Your Forever Calling

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. I believe that we have a commander, that we have a captain, we have an admiral, we have a general, in his name is Jesus, and we advance in his name by the power of the Holy Spirit. We know that we're on mission because we have been given the task and his Holy Spirit has given you and I at least one gift to get her done. 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. I really believe I've been telling you guys this. I'm doubling down on it. We are entering the golden moments for the church right before the end time events. This is the golden moment for the church and I'm honored that God would allow California to have the opportunity to love on people who have been devastated by these terrible crises because can anything good come out of California? Yeah, with Christ. That's us. People don't expect anything good to come from this place. What if the church cut so no pun intended? Peter said that we need to have hot hearts, fervent hearts, hearts ablaze, hearts on fire. The hills have been ravaged by fire. But listen, the people have not yet been ravaged by the love of Christ. That's going to come through us. However, means we participate. However, God would have us be involved. What does Christian love for God look like? It looks like this if we love the Lord. We edify one another. Do you know what the word edify means? It's foundational to the word root, to the word edifice. You know, edifice is the nice, beautiful ornate entryway of this building, the edifice, the grandeur of it. Listen, we're to edify one another. I am to elevate you and so to speak, edify you to the point that as I lift you up, you're closer to heaven. Does that make sense? I saw a great thing. I don't know if you know this or not. It's pretty cool. Have you ever wondered why you've ever seen, and I'm sorry, I don't know the technical term because I've only seen it and then I read about it. I've never participated. And that is the ballerina thing. You know, there's the guy, the skaters. Have you noticed that she's dressed in like amazing white or like, she's all glittery? Have you noticed the guy that's throwing her around? What's he, what's he wearing? He's wearing black. He's black from the top of his head to the bottom of his skates. Black. She's all lit up. And the background is black. So there's this guy that's been lifting weights all month. So he can pick this little ballerina up and he throws her up in the sky and she's like, all of this. And she lands. And this guy's catching her, throwing her. But you can't see him. She looks great. Listen, we are to be the people dressed in black. To the neighbor that's next to us, there to be the ballerina. Where to lift them up? Where to do that? And we do that with words. You know what? Have you ever been bit by a dog? Don't do it. Do not get bit by a dog. I don't understand it. I got bit by a dog. He didn't even draw any blood. My bone on my forearm was sore for three weeks. I don't understand how that works. He didn't even break my skin. He just went. And it hurts so much. A bite. Do you know what's worse than a bite? A word. In three weeks, my bones were fine. When we do not edify, and we say things that destroy our husband or our wife or our children or our parents or one another, we're tearing people down. And Jesus is not in that. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5.9, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to attain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. And whether we wake or sleep, live or die, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that powerful? And then number five is this church. It's the fifth argument, verses six through eight. And that is, so give God your all. After love, what's next? Number five is give God your all. And we see in verse six that it's, listen, discovering what's been given. That's what verse six says. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Let us use them if prophecy. Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. The word proportion, this is a very important word. It precedes all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in its application. I want you to check out this word, proportion. To be in balance. That's a rarity in our world right now, isn't it? Watch this. It is the will of God and only the Holy Spirit can do this, but we're to cooperate with him. Are you guys still listening? From this corner of the sanctuary to this corner of the sanctuary from front to back, it is the will of Almighty God that we all be listening to him to find out what he has given us as a gift so that this church would be balanced. Not lopsided. It means to be in continuity with, to operate within the set limits and predetermined scope. In other words, God knows what he's doing. To be in symphony or equilibrium. To be in the state of uniformity toward a specific cause. I love this specific cause or outcome. Like a team or a unit. We're to be working together. Listen, in our jobs, even in our families. Isn't it tough when someone's not a team player? You know the company comes and they say, okay, we've got this project to do. This is the team. You guys are on this team. This is your budget. Go. And somebody, listen. I think I'm speaking for everybody here, but it will happen. You see, well, there's only two of us in our team. Just wait. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's just the way it is. And there's going to be some friction. You've got to fight to maintain unity. And unity must always be formed first upon the truth. Never do you sacrifice truth to unify. Ladies and gentlemen, the world politics and a lot of woke churches are so big on unity that they've sacrificed everything sacred so we can have a kumbaya moment. And they have a form of religion but they deny the power thereof. The Holy Spirit when he's in control of your life and the church will be unified. It's awesome when God runs his church and his business. He knows exactly what he's doing. The best thing for us to stand away. God has blessed this church. It's got things going on all over the world. You know the stuff. I can't even keep up with it. I'm the pastor here. And I mean, we started with six people. And then this happened. You showed up. I just met a couple last service. They said, it's great to meet you. Finally, it's great to meet you. I said, oh, nice to meet you. Where are you from? Oh, we're from Northern California. We're on staff. What? Yeah, we're doing the editing for the real-life network from Jerusalem. So we've got a guy on staff in Jerusalem, several people in Jerusalem, in the news bureau in Jerusalem. And then there's people in Northern California who are doing the editing. And I signed the checks and I never spent them before. I have no idea what's going on around here. And I like it. Let God do it. Well, can't we figure it out? Don't figure it out. The moment you try to figure it out is when you mess it all up. You say, well, that takes faith. You ain't kidding. But you know what? Over the years, he's amazing. He always comes through. Discovering what's been given. Did you hear the way I'm putting that? Discovering what's been given to you, my friend. And he's been, he's given it to you to make sure that you're operating in a church where this balance, beautiful, beautiful balance. So we are to be faithful and investing in this faith. When we talk about proportion, we are to be wise in our faith. Because you know, faith is the verb. It gets up and goes. And we're to be loving in our witness. And when he says in verse six, having then gives differing. This to me is liberating. Ephesians chapter four, verse four, this is awesome. Ephesians four, verse four. There is one body, that's the church, and one spirit, capitalist notice. So he's talking about the Holy Spirit. So there's one church, and there's one Holy Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all. I love this. Listen, one God and father of y'all, who was above y'all, and through y'all, and in y'all, Paul was from the south. But to each one of us, grace was given. That sounds like Romans. According to the measure of Christ's gift. Wow. Verse 11. And he himself gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, here it is, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Next verse. Till we all look at the purpose, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect or complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's God's plan for you and I. That's God's plan for you and that you and I would so follow Jesus as we follow Jesus with one another. We are so built up that we take on the persona of Jesus in this world, that we love like Him, forgive like Him, care like Him, that we should no longer be children, but is this not describe our world today, that we should no longer be like children, toss two and throw and carry it about with every wind of doctrine. Oh, did you hear that? Did you hear what that guy said on the internet? He said this. Well, that's not in the Bible. You have the evidence. It was on the internet. Are you hearing me? This is insane. You and I live in an insane world. Watch out. Listen. In fact, listen, it's bad enough when somebody says, I'm a doctor, follow my, I'm an expert. Put the mask, two masks, four masks, nine masks, get a booster, no booster shot. Oh, what? It's like, I don't, I'm not into experts anymore. No experts. No. So when somebody says, follow me. I'm your pastor. Follow me. I'm your spiritual leader. Follow me. I'm your, I'm your, I'm your, you hear what I'm saying? As soon as they say that, step back. Might get some extra garlic around your neck. I'm kidding. I'm joking. But when somebody says something like that, watch out, because you don't know, you don't know yet. Because you're going to want to go to this verse. You're going to watch out because there's people being tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. You need to ask the question, what do you think doctrines coming from? Spiritual settings. Bad churches. Weird places. By the trickery of men. In the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. You can apply it at that. Jesus is the head. He's the head. I mentioned a few weeks ago. Some people go to churches that's got no head. Headless church. That's scary. Jesus is the head. If Jesus is not the head, there's no head at that church. We've talked a lot about today about loving one another. Michael Monsour was a Christian young man, Lebanese birth descent. United States. A Marine Corps, I believe. A Navy SEAL. Michael Monsour in Ramadi was with his SEAL team unit. They were providing protection for the Iraqi forces. As they were on top of this roof, insurgents began to circle around and to fire small and then medium arms into their area. They took up their battle positions. When that happens, the US Navy SEALs go to the front. Delta Force goes to the front. Rangers go to the front. Force recon, they go to the front. Michael Monsour is at the front of the front. Native California boy, I think he was born in Long Beach if I remember right. Went to Garden Grove High School. Michael Monsour, US Navy SEAL, was hit right in the chest with a grenade. It hit his breastplate, fell on the ground to his feet. Michael Monsour jettisoned his rifle and immediately grabbed that grenade and pulled it into his bowels and circled about laying down as he's trained to do. And in three seconds later, in three seconds, first of all, listen, three seconds is a long time. He could have grabbed that grenade and threw it back over, but he didn't know how much time had gone by. He embraces this grenade in the fetal position on the ground. It's detonated and he eventually succumbs to his wounds 30 minutes later. All the Iraqis were safe and all of his team were safe on the SEAL team. They all lived. They were all fine. And he laid down his life for his brothers. He even laid down his life for strangers, the Iraqis, on that roof that day. When his body was brought home to San Diego at his internment service where they're going to put his casket into the ground as the doors of the hearse open up and the pole bearers bring out that casket without any protocol, the U.S. Navy SEALs began to line up and they have their trident that identifies them, the coveted trident metal signifies that you are a U.S. Navy SEAL. Very few people in the world can never have such a thing. And when they brought his casket out, one guy just took one guy. Think about you. You can be in any one of these positions within this narrative in this scenario. I would submit to you and I view myself and you and I with one another this way. At any given time, you and I are any one of these players in this plot. Are you hearing me? You could be Michael Monsour in the casket or you could be a SEAL standing next to the casket. The casket's coming out without rehearsal. One of the guys tears off his trident. It puts it on top of the casket lid and cameras it in to the wood. Followed by the next seal, hammers it into the wood, the next seal, the next seal. By the time it gets to the gravesite, he's got a lid on his casket that is ornate in gold. And that casket is lowered into the ground. Michael Monsour, a Christian, a U.S. Navy SEAL who laid down his life that others might live. He gave the gift of his life. Michael Monsour was commissioned to go and do an advance freedom. Can I encourage you to consider your Christian calling greater than that? Because our calling is forever. What we do is forever. You are equipped with forever tools. And the battle won and the battle lost has eternal consequences. But I believe that we have a commander, that we have a captain, we have an admiral, we have a general. And his name is Jesus. And we advance in his name by the power of the Holy Spirit. We know that we're on mission because we have been given the task. And his Holy Spirit has given you and I at least one gift to get her done. Your life matters and I'll leave you with this. You will not know true meaningful film and happiness until you as a believer find out what that gift is. Then you'll find your purpose. And excuse my French, but hell or high water will not be able to stop you. This Jack Kibb'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.