Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: I'm going to go get that lion that's after my little lambs, and David kills the lion. And you're going to hear in the near future how David says, "Who is this giant? I've already killed a bear and a lion. Nothing's impossible with the Lord."

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.

Looking for real answers in real time? Jackhibbs.com is your go-to destination for resources on faith, world events, and everything in between. Explore Happening Now, where Pastor Jack takes a timely, no-nonsense look at today's biggest issues, blending biblical insight with the latest headlines.

Now, whether you're curious about the world around you or you want guidance on a personal level, Pastor Jack has you covered. And by the way, don't miss the Real Life Network. It's packed with relatable, family-friendly content that really speaks to everyday challenges and triumphs, offering something really valuable for every member of your family. Now, if you're new to the faith or you want to refresh your perspective, start with that tab that says Know God, an accessible, welcoming space to learn and refresh and find your footing. Now, whatever your path, jackhibbs.com has the tools, the insights, and the encouragement that you need. Tune in, log on, find something real. Once again, the website, jackhibbs.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called 1 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, it'll be said with the intention of our destruction. So today Pastor Jack teaches that we've got to act with our faith because an active faith will always result in victory. The Israeli army and the Philistines laughed when David came forward to kill Goliath, but with God, all things are possible. Now with his message called Winning the Battles of Life, Part 2, here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: If the leadership cries, "Give me might and give me power," like perhaps Saul was prone to do, then we can expect these kind of things from them. If it's a power-hungry leadership, they're going to demand an image and performance, and stress and burdens will be placed upon people. Didn't Samuel warn the people that if they chose Saul to be king, that he would take their sons and make them their slaves? He did. Heavy-handed leadership. It always comes from insecure people and the lack of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

You can be the weakest, most insecure person in the universe and still be a leader if you take those negative attributes, give them to God, and let His power work through you. But if that's not happening, if the leadership is not submissive, if Saul's not submissive to God, you're going to have a lot of ranting and raving going on. And this is exactly what we see in Saul's life.

The second thing we see tonight is this in verses 8 through 10. Entering into this battle, we need to do it because God has a man for us. Did you know that? He has a man for us. Well, how so? Look what Goliath says: "Choose a man for yourselves." Can you circle that, please? And I'm just going to insert this question: Have you chosen a man for yourself?

Choose a man for yourself. Let him come down to me. Oh, Goliath, dost thou prophesy? God has a man for us who will come down for us. Choose a man. Let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and you will serve us.

Well, we can cheer up, people, because the fact of the matter is, when Goliath says, "Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me," that's exactly what was going to happen. It's just Goliath didn't believe it was going to happen. God had a plan. It's exactly what God had in mind. And isn't it exactly what happened with Jesus? Do you see the type of what's happening here?

We've got a sin-filled world yelling at us, standing up and mocking us in our apparent lost condition. And there will be a man who will come down and fight. Christ Jesus, the one and only mediator between mankind and God, the man Christ Jesus. Oh, he's coming. And I wonder though, how Satan must have gloated over a fallen humanity in the garden. When Adam and Eve fell, I wonder what Satan was thinking and feeling. "I blew God at his game. He made perfection, I blew it up." The first terrorist, Lucifer, puts a bomb in the garden, and Eve sticks it right in her mouth.

And the human race has been twisted ever since. And you've got to wonder if Satan doesn't gloat over that. "Look what I did." Well, the story's not over. God has a man for us. John chapter 3, verse 31 says, "He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth." Isn't that great Goliath theme? But it goes on to say in John 3:31, "He who comes from heaven is above all."

Oh, the Lord's got a man. And the beautiful message is that Jesus Christ brought us the freedom from sin. We also learn in verse 9 that the Lord our God is well able to fight for us. It says as Goliath states here, "If he is able to fight." Oh, he's able all right. And kill me. Look what he says: "We'll be your servants." You know what's funny? When the war finally gets going and David destroys this guy, just like the enemy, they don't keep their word. They high-tail it and run. Lies.

But Goliath is standing there and says, "Is there somebody able?" Now, this was an ancient, ancient form of settling a dispute where you bring two armies together or two warring factions together, and it's the term champion. "Send me your champion. We'll get ours. They'll fight. The end of that battle will determine the future of our states or our nations or our city-states."

If you win, we'll be your servants in whatever capacity. Now, if we win, we get to do with you whatever we want to do. And kings agreed on this. This was not some unheard-of thing that Goliath offers up. Man against man, Goliath is saying. Warrior against warrior. Let's match it up. Champion to champion. Representative to representative. The biggest guy... Listen, the biggest guy, send out your biggest guy. And you remember who the biggest guy in Israel was? Saul. Ouch. This is not looking good. This is not looking good at all.

But I love the encouragement that we get that God fights our battles. The book of Nehemiah, I'm reading Nehemiah often in light of where we're at in construction. Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 20 says, Nehemiah states it: "Rally to us here," he says, "for our God will fight for us." Isn't that great? Do you believe that, that God will fight for you?

Exodus chapter 3, verse 7 says, "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows," says God. "So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites."

Why did I name those? Because they were all parasites on the land. And God says, "I'm going to bring you out of Egypt. I'm going to come down and deliver you. I'm going to take you through the wilderness and I'm going to bring you into a large land." Now, the book of Exodus is pretty old and it describes what land belongs to Israel right there.

Psalm 140, verse 7 says, "O God, the Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle." God will do that for us. Zechariah 14:3, "Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle." Isn't that amazing, that God fights in the day of battle?

Joshua chapter 10, verse 10. How does God fight? I love this portion of scripture. Please forgive me if I enjoy it too much. Joshua 10:10 says, "So the Lord routed the enemy before Israel and killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon. He chased them along the road that goes down to Beth Horon and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah. And it happened as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon that the Lord began to cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah and they died. And there were more who died from the hailstones of the Lord than the children of Israel killed by sword." It's almost as if the Lord had a pea shooter. Bing! Bing! Well, it says that he fights in the day of battle. I don't know. The Lord is casting hailstones down.

David J: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in this 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: You know, I love the four gospels. And you do, too. Have you ever looked at it this way? God fights in the day of battle. And he'll fight for us. And I thought about Matthew's gospel. I thought how fun that is. Matthew's gospel, you know what it tells me? Round number one. Ding! Jesus comes out of the corner. Satan comes out of the corner. And in Matthew's gospel, Jesus lets Satan know who really wears the crown. Because Matthew proclaims his kingship. Jesus is the king. Satan thinks he's the king. You see that little guy on TV? That little tiny guy? "I am the king!" I always... that little guy there. "I am the king!" And I laugh when I see that guy. Look at that guy.

There's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and this little guy selling mattresses on TV. "I am the king!" And the Lord's going to say someday, "No, I am king." The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And Matthew's gospel shows this great display of who Jesus is and Satan's thinking, "I want to be king."

Round number two. Ding! Mark's gospel. Jesus lets Satan know how God can be obeyed. Because in eternity, Satan disobeyed God and got kicked out. And Mark's gospel shows us how Jesus obeyed. Round three. Ding! Luke's gospel. Jesus lets Satan know that man armed with a gospel is unbeatable. Because in Luke's gospel, Jesus is called the Son of Man and he fights Satan with Bible. A man armed with the Bible, Satan has got to bow down to it and run from it.

That's why the word of God is called the sword of the spirit. And ding! John's gospel. Jesus lets Satan know who really is God. For John's gospel tells us about the deity of Jesus. And then that giant cries out and he says, "You shall serve, then you shall serve us if we beat you." And God was not going to settle for that at all.

In verse 11 we learn this: that we need to enter into the battle because we must act upon our faith. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we're Christians. We hold in our hands the Bible and it is to be hidden in our hearts. Thus we read it. Not because we're supposed to, it's because we need to. We have hidden the word of God, the Bible says, in our hearts that we might not sin against him.

And listen, we must act upon our faith or else it is not faith. Christian, listen, if you forget everything tonight, remember this: We do not really have faith if we're not acting on it. Don't even tell your neighbor you have faith. I cannot tell you I have faith unless I leave this pulpit and do something with it. It's a joke if I don't. It's a joke. "Oh, I have faith." Doesn't James kind of set that straight? If you go around talking about it, but don't do anything with it? He says your faith is a joke. It's false.

Well, listen, verse 11 says, "When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid." You know what those words mean? No faith. Zip, nada, niet, none. No faith. The word dismayed here in Hebrew means this: greatly confused. Listen, it means amazed beyond measure, beaten down, crushed, without strength.

The word greatly afraid, it means to be in awe. Listen to this, it's a weird word. It means to be in awe of, almost on the brink of worship. It means to dread, to render reverence to something terrible. They're getting so worked out, they have no faith that they're looking at Goliath, they're so scared that they almost begin to get into the state of idolizing him. That's how scared they are. They have no faith.

They're overwhelmed. An active faith will always result in victory, though. Every time, if you step out in faith, even so little faith, God will guarantee to you the victory if you step out in faith. Unfortunately, many Christians won't even step, they just sit. And they will forever be on the line of decision. "Should we? I don't know. Should we not? I don't know." And they just sit there. They can never decide.

Sometimes, listen, sometimes God gives us multiple doors to walk through and he's already determined, "I'll bless you through any door you walk through. Will you just walk?" "I don't know, God, there's three doors there." "Yes, and if you go, I'll bless you. You're my child. I love you. Will I ever leave you or forsake you? Do you believe me when I say that?" "Yes, Lord." "Then walk!" "But God!"

What are we saying? "But God, I know you've never lied, but I think maybe this time you might to me." That's what you're confessing when you don't act upon him in faith. He says, "Go, I'll direct your path." "Well, I, you know, I gave that verse to my friend, but what if you don't?" Well, that's what we're telling him. And then somebody asks us, "Do you have faith in God?" "Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah! Go to church every Sunday."

If we step out in faith, God will honor it. He really will. And I know it's spooky, but you know you do it enough times and you kind of get addicted to the spookiness of it because you begin to think like this: "Okay, I'm scared to death. Okay, God, here we go." And you step out and then you start getting a rush off of how's God going to work this out now?

It's not, "I don't think he can." It's not, "I don't think he will." It's now, "I can't wait to see what he's going to do. Boy, have I got myself into a mess! Come on, Lord, let's see what you're going to do." And then there's the other guys going, "Nope, nope, it's not going to happen. He's going to fall right off the edge. Look at him, he's stepping out there, big fool." No.

God's got a lesson for us to learn and it's wrapped up in a package of a young man, young boy who learned something about trusting God way back when no one was watching in his private life. We're going to see and hear how David killed a lion and a bear protecting the little lamb because he thought God wanted that little lamb protected. It made sense to David.

"I love the Lord, these are his lambs, these are his sheep. He doesn't want them eaten by a stupid bear. So it seems to me, me as the shepherd and that bear the enemy, I'm going to go kill that thing." And David got up and killed that bear. And then a lion came and David said, "Well, God blessed me with the bear. Got this nice coat now to wear. I'm going to go get that lion that's after my little lambs," and David kills the lion.

And you're going to hear in the near future how David says, "Who is this giant? I've already killed a bear and a lion. Nothing's impossible with the Lord." Father, we thank you for your word. How it is warmth to our soul. And Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that you, O Lord, would help us by sometimes, if not more violently, put your hand on our back, Lord, kind of nudge us.

Father, there may be a situation in our lives right now and we're not sure about what to do. We've been praying, we've been asking you to give us your word and your insight. Still silent. Fear says you're gone. Fear says you've left. Faith says I guess I'm supposed to step out. Father, give us the faith of a David. Give us the faith of a Jonathan who would go to the camp of the enemy with just his armor-bearer and say, "Well, here's the deal. God, if you're in this, then cause those guys to tell us to come on up. And then we'll know it's from you. If you're not in it and they say wait there, we're going to come down and show you a thing or two, then we'll run."

Lord, that's the kind of faith, Father, in Jesus' name I pray that you would baptize me with that faith, that you would baptize us, this church, with that faith. Father, in Jesus' name, these that are here tonight, may they go their way tonight to their life's situations, their Goliaths, and Father, may you through them do a tremendous thing. Father, right now, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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 1 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.

So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you'd like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com/knowgod. That's K-N-O-W-God. And there you'll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you'll find in knowing God. Don't miss out. That's the Know God tab at jackhibbs.com.

Jack Hibbs: It's probably often said, I would imagine in every generation, somebody like myself, a pastor, a preacher will stand up and say there's never been a time like this before. It's never been this dark, it's never been this difficult or challenging. Well, I think it's true for every generation. The main thing is for each generation to not lose heart. And so more than ever, you and I need to realize that it is time to take a bold stand.

I know the feeling you might be thinking right now. I don't have the ability to do that. I don't think I'm bold. I don't think I can stand. Well, listen, in and of ourselves, friend, we cannot. God's calling upon our life is an impossible calling. It cannot be done with human effort. Listen, true biblical Christianity has been designed by God that way. It cannot happen unless God is the one doing the doing.

So when God calls us to take a stand in a dark and evil culture like ours today, he has called us and he's brought us to this moment, to this time in history because he's got a job for us to do. It's not impossible. It's not insurmountable. We don't have to fail. With him, we can be more than a conqueror. He takes you and I and he allows us and he equips us to do the impossible.

Taking a bold stand right now means we know what we're standing on. We're standing on the word of God, not the opinions of ourselves or friends, not what's trending or what the latest thing is that's trending on TikTok or Facebook or Instagram. No, it's that forever truth that has always been. The word of God is where we stand. That is our foundation.

And because God cannot lie, because God cannot tell us something that is off or not true, whatever he speaks is truth. And so we will stand on the foundation he has given us. We will speak of, we will be without apology to speak truth to the culture that we live in because God is on his throne, his truth is eternal, and you and I are his servants in this day and age today.

So let's pray right now for that power and for that conviction. Father God, we come before you and we know that you do not make mistakes, that our lives being lived out right now have been very, very timely situated by your perfect plan. The very hour of which the clock is ticking in our lives has been ordained by you. That should cause us to be bold.

And the fact that your word is literally undefeated and will always be undefeated, that should cause us to take a stand with boldness. So Lord, we pray now that you'd fill us afresh with the power of your Holy Spirit and that we would go forth not in our own strength, for your word tells us it's not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. So Lord, may we live today boldly, courageously because you are our God. We pray in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen.

David J: 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.