Will You Please Come With Me?

0:00 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast, with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. Darkness cannot hide from God. You need to meditate on that for a while. I'm just doing my little dark thing, and my little dark space, and my little dark part of my life. And God's got a, God's got a beam on it. And he's going, I see you! I see you! 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.

0:42 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. And so when we look at this message titled, Will You Please Come With Me? The Apostle is drafting... the love, the care, the concern of the Roman believers. And if he wrote to them, drafting their love and support, there's no doubt that as he writes this book from Corinth, Greece, that he would be drafting their love and support as well. It doesn't say it here in the book of Romans, but he probably, while he was in Greece, before he headed off to Jerusalem and then over to Rome, that he would have said to the Corinthian believers...

1:30 Let's do this. Come with me on this mission. And this is one of the greatest passions and the driving forces of the believer today is that God has deployed you and I to this exact same mission to fulfill and that is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and to be salt and light in this world and to love him. And to experience him. Will you please come with me? Why? As we continue on together. He is saying to the believers, I am going to go eventually to Rome. But all along the way, I'm inviting you to come.

2:11 Please write this down. Scan the QR code for your own notes. Confident enough to be transparent. Paul the Apostle gets very personal here with this. This is Paul the Apostle. With all due respect, this is not Paul the priest. Paul the Apostle. This is not Paul the pastor. This is not Paul the pope. This is not Paul the fill in the blank. This is Paul the apostle, a man that had been captured and possessed by Christ and the Holy Spirit and made a servant of the most high God. Paul would say, I'm a slave of Jesus. That makes him greater than all the kings, in my opinion, and all the leaders that the world has ever seen.

2:53 To be a slave of Jesus... trumps all things that this world can offer you. And I love how transparent the man is. He's not distant, he's not aloof, he's not removed. He's not so much the apostle that he travels in a long entourage or motorcade of black donkeys with tinted windows. He's Paul the apostle, he's Paul the servant. He's Paul, the lover of the souls of men. And would to God that all of us, starting with me, would love the souls of lost men and women.

3:36 When was the last time you wept over someone's soul? The Bible tells us that Paul often wept. This great man of God says in verse 30, now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, I am calling upon you, To come with me. I'm invoking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you. I'm begging you. And these few words are packed with power. He uses the word. Beg. He begs them. Beg.

4:16 And then this is confidence. Watch this. Look at the meaning of this word. You're going to recognize it actually. Parakaleo. You've seen this word many times before. Parakaleo is one of the words used to describe the Holy Spirit. The parakaleo. The one to come alongside you and be your comforter. To come alongside you. The point is to come alongside. To be your guide. Your comforter. Your compass. Listen to what he says. I'm begging you. I'm asking you. The word is to call out to you, to appeal to you, to encourage with great passion and intensity, to entreat, to invite.

4:57 Do you see why I'm talking about him being transparent? The word also has been translated to preach. He is preaching to them saying, will you come with me? He's not asking them to actually come with him. He's not asking them to make more room for, so that all these people can join. He's talking about in spirit. Now look, this verse just comes to my mind right now, so you might want to write it down and look it up later and see how wrong I am. Colossians 2, verse 5, goes something like this. Colossians 2, verse 5, says this. That though we be absent from one another in flesh, yet we are one in spirit, Think that through for a moment.

5:49 So we met some sweet people from Idaho. Where are you from? Doesn't matter. What's the furthest representation today of where you're from in the world? If you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, we may be absent in the flesh. I may not be able to see you and you may not be able to see me, but we are one. in spirit. That's God's business. That's what God does. Why? Because the mission is so precious, and he's saying that. He's so transparent that he's saying this. He's not too proud to say, well, I got this. Don't worry about it. No, no, no. No, he's not proud.

6:29 He's saying, I need you to come with me in spirit and through. That word through in the Greek is through the agency of, through the opening of, or the authority of, through the door or opened authority, signifying the way into, what is one of Jesus' names? Yeah, the way, but he is the door. The door. And so he's saying, now I beg you, brethren, through, you see this, through who? the Lord Jesus Christ.

7:12 This is the door Jesus has opened. Paul is being obedient. He's following. I want to read this to you. It's something that you guys already have on your notes. In a remarkable display of humility, Paul makes it undeniably clear that he is not leaning upon his own resources or his own strength to accomplish the task before him. I love that. He is not trusting in his education and his previous lifelong achievements. He's not trusting in his education and his previous lifelong achievements. He's not looking to past miracles or past glories to ensure his future ministry. That's very wise. Don't look to the past and think you're okay regarding the future unless you grow.

7:55 Paul is laying himself out before the Roman believers, and he is pleading with them. Will you help me through the Lord Jesus Christ, is what he's saying. The picture that Paul paints here is a man walking through a door or a veil. Paul is saying, I beg you, come over to this side with me in spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? Come over here. I'm going, come on over. But he's asking them in a very, listen, listen, He's asking them not to physically come. He's asking them come via prayer. Prayer. He says right there in verse 30, and through, there it is, and through, and going through the veil to know the love of the Spirit.

8:44 This is a beautiful statement. Some people are afraid of the Holy Spirit. Why would you do that? Maybe because you went to a crazy church You know, oh, hey, sorry, but the Spirit of God took over. No, he doesn't do that. He's a gentleman. The Bible says he will never speak of himself. Did you know that? The Bible says the Holy Spirit will never draw attention to himself, but will exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus said. The Holy Spirit loves you. The Holy Spirit is God. God the Holy Spirit. And Paul doesn't even flinch. To say the love of the Spirit.

9:29 Play along for a moment. How many of you are born-again Christians? Raise your hands. Put your hands down. You know who's inside of you? The Holy Spirit. A couple of you said Jesus. Now, that's okay, but you should be over in the other room with the children's ministry. No, no, you're all correct. You're all correct. It's actually correct. It's all true. It's all true. Because if you ask the kids in the other buildings across the way, where's Jesus? They'll go like this. And that's cute. But the technical answer is Jesus Christ dwells within you by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

10:10 Jesus said, I will not be with you always. I've got to go. But when I leave, I will send the Comforter to you and he will be with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot see because it seeth them not, nor knoweth them. But... I send him to you. He has been with you and shall be in you, Jesus said. Wow. Colossians, get ready. Write some verses down. Oh, that's introduction. Here we go. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12. Now concerning spiritual gifts, the actual Greek word is now concerning spirituals. It's a single word. Some of your Bibles might say concerning spiritual matters. Doesn't matter.

10:51 Brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols. Dumb, he's not being mean. Dumb meaning they can't hear or speak. He's not being like rude. He's not having a bad day. However, you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. That means to deliver. deny or to speak out against the deity of Christ. Nobody can do that by the Holy Spirit. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Listen, that doesn't mean if somebody says Jesus is Lord that they're automatically saved.

11:33 It means this. They can't say that he's Lord and mean it. There are a lot of people who will say Jesus is Lord, but they also believe that other things or people are Lords also in this incapacity. Some religions hold Jesus as a great teacher. Watch out for religions who say, he's a great teacher. He was a great prophet. That's deception. Watch out. Well, wasn't he a prophet? Yeah, he prophesied. Wasn't he a great teacher? He was the best teacher. But if you leave it at that, you never get to him being the Lord, the God, the second person of the Trinity.

12:16 God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit exalts, as I said, Jesus. allow me to read this to you. It's what I just semi-tried to quote a moment ago. It's in the Old King James. When I got saved at Costa Mesa, when we were all at Calvary Costa Mesa, Chuck taught for years out of the Old King James. So sometimes I misquote scriptures because in my brain, I've got Old King James and New King James all bundled up in here. If I had it my way, we'd all speak Queen's English. I just love that. I think I was born too late in life.

12:56 But John chapter 14, Jesus said, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter. Pericletos. the one who comes alongside you, that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Punchline, verse 18, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Some versions of the Bible says, verse 18, I will not leave you orphaned, I will come to you. He does that by the Holy Spirit.

13:38 Psalm. You guys okay? Psalm chapter 139. Psalm 139. We all love this Psalm. I tell you what, you guys. David, King David, two people, in my opinion, this is just my opinion, two people in the Old Testament had New Testament relationships with God. Did you hear what I said? Two people in the Old Testament had New Testament relationships with God. Abraham, and David. Go search and see. How was Abraham justified? By keeping the law?

14:23 Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham, Moses hadn't even been born yet. There were no 10 commandments. Abraham was declared righteous by God and Abraham had not even yet been circumcised. David? David, you mean the adulterer? Yeah, that David. You mean David the murderer? You mean David the crummy father? Yeah. David whose life had extreme highs and horrific lows? Yeah, that guy. Does that guy's life not embody the human experience.

15:08 And did God forgive him when he repented? Key word, repented. This is what he says. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down. And you're acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it.

15:48 I'm sorry, but he's explaining our passion as believers. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, just ask Jonah. Even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall uphold me. If I say surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you. I like that. Darkness cannot hide from God.

16:31 Oh, you need to meditate on that for a while. Oh, I'm just doing my little dark thing and my little dark space and my little dark part of my life. And God's got a beam on it. And he's going, I see you. In our family, leave the verse up. In our family, it's... Somebody like, listen, you know, we're living life. People are running around the house. It's life, it's like your home. And somebody says something like, oh, who left the door open? Oh, your dad. Your dad always leaves the door open and he's always in. And I'll say, I can hear you.

17:12 Who brought the mud in on the floor? It's all over the place. What, which one of you nincompoops did that? Dad did that. And then from the back room, I can hear you. Right now you may be saying, oh, I've got my life and nobody knows, so I got a little secret life. We were talking to somebody just very recently where this man claimed to be a Christian. He had his family over here in that part of the county and he had another family on the other part of the county. And I know you'll go to hell for that. I just think you should go to jail before you go to hell for that.

17:54 Verse 13, for you formed my inward parts and you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Science backs that up. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lower parts of the earth. That's a reference to the womb. Your eyes saw my substance. Listen, being yet unformed. What? That means God had a schematic. In his mind, he had blueprints for your life. Friends, listen.

18:38 Anybody pregnant? Anybody thinking about getting pregnant? Somebody might find out they're pregnant tomorrow. Listen, it's not an accident, you know. Oops. No, no whoops. No whoops. Pure science, pure God. And God says, I'm in there. I have a blueprint for humanity. This is how it works. It's amazing. Now look, you say, Jack, you're being silly. Am I now? That's the definition of DNA. You say, well, I don't like my freckle over here, and I don't like the way my eyebrows are, and I don't like the way that my nose.

19:23 Yeah, well, that's the way you were written up. And if something's wrong, he'll fix it in the resurrection. I'm sure of it. No one's going to walk around in heaven saying, it's awesome to be here and you guys are all so beautiful, but my nose. If God can raise you from the dead, he can give you a new nose. He says, how precious also are your thoughts to me. Listen, people. God's thoughts toward you are precious. Oh God, notice.

20:03 Oh God, he knows the Lord. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. And when I awake, this is the miracle. When I awake, I'm still with you. I'm still with you, he says. You could say, when I awake, you're still with me. Same is true. When I wake up, I'm with you. 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?

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