Walking & Talking All The Way To Heaven

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 You want to have a changed life, obey what God's Word says. All of us have a past. Recognize it and then tell yourself this I'm now in Christ. My past has no power over me anymore. If I keep thinking thoughts about my past, I need to bring my thoughts under the captivity of Christ. God either saves me sovereignly of his own works, by his power, or I'm not saved at all. 00:38 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com/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. 01:07 - Speaker 2 There's a real problem in our perception or understanding of what is a follower of Jesus Christ in the day and the age in which we live in, and I want you to know it's not a stretch for us to understand that it's God's will that you and I walk in such a way and talk in such a way that we have the opportunity to show the world that we are really followers of Jesus. And if that's the truth, then we will be attractive to people. People will want to know who's your God and what makes you tick. What are you living for? You seem to be kind of shielded from the strangeness of this world. What's with you? You seem to have peace in the midst of a storm, and God will open up those doors because that's where Jesus is walking and if we're walking with him and if we're talking with him, great things will happen. I expect it Because we're walking and talking en route to heaven. We are to be the people that we are now in Christ. 02:08 You want to ask yourself that question in point number one. So be who you are now. That immediately demands this question of us, for all of us to ask this of ourselves how do you know that you're a believer? Is it a tradition? Were your parents believers? Is it because what your wife's a believer or your husband is? What is the reason as to why you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? I promise you this it cannot be handed down genetically. It's not handed down by association. You don't go into heaven, so to speak, or into the family of God on the coattails of your grandparents or your father or your mother. It's a willful decision that you make and that is lived out in the Lordship of Jesus Christ over your life and when you've made a decision for Christ. I love this first point because be the person that God has made you to be now, because we once lived who we once were, and that didn't work. Remember our BC days? In our last service together, we learned about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So think of it this way God is saying to you right now, as a believer, no matter who you are. Imagine on your back there's a big, silver, beautiful key. You know the key that you turn those kind of keys like a little robot kind of guy or marching. Think about a big key on your back and God is winding you up now that you're his child and he wants to let you go. It's God's will that he let you go in this world and that you be out and about your father's business. That's the life you're to be living and he's equipped you, he's empowered you to do that, and I think we should start celebrating the person that Christ has died for on the cross and has given us to be as a believer. I tell you what it is sure deal with your past. It'd deal with my past. 04:02 Number one thing about growing up is to keep looking forward. It's vitally important, and so Romans 12, verse 9 says let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. There's three exhortations here Let, the word let, the word abhor and the word cling. The word let is to unleash it, it's to open the gates. Imagine if there's a lion inside of a cage and somebody hands you the key and says now you go, you let that lion go. I think you should be careful about that. Why would you be careful? Because it's a lion. Well, listen when the Bible says let love. Can I put it this way Let love go, let it out. 04:48 When God's love goes out of your life, the world will change you think about if people got serious about Christianity and following Jesus, if we started to love people, just this service alone. Imagine if it happened all across the United States and in Canada and Mexico, south America and Europe and Asia and the Orient, all across the United States and in Canada and Mexico, south America and Europe and Asia and the Orient, that Christians began to boldly love other people. Imagine it could happen. Think about it. If Apple can sell computers and phones in one moment because of the internet or whatever it might be, don't you think the Holy Spirit can move faster than that? God touches his people and people decide to start loving on other people, the world could change. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that we're gonna usher in this age of all that stuff. We know that our love is going to look brighter as the world gets darker. This world is heading headlong towards hell. People, things are not going to get better. Things are going to get worse on the grand scale of God's plan. 05:47 Having said that, all along the way, your love for God will mitigate the pain of others, and certainly of those of the church family. And so when he says to us let love be without hypocrisy. I want to read this to you. This is the reason this is listen, this is the who we are. This is what we're to do about it, and this is the why In 2 Corinthians 5, you know it well, verse 17, it starts out this way Therefore, if anyone is in Christ if you're taking notes today, you should circle the two words in Christ. 06:19 This is key language. I like to call it Christian code. Don't tell me that you're born again. Don't tell me that you're a Christian. Don't tell me that you go to whatever church, I don't care. Only those who know the truth know that that experience is what's known as being in Christ. Do you know that? The answer is do you love God? Yes. Do you follow God? Yes. Are you trying to figure out if I'm a believer or not? Yes, I'm in Christ. I want you to start thinking that way, because it's not the way the world thinks. 06:53 Everybody believes in God. You got to ask them God, who? But only the believer is going to know. The answer that I'm in Christ. You're in Christ if you've made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. 07:05 So if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ that's not all Watch and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That means we've got the power to get people to make up. That is that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. That means true believers will do everything they can to get things worked out rightly, biblically, verse 20,. 07:42 Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. But it all begins knowing that you are a new creation in Christ Brand new. You've been made new On the inside out, and the Bible says to leave those things that are behind. Let them pass away. 08:04 And listen. I'm going to say this. It's going to upset some people, but this is the deal. The Bible needs no support. The Bible needs no additions or edits. You want to have a changed life. Obey what God's word says. All of us have a past. Recognize it and then tell yourself this I'm now in Christ. My past has no power over me anymore. If I keep thinking thoughts about my past, I need to bring my thoughts under the captivity of Christ. God either saves me sovereignly of his own works, by his power, or I'm not saved at all, but he is powerful enough. Well, you need to take the seven-step course. Just sign up, pay the fee and you'll get healed. 08:52 What did the world do for the last couple of thousand years without that website? Are you hearing me? We live in an age that has neutered the power of God's word. The Bible has the power itself. Well, you just can't speak the Bible like that and expect it to happen. I tell you what you want to live like that. You go ahead and live like that. I refuse to live like that. 09:15 When God says something in his word, his love speaks to me and says Jack yes, or Jack no, or Jack wait. But he speaks and he leads and he guides, because he's alive and he's real and I want you to be excited about that, because that's who you get to be now, because Christ is in you. The Bible says he's the hope of glory and that's who we're walking with. It's not a fairy tale, it's not a game, and I wrote some things down. They're in my notes, but you'll see them, so let's just look at them together. 09:44 There's these lists that made me think we were the lost who have been found, are we not? We were lost, but now he found us. We were the orphans, who are now sons and daughters of God. Listen, we were the enslaved. We are now the redeemed. We were the world who are now the church. We were the darkness. The Bible says we are now the lights of the world. Jesus said that. He said you are the light of the world if Christ is in you. 10:13 And all of this is important to us because of this profound truth and this fact is found right there at verse nine, and it says let love be without hypocrisy. This is the famous, of course, the word agape, the love of God. This is listen, cheer up. This is God's love inside of you that God places in you. That's to be lived out of you. Only the believer can do it. Watch this stings. 10:39 A religionist has to fake it. Someone who is moral? They have to fake it. Somebody who doesn't have the love of God? You have to fake it. What does fake it mean? Fake it looks like this I love you. Yeah, I love you too. I love you, and on the inside you're saying oh, this person drives me crazy, I can't stand it. 11:00 It's spoken but it's never followed through. Are you hearing me? It's said but it's not done. God will have nothing to do with that, folks. God is not one who talks and then doesn't expect anything to happen. When God speaks, he expects not only results, but when he speaks, his word brings about results. And God knows that we are as dust and we are weak. That's why the Holy Spirit moves inside of the true believer, and it's the Spirit of God who is. The love of God emanates out from us, and so this is so vitally important. Mark it down, please. You and I now are lovers of God. Now we are, we're lovers of God. 11:43 It says let love be without hypocrisy. It means open up that cage, let that lion out. In this case, it's love. Start doing it. So what do we begin? Start doing it. When God prompts your heart, believer I'm speaking just to the believer when God prompts your heart to do an act of love, do it, because he's the one that's calling you. Do it. Watch how thrilling it is to obey God. He'll blow your mind, but he says let it be without hypocrisy. 12:11 The word hypocrisy here is the Greek word that, among other things, unfeigned genuine. If it's without hypocrisy, it's sincere. You know what sincere means. By the way, sincere means without wax. I don't know if you know that or not. You sign all your letters sincerely, fred. Well, the word sincere you may or may not know, means without wax. You say why do I sign my letters like that? Then? Because it's an ancient, ancient, old world announcement that my statement or my love or my commitment or my word that I just gave you is without hypocrisy. It means that there's no wax in what was given. It was all real, this was real. It's not gonna melt under the heat of scrutiny. Thus you sign it without wax. It means you signed it because you meant it. God says this. He says let your love be given to others in such a way that it's authentic. 13:10 And look, the word means being one face, as opposed to being two-faced, literally Hypocrite, opposed to being two-faced, literally Hypocrite. The face of the theater in Hollywood, the screen actors guild, is none other than one happy face and one sad face. That's the hypocrite. The two-faced individual is the actor, which is amazing to me. They're actors in Hollywood and they do movies. Actors in Hollywood and they do movies? What is their talent Acting? How do you know if they're telling you the truth, ever when they're out of character? You hope. But who are they? For example, all these actors that are very famous? We think we know them. We don't know them. We know them through the lens of Hollywood, but according to their own profession, they are hypocrites. They work and live in a world of being two-faced. 14:08 A politician is famous for being two-faced, but you don't have to be an actor or a politician to be two-faced. All you have to be is someone who is insincere. Politician to be two-faced, all you have to be is someone who is insincere and your love is not real. You want to talk about real love. Everybody wants you know. Remember, tina Turner said what's love got to do with it? Poor thing, it has everything to do with it. Nobody told her. I guess I don't know. 14:33 First Corinthians, chapter 13. You knew I was going here. I could feel it in your mind. What is love? What is love? Paul says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. Wow, so charismatic. But have not love. I've become a sounding brass, or like a clanging cymbal. It's like can you like shut your mouth. It's hurting me. You're doing all of these things that are thrilling, but your life is loveless. Can you not make any more noise? And I've become as a clanging cymbal. 15:15 He says, and though verse two, I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. By the way, you can remove the word love and put in Jesus. If I have not Jesus, I'm nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. Oh, my goodness, so many people give stuff away in their benevolent acts, thinking that God was so impressed by their act caught on video, that God saw it on YouTube and he's going to make sure that they go to heaven. 15:50 No, we should help those that are in need. We don't get brownie points for helping people that are in need. You know that we're supposed to do this. It's like the guy I mean. This has really happened in marriage counseling. You sit down with a couple and you're trying to figure out what's going on and you say you know, do you have anything to say for yourself, sir? Well, I've never cheated on her. Do you think I pull out like a little happy face for that Great answer. You get a star for that. You don't get a star for that. You're not supposed to cheat on her. 16:30 When the Bible tells us this about love, we are to live this love out. It's not to be spoken about, it's to be walked out. If I could put it that way, verse 3 says and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love, in fact. Insert Jesus again where you see the word love. Let's just read it that way. 16:56 Jesus suffers long. Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy. Jesus does not parade himself. Jesus is not puffed up. Jesus does not behave rudely. Jesus does not seek his own. Jesus is not provoked. Jesus thinks no evil. Jesus does not rejoice in iniquity, but Jesus does rejoice in the truth. 17:22 Jesus bears all things. Jesus believes all things, hopes all things. Jesus endures all things. Jesus never fails. That's who he is. That's the love of God. This is the supernatural agape that God says is available for you and I to love other people, and we've got to recognize that today, that, as a Christian, God wants to flow his love out of our lives. You need to remember that we are lovers of God now, and because we're lovers of God, we will love the things that God loves, and that's great liberation. God loves and that's great liberation. 18:04 In John 13, 35, Jesus says but this by this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Powerful, powerful truth. Romans, chapter five, verse five. Now, hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out Notice this, it's past tense Been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given for us. 1 John 3.18,. 18:25 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before God. What does that mean? It means that can I look at my life? Can others look at my life and judge me? You know the Bible says we're to judge ourselves. Did you know that the Bible says if we judge ourselves according to the scripture, in the end we will not be judged by God. Why? Because the scriptures and the Lord is one of the same. 18:58 Can you imagine showing up before the Lord Jesus, and he says welcome, come on in, don't you want to talk to me? Nope, it's all good. I mean, aren't I in trouble? No, all the trouble you caught in the word of God in your life. When you lived it. You got convicted about this. You heard my Holy Spirit speaking to me. You went to the word. You saw what you did wrong. You asked me to forgive you in Jesus name. My father forgave you because I asked him to. And come on in Swing set merry, go round, go for it Whatever heaven's going to have go fishing? 19:31 I don't know. But listen, judge yourself. Now and even today. The Bible tells us to examine ourselves to determine whether we are in the faith or not. Is my faith real? There's only one way to tell Does God's love come out of you? You see, it's not what we're doing. I'm not going to go to heaven because I pastor the church. That's probably a detriment. The Bible says in the book of James that those who teach the word of God will be judged more stricter than the day of judgment. That's terrifying. It's going to be love. Lord, I need you to live your love out and through my life. 20:16 - Speaker 1 This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. 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