WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.840 Real Life presents the Jack Hibb's podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim 2 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:12.760 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. When we suffer in this life from 3 00:00:12.760 --> 00:00:19.320 whatever it is that causes us to suffer, God's got a word, a passage, a book of the 4 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:24.000 Bible, a scripture to bring us through it and your faith will explode as you 5 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.600 realize, wait a minute, he's there! 6 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:35.600 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 7 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:41.440 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in 8 00:00:41.440 --> 00:00:46.600 Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's 9 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:52.240 like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now 10 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:57.640 open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibb's. 11 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:02.160 Well, we know this, we keep our eyes looking up toward heaven, but at the same time we're busy. 12 00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:08.080 And I like the way Spurgeon puts it, we're pregnant with expectation. Isn't that a great word? 13 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:13.240 When you think of pregnant, you think of, you know, pregnant and you see women and man, 14 00:01:13.240 --> 00:01:16.640 how far along are you? There's some women. If you see women, it's so pregnant. It's not 15 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:20.560 like she's kind of pregnant. She's kind of pregnant. Oh, no, no, no, you're pregnant. If 16 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:26.320 you're pregnant, you're pregnant. But when you're showing, you're showing. And there's 17 00:01:26.320 --> 00:01:31.640 women we've seen, you've seen them that are so pregnant, I start having pains. You know 18 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:40.840 I'm saying, it's like, oh my gosh, and they're moving like this. This is a true story. 19 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:45.320 We went to the Billy Graham Crusade in 1986, I believe it was, I think it was 86 in Anaheim 20 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:50.560 whenever that was. And Lisa was out to hear pregnant with our youngest daughter and she's 21 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:57.840 going like this up the stairs. And the, oh, she goes, ma'am, ma'am. And it's so cute. 22 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:10.840 He says, people are born again here, not born. That night, Lisa had our daughter. Yep, awesome. 23 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:24.400 I mean, I just watched. It was awesome. It hurt her very much, but it was, but the expectation, 24 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:32.680 there's signs that are indicating this or that. Wake up calls. Call it what you want. Indicators. 25 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:37.840 We're God is calling His people. And it's quite amazing. But as we look at this church, 26 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:42.240 it's quite shocking to realize, as I read verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings, 27 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:47.840 look at the word sufferings, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be 28 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:54.080 compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. What an amazing statement everybody. 29 00:02:54.080 --> 00:03:00.080 Listen, with time running out, let's remember something. Paul says, who lived in that state 30 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:06.520 of just eagerness to meet Christ, he says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present 31 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:13.240 time, every single one of us go through sufferings to some degree or another. They come in seasons. 32 00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:19.640 But sometimes even in life, there's just that, what's the word? There's just that one thing that 33 00:03:19.640 --> 00:03:27.640 just is there always. Maybe it's an illness. Maybe it's a memory. Maybe it's a loss. And it 34 00:03:27.640 --> 00:03:37.560 just is there. And in this life, according to the Bible, that all of us are subject to what the 35 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:43.320 Bible calls tribulations, their difficulties and hardships. But listen, if you're not a Christian, 36 00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:46.600 and you're going to go through these things if you're not a Christian, Christian or not, 37 00:03:46.600 --> 00:03:50.200 you're going to go through these things. The great thing about the Christian is God holds our 38 00:03:50.200 --> 00:03:54.840 hand all the way through. He'll never let go of us. And when we're crying and when we're 39 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:59.240 screaming and when the pain is too much or the hurt is too much, we can always say, Lord, 40 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:05.400 we can call out to Him. If you're not a follower of Christ, where do you go other than Jim 41 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:13.000 Beam or Jack Daniels or a line of cocaine or what do you do? I understand that. Most of us 42 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:17.960 were like you at one point. That's where we went for our relief. But then someone greater than 43 00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:25.240 Jim Beam walked in the room. Okay? And he gives a piece that lasts forever. And he comes in and he 44 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:31.080 just takes all that stuff away and he says, here's my promises. Open my book and listen. In fact, 45 00:04:31.080 --> 00:04:39.960 watch, I'm going to show you how good he is. Okay, here's, okay, well, I'm going to include 46 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:49.000 chapter four. So here you go. There you go. All the creation, creation, stars, heavens, Jupiter, 47 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:58.040 Mars, Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, the whole thing, all this stuff. And then the Garden of Eden, 48 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:02.520 the sin, the fall. Okay, you see this part of the Bible? 49 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:11.080 Now, sons and daughters of Adam and Eve come back to me. I love you. This is the road map back. 50 00:05:11.080 --> 00:05:17.720 I'm communicating to you how much I care, how much I love, how much I want you in my kingdom forever. 51 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:23.640 This is my book of life. It took this much to mess it up, but it takes this much of me working 52 00:05:23.640 --> 00:05:33.160 to get you back. His love for us. We should grow more and more excited about that expectation, 53 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:39.720 but you say, Jackie mentioned suffering. Listen, suffering for the believer is like a university. 54 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:47.080 I mean, a good one, not like today, back in the old days. It's where we grow. No one wants to hear 55 00:05:47.080 --> 00:05:52.760 this, but we're going to suffer. But the believer, we become more like Jesus when we suffer. By the 56 00:05:52.760 --> 00:05:58.600 power of the Holy Spirit. He does it in the midst of pain and sorrow. He winds up getting in 57 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:03.640 under our skin and into our hearts. And he does the work. This stuff we're talking about is for real. 58 00:06:03.640 --> 00:06:09.080 This is not a joke. Jesus is not some ancient, removed religious figure. He's got the sun 59 00:06:09.080 --> 00:06:15.560 resurrected from the dead. He lives eternally and he's coming back and he's truly alive and 60 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:21.640 we're waiting for him. And the glory of all of this is in suffering. We've got Christ to cry out to you. 61 00:06:21.640 --> 00:06:25.880 And another thing which brings me great hope is our suffering has a purpose. 62 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:36.520 When we suffer in this life from whatever it is that causes us to suffer. God's got a word, 63 00:06:36.520 --> 00:06:42.120 a passage, a book of the Bible, a scripture to bring us through it and your faith will explode 64 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:47.960 as you realize, wait a minute. In fact, this is when it happens. Wait, everything's going crazy, 65 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:54.520 or there's bullets flying or this situation's going on. And you have a piece that is so 66 00:06:54.520 --> 00:06:58.760 not you that you kind of feel like, do I understand how bad this is? 67 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:07.400 Do I realize that this is a real predict of it? And the answer is you know exactly what's going 68 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:19.240 on. But God reminds you, I've got you. And it's like, wow. He's there. He says, Paul says, 69 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:25.080 before I consider that the sufferings of this present time. First John chapter 2 verse 16, 70 00:07:25.080 --> 00:07:30.440 the Bible tells us, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes 71 00:07:30.440 --> 00:07:34.280 and the pride of life. By the way, those are the three things that God used. Those three things 72 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:39.160 are there. Is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away 73 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:45.320 and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Beautiful. What is the will of God 74 00:07:45.320 --> 00:07:51.240 to believe on him? Who God has sent. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that great? To trust him. 75 00:07:52.440 --> 00:07:58.680 Billy Graham said that we need to trust God in that 9-11 clip. That's the answer. 76 00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:04.440 Expectation. And that word to consider means basically to do the math. 77 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:11.160 Rack up the numbers. Do the numbers and come to the conclusion. It's a great challenge. Think it 78 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:19.160 through. Reckon is one of the other words. See its worth. And then 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, 79 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:26.360 2 Corinthians 3 18, the Bible there says, but we all with unveiled face. That means he's speaking 80 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:32.920 to believers. Beholding as an amir the glory of the Lord. See, we see the glory of the Lord when 81 00:08:32.920 --> 00:08:37.560 we are reading, when we're studying about him, when we're meditating on the Word of God, we see 82 00:08:37.560 --> 00:08:42.760 the glory of God in our hearts and in our minds and our imaginations. We're just thinking about him. 83 00:08:43.560 --> 00:08:50.040 And as you keep reading the Bible, his glory becomes more intense, more spectacular. That's 84 00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:55.560 why the Bible says wait upon the Lord and he'll renew your strengths. Did you know that? Are you tired? 85 00:08:56.360 --> 00:09:03.400 No, I mean, I didn't mean to answer that. I was just, I meant to say this, but you interrupted 86 00:09:03.400 --> 00:09:13.880 me, but I was going to say, if you're tired, then lean on the Lord, rest in him. Because we get tired, 87 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:23.720 but we lean on him. When you're tired, you have a tendency to lean, right? He's just saying lean 88 00:09:23.800 --> 00:09:31.320 on me and I'll take care of that. But it says that beholding as an amir the glory of the Lord, 89 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:39.800 we can't exactly see how spectacular he is, but we see enough. He talks about us. We're being 90 00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:44.280 transformed in the same image from glory to glory. I mean, you're growing up, everybody. We're all 91 00:09:44.280 --> 00:09:54.440 growing up. How does that happen? Suffering. Sorry, but it's suffering just as by the spirit of the 92 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:59.560 Lord. The more you are dependent upon God's power to get you through your weak moment, the greater 93 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:04.600 he becomes, the lesser you and I become, but boy, the brighter he is in our vision. 94 00:10:07.640 --> 00:10:13.480 When Stephen saw Jesus Christ, he saw him like illuminated as the sun and again, Paul saw him in 95 00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:17.720 the brilliance of the sun as though he were looking at the sun and its full strength and the 96 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:22.600 Bible shows us in the book of Revelation that Jesus Christ right now at this hour, pacific time, 97 00:10:23.640 --> 00:10:30.280 Jesus is on the throne and he's emanating glory, brighter. In fact, even when Jesus appeared 98 00:10:30.280 --> 00:10:35.640 on the mount of transfiguration in the gospels, I love that. He glowed. 99 00:10:36.040 --> 00:10:44.040 You guys are familiar with this, right? It's Peter, James, and John. Remember the story, Peter, James, 100 00:10:44.040 --> 00:10:48.600 and John. It's always Peter, James, and John. Jesus went over the hill and he took Peter, James, 101 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:53.320 and John. Jesus went in this boat and he took Peter, James, and John. He went up to the mountain and 102 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:58.360 he took Peter, James, and John. And you say, by, I thought God didn't have any favorites. He 103 00:10:58.360 --> 00:11:02.840 doesn't have any favorites. He said, I don't favor anybody over another. See why it's always Peter, 104 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:07.080 James, and John. They saw the amazing stuff. They did see the amazing stuff. But I think we 105 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:13.720 often mistake what's going on here because first of all, consider Peter. If you know your Bible, 106 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:17.480 Peter is like, we can't wait to meet Peter because you know the people that are, you know, 107 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:22.360 you can relate to them. It's like Peter, come here. I feel like I know you. You're always seeing 108 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:27.320 the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, getting in trouble, cutting people's ears off. 109 00:11:27.560 --> 00:11:34.200 And then James and John, the sons of thunder. What do you think? You think they got that name 110 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:39.320 still in Amway? The sons of thunder. These guys rumbled. They probably had black leather robes. 111 00:11:41.800 --> 00:11:46.280 So I think Jesus goes like this, hey guys, Peter, James, John, you guys want to head on over toward 112 00:11:46.280 --> 00:11:52.920 toward that hilltop right there? Great. Just keep going. I'm going to take those guys over there to 113 00:11:52.920 --> 00:11:58.360 show them a thing or two. I know you guys got it. They're a little slow. I'll be right back. 114 00:11:59.880 --> 00:12:05.400 It's always that way. In fact, you can listen. You think, you know, you're stretching it. I don't 115 00:12:05.400 --> 00:12:11.640 think so. Jesus is on the mount of transfiguration. And he's praying. And the Bible says he turns glowing 116 00:12:11.640 --> 00:12:18.360 bright white. And the three disciples see this. And then the Bible says Moses and Elijah appear 117 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:25.960 from eternity. They arrive. And they're speaking to Jesus about his upcoming death. And the Bible says, 118 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:33.800 Peter shouts, it's great that we're here. Let us build three tenths. One for you, Jesus, 119 00:12:33.800 --> 00:12:38.840 one for Moses and one for Elijah. And the Bible says, and Peter said this because he didn't know what to 120 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:48.520 say. Is that awesome? I got to say something. What are you going to say? I don't know. But he pops 121 00:12:48.520 --> 00:12:56.520 up. I'm telling you, those guys, they were the special class. And that talks about how patient 122 00:12:56.520 --> 00:13:03.720 God is with us. Look, we laugh at them. But if it was our day, it'd be like, Mani, Mo and Jack, 123 00:13:04.520 --> 00:13:12.440 get over here, right? But God is patient and he's kind. And in the midst of suffering, God is there 124 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:17.800 with us. He'll never abandon us or leave us. He's made us that promise. He'll never change. He'll 125 00:13:17.800 --> 00:13:24.200 never go back. And that word suffering, that word is a word that means that befalls everyone in the 126 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:29.880 world. It's the, it's the sufferings of this world. But the difference is, again, as I said, 127 00:13:29.880 --> 00:13:37.240 we have Christ with us. And John 1633, I love this. John 1633, Jesus said, these things I've spoken 128 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:43.960 to you that in me, you may have peace. Notice everybody? You guys awake? Notice. These things I've 129 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:51.880 spoken unto you. Thank you. Thank you for telling me. Yes, but there's more. In me, you may have peace. 130 00:13:51.960 --> 00:14:03.160 Okay? In the world, you will have tribulation, difficulties, hardships. But be of good cheer. 131 00:14:03.880 --> 00:14:09.560 I have overcome the world. What he's saying is this, the difficulties of this life for the believer 132 00:14:09.560 --> 00:14:16.120 are not only temporal, but God uses him to work a work that otherwise could never be done. You know 133 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:23.560 this as a believer, the people that you know in life who have suffered the most. Have you noticed how 134 00:14:23.560 --> 00:14:33.960 deep they are spiritually? And how calm they are? God saw me through this. God saw me through that. 135 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:40.280 We did this. We did the other. God brought us through. It's a great way to live people. Listen, 136 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:45.800 as believers, let's not procrastinate in our trust in Him when a difficulty comes. 137 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:51.560 Don't say, oh my gosh, what's going on? God, where are you? Listen, 138 00:14:52.280 --> 00:14:56.760 these difficulties that have come to us. Number one, if they're satanic, they're father filtered. 139 00:14:58.040 --> 00:15:01.480 That means the Father, Satan had to get the Father's permission to come and 140 00:15:01.560 --> 00:15:12.040 tamper with your life. Satan came to Jesus and said, can I have Peter? That's a weird moment 141 00:15:12.040 --> 00:15:19.960 because Jesus goes over to Peter and says, hey, Peter, Satan asked me if he could tear you up. 142 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:29.160 And can you imagine Peter? Peter had to have said, thank God he asked you. 143 00:15:31.560 --> 00:15:33.640 I mean, you told them where to go, right? 144 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:40.760 Well, actually, Peter, when you return from getting the snot beat out of you, 145 00:15:40.920 --> 00:15:46.440 when you return, strengthen your brothers. Say what? 146 00:15:49.160 --> 00:15:55.400 The whole thing about Peter denying Jesus Christ and him weeping and turning his back on Jesus, 147 00:15:55.400 --> 00:15:57.080 Satan was trying to destroy Peter. 148 00:16:01.080 --> 00:16:03.480 And yet the power of God brought him through. 149 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:10.040 And when Peter came out of that, look what happened. After the day of Pentecost, 150 00:16:10.040 --> 00:16:15.720 when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers, he couldn't stop Peter. He's a completely different man. 151 00:16:17.160 --> 00:16:25.400 His command of Scripture, amazing, suffering does that. Jesus said, be of good cheer 152 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:29.560 in the midst of whatever's going on. I can say this. I don't think she's here right now, 153 00:16:29.560 --> 00:16:38.280 but Miss Robin, at least she's been our secretary since I don't know, 34, 33 years, 34 years. 154 00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:47.720 She suffered ministering to her husband who suffered difficult, hard life, 11 years and then died. 155 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:54.200 And now her mother-in-law, she's, she got her father-in-law through his death and now her mother-in-law's 156 00:16:54.200 --> 00:17:01.800 dying right now. And Robin is amazing. If you guys don't know Robin, she's amazing. I've never 157 00:17:01.800 --> 00:17:08.040 seen her. She never once complained. She's amazing. And I told her today, I said, Robin, let's 158 00:17:08.040 --> 00:17:15.240 pray right now because here's a deal. God, your mother-in-law is like a stadium right now. And you're in the 159 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:22.120 middle preaching to the crowd. The crowd is at the hospital. Robin, it's always been this way for 160 00:17:22.120 --> 00:17:28.120 years. You're such a great witness. You walk around crying over the situation of your loved one, 161 00:17:28.120 --> 00:17:33.880 but you're laying hands on them and praying. And then you're praying for the nurse whose husband 162 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:38.280 just wrote her a divorce note. And then you go down the hallway and somebody over here is crying 163 00:17:38.280 --> 00:17:42.680 and you're going and you're comforting them. And I said, here's the deal, Robin, you're always in 164 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:48.840 these situations because you're such an amazing minister. The depth of her faith, I have noticed, 165 00:17:48.840 --> 00:17:54.600 is equal to her magnitude of suffering. And when you see that, you begin to wonder, do I know 166 00:17:54.600 --> 00:18:00.760 the same God she knows? And that's when you say, God, whatever you want to do in my life is good 167 00:18:00.760 --> 00:18:08.120 with me. Whatever entails, I'm not afraid of having you do what you want. Because I know that 168 00:18:08.120 --> 00:18:12.120 it's going to be good, it's going to be loving, it's going to be awesome because you are a God 169 00:18:12.120 --> 00:18:18.280 who takes the things of life and transforms sufferings into great strengths, into great testimonies, 170 00:18:18.280 --> 00:18:22.680 and great abilities to minister to other people that otherwise we would never be able to talk to. 171 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:32.440 It's you and me in our private world where God uses us. Right now we're in church, it's fuel up time, 172 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:37.560 it's fill up your tank to go out and to be that witness, remarkable goodness of God. 173 00:18:42.280 --> 00:18:48.280 This Jack Kibb's podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. 174 00:18:48.280 --> 00:18:55.400 Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibb's.com to learn more 175 00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:57.560 and stay connected.