Where Are You? - Part 2

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. One of the worst things that you can do is to stop telling people about Jesus. Listen, listen, don't respond, just check yourself right now. Maybe all of us tonight would say, yeah, I'm a Christian, let me ask you something. According to the Bible, Christians tell other people about Jesus. Now telling people about Jesus doesn't make you a Christian. Are you with me? But if you are a Christian, you've got to tell people. 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. Just church is Satan's number one target. Just church. Satan hates you. He can't stand you. Satan wants to destroy your life. Listen, here's how effective he works. When something bad happens in our lives in this world, even as a believer, if we're not rooted and grounded, we have a tendency to question God about what just happened. Maybe your child died or your husband died or you lost your job. And many times, if you don't know the word of God, you'll say, God, what are you doing? And you forget. Jesus said that you've been delivered out of this world, but we're not gone yet. But the Bible says that Satan is the prince of the power of the error. And he's the Lord or the God of this earth for this time. Did you know that Satan's realm of domain is to rob you, to kill you, and to destroy you? Jesus said, I've come to give you life eternally. But we often blame God for when we should be blaming Satan for it. Hey, everybody, thank God this earth is not our home. We're going home someday. But you're under attack right now. If Satan has told you to be fearful, that's a temptation you have fallen for if you've become fearful. It's Satan that whispers in your ear. You know what? My wife is not that excited anymore. Maybe I need a new one. You know what? I don't think I love him anymore. These kids drive me nuts. I'm out of here. That's Satanic friends. That's a temptation by the enemy. But when you're weak, you'll entertain the thought of it. And Satan, listen, read your Bible. He's no dummy. He knows us. And he sets things up to trip us up. Imagine. There's an invisible world, even in this room tonight, according to the Bible. There's angelic and demonic entities invisible to our natural eyes that the Bible says surrounds us. Think about this vast auditorium and what's going on in the invisible realm. I'd like to see that. Maybe not. But this I know, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Jesus said Satan's real. So don't think he's not. Jesus said he's real. He opposes us. He distracts us. He tries to sow apathy in our hearts. He tries to get us to never commit to anything of God. He confuses us. Confusion. Doesn't that describe the last four years, three years? He tries to sterilize us. You know, if Satan loses your soul to Jesus, he doesn't give up. He tries to keep your mouth shut after you've given your heart to Christ. You know, that feeling is don't tell anybody. They'll think you're Jesus-free. That's the enemy attacking. By the way, have you noticed that when you start, in fact, I would love all of you to, after you leave it at night, you got to do this. You ought to just go up to people and say, hey, I happen to be a person of prayer. Is there anything you have to be prayed for? You just do that for a test. Just test that. I'm just throwing that out there to you. Watch what happens. It's pretend we're in a little lab test and that's your homework. You're going to ask somebody, I believe in prayer. Is there something I can pray for you for? Watch what happens. People will say, yes, you can pray for my daughter. She's sick. You'll be surprised. And by the way, the door will open up and you can give them Jesus. Christian, there's no greater joy and there's no greater renewal in our lives than for us to fight back the enemy by sharing the love of Christ. He wants the souls of your children, of your grandchildren. He wants the soul of your husband or your wife. He wants the soul of America. And as weak as the church is in America, it looks like he's winning to me. But thank God the Bible says, as Jesus told us, the gates of hell will not prevail. I know it's looking slim out there when it comes to churches. I know it's getting harder. And right now with all the stuff that's going on in the world around us, it seems like the church is silent. Not all of them, but it feels like it. We need to remember this. Satan is a defeated enemy. And according to the scriptures, he was judged at the cross. And God put his Holy Spirit inside of every true believer. What does that hold him? Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees. We need to remember our great calling, everybody. First, Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 18 says, therefore, we wanted to come to you, Paul says, often in time again, but Satan hindered us. He's hindering you from going to church. He's hindering you from growing. Just know this. Satan is out to destroy your life. Don't let him do it. Number five, just church is a church of healing. In Luke 15, verse 7, Jesus said, I say to you that, likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, then over the 99 just persons who need no repentance. That's an amazing statement. The 99 are safe. They're with him. So Jesus can afford to leave the 99 because they're in the sheepfold. They're safe. And he goes after the one that is in great danger, the one that is wandered away. But notice the word everyone. It's a word that pastors don't say anymore. And yet there can be no salvation without it. The gospel is this. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the gospel is this in the book of Revelation. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. That word repent is metanoia in Greek, meta, noia, meta, after, noia, thought, afterthought. Think again. Repent simply means to think different. Change the way that you think about Christ, about church, about others. And Jesus said, repent. And the Bible tells us here in two places in that verse. Repent and repentance. Change your mind. And the Bible says, Jesus said heaven rejoices when that happens. What an amazing thing. What an awesome thing. By the way, you know Jesus, I love this. You know in the Old Testament it says the prophets would speak and they would say, thus say at the Lord. And then they would, Jesus never said that. Jesus says, behold, I say unto you. Don't you love that? Why did he do that? Because he was the Lord. And he's saying to you tonight, he wants to heal you. Body, soul, and spirit. He wants to heal you. I prayed with a couple people tonight. There's three sisters over here somewhere battling cancer. And I prayed for a young little girl over here with her knee injured. So here's the deal. What's the deal? The deal is this. Aren't we commanded to pray for one another? But were they healed or not? That's not for me. It's not for me to design. I am to believe what God has said and to act upon his word in faith and obey him and leave the results to him. He knows what he's doing. But the Bible says we don't have because we don't ask. The church should be a place of healing. Number six, the church should be powered by the Holy Spirit. I'm big on this one. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not out of control, everybody. Oh, don't talk about the Holy Spirit. This is our problem. The Holy Spirit and the whole narrative has been robbed from us. And we have forgotten who the Spirit is. Listen, Jesus was born in this world, died on the cross, and went back to heaven. And for 2,000 years, the Holy Spirit has been the one working here. Who lives inside of you if you're a believer? The Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I'll send the Holy Spirit, and he'll be your comforter. He'll be with you. He said, I will not leave you orphaned. I will come to you. And Christ comes to you by the power of the Holy Spirit. And today the church needs the Holy Spirit more than ever. The Holy Spirit is our guide. He's our teacher. Did you know that? Have you ever opened up your Bible? You don't get it? Stop and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the Word of God. That's what he loves to do. The power of the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that gave life to the church. It was the Holy Spirit that gave power to the followers of Christ and they preached the gospel. It's the Holy Spirit. Think about the 12 apostles. All of them except John died of violent death. But they were able to do that as martyrs by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in Acts 1 verse 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth to Anaheim. Literally. Wherever you are, wherever you met Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul warned the church at Ephesus to watch out that you don't grieve the Holy Spirit. I'm just going to tell you straight up. If you're a Christian and you're doing things that's against the Word of God, you're grieve in the Holy Spirit. And you need a repent of that and stop. He loves you. He wants you to return. Number seven, it's exactly that. Just church is about you and I returning to Christ. In Luke 17, 5, the Bible there tells us Jesus says, and when he has found it, the little lamb, he lays it on his shoulder rejoicing. God wants you to come back as a church. He wants to put you as it were on his shoulders. Bring you back. Somebody has wisely said, I know Charles Stanley repeated it, but somebody has said, as believers, we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. I like that. But at the exact same time also, we need to remember that every day we need to be returning to Jesus. Every day. So I did that five years ago, every day. And when I returned to Jesus, I find myself living for other people. Somebody just asked me at my old age, where do you get this energy? It's the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit when I'm among his people. Ask Lisa. I have no energy at home. But when there's a purpose, think about the tools that you have in your garage, or if you're me on the side of my yard, I'll rust it out. Those tools work best when they're in use. And God saved you for a purpose. That's why you're not in heaven yet. He wants to use you. He wants to do a great work in your life. Listen to what Warren Wiersby has to say and we're almost done. So the good shepherd pursues the lost sheep, whoos them, calls them, and allows circumstances to come into their lives, designed to make them uncomfortable so that they might look up in their time of need. It is often in the bleakest hours of circumstances that we finally surrender our demands to have life our way. And we finally submit to the good shepherd who carries us back to the sheepfold. You think about this. In the Bible, Jesus refers to Himself as the good shepherd saying, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, Jesus said, and there shall be one flock in one shepherd. Just think about tonight. This is one church tonight. If you believe Jesus died for your sins and rose again from the dead, and that it's by faith in Him and Him alone that you'll enter heaven. That makes us one church tonight. Remarkable. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me and I give them eternal life. Wow. And they shall never perish. Did you know that? No one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them me. And yet the 99, still very important to God, but they're safe at home with the father, but the good shepherd after securing the 99 goes out searching for the one. And I wrote myself this note. Imagine if your house was on fire. And you're a dad of 12 kids. 12. It fits for what I'm going to do here. 12. The house is burning. You wake up. You start scooping up your kids to take them outside. They're out on the lawn. The house is a blaze and you're counting them. You're naming them. And so I put the ones that are nearest in our lives. I would put I'd be in that yard and I would be counting Emmys number one, Oliver's number two, Ames three, Ben, Ryan, Avery, Eddie, Charlie, Presley, Innsley, Hannah. And that's only 11 though. That's 11. Can you imagine if you're out on the lawn your house is burning and you count 11 when you have 12? What would you do? Dad, what would you do? Mom, what would you do? A mom or a dad will go into the home. It's all the blaze. And that's what Jesus is telling us. The world's on fire and you've been away and he's coming after you tonight and he's asking you to jump into his arms. Let's go. Let's get out of this burning thing. Let's get out of this burning mess. By the way, for whatever it's worth, I don't know why I did this, but he goes in securing the 11. He goes into the blaze with the house burning and he goes after the one and he grabs her and he takes her outside. And I don't know why I put this, but I put her name as Barbie. I don't know any Barbie, but Barbie's face is everywhere and I thought I would let that be out there. Number 8 and we end. We have to end right here. Just church is about giving people Jesus Christ. You know why? Listen, one of the worst, listen up everybody. One of the worst things that you can do is to stop telling people about Jesus. Listen. Listen, don't respond. Just check yourself right now. Maybe all of us tonight would say, yeah, I'm a Christian. Let me ask you something. According to the Bible, Christians tell other people about Jesus. Now telling people about Jesus doesn't make you a Christian. Are you with me? But if you are a Christian, you've got to tell people. David was doing great until he slept in and his armies went to war and he woke up in the mid-morning who knows afternoon. He looks over the window, over the fence or whatever it is. He looks down upon Bathsheba who's bathing naked and David is like, I'm okay. And you know how the story goes and then God deals with them and over a year later, David's life is ruined and God gets ahold of them. And Psalm 51 is David's confession of adultery with Bathsheba. And God forgives him and David says, Restorant to me the joy of my salvation. And then I will tell sinners of your way. You know why you don't share Jesus anymore? Because he's not very important to you anymore, is he? Now really, come on. He's not that important to you. Because when you know that there's a sale at Nordstroms, you're telling everybody about it. If there's a good place to eat, don't you text your friends and even send them a picture of the food you're eating. And then somebody mentioned Jesus and you freeze up. Is it possible you're ashamed of him? Have you ever really made that commitment to Christ? Christian, I'm speaking to you, Christ follower. Right now, right where you're at tonight, we need to get excited about Jesus again. We need tonight as believers to make a commitment to never look back. 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. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states.