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Real life presents the Jack Gibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim

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truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Jesus is saying if you're gonna

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go to heaven you need to become like a little child. That must have really blown

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their minds completely. That goes against all the rules of engagement, right? That

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goes against all the rules of us engineering a certain thing. If I have just the

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right type of branding, the right type of look, the right type of verbiage, we've

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got to have the right font. You know all the stuff that you and I put up with

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every day in life? Well, Jesus says, hey guys, you want to be great? See this little guy right here?

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That's your answer.

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You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhybs.com slash podcast.

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Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ,

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then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying,

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amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what

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God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Gibbs. Hey everybody, I want to bring you something

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that is near and dear to my heart. And I think it's near and dear to your heart too, by the time you

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hear this, I think you'll have some affection, not only toward Jesus, but toward your relationship

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with God. And how you see things? Obviously we're in a setting here in Chino Hills that is different

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than our sanctuary. It's different than our campus. It's not some studio. In fact, well,

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I should say it's better than some studio, isn't it? This is early springtime.

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We'll come back here in a month and everything will be purple, orange, and yellow.

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How do we know? Because we've seen it before. We see it each year.

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Why do we care? Because it's something that God has done. Notice, even if your own life,

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yet that you may not be a believer in God's incredible ability to create.

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You have to stop and pause for a moment and realize that the things that bring you incredible

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peace and comfort, in fact, isn't it true that people will even escape away to places that

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we'll call that are natural, places of nature? And they'll love it because they feel what? They

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feel one with the universe or they feel some sense of inner peace. And can I just say that

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those people, though, they're seeking a good thing, they're doing it the wrong way,

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in the sense that they're trying to find the peace without the peace maker. They're trying to find

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inner sanctum without the God of the sanctuary. And let me share something with you, which to me,

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believe it or not, to me defines what Christianity should be like. It's Matthew chapter 18.

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And at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of

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heaven? Then Jesus called a little child to him and said him in the midst of them and said,

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so number one, Jesus, who's going to be the greatest in heaven in the kingdom? We want to know. Why?

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Obviously, each of them want to be that title holder. Jesus is going to shock them by getting a

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little kid. And he says, surely I say unto you, unless you are converted and become as a little

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child, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself

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as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one little

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child like this in my name receives me. It's an awesome portion of scripture because

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we know from Jesus and his ministry that there was a time when Jesus was with the entire

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multitude of people, right? A big crowd. So watch this. If you are involved in business, ministry,

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social media, influencing, what's the point? You got to have a big crowd. You need a crowd.

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Click subscribe. Click like. Join me. Follow me. The crowd. Here's what's so awesome about Jesus.

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Jesus is preaching and he doesn't care about the crowd. He cares about the quality of the hearts of

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those who are in the crowd. And to have the right type of quality heart, you and I have to be

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converted. That is, we have to think differently. We have to have a different series of priorities.

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We have to have a different passion for what we're living for. And in this case, obviously, the one

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that will bless you forever is having passion for God. So Jesus is saying, if you're going to go

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to heaven, you need to become like a little child. That must have really blown their minds completely.

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That goes against all the rules of engagement, right? That goes against all the rules of us

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engineering a certain thing. If I have just the right type of branding, the right type of look,

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the right type of verbiage, we've got to have the right font. You know all the stuff that you and I

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put up with every day in life. Well, Jesus says, hey guys, you want to be great? See this little guy

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right here? That's your answer. Well, we also know from the Bible that Jesus was speaking, the

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crowds were coming. And at one point, the Bible tells us that the crowds were pressing in on Jesus.

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And Jesus saw the disciples somehow in some way, because we know from the Greek language,

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the Bible actually says that the disciples set up barriers. We don't know what that is. Was it

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their bodies? Were they blocking? Were they tripping? They set up barriers to little children coming

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to Jesus. Imagine that. So here's Peter, James and John. There's Andrew and Philip. They have

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somehow concocted a plan. You know what? Jesus is busy. We're helping them out. We got to

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manage this crowd. And we just got to make sure these little kids, you know, we don't fall over

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them. So we need to set up barriers that Greek word is. We need to set up hinderns to the little

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kids making their way to Jesus, because after all, they could distract him. After all, you know,

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one might get under his feet. That wouldn't go well, wouldn't look good. And then what's awesome

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is that Jesus sees it. And he says, wait a minute. Do not forbid the little children to come unto me

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for such is the kingdom of heaven. When he said do not forbid them, that's that word hinder them.

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Do not set up barriers to keep little kids from coming to me for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

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Dovetailing perfectly to Jesus's answer to the guys in their pursuit of pride, what their

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pursuit of status, their pursuit of likes and subscribes is we've got to do this. And Jesus

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says, no, you got to give it up. You need to be come back a little kid. Why a little kid?

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Little kid? A little kid sees things differently. A little kid, for example, in this setting.

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I'm 65 years old. I see certain things that I can see. But I'll miss a lot. Not a little kid.

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A little kid will point things out. Do you see that? They'll, you know what they would say,

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something like this. Pastor Jack, do you see the mistletoe growing in the oak tree that's

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about ready to bloom? In fact, you see the blooms just the leaves coming forth on that oak tree

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right there. But look at the mistletoe. Isn't that used at Christmas time as a tradition?

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I didn't think about that till I just saw it. They would have seen it immediately.

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And then what about the loopings on the side of the hill? Just coming out. This whole hillside is

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going to be covered soon, purple. You see that? Lupins. There's just a few right now. But the

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little kid will spot them. When your little kids are little kids, when they're still crawling,

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have you noticed that they will find stuff that you have completely missed on the carpet?

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And if you're not a good housekeeper, mom and dad, guess what they're going to do?

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They're going to put it right in their mouth. And it's so awesome. I mean, you've got to be careful,

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but many of us have experienced this. The little ones scooting along. They stop. And it's just like,

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what are they looking at? What are they looking at? And they'll reach down. And now you're concerned

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because it is a marble, you know, God forbid it's something that could hurt them. But they grab like a

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little, I don't know, it's a lint. Some thread. Is it a piece of paper? They'll grab it and they'll

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put in their mouth. Watch me. They'll put in their mouth. And they'll go like this.

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And you can watch their mouth move around and their tongue is sampling it. And their eyes are

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kind of rolling around. What are they doing? They're studying it. That's how they do it. They're

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little kids. To them, they don't sit there and analyze it. And they're not sitting there

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about the technology of it. They see something that is out of the normal. They pull it up. They

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put it in their mouth and they are processing. What is it that I've just experienced? What is it

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that I'm looking at? What's it taste like? What does it look like? How does it look like wet if they

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spit it out and they're looking at it again? They'll put it back in their mouth. What's going on?

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Jesus said, you got to become like that to be a kid. A kid of heaven.

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They see things and they giggle and they laugh about things and things get their attention that

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you and I so quickly just walk right past. It's kids who teach us what clouds look like.

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When's the last time you looked at a cloud and you saw a giraffe in the cloud? Or a monkey? Or

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you know Mickey Mouse? Listen, the fact of the matter is this that when kids see things,

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their imagination, their eyesight sees something that their eyes are only a tool to deliver that thing.

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In other words, their eyes don't really see it. It's their imagination that sees it.

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Their imagination captures something that has got their attention to you and I,

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oh, those are lupins and those come out in the springtime and they're going to do this.

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You think a kid cares about that? They don't care about that. They don't care one bit about that.

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What they care about is what is it? Never seen that before. It's so colorful. What's it taste like?

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And so you and I as believers and I hope that you are a believer that you're somebody who believes

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and recognizes what God is saying is incredibly deadly serious but extremely beautiful.

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He's saying you're not going to go to heaven unless you become like a child.

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And so what you and I need to be careful about is growing up. All of our lives, our parents have said,

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stop it, grow up and I get it. We need to be responsible and we need to be

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practical and reasonable. But there's some points in our lives where that crosses a line

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and we go from being responsible and practical to becoming almost so right about things that we

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become dead rights. And church can be like that. Maybe many of you have visited a church and

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the church is so committed to doing things the right way that that church is so

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right about things that it's dead right and it kills a church. Why? Because honestly, I think it

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sucks the child hoodness, the child likeness out of our lives.

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Religion files you in and files you out. There's nothing strange happening.

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Right, think if you have a spiritual experience with God so to speak every Sunday

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and nothing's really happening, then you know what? You might be looking at things really

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practically and really right and really, really exceptionally analytical and leave the service

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completely uninspired. Children are inspired, are they not? And children are trusting. You can

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put a kid on a block wall and say jump and they'll jump. Try sitting in your teenager on a block

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wall and say jump. They'll say, what are you nuts? They don't trust you anymore. You never

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did anything to them, but doubt is crept in, practicalities crept in. They know, wait a minute.

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I'm 13 years old. I'm going to look stupid jumping. I don't jump. I'm 13. And besides,

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I don't think you can catch me. But you've never dropped them in all of their lives. But why now

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the hesitation? Why are the hindrances? Because they stopped seeing things in a childlike setting.

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And so as a Christian, you and I need to mature by becoming like a child. Does that make sense?

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We need to mature by growing closer to Jesus. And if we're going to do that, we are going to be less

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adults like in our relationship with Him. It won't be silly for us to hear that we should crawl

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up into the lap of Jesus and talk to Him. It won't be silly for us to praise the Lord.

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Right? It won't be silly for us to, as it were, make a joyful sound in our heart

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and sing unto the Lord. Do you notice kids are always singing? So should we.

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So listen, this is just a challenge to all of us that whatever you're doing in life and you call

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it Christianity or religion, you may be a Buddhist right now, a Hindu, Muslim, a Jew. But let's just

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be honest. Let's just cut straight to the chase. Let's just get all the hindrances out of the way.

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You have no joy. You have no joy because what's going on is the fact that you, my friend,

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have sterilized a sterilized relationship with God. And Jesus says, you come to me. I encourage you to do that.

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This Jack Kibb's podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities,

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are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift?

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Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.