Today on Real Life Radio. Mom, Dad, I don't care how old you are or how old your kids are. It's never too late to stop and dedicate your kids to God. Oh Jack, you don't know what my kids have done. Hey, if they're big sinners, they can be big forgivers and lovers of God.
This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com.
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On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called First Samuel. with a message titled Worship at War Part 2. Samuel from the Old Testament was a man dedicated to God. Israel's last judge and the first of the prophets during a time of national difficulty, adversity, and uncertainty.
Now as we learned in part one, acts of worship are also acts of war in the spiritual realm. When Hannah brought her young son Samuel to the house of the Lord, it was an act of worship. a way of trusting God's plan.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that one of the most powerful things a person can do is worship God. Our lives can change radically when we put our complete trust in Him. Worship isn't just a private devotion. It pushes back against the schemes of our enemy. Spending quality time with the Lord actually becomes a spiritual defense.
Now with his message called Worship at War Part 2. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Higgs. We're going to pick up where we left off last time together, and that is in verse 21. But let me explain a little bit as you're turning there what we're going to do in 1 Samuel. We are going to approach Samuel a little bit different on these Wednesday nights than what we are accustomed to.
in that we're going to try to cover some ground in that there are so many chapters and so much here. That as a great and a typical Old Testament book. uh the narrative and the content and the story That is being told will often cover a large portion of scripture. And so there are going to be nights when we might run through a chapter or two, and then there might be some nights where we just hover around a couple of three verses. We're just going to let the Spirit lead in that manner through this book.
It is a great book. And we're gonna learn a lot from it. One of the key things that we're gonna learn, which I find very interesting, and I hope you do too, a lot of people talk about the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New as though there's someone different. and they're not different. It's the same Lord.
Well, you know, where does this thinking come from? Because so many people see that God dealt with mankind in the Old Testament differently than He did in the New. And that's not exactly true. If you look, and I want you to remember this from this moment on, if you look at the Old Testament giants of the faith, In light of New Testament theology, You will recognize that Abraham had a walk. That is very much, if not exactly, like the walk you enjoy today.
A walk of faith was Abraham perfect. No, but did he believe the Lord to justify him and make him righteous? Yes. David, perfect example. David was a sinner.
I mean, my goodness, he was an adulterer. He murdered a man. And yet, you see David a true worshiper of God and a man whose heart was so hot after God that he too was justified by faith in God. Hosea. Isaiah, Jeremiah, on and on you go, these men of God.
And the women of God, Rahab, Esther, Ruth, Uh We could go on all night with the great women of God. Justified by faith. What is the supreme? Attribute that both the Old Testament and New Testament worshipers of God had in common is that they loved to enter into the presence of the Lord. i.e., or example, we call it worship.
And as we look to our study tonight, In chapter one. Beginning at verse 21, we'll go um Somewhere, maybe in the middle part of chapter two tonight, by God's grace. We'll recap some and then dive into where we left off. The thing that I want to draw to your attention tonight is what we started last time together, and that is this thing about worship at war or worship at warfare. And you might say, What in the world are you talking about?
I can understand that worship is what we just did a moment ago with singing from our hearts and standing and lifting our hands unto God and dedicating ourselves to Him. I can understand that as worship. And by the way, we all worship. Every one of us worship in here. You can be an absolute Uh Darwinian tonight in this place and uh In fact, if you aren't an evolutionist tonight, I have to tip my...
My hat to you and say that you have great faith. I wish I had the amount of faith that you have, but you worship. And you say, well, how so? I don't believe in a God. But you worship, it's in your heart to worship.
You might go out, in fact, you and I might go out together and stand on the sands of the beach and watch the sun just go into the Pacific and see a great sunset as the dolphin are jumping in the waves. And I might stand there and say, God, you're awesome. And you might stand there and say, Isn't all this a wonderful accident? You know, the very creation itself causes you to respond. in some way, shape, or form.
It's who you're attributing your worship to. That validates If it's true worship. See, the Christian directs their worship to God, the Creator. And thus, the worship is true. We're not arrogant about it.
We just know Him in whom we've believed. It's not an accident that we believe in a divine engineer, a creator. The evidence is overwhelming. God's hand. But this thing about warfare very quickly In the Bible, And it's such an honest book, of course.
It records much warfare. But what is interesting is that as it was With Israel of old, so with the believer today, worship and warfare, you cannot separate the two of them. There is no doubt about it. And I don't know if there's any new believers in here tonight, but you might get all goofy about this next thing and get, you know, you might start whistling in the dark and holding your friend's hand or something. But listen, there are spiritual entities at play and at power that you and I don't see.
And one of the greatest ways to combat spiritual or demonic warfare is to worship God. I mean it the You read the Bible. Satan hates it. The Bible says, out of the mouths of babes, that's not good-looking girls and guys. Out of the mouths of babes, God has perfected praise.
That is a heart that is sincere toward God. A child's heart. Isn't it good? Uh Calvary Chapel is a fun place to be, especially on a Sunday morning, because people come in with three-piece suits and bathing suits. People come in with wingtips and with.
you know, sandals on. with ties and tie-dyes. It's Calvary Chapel. Baptists and Catholics and Methodists and Lutherans and I mean, you name it. A woman sitting next to me.
Thank God she was a little tiny thing. I don't like sitting next to people in an airplane that are big. I don't like it. And she's a little tiny thing. She had to weigh like 90 pounds.
And uh She, it was amazing, she had Her uh Seventh-day Adventist book open. And she first of all had the reader's digest open and then I got up and pulled my Bible out and I was preparing for tonight.
So then she felt a little emboldened and she said, What are you reading? I said, Well, it's the Bible. She goes, Oh, great.
So she gets her little Seventh-day Adventist book out. And so she's reading it. And then I noticed the guy on the window, which he had my seat. I don't know how he got my, I was supposed to have that seat, but he took it from me. That was my seat.
But as I looked over at him, With disgust and shame. And conviction. Um He pulls out his little daily bread. And it was great. He's reading, and it just kind of blew my mind how just, you know, one thing led to another, which led to the other.
God's witness, you know, God's presence in the heart of people. And one of the greatest things that a believer can do is worship God. Why? Because, first of all, it affects us. Uh privately.
Do you have a private Worship time with God. If you don't start it tonight. Your life will change radically. But as you do that, If you know the Lord. you will begin to experience also a desire to worship him more and more.
And friends, listen, before we get into this, this thing about worship at war or worship at warfare, it's no big deal. Just begin to practice the presence of God. Begin to set your life up. in ways that you include God in what you do. This afternoon, leaving Dallas, I was with a Dr.
John Wolvrid these last few days. Great blessing. The plane was covered in ice, and they had to de-ice it, and it was terrible. We were on the, we sat for three hours. as they're trying to get ice off these planes.
And just when they got the ice off the plane, the pilot opened his window, which was amazing to me. He opened his window and the guy started shooting the de-icing stuff again. Shot right into the cockpit and shorted out the airplane. Had to go back, get on another airplane, but it was the airplane that had these two people on it. I like how it's not.
I'm thinking, okay, Lord. I know you're the Lord. I know you're in control. But why do we have to get on another plane?
Well, you know what? I could have just stopped and been spiritual about it and said, praise the Lord. Gudgeon control! Hannah was that kind of a believer. God's in control.
She was longing and waiting and praying to God to have a baby. She was a worshipper of the Lord. dedicated to the Lord, but had not received the blessing of the Lord. And Listen, troops, that is something. We can worship and praise the Lord, and so often we are such stinkers in our hearts that we are worshiping, and we're much like children at this time of the year.
Hi, Daddy. And I'm thinking December 25th's on their mind. And we so often come to God, High Lord. And it's like I'm going to do something today for you, God, you know. And the Lord knows all this.
He sees right through it all. And what he wants us to be like. is a worshiper. Just the worshipper. And I think that's the key to when Jesus said to enter the kingdom of heaven.
We must become like little children. Have you noticed little kids ooh in awe about everything? They're just gawking at the world. They're following butterflies. They're chasing, you know, birds.
They're kids. Everything is exciting. And wonderful. And I find that true in my private... Relationship with God.
God never ceases to amaze me. and blow my mind. And so as we look to the scripture, keep this in mind. Worship and warfare go hand to hand. Together in our lives as Christians.
When we worship God, we're blessed in His name, but praise the Lord, we're doing serious damage to the enemy. And I love it. And so as Hannah In recapping, Hannah Gets Her request from the Lord He opens up her womb. That's what the scripture says. opens up her womb.
That means he had control of it. He opens it up. And Elkanah, her husband, Um It says, in the process of time, she became pregnant. I think that's kind of cute. I wonder what that means exactly.
Did they practice a lot before? They had. Little Sammy? I I think so. In the due process of time, she became pregnant.
And it says there in the scripture that God opened the womb. Why? She's praying and seeking the Lord. Why? God's got a plan.
Eli, he's got two sons that are absolute reprobates and yet they're called priests. Their priest of the Lord, sons of the priest, Eli. Yet Hannah Is praying, God, bless me with a son. In fact, she says, Lord, bless me with a son, and if you do, I'll give him back to you. Worship, my friend.
It's worship. I'll give him back to you. While all the while Eli, the priest of Israel, he's there, he's doing his thing, but he never passed on. The mantle, so to speak, to his own kids. And we'll talk about that tonight.
You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
We saw last time together God's way of waging war and we saw it in three areas. Number one, it's not up to human logic. This story doesn't make any sense. Unless you put God right in the middle of it. Who cares about Hannah?
She's a nobody. But she's a somebody because God's got a plan for her life. And isn't it amazing to realize that this precious Jewish girl, her life would be recorded in the Bible? God's way of waging war doesn't meet our standards of human logic. Remember that.
Why should you worship when your world seems to be falling apart?
Well, consider the world. The world shoots up when their world falls apart. The world does drugs. The world runs to a six-pack. The world intoxicates itself.
What does the believer do? It seems illogical, but the believer, as it was. In the days of old, we go before the Lord and put our worship out in front and circle, so to speak, the problem seven times and shout and praise unto the Lord, Joshua, and the children of Israel, and the walls come down. That's illogical. It doesn't make sense.
God doesn't always make sense. That's what keeps us on our toes. God's way we saw also of waging war is that it's not up to human debate. Remember how Eli, he thought Hannah was drunk and bumbling before God. And he says, woman, Get out of here, you're drunk.
And she says, I am not drunk. My heart is broken. And though my lips were moving and no words came out, I was praying unto the Lord. And she says, Please forgive me and please understand I'm seeking God. And he kind of nonchalantly says, Hey, you know, go be your, go, go off on your way and be blessed.
You know, lady, get out of the way. Go. And God blesses her. But it's not up to human debate about how God does what God does. And also, we saw that it's not up to human powers.
We saw that God opens and closes the womb. That's radical. I don't want to get too far off the path, but do keep this in mind. We are now, as a nation, the United States of America. Killing four thousand now three hundred plus children.
In the womb. What is that? I just got the statistic yesterday. I can't believe I forgot it already. It's either per day or per week.
Per day? 4,300 kids per day. Are being killed.
Now, God says concerning a child in the womb, it's a life. Listen, no matter what your opinion is or my opinion, which God does not care about. He says it's a life. And He creates life. But America is increasing It's agenda to kill the unborn.
Human powers. Plain God. Hey, God opens and closes the womb. God's in control. And then, in our second point last time together, we saw that the believer's path.
to victory was a desire that every Christian has to give God glory. To give God glory. And she says in verse 27, For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition. He gets the glory, which I asked of him. Therefore, I also have lent him to the Lord.
As long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord. Not lent. But lent, loaned, given over to the Lord, so they worship the Lord there. And this is what I want to use to build to where we're going. Samuel was dedicated to God.
From the womb, Hannah says, Lord, this baby is yours. On the other hand, we'll see that Eli We have no record of his kids being dedicated to God. None whatsoever. She prays.
Now listen, those of you who are parents in here, Is there anybody in here that's going to be a parent? Awesome. Anyone else? You know what is great? You can pray right now for the spiritual welfare and well-being of that child.
You can sing songs of praise and worship. I love when Mary comes to. Her cousin Who, being six months pregnant prior, Mary shows up on the scene and John the Baptist inside Elizabeth leaps for joy. Isn't that wild? Six months.
Developed inside, and the Bible records that John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit and leaped for joy or did a Backstroke in there, something. In the womb. It's awesome. That's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio. With his message called Worship at War, Part 2.
Glad you could join us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel. It's a study that highlights the life of the prophet Samuel, a man called by God during one of Israel's darkest times as he led the people back to the heart of true worship. And we'll continue with more on the next edition of Real Life Radio. I sat I sat right beside June Hunt at the uh in Dallas at the um The CBN convention for the last dinner is pretty cool.
She's awesome. She's sweet, but you'd never know. I mean, when we were sitting there talking, I thought... This lady is so sweet she's probably with someone who Who's prominent in our art? Oh, yeah, she is.
She is. She's with Jesus. She's with Jesus. She is all the time. She is, too, man.
June Hunt walks with the Lord. I was so impressed with her. She is a wonderful woman of God. We've got a book that we could not endorse enough. And it's not only because we love June Hunt, but this is a book.
That literally has over 11,000 biblical references in it. It's the biblical counseling reference guide. Davey, this is amazing because look. We all need this book because why? It references and answers 580 real-life topics, issues of life.
And it's been said it's not a book that you'd read from cover to cover. True, right? She covers all kinds of topics like anxiety, anger, forgiveness. You know, well, look, in fact, I'll do a book roulette, which is not a good thing to do. But with this book, you can do it.
So I'm going to flipping through the book. I'm going to stop and I'm going to open it up. What do you got? And here is a string of verses on complaining and grumbling. No kidding.
So the Lord must have had us open it up. For producer Johnny. Just kidding. But you guys, this book, it's that wonderful. Here's another one: Grief.
And I'm looking, there's, I don't know how many verses here on what does the Bible say about grieving? We all need to know this. Please get this book. If I had the money, I'd. Buy it and give it to all of you.
The Biblical Counseling Reference Guide, 580 real-life topics, 11,000 verses. June Hunt. I mean, it's just over the top. You know, she really seems like a person that just leans on the word of God. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. Every once in a while you meet somebody, you go, wow, this person knows the word of God. I tell you what, and I hope she's not listening to this broadcast right now because she'll be embarrassed. But When I've been around June Hunt, I have the deep sense that I'm in the presence of someone who really knows the Lord in a very intimate way, a very personal way. This woman walks, speaks, and ministers in the grace of God.
She's a wonderful saint. And we just thank the world of her. And you guys, all that wisdom and guidance coming from the Bible and organized by June Hunt. It's kind of a tool that you turn to when life hits with hard questions and stuff. And when a counseling situation comes up, it's great to have.
Well, and you mentioned the word counseling, as is the title of the book, the Biblical Counseling Reference Guide. What I would like to do is encourage everybody, because you know, people will hear the word counseling and they'll think either A, they don't need it, or B, they don't know how to give it. How about this? This book will equip you to give out Biblical Guidance. Yeah, to those who ask, and for yourself, you know, and June Hunt, again, we've talked about how precious she is, but she's the founder.
Of the wonderful ministry, Hope for the Heart. And she's, I tell you what, she's a treasure in the church today. And we're grateful to God for her. The Biblical Counseling Reference Guide by June Hunt is our thank you gift for your donation of any size to real life this month. And if you'd like to order your copy, and we hope you will, just visit jackhibbs.com/slash real radio.
That's jackhibbs.com/slash real radio. Order your copy right away. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
