Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: When you experience real love, it is true, it is raw. Listen, it is vigilant, it is aggressive, and it's all those things, tender, kind. Because listen, like a surgeon uses a scalpel, that's how love is.

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

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On today's very special Easter Passion Week edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his message called Live: Jesus Christ is the Only Life to Live. We're so glad you could spend some of this Easter week with us. This Passion Week of Easter celebrates the coming of the Messiah from his triumphant entry into Jerusalem to his death on the cross to his glorious resurrection. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that Jesus is the only life to live because we're looking to be rescued, even loved and accepted, and only Christ can really love us and fill our lives with purpose. Now with his Passion Week message called Live: Jesus Christ is the Only Life to Live, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Solomon discovered yet again he needed the help of God. In Mark's Gospel chapter eight, verse thirty-six, the Bible says, Jesus said it, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the entire world and loses his own soul?" Wow. And what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

You know what's amazing? Today, Falcon 9 was launched this morning right at sunrise service. And what a day, right? We had sunrise service. We had red-tail hawks buzzing the heads of the people at the service. That was fun. We didn't even order that and it happened. And then the rocket goes streaking across the sky. And all of that incredible glory of it all.

And I appreciate Elon Musk for scheduling it for Easter resurrection sunrise service, but listen, he's the richest man in the world. But without Jesus Christ, he's actually the poorest man in the world. Because listen, he can't send his money, even if he put all of his money in a rocket, he can't send it to heaven. But listen, you and I can connect with heaven immediately because God came to us in Jesus to show us and to give us all the help that we need.

Why? Because listen, we need a change. You and I need a change in our lives. Our lives need to be changed. That's the help we begin with. How can I help you? Number one, I need a change. Be honest. You need a change in your life. Some of us have experienced that change, but the change that Jesus does is this: He starts with you and you know he's doing it because you can't do it, and he won't stop doing it until you drop dead.

When the believer dies, you know what happens? It's when we outgrow our body. We go home to heaven. The Bible says he begins a work in you that he will not stop until the day that he finishes it. If you're not a Christian today, you need to experience this. We're not perfect, but he's working on us. We're under construction. He's working on us. Only Christ can do that.

And the Bible teaches, let's be honest everybody, I don't want to mess this up. Many times today in our world around us, you'll see churches on their marquee say, "Come as you are. Come as you are. Come as you are." This is true. You can come as you are. Jesus says, "You come to me." Come as you are. Well, what does that mean? I don't know, whatever it means to you. Just come. Come as you are, but know this, the Bible says you're going to leave somebody totally different.

God says come as you are, just know this, when you come to him, he says, "I love you so much I'm not going to have you leave the same way you came. I'm going to transform your life. I'm going to change the way that you think. I'm going to change the way that you live." So listen, if you don't want to have a life change, then tune me out, because I'm going to be giving you arguments for God helping you and me by changing our lives.

The Bible says in Second Corinthians chapter five, verse seventeen, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ," I love that word what it means, "in Christ," he's a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Do you want that in your life? I want that in my life. I don't know if you guys ever go to Balboa Island, but you should go every Sunday afternoon. I'll meet you down there. Balboa Island. Why? What's it worth going for?

They have this block of vanilla ice cream on a stick. It's all it is. It's just vanilla. And I don't get excited until I say, "One Balboa Bar, please." And they'll say, "Do you want it dipped in chocolate?" Yeah. "Do you want nuts on it?" Lots of nuts on it. And you watch them and they grab that boring vanilla bar and they dip it once and twice, three times it's dipped. And then it's rolled around in the nuts and then they hand it to you and you just wander off to some private spot away from the grandkids and you start eating this thing. Nobody, you know, I mean that's an act of war if somebody tries to take that from you.

A boring life as it were, dipped in the glory of what Jesus offers. "I will give you life," he said, "I will give it to you more abundantly." God will transform your life. We see these things in life that we recognize. What a sweet, beautiful pleasure that is. And the Bible says it's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance.

When you and I see the morning come like we did this morning, we should say, "There is a God in heaven." Every day that morning greets you. And God says in his Bible every morning morning's going to happen, and he says every evening evening's going to happen because he said, "I say so. That's why." Don't you love when he talks like that?

My God is strong. In John chapter six, verse thirty-seven, Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me will come to me." You're going to experience this at the end of the message. God knows you. And for some of you this morning, he knows what's about to happen to you even though you don't. You might be here today and you're going to say, "I'm not, nothing's going to happen to me, Pastor." God might speak to you today. And if he does, he's going to draw you. Look, watch this.

They will come to me. And the one who comes to me, Jesus said, "I will by no means cast out." He's saying, "I'm not going to refuse you if you come to me. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." It's the will of God the Father that you today choose to follow Jesus Christ. Did you know that? Did you hear what I just said? Not become a member of this church. We don't want your membership. We don't even have membership. We don't want your money. We want you to know Jesus. We want you to go with him all the way.

There's no agenda. Also this, not only change, but power. We need power. The world is screaming and trying to act like it's got power. The world has no power. You and I need power. If God's going to help us, we need a change and we need power. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, listen to this, the power that Jesus gives starts like this: In Revelation chapter three, verse twenty, "Behold, I stand at the door," Jesus said, "and I knock. If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him," the word is reside, set up residence, "and will sup," see the word sup, it means "I will eat with him and he with me."

The power of God is this, friends. It's not to blow things up or it's not to move things over and it's not to flex. The power of God is to move inside of your life. And when Christ moves inside just as he promised, "I will come in to you and I will set up residence in your life," and you'll never go through life alone again. And God, listen, when he sets up camp in your life, he begins to go to work in your life and by the power of God, he changes you. Do not attempt to change yourself.

You want to change yourself? Go to a Tony Robbins self-help course. Knock yourself out. That's good for you. That's great. But listen, when it comes to your soul, experiencing eternal life and forgiveness, no positive thinker or movement's going to help you. Only Jesus can do this. And he does it by his power. So many times in religion we think that we can somehow reform ourselves. We can't do it.

The Bible says in the book of Acts chapter one, verse eight, we read it a moment ago, I want to read it again: "But you shall receive," what's the word? Power. By the way, the Greek word is dynamite. Isn't that cool? That's where we get the word dynamite in English. This is *dunamus* in Greek. It means, "But you shall receive explosive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."

The power of God. How does that work? When your life is changed, folks, listen, when your life is changed for real, and this is how God rolls, whatever he does he does for real. When your life is changed for real, you can't shut up about that. Listen, come on, you know when you find something really exciting and thrilling you got to tell everybody about. You post it. "I just found this dress at Nordstrom's," and you post it. Or, "Hey, man, there's a basketball sale right now, Big Five," you post it.

When your life is changed, you will post it. You will post it when you say to somebody, "Hey, listen, I got good news for you." Or, "I know how you feel." Or, "I know what it's like." Because Jesus took me from this pit and he brought me into this experience. And people will say something like this: "I don't want religion." Oh, I don't either, friend. We're not talking religion here.

We're talking about he the Bible said would come, be born in Bethlehem, live a perfect life, fulfill all the requirements of the law, then die on the cross for my sins, but on the third day be resurrected from the dead, who ascended back to heaven and said, "If you believe in me, you'll live forever, and if you believe in me, you'll be born again, you'll be born anew," and just you just continue on. My Holy Spirit will see to it. And someday I'm going to come back for you or for the whole bunch of yous. I'm going to come back and pick you up. And he's going to make it very, very clear that you and I will be in heaven with him forever.

The third thing under this point is peace. Oh, when was the last time you had peace? And I'm talking about real peace that causes you to fall asleep in the midst of chaos. Peace. Let's be honest, we're Americans. We are officially the most drug-consuming culture in the world, America. We take more emotionally calming drugs than anyone else in America, and then we wake up and take the most emotional energizing drugs in the world. America does.

How sad is that? America, the most drug-addicted culture in the world. But do you have peace? When the drug wears off, do you have peace? When the drink is gone, do you have peace? I thank God for this young generation. They remind me of forty years ago, when everybody had sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Freedom, we don't want materialism, we want, what's the old saying by Timothy Leary, tune in, tune how's it go? Any of you that look, I'm asking the drug addicts, they can't remember because their brains are fried. Tune in, turn on, drop out. I don't know, I didn't do drugs.

But you know what I'm saying? It's happening again. And the kids are all done with it. They're sick of it. They're fed up with it. The young people are fed up with drugs. They're fed up with the sex. They're fed up with everything. And you know what? There's something going on in America. Young people are coming to know Christ all throughout the United States.

Why? Because they want a change. They found out that they have no power and they found out that they have no peace. And Jesus offers peace. And listen, some of you may be running from Jesus. But I find it amazing that the Hollywood scene, come on, think about it. Still California. I know we get a bad rep, bad government, I know all that stuff, it hurts to live here, it's expensive, I understand all that. I'm living it with you. But here's the deal. You know what California has exported some of the most tremendous things all around the world. From the Gold Rush to, you name it, right? Computers. All here.

And but the number one exportation of California is culture. Did you know that? You can't put a price on that. And isn't it interesting that the epicenter of culture in America is Hollywood? And what does Hollywood do, one movie after another, is they try to convince you to get entertained by the next superhero.

Why do we want a superhero? Because the truth of the matter is we want somebody to come in on with a white hat, on a white horse. We want a knight to come and rescue us, do we not? We want the story to end in the midst of total defeat, at the last moment we're victorious because our hero has come. I would submit to you today that all of the stuff that Hollywood tries to put out is not only spiritually based, I believe in some way they're trying to find Jesus without recognizing Jesus. So they create a Tony Stark or an Iron Man or a Superman.

My Superman was first the eternal God who came to this world and he humbled himself. And he allowed himself to be spit on, rejected, mocked, and ridiculed because he knew that the end goal was your soul with him in heaven forever. And listen, you need that peace. You need the peace that passes that understanding. I'm going to show you a little picture here of peace. Everybody loves this. Look at Jesus running after that little dumb lamb. Look at him. He got himself in trouble. How did he get himself in trouble like that? He ran away from the shepherd.

Jesus said, "Listen," Jesus said, "I'm going to leave the ninety-nine and go after the one that's missing, the one that ran away." Look at him. Look. Just look at him. He doesn't look very smart. And you can tell he's all dirty now. Listen, whenever you run away from Jesus, you're not very smart. You're going to get really dirty. And at some point you're going to get scared. Now obviously this is a rendering, but I love that blurred image of Jesus running with zeal and purpose coming after you, the little lamb who's away from the Lord.

David J: You're listening to Real Life Radio 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: But I love that blurred image of Jesus running with zeal and purpose coming after you, the little lamb who's away from the Lord. And you know what, you can look at it this way. Think about all that mud and all that dirt just being your sin on you. I used to have sin like that on me. On June twentieth, nineteen seventy-seven, I didn't even know it, but I ran head-on into Jesus.

He knew what was going on. I didn't know. But boy, did he show me. I didn't have this kind of a picture, but he showed me my sin. I was devastated. I thought I didn't think anybody knew, except a few people I sinned with. And everything flashed in front of my face on that Monday night. And then the question was asked of the whole congregation that was sitting there: "If you died tonight, why would God let you into heaven?" I had no answer because I couldn't say, "I'm good," because I knew I had mud all over my wool.

Jesus saves. In Matthew eighteen, the Bible says, "For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost. What do you think?" Jesus says, "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray."

Is that you today? What if it is you today? What a great day this is. You know what God is saying to you? He's saying, "I knew you were going to be here today, you little lamb you. And I'm here to save you. You have wandered away." And Jesus is calling you home. He's calling you back. In John fourteen: twenty-seven, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you." I love that. Do you believe that? I believe that. Peace I leave with you. We have no problem with that, do we? Why would you not want that? Can you imagine somebody saying, "I don't want. Wait, Jesus, wait, you're the one bringing the peace? I don't want it."

Isn't that interesting? Amazon brings stuff to your door every day and you never said, "I don't want this." You'll even take it if you don't know what it is. What if Jesus came to your door and say, "Got some peace here. Want some peace?" "Sure. Who's giving it? Jesus? I'm Jesus." "Wait a minute." Have you ever noticed why there's this bizarre unexplainable aversion about Jesus? What did he ever do to you? Except die in your place at the cross? I'm going to submit to you today that's a spiritual event. It's a spiritual issue. You don't even know why.

Because my friend, listen, you need a change. He's the power to do it and you need peace in your life. Number two is this: because your life and my life, we need love. We need love. When I say that, love, love. All kinds of things pop up in your mind. What is love? What's love? First of all, there's only one love. It's revealed in the Bible. The Bible says, "God is love."

Now guys, are you still awake? I know you're a lot of new people. You're saying, "Aren't you done yet?" I'm just getting started. Listen, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Here's the thing. In our world that you and I live in, we see real ridiculous statements that could never pass first grade, first grade logic course or philosophy for that matter. And it's words like this, statements like this: "Love is love."

Now look, that may upset some of you. I just want you to think this through for a moment. Love is love. Number one, you cannot say that unless you have a definition of what love is. See, you and I live in a world right now that wants this world wants to live in a world without a dictionary. That old Merriam-Webster gets in the way every time.

Love. The Bible says, "God is love." Let me put it in a non-truth. "Love is not God. God is love, but love is not God." Because God loves. He loves perfectly and he reveals to us what actual love is. But when we say love the way we want is our God, it means that there's a love that we invent that really justifies everything that we want to do in our life. And if you have it that way, then listen, this God thing doesn't get so messy because we've put him in a box again and stuffed him back into the backside of the desert so to speak.

And we are going to love what we want to love the way that we define it. And God says you can't do that. Here's the reason why: "Because I love you," God said, "I define love, and when you experience real love, it is true, it is raw. Listen, it is vigilant, it is aggressive, and it's all those things, tender, kind." Because listen, like a surgeon uses a scalpel, that's how love is.

God begins to speak to us in love and he addresses some things. Listen to this: "The Lord has appeared unto me of old saying, 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you.'" The love that God loves you with is an everlasting love. You and I fall in love with people and then we're concerned if they'll love us back. And let me ask you this: how long will those who love you love you?

You see, you just made my point. God will love you, the real love, which is forever. Even though you and I have wandered from God or you and I have lived our lives as weak human beings in this fallen world and we're subject to temptation and to sin, God loves us anyway. And that's why Jesus went to the cross. He's the answer. He's the manifestation of God's love for us.

John chapter ten, verse nine says, "I am the door and if anyone enters by me, he will be saved." This is God speaking. "And will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come," this is Jesus speaking, "I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd." Wow. Let him love you. If he's coming after you, stop. Let him catch you.

We know this, acceptance. This is a big deal. Your life needs love. Let's be honest. Your life needs acceptance, too. You see, what do I mean by acceptance? It's a good question. I'm glad you asked. I'm just going to put it bluntly in my notes. Some of you have my notes. It says there in page six: Jesus Christ is the only one who could really love you. And all this world, it's Jesus Christ who really loves you. And that's not a slam on those who love you in this life. But their love can only go so far. Jesus' love for you tells you the truth and he'll do something about it in your life.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, with his special Easter Passion Week message called Live: Jesus Christ is the Only Life to Live. Thanks for spending this part of your Easter season with us. Our prayer is that in celebrating Passion Week, you'll come to realize the urgency to come to Christ, knowing that he is the only way to eternal life. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Hey everybody, have you ever thought about what's after life? Do you know that the Bible teaches life is after life? If you know the Lord Jesus Christ. My good friend Philip De Coursey has written a great book and that's the title: Life After Life: Exploring the Bible's Wonderful Promises About Heaven and Eternity, published by Harvest House Publishers. Get a copy for yourself.

Life After Life by Philip De Coursey, exploring the Bible's promises about heaven and eternity. It's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.

Hey, thanking you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.

This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.