We Are On Our Way

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. What the world offers is all glitter and when you bite into it there's nothing substantial there. You might wake up quickly to that or you might take an entire lifetime to wake up to that. It doesn't matter when you wake up to it as long as you wake up to it. 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. It's remarkable to realize that Paul the Apostle is speaking. I love this. Listen Paul, one of the most zealous and powerful witnesses of the Jewish religion Judaism in the first century who was a combatant to Christianity. It's well documented both in the Bible and in extra biblical writings is that he was very zealous for his nation and for his brethren and for the law and for the regulations and Paul or Saul of Tarsus was this very zealous man who was out with letters of authority from Jerusalem and in the council to hunt down Christians and destroy them. Some of them were held captive. Some of them were arrested. Some of them were tried in courts. Some of them were killed on the spot. It's legendary. It's historic and Saul of Tarsus was the chief and yet God had a plan and interrupted his antics and his persecution as he was heading up north to the Damascus region on the King's highway that is right between Jordan and Syria today and Israel today. The King's highway. It's in a valley. It's still there today and he was on his way to Damascus to hunt down Christians there and the Bible tells us in the book of Acts that Jesus Christ interrupted his plans and visited his life and you can read about his life in the book of Acts but he was absolutely transformed and when he understood, listen, when he understood, the Old Testament scriptures to say that they were teaching about the Messiah. Well that's obvious but that the Messiah had come. That's not so obvious. So when he studied the Old Testament scriptures, he came to the conclusion that Jesus, we say Yeshua, Yeshua, Joshua, we would say that name as well, that the Messiah has come according to the prophets and for that the very team he was on turned around and tried to kill him. And so to speak now Paul with his change of name, change of life, change of worldview complete. Can I put it this way? Radicalized for God in the right way became a lover of men's souls and he's been the greatest convert to Christianity. You know, historians say this. He's the greatest convert to Christianity the world's ever seen. I want to believe that I've been the greatest convert to Christianity the world's ever seen because I'm the one that I'm concerned about regarding going to heaven. Does that make sense? I know what they mean. They mean his conversion has literally affected millions and millions if not billions of people. My life maybe your life may not have that effect but isn't salvation personal anyway? Is it personal for you? It should be. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 311, he has made everything beautiful in his time. Also he has put eternity in their hearts. He's speaking about our hearts. Did you know that your heart, your life, your mind, your thinking will always go back to the fact that there is an eternal stamp by God in your making. You can go out and do all the things in this world and all that this world offers and we've done it. Some of us have, it's been so long since we've been a non-Christian. We forget what God's delivered us from. We need to remember not dwell on it. You know what I mean? Not go back and think about it but remember enough about our pre-Christ life to remember how lost we were. You know how we talk up the stuff we did? Oh man, it was an awesome party. It really wasn't. Oh, we had the best time ever man. We did this. We did that. Yeah, we really talk it up. What the world offers is all glitter and when you bite into it, there's nothing substantial there. You might wake up quickly to that or you might take an entire lifetime to wake up to that. It doesn't matter when you wake up to it as long as you wake up to it. That what this world offers has no way of sustaining what your life needs. Why? Because he's put eternity in our hearts. Every single one of us. And so church, we look at this. We're on our way. Number one is this way in verse 23, the heartbeat of heaven. The heartbeat of heaven is in our very making. The heartbeat of heaven. And you might say today, I don't believe in heaven. Well, you not believe in in heaven doesn't make heaven not real. That just means that this moment, you're going to miss out on a very real place. We don't want you to do that just because you don't believe in God doesn't mean he doesn't exist. That's kind of funny. He actually exists and he's written us his book and he's stamped within our hearts this constant nagging question about eternity, about heaven, about judgment, about life, about death. What's beyond the grave? Job asked that question. Oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job. Job asked if a man dies, does he live again? Isn't that great? By the way, if you read the book of Job, he gets the answer. He says, I know that I will seek God in my flesh. What a response by Job. As Christians, we believe in resurrection. Maybe you're Jewish today. Muslims believe in resurrection. Much of the world believes in reincarnation. Listen, the Bible is very, very clear. That resurrection is a biblical doctrine. And when Job said that, you got to remember, there was no Bible in Job's day. God spoke to him. And he said, I'll see God in my flesh. What a statement. Every one of us who are trusting Christ, we will see God in our flesh. Now, thank God in heaven, our flesh, this flesh is going to be reconstituted. We believe in resurrection. That means if, listen, if I'm laying here dead and the Lord calls us home in the rapture, my dead body is going to rise off the ground. It's going to go invisible. Why? God is going to change the structure of my atomic existence. He's going to change the collection or the assemblage of my material beings called resurrection. The Bible says the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are a library of Me shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And that's where these movies come from and the books come from of a disappearance. It's true. There's going to be a disappearance. Some will disappear at his coming. Some will be resurrected from the dead at his coming. But the believer will be united with Christ in the atmosphere. What an amazing thing. And our hearts will rejoice because finally, if you're honest, if you truly know the Lord Jesus Christ, your heart beats with a hunger for heaven right now. He says in verse 23, Romans chapter 8, not only that, building off of the previous verses, but we, listen, we also who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the redemption or the adoption, I should say, the redemption of our body. Very powerful portion of scripture. Number one church, jot this down. The heartbeat of heaven is this within us. Heaven's throne within us is God's proof. It's the proof of God in ownership of who you are, of who I am. According to the scriptures, God dwells in heaven and we know this. But according to the scriptures, what is known as the omnipresence of God, the omnipresence of God is that by his Holy Spirit, God dwells everywhere. I mean, it gets kind of deep, but think about it. God is here now for the believer. God resides within us, he says, but he's also seated upon his throne in heaven. That's beyond my comprehension, but this I know that my heart inside being a follower of Christ, he touched my life with what is called salvation. And I didn't feel anything. The day accepted Christ, some people feel things. That's great. I didn't, I didn't get goosebumps. I didn't get emotional. I was actually, everybody around me was crying and I thought something was wrong. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? I remember saying that. What's wrong with me? And somebody had to tell me, it's not by feelings, it's by faith. But this I knew from the moment I accepted Christ, my mind began to think differently and my desires began to struggle with my previous desires. I grew up wanting these things and then Christ invaded my life and caused me to not have a struggle with those things because now I wanted the things of God. In fact, over time, and this is true, many of you can say, amen, that the more that the Bible gets inside of you, the more of your desires become his desires. The Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. That's an awesome verse. But listen, it's not a tricked verse. Wait, what was it? If I delight myself in the Lord, you'll give me the desires of my heart. Man, that's awesome. That's not what it means. Well, that's what you said. You just quoted it. I did, but that's not what it means. It means that if you delight yourself in the Lord, that means you fall in love with God, you care about what God thinks, you care about what God wants, that what you desire now or the things that God has always had for you to desire, it's just now you're listening. Now he's active in your life. Well, how is that true? Because he's enthroned in your heart. He's enthroned in your life. You see this word, first fruits. Again, in most Bibles, it's one word. It's a difficult English word, or Greek word for us to put into English. So you see first fruits. Some of your Bibles might have first fruits divided, but the meaning of this, first fruits, is this everybody. Talk about thrown being on your heart. Look at this. The beginning of a sacrifice, he says this, regarding our new life in Jesus, that we are to be a kind of first fruits. The beginning of a sacrifice, the first fruit out of the Old Testament, Leviticus chapter 23, means the first of what has been received, the first of what has been taken in, or we would say harvested, the best, the most precious of that which you have gotten in value or of worth. Meaning God's given you this in life, and God says, give me the best back. I'm your God. Keep your heart level. Give me the cream of the crop, so to speak, okay? God says we're to be giving him the first of our increase, whatever that might be. But notice what this does. It shows us that there's the throne room of God in your life, that God is in control, and the evidence of the Holy Spirit in possession of your life is that this throne is set up, and God begins to speak to you, and you basically come to this conclusion. Lord, I see that you want the first of all that's important to me, but now I see you want everything that is me. So somebody will say, well God wants 10%. Somebody might say God wants 13%. Somebody, did you know that, and then I forget his first name, but you've heard of Proctor and Gamble, the man Proctor. He said, Lord, he had basically nickels. God, I dedicate my company to you. I'll give you 90% God of everything I make, 90. So what he did was, he started his company, and God had to bless it so the poor guy could eat. And he lived his days like that, and of course became an iconic global corporation. But he put God first, that's what he chose to do. But what's amazing about this is that when you think about it, that God actually owns everything that you and I have, and he even owns the air in which you and I are breathing right now. The fact that you and I know that as believers, and that we think about him being in control of our lives is a glorious thing. We've learned this in Scripture, which I think is amazing. The feast of first fruits, people write this down in your notes. When it says first fruits here, in verse 23, first fruits, that's an Old Testament thought. In the seven feasts of Moses recorded in the Scripture. And by the way, you may or may not know this, that in the Old Testament, which, listen, every Christian, as I say, you're probably tired of me saying this, every Christian should be studying the Old Testament like you study the New Testament. You don't separate them. You look at the Old in what it says and what it promises, and then you look to the New to see when those things were fulfilled, given, or implemented. The Old in New Testament. And when you look at that, you realize that in God speaking to us, there's a priority that Christ is to be on the phone of our lives. Why is that the case, though? Maybe you're here today and you're skeptic, and that's fine. The feast of first fruits, check this out, given by God to Moses to pass down to the children of Israel, was a springtime feast. And we know this. On the Hebrew calendar, it is to be celebrated on the 16th of Nissan in the Hebrew calendar. They have, their calendar has different names than our pagan calendar, which places it, listen, two days after the feast of unleavened bread. So you have, you have the feast of first fruits, you take in the harvest, then you've got two days later the feast of unleavened bread, and then on the third day, you have the feast of Passover. And you say, who cares? You and I do. Based on Leviticus chapter 23, 2000 years ago, when Jesus died, listen to this, Jesus Christ died three days after the first fruits of offering in Jerusalem, two days after the feast of unleavened bread. What does that mean? That God who promises the first fruits, meaning the best given to God first, Christ, according to the Bible, is the first one resurrected from the dead, never to die again. And because Christ has risen from the dead, you can know that you have eternal life because what he's done for us. And it's in direct correlation with God's revealed word through Moses. That's why over and over again in the Bible, the very one who occupies the throne room of your heart is the one who said, I am the resurrection in the life. I am the way the truth in the life. I am the bread of life. I am the living water. I am the light of the world, Jesus said. He made that announcement and those are huge announcements to make because he's insinuating that I am the eternal one who gives you life because my offering is the bread of life. The word that I give you is the water of life. Think of it. Radical statements, right? You have to admit, don't let anybody in your life tell you, well, you know, I believe in Jesus. He was a great prophet, really? Oh, he was one of the enlightened ones. You know, people try to, Jesus is too big to throw out the window so they read, they try to redefine them. So they give you some kind of a bogus excuse or definition of who Jesus is. Listen, I would argue this and that's what J. R. Tolkien argued with C. S. Lewis. That's not true. The things that Jesus said, the things that he said to people, he said things that are crazy unless he performs these things. He says, if a man dies believing in me, he'll live forever. What kind of a lunatic says that? Unless you can pull that off. Are you hearing me? That's a C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis responded instead of Tolkien. I believe Jesus is a good guy. Tolkien says, well, that's weird because the things that Jesus said it demands a response. Everything that he said is so radical that he's either what C. S. Lewis said, a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. Think of that. Very powerful statements he made. This Jack Hibb's podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibb's.com to learn more and stay connected. Get that MX Goldcar ready. I'm way too tired to cook tonight. You read my mind. With the Goldcar, we can get up to $120 a year in statement credits. Are you feeling the cheesecake factory? Five guys? Either of those sound good? Yes. Which one? Both. Pay with the Goldcar to receive up to $10 a month in statement credits of participating partners. Uncover more ways to reward yourself at americanexpress.com slash explore dash gold. Enrollment required terms apply.