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 --> 00:00:12.440 truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. God speaks about new. He loves to 3 00:00:12.440 --> 00:00:17.320 give new and that is so seen in the birthing of Jesus coming into the world and 4 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:22.440 he comes in just like us. He's got five fingers and five toes on each hand and 5 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:28.020 each foot. He's got the nose, the ears. He's just like you and I. He feels what 6 00:00:28.020 --> 00:00:34.060 you and I feel. He experiences the draft, the cold, the heat, everything, pre-planned 7 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:39.420 by the power of God to come into this world and relate to you and I. 8 00:00:41.220 --> 00:00:47.620 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. 9 00:00:47.620 --> 00:00:52.980 Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled 10 00:00:52.980 --> 00:00:57.860 life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, 11 00:00:57.860 --> 00:01:03.020 that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to 12 00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:08.820 listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 13 00:01:08.820 --> 00:01:13.540 One of the key verses that you and I always go to a second Corinthians chapter 14 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:20.260 five verse 17 and I love that. It's is therefore if anyone is in Christ, so the 15 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:24.900 baby born in Bethlehem is going to someday and his adult ministry life, he's going to 16 00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:31.900 challenge those to believe in him. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, 17 00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:38.340 old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Our God is a God that loves 18 00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:45.620 new things. We should never shy away from that. Isaiah chapter 42 verse nine. Behold, the 19 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:51.380 former things have come to pass and new things I declare before they spring forth, I tell 20 00:01:51.380 --> 00:01:59.620 you of them. Revelation 21 verse one. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first 21 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:06.180 heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea. God created a new 22 00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:14.740 existence called eternity. Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26. I will give you a new heart and 23 00:02:14.740 --> 00:02:21.220 put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you 24 00:02:21.220 --> 00:02:29.220 a heart of flesh. God speaks about new. He loves to give new and that is so seen in the birthing of 25 00:02:29.220 --> 00:02:35.860 Jesus coming into the world and he comes in just like us. He's got five fingers and five toes 26 00:02:35.860 --> 00:02:42.180 on each hand and each foot. He's got the nose, the ears. He's just like you and I. He feels what 27 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:49.780 you and I feel. He experiences the draft, the cold, the heat, everything pre-planned by the power of 28 00:02:49.780 --> 00:02:55.780 God to come into this world and relate to you and I. There's new hope. There's a new start. There's 29 00:02:55.780 --> 00:03:02.340 new life. There's a new world. There's new everything and what's awesome is that for the first 30 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:07.700 time new, if you want to call it, where God allowed himself to come into this world like us. 31 00:03:08.420 --> 00:03:16.900 And I appreciate that. He didn't come as an angel. He came to us as a human because only humans 32 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:21.780 are redeemed. Angels are not redeemed. That bums people out. Forget about angels. You don't 33 00:03:21.780 --> 00:03:26.260 need to care about angels. The Bible says God made them to minister to us. Did you know that? 34 00:03:26.820 --> 00:03:33.460 That's a valuable you are. I want to give this to you in a way of a contradiction. Look at it 35 00:03:33.460 --> 00:03:40.340 this way. The old world was cold. It was a cold world. Christ came into the world at just the 36 00:03:40.340 --> 00:03:46.180 right time according to the Bible. Israel was occupied by the Roman Empire. Life was difficult 37 00:03:46.180 --> 00:03:53.220 to say the least, but he came into a world that was a very cold world. Death, life, life, 38 00:03:53.220 --> 00:03:58.500 expectancy, cultures, how people treated one another. You would have thought if you were God 39 00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:02.660 sending your son into the world, you would have brought him in at just at the right time of what? 40 00:04:02.660 --> 00:04:08.340 The enlightenment or just at the right time of the great economic boom happened in the world. Not 41 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:15.860 God. God sends his son not only into a cold world. He sends him into a very humble, humble setting, 42 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:22.820 a cold world. How do I know if God loves me? Number one, think about this. We celebrate Christmas 43 00:04:22.820 --> 00:04:30.900 and he came into a very cold, cold world at a very difficult time. A second thing is this, 44 00:04:30.980 --> 00:04:37.140 the old world was a very dark world. My goodness, we've studied history and we have gone through 45 00:04:37.140 --> 00:04:43.940 times like what is known as the dark ages. We hear about some of the great wars on the continents 46 00:04:43.940 --> 00:04:50.660 of the earth. I don't know if this is true or not, but at the CIA website, it says something to 47 00:04:50.660 --> 00:04:57.540 the effect that at any given day, tribal wars, all the way out to national wars are taking place, 48 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:02.580 so tribal. Think about North Africa or think about South America and the Amazon jungle. 49 00:05:02.580 --> 00:05:08.900 There's some form of wars taking place every day to the tune of 128 wars happening every day. 50 00:05:09.780 --> 00:05:17.540 That seems impossible to us. But the world is like that without God, without hope, without Christ, 51 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:24.100 the world is cold and the world is dark. And everything about Jesus is him coming into this 52 00:05:24.820 --> 00:05:33.220 world and he illuminates it. It's awesome. The Bible says in Isaiah 9 verse 1, 53 00:05:34.340 --> 00:05:39.300 a prophecy concerning Jesus against over 700 years before Christ was born. 54 00:05:40.900 --> 00:05:47.540 By the way of the sea beyond the Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness 55 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:53.940 have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has 56 00:05:53.940 --> 00:06:00.820 shined. And Isaiah tributes that light shining to the coming of the Messiah. In fact, listen, 57 00:06:01.460 --> 00:06:07.620 Luke chapter 4, New Testament, verse 14, then Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit to 58 00:06:07.620 --> 00:06:14.900 Galilee and news of him went out through all the surrounding region and he taught in their synagogues 59 00:06:14.900 --> 00:06:19.940 being glorified by all. So he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. 60 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:26.100 And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 61 00:06:27.620 --> 00:06:32.580 And he was handed this book or the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, 62 00:06:32.580 --> 00:06:39.380 he found the place where it was written. Listen to this, Jesus says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon 63 00:06:39.940 --> 00:06:46.420 me, quote, in Isaiah, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to 64 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:52.020 heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind 65 00:06:52.020 --> 00:06:58.580 and to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. 66 00:06:58.580 --> 00:07:03.700 Verse 20, then Jesus closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and he sat down. 67 00:07:04.420 --> 00:07:10.260 The eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed upon him. And he, that as Jesus began to say 68 00:07:10.260 --> 00:07:16.660 to them today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. What a radical thing. No one has ever 69 00:07:16.660 --> 00:07:24.900 done that. He's come, listen, to set us free and to give us a hope with a new world. A new world 70 00:07:24.900 --> 00:07:29.700 that begins, listen, not with the advent of some new currency, not with the advent of some new 71 00:07:29.700 --> 00:07:36.900 politic, the new world that he gives starts first in the human heart. Jesus said, my kingdom 72 00:07:36.900 --> 00:07:42.900 begins within you. He told those that were around him. He said, look around, the kingdom has arrived. 73 00:07:43.460 --> 00:07:49.380 I'm here. That's how he was able to raise the dead. He exhibited all the powers of the kingdom 74 00:07:49.380 --> 00:07:55.940 life so that people would believe in him and follow him. The miracles were done, not to convince 75 00:07:56.020 --> 00:08:02.020 people. The miracles were done to tell them the word of God was true. You're not to have faith in 76 00:08:02.020 --> 00:08:08.340 miracles. You're to have faith in the miracle giver. And that's him. The Christmas Christ, 77 00:08:08.340 --> 00:08:14.340 the salvation Christ, the Christ that delivers us from a cold world, a dark world, and also a hard 78 00:08:14.340 --> 00:08:20.180 world, hard. Now throughout our globe, throughout all of human history, there are reasons that have 79 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:29.460 always had it hard just by virtue of this fallen world. It's hard. But listen, live and even 80 00:08:29.460 --> 00:08:36.020 here in Southern California or wherever you may be. Maybe you're listening to this message and 81 00:08:36.020 --> 00:08:43.700 you're in a region that is very affluent. It can be a very hard life. You can have all the things 82 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:51.620 that promise you meaning and hope and ease and be completely destroyed and broken by the events 83 00:08:51.620 --> 00:08:58.100 of life and when it throws its darts at you. They stick nonetheless if they're being stuck in your 84 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:06.740 ribs or stuck in your back in Bel-Air or Bangladesh, it doesn't matter. And Jesus came 85 00:09:07.300 --> 00:09:15.220 to deliver us from a hard world. But our God is a God that has given us the hope and the assurance 86 00:09:15.220 --> 00:09:21.540 of a brand new world that first starts within us. Let me explain what I mean by a new gift throughout 87 00:09:21.540 --> 00:09:27.860 all of Israel's existence. In fact, it doesn't have to be Israel's existence. For human existence is 88 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:32.980 recorded. And this is kind of amazing if you're an anthropologist or a sociologist. 89 00:09:37.140 --> 00:09:42.260 Whatever culture you study around the world doesn't matter. It does not matter. Find the continent, 90 00:09:43.140 --> 00:09:48.340 study the ancient history of those people and go back as far as you can. 91 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:54.820 And when you do, I'm going to hit to burst your bubble. I'm going to get letters for this, but 92 00:09:55.060 --> 00:10:08.020 when you go back, you are not going to bump into a Neanderthal. I'm sorry to tell you, you're not going 93 00:10:08.020 --> 00:10:14.260 to bump into all of our previous fathers that came from a monkey's uncle. You're not going to 94 00:10:14.260 --> 00:10:22.020 bump into them. Those are fabrications. And I don't mean necessarily intentionally mean fabrications. 95 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:27.620 But when people were trying to describe our coming into existence and they would not consider 96 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:35.700 God, they had to make stuff up. Why am I saying this? Because man has never lived without pursuing 97 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:45.700 some avenue of faith and or religion or both. Did you know that every culture has worship shrines, 98 00:10:45.700 --> 00:10:53.460 temples, altars and pillars of sacrifice. Why? Because all the gods that man made up, they all 99 00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:58.180 required a sacrifice. You say, well, Jack, the God of the Bible and the Old Testament required a 100 00:10:58.180 --> 00:11:05.540 sacrifice. That is true. You got me there. It's true. The real true God required a sacrifice, 101 00:11:05.540 --> 00:11:10.100 but even the pagan gods of paganism required required sacrifices. 102 00:11:10.660 --> 00:11:16.260 And we were told or commissioned or commanded to bring a gift. 103 00:11:19.300 --> 00:11:24.260 And in all the religions of the world, there's only one that says, you know all those gifts I asked 104 00:11:24.260 --> 00:11:31.460 you to bring? They were just types. They were they were just symbols. Ashtar wouldn't say that, 105 00:11:31.460 --> 00:11:39.780 Molek wouldn't say that. Atlus wouldn't say that. Poseidon wouldn't say that. Diana wouldn't say 106 00:11:39.780 --> 00:11:44.740 that. The God of the Bible says, you know that stuff you've been giving me for all these years is real? 107 00:11:46.100 --> 00:11:54.580 It's just a picture of the real thing coming. Yeah, what's that? You don't give me the gift. God says, 108 00:11:54.580 --> 00:12:01.140 I give you the gift. The new gift is Christ and Christ alone. He's the gift. That's the entire 109 00:12:01.140 --> 00:12:08.180 point to this entire celebration. The very fact that God is the gift giver. Listen, tonight and 110 00:12:08.180 --> 00:12:14.180 tomorrow you're only going to act like God and give a gift to somebody. It's an expression of love. 111 00:12:14.180 --> 00:12:21.220 I get it. That's fine. Just know this. The old gifts had become routine gifts. 112 00:12:21.220 --> 00:12:28.900 Routine gifts. Even though they're draped in religion, our God gives us a whole new brand new life 113 00:12:28.900 --> 00:12:35.780 and here's the deal. If you get balled up and tied to religion, you can be just like a pagan 114 00:12:35.780 --> 00:12:40.820 and go through all of the religious stuff and it's not real. It's routine. Well, I'm here right now 115 00:12:40.820 --> 00:12:45.460 pastor because this is our routine. We do this once a year and I'll see you next year. 116 00:12:46.020 --> 00:12:56.900 Listen, save your gas. Save your time. God doesn't dwell in routines. That sunrise this morning 117 00:12:56.900 --> 00:13:03.540 will never be repeated. There'll be ones like it but like a snowflake, there'll never be another one. 118 00:13:04.660 --> 00:13:12.100 And God doesn't want routine. That's the old world. The new world and the new life in Christ, 119 00:13:12.100 --> 00:13:19.460 all of it is the opposite of a routine. Now, I know that as people and then we have, 120 00:13:19.460 --> 00:13:24.740 it's good for us to have, I call it fences or guardrails. We need that in life. You know, 121 00:13:24.740 --> 00:13:31.220 we need, we might say a routine but what I'm talking about is a discipline. We need disciplines 122 00:13:31.220 --> 00:13:38.900 because you and I have a tendency to wander off and but listen, even when we say, 123 00:13:38.900 --> 00:13:44.020 well, I get up in the morning and I read my Bible and I pray and listen, it sounds like a routine 124 00:13:44.020 --> 00:13:49.140 when you say it that way, but I pray that it's not because I pray that you and God are actually 125 00:13:49.780 --> 00:13:57.380 making a way together because that's the kind of God He is. He wants it all to be anything but a 126 00:13:57.380 --> 00:14:06.900 routine. Here's what we do. God, we do this and then we do that and after that we do this and then 127 00:14:06.900 --> 00:14:14.180 I step up and then I move to the right and then I go forward and then you walk away from that 128 00:14:14.180 --> 00:14:18.820 and somebody says, what are you just doing? What do you mean? What are you just doing? What? Oh, 129 00:14:18.820 --> 00:14:25.860 that? Oh, I was just doing my religious thing. A lot of people today are gravitating towards 130 00:14:25.860 --> 00:14:33.380 spirituality because they like the candles. They like the icons. They like the cross or they like 131 00:14:33.380 --> 00:14:38.020 the stained glass. I'm not knocking those things, but if that's your routine and approaching God, 132 00:14:38.020 --> 00:14:43.620 that's not a good thing. The next thing is this is that the old gifts had become empty gifts. 133 00:14:45.220 --> 00:14:51.300 Well, the gift that God gives, listen, can you imagine? The gift that God gives the Son of God 134 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:58.340 and when we say that, he's not less than God, the Son of God is God in skin. That's why he's called 135 00:14:58.820 --> 00:15:06.820 the Son of God inside of him. Do up the same lungs and the same heart and the same pancreas and 136 00:15:06.820 --> 00:15:15.620 kidneys that you have, but his soul was divine. His spirit was divine and God visited us, 137 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:22.100 anything but routine. Can you say amen to that? You want to, listen, you want exciting, 138 00:15:22.100 --> 00:15:28.740 you want to break routine? Start reading in John's gospel. That'll break your routine. And then 139 00:15:28.740 --> 00:15:34.100 look, there's nothing more disappointing than for somebody to give you a gift that is meaningless 140 00:15:34.100 --> 00:15:38.980 to them. I don't know how to say this. It's impossible. I'm going to get in trouble. I just know 141 00:15:38.980 --> 00:15:45.620 it. I can feel it coming. You know how hard it is to buy gifts for some people? Can someone 142 00:15:46.180 --> 00:15:53.220 do you agree? It's like, what do you get them? And then you have an idea. This just happened 143 00:15:53.220 --> 00:15:58.980 with Lisa and I. We were doing the last minute shopping yesterday. I have an idea and you know 144 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:03.700 I had that idea? She said, well, we should get them. I have an idea. We should get them this. 145 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:11.380 She said, that's what we got them last year. I didn't help her, but I was happy I remembered 146 00:16:11.380 --> 00:16:18.500 something that was meaningless. If we would have gotten the same thing, it would have been not 147 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:23.940 only meaningless, it would have been insulting. Meaningless. You want to give a gift that's 148 00:16:23.940 --> 00:16:30.020 meaningful to somebody that you love. Here's what's a remarkable thing about this moment in time 149 00:16:30.020 --> 00:16:35.460 for you and I. God loves you to the point where God thought this is going to be the ultimate 150 00:16:35.540 --> 00:16:46.100 communication of my love to you. It will beam me coming into the world to live my life perfectly 151 00:16:46.100 --> 00:16:52.740 because you can't. I'll do it for you. And then when I have accomplished that, once the law has 152 00:16:52.740 --> 00:17:00.180 examined me up and down and all around, I will keep the law and fulfill the justice of God and the 153 00:17:00.260 --> 00:17:06.340 righteousness of God. And all of you will come into the kingdom of heaven. If you trust what I did 154 00:17:06.340 --> 00:17:12.900 for you, you will come in so to speak. Not on my coattails. Oh no, better than that. You will come 155 00:17:12.900 --> 00:17:20.420 in. The kingdom of God washed in my blood, covered in my blood. Listen, you get close to Jesus and 156 00:17:20.420 --> 00:17:27.460 what he does is he covers you in his atoning blood and God the Father sees the blood of his 157 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:35.700 son Christ as your atonement and God accepts you. No questions asked. This is salvation. This is 158 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:44.100 the meaning of the name Jesus. Christ Jesus coming into the world represents a brand new life 159 00:17:46.660 --> 00:17:54.660 for us, for all who will believe in him. Three things and we consider right now together is that 160 00:17:54.740 --> 00:17:59.060 the old life had become visionless. What does the Bible say about this? Without vision, my people 161 00:17:59.860 --> 00:18:11.140 perish. Listen, without vision, if you're visionless, you can't have life at the same time, really. 162 00:18:12.980 --> 00:18:19.220 Listen, the Bible says that a woman who lives for a sinful life, the Bible says she may be living 163 00:18:19.300 --> 00:18:26.260 for pleasure and think that she's alive, but she's actually dead. And that's certainly true for men, 164 00:18:26.260 --> 00:18:32.020 obviously, us humans. But God wants you and I to live with vision. 165 00:18:35.620 --> 00:18:41.940 Well, without vision, you can't see God and God's plan for your life, but I got news for you, 166 00:18:41.940 --> 00:18:47.220 believe her. If you're if you're trusting Christ right now, I have good news for you. God's 167 00:18:47.220 --> 00:18:52.580 got an absolute vision for your life and you will not stumble around in this world because 168 00:18:52.580 --> 00:18:58.420 part of God's new life in you is that God gives you the ability to see. And I'm not talking about 169 00:18:58.420 --> 00:19:03.540 seeing like, oh, now I know which way to go, more like a leading. And then secondly, it's this. 170 00:19:03.540 --> 00:19:12.420 The old life had become a hopeless life until Christ came. That's why they were longing. That's 171 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:17.780 why the Bible says that they searched the scriptures to find where the Messiah would be. When would he come? 172 00:19:19.300 --> 00:19:25.140 None of us appreciate this. None of us. For 2000 years, you and I have lived in a world that has 173 00:19:25.140 --> 00:19:31.380 known who the Messiah is. If you believe in Him or not, that's on you. But we all know who He is. 174 00:19:33.300 --> 00:19:38.980 In the name of Jesus, He gives you hope. And then finally, we end with this. That is that the old 175 00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:46.420 life had become a powerless life. No power. No power. Please listen. Are you religious? I promise 176 00:19:46.420 --> 00:19:50.980 you this. You have no power. I'm not talking about how much you can bench for us. I'm talking about 177 00:19:50.980 --> 00:19:57.220 the power that counts. And that's the power on the inside of who you are. Do you have a character 178 00:19:57.220 --> 00:20:05.060 that is honoring God? That could only come from God's power, not our power. The great power that 179 00:20:05.060 --> 00:20:11.140 God gives to the believer is a power that also comes with it to relax. It's not to sweat. 180 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:18.180 Christian should not be sweating out their Christianity. That great power that comes is God 181 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:23.540 living this life out through you. That's why the Bible tells us that we are children of God. 182 00:20:28.340 --> 00:20:32.820 This Jack Kibb's podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are 183 00:20:32.820 --> 00:20:40.420 listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com 184 00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:43.620 to learn more and stay connected.