Real Life Radio

Of course, here's your clean verbatim transcript:

Jack Hibbs: When somebody goes, "I’m giving $5,000," you better enjoy that moment, because you just had your reward. When somebody goes, "Who’s that guy that gave the $5,000? He's right over there." Enjoy it, pal, you've had your reward. We should give in a way that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing.

David J: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J. Thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Announcer (Female): The culture is shifting, pressure is rising, faith is being tested. Now is the moment to take a stand. Pastor Jack Hibbs' brand new book, *Called to Take a Bold Stand: Resilient and Effective Faith for a Godless Age*, is not just another Christian read. It's a call to action, a roadmap for every believer who longs to live with courage when the world demands compromise.

With biblical truth, real-life conviction, and a forward from Franklin Graham, Jack equips you to face fear without flinching, stand strong when others fall away, live with purpose, clarity, and holy sacrifice in a chaotic world. This is the moment to rise above intimidation, to hold fast to truth, and to let your faith influence a culture desperate for light. Don't wait. Order *Called to Take a Bold Stand* by Pastor Jack Hibbs for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/realradio. That's jackhibbs.com/realradio.

Announcer (Male): On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called *First Samuel* and a message titled "Getting the Victory in Life, Part Two." Samuel of the Old Testament was, of course, the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets. So as we continue now in chapter seven, we'll learn how to live a victorious Christian life with hope and a renewed vision to start doing what we should be doing.

You see, we often take the baggage of our old life and what we've gone through and project the trouble we've had onto God. Instead, we just need to keep the good and acknowledge that God is good, not just sometimes, but always. So today Pastor Jack teaches us that as Israel cried out to Samuel in their terror over the enemy, we also need to be aware of our weaknesses. If we give fear and weakness over to the Lord, he's going to lead us forward and be with us even in our most difficult of times. Now with his message called "Getting the Victory in Life, Part Two," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Johnny's lying in bed and he says, "Ma, I don't want to go to church today." "Well, you gotta go." Johnny pulls the covers up over his head. "I don't want to go to church today, Ma." "You've got to go." "Why today? You've got to go. Now come on, we've always gone, we're gonna go." He pulls the covers up higher over his head. "I don't want to go to church today." She said, "Listen to me. There's going to be a lot of people coming, we need to go, and besides, you're the pastor."

But listen, the truth is, you may wake up on Sunday and you don't want to go, you don't want to come. You ever had the flesh do that to you? That's the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. The spirit says, "Come on, let's go worship. I want to worship." And the flesh says, "Man, I don't want to get out of this bed."

And the spirit says, "Come on, let's go meet some friends. Let's go." And the flesh says, "I'm hungry." And the spirit says, "You know what? I want to learn about what God wants to say to my life now, this week, right now. I need to go. Come on, let's go." And the flesh is screaming and moaning, looking for reasons. And I tell you, it is good that we come and we worship the Lord.

I don't feel like it. You know what? I know, but prepare your heart and serve him only. When you come this coming Sunday, you're going to be coming, did you know, to serve him. Really? I'm not signed up in any ministry. No, no, you're coming to serve him. When you come and you lift your hands or you sing the songs, when you study the word—did you know studying is a form of worship also?

Listen, frankly, let's be honest about it. If you put a dollar in the offering, that's worship. Did you know that? Read your Bible. It's worship. It's worship in giving. There's worship in singing. There's worship in study. You know what? Your life is just nothing but a big worship thing. We're Christians now. Prepare your heart, serve the Lord.

Point number three tonight: getting the victory in life is living a dedicated life. To live a dedicated life. So the children of Israel, verse four, put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and they served the Lord only. And Samuel said, "Gather all of Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord there for you." So they gathered together at Mizpah and listen, they, number one, drew water. Number two, they poured it out before the Lord. Number three, and they fasted that day. Number four, they said, "We have sinned against the Lord." And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

Does this sound scary? First of all, if you read it backwards, at Mizpah, Samuel judged them. They confessed their sins, having spoken of what they've erred in before God. You think, "Oh, it must have been terrible." The exact opposite. Confession's a relief. Confession's freedom. When the scripture says Samuel judged them, it doesn't mean he stood up there on a rock with a big mallet. "Alright, who's next? Confess!" "I stole that guy's rock." "Shame on you!" That's not what happened.

It's not like some line to get swatted. He discerned amongst them, helping them back into the presence of God. That's what his job was. Hey, that's my job. I love it. See, the cool thing is, Samuel is anointed to be the judge in Israel. See, your mind and my mind sees him putting on a long black robe because he's going to execute judgment. No.

He discerned their hearts. God gave him insights into them. And as they came, they confessed their sins to the Lord. Now, Samuel had no ability, no power whatsoever according to scripture, both Old and New Testament alike, to forgive sins. We as believers have been given the privilege in the New Testament to acknowledge the forgiveness of sins, or listen, and we've been given this high privilege, frightening at times, to even look at someone's life and talk to them.

And they might say something to us like, "I don't want Jesus. I don't want him in my life. I don't want anything to do with God." And according to scripture, we can turn to them and say, "Your sin remains upon you." What are we doing? Are we passing judgment? No. If somebody comes repenting, we can say to them, "Your sins are forgiven."

What are we doing? Are we exercising the power to forgive their sins? No. We're recognizing in scripture what the Bible says, that when a person confesses to the Lord, he forgives them. And in saying so, as the New Testament tells us to, that when they confess, we say to them, "Your sins are forgiven." We're agreeing with the transaction between them and God. But if somebody says, "I don't want anything to do with God," then we can honestly say to them, "You know what, my friend? I'm going to pray for you, but your sins are still upon you. I just want you to know that as you go, your sins are still upon you. Your sin remains."

Isn't that heavy? I think that's heavy. Samuel discerned among the people, pointed them to God. Verse six, we see here that living a dedicated life means that we give what costs something to God. We give what cost him. It says, so they gathered together at Mizpah and they drew water and they poured it out before the Lord. This is a precious thing. Think about being in Death Valley and having a bucket of Sparkletts water.

I mean, the first thing you want to do is protect that water from getting evaporated, right? Well, think about how precious and priceless that water is. It's life. When they come to Mizpah, they pour water out before the Lord. They draw it first of all, and then they pour it out before the Lord as an offering to God. Listen, in all of our lives, what we do, it should cost us something to worship the Lord or else it's not an offering.

Jack, I don't know what that means in my life. That's for you to find out. It's for you to find out. A while ago, I had someone ask me and I didn't know even how to respond at first. Later, I was able to talk by phone, but one of the questions that came up was, "I only give five dollars to the church and do you think I'm okay with God?" Well, this is a brand new believer. It was so fun to call them up and say, "Listen, your five bucks, because your heart is so right with God, your five bucks, in my opinion, God is probably making 5,000 bucks out of it, or 50 million dollars out of it."

Because your heart is so right, you want to give more, but you only give five bucks. But to you, it's only five bucks and it's all you can give, but God sees that as a million bucks. Remember the widow and her little mite? The little widow's mite, the little tiny—it's like a quarter of the size of a penny. What did Jesus say about her offering? He said, "Hey, you guys, this woman gave more than all of these people have given." In the mind of God, in the heart of God, he knows it all. He knows your heart.

Some people, they have millions and they put their five bucks in. But even that is good if they give with the right heart. It would be wrong for them to give a million bucks with a rotten heart. You know what I'm saying? They write that check, one million bucks. Offering comes by, there it goes. "Well, God, I hope you're happy. I hope they don't blow it. I can't believe I'm doing that."

Stop. Rewind. Take your check out. Keep it. Because the scripture says that God loves a cheerful giver. You know what? Frankly, man, I tell you, when the offering—I mean, don't do this on Sunday, you'll scare somebody. But can you imagine when the offering comes by, we ought to be able to go, "Woo-hoo! Hallelujah! Alright, here it comes, it's coming down our row! Alright! Yeah! Praise the Lord!" You know?

But out west here, in the western world, we're so funny. We're like this. And then we fold it, and create fold it, and create fold it. And it comes by and it's like... "Is it gone? It's gone." I'd rather though have that than a certain church I will not mention, where people verbally at the offering were saying, "I'm going to give 1,000 bucks!" During the service! And this is wild. You know what happens? This is exactly what happened. "I'm going to give $1,000."

About four seats over, "I'm giving $1,500!" By the time they're around, "I'm giving $5,000!" Can you believe that? You know what, all I could think of was when Jesus says they've had their reward. You better enjoy that moment, because you just had your reward. When somebody goes, "Who gave? Who's the guy that gave the 5,000? He's right over there." I wonder what he does. I wonder if he's hiring. Enjoy it, pal, you've had your reward. We should give in a way that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing. It should be quiet. But inside your heart, it should be percolating with joy and excitement about anything you do for the Lord.

You men that are going to go up to Twin Peaks and work on the complex. You don't want to go up there—can you imagine sitting in a pickup truck with a friend? It's like, "Oh man, what are we doing?" "Well, we're going to go up the mountain and serve the Lord." "Oh, brother, well..." and whining and whining. You know what? Just pull over and drop that guy off the side of the road. Because you know what, man, that'd be a drag if you're swinging hammers and stuff and someone's going, "I got a callus! I'm tired!" Wait a minute, if it's from your heart, go for it. We make it so complicated.

Announcer (Male): You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: Living a dedicated life also means that we need to be refusing often what is desirable. Look what they did. They fasted that day. They denied their fleshly appetite to let God know and one another, "We're serious about following the Lord. We're serious." They refuse what's desirable. They fasted. Look, not only that, they said—they made confession. Fasting is equal to expression and confession is equal to agreement with God. And they said, "We've sinned against the Lord," and Samuel judged them.

Our fourth point tonight, verses seven through nine: getting the victory in life is this—living life, a life dependent upon God. It says, "Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines." So the children of Israel said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines." And Samuel took a suckling or a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering before the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered his prayer.

What do we learn from this? Verse seven, that we need to be, in living a dependent life upon God, aware of our weakness. This is a great thing. Listen, people don't want to hear what I'm about to say. I gotta tell you, being aware of our weaknesses is one of the strongest things that you can experience in the Christian faith. Let me explain. First of all, verse seven, the children of Israel heard of it—that is, the enemy was forming a battle plan against them—and they were, what does your Bible say? They were afraid.

Now listen, I'm glad about that. Say, "Well, wait a minute, perfect love cast out all fear." This is true, I understand that, but this is a different setting. They were afraid because in light of their enemy, they were doomed. But what did they do? See, this is not the type of being afraid to where they give up and roll over and play dead. They were afraid, so they turned and what did they do? They cried out to Samuel and said, "Talk to God for us."

That's a good thing. Be aware of your weakness. Why? Because take those things and give them to the Lord and see what he does with them. And listen, I'm going to volunteer every one of us in this room tonight. We are all weak in areas. Every one of us. Every one of us.

I tell you, and I've told you before, I freak about standing in front of you guys teaching the Bible. I get all goofy inside, my stomach, my mouth gets dry, I start to get a panic rush beforehand. I'm trying to enjoy the worship and fear—and I can't even identify it. It's like, "Where's this coming from? What is this thought I'm having?" And these thoughts—can I be this candid with you or what? Yeah, you say "yeah" now and then you're going to write me a note. "I can't believe it!"

But I tell you, there are so many times I'm dreading the walk up to the pulpit because I'm thinking, "God, please show up. Please do something with this message that makes no sense to me." I'll study all week and it makes sense all week. Then Sunday morning I get up and I'm going, "What was I thinking?" And I have to come and I'm thinking, "God help me, God please."

And then the other thing is, I'm always wondering on Saturday nights with all the effort, the prayer that's gone into preparation, I'm always thinking, "Lord, is anyone going to show up on Sunday morning?" I think this every Saturday night. "Lord, is anyone coming tomorrow?" And I can't believe people pull up. I'm looking out my window out of my office going, "This is both great and pathetic. God, thank you that they're coming, but what am I going to say?"

It's a scary thing. I'm often afraid. And then someone will say, "Will you come and speak?" And the Lord and I made a deal a long time ago that if the offer comes, I'll pray that God would not want me to go, that I'm going to go. "Lord, if you don't want me to go, just not have it happen. Because I'm going to use my body for you until I die, so I'm going to go and do this. If you don't want me to go, you stop it from happening. I'm very open to you stopping it." And I'll go.

And it's a weird, torturous thing because flying there or driving there, I'm thinking, "God, what am I going to say? Talk to me, okay? Tell me whatever. Go ahead, you can talk right now. It'd be great if you told me what to say." It's a weird thing. And Paul said it perfectly. He says, "We die daily." And I gotta tell you, I die daily. It's the weirdest thing.

But the good thing is, "Lord, keep letting me die. You live your life through me as much as you want, please. Keep me out of the way and do your thing." Because I tell you, sometimes it's very, very good to be afraid. I love seeing a little kid when they're afraid. They hide right behind their dad's knee. Have you noticed that? They hang onto his calf or his knee or his thigh and they just peek out once in a while. That's a great place to be.

Announcer (Male): Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called "Getting the Victory in Life, Part Two." So glad you took the time to be with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called *First Samuel*. It's a series that highlights the prophet Samuel who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest ages to bring the people back to a true heart of worship. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

David J: Pastor Jack, tell me about the new book. Are you excited?

Jack Hibbs: More than excited. It's Summarizing the entire book. It's about faith that is resilient and effective in a godless age.

David J: This age that we're in right now.

Jack Hibbs: We are in a godless age. We're in a post-Christian world. The question is, how does a Christian thrive? How do we take a stand when the culture is against us? That's what the book is about. Every chapter is a call to action.

David J: That's right. And it's available now at jackhibbs.com. Check it out. It's a great read. Pastor, thanks for your time today.

Jack Hibbs: Thank you, David. God bless.

David J: God bless you. Join us next time for more Real Life Radio.