We Are Children Of God

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.

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The Lord has called you His child, his child. Radical biblical doctrine Rarely, if at all, found in the Old Testament. God speaks and says you're my child.

00:38 - Speaker 1
God speaks and says you're my child, 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 Psalm 139, verse 16.

00:58 - Speaker 2
Your eyes saw my substance yet being unformed. By the way, this is a big pro-life verse. You know that. Well, I have my opinion. God doesn't care. He literally does not care what our opinions are about the life, the abortion, the pro-choice, pro-life issue. He doesn't care about what your opinion is. What he does care, he cares about what side you're on. God says I knew your everything, I knew your DNA before it was ever put together. I'm God.

01:31
That shouldn't surprise any of us, because when Mr Mercedes and Mr Benz got together, you know, before Mercedes Benz came off the assembly line, they sat down first and they drew it out on a piece of paper. Did you know that those things were all crafted out on a piece of paper? Did you know that those things were all crafted first on a piece of paper that was capturing what was in the minds of the men, the designers? It went from an invisible world onto paper and then out of the assembly plant. Are you with me? The same is true about you. God thought of you, he had you in mind and he crafted you. Where did he do the crafting? In the assembly plant.

02:16
Who's that? Your mother? So be nice. It's always funny and I look I used to be guilty of that. I don't do that anymore. But kids mouth off to their mothers. Do you realize that's not a good thing to do, because you actually came from her?

02:33
There used to be a comedian, I won't mention his name. He used to say this. He said listen, your mom and I, we brought you into this world and it is certain we can take you out. Well, nobody can say that better than God. But he knows and in your book they were all written the days fashioned for me when, as yet, there were none of them. God knows you, he knows your name and he knows the days of your life, also this Galatians 1.15. But when it pleased God, paul said who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace. Why am I alive? I don't even know what I'm alive for, because God has a plan. If that's your question, then you need to find out what God's plan is, because you clearly don't know what it is. I'm depressed. Get in line. It happens to all of us. But the Christian needs to repent of it and get back with God again. You got to leave it with God and the people who decide to leave it with God. They live strong, fruitful lives by the Lord, through the Lord, because they've placed it with the Lord and we need to remember that. So I'm going to read this right now because I want it to come out right Under the fact that God calls you by name. We should revel in that, and here it is.

04:01
There are those who, I believe, mean well, but in their concern regarding spiritual experiences, because you know for God to say I know you by name, don't you think that's pretty personal? Should you have a reaction to that? Well, listen, there are those who are concerned about spiritual experiences or encounters with God. I believe that they have completely and thoroughly thrown the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. I appreciate their concern but, frankly, the lack of faith to trust in God, with His church and with His people, is what we're seeing, and with his people is what we're seeing. Christianity, by design, is a family, and that demands and even requires that the follower of Christ experience Christ in the most personal way.

04:54
Church, did you hear what I'm saying? There's a big deal right now, today, that people are saying watch out, no, you should not have any. You should be basically a theologian Stud of the Bible. Just study the Bible, and when you're done, you should not have any. You should be basically a theologian Study the Bible, just study the Bible, and when you're done, you'll have all this knowledge. And then you go to work and you've got all this knowledge. I'm all for that, plus the conclusion.

05:16
I believe that if you study the Bible, that you're going to bump into God. You're going to find him in the midst of his pages. And you're going to bump into God. You're going to find him in the midst of his pages and you're going to find out that he says things like this before you were ever born, I knew you. How should that affect you? You should say well, that's pretty awesome. It's God who says I called you forth from your mother's womb. Well, that means you must have a purpose. It's all good. Think of this. How can that true, be true, and it is true. But how can it not affect you?

05:56
People will say in theological circles, experiences are bad. Are you kidding me? There are some bad experiences that are not based upon the Bible. Stay away from them. But when Moses encounters God at the burning bush, do you think Moses came down from the mountain and wrote a 10-volume set on how to converse with God when he's in a bush. When he's in a bush, it had to have affected him. It changed the course of his life and, christian, I want to challenge you today Don't pull back from God wanting to affect your life.

06:36
I don't agree with those who say experiences are wrong. If you put your relationship based on the experience, that's wrong. Your relationship with God is based on faith in Christ, because it's what he's done. But after that, when God turns you and says this is why I did it, jack, because I love you, what are you supposed to say to that yes sir? What are you supposed to say to that yes sir? No, I think more theologically accurate would be the Hebrew word aw. No, it's a joke, it's not Hebrew. I'm just saying you should say oh, wow, have we grown up so much that we cannot embrace an experience with God so long as it's biblically based?

07:31
When Jesus was walking on water in the midst of a storm, peter was so touched by that. Peter said Lord, if that's you, bid me to come to you, which is a radical thing. Peter says remember, all the guys were in the boat freaking out because they said it's a ghost, you know. Read it later.

07:49
Jesus is walking on the water in the midst of a storm, in the midnight of the Galilee. And they thought they were going to die because they said it's a ghost. The Jews believe that just before you pass, you start to see spirits. So the disciples are saying that's it, we're going down. Peter is the only one. We beat up on Peter. We make fun of him all the time. God bless Peter. Peter says, which I agree to, is I want to get away from these guys. We're all going to die. I don't need to hear them, you know. Peter says Lord, if it's you, invite me to walk on the water with you. What a brilliant request. Number one Peter knows only Jesus would do something so radical and Jesus must have extended his hand or says come and Peter steps out and he's walking on the water to Jesus.

08:49
And it was amazing it was amazing, until the Bible says Peter then looked away remember, he had the wheel in his hand, so to speak. And he's driving to Jesus, walking on the water, and he turns and he swerves, and the Bible says he starts to sink. And it's the shortest prayer in the Bible, by the way Lord help. And the Bible says immediately God rescued him. But friends, listen, acts 4, verse 31. How can you dare read this and say that you can't experience this God who has made things so personal, even calling you by name, when Acts 4, verse 31 says and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Why? Because they were affected by what was going on. They experienced God, and I'm for the experiences of God so much as they are rooted and grounded in the Bible. Now look when people are running around barking and goofing off and going nuts, falling forward, falling backward, saying oh, look at the gold dust. If you have enough faith, you can see gold dust falling from the sky. Really, really, I don't think so. I don't think so. But if your experience is one that originates in God, you're in a safe place, but don't conjure things up. That's the work of the flesh.

10:30
Hebrews 4, verse 16 says Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. That's a great verse. Huh. 2 Corinthians, 3, verse 12, says therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Why? Because we're in God's family and he knows our name.

10:50
Now I want to stress, right now if you don't have that confidence, I want to ask you don't say it out loud, but I want to ask you why do you not have that confidence? Number one it may be again that you are thinking that your relationship with God is bound up in your church membership and thus that produces no confidence. Or some deed or some acts of yours produces no confidence. Maybe you're not a Christian and of course you're insecure about this. You have no confidence. But if you're a born-again believer and you don't have confidence in what God has said, why is that the case? Dear friend, listen, you need to shed, you need to get away from the things that are pulling you down in your life and keeping you sequestered, as it were, from spiritual growth. Are you guys listening, videly important.

11:43
So before we move on to this issue about the new name, revelation, chapter 2, verse 17. Jesus is speaking. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I will give him a white stone and on the stone, a new name which no one knows except him who receives it. That's a promise to the church and to the believer You're gonna have a new name, revelation 3, 12. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more. I will write on him Amazing. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name.

12:39
By the way, the town, the city that Jesus wrote that to in the book of Revelation, it had pagan practices and pagan rites and rituals, and that worship system of that city was known for people to be tattooed with the name of the god or gods that they were devoted to by their parents. Their parents dedicated them to these various gods. So on the back of somebody's neck or on the back of their body, there would be the stamp or the tattoo of Zeus. Isn't that remarkable, isn't it amazing? Jesus says I'll redeem you and oh, by the way, up until now you've been owned by Zeus. Guess what? I'm going to write my name on you? Don't tell me that you hear that and you can't experience the goodness of God. I love it, lord, write whatever you want on me, on me. And then finally, verse 16, say it means the Lord has called you his child, his child.

13:45
Radical biblical doctrine, rarely, if at all, found in the Old Testament. God speaks and says you're my child. To an individual. It says there in verse 16, that we are children of God. We do not appreciate this church, I promise you. We do not appreciate this as we ought. We are called, here in the Bible, children of God Belonging.

14:17
You know why people join gangs? I didn't know this. People join gangs. I'm reading a book right now. I don't know why. I was talking to a TSA agent at the airport. She started talking about security, training measures and what they go through and I was fascinated and she said you got to get this book, so I got it, I'm almost done with it and it's all about a lot of it has to do with belonging.

14:40
I didn't know this about a gang. You know there's all kinds of gangs, by the way, and I didn't know this. I thought you know gangs. You know low cars and tattoos everywhere, or hats a certain way, and signs. You know, like right now I could be giving some gang sign that I'm not aware of. I don't know what I just said. Why, why, why, why, why all these codes? Why all these things there? Listen, they are iconic communications. They called it Iconic communications of belonging. I didn't know this, but graffiti is literally the stamping of regions of turf that's owned by a certain gang. And why do they do this? Because you strip away everything from Al-Qaeda, isis, gangs, things like that.

15:47
Listen, even in some cases, in the positive sense, a judge may see that a young man is erring and he's not going the right direction and he's parentless, and the judge can order this young man you will sign up for the US military, pick a branch, but that's what I am ordering for you. You need what is he saying? You need a family and there's a connection. People are in gangs because of a need for a family. And here's the beautiful thing about God it doesn't matter where you're at in the universe, you can be right now in and out of a gang or in and out of prison. God says I want you in my family, I want to give you a new name, you're my child, and I believe in the 21st century today that's the great healing for America is for people to wake up and realize God wants you in his family and Paul says it as a matter of fact, that we are the children of God. This is your Bible people, children of God.

16:48
The word in Greek is technon. It means young male or young female child, son or daughter, in this case, the offspring of God. By the way, the word implies this a child of God, but in a mature state. Interesting, it's kind of fun. You know, if you have a child, that your child is your child. But if you have a last will and testament or a living trust, if you were to die today, your child might be eight years old, but your child has all the powers and the benefits of an adult. Are you hearing me? You did that by writing to them in your last will and testament in the Bible. It's called the New Testament, which is the writings, as it were, of God as to who you are and what you inherit.

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Remarkable, listen. There's something that is known as autological and it means this For the believer because God is our Father, we know like our Father knows. What does that mean? It means the Holy Spirit will tell us things that would otherwise not be known. But God, because God is our father, we speak like our father speaks. How does that happen? The more you read the Bible, the more you talk Bible. That doesn't mean you walk up to people and say how art thou? Won't thou come with me yonder? No, not King James, but you'll speak in your tongue, how God would speak. Isn't that awesome. How does that happen? The power of the living word of God.

18:30
Because God is our father, we act like our father acts. Wow, because God is our father, we see like our Father acts. Wow, because God is our Father, we see like our Father sees. We see things. I don't mean we see things floating around. We see things. We can see behind things, the battles that we're in, the issues that we're in, no matter what it might be. We look at the powers behind what's causing the immediate now. We look at the powers behind what's causing the immediate now, because God is our Father. We live like our Father lives.

19:03 - Speaker 1
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