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 --> 00:00:10.080 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. The love of the world 3 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:16.120 says things like this. Love is love that is stupid statement. You don't even know 4 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:20.680 what you're saying when you say that. Love is love. God is the only one that is 5 00:00:20.680 --> 00:00:25.640 able to define love. Listen, he's not the creator of love. The Bible says he is love. 6 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:35.640 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 7 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:41.600 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in 8 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:46.000 Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, 9 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.160 that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to 10 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:57.600 listen. Now, open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 11 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:04.000 Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18, please write it down. Leviticus 19 18 says, 12 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:10.000 you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your 13 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:15.760 people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself and look at the because. 14 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:25.960 This is the why I am the Lord. God says you are commanded to love one another. 15 00:01:25.960 --> 00:01:29.800 And we're going to talk about that today and I'm going to I'm going to warn you 16 00:01:29.800 --> 00:01:36.880 right now. I cannot. I must not pull any punches because this sermon here, 17 00:01:36.880 --> 00:01:44.160 this message, this text, that's before as it demands that we address what is 18 00:01:44.160 --> 00:01:49.760 known as church discipline. It's in the Bible, but it's rarely ever practiced 19 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:55.120 because I think for the fear of man. So for example, this church is packed out 20 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:58.840 right now for service. There's a chance, and I'm not being cute about this. 21 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:03.280 There's a chance that if I'm true to the word of God this morning, you may not 22 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:08.200 come back next week because you won't like it because you might get hit right 23 00:02:08.200 --> 00:02:12.600 between the heart over some of the things that are brought up here today. And 24 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:18.360 yet God will be saying to you right now, I'm hitting you right now with my 25 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:25.440 spiritual paddles, clear boom, to drive home a truth to you that I love you and I 26 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:30.840 want you to depart from this particular thing or of this or that. And I also 27 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:35.760 have commanded you to love. And so today I think there's going to be a lightning 28 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:42.200 rod of division between the Christian and the pretend Christian, the Christian 29 00:02:42.200 --> 00:02:48.800 and the almost Christian. And there's going to be a, I think, a great awakening 30 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:54.720 in our own hearts over this. God says, you will love your neighbor as you do 31 00:02:54.720 --> 00:03:00.320 yourself. Why should I do that? Because I'm the Lord. If there was over 32 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:08.200 justification for the word because it's coming from God. You will do this. You're my 33 00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:14.600 kid. You're my child. And you will do it because I am the Lord. And then it's 34 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:22.480 1 John chapter 4 verse 18, 1 John 4, 18 and 19 says, for there is no fear in love. 35 00:03:22.480 --> 00:03:30.240 Perfect love cast out all fear. Cast out fear. Because fear involves 36 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:36.080 torment. Wow, think of this for a moment. Are you loved? If you're really 37 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:42.800 loved, it's void of torment. If you're really loved, it is not a terrifying 38 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:49.000 situation or experience if you really loved. But he who fears has not been made 39 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:54.120 complete or perfect in love, we love him. That is God because he first loved 40 00:03:54.120 --> 00:03:59.280 us. Foundation love. Market down church number 1. It's this I owe you and it's 41 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:03.520 this verses 8 through 10. And it's I owe you love. It's obvious. That's where 42 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:11.560 we begin. I owe you love. And we see it in verse 8. It says, oh, no one anything 43 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:17.880 except to love one another for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. So 44 00:04:17.880 --> 00:04:24.800 write this down if you would please. Verse 8 is this, I owe you the law of love. 45 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:32.160 And it's this, as a Christian, don't raise your hand. Don't make any movement. If 46 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:41.160 I say, if we say, we are Christians, it's a huge statement. To say we're Christians 47 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:46.800 is to say, I'm a Christ follower. I wish people would stop saying that they're 48 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:52.600 Christians. Isn't that a terrible thing to say? I wish people would stop saying 49 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:56.760 that they're Christians just to make things clear. And I wish we would adopt this. I'm 50 00:04:56.760 --> 00:05:02.560 a Christ follower. Because I think if we move from Christian to Christ follower, we might 51 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:08.280 lose some of the chaff that has muddied up the witness of being a Christian. So many 52 00:05:08.280 --> 00:05:14.240 people assume they're Christians because they have an American passport. Well, I was born 53 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:23.960 in the Bible, Bill. I must be a Christian. Christian by assumption. Christian by religion. 54 00:05:23.960 --> 00:05:29.160 And God knows nothing of it. What would be the criteria that would expose the reality 55 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:34.040 or the truth that if you're really a Christian or a Christ follower? Is it church membership? 56 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:39.080 Is it how much you serve? Is it how much you pray? Is it how much you give? No. None 57 00:05:39.080 --> 00:05:45.840 of it. What qualifies you and what causes you and I to be confirmed in our profession 58 00:05:45.840 --> 00:05:53.800 of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is if I am loving. Biblical loving, not the love of 59 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:59.880 the world, which is sick and perverse. The love of the world sits things like this. Love 60 00:05:59.880 --> 00:06:05.520 is love. That is stupid statement. You don't even know what you're saying when you say 61 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:11.320 that. Love is love. God is the only one that is able to define love. Listen, he's not 62 00:06:11.320 --> 00:06:18.280 the creator of love. The Bible says he is love. He is love. What comes from him is from 63 00:06:18.280 --> 00:06:29.120 his very nature. His core, the very God of the Bible. He says of himself. God is love. 64 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:34.680 And that love covers the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Did you all hear me? Listen, 65 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:41.720 Genesis to Revelation. And what do you see with God from Genesis to Revelation? Exposes 66 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:46.440 the very love of God. Well, what about this big of that? What about the flood? He flooded 67 00:06:46.440 --> 00:06:54.920 the whole world. And who knows how many billions of people perished? Act of love. Well, what 68 00:06:54.920 --> 00:07:00.720 about the book of Revelation when he comes back and fire? Act of love. Just because you 69 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:06.320 and I don't understand it, doesn't mean he has lost his love. He cannot lose love. His 70 00:07:06.320 --> 00:07:13.000 love doesn't go up or down. Isn't that wonderful? It doesn't diminish. It can't go any higher. 71 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:20.040 He's the perfection of love. And the Bible tells us here for you and I to, oh, no man, 72 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:27.400 anything except to love them. Now, technically, this is a accounting term. It's actually 73 00:07:27.400 --> 00:07:35.800 words of accounting and math. And when it says, oh, no man, anything, the word is on your 74 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:42.560 record keeping on your ledger. Make sure that there's a zero balance in the area of owing 75 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:50.840 people, whatever you owe them. Now, let me explain this. You have probably heard this as 76 00:07:50.840 --> 00:07:58.440 I have heard this. That this pertains to money. Oh, this is a financial thing. Oh, no man, 77 00:07:58.440 --> 00:08:03.920 anything except to love them. And people watch this people. Listen, there's financial 78 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:09.240 advisors that are in the Christian world that will tell you. Now, this verse here in Romans, 79 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.440 it's telling you that you're to, oh, no man, anything. They don't finish the rest of the 80 00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:19.600 verse, which says, except to love one another. Don't owe anyone anything, meaning you can't 81 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:28.680 listen. Now, are you listening? It doesn't mean that you cannot take out a loan to buy 82 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:37.280 house. It does not mean that. But people want it to mean that. But it doesn't mean that. 83 00:08:37.280 --> 00:08:46.160 Listen, I say this safely. It doesn't mean you can't own a credit card. It's not what 84 00:08:46.160 --> 00:08:55.120 it means. It doesn't, listen, in fact, throughout the Bible, there is great knowledge and wisdom 85 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:00.480 in the Bible about paying your debts. Did you know that? In fact, watch this to pay your 86 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:06.520 debts. The Bible says, we need to be faithful to be paying our debts. The Bible is no fan 87 00:09:06.520 --> 00:09:13.920 of bankruptcy. There's areas where, yes, bankruptcy is a law within the United States of America. 88 00:09:14.160 --> 00:09:18.800 Actually, I don't know if you know this, but the founding of bankruptcy was based upon redemption. 89 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:25.440 To redeem you out of your slavery and have you started over again. Now, look, you and I live in an 90 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:31.040 age because it's lawless. People use bankruptcy as a mode of operating their lives and their 91 00:09:31.040 --> 00:09:38.160 financial life as a tool, and that is corruption. I just want you to know that it's lying. When it says, 92 00:09:38.160 --> 00:09:43.680 oh, no man, anything except to love them, it, again, it doesn't mean that you cannot get involved 93 00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:52.160 in what is known as a secured loan. Many of you in this room, you don't own your home. You have a 94 00:09:52.160 --> 00:09:58.240 home. Well, actually, the bank owns your home. You live in your home that you call your home, 95 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:07.920 and this is important. You call it your home and you say so by faith. You say so by commitment. 96 00:10:07.920 --> 00:10:14.560 You signed a piece of paper. Did you not? You said, I am going to make payments to the bank to pay 97 00:10:14.560 --> 00:10:22.720 back this loan, and I signed it. And God expects you and I to make those payments. 98 00:10:27.040 --> 00:10:32.880 It's a very important thing. It also means this. When you and I as a believer, 99 00:10:32.880 --> 00:10:38.160 sign or say, to mirror the old days, I tell you what, man, my dad was big on this and he did not 100 00:10:38.160 --> 00:10:42.480 mess around. Plus, my dad was scary and you didn't want to mess around anyway. 101 00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:51.040 My dad could care less if you signed any piece of paper because my dad's old farm boy experiences 102 00:10:51.040 --> 00:11:00.400 this. Anybody can hire the right attorney to make that signature go away. You think about that 103 00:11:00.400 --> 00:11:06.160 for a moment. Listen, you and I live in a new world. In early America, you lived like my dad lived. 104 00:11:06.880 --> 00:11:16.160 You shake on it. My dad was not a Christian, but he didn't grow up as one. But my dad would tell us, 105 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:25.280 shake on it, or if you said you would be there, or if you said you would do it, do it. And he said, 106 00:11:25.280 --> 00:11:31.680 I don't care how much you have to suffer to keep your word, you do it. Listen, that's 107 00:11:31.680 --> 00:11:35.440 biblical truth that I, I didn't know my dad was teaching this Bible neither did he. 108 00:11:38.160 --> 00:11:46.320 Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Keep your word. And when you say to your son or your 109 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:53.280 daughter or to your mom or your dad or to your boss or to your employees unless some overwhelming 110 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:58.480 issue mitigates what has just happened. And by the way, if it does share it with them, 111 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:06.720 you got to keep your word. And when you stand before God in a wedding and you exchange your promises 112 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:13.520 before God, the Bible says, keep your word. And the Bible tells us right here that we're to, 113 00:12:13.520 --> 00:12:19.680 oh, nobody, anything but love. So for those of you who have been told, you can't make payments 114 00:12:19.680 --> 00:12:24.160 on anything. You got it. That's, that's not true. Now, I have to insert this. This is not a 115 00:12:24.160 --> 00:12:37.680 financial seminar. But paying on your home is a good thing. There are certain financial advisors. 116 00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:41.840 I get it. I know where they're coming from publicly. They can't say what they really practice 117 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:46.640 privately. Let me explain. It's not that they're hypocrites. It's that they can't trust people to 118 00:12:46.640 --> 00:12:51.920 actually discipline themselves. There are certain financial advisors in the Christian community, 119 00:12:51.920 --> 00:12:56.800 for example, that will say, you can't, I don't even want you owning a credit card. They're very, 120 00:12:56.800 --> 00:13:01.520 very popular. And they're extremely wealthy people also. They don't need credit cards. 121 00:13:03.520 --> 00:13:07.360 But here's the truth of the matter. And this has nothing to do with the Bible study except to give 122 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:14.800 you just some, I think, Holy Spirit wisdom. If I'm going to go buy a battery for my brand new 123 00:13:15.520 --> 00:13:23.440 1963 Ford pickup, which all of you are, all of you are like, that's it. It's going to fall apart 124 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:31.120 any moment. That's why I bought it. It's an act of mercy. It's a rescue truck. 125 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:38.000 Everybody's asking me, you're going to fix it up? No. It's going to remind me about my life and 126 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:47.440 what Jesus did for me. And so if I buy a new battery, if that battery is $100 and I have $100 cash 127 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:57.200 in my pocket, or if I have a credit card in my pocket that gives me points, I ain't using my cash. 128 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:02.160 I'm going to use my credit card because I'm going to pay it off at the end of 30 days. I'm not 129 00:14:02.160 --> 00:14:10.480 going to let those people charge me interest. I'm going to make money from them. Don't use a credit card 130 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:15.920 unless you can make money using their credit card. Use their money. Not yours. Does that make some 131 00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:22.640 sense? Get your battery. Don't pay any interest. But get points. And you're making money. Does that 132 00:14:22.640 --> 00:14:28.960 make sense? It's so simple. And if you operate that all your life, I've had the honor of doing 133 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:33.680 that. My dad told us at the age of 18, this is what you do. You turned 18, you're going to get 134 00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:40.080 into credit card right now. And this is how you're going to use it. Wow. Amazing. Now some people 135 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:44.800 say, don't say that. It's all wrong. It's wrong. Not everybody can handle that kind of freedom. 136 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:56.400 But when the Bible says, oh, no man, anything, do not become indebted to them on anything that 137 00:14:56.400 --> 00:15:05.360 causes your relationship to be on edge. Because when you owe something to somebody, there's a little 138 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:09.440 division between you. You don't even say so. Oh, but we're Christian brothers. Yeah, but you know 139 00:15:09.520 --> 00:15:14.640 what I owe you money. And you know that they know that you still owe them money. And that's 140 00:15:14.640 --> 00:15:21.120 there. You can feel it. Nobody says it, but you can feel it. And the Bible says, nope, don't do 141 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:29.200 that. Don't do that. But however, here's what you owe one another. Love them. Love them. 142 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:35.360 The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 and 14, for you, brethren, have been 143 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:44.000 called to liberty. Wow. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. 144 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:51.360 But through love, serve one another. Listen to verse 14, for all the law is fulfilled in one 145 00:15:52.080 --> 00:16:02.640 word. Even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. This is not an option. See, listen, 146 00:16:02.640 --> 00:16:08.800 this is why next week, there'll be less of you here. And I'm fine with it. Stop playing the game. 147 00:16:09.760 --> 00:16:16.720 If you are not struggling to love people more, can I get a name in on this? Do you, 148 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:20.240 don't, are you when I struggling to love people more? Here's the beautiful thing about it. 149 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:25.040 Is I'm struggling to love people more because I know I should love them more. And so I'm asking God 150 00:16:25.040 --> 00:16:30.960 to help me to love them more. When before I was a Christian, it was, I not only hate them, 151 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:38.240 I am so happy to hate them. They make me sick. I can't stand them. And they just fell off the end 152 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:46.640 of the pier and I was the one applauding. That's how we used to be. And then God loved us. 153 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:52.560 And he changed our heart. And his love for us made us grateful. And then God says to us, 154 00:16:52.560 --> 00:16:59.680 now that I've loved you, you go love other people. And so when we read this, to love your neighbor 155 00:16:59.680 --> 00:17:05.600 as yourself, you don't have to ask who's my neighbor. Remember that young man who said, 156 00:17:05.600 --> 00:17:12.080 oh Jesus, who's my neighbor? And of course he went on to speak of the great announcement of the 157 00:17:13.120 --> 00:17:20.960 Samaritan, where that man did not know that wounded man that was on the ground. The point was this man 158 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:27.360 who was a Samaritan, not a Jew. Listen, he was a Samaritan. He's a half-breed, despised by the Jewish 159 00:17:27.360 --> 00:17:33.680 people. Jesus said a Samaritan came along on the road and helped this poor man that was near death. 160 00:17:35.280 --> 00:17:41.280 And that was a slam against those who thought they were loving their neighbor by themselves 161 00:17:41.280 --> 00:17:48.320 keeping the law, meaning this. Jesus said that you think you keep the law because you tithe every 162 00:17:48.320 --> 00:17:56.800 bit of mint and every bit of herb and every bit of harvest that you have and you give it to God 163 00:17:56.800 --> 00:18:02.960 and you study your scriptures and you pray so much and you think you're loving God by keeping the 164 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:14.720 law like that and you let someone suffer. Somebody in your life is hungry? You walk by, you see a man 165 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:20.720 that is on the road and Jesus said you walk around the man so you don't get near him and then you 166 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:26.080 say you love God. Jesus said you do not know God. You don't love God. It's impossible. That shocks us. 167 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:32.400 Because we think, yeah, I mean, good works are important, right? Listen, good works are important 168 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:40.160 when they're in their place. Did you hear that? Good works are important when they are in their place. 169 00:18:41.040 --> 00:18:46.960 If you put good works ahead of loving God, you're messed up because you will trust in your good 170 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:50.560 works and you're going to say things like this. God, you got to let me into heaven because I've 171 00:18:50.560 --> 00:18:56.640 done a bunch of good things and you've never loved God. First, when you love God first and do 172 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:01.200 good things, then those good things are accepted because why? Their package didn't love. 173 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:09.200 Their package didn't love. How many things do you and I actually enjoy? So, for example, have 174 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:16.720 you ever had a better, let's say you go to a pizza place and the service is amazing. We just 175 00:19:16.800 --> 00:19:22.240 had this happen. I'm actually speaking reality to you. At least I went to California Pizza Kitchen 176 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:27.360 the other day and we had this, we loved this. There's a particular pizza there that's just 177 00:19:27.360 --> 00:19:35.680 incredible. We had it, but I was distracted. I was distracted because the waiter was so good. 178 00:19:36.320 --> 00:19:48.240 I told him, you're amazing. He was so good. And I said, Lisa, you've got to leave this guy a huge tip. 179 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:54.560 You know what? I didn't have my wallet. 180 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:02.480 We were, man, we're scrounging around. She's going through a purse. I'm going through a purse. 181 00:20:02.560 --> 00:20:08.800 We're just pulling out coinage. We're getting stuff. We couldn't find enough. We wanted to give 182 00:20:08.800 --> 00:20:14.720 the guy everything. You want to know why? There's better pizzas in the world. Did matter. 183 00:20:16.320 --> 00:20:20.400 It was him. Look, he made such an impression on a Sunday morning. I'm talking about him right here 184 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:28.400 right now. When something's packaged in love, man, that goes a long way. Well, there's better this, 185 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:34.080 there's better that, but is it wrapped in love? There are people who pray longer than we do. 186 00:20:34.080 --> 00:20:38.080 There are people who give more than we do. There are people who witness more than we do. There are 187 00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:45.200 people who knock on doors more than we do. But they don't love God first. We must love God first. 188 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.880 This Jack Kibb's podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener 189 00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:02.080 supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibb's.com 190 00:21:02.080 --> 00:21:05.280 to learn more and stay connected.