Today on Real Life Radio, we're all servants of God. We're ministers of the Lord. No more sitting around. We're gonna we we hear the word and then we go do the word 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. Are you looking for some solid biblical teaching that speaks to the world today? At jackhibbs.com, you have access to Pastor Jack's entire library of sermons on demand. Anytime. anywhere.
Whether you're commuting, you're at the gym, or you need a moment of encouragement, you can dive right into some powerful verse-by-verse teachings that make God's word really come alive. From deep dives into scripture to practical messages on everyday issues, Pastor Jack's teachings help you understand the Bible in a way that's clear, it's relevant, and and it's easy to apply. You're going to find sermons that address today's toughest questions. With biblical insight and hope in the midst of life's challenges.
Now, whether you're new to the faith or you've been around for a long time, These messages are designed to meet you right where you're at and inspire you to grow deeper in your walk with God.
So don't miss out, visit jackhibbs.com. Why don't you start exploring the sermon library today? You're going to like it. That's jackhibbs.com, where powerful teaching is always just a click away. 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 true worship is like a covering. a spiritual protection against evil. And one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is to teach them how to worship God. We must not lose sight of the next generation or those who are called to serve in God's ministry.
Now with his message called Worship at War, Part 2. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hughes. Does not history and church history record that the Pharisees and these scribes were corrupt? Doesn't it say that throughout church history and at the birthing of the church that the scribes and Pharisees, they were very wealthy people. They drew so much money from the temple tax.
They were rich. When you read of people Like Caiaphas. Oh man, hey, some of us have been to his house. Do you know they have unearthed his home? Truly, not well, we think it's his house.
They literally found his house. And we've been there.
Some of us went down. They built some stairs down into the dungeon that was there in his house. Because of the position he had, he had a place of where people were kept prior to trial. By the way, for those of you who remember, we we s we Leaned against the wall there. Remember the oils from the skin of people?
They would lean against the wall in the shape of a cross. You could see 2,000-year-old. Body oil stains against the S uh sandstone pit. That's underneath his home, where people would stand in the form of a cross to identify with Jesus because it is believed that prior to that kangaroo court that was held with Jesus and Caiaphas, that that's where they held him. and early church believers went and assumed that position because they're Jesus.
prior to his crucifixion. had gone into that Pit. Interesting, huh? Religious leaders.
So people hated to go, allow me to do this, people hated to go to church. because of the leadership of the church. That is pathetic.
So, number one. Ministry Abuses Ministry abuses, number one, when the leaders forget God. When leaders forget God, so will the people under them. Why? Because you know what?
They're not mindful of God anymore. They're not spirit-filled. They're man-filled. They're man-centered.
So, all that the ministry does is centered around a man. If the man dies, the ministry dies. If everything is pointed in that guy's direction, And listen, if that guy is doing all the ministry, it's going to die. Why? He's not only going to burn out.
But God will burn him out. In ministry, now some of some people in ministry have. The mentality or temperament, and many of us are born this way to do everything. It's easy. Isn't it easier to just do it all rather than take the time to explain it to somebody?
And then they make 400 mistakes.
So why go through that and then Look, it's so much easier just to do it all. Until your friends say, you look like your dad. Or you're looking for 27 hours in one day. Listen.
Somebody asked tonight, Now that George Bush is president, How is he going to get things done? And someone came right back. on MSNBC and said In fact, the guy was a Democrat who works with George Bush. He said, wait a minute. Yeah.
I work for him. In Texas. And the guy is amazingly hands-off and lets people. do what's on their heart to do. And that's how he's been able to bring people together, is that he lets people do what they believe they're called to do.
Is it risky? Yes. But doesn't the human spirit and the person that you really are, don't you flourish in that scenario instead of somebody just looming over you? God wants you to be free. When you come to church, you ought to be set free.
The world out there beats you and I up all week long. It's not until we enter into the presence of God and worship that we do actual warfare and we're set free. You know what I'm talking about? It's outrageous. It's amazing.
When leaders forget God, so do the people. It's a dangerous thing that trickles down or I guess I should say in the church. Bubbles up. Christian leaders should be at the bottom. If you want to draw the corporate pyramid, Take that corporate pyramid of IBM and Ford and DuPont.
that we've all seen in books and turn the page up turn the book upside down. And the church is at the top and The leadership's at the bottom. But the church is going to inherit Because they watch what leadership does and they're going to start to mimic that. And that can be a horribly scary thing. Second thing.
Danger. When they begin to personalize the ministry. What do I mean? When they begin to think that they're the one That's the reason for the blessings. the people would begin to think like that.
If there's a ministry and that minister thinks, well, look at all these people coming just to hear me. That trickles down to people. Where's God in that? He is nowhere in that. Pure flesh.
The Bible, if I might be so graphic but accurate, calls it foreskin. And it needs to be cut off. Why? 'Cause it's dead flesh. Has no feeling.
You can't talk to it. You can't teach it? You can't instruct it. It's dead. I love to go barefoot.
Love it. My mother was from Hawaii, born and raised. She never wore shoes. And the bottom of her feet, she could walk on a hot summer's day, she could walk and stand in the middle of an asphalt street, and no problem. And I'm like, I.
Wow, you know. No, just freaking out. And not my feet were so callous, but I had that tendency to walk around barefoot. Plus, our house is the floor, is brick. And so we all have rough feet.
I think in our house. But the thing is, you know what? Um Oh man, I'm getting personal tonight. You're going to think I'm flipped out on this one, but too bad. It's just the way it's the truth.
My daughter bought me for Father's Day. A pedicure Do you know what that is? I didn't know what that was. I didn't know what that was. And when she described to me what it was, I said, I'm not going to go do that.
And she said, Well, why not? I am not going to. I'm gonna have someone play with my feet. I am not going to do that. And she was.
And I saw her face. And I said, okay, let's get in the car and go right now. Call him up and she did right then and there. She called him up And we went down there and I said, you stand or sit right next to me. And she did.
The whole time. And uh You know what that lady did? She looked at my feet and she went. And she reached in her drawer and she pulled out a single-edged razor blade. And I'm thinking, whoa, whoa.
And she grabbed my foot and started to cut meat. off the bottom of my feet, especially my heel. Just wash, quish, quash. And she's just hacking away. No, there was nothing there.
No blood, no nothing. And it's like, man. What's going on? She's cutting the dead flesh away. And then, when she was done, I kid you not, guys.
Listen, women, you know what I'm talking about. Right, ladies? When they were done with my feet I was ruined. I'm tiptoeing around the house now. I'm going, oh, ow.
Ooh, ooh, ow, why? My feet were sensitive. I could feel everything. God says, strip away the flesh. The ministers and let me Let me say something here.
I'm not frying myself tonight. I'm frying you right along with me. We're all, listen, you may have been at your other church somewhere. I hope you enjoyed your rest because now you're here. We're all servants of God.
We're ministers of the Lord. No more sitting around. We're gonna we we hear the word and then we go do the word So the thing is, we are to have sensitive hearts. I don't mean sensitive in the true English word. We're to have compassion in hearts.
Resilient, not sensitive, compassionate hearts that are resilient, that will worship. and go forward in spiritual warfare. Why? Eli never taught his sons to do this. And because they were not dedicated to God, as Samuel, was dedicated to God.
Both these, or the three of these men, grew up one being a great prophet of God, and two being great false prophets of God. It's very serious. You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.
And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack. Third. Ministry abuses when leadership fail to pass the torch to their children. This is very convicting because if you're going to be involved in church work, there's a horrible, horrible world that you're going to live in.
And it's this kind of a world. You will spend, I'm convinced of it now, I will spend the rest of my life. Believing, hoping that there's a balance between taking care of your needs. and my family's needs. all the while neglecting my own needs.
I have to work at neglecting my own need. I'm called to take care of your need. But then I turn to my family's need, and there are volumes and libraries of books written about this. And I'm convinced of something now. There is no balance.
I'm serious. It's impossible. Yeah. To do. You want to know why?
You get upset with me when I'm not available because I'm spending time with my kids. My kids get upset with me because I'm not available because I'm spending time with you. I don't regret any of this. It's the ministry. Lord, just teach me how to manage it.
And every minister, think about it, those of you who have children. There are so many people I don't know. Uh How many, Roy can tell me how many children's ministers that we have at this church, but don't we have like seven or eight hundred kids? Children, just in the children's ministry. You know how many people it takes on a Sunday morning?
to take care of nearly a thousand kids? They're dedicated. They're committed. What do they give up during the week to see to it that your kids are being blessed right now at this hour?
So whoa whoa whoa what do you want? Us to do about it, nothing, just pray for them. I'm just sharing with you. This is a family thing. It's called church.
Pretty radical. But be careful. And I have to be careful. Eli never passed the torch to his kids. Did Phineas and Hophney, did they hear Eli praying for them during the night?
Do your kids here You praying for them during the night. I'm not here to put you on a trip. Do you pray for your kids before you send them off to school or send them wherever they go? Do they hear you pray?
Well, I pray for them while I'm on the freeway commuting. Great, but do they hear you pray? Oh, I'm not one to pray out loud. Listen, I'm not in the mood for excuses. I've had a long day.
Just grow up. And you grab your son, or you grab your daughter, and if you want to hug them, great. If not, just say, In fact, I like to look at them right in the eyes. Can you do that? I don't know, but I do it.
I like to look at them right in the eyes and say Lord, I pray that you would bless Ashley today as she heads off to school. Lord, fill her with your Holy Spirit. And sometimes I even play with her in the prayer. I'll be. Taking her to school and I'll say, Lord, just totally bless her day.
And may she feel you all around her today. And she's over there well Deer. But you know what? There's gonna be a day when she says, you know, my dad prayed for me every day before school. Am I an example?
I'm pathetically not an example. But you know what? Every chance we get. Let's pass the torch. Number four.
Oh, that was number four. Yeah, I know. Three was past the torch, four was prey.
So Fix that in your notes. Yeah. Five. Abuse of leadership happens when the ministry loses sight of the people they serve. A friend of mine told me, Seriously.
The ministry would be great. If it wasn't for people. There would be no more. ministry without people. When we lose sight of the people that we're serving, Those that serve under us will lose sight of that too.
No man, a guy called today. What's going on? Wanted to kill himself. We can become callous. You say, well, that's terrible.
Oh, how many times has someone pulled up and you saw their headlights in your driveway? Drop off the curtain, shut the door, turn off the lights, we're tired. We can become callous. We have to be careful. Don't lose sight that God is doing ministry.
Number six, and we're done with this. We have to be careful because the sons of Eli were guilty of all these things. The danger or ministry abuse is when they fail to know the Lord. When leadership does not know the Lord, The people under them will not know will know the Lord either. And I got to tell you, Sunday, Last Sunday till to tonight, this afternoon.
I had a a great invitation to be at at something that was hosted by Dallas Theological Seminary. And by the way, Dr. John Wolvert sends his love and That's always great to hear. But There were guys that got up professors. And they spoke and gave their Arguments Regarding The inerrancy of the Bible.
The prophetic word of God. What did Jesus mean when he said All kinds of things.
Some of them were great and some of them It was a time to go take a nap kind of a thing, you know? Man. It was tough. But there are some great moments. And I gotta tell you.
God so blessed me right when I didn't deserve it because I'm sitting there and I'm listening and I'm trying to stay away. And this guy's got PhDs piled up and he's got doctorates of this and masters of that. And I mean his name honestly was smaller. Then the stuff behind his name. And the guy got up and he read for like two hours.
And you know, you and you're And you're trying, and it's like, oh. Lord. Surely the tribulation period has begun. Mm-hmm. And I gotta tell you, I had the wrong attitude.
It's like. Hey.
Well, you know what? The Lord finally got through it to me and he said, you know what? All this stuff. that these guys Are you talking about? The reason why you're not happy about it is because Pastor Chuck was so faithful to teach you this 20 years ago.
But for 300 guys in the room, they were hearing it for the first time. They'd come from churches and seminaries that just flipped around in the Bible and they talked about the stories and never went verse by verse or chapter by chapter to the Bible. And literally, I kid you not, they had an open microphone, and people were coming up. Pastors. Same.
What did you mean a moment ago when you said the second coming? What? What? What do you mean second coming? I had to grab my mouth.
I saw John Wolver just go. And we laugh because we know so much about that. There are pastors in churches they don't know. They don't know. If they don't know that, then what about the blood?
The blood of Christ. Do they know that? What about the virgin birth? Christmas. Do they know the reason why?
To not know the word of God. is to be like Eli and his sons and it is to err. And will never be worshippers of God. It's terrible. But She dedicated her child unto the Lord and Samuel Grew.
In the grace and knowledge of God. Father, we thank you for tonight and we pray that you'd make us worshipers. That would be violent in the spiritual realm. We may sit silently in our chair. we may sit on the sands of the beach or on the mountain top.
We might be snowboarding or water skiing or surfing or just enjoying a great pizza. Doesn't matter. We can sit silent. And be praying. Praying, just conscious of the fact that you are God.
You alone are the Lord. And Father, tonight, we as a body, Come together in prayer and Father, we offer tonight a special prayer. Jesus, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem as your Bible commands us. We pray, Father, that you would Establish. The United States of America, not because we live here.
But you'd establish it in righteousness. Lord, we pray that you would remember the cry and the prayer. Prayers. Of Abraham Lincoln. And Jefferson.
and atoms. And Lord, that this nation would once again send the gospel around the world. that we'd become a humanitarian country once again. That the world would know that it's the United States that will stand next to us if there's an earthquake or our country's devastated or whatever it might be. Not because of the red, white, and blue.
But because of the red. Blood of Jesus Christ, whom this nation was founded upon.
So Father, we pray. for our country. that it might bless the world. And may we be humble about it. Father, in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. 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.
So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you'd like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com slash no God. That's K-N-O-W-God. And there you'll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you'll find in knowing God.
Don't miss out. That's the Know God tab at jackhibbs.com. Let's send a special hay out to Collins. Collins wrote from Kenya, East Africa. He says, I came to faith in Christ back in April of 2021.
At the time, I didn't have a church to attend, but through the leading of the Holy Spirit, I came across one of your teachings, Pastor Jack, and a friend had posted it to me. I immediately felt right at home. That's kind of cool, huh? It's amazing. Since then, he says, I've listened to almost all your podcasts and live stream services.
Thank you, sir, he says. I always mention you in my prayers. That's kind of cool, too. There you go. God's been so good to me.
He says, I'm at Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Nairobi. Isn't that cool? He said, I'll never get a chance to meet you here on earth, but I'm certain I'll see you in heaven. Isn't that great? Yeah, wouldn't it be fun though to meet each other on earth beforehand?
Yeah, it would. But isn't that amazing? The scripture says that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And here's a beautiful example where you. Your hearing this precious report from this dear brother.
In a far distant land. And that just. Him? The the program, the channel. And of course, the scriptures, most importantly, is proof, is evidence of God's prophetic truth.
Jesus said, Go ye therefore into all the world and preach this gospel to all nations. And that's exactly what's happened. And so, I just want to say thank you, Collins. Thank you so much, brother. I can't wait to see you in heaven, probably in heaven, but you never know.
But. It's going to be great. We're going to be able to know each other. Without ever being introduced, we'll know each other when we see each other. Hey, you know, if you'd like to drop a note of encouragement to Pastor Jack, that'd be awesome.
He'd really love to see what you have to say about him and how his ministry has affected your life.
So please do that. Go to the Connect tab at jackhibbs.com. That's the tab labeled Connect. at jackhibbs.com. 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.
