Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: It seems as though people today are just so out of it. Some law comes on the books and it has to do with your freedom or it has to do with what's right or what's wrong and people just go, "Oh well." There seems to be a movement, I call it a demonic anesthesia.

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.

Jack Hibbs: Your week is packed. You're running on empty, and sometimes Sunday already feels like a distant memory by Wednesday. That's exactly why Real Life Devotions exists. Each week, I bring you a short but powerful moment in God's Word designed to encourage, equip, and refocus your heart.

It's not another podcast or a long sermon. It's a few meaningful minutes that meet you right where you are. Whether you're on a commute, going for a walk, or you just need a reset in the middle of your day, Real Life Devotions are ready when you are. Fresh encouragement straight from the scripture, and it's all just one click away. Check out the newest devotion now at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Your place for real faith, real encouragement, and real life. That's Real Life Devotions at jackhibbs.com.

David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called First Samuel and a message titled "Winning the Battles of Life, Part 4". Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets. So here, as we continue in chapter 17, we see how God really is bigger than any giant.

Now you see, Goliath was shouting all sorts of lies that made God's people feel weak, but David shows up believing that Goliath cannot break his confidence. David's heart trusted God more than what he saw and placed his security on remembering God's past faithfulness.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches that even when darkness advances and the difficulties of life try to overcome us, our victory starts when we remember what God has already brought us through. David didn't listen to the fear. David knew that the battle belongs to the Lord. Now, with his message called "Winning the Battles of Life, Part 4", here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: First Samuel chapter 17. We, by the grace of God, will not only complete this chapter, we will kill this rotten giant that we have been dealing with but in due time tonight. We're talking about a series entitled "Winning the Battles of Life," and there are giants in our lives. They may not take on the form of Goliath. They may not have a stature or a smell or a look as he had, but we are fighting battles regarding our lives.

If you're in the sanctuary tonight or if you're at all listening, you are engaged in some sort of a battle. You're not exempt. No one's exempt from the battles of life. I just can't imagine going through the battles of life without knowing Jesus. I guess if I didn't know Jesus, I would be going through the battles of life on heroin or crack or whatever the latest designer drug thing is, or you'd be involved in some trip this way or that way.

You would find some out in life because life is impossible to live without God's strength. You may be living, that is your heart may be beating in this world right now, but without Jesus Christ, you really do not have life. You've somehow convinced yourself that you've got life, but the truth is you've got an existence. You're not really advancing and you're not really moving on. In fact, we would just put it this way: your life has no purpose. There seems to be no rudder in course to the life that you have.

Tonight it would be well for us to remember what the Bible teaches about warfare and the spiritual results of warfare. We're going to be coming in this chapter to the killing of a giant, and no doubt someone will ask me when we come to such a verse, "Isn't God against killing, and isn't God against David and Goliath and the whole thing and wars and all that?"

Well, understand something first of all. We serve a perfect God in an imperfect world. God has established governments and governmental powers. The Bible says they're determined by God, whether you like them or not. God does that. Nations go to war. If you read your Old Testament, you will see where God not only sanctioned war, he had nations go to war to establish his purpose.

But make it very clear, understand in this church, it is absolutely true in the Ten Commandments the Bible says, "Thou shalt not..." and the word in Hebrew, some of your English version Bibles incorrectly put it, the Bible states it in Hebrew: "Thou shalt not murder." A whole different Hebrew word than kill. Now, are you saying we should go out and kill? No, by no means no.

But there is a time for war. Israel and the Philistine armies are pitted against each other. They have been in these last few chapters. War, though we may want to take a pacifist view and stand, literally is against the will of God. You may say it's against my conscience. I understand that. If I were to be in war, in warfare, could I pull the trigger on my opponent that is somewhere in the bushes or in that tank or wherever that person might be?

I know that that would be a hard thing. But yet, God has established nations and he has sanctioned war. I would hope that if I were in battle and if I were called upon, if you, if we all were called upon to defend our nation, I would maybe hope that we would at least say, "Lord, as I pull this trigger and should it take the life of another man, may that man know you. May that man through this event know you."

Wake up to the reality, people. Don't live in some pipe dream world. This is a very imperfect world. And yet God knows it and war is real. I say all that strongly to tell you that the wars that we might see on the TV screen, the wars that, God forbid, we might see in the streets of our own country, are just little hints and they're little flares, so to speak, of warning about the wars that rage in our lives in a spiritual way.

Yet this war that we speak about tonight is a war that very few of us statistically in this room believe. Did you know that some 68% of evangelical Christians polled in America say they do not believe in a personal devil? That means 68% of the evangelical Christians polled in the Barna poll said and stated that Jesus was not telling the truth or that he was in fact misleading people, and they call themselves Christians.

We don't want to talk about the devil. We don't want to talk about war. We don't want to talk about spiritual dominions and powers because, number one, we can't explain them very well. Number two, we can't see them. Number three, we haven't read enough of the Bible to know and to learn how to deal with them. Fourthly, I guess, Paul made it very clear, "My brethren, concerning spiritual warfare," he said, "don't be ignorant concerning Satan's devices."

And guess what the church is stupid about tonight? The greatest prize of all is for Satan to get churches to believe or to get a believer to believe that he doesn't exist at all. Isn't it interesting that none of the cults believe in Satan nor a literal hell? Isn't that convenient for the cult? How tragic. And yet Jesus warned us and Jesus spoke.

Tonight we're going to be talking about advancing the kingdom, and I trust and I pray and I know that this church is interested in advancing the kingdom. In Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, the Bible says Jesus said, coming and speaking to his disciples, he said, "All authority," mark that in your notes, all authority, not part-time, not a little bit. He said, God said in human flesh, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

Isn't that a great word? Jesus says go into all the world. Why? Advance the kingdom. Why? Because darkness is trying to advance. I'm not talking about the setting of the sun. I'm talking about a spiritual darkness that is duping people. Am I seeing it or am I going nuts? Are you seeing it with me? It seems as though people today are just so out of it.

I don't have a word for it. They're just so out of it. Some law comes on the books and it has to do with your freedom or it has to do with what's right or what's wrong and people just go, "Oh well." There seems to be a movement, I call it a demonic anesthesia that is floating through the air. But there are demonic powers at play.

Tonight's challenge is advancing the kingdom of God, and we're going to be looking at a war that's going to take place between a very pitiful, tragic giant against an omnipotent God. We've seen in our studies that we need first of all as believers to awaken to the conflict. We've seen part two of this study that once awakened to the conflict, we need to enter into the battle. None of us Christians are spectators to the warfare that's going on around us.

You may think you're a spectator. You may say, "I'm not going to get involved in church service or I'm not going to get involved in worship. I'm not going to lift my hands like the people next to me in worship. I'm not going to sing very loud because all things in moderation." And I'm not inviting you either to roll around the aisles and stuff because we would roll you right out into the parking lot if you did that.

But there's an awareness. If you're walking with Jesus and you're reading your Bible and you're in any way at all advancing the kingdom of God, you're going to have troubles. You're going to have difficulties. Let me tell you, you know when it's really getting hot when you can't explain the difficulties in your life. If you fall off the curb and break your arm, you can kind of figure that one out.

But I've found in my own life, when things get the deepest and the darkest, it's when I can't figure it out. It makes no sense. There are times when you just have to sit still. We are awakened to the conflict. We enter into the battle. We're in the battle, if you like it or not. We have a cause. We studied that last time together. We have a cause and our cause is for eternity.

The things that you and I fight for are eternal things. We are in a war that engages us over the souls of people's lives forever. Church, do you believe it? Do you really believe that when someone dies, have you seen it on the tombstone, "Rest in peace"? There should be a question mark at the other end of that. Rest in peace? I don't know. Are they?

The answer is no, by the way. The answer is no to that. If a person believes in Jesus Christ, they are not resting in peace. Did you know that? If you're born again and you die and you go to heaven, you are not resting in peace. You are rejoicing in praise. The Bible teaches that eternity for the saved and the unsaved is eternal.

Those that are in heaven will live an eternal life. John chapter five and Daniel chapter 12 teach that those who go to hell will live in eternal death or dying. Can you imagine? No, you can't imagine. I can't. Tonight, part four of our study, we can rest assured about this battle of life because you know why? We know the ending.

Aren't you glad? When I got saved, I can tell you a little trick here. Anybody newly converted to Jesus? You met him recently? I did not start at the beginning of the book. I read the end of the book first. I did. I read the book of Revelation. I found out we win. It gave me a lot of comfort. And from there, okay, I got to venture out into other books of the Bible with the confidence of knowing that all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ shall not be ashamed, neither shall they perish. It's great news.

So tonight we look to our first point of this evening. Winning the wars of life and knowing the end, we see this. Number one, our faith needn't be shaken. Our faith needn't be shaken at all because verses 31 to 37 read this way: "Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him." Saul sent for David.

"Then David said to Saul, 'Let no man's heart fail because of him.'" That's Goliath, the giant. "Your servant will go and fight this Philistine." Can you imagine this young teenager saying this to the King of Israel? "And Saul said to David, 'You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.'

But David said to Saul, 'Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered that lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this...'" Oh, I wish I could see David's face.

You can almost see David's finger just kind of go, "...and this uncircumcised Philistine," and he points maybe across the hill through the valley over to the other side where that big behemoth of flesh is standing there rattling around in his armor, and David's going, "You see this uncircumcised Philistine? He will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God."

That's passion for God, isn't it? That is love for God. No wonder why he was the psalm writer. It's one of those things, you know, where I can talk about my mama and you can talk about your mama, but don't you ever talk about my mama. You know that thing? Guys know that thing. Look, you can talk about your god all you want, and I can talk about my God all I want, but when you talk about my God the way that Philistine had talked about David's God, that Philistine was in big trouble.

And I want you to know that David's not out of control. His emotions aren't over-ruling. This is a divine appointment. "For he has defied the armies of the living God." Moreover, David said, "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."

Now, I don't want to spend more than a second or so on that last statement. Saul has been hiding. Remember, he's the tallest guy in Israel. Remember? He's the tallest guy in Israel. He's dressed for battle. So it's only natural Goliath is saying, "Hey, send over your big boy." Well, the big boy was the king, but the king had the heart of a pea and he was scared to death.

And here's this young teenager and he says, "Hey, listen, by the power of God, I've beaten up a bear. I've beaten up a lion. And if God gave me the ability to do that, to spare one little lamb..." Kind of reminds you of Jesus, doesn't it? Then, "Step aside, king. I'll take care of this." And in my gut, and I may be dead wrong, but the carnality of Saul says, "You know what? Go, and the Lord be with you."

Why don't you just put a guillotine around your neck, kid, and go fall in a ditch? I mean, why don't you just go hang yourself? Junior, why don't you go take a hike? The armies of Israel are encamped and here's a shepherd kid. Jewish scholars speculate somewhere between 15 to 22 years of age. Young guy.

Listen, our faith needn't be shaken. Christian, jot it down. There's going to come a time when your faith's going to be challenged. And man's promises are no good, but I can say on the Word of the Lord, it will come to us. So number one, our faith needn't be shaken. It'll be attacked, it'll be hit, but it doesn't have to be shaken because of this: our very existence is in His hands right now.

You know that's true right now? I know you don't feel like it. I hope you do, though. After that powerful worship, I feel like jumping over the moon right now. I got to tell you, I didn't feel like that when I came in here tonight. Tonight was a great night to stay home. Did you know that? It was a beautiful day, wasn't it? I wanted to sit out in the backyard tonight and I was determined to do that. And then I figured out, you know, it's Wednesday night. I got to go to church.

I'm glad I came because number one, in worship, we did damage to the kingdom of darkness. And secondly, I am reminded that my very existence is in the hands of God right now. And the fun thing is the unbeliever can be here tonight, "I don't care about God. He doesn't exist. This is a bunch of nincompoop stuff. I don't believe." And all God has to do is grab a little tiny little vessel in your heart or in your brain and go pop. And you go, "God, God, God, come in, please. God, are you there? Are you listening, God, who I don't believe in? Come in!"

He has a way of getting your attention. Your very existence is in the hand of God. What a great thing to know as a church, as believers. And the Lord reminds me, "Your existence is in my hands. I'm holding you along the freeway, wherever you go. At work, I'm holding you. When you're going down the hallway at that company or when you're in that airplane or when you're working with those guys on that project or when you're doing this thing or when that boss calls you in for this situation, you are in the hands of the living God."

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, with his message called "Winning the Battles of Life, Part 4". 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 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 everybody, we want to invite you to what will be a dynamic evening. I promise you, every time we have had Seth Gruber with us, who is probably the leading voice on the pro-life movement, it's been eye-opening. Seth is going to be with us for 90 minutes of "Happening Now" on January 7th. That's a Wednesday night, starting promptly at 7 PM Pacific Time. 90 minutes. Make sure you're in attendance. It's going to be a tremendous time and you're going to want to hear the cutting-edge arguments, the cutting-edge technology, the cutting-edge answers of what's going on in the preservation of life with our good friend Seth Gruber from The White Rose Resistance.

That's "Happening Now" with Jack Hibbs and Seth Gruber. Join us online Wednesday night, January 7th at 7 PM Pacific Time. Don't miss it. For more information, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.

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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.