Real Life Radio

David Jay: Today, on Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: And the truth is, humans can debate it all they want, it doesn't change it. The laws may change, the judge may change, the courts may change, but God's word will never change.

David Jay: This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay 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 Hibbs 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, you want to refresh your perspective, start with that tab that says Know God, an accessible, welcoming space to learn and reflect and find your footing. Now, whatever your path, jackhibbs.com has the tools and 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 his series called 1 Samuel with a message titled Worship at War, Part 1.

Samuel of the Old Testament was a man dedicated to God who was Israel's last judge and the first of the prophets at a time when Israel was facing difficulty, adversity, and real uncertainty. You see, the Bible is filled with acts of worship as well as acts of war. But worship is rarely linked with spiritual warfare in the life of a believer. When we worship, we are waging war against evil. It's the kind of warfare that honors God and sees us through the difficulties of life. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the path to victory is the desire to see God in all of his glory and to praise him for all that he's done, especially when, as with Samuel's mother Hannah's life, our prayers are answered in the most trying of times.

Now, with his message called Worship at War, Part 1, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: You can set off a nuclear bomb right here and it changes and alters nothing in the spirit. Did you know that? You can blow the building away and you can blow my skin away, but you can't change the spirit of who I am and you can change the fact that I am living forever in Jesus Christ. And when we pray and when we worship, it sticks. It's eternal. I love how God gives us hints about this. We can make a bomb that costs $30 million, strap it onto the undercarriage of an aircraft and drop it somewhere and in in seconds it's it's obliterated, right?

$30 million bucks strapped to a plane which is disposable also and you blow it up and it's all gone. I love how God speaks to us about how temporary things are in this world. You can spend 30 bucks on a bomb and it's gone in a second. Well, yes, that's because it's it's designed to blow up. Of course it's designed to blow up. But after the explosion, you still have the enemy to deal with. There's still a material world to function and to attack you with. In the realm of the spirit, when we pray, when we worship, there is a war that no military strength on earth can combat.

As long as there's time, we can pray. As long as there is a lost soul, we can pray. It's not up to human powers. When God wages war, he doesn't need to depend on the Pentagon or Kremlin or anything else. In 2 Corinthians 10:4, the Bible says for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that is of this earth or fleshy, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds and casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Well, how does that happen?

Because our weapons in this war are not of this world. I love this story. Some of you remember this, Gehazi. He was the assistant to Elijah, the prophet. It's in 2 Kings 6, if you want to turn there. 2 Kings 6:13. 2 Kings 6:13 says therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there. There's a battle that's being amassed and the enemy is sending these troops and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, this is uh Gehazi, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots and his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?

So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are them. And Elijah prayed and said, Lord, I pray open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elijah. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elijah prayed to the Lord and said, Strike this people, I pray, with blindness. And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elijah. Did you get that?

This and it's just it's just two guys, Gehazi and Elijah. And they're surrounded by the entire enemy army. So when his servant goes outside, he freaks. And Elijah, now in my mind, Elijah, he's rocking, he's got a corncob pipe, maybe a straw hat. I don't know, maybe he's whittling on something, you know? And Gehazi comes flying up, dropping stuff, lands on the porch and says, We're in trouble. The enemy is completely surrounded us. And Elijah says, Lord, oh boy, open his eyes. Gehazi, those that are with us are more than those that are with them.

Now, that guy had to look at Elijah and say, Are you nuts? He saw none of that stuff. He saw none of it. And when Elijah says, Lord, open his eyes, the spiritual veil was open. There was a world in front of him that he was not aware of. Isn't that amazing to think right now in our nation, right now in the world, right now in this building, in our own city, there is a world where if we could grab it, we just can't grab it. But if we could grab it, we could part it.

And there would be a world of spiritual activity that we could pass into. And actually, we're in it now. It 's wild to think that obviously the the structure of the spirit realm, when Jesus rose from the dead, he was both physical, but he could pass through things and he could vanish and appear at will. Isn't it awesome to think that right now between you and I there could be an absolute war going on between spiritual light and darkness? And I believe there is. You might say, Oh, I really want to see that. I don't think you do.

You don't want to see it. It's not up to human powers. Our second consideration this evening about worship at war is that believer's path to victory. The believer's path to victory is to desire God's glory. And Shep says she's continuing her prayer verse 26. Read it there, look at it. Oh my Lord, she says, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood by here praying to the Lord. Remember as the priest Eli was serving. For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of him.

Therefore, listen, I also have lent or given him, loaned him, gave him back to the Lord. As long as he lives, he shall be the Lord's. So they worship the Lord there. That's awesome to me. The desire to see God's glory. Listen, God gives her ladies listen, sacrifice absolute, incredible. God gives her a baby. She's longed for a baby. God gives her a baby and her heart is so right on. Honestly, I don't understand this. This is this to me is the greatest worship. She takes the baby and she gives the baby back to God.

She's going to take the baby to Eli and leave him there, dedicating him to God. She's going to go home. Because she loves God so much and she loves that baby so much, there's nothing better for her to do. There's nothing greater. There's no greater thing that she could do. She loves God so much, she loves the baby so much. What do you do? If you love God so much and if you love your child so much, there's only one thing you can do and that's to give your child to God. It's better to give your child to God than to lose your child to the world.

Because Eli lost his sons to the world. Why? Because I believe I know it's a stretch, but I believe that the two differences that we're seeing here is a child's life dedicated to God via worship versus or in contrast to a religious family, not holding the things of God dear and sacred and the children being left to themselves to to be brought up as they would. Easy mistake to make. When the things of God become common and we become complacent. The believer's path to victory begins with a desire to give God the glory. And she does it.

I believe it's important especially for young people to see things in the world, see things in our nation. Causes your eyes to be opened. Especially as a believer, it causes you to become, I think, a little bit sober and in in a way somewhat somber about how we have viewed things and how materialistic we can become and carnal we can become. And I thought about this, the believer's path to victory begins with the desire to bring God glory. And I thought about the glory of men. You know the year we saw the advent of a new millennium.

And uh remember how some of us we talked about and we watched the television. After our our New Year's service, we went home and and even before we came, it was New Year's and other part, you know, 24 time zones, right? And and nations were celebrating. They had cameras around the world watching the millennium come in. And you probably saw it and stuff and and all the glory and all the pomp and you know, remember Paris stole the show with the Eiffel Tower blowing up and all whatever it did, lighting up like that with all the Roman candle things on it and stuff and it's like everybody ooh and ah and it became the front page of all the news magazines, the glory of men.

But I thought about the glory, the glory of men. And I I've been to the Kremlin in in Moscow, Russia and I've touched its 1,400-year-old walls. The glory of an empire, it's fading. Paint is fading, the paint's chipping. The bricks are falling. Glory is fading. I've been to Buckingham Palace and it's fading. They got to go out there and paint it all the time, not the palace itself. It's made out of stone, but all the little trimmings and stuff cuz what it's getting old. That's way it's it it's fading. The Kremlin? Mhm. Buckingham Palace? Yeah.

It's falling apart. Been to the White House, been in the White House. You have? Yeah. It's an old building. It's a lot smaller than I thought. It's falling apart. The glory of men it's fading. Been to the Pentagon. The Pentagon's got to be cool. It was the old it it it looked older than anything else. The glory of our might We are mighty. We are America. We'll blow up anybody who messing with us. And man, we were walking through hallways and stuff and it's like, What is this play? This I mean, Walmart looks better than this place.

It was pathetic. But see, the thing is if you go there thinking, Man, I'm going to see my tax dollars at work, you're going to be disappointed. You really will. The glory of men, it's fading. Listen, Hannah desired to see God's glory. It never fades.

Guest (Female): You're listening to Real Life 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: In 1 Corinthians 2:9 the scripture says as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men the things that God has prepared for those who love him. Hey, did you hear that? Eye has not seen, ear has not heard. You ever been to a wonderful orchestra or a beautiful pageant? Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has prepared for us. Where? When? Let's go. It's in heaven. It's going to be fantastic. 2 Corinthians 12 I love this. Paul 2 Corinthians 12 verse 2 Paul says, I know a man He's speaking about himself.

He's just humble about it. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Don't panic. The third heaven is where God lives. The second heaven is the celestial space and the first heaven is the atmosphere that you and I live in, the atmosphere where birds fly, then there's where the stars go, and then there's the presence of God, the third heaven. Paul says, I got caught up there. And this is when he was stoned to death.

Um he sees Well, he doesn't know if he sees heaven or he went there himself. He doesn't know. But he says God knows how he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, that is words that cannot be explained or he could not explain correctly or rightly which are not lawful for a man to speak. Too glorious. What is heaven? Just forget the stupid programs that say, You know, Johnny got hit by a train and and he had an out-of-body experience and he saw heaven and he's taught Now he wrote a book about it.

Don't even waste a nickel. If he starts saying, You know, heaven's like this, Paul the apostle says heaven is so great, human words cannot articulate. There's no vocabulary. Isn't that great? There is no dictionary, there's no language on the face of the earth that can formulate a word with a definition that applies to what you see in heaven. Oh man, let's You see why we want to go now? Say, man, I wish you would. I wish I would too. The believer's path to victory begins with the desire for God's glory. And she had that desire.

She wanted to see God glorified and blessed. And so she gives her son to the Lord. She honors him. There's no greater place. Psalm 27:4 greatest prayer in the Bible in my opinion. Psalm 27:4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple, not any earthly temple. Psalm 96:8 Give to the Lord the glory due his name and bring an offering. Wow, could that be our children?

And come into his courts. Oh worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The believer's path to victory is to trust God plan. God had a plan for Hannah. She said in verse 6, The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave. He brings up. The Lord makes poor, he makes rich. He brings low, he lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. Who does? God does. Why? He's got a plan.

Listen, we need to go quickly on this, but listen, God has a plan. The believer's path to victory begins also with trusting God's plan. God's plan in your life. Listen, are you rich? That's God's plan for your life. Are you poor? That's God's plan for your life. Boy, this wouldn't go over good on some programs, huh? So why can't we all be rich? I don't know. I've already asked that question too long. It just doesn't work. It just it just doesn't happen. Why why can't everybody be just like fine in the church? Because you know what?

Personally, this is my thought. I believe that God brings people in financial need in the body of Christ to every church to test the hearts of all those who have more than that person or that family. I believe if you're a family here tonight and you're in need, you have been divinely placed by the plan of God in this church to test our hearts, to see if we will be moved with compassion to share what we've given been given by God in our own lives, to bless those that are around us. If a church does not do that, that church is blind like the Ephesus church.

Blind like any other church that has become wealthy or a Laodicean church that has got goods, but cannot see and in fact has become naked, poor, wretched, and blind. God has blessed this church with wealthy. He has blessed this church with uh middle income and God has blessed this church with those a poor, but you're rich in the rest of the world, but poor. You might say, well golly, can God take this blessing off me and put it on someone else for a while? Remember Tevye and Fiddler on the Roof? He's there to complaining to God about his poverty.

And he goes, you know, Lord, he says, I know that you say that riches are a curse, but God, I pray that you'd smite me with it. Well, it's funny how some wealthy people I know they have to hire attorneys to keep them safe so they can sleep at night. Cuz it's everybody wants their money. You don't want that. God has a plan. He makes death and he makes life. He is altogether sovereign. We will stop here for tonight and pick it up next time together in this study. And uh Hannah, what a precious woman of God.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for your truth and Lord, how we need to learn to worship because uh it's so powerful and so meaningful. And Lord, in Jesus name we pray that you would divinely, supernaturally, Lord, remind us and and prod our hearts to worship. Father, may tonight when we leave here in fact even in a moment as we begin to sing, may we think about doing damage in the realms of spiritual darkness. And may we think about giving you glory. May we give back what you have blessed us with. Father, we pray that in this body both here and away that you'd heal those that are sick, that you would touch those who are struggling.

Lord, that you would meet every need spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, Lord. And we pray all of us together that you would heal our nation. Jesus that you would call the shots. And none of man's plans and schemes would prevail, but your will only. We ask you, we invite you, we want the record to be clearly written that we sought your face, Lord, and we ask for your good hand. And all God's people said Amen.

David Jay: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Worship at War, Part 1. 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 ages to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Guest (Male): 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/nogod. 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 no God tab at jackhibbs.com.

David Jay: What do you say when a friend says their marriage might end? Or how do you help a coworker dealing with depression? Do you have the right words when your child opens up about school stress or family issues or something else? The Biblical Counseling Reference Guide by June Hunt is your go-to resource when real life problems demand some real answers. Now, it's an easy to read book and it's simple to find answers that are from the Bible for every situation. With more than 580 topics and over 11,000 scripture references, you'll find what God's word says about pretty much anything from anxiety and anger to loneliness, death, and a whole lot more.

Now, this isn't a book that you're going to pick up and read cover to cover, but it is one that you'll reach for in a moment of need. And it's our thank you gift for your donation of any size to Real Life this month. And if you'd like to order your copy, and we hope you will, just visit jackhibbs.com/realradio. That 's jackhibbs.com/realradio. Order your copy right away.

Jack Hibbs: 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.