WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.840 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim 2 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:10.740 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Here's the amazing thing about 3 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:16.560 the God of the Bible. He takes the life that you lived, pain, warts and all, and 4 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:21.600 when he gets done with you, you become an incredibly powerful tool to minister to 5 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:26.000 others that otherwise no one else could reach. 6 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:35.320 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 7 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:40.720 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled 8 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:45.560 life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, 9 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:51.080 that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. 10 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:57.800 Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 11 00:00:57.800 --> 00:01:03.400 And so church today, we look at verses 10 and 11. This is be kindly affectionate to one another with 12 00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:09.960 brotherly love. So church write this down, would you? That we're to do the acts of the Father. 13 00:01:11.320 --> 00:01:17.720 This is how we're to be. When the Bible here tells us that we are to do what we are now as believers, 14 00:01:17.720 --> 00:01:22.360 what is that that we're to do? Well, number one, we start with the Father. Jesus made that 15 00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:27.320 clear to us a moment ago that the Father loves Jesus. The Father loves us. Jesus loves us. 16 00:01:27.320 --> 00:01:34.280 Jesus loves the Father. And in all of that, there are the acts. There are the actions that we do 17 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:41.480 as believers now. When it says be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, 18 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:45.880 why is that important? Because this is the love of the Father that the Father has for us. 19 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:53.560 Now I need to clear the air right now. And that is this area of Father, the concept of Father. 20 00:01:56.520 --> 00:02:01.000 I guess I should start here. You might say, well, Jack, I don't like that. I try to, 21 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:05.800 you know, I try to keep that word father out at a very bad father experience you might be thinking. 22 00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:09.960 Somebody might say I grew up in a dysfunctional home. I would say get in line. 23 00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:15.880 Even if you grew up in a wonderful home, do you understand what dysfunctional means? 24 00:02:15.880 --> 00:02:20.280 Disfunctional means it wasn't perfect. None of us grew up in a perfect home. 25 00:02:21.720 --> 00:02:26.600 But I want to just say something loud and clear. And I'm telling you from experience, 26 00:02:28.920 --> 00:02:35.720 you can either choose to come to know and to enjoy the Father of heaven, the Father of love, 27 00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:43.160 the Father of light, the Father who sent his Son to live in righteousness and to die in the 28 00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:48.200 cross for you because you and I are not righteous, and to purchase for us eternal life, 29 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:55.640 the extravagant Father, which is what is behind the parable of the 30 00:02:55.640 --> 00:03:04.200 prodigal Son. You know, we understand that in the West to be the parable of the prodigal Son. 31 00:03:04.200 --> 00:03:08.520 In the Middle East, it's the parable of the prodigal Father. Did you know that the word 32 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:14.040 prodigal means extravagant? Did you know that? We always miss things up. We get things in the West 33 00:03:14.040 --> 00:03:19.000 and we miss it all up. It's not about the Son. Everybody focuses on the Son because that's kind of 34 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:26.040 our culture. It's about the Father's love. The Father loved the boy that stayed, 35 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:30.680 and the Father loved the boy that ran away, and the Father paid the price notice. It's the 36 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:36.440 extravagance of the Father. But see, you and I might have a picture of a heavenly Father 37 00:03:36.440 --> 00:03:41.880 that's corrupted because we've translated the life of the earthly Father that wasn't maybe 38 00:03:41.880 --> 00:03:45.960 all that good onto our heavenly Father. And so we say, I don't want to, Jack, I don't want to talk 39 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:50.440 about the Father anymore. Can you just move on? No, I will not move on because all of us need to 40 00:03:50.440 --> 00:03:55.720 know the truth about our heavenly Father. No matter what kind of example we've had in this life, 41 00:03:55.720 --> 00:04:01.960 there's a Father in heaven who loves you and his love is unconditional. And you see, 42 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:06.200 if that's true, then why did I go through the pain and sorrow I went through? Because listen, 43 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:11.880 God knows, and you know, this is a fallen messed up world, but God didn't abandon you. Here's 44 00:04:11.880 --> 00:04:17.560 the amazing thing about the God of the Bible. He takes the life that you lived, pain, 45 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:23.560 warts, and all. And when he gets done with you, you become an incredibly powerful tool to minister 46 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:30.120 to others that otherwise no one else could reach. Well, I was locked in a cage, I was beat up, 47 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:36.600 I was left for dead. Yes, but now you're in Christ. And God wants to turn that horrible story 48 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:44.280 around and allow you to preach and to witness and to speak what God can do. You see the things of 49 00:04:44.280 --> 00:04:49.000 horrific sexual abuse and violent abuse. And you say, where's God on all this? 50 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:53.800 God redeems it. He didn't cause it. He didn't bring it. 51 00:04:55.960 --> 00:05:00.920 Maybe you're all upset and you're disgruntled against God. I get it. Just let me correct your 52 00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:06.360 view. Just let me kind of adjust your eyesight a little bit. You need to level that on Satan. 53 00:05:07.960 --> 00:05:12.280 He hates your guts. He wants your life destroyed. He doesn't want you to come to God, 54 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:18.360 but God is the great redeemer. And the one who has suffered the most at the hands of this world 55 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:24.120 and at the hands of others. When God gets done with you, you wind up being the person who loves God 56 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:30.760 the most. Only in Christianity can we announce with confidence the end is way better than the 57 00:05:30.760 --> 00:05:37.480 beginning. Way better. This all ends well for us. We read the back of the book. Guess what? We 58 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:42.200 win because Christ's conquerors and we are in him and it's in a wonderful thing. 59 00:05:43.880 --> 00:05:47.480 And so the father loves us and he's good and he's kind and he's gentle. 60 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:52.040 And the Bible says, be kindly affectionate to one another. Why? Because God is toward you. 61 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:59.720 That's why when you and I are not all that kindly loving one another, God says, excuse me. 62 00:06:00.440 --> 00:06:07.000 Is that how I treat you? And then we have to repent. But the word affectionate. 63 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:15.640 When you look at this word affectionate, it means a family affection, a beautiful family affection. 64 00:06:15.640 --> 00:06:19.800 That's who we are by the way. Just for argument, don't be offended at this, but I'm going to 65 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:25.320 I'm going to assume all of your Christians who today you might say, I'm not. I'm a proud atheist. 66 00:06:25.320 --> 00:06:31.320 Well, just play along for a minute. Being a hypocrite wouldn't be that big of a deal to you anyway 67 00:06:31.320 --> 00:06:38.280 because you have to deal with God every day in your thoughts. You keep hoping he's not real, 68 00:06:38.280 --> 00:06:44.840 but too late for that. Anyway, just play along. Family affection. We're to be tender toward each 69 00:06:44.840 --> 00:06:51.160 other. Carrying. Practical love. Don't you love practical love? Practical love is awesome. 70 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:56.360 Don't tell me you love me. Show me. Think about that, right? If you love me, 71 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.320 then you'll let me get in front of you when you're leaving the parking lot. 72 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:07.320 Now that goes both ways. If I love you, I'll do the same. And then we're at an impasse. 73 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:13.320 Nobody's moving at all. And then you're saying after you and then the other car says no after you. 74 00:07:13.960 --> 00:07:22.440 And it's like, okay, well then, somebody will go around us. Expressed. Expressed love. 75 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:31.720 I heard a woman many, many years ago. You probably heard something very much like the same, 76 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:37.720 where the husband, the woman says, I don't know if he loves me. And he says, I pay the bills, 77 00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:46.440 don't I? Well, that's not an answer to the question. And expressed love is when you say to one 78 00:07:46.440 --> 00:07:52.920 another, I love you. And it's practical. And I'm telling you right now. And according to the 79 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:58.280 Bible, this is the way a family ought to operate. Hang on, go somewhere with this. And to be 80 00:07:58.280 --> 00:08:06.200 lovingly devoted. Now, God showed me something decades ago. If you've ever read it or heard about 81 00:08:06.200 --> 00:08:11.880 it, it came from me. God gave it to me a long time ago. And it was this because I was going through 82 00:08:11.880 --> 00:08:17.400 something. And God, one of the few moments where I got something from God that was unique and direct 83 00:08:17.400 --> 00:08:21.880 to me. It was an original thought from God. And it was this. Jack, you need to cheer up because, 84 00:08:21.880 --> 00:08:32.200 listen, if blood is thicker than water, then spirit is thicker than blood. If in a relationship, 85 00:08:33.160 --> 00:08:38.360 blood is thicker than water. In other words, a relationship is strongest among those who are of 86 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:44.280 blood. That's my blood. If you and I were blood related, I would say, that's my sister you're 87 00:08:44.280 --> 00:08:52.280 talking about. You see what I'm talking about? But there's something higher than that. And that's 88 00:08:52.280 --> 00:08:57.640 the relationship that you and I have as believers, brothers and sisters. I don't need to know your name 89 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:09.160 for this to be true. I'll tell you this. If we hung out today in a matter of short-ordered time, 90 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:18.200 each of us would know if we were believers or not. It is called Coenania. It is a divine revelation 91 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:23.240 that the Holy Spirit gives even to this very hour when two believers are talking to each other. 92 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:26.680 They may not even know that they're believers. They may be strangers. 93 00:09:29.160 --> 00:09:36.120 And they converse. And there's something that happens. And then there's code words that are dropped. 94 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:43.000 Like, oh, that's, that blessed me. Oh, blessed. When you hear the word blessed, it's like, hmm, 95 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:57.640 code words. In spirit, the spirit is thicker than blood. You and I have relationships with 96 00:09:57.640 --> 00:10:03.080 these brothers and sisters around us in this room that are stronger and closer and eternal bonds 97 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:11.640 than flesh. And I love that. And so does God. We are a family. And when we do well, we rejoice. And when 98 00:10:11.640 --> 00:10:18.520 we do poorly, we hurt. When we celebrate, we celebrate. But when someone is hurt and weeping and 99 00:10:18.520 --> 00:10:26.760 injured, we do the same. And we have this affection. It's built by God. And that's part of the 100 00:10:26.760 --> 00:10:32.360 Father's relationship that works with His children. Now, mark this down. This passage is scripture 101 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:38.120 Revelation chapter three verse seven. Revelation three seven, if you would. And do the angel of the 102 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:45.320 church in where? Philadelphia. That's in Turkey. Write these things. Says, he who is holy. He was 103 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:50.200 true. He was the key of David. That's interesting. He's writing to a Gentile church and he says that. 104 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:57.080 He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one's open. Verse eight, I know your works. Behold, 105 00:10:57.080 --> 00:11:03.640 I've set before you an open door and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength. Watch this. 106 00:11:03.640 --> 00:11:08.360 You've kept my word. You've not denied my name. Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of 107 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:12.680 Satan who say they are Jews and are not. That's interesting. That's like that's replacement theology. 108 00:11:15.160 --> 00:11:21.800 Who say they are Jews and are not? Interesting. But lie. Indeed, I will make them come and worship 109 00:11:21.800 --> 00:11:27.880 before your feet to know that I have loved you. Verse 10, because you have kept my command 110 00:11:27.880 --> 00:11:34.040 to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour which shall come upon the whole world to test those 111 00:11:34.040 --> 00:11:42.680 who dwell on the face of the earth. By the way, guess what happened after Enoch left? God took Enoch 112 00:11:42.680 --> 00:11:51.320 and then what happened? The flood came. Interesting. Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast to what you 113 00:11:51.880 --> 00:11:57.400 have that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of my 114 00:11:57.400 --> 00:12:04.360 God and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of 115 00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:11.320 my God, the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God and I will write on him my new 116 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:18.040 name. So all tattoos are not bad. Those are some amazing words. Jesus said, I am going to mark you 117 00:12:18.040 --> 00:12:25.720 as my own. In the city of Philadelphia, in the Aguora, in the way that they shopped and in the way 118 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:32.920 that they did business and in the way that false worship was, the various deities would literally 119 00:12:32.920 --> 00:12:40.200 tattoo the deities on the back of the neck of their adherents. They would have a tattoo placed 120 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:45.400 on the back of the neck of like Zeus or Diana or Athena. And isn't it interesting? Jesus 121 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:50.040 communicates to them. Some of you might have a hard time with this. Jesus communicates to them 122 00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:56.040 in their language and says, I'll write my name on you. You might say, I'm not up for that. 123 00:12:56.920 --> 00:13:04.600 They would have said, that's awesome. I want to be owned by him. Sometimes we flip things up. 124 00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:13.160 Sometimes God wants to express His love and His compassion and His joy upon your life. 125 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:20.600 And we kind of get uppity about it when God wants to move. In this case, God is speaking. 126 00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:26.920 And He says to them, I want to mark you as my own. I want to put on you the mark that shows 127 00:13:28.040 --> 00:13:33.480 to whom you belong to and to where you'll live forever. And the Bible tells us that we're 128 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:40.280 to do the acts of the Father. It's pretty amazing. Listen to this in John chapter 13, verse 1. I love 129 00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:45.880 this. Listen how tender this is. This is right before Jesus goes back to heaven. Now before the 130 00:13:45.880 --> 00:13:52.600 feast to Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, wow, that he should depart from this 131 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:57.400 world to the Father. Having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end. 132 00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:05.880 Is that not awesome? Thank you, Lord. Moving down that chapter, we come to this next verse, 133 00:14:06.280 --> 00:14:17.320 verse 31. So when he had gone out, Jesus said, now the Son of man is glorified and God is glorified 134 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:23.880 in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him 135 00:14:23.880 --> 00:14:30.440 immediately. In verse 33, a little children, he says, I shall be with you a little while longer, 136 00:14:30.520 --> 00:14:36.840 and you will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come. So now I say to 137 00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:45.000 you, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also 138 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:53.320 love one another by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. 139 00:14:53.320 --> 00:15:01.240 Can you say men to that? Love, active, love, action. God's love that he bestows and shows to us. 140 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:06.760 Church, do you know God loves you? If you don't know that, you need to wake up to the realization, 141 00:15:06.760 --> 00:15:13.000 you need to meditate on the fact that God loves you. Even on your worst day, God loves you. 142 00:15:13.560 --> 00:15:21.400 In the worst circumstances, he shows you evidence of his love. I'm often most impressed by God's 143 00:15:21.400 --> 00:15:29.320 keeping power, communicating to me that he loves me. Imagine for a moment, if we can't, we can't 144 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:34.840 even attempt it, to think for a moment, what would happen in my life? Have God ceased to love me? 145 00:15:36.280 --> 00:15:42.600 What would become of your life if God didn't love you anymore? Just the thought of it makes me sick. 146 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:49.480 He's so good. And then secondly, it's regarding the sun. We are doing the acts of the sun. Look at 147 00:15:49.480 --> 00:15:57.480 verse 10. Jesus, the sun, in honor giving preference to one another. In honor, verse 10 tells us, 148 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:02.520 this is a great word honor. Look what this word means to value, watch this. This is how you and I 149 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:08.040 in living like the sun, right? So we're to love one another because the Father loves us. We see the 150 00:16:08.040 --> 00:16:13.560 love connected with the Father and the sun. But also regarding Jesus, the sun, we are to value one 151 00:16:13.560 --> 00:16:22.120 another, to value or to be valuing others, having placed a high price upon. That's what I'm supposed to 152 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:30.920 have you in my estimate is a high price upon you. And let's be fair, you're to have a high price upon 153 00:16:30.920 --> 00:16:38.680 me. And then I'm supposed to have one upon you. And that's supposed to go like this. To have a 154 00:16:38.680 --> 00:16:44.440 mark upon others, to honor another is to have the awareness that you are conversing with another 155 00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:51.560 whom Jesus Christ loves. Wow, the person sitting next to you, God loves them and we're to be conversing 156 00:16:51.560 --> 00:16:57.640 with them, walking and talking as brothers and sisters all the way until we get to heaven. Now, 157 00:16:57.640 --> 00:17:04.600 listen, this is going to build. This is going to come together. The word preference, I love this. 158 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:11.080 When it says honor, giving preference, bestowing preference, the preference is this. This is cool. 159 00:17:11.080 --> 00:17:16.440 To pioneer. I don't know what comes to your mind. That's an old word pioneer to pioneer. 160 00:17:17.320 --> 00:17:25.240 To pioneer before as a leader, watch how interesting this gets. To give preference to by leading 161 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:35.720 the way a servant leader that leads by living ahead of the word means being in front of or by making 162 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:45.640 a pathway for the others. Let me explain. I am to give preference to you. In doing so, this is 163 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:52.280 what it means. Watch this. I'll live it out here right now. So as a pastor, I'm supposed to lead you, 164 00:17:52.680 --> 00:18:00.440 but at the same time, didn't the Bible say that whoever's in the first should be last and the last 165 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:06.360 should be first, right? That dynamic, church, are you listening? That dynamic is to be a constant. 166 00:18:07.800 --> 00:18:14.120 At some points, listen, you are first and then you're last. At some points, you're last and then 167 00:18:14.120 --> 00:18:21.000 you're first. This word fulfills it perfectly. Watch how this works. In giving preference to one 168 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:29.160 another, I am to be, you are to be pioneering the way ahead of others that are in your life. 169 00:18:30.040 --> 00:18:36.520 So don't raise your hand, but are you a husband? You are to lead the way in a mode of servant 170 00:18:36.520 --> 00:18:44.840 leadership all the while as a pioneer, watch you're cutting through the jungle and you're leading 171 00:18:44.840 --> 00:18:54.440 the way so that your wife can follow. It's sacrificial. It's hard work so that her walk can be 172 00:18:54.440 --> 00:19:02.520 safe and direct. There's nothing gender sensitive about it. What about this? A mother with her 173 00:19:02.520 --> 00:19:09.960 children, a father with his children. What about a leader of a company, the pastor of a church, 174 00:19:09.960 --> 00:19:17.960 the elders of the church, the church itself. It's a circle that never stops. I cut the way through 175 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:24.680 the jungle. I say to you, come on, everybody, it's safe. You move ahead of me because I've cut away. 176 00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:31.800 Are you with me? Now you move ahead. I'm in the back. It doesn't mean that I'm sorry. Listen, 177 00:19:31.800 --> 00:19:37.160 you're going to fall into a hole because wait, you got to wait till I'm in the front. No, that's nuts. 178 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:42.520 Loving one another, being a family of God together, we are doing church together, 179 00:19:42.520 --> 00:19:46.680 which means the person that happens to be in the front is the one that's cutting the way. 180 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:54.120 Look, there could be a cliff at the end of the bush. It's sacrificial and the sun, 181 00:19:54.120 --> 00:20:00.280 Jesus Christ is sacrificial and He makes a path for us and we never have to worry in life 182 00:20:00.280 --> 00:20:06.200 about going down the wrong path if we're going down his path. We are to be working together as a 183 00:20:06.200 --> 00:20:16.360 body of believers and it's quite beautiful. This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcasts 184 00:20:16.360 --> 00:20:21.400 outreach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a 185 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:28.600 special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.