Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: I am seeking you with all of my heart. I serve you, Lord, deliver me. Take that Bible and stand on it. You can prepare your heart for the presence of God.

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Announcer: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called First Samuel in a message titled "Getting the Victory in Life, Part One." Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets.

So here in chapter seven, Samuel prays for the people of Israel after they've suffered a devastating defeat and endured great insult to their pride. You see, it's a turning point for Israel. The people have been humbled, so they move from defeat and fear to an uplifting victory and a renewed trust in God.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that, like Israel, it's only when we live our lives dependent upon God that we're going to have any victory at all. It's about creating a life of worship towards God and the desire for victory over heartbreak and sin. Now, with his message called "Getting the Victory in Life, Part One," here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: A nation as great as ours is destined to fall. If we leave God out, we'll fall. We will falter. Now, I'm wondering if our nation wasn't on top, I bet you churches would be more packed. I'm not against prosperity. I'm for it, as long as it's used wisely.

But when we get away from that and we begin to worship the things more than the God who gives those things, who or which of you as a parent who loves your kids, if they get snotty and rebellious and selfish and mean, it's right for you to take their toys away and say you won't get this back until you learn to share.

Have you ever seen a little kid that just harbors their toys in the corner? And little Junior comes over next door to play, and everything Junior picks up, that guy grabs and says, "That's mine!" Have you ever seen that happen? You know who needs a spanking? The parents of that child.

Share, Junior. He's going to grow up. "It's all mine! It's all mine!" And if he ever gets into a church, he's going to walk into the church and be thinking, "What's this church going to do for me? How is it going to serve me?" Well, wait a minute. The church is a gathering of believers in need of God, who he touches through people. Where do you fit into the equation? "Well, I thought all these people were here for me."

Interesting. We have to be careful. We begin to compare ourselves with others that are around us. The Bible says that those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise. Why? Because the Christian is called to a greater standard. Israel was called to a greater standard, and that was for God to be their leader, God to be their King.

Tragically, we're going to get to chapter eight and they're going to throw off God and they're going to call for a man to be their leader. And boy, do things go downhill. It's terrible. Our second point tonight is found in verse three. Getting the victory in life is that we're to be living the walk of life.

Then Samuel spoke to all of the house of Israel, saying, "If you return, if you return to the Lord with all your hearts," mark that in your Bible, that's the key to the whole chapter, "all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you and prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only. He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines."

First thing we see here in verse three is that we are to stop going where we're going. That's what Israel was doing. They were heading down the wrong path, and God got their attention. But what about us? We ought to stop going the direction that we're going privately, me personally, you personally. In what direction of our lives are we going and we've been going that's not right?

That's what Samuel is saying. Verse three: "If you return to the Lord with all your hearts." You see how simple this is? But are we willing? Here's the deal. God, give me a heart to return to you. If you're not willing tonight, if I'm not willing tonight to follow him, we ought to at least ask: God, give me a heart to follow you.

So Samuel, he's not soft-shoeing these guys. He's saying, "If," notice what he does, he's a good pastor-teacher, he's a good prophet. He's saying, "Israel, if," now the burden is on them, on us. If you'll turn back to the Lord, you've got to do it with all your heart. That's the requirement. So this verse implies that they're going the wrong direction. Stop and return.

Every believer from time to time, I am talking about me and I'm talking about you, we from time to time must stop in the direction we're going and turn around. Are you accountable to anyone else in this church or Christian friends? My friend, if you're not, you are destined for failure. If you're not accountable, what do you mean accountable?

If you don't have a Christian friend who can freely speak to you about the Bible, who can say to you, "Hey John, I don't think we ought to be doing this," you're destined for failure spiritually. You better make sure, and only you can do this for you and I have to do it for me, is to surround yourself with people that will challenge you spiritually. If you don't, you're going to go down. Something's going to happen.

Now, listen. What if I surrounded myself with people in this church who were just yes men, yes people? I can tell you the last ten years would have been disastrous. Churches that do that stifle people. They bruise people. They break people because it becomes a self-serving ministry that the ministry leaders begin to say or think that all of these people are here for us.

The exact opposite's true. The leadership is here for all of the people. Christian leadership, the lines or the names begin at the bottom. And the weakest, newest, shiniest, brand-newest Christian is at the top. And he's got this foundation of servants under him holding him up. And the pastor, the evangelist, the servants of the church are at the bottom.

This is important. Have we lost it? Isn't it wild that on Sunday I could show up on Sunday wearing a robe? Honestly, a robe. I don't mean a bathrobe. I mean a religious robe. A religious robe with the tassels and the whole thing. You know some people would walk in here and they'd just go, "Oh, that's so cool. Yeah."

And it doesn't matter to them because they won't talk to me anyway. I'm some guy so far away up on this pulpit, so far removed because that's how they were brought up, that the ministry is some sort of special group of people. I would hope by now that you have learned that that doesn't happen here. But see, when we begin to compare ourselves and we begin to go in the wrong direction, we begin to look to people.

We begin to get really religious and not so relational with God and the people around us. We file in, we file out, and "I don't want to meet the pastor. This is between us." I love greeting people as they leave the building. The only bummer is there's more doors than that one door. But when the new church is built, the whole foyer, I mean, that's my baby.

I told the guys, "You can fiddle with anything else you want, but don't mess with that foyer," because these doors open up and I want to greet these people. And the funny thing about it is I see people even in this little hallway down here, they're coming down the hallway and they see me and you can see their throat tighten up.

And they're, and I don't know what they're thinking, that I'm going to scare them or I don't know. But I want to when I see that happen. I want to be like, "Hey! What you so tight about?" It's really a temptation for me. But some people it's just... and it's funny because I meet people. I just met a couple last Sunday who had been here for just a few weeks.

Last Wednesday night, I met a couple and the whole family who had been here for the first time last Wednesday night. And then I meet people who say, "Hi, Pastor Jack. I've been here six years," and I'm thinking, "Six years!" And then I'm wondering, I don't even remember seeing them. Then I wonder, did they get the right church? It's funny. Be accountable to people. Know people. Get to know people. Don't isolate yourself.

Announcer: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: So he says, "If you return to the Lord with all of your heart," also, look, then he goes on to say, "then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you." Start doing what we should be doing. We should do what we should do. Follow the Lord with all of our hearts. Put away the foreign gods.

You might say, "Well, that doesn't apply to us." Wait a minute. The Ashtoreths. Are you ready for this? That's pornography. Are we not living in a pornographic age? The Ashtoreths were a bunch of little pornographic idols. And you would take an Ashtoreth idol, and there were many of them, by the way, they've all been unearthed.

And they have all these various perverse positions of sexual acts. And you would take this Ashtoreth and you would go down, you'd buy it at the agora, and you would take it into the temple area and you would there meet with the temple priests or prostitutes and worship that god. That's what they did. Israel's doing it. Samuel's saying, "Put away the pornography."

Okay, now does it apply to this age in which we live? Going to my doctor in Beverly Hills, just about ten doors down from my doctor is Larry Flynt's office. Flynt Publications, Penthouse Magazine. And I drive by that building, and people coming in and out with ties and dresses and Beamers and Rolls-Royces, and they look so like, "Oh, that's how I want to be." So world, right?

But what they're doing is they're bartering and trading in the souls of men. Did you know that? And it's a huge black high-rise. They got the color right. And I drive by that building, and it's right on the corner there of La Cienega and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. And I drive by there and I say, every time I go by, "Lord, send an earthquake underneath this building."

Of course, save the people first. But send an earthquake, break those presses, destroy those things. But you know what? That's the Ashtoreth of today. You say, "I don't have a little carving." Oh no, no. We've perfected it. We've put it in technicolor and video. We've put it in magazines and shopping center corners and peep shops and movies and adult toy stores, and prostitute the people, traffic in the souls of men, all for the dollar bill.

Don't be fooled when you're tempted to read that love novel and "Oh, I wish my husband was romantic like this goofball in this book." That is a form of Ashtoreth because now he comes home and he's, if he's like me, sweaty and belly's hanging out and "I'm hungry!" She's been reading this book all day. He swept me in his arms, his lips were like velvet, the wind was blowing and all you could smell was sweet magnolias.

The woman's things in her mind, she's thinking about it all day. And the guy's on the freeway, he's listening to the Angels get beat by the Yankees and he comes in, "I'm hungry! It's hot!" And she's thinking, "Oh, brother. Look at this guy." But listen, Satan's got his plan. All that guy has to do is sit down with his Pop-Tart or whatever he's got.

And he's sitting there, and lo and behold, there's a stinking Victoria's Secret commercial. Listen, Victoria's Secret. You ladies are going, "What's wrong with that?" Ask your husband or your son what's wrong with that. If your husband or son's walking with the Lord, you'll see them look down or they'll get out of the room.

Over Victoria's Secret? Hey, that's all a guy needs. And Larry Flynt knows it. Hugh Hefner knows it. Because it's in the human heart to go after Ashtoreths and Baals, pornographic worship. That's who these gods were. Times haven't changed, have they? The heart of the man that is lost is the same, and the temptation that Satan brings to the believer is the same.

But I'm telling you, as we were praying this evening, boy, as our prayer meeting turned toward husbands and fathers, those of us who were here, did you hear the cry of mothers and women rise in prayer? I noticed that. And as cries were even mentioned in the prayer meeting, "God, deliver this man from pornography."

It's horrible, it leads you and opens you up to demonic activity in your home even if you are a Christian. Demonic activity will invade your home. Be careful. Get away from it. Samuel says, "Depart from that. Put it away." Follow God with all of your heart. That's taking a proactive position.

Proverbs three, verses five and six: "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart," says the Bible, "and lean not on your own understanding. And in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths." Great verse, Proverbs 3:5-6. Take a proactive stance. Start doing what we should be doing. What do we do? Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord. Start doing what's right. What's the Jesus style of doing things?

Thirdly, under this point, we need to be going forward with God. He says in verse three, "Prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only." I would mark that in your Bible. I've got it marked: serve. And my flesh says: me only. Serve whatever your interest is only. No, God says: serve me only. And he, Samuel says, will deliver you.

That's a promise. Man, you can take this verse and say, "God, you said, I am seeking you with all of my heart. I serve you. Lord, deliver me." Take that Bible and stand on it. You can prepare your heart for the presence of God. We need to be careful about that, people, because the temptation is to go home tonight and not prepare our hearts for his presence.

And also as we need to serve him, and that is talking about worship and adoration of him. You see, you're thinking, well, maybe service... no, no, it's not doing. It's worshiping him. I tell you, when you're worshiping him, if you're a worshiper, trials come but trials go and you're walking in victory.

Every worshiper I know has trials in their lives, but you can tell the worshipers from the non-worshipers because the worshipers have got such a different vantage point of perspective, and the non-worshiper is just panicking. And the non-worshiper, the believer who's not involved in worship, is usually the first person to run to the assistance of man.

A worshiper of God who's in tune with the Lord will run to the Lord and say, "Father, help me. Lord, be my deliverer. Show me." And that's when God begins to speak. And listen, want to give you a little clue here: those worshipers, they come out of their trials much more faster. They get out of the hospital, so to speak, quicker because they learn and they have learned to rest in the hands of their loving Savior.

That is a Christian trick, a secret insight which shouldn't be a secret at all. It should be commonplace for all of us. Worship the Lord, adore him, and watch the victory come. Take time to worship him alone in your life. You don't need to raise your hand, but how many of you are going to commute tomorrow? Turn off whatever's on and put on worship.

Have you ever looked around while you're on the freeway? I drive my daughter to West Covina every day. And you look out the car, you see people and they're yapping away. They're talking to whoever the disc jockeys are. You would think there's a ton of people in the car. They're singing, they're laughing, they're carrying on. You'd think that there's a whole meeting taking place. They're all by themselves.

When we pull up behind a car that's got the "Jesus said, Come after me" sticker. By the way, if you were going up the 57 freeway this morning in your Ford Excursion, what's the big one? Yeah, Excursion. It's so cool because you have that white, that big white Excursion and you had that "Jesus said, Come after me" sticker on the back.

And whenever we see that sticker in our car, from our car, we see you go by, we pray out loud instantly. And we just say, "Lord, bless them! Lord, give them a great day! Lord, bless whatever they touch! May it bring you honor!" So whoever you are with that car at 7:50 this morning, you're going down the freeway and my daughter and I were sitting there.

And I saw you get radically cut off by that guy in that Toyota. But the cool thing was as you passed us, I saw the sticker and said, "Lord, bless them and cause all that they put their hand to to prosper." And wham! That guy cut in front of you. But by God's grace, you got to keep going. Who knows? I don't know, but I want to believe that God had engineered that moment. I got a chance to see your sticker, knew that you were a believer, prayed for you, and God's protection was on you.

Announcer: Pastor Jack continues his message next time on Real Life Radio. This is David J. Real Life Radio is the broadcast ministry of Pastor Jack Hibbs. Our mission is to pass on to you the truth that changes lives. To learn more about this ministry, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.

Real Life with Jack Hibbs is a ministry for you to come alive in Christ. Join us on our quest for the truth, God's truth. God bless you as you follow him and start living the real life. Real life, real truth, real people, Real Life Network. Real Life Radio. Jack Hibbs. Real Life.