Wanted: Dead And Alive

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. When your flesh is dead to the demands of this world, it means that we're no longer held by the temptations of this world. So God works in the life of the believer by the Holy Spirit and what happens to us is that we're able to say no to that temptation that would lead us into destruction. 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. God wants you, the old person, watch to be dead to your old self, that the believer deals with every day. Every day I get up. The old Jack says, hey, I got an idea. It's always a bad idea. I've got to tell the old Jack, we're not doing that. God's word says this and we're not going to do that. And so that's the part of living and being dead. I got to make sure that guy stays down. The Bible says, Jesus said that you need to take up your cross and follow me, which means that as we follow him alive, we are to be on the cross dead. But in this life, we can see ourselves carrying the cross and the old Jack is on it, but the old Jack keeps yelling at the Jack that's carrying the cross. But it's also true that you and I positionally as believers. You see, we're alive now. When you and I were born into this world on our birthday, according to the Bible, we were born dead. Did you know that? You say, how can that be true? I'm listening to you right now. I'm alive. You are physically alive. And your soul is alive. But the Bible says that man without Christ is spiritually dead. Think about that for a moment. God told Adam and Eve, the day that you eat of the fruit, you will die. And the day that they ate of the fruit, there was no way that you and I could have visibly, as far as we know, distinguished if they were dead. They didn't look dead. They lived for 900 plus years after that before they died. But he said, in the day that you eat of the fruit, you'll die. What happened? Who died? What died? The real Adam died. The real Eve died in that moment. Think of that. Who you and I are right now, the part that we're looking at. You're looking at me on this screen right now. And the truth of the matter is, if you really want to get down to it, you are looking at a bio-machine, the human machine of who I am. You cannot see my soul. You cannot see my spirit. However, nothing about my physical body can do anything in and of itself. I am being animated by the person that's within me. That ought to kind of freak you out for a moment because we get so fixated on, you know, whatever. This is just a shell that is used by our spirit and soul to communicate what's inside of us. If we filet you wide open and pull all your parts out, we will never find a personality section. There is the spleen. There is the liver. Where's this personality? You'd never find it. We should pass through. It's up in the brain. Really now. Well, let's open up your head and you look inside the brain. You don't find a personality part. The Bible tells us that when God created Adam, He created it out of the dirt of the earth, the dirt. And by the way, go look at yourself under a microscope. You're still dirt. We're still dirt. We were made of dirt. And Adam's body was there. Could you talk to Adam? Well, I guess you could talk to Adam. Would he say anything back? Nope. You could poke him. Nothing would happen. There was no pulse until what happened. CPR, huh? God leaned over and it says that God breathed in the breath of the nostrils of Adam life. Can you imagine when his lungs filled for the first moment, it was the breath of God. And mankind has had that existence ever since. Check this out. God created Adam out of dirt, but inserted within him the breath of God. And that is why man is created in the image of God. Man dreams. Man thinks. Man creates. Man invents. And it's quite remarkable. But we need to remember that as we get into this. Romans 6 verse 6 tells us knowing this that our old man was crucified with him. He's talking to believers. The old Jack was crucified with Jesus according to the plan of God that the body of sin might be done away with. My body is not supposed to control my life. If it does, I'm enslaved to my body. I can't tell my body to sit down or to withhold this from my body. My body might be screaming. And if, listen, without Christ, your body screams and demands things and you have no power to withhold from its demands. When lust appears, we go after it. If temper flares, we fulfill it. And it's going to continue that way unless we understand that a life with Jesus Christ causes us to have control over the old man. You see, I thought he was dead. He's dead, but he comes back every day. Sometimes multiple times in a day. And you've got to tell him where to go. That we should no longer be slaves of sin. Verse 7, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Is that not true? That's amazing. God wants you to look at your life Christian this way. Verse 7, for he who has died has been freed from sin. A dead person, you could go to Baskin Robbins and pass all of the flavors in front of a dead guy. Which one's he going to pick? What's his favorite number? None. He's dead. True story, a guy drove, a guy died. He was supposed to be buried in, he wanted to be buried in LA. The guy died in Texas. His friend put him in a convertible car, set him up, put a cowboy hat on him, and drove him to LA. Dead guy. And the guy even got pulled over by a cop and the cop never figured out. And it was a Cadillac convertible. The guy, the cop thought the guy was sleeping. The guy was dead. Can you imagine? Listen, when your flesh is dead to the demands of this world, it means that we're no longer held by the temptations of this world. So God works in the life of the believer by the Holy Spirit. And what happens to us is that we're able to say no to that temptation that would lead us into destruction. I don't want to get ugly or mean about this stuff, but listen, we need to grow up. Amen. When people say, oh man, I love Jesus, but I just keep going back to this mud hole. No, stop it. Just stop it. You keep going back to the mud hole because you love the mud hole more than you love Jesus. Just be honest and say it. Well, I love going, but I just can't stop looking at porn. Oh, I have the answer for you. Stop talking about God because you love porn more than you love God. You love that more than you fear. The heart of God. Well, I don't know what happens, but this is every time it's because you love that thing more than God. You need to understand that he died on the cross that we can put the death of things that lead us into total destruction. And the danger about evil is that it doesn't show up with evil. I'm going to ruin your life. Man, it shows up attractive. It shows up slick. It shows up looking good. And it tricks people. Luke 9, verse 23, alluded to this a moment ago, then Jesus said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. There's liberty and friends and denying yourself. Take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life gives it to Christ. For my sake, we'll save it. It's remarkable. So from chapter 5, verses 12 to 21, it says, though, that there's a drama being projected under the walls of the soul. And here the Bible is going to look inside of us. In Romans 3, 23, the Bible says, for all of sinned and falls short of the glory of God. Humans, this is us. And you're going to need to choose who you're going to follow in life, because my flesh, my flesh wants to follow all of the little shiny things. Look at that. Oh, that smells nice. They'll shine anything. Oh, look, that's fast. Oh, that's big. Oh, that's, we're enamored by that. And the flesh is like, and as a believer, I've got to say, no, turn your eyes away. That's not good. Stop. Go the other direction. That's not, listen, again, that's one of the great marks of being a believer. If you just lolligag right into the gate and get your head cut off, that's because you wanted to. There was no war. You're in the flesh. It's all you know. But Jesus bought back. He reclaimed. So Adam forefits the kingdom. Imagine God said, Adam, look at it. Starts right here in Eden. Like, Eden was like his. Eden was, the earth was amazing, but Eden was like his house and backyard, you know. It's all yours, Adam. You have dominion over it all. Go enjoy that. This is so good to you. I mean, it sounds amazing. And on top of the fact, I mean, he's got Eve. I mean, I'm assuming Adam was handsome and amazing. I'm assuming Eve was an absolute knockout. And on top of it, they were naked. I mean, how great is that? And they were in the garden. They were in a garden. Adam, where are you? Over here by the pomegranates or whatever, I don't know. Behind the avocado tree. Come catch me. It had to be amazing. What's wrong with you? You can't wrap your mind around that. That's from God, man. And Satan comes along and says, no, no. Let me tell you the truth. And he lies. We hear that a lot today, by the way. We're going to tell you the truth. We have a report just in. The experts have now declared, does anybody believe anything anymore? No. No way. Remarkable. Which, by the way, I think is a setup for what's coming. Because Jesus said the Bible says there's a day coming when people someone's going to say something. And the Bible says the world will believe the lie. Remarkable. But listen, God brought it back. Brought it back. And he bought it back. Second Corinthians 5, 17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. You know, it's amazing about that statement. You can't have a new creation unless you have an old one. In other words, we're moving off. We're leaving off from Adam. And we're following Christ. That's what we're going to be learning these next few weeks. Revelation 21.5, incredible verse. Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. Don't you love new things? Let's be honest. Don't you love the smell of new carpet? Don't you love the sight of a new day? Have you noticed that you've got burdens on one night and you go to bed, you sleep on it, you wake up the next morning and there's something easier about the problems, newness. We love that. It springs hope inside of us. And God says there's going to be a new day. But listen, right now, right where you're at, the Bible says you can become a new creation in Christ Jesus. It's all on the inside. It's not a kingdom yet that's on earth. It's a kingdom that begins first in the human heart and soul. They ask Jesus when's your kingdom coming? We want to see it. And he said the kingdom doesn't come like that. You don't say the kingdom is here or the kingdom is there. He says the kingdom is among you because the kingdom comes inside of you. That's where he begins right now. There's a day coming. Hallelujah, right? There's a day coming when he physically returns to establish his earthly kingdom. But right now we have that experience, we have that politic now of Christ in us, the hope of glory. And then in 1 Corinthians 15, 24, the Bible says then comes the end, the end of the world. When he delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, when he puts an end, here it is, to all rule, all authority and power. That's earthly powers. Aren't you glad? Can you imagine all these people in the global world pushing people around? Jesus is coming back. Because power misses with you. And so people who are in power, they begin to believe strange things about themselves. It's actually known as megalomania. They have delusions of grandeur and authority about themselves. There are many people today who know Bill Gates who are saying he's literally not mentally fit. The problem is Bill Gates is the largest landowner in the United States of America now. He's got a lot of power. Why? How did that happen? He's full of himself. That's one of the curses about power or influence. You can become drunk. And that's an ancient issue regarding the human soul without God. God's on the throne. And right here the Bible says there's a day coming when the kingdom of God will be delivered to the Father. That's a reference to eternity. And all the earthly powers will be unseated. I don't know about you, but this is an election year. I just love the thought of that. These people who think, I mean, they will tell you what to do. We're going to tell you what to believe. And you can't do this. And you sit down and remember, you elected me. So I'm going to tell you what to do. And there's going to be a day. Somebody's going to say, Jim, I am, I am, I am Chuck Schumer. I'm Nancy Pelosi. I'm, well, I don't know whoever insert the name that you have in your head. And God's going to go, who? Can you imagine? Think about that. People think they're so big. People think they're so powerful. Some day the entire Congress, the entire Senate, the presidency, the parliament in England, all the kings and power brokers of the world will one day bow their knee. And the Bible says, the Bible says they're going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. They're going to confess Jesus Christ is Lord. I just wonder sometimes if before they confess that, that's what's written in the Bible. I'm wondering if they say, I thought I was Lord. But it turns out Jesus is Lord. What a wake-up call. Absolutely remarkable. Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 says, and so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, thus our title in this series, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of the world. Look at verse 2. Hello, everybody. Did you go? You all see that? Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. Period. Think of that. But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. What a tremendous statement this is. In fact, I think verse 2 is like a woke detector. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. 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.