, this gathering together. Let's just call second service, church. Singular church made up of all of you, these people right here. And this is, but all the members do not have the same function. Verse 5, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and that beautiful and individually members of one another. What a tremendous thing. Watch me. Watch my body. Look, I'm moving. Look, I'm walking sideways. Watch my hands. I'm going to move over here now. You want to know how that just happened? Think of it. A lot of stuff went on just now for me to do this. My brain was moving and thinking stuff. My brain was sending signals to my nervous system, my neurological system, speaking to the muscles and the sinew of my body, the bones, all of this moving to apparatus from one side to the other side, this bio machine that God has given us. And it all happens literally at the origin of something that is invisible, my soul, my spirit, my conscience. Think about that. What you think and what you do and how you live is not pre-programmed. It's the decision that you make. It's the choices that you make. And our bodies will move based upon how it's being led. And how about this? The body of Christ in this room should be led by the mind of Christ right now so that you and I live out as members, individual members of one body. So I've got elbow, I have fingers. We're like that. We are all different parts. Can I say this without having you freak out? If we are to be members of one body and that we are to be the church, all of a sudden it doesn't matter if you belong to a church of 10 people or a church of 10,000 people, the truth is still the same and it is this. If you're a member of the body of Christ, not a member of this church, forget that. That's irrelevant. If you're a member of the body of Christ, it means that you're a child of God and if you're a child of God, it means that you have a function. My question to you, don't answer. My question to you is if you're saying yes, I am a child of God, then my next question to you is the proof of that will be your function. Who are you and what are you in the body of Christ? Does it make sense? Look, give an elbow, you know what it does, give knees, you have ankles, you have eyes, they all have a function. So the Lord would say to us, challenge us individually, what's your function? So how do I know? Here's a test. If you can not go to church for a month and nobody misses you, you don't have a function. You say, well, that kind of stings. I know it stings. It's the point. I'll give you an example. Don't you love these parking lot servants that are out there? These ministers of parking. Yeah, you know, dangerous it is to be those guys out there, those guys and girls. And you should hear the things they hear because not everybody who comes here is a Christian. If you know what I mean. But I have over the years come to trust these guys out there. So for example, for me to go home, I've got to go out this west exit over by LA Fitness. And that's a busy street. And I don't even look at the traffic anymore. I just look at the guy and the guy's going like this. And I mean, he's like, like the New York and I'm just looking at him because if you don't, if you don't obey him because there's two lanes and he'll look at you and he'll put down his finger like this, meaning you in this lane and it's translation. Stay in this lane. If you go on the other lane, it's not going to be good for you. So he's going like this and he goes like this and I go like that. And and I don't even look, I trust him. I don't even look to see. I'm just watching him. And he points and I go thinking of the power that he has or that she has. And they're guiding and they're they're serving. And then listen, you might say, well, I don't know what I function is because all I do is pray for the church. That's all I can do is pray you to the front of the line. If you are praying for this church and for this work and what God is doing, you go to the front of the line because we can't breathe without you praying. We cannot breathe. We can't function without you serving. But you must ask yourself, whatever church you attend, maybe you're visiting, wherever you're going to go back home to, you got to ask yourself, what is my function in the church that I go to? Do they need me? Because guess what? We need each other. And that's not a theory. Where's your kids right now? People, where's your kids? Are they in children's ministry? You know why they're over there? It's not because you're tired of them. That's not the reason. It's possible. But that's not the reason. The reason that they're over there is because they're with people. Because you know, if our people decided to leave, your kid would find you. When they got hungry enough, they would find you. But your children are being served by people who have opened themselves up to serving. And that's the whole body of Christ Jesus, is that we minister and love one another. And the more that we do that in the name of Jesus for the glory of Jesus, listen, we decrease. And I like to think of it this way, our problems and our centrality decreases and we become happier people while you, on the other hand, we increase you because you are the object of our love for Jesus. How are we going to wash Jesus feet today by loving on you? It's that simple. But we need to make sure that that happens and the beautiful thing about that is it brings about the second point and that is having the right priority. The right priority in church life is in verse 15, for if your brother is grieved because of your food, that is you insist that it has to be your way, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one whom Christ died for this person Christ died. And so this is a whole thing about us growing up into the area of being one of priority that our brother and sister matters more in our lives than we matter in our lives. You see, Jack, how can you say that because we are programmed to love ourselves? It is true, we are programmed to love ourselves. The Bible says this, the Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and he says, husband, love your wife. Treat your wife good. If you love yourself, love your wife. Isn't that a, that's a true, stay and think about that. If you really think, you know, if you want to take care of yourself, love your wife. The women, you should have said amen right then, it was your moment. Husbands, be really good to your wives and it'll be good for you. Yes, oh, priority, others first. And that's one of the great indicators, are we really Christians? Do we love others? Even a stranger. How is that possible? Listen, before you meet Jesus, when you hear him say, love strangers, love your enemies, it's like, cuckoo, let's be honest, that's crazy talk until you become a Christian. And then somehow God gives you compassion for that person who has ruined your life, that person who is just disgusting to you. Every Monday, you have to show up and work with them all week long and they're driving you crazy. And then you become a Christian on Sunday and then you go back to that person on Monday and you have this supernatural thing in your heart going on where, why do I care about that guy now? You used to drive me nuts and now I care about him. Folks, I'm telling you, that's one of the evidences of God's presence in your life. It's amazing. And I love when God does that kind of stuff because we're the ones most shocked. He's remarkable, but it's all about priority and the right priority at that. I made this comment in my notes. If you do have the notes downloaded on your device on page three, it says we live in the most perfected age of carnality. We have modernized sin and rebellion against God. Have we not in this world that we're in right now? We have perfected carnality. We've perfected sin. And sometimes we say things like this, well, you know what? I'm going to do this if my brothers offended or not. I've got liberty in Christ to do it. Friend, you're being carnal. You're not to exploit your liberties in Christ at the expense of your brother's conscience. The priority is your brother. The priority is your sister. And we must remember that this is a very powerful thing that you and I as believers and I'm going to warn you at front. This is where it gets a little strong here right now because if we fix our eyes and affection upon Jesus, we'll quickly see him elevated to his right place of honor in the church. Convinced of that, the book of Colossians tells us that he is the head of the church. You got to wonder how many headless churches are there in America today? For Christ does not glorify. He's not obeyed. He's not honored. God wants us to dwell together in unity. He says how precious, how beautiful it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. You guys are smart. The qualifier is brethren. God does not and is not committed to unity. It's a byproduct of truth. To be unified around the truth is how God executes the ministry. He doesn't have people come together in unity for unity sake. That's insanity. That's impossible. But when we are gathered together in the same truth, then there's unity. This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. 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