WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.820 Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim 2 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:10.860 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Those who will accept Christ will 3 00:00:10.860 --> 00:00:15.220 give God all the glory and all the praise because He provided the opportunity and 4 00:00:15.220 --> 00:00:19.780 the way to eternal life. He's suffering. Those who choose not to accept Christ 5 00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:24.780 wind up in hell, they suffer their own on their own because they would not want to 6 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:29.460 be with God even if they could be with God. They want nothing to do with them. 7 00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:36.860 And they have nobody to blame but themselves. And that too is the sovereignty of God. 8 00:00:37.940 --> 00:00:44.540 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 9 00:00:44.540 --> 00:00:49.940 Today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled 10 00:00:49.940 --> 00:00:54.780 life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, 11 00:00:54.780 --> 00:01:00.340 that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. 12 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:05.740 Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 13 00:01:05.740 --> 00:01:11.580 God's good, good sovereignty is established in His purposes versus 14 00:01:11.580 --> 00:01:18.740 19 to 21. And when you look at it this way versus 19 and 20 is that we have our 15 00:01:18.740 --> 00:01:23.380 questions, don't we? We have questions. And so here in the Bible, Paul says, 16 00:01:23.380 --> 00:01:30.060 will you say to me then, why does he? Why does God still find full for who has 17 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:36.980 resisted his will? That statement means if God pre-programmed everything and I have no 18 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:42.300 choice in it, why is he upset with me? If I'm going to the pit automatically or 19 00:01:42.300 --> 00:01:47.060 if I'm going to heaven automatically, what's the deal? Well, that's it's a beautiful 20 00:01:47.060 --> 00:01:53.780 statement. It's a great question. The thing is the one asking is got it wrong. In fact, 21 00:01:53.780 --> 00:01:57.900 I want to read something to you. This is read this this week. It was amazing. R.W. 22 00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:05.100 Newell, I love this. R.W. Newell tells of a conversation he was having with a man that 23 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:10.180 he had sat down next to on a train. The conversation went in the direction of faith and 24 00:02:10.180 --> 00:02:20.060 belief in God. At some point in the conversation, Newell described that he asked the young man 25 00:02:20.060 --> 00:02:27.420 if he believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The young man burst out loud in laughter 26 00:02:27.420 --> 00:02:34.340 saying, well, if I'm part of the elect, then I'll be going to heaven. And if I'm not 27 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:41.840 part of the elect, there's no use in me worrying about it anyway. To that, I sharply 28 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:50.300 rebuked him with these words. The Bible says, truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, 29 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:57.660 but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Metanoia means to change your mind. Because 30 00:02:57.660 --> 00:03:02.300 he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man noticed 31 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:10.900 capital M. Christ, who he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising 32 00:03:10.900 --> 00:03:19.260 Christ from the dead. Wow. But how many times have you talked to people? Well, you know, 33 00:03:19.260 --> 00:03:27.300 if it's God picks any meeting mind him, oh, that's not true. And you'll hear people 34 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:33.100 like that. Put the blame on God. Why does he still find fault? He doesn't. He's a God 35 00:03:33.100 --> 00:03:40.300 of all four knowledge. He knew what you would do with the opportunity to say yes to Jesus 36 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:44.340 when presented to you. By the time we end this service, I'm going to present the opportunity 37 00:03:44.340 --> 00:03:49.260 to you. And you're either going to dig down your prideful heels into the ground and say, 38 00:03:49.260 --> 00:03:53.100 nope, I'm going to do my own thing. I want my own thing. And I don't want him to tell 39 00:03:53.140 --> 00:03:58.860 me what to do. Are you going to say, I'm busted? He's got me in the corner. I have nowhere 40 00:03:58.860 --> 00:04:06.180 to go. But to him, those who will accept Christ will give God all the glory and all the 41 00:04:06.180 --> 00:04:12.420 praise because he provided the opportunity and the way to eternal life. He's suffering. 42 00:04:12.420 --> 00:04:17.140 Those who choose not to accept Christ wind up in hell. They suffer there on their own 43 00:04:17.140 --> 00:04:22.420 because they would not want to be with God even if they could be with God. They'd want 44 00:04:22.420 --> 00:04:27.980 nothing to do with him. And they have nobody to blame but themselves. And that too is the 45 00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:36.860 sovereignty of God. Questions. We all have them. What do we do with them? It says in verse 20, 46 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:43.460 but indeed, oh man, who are you to reply against God? That's strong, isn't it? Questioning. 47 00:04:43.460 --> 00:04:47.980 Questions. Questions. Good. Listen. Depends. Questions can be good. You know, little kids. 48 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:55.740 How many of you have teenagers raise your hands? Like, what, 20 of you? How can there be 49 00:04:55.740 --> 00:05:01.620 hundreds of teenagers here? Where are they coming from? If not from you, where are they coming from? 50 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:09.260 How many of you little kids raise your hands? Oh, there's something really weird here today. 51 00:05:09.260 --> 00:05:17.300 There's like a thousand little kids here right now. Who's kids? Are these kids? We do know 52 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:24.340 people have dropped children off and we changed it now. People used to drop their kids off and 53 00:05:24.340 --> 00:05:31.700 go shopping and stuff and go on dates. You can't do that anymore now. Now it's all, now we have 54 00:05:31.700 --> 00:05:40.340 chips on the forehead or in the right hand. It's a good idea. Just not six, six, six. Is it 55 00:05:40.340 --> 00:05:47.460 a different number? Just kidding, not really. Your kids are safe here. I'm telling you, 56 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:53.780 but they may God keep it that way, but who are you to reply like that? Well, if you, 57 00:05:53.780 --> 00:05:59.380 it's very fatalistic, and I knew about it, it's been predetermined. Brother, you need to read 58 00:05:59.380 --> 00:06:06.580 your Bible better. Joshua said today, choose today whom you'll serve. If God has God serve him, 59 00:06:06.580 --> 00:06:12.740 if Baal and Astor are gods, then serve them. Remarkable. But little kids, I asked you about 60 00:06:12.740 --> 00:06:18.180 little kids in your teenagers asking questions. Do they not ask questions? And listen, you need to 61 00:06:18.180 --> 00:06:25.780 answer their questions. You say, butjector questions are so lame. That's not for you to figure out 62 00:06:25.780 --> 00:06:32.100 if they're lame or not. When your five year old says, hey, how do birds fly like that? 63 00:06:32.580 --> 00:06:38.740 But you've got to stop the world, my friend, right now. You've got to stop the world. And you 64 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:43.620 got to either go online or go to Britannica or get a little aeronautical, go down to the 65 00:06:44.260 --> 00:06:49.620 library, get an aeronautical book for little kids and show them how that all of that thing works. 66 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:52.820 You've got to answer their question because if you don't answer their question, 67 00:06:52.820 --> 00:06:57.220 they're going to go find either A, a question somewhere else that's wrong. Secondly, 68 00:06:57.220 --> 00:07:00.660 they're going to know that, well, I'm not going to use dad. He doesn't know anything. 69 00:07:02.340 --> 00:07:06.980 Especially when dad goes, I don't know, ask him on. That's an automatic, that's a giveaway, man. 70 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:10.900 Don't do that, dad. Tell your son, I'm not exactly sure. Let's find out together. 71 00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:19.060 And when your teenager says, hey, what's the deal with this thing in life? Stop everything. 72 00:07:20.020 --> 00:07:27.940 Give them the answers. You're the parent. God has ordained you to be their parent and to be their 73 00:07:27.940 --> 00:07:34.820 spiritual leader. And your teen wants to get the answer from you. You're a little one once, 74 00:07:34.820 --> 00:07:39.300 and they ask the greatest, the little ones ask the questions like, how does the bird fly? 75 00:07:39.300 --> 00:07:44.580 One of the greatest things ever, some little kid, I think it was Dr. James Dobson said that one time 76 00:07:44.580 --> 00:07:50.420 his son Ryan came up, a little young Ryan came up to him and said to his dad, Dad, do worms yon? 77 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:56.500 That's a great thing. Would you know how to answer that by the way? 78 00:07:56.500 --> 00:08:00.740 Technically, right? They don't have a mouth. They don't know. That's how you have to answer them. 79 00:08:01.780 --> 00:08:04.900 But when you listen, when you say to God, why did you make me this way? 80 00:08:06.260 --> 00:08:12.420 And who are you anyway? God is God. I'm God and you're not. 81 00:08:13.380 --> 00:08:17.700 I've always been. Remember Bill Cosby? I started to bring up, but 82 00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:24.820 and that's sad. Bill Cosby used to say in his stand-up to his rebellious kid, I brought you 83 00:08:24.820 --> 00:08:30.420 into this world and it is certain I can take you out. Well, think about that. I'm the grand 84 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:36.980 skill with God. God is saying to the voice that's condemning him. God is saying, I could take your 85 00:08:37.060 --> 00:08:47.460 breath away right now. I could snap your neck like a chicken. You can do anything. He's God. 86 00:08:48.180 --> 00:08:53.140 Isn't it great in this sovereignty? He's merciful. He doesn't have to be. He's merciful. 87 00:08:55.700 --> 00:09:02.580 The verbiage leads you to the book of Jeremiah where the Bible says when God is speaking about Israel. 88 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:08.900 He says, go to the potter's house and watch the potter. And the potter goes to the wheel and he 89 00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:12.820 spins the wheel and he puts clay on there and he's adding water. We've all done this in class, 90 00:09:12.820 --> 00:09:16.900 right? Do they still do this? Please tell me they do this in school where you make. Remember, 91 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:23.220 you make the stuff in school and that never works right? So what do we make? Astray. 92 00:09:24.660 --> 00:09:28.980 The world is full of astrays because the thing that we're making wouldn't work. 93 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:37.380 But never once did we shape a figurine. Oh, look at that. Take it off and set it there and it's 94 00:09:37.380 --> 00:09:44.900 this thing. And then you're looking at it and it goes, why am I like this? Why do you have me standing 95 00:09:44.900 --> 00:09:50.420 like this? I'm too short. It never tucks back and then if it did tuck back, you just go. 96 00:09:51.140 --> 00:09:59.140 You made it. You can do anything you want with it. Well, I'm going to file a grievance. Where? 97 00:09:59.940 --> 00:10:06.900 I'm sovereign. I'm God. I know what I'm doing. And what you don't know is that I knew that you 98 00:10:06.900 --> 00:10:13.780 would be one who would fight me back right out of the womb before you were ever born. I knew 99 00:10:13.780 --> 00:10:17.460 before you were ever born that you would have nothing to do with me that you would hate me. 100 00:10:17.860 --> 00:10:24.340 Now somebody will say, well, then why didn't God stop them from being born? Now you've got God 101 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:34.100 violating his own sovereignty because what you want is a kumbaya moment. Everything is just fine. 102 00:10:36.740 --> 00:10:44.100 And you can't have real love without struggle. Did you know that marriage in this world is the 103 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:50.100 closest thing to knowing God that's possible on this planet? Did you know the family dynamic 104 00:10:50.100 --> 00:10:57.940 beginning with marriage has been designed by God? I know it's a shock, but Sacramento didn't 105 00:10:57.940 --> 00:11:13.220 design marriage. God did. It's amazing. Listen, the Bible tells us that will the thing 106 00:11:13.220 --> 00:11:20.740 form Satan who formed it? Why have you made me this way? Why am I like this? When in reality the 107 00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:28.420 thing that is formed has no standing to even ask a question. Didn't God kind of tell that the Job? 108 00:11:28.420 --> 00:11:37.860 Job's asking all this questions. And God was tough on Job. Job was hurting. But that's in the 109 00:11:37.860 --> 00:11:43.780 Bible for us. Job paid the price for you and I. Job's like he's got pus all over his body. 110 00:11:43.780 --> 00:11:49.700 It's dripping. He took up. He's scraping the pus. It says from the source of his body, 111 00:11:49.700 --> 00:11:56.180 he did nothing wrong. Satan's attacking him. And Job's going, what would I do? 112 00:11:58.900 --> 00:12:06.500 Welcome this and welcome that. And if I were you and God is telling Job, I know what I'm doing. 113 00:12:08.980 --> 00:12:13.380 And these questions that you're asking, can I ask you a question? Do you know how to steer 114 00:12:13.460 --> 00:12:19.140 Pleiades through the universe? All the questions you're asking. Can you just have faith in me, Job, 115 00:12:19.140 --> 00:12:25.620 that I'm bringing you through something? Instead of the clay questioning me, how about if the clay 116 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:32.980 just stands still and says, I know that you're the potter. Help me to hang on. Just help me to hang on. 117 00:12:32.980 --> 00:12:40.660 I can't go on here more than that. And I always believe I do. I always believe that he's hanging 118 00:12:40.660 --> 00:12:46.100 on to us. We don't have the strength. We don't have the grip. But we have no standing to question him. 119 00:12:46.100 --> 00:12:52.180 We assume that we do. We have no capability of even asking the right question. Let's be honest 120 00:12:52.180 --> 00:12:58.580 with ourselves. Our pride gets in the way so much that can't we agree that when we're questioning God 121 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:03.860 and don't look at me like you don't, we all question God. Shall the clay say to the potter? Yes, 122 00:13:03.860 --> 00:13:15.060 we do. Yes, we question him. You know, it's awesome. He can take it. He can take it 123 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:22.980 in your grief and your pain. Sometimes it's in your pure pride. How come I got the raise? 124 00:13:22.980 --> 00:13:32.100 I shouldn't have got the raise. Watch out. We're not even qualified to ask the right questions. 125 00:13:32.100 --> 00:13:42.580 We only think we are. You know, this is a side note as well. I don't know if you're an employer. 126 00:13:42.580 --> 00:13:47.780 If you're an employer, I have some advice for you. You're not a hire people. When you're interviewing 127 00:13:47.780 --> 00:13:56.580 somebody, look, you know IQ is right. You can teach someone. You can teach someone to do a job. 128 00:13:57.540 --> 00:14:06.100 You can teach them. Well, I've got all these schools I went to. I'm not interested in that. 129 00:14:06.900 --> 00:14:12.740 It means nothing to me because your life up into this moment is pure theoretical. 130 00:14:15.220 --> 00:14:18.900 What do you know? Have you ever had a job before? I've gone to air. Here's a school 131 00:14:19.780 --> 00:14:28.900 that just means you showed up. Sometimes maybe not. Here's the deal. It's not the IQ. You can fix that. 132 00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:38.020 Stupid can be fixed. You can fix it. Have you ever heard of EQ? That you cannot fix. 133 00:14:39.540 --> 00:14:44.660 Say, where are you going with this? Emotional stability. The emotional presence of a person. 134 00:14:44.660 --> 00:14:52.500 That's the person you hire. Why? Because this person gets along with others. You can hire Einstein 135 00:14:53.460 --> 00:14:58.820 and he can disrupt the entire project. Are you hearing me? Do they get along with others? 136 00:14:59.540 --> 00:15:04.420 Are they a team player? Are they able to be self-governed at their job or do you have to have 137 00:15:04.420 --> 00:15:10.900 somebody over the mirror camera? You know what those kind of people? But you want somebody. Listen, 138 00:15:11.540 --> 00:15:15.140 when you're interviewing somebody, this is nothing to the sermon. What am I doing right now? 139 00:15:15.780 --> 00:15:22.020 When you're hiring somebody because you're sovereign. That's how we go that in because you are the 140 00:15:22.020 --> 00:15:28.420 boss or the owner. Ask them some questions that are important to you. But here's where it gets 141 00:15:28.420 --> 00:15:35.220 very, very powerful. You say to them, now I'd like you to ask me any question you'd like about 142 00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:43.140 this company or about me. Go. Did you know you will find out more about that person 143 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:55.140 in five seconds to five minutes? Do they ask the right questions? How do they present their question? 144 00:15:56.980 --> 00:16:03.060 Was their question theoretical or was it a practical question? Oh my goodness. It's amazing. 145 00:16:04.020 --> 00:16:10.100 It's amazing. And you can't get a degree in that. You've got to learn life. 146 00:16:11.140 --> 00:16:19.220 Young people today need to learn life. There's motives. Will the thing forms say to him who formed 147 00:16:19.220 --> 00:16:28.580 it? Why have you made me like this? Remarkable. The Bible says in Isaiah 64, verse 5, Isaiah 64, 5, it says, 148 00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:37.220 and we need to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing. And all our righteousness 149 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:44.420 are as filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. 150 00:16:45.380 --> 00:16:50.580 We need Jesus. Today you might say, I don't need Jesus. The Bible says you need to choose. 151 00:16:51.460 --> 00:16:56.500 And you would think fatalistically and say it doesn't matter. It does matter. It powerfully 152 00:16:56.500 --> 00:17:03.060 matters. So I'm going to ask you in a few moments. I'm going to ask you to exercise your ability to 153 00:17:03.060 --> 00:17:11.860 choose. And it's solely between you and God. The only caveat to that is that God asks you with your 154 00:17:11.860 --> 00:17:19.540 decision to be public about it. Isn't that amazing? See, well, that's a lot of pressure. To be public 155 00:17:19.540 --> 00:17:26.500 about it. He says in verse 21, does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump 156 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:34.180 to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? You see, we'll check that that's pretty fine. 157 00:17:34.180 --> 00:17:39.780 That's pretty scary isn't it right there? Verse 21, listen, this is the opportunity. We have 158 00:17:39.780 --> 00:17:48.420 opportunity. Think the Lord that his sovereign act is all based upon that beautiful word for an 159 00:17:48.420 --> 00:17:56.100 orange. And he knew everything beforehand. Because if you say today, oh, my friend, he was, 160 00:17:56.100 --> 00:18:03.220 my friend was designed by God to be a vessel of dishonor. He's been designed for hell. 161 00:18:03.460 --> 00:18:16.820 No, listen, those who appear to us to be vessels of dishonor, the evil of the world, 162 00:18:19.220 --> 00:18:27.460 you and I do not know what God knows. That he knew in his foreign knowledge how they would be in 163 00:18:27.460 --> 00:18:34.980 life. And thus their life was. He didn't make them this way. He knew that when they had a chance, 164 00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:45.780 they would reject him. This Jack Hibb's podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities 165 00:18:45.780 --> 00:18:50.500 are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? 166 00:18:50.500 --> 00:18:56.900 Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.