Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: God says it’s not by might nor by power, but it’s by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts. Listen, leaders and leadership, that’s been ordained by God.

David J.: 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.

This December, Pastor Jack Hibbs is doing something a little different and a lot special. All month long he’s offering a double feature book of the month, two very popular resources to help you finish the year strong and step into the next year spiritually grounded. First, Pastor Jack’s annual favorite, the One Year Bible. Every year, lives are changed as people discover how simple and doable it is to read through the entire word of God in just a few minutes a day.

Also, Pastor Jack’s going to include his brand-new devotional, Watching Waiting. It’s a 40-day journey designed to help you slow down, look up, and recognize what God is doing in your life. So this December, why would you choose one when you can get both and grow deeper? Visit jackhibbs.com to get your December book of the month double feature, the One Year Bible and Pastor Jack’s brand-new devotional, Watching Waiting. They are available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. Again, that’s jackhibbs.com.

On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called First Samuel and a message titled Winning the Battles of Life Part 2. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and he was the first of its prophets. So here, as we continue in Chapter 17, we enter the battle between David and Goliath.

Now you see, the enemy will appear bigger than life to get you to become overwhelmed with anxiety and fear. The situation may even appear big when it stands or loud when it speaks. Whatever the enemy of our spirit says will be said with the intention of our destruction.

Today, Pastor Jack teaches that Israel was looking for Saul to save them. But Saul has already forfeited God’s power and wisdom. They wanted performance and might through a king and they’re now at the brink of disaster. Now with his message called Winning the Battles of Life Part 2, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Yes, we enter the battle, but the war has already been won. Keep that in mind. The Christian doesn’t come out of his corner hoping that when the rounds are completed that we’ll be victorious. The enemy's already been judged. He comes out swinging. But the Bible reminds us that Satan is like a lion roaming around seeking whom he may devour. The great thing is for the Christian, that lion has no teeth. He comes up there and he roars and he growls and then he pulls back his lips—I guess lions have lips—and there’s nothing there but gums.

But it’s the roaring that we freak out over. It’s a giant and it’s roaring at us. It could be a big bill or financial problem and it’s roaring at us, or it could be maybe a ministry that you’re venturing out into and you’re scared to death. In this case, it is an enemy of faith, a man who is uncircumcised, filthy, a Philistine, wicked, and notorious. And not only that, he’s got brothers. There is more than one giant running around. That’s why David grabbed five stones, by the way.

Goliath had four other brothers and their names are in scripture. David’s a pretty smart boy. Just in case the other boys showed up, he grabbed five stones. That’s faith. That’s cool. More on that, but that’s like three weeks away. We can't even talk about that yet. It’s amazing, though, when the situation is so big and it’s so loud, it stands up and it speaks to us.

And what does it speak? Well, the things that Goliath will speak. Things like accusations, lies. The enemy loves lies. Misrepresentations, that’s a good one. Propaganda we would call it. Misinformation. Just a little bit off. Maybe that would be where we would file false doctrine. Just a little bit off. The enemy loves that. Flattery. Now, Goliath’s not going to flatter anybody in our story, but how many people have fallen to flattery? Doesn’t the book of Proverbs warn us against flattery?

By flattery many people have been deceived. Second Corinthians Chapter 11, verses 13 to 15 says, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder," Paul is talking about false representation of spiritual matters in the church. He says no wonder these people show up, for Satan himself can transform himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing that his ministers can also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Isn’t that amazing? Satan sees to it that he infiltrates the pulpit, Christian service, churches. He doesn’t care about the people that are in paganism or the occult. He cares about you. He wants to attack you. Goliath and his army, they’re not attacking other pagan armies. They’re after God’s people. And he’s so angry that he comes out and he knows who he’s fighting. He says, "I’m defying the armies of Israel and I’m defying their God." He knows what he’s doing. This man, demonically energized, I’m sure.

Joshua Chapter 9, verse 3 tells us, however, when the people of Gibeon heard that Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to disguise and deceit. And they went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded down with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. And the men put on worn-out patches on their sandals and on their feet and worn-out clothes. And all the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy.

Then they went to Joshua in the camp of Gilgal and said to Joshua and the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country to make a treaty of peace with us, please." And they were just the group right over the other side of the hill. Deception. And by the way, we love Joshua, he’s a great warrior, but he looked at all of the trappings of the external appearance and he said, "Okay, you guys must be cool." And they signed a treaty. Joshua and Israel were deceived. The enemy will try to deceive us in the context of our study by thinking he can whip us, that he can take down our God.

Like it was with Nimrod. He climbed that heap of rubble at the Tower of Babel and he got up to the top and he took his arrow. Nimrod, the great hunter of souls, drew back his arrow and his intent was to shoot God out of the sky. Haters of God. Satan, his sidekicks, and sin will always dress up in their best apparel. That’s why the Bible warns us over and over again to be careful in the things that we’re strong in. People think, "I’m so strong in this area, I’ll never fall in this area." And that’s the area they will fall because the enemy will come to you and he’ll attack the Christian with a disguise. It could be anything that is easily woven into my life or your life because we are not suspecting.

The ancient Greeks had a saying: "Whom the gods could not destroy, they made great." The enemy sometimes will come that way to us. If they have tried every angle to get to you—the spiritual realm of wickedness and of darkness that Paul warns us about in Ephesians 6—it’s an interesting thing to remember that the Greek philosophers came up with this saying. As we’ve observed people, they won great battles, they did great things, they were invincible. But as they rose in power, that’s what destroyed them. So whom the gods could not destroy, they found the Achilles' heel in the man's soul, lift them up and make them great. He can’t handle it.

Be careful in the area that we’re strong. That’s where we’ll fall. We learn also in verse 8 that we need to enter into this raging battle because of the enemy’s words. He says, "Why have you come out to line up for battle?" Don’t you love that statement? Can you imagine you’re Israel, look, you’re standing there, you’ve got your gear on. You’ve been practicing. You’ve been going to army camp. You’ve learned how to throw dirt clods and spears and the stuff they did. They’re serious.

But you talk about war and they fight for their existence, they’re serious. Can you imagine standing there and you’re ready for battle, and there’s this huge thing across the valley going, "Hey, what have you come out here for battle for?" He’s not taking them seriously at all. Have you ever been very serious about something and somebody comes out and goes, "What are you doing?" "What do you mean?" "Well, I mean, why are you dressed like that?" "I’m a police officer." "No, you’re not." "Yeah, I got a badge." And you're not being taken seriously.

Goliath is making fun of their battle array. They’re in battle array. And the enemy will come up and go, "What are you doing?" "I’m praying." "For who?" "For my family, for my friends, for the church, for America, I’m praying for the missionaries that are going out." And the enemy just goes, "What are you lined up like that for? What are you on your knees for? You look so funny." "Well, I’m praying." "Put it away. Prayer? Give me a break."

Does that ever happen to you when you get all mustered up, you’re ready to go, you’re full of faith and you launch out and somebody comes up—and you expect the world to do it. The world comes on and goes, "You funny Christians, you guys are weirdos." We can take it from the world. But when somebody who ought to know something about spiritual matters or, at least in Goliath’s case with Israel, warfare, even though they’re opponents says, "What are you doing?" And there’s a mockery. Doesn’t the enemy do that? His very words are attacking.

Beware of those words. They’ll come to you in your thought process. That’s why the Bible tells us to bring every thought under the captivity of Christ. We’ll often hear when we want to launch out on something great for God and make a difference in our Christian life that if there was ever a time to get committed to God, it’s now. You look around at the world and, first of all, we’re getting older. Don’t you want to accomplish something before you get old? Can you imagine with your walker you decide, "Okay, now I’m going to get serious with God." And you’ve got your walker and a cane. "Okay, I want to go on a mission trip." We don’t have time. We need to get down to this other end of the street. Why didn’t you think of this 20 years ago?

Jesus says to do the work of the ministry now while it’s daytime because nighttime is coming when no man can work. Can you walk? Can you breathe? Can you call? Can you pray? Can you act? Can you receive? Can you give? Then do those things. What are you waiting for? "I’m just waiting for the right moment." Now’s the right moment. Don’t you want to live for God? So it’s kind of scary. No, it’s exciting. Commit your way unto Him. He’ll direct it. He’ll do it. But see, the enemy will tell us and say, "What are you doing? Why have you come out for battle?" What an insult. He might say things like, "Christian, you’re powerless, you’re weak. What do you believe in?" mocking us.

Revelation Chapter 12, verse 10 tells us, "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ has come. For the accuser of our brethren,'" — that is Satan, it’s one of his names, the accuser — "'who accused them before God day and night has been cast down.'" Isn’t that great? The enemy attacking. The words of the enemy. This word, by the way, 'accuser' in Revelation 12:10 means one who stands in an assembly or a gathering of people to file a legal complaint from the law. It’s a legal term. The accuser of the brethren.

Boy, that sure ties in if you think how we’ve been learning on Sundays about Galatians and our freedom in Jesus. How the enemy will use the law to condemn us. Satan stands before God and accuses you day and night and he uses the law of God to accuse you, just like an attorney would, a prosecuting attorney. Verse 8 teaches us also that we must enter into this war because of the information that the enemy is putting out there. He says, "Am I not a Philistine? Look at me." Basically he’s saying, "Boo!" And you could hear Israel shaking. Oh, their armor shakes.

And I bet he loved it. Forty days he’d been going in and out from his camp. Probably walking up to the edge. "Boo!" And Israel stands there and quakes. Again, Alan Redpath says that the church is quaking today. The church is shaking. He says when the church should be pure and holy and living after God and excited about the dependence upon the Holy Spirit, what does the church do? He says the church instead of marching forward for battle is quaking in its boots at spiritual things.

Listen, because all the church has done is perfected its ability to gather in battle array. It just gathers in battle array. It lines up for battle. It’s got the shiniest spear, the brightest helmet, the most wonderful sword, and it stands there and it quakes in the presence of the enemy because Redpath says the church is not advancing in these last days because the church is impure. It has compromised purity and a dependence upon God, the Holy Spirit, for its power, and it has substituted the lack of God in the life of the church for programs, for enhancements, for committees, a presentation. Everything’s a presentation. Oh, if it looks good and if you build it, they will come.

No, and I am so grateful I saw a shirt not too long ago and it said, "If you preach it, they will come." And that’s the truth. But the world says, "We do this at IBM, we do this at DuPont, we do this at whatever," and the church goes, "That’s a good idea." And it’s wrong. The church should be getting its marching orders from the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will use the Bible. He’s not going to use some church growth manual. God doesn’t use those things.

I get things in the mail: "You can have your church grow by 20 percent in one year if you do this thing, just send us 7,500 bucks and we’ll show you how." Well, first of all, why would we limit the growth of God in our church to 20 percent? And the second thing is I can think of a smarter way to spend 7,500 bucks. Man’s ways are not God’s ways. Beware of the information that’s out there. "Am I not a Philistine?" Oh, and Israel just shakes. Doesn’t the world say, "We are the world"? They sing and the church goes, "Oh." And we’ve got all the awesome presentation, we got a cool building, a really slick-looking program, we got screens and stuff and we got the whole thing, and the enemy goes, "Boo!" and we go, "Ah!"

We need to march forward. We need to pray, we need to fast against the evil. Pray and ask God to intervene. Now the enemy will put out information to destroy. He says to them, look at verse 8, this is haunting to me. He says, "I’m a Philistine." Pretty proud of it. "You, you’re the servants of Saul." Do you hear that? "You’re the servants of Saul." That’s a scary statement. You want to know why? Because it’s true. Isn’t that what they asked for? Didn’t they say, "Give us a king that we can see with our eyes? None of this God stuff, we want to be like all the other nations of the world, give us a king that we can see."

And that king can go in and out among us and he can go and fight our battles. Didn’t they say that? So here it comes. And Goliath says, "By the way, aren’t you guys servants of Saul?" Yes, we are. We forsook God. And it gets worse because we learned in First Samuel 16:14 that not only was Saul their leader, but we learned in First Samuel 16:14 that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul. Oh, class, listen up. They’re getting ready for war and your leader has so sinned against God that he’s quenched the Holy Spirit so bad that the Spirit of God because of his disobedience has left.

And he’s leading them in the battle. And you know what? The enemy knows. And the enemy says, "Aren’t you guys servants of Saul?" I don’t know, can’t prove it, but it’s possible that by the time this war array was battle-drawn, could it be known in the minds of the Israeli soldiers that something’s been wrong with Saul? He’s been weird. David has been anointed king, we’ve heard rumors about that from Samuel’s assistant, it’s kind of around town. Saul’s been acting weird. He’s been kind of like almost foaming at the mouth, he goes kind of crazy, then he calms down.

Some people in the court have been saying that the spirit of God’s departed from him. Can you imagine being on the battle zone right on the battle line and news comes to you, you’ve got the greatest equipment in the world and somebody says, "Guess what? The shipment of bullets and bombs didn’t show up. You’ve got the biggest rifle in the entire army and you’ve got no bullets in it." Saul’s the king. He’s leading them in the battle. They’re following a loser. God had withdrawn himself from him and they’re on the brink of disaster. Saul forfeited the power of God because of his disobedience. They wanted might.

God says, "How about me? I’ll lead you." They wanted power. "We want to have a king." And God says, "It’s not by might nor by power, but it’s by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts." Listen, leaders and leadership, that’s been ordained by God. You either love leadership or you hate it. It’s true in everything. The company you work for, do you love the leadership of it or do you hate it? Well, there’s some people in that company I like and there’s some people I don’t like. What about governor, mayor, city councilman, president? You either love it or you hate it. That’s one of the war zones of leadership. Leadership and leaders have been ordained by God and they work beautifully as long as they’re following God. But not all leaders and not all leadership are connected and committed to God. And the question ought to be in all of our lives, does the leader and leadership reflect the spirit of God? Because Saul sure wasn’t doing that. He hadn’t been doing that.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Winning the Battles of Life Part 2. You know, this message, by the way, 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 times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Hey Pastor Jack, this is the time of year when we normally start talking about the One Year Bible because we like to get together as a church and as everyone who listens to our various broadcasts to do the One Year Bible together, right? This is the time of year we start talking about that. But we’ve got this special deal going on where you can get the One Year Bible and your new book, Watching Waiting, the 40-day devotional, for a gift of any amount. We’re going to send you both of those books. Tell us about the One Year Bible, tell us about Watching Waiting.

Jack Hibbs: Yeah, thank you. Wow, you’re making me go back now four decades, and I mean many decades. Could be three decades where we as a church family, you know, how do you have a big church stay small, keep the feel small? Well, here’s what we do. Every year we all start out reading the One Year Bible starting on January 1st, and so every November, every December, we make sure that those who don’t have the One Year Bible, that they make sure that they get it.

And so on January 1st, all of us dive into the word of God and my goodness, I think we’re coming up on 30 years of going through the Bible 30 times. Isn’t that amazing? And so it’s been amazing and we’re just encouraging people. And then of course as you mentioned, getting a copy of the brand-new devotional, it’s a 40-day devotional, Watching Waiting. It’s a devotional written about really the expectancy of Christ’s coming. Are we ready? How do we get ready? What does it mean to be ready? And so it’s all scripture-versed and scripture-referenced and we think that you’re going to love it. I think it’d be a good addition to your One Year Bible.

David J.: The One Year Bible and the 40-day devotional by Pastor Jack called Watching Waiting. Get your copy for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/realradio. That’s jackhibbs.com/realradio. 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 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.