Today on Real Life Radio. The wrong kind of worship that is not according to spirit and truth? Can give you a real jolt up the spine and give you a real exciting sense. But you know what? When that service is over, The people left that place and they couldn't lead one person to Christ.
They didn't even know what verse to go to. 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. The culture is shifting.
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For a gift of any amount at jackibbs.com slash real radio. That's jackkids.com slash real radio. On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues now with his series called First Samuel. and a message titled, The Wrong Type of Worship.
Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets.
So, here in chapter 13, we'll discover what true worship really looks like. You see, even today, many people engage in worship that's either misguided, superficial, or an emotional display, void of the deeper things of the heart. True worship is not just about external acts, but about sincerity, obedience, and in line with how we live our lives.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that whenever we run ahead of God, It doesn't end well for us. But if we just worship and wait upon the Lord, He'll often move heaven and earth on our behalf.
Now with his message called the wrong type of worship. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. You look around and you're wondering, well, gosh, you know what? I just got done doing this. I straightened, I vacuumed the.
Carpet, we set up the couches, we got everything in the coffee pots going, we got the folding chairs, and oh, that one can over there is overflowing with trash. I guess I better go do that too. You know what? Believe it or not, I know this sounds mean, but listen, it's true. Listen, this is the hardest thing to learn when a church is just getting born, and maybe even a business for whatever you may be involved in.
You can't do everything. I guess let me rephrase that: you can do everything. It will kill you. But you can do it. But you know what?
Literally, there comes a time when you've got to step back as a leader of that business or a leader of that church, as pastor. You've got to step back and see, and you see everything. I see everything all the time. I can be gone on a two-week mission trip and come back and see cobwebs in the corner of the hallway.
So, man, I would hate to live with you. I'm not like that anywhere else, but in the house of God. Isn't that weird? It's the strangest thing. But the thing is this.
I'll be looking at it. There's cobwebs in there. I could go do that. And I could do it. It's not it has nothing to do with ability.
But you know what? There's someone who comes into the church and they say, you know what? I really want to serve in this area. And so here's my decision. Do I let them serve in the area, God, that you are supposedly calling them to, or should I go fix it?
The natural temptation, you guys, is what? Go fix it. And this is the hardest thing in church. is to let it go. Just let her go.
Just someone will see it in time.
Well, the tr the toilet's overflowing. There's times when God, I'm convinced of this. I remember years, years, this is in the 70s. Toilet over was overflowing at Cover Costa Mesa in between services. Chuck Smith in his suit.
He took off his suit jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeve, and stuck his hand down the toilet. and fixed it. while the ushers and assistant pastors watched them fix it. But you know what? That's his house.
You would do it at your home, wouldn't you? But you see, and the thing, you know, you have kids, you like, the trash needs to go out. And the p you know, it's a it's a sad day when the kids look at the parents and say, you know, the trash needs to go out. No, don't you know that we gave birth to you to take out the trash? We feed you, we keep you healthy, we'd lock you in your room sometime, let you out to take the trash out.
But ministry, listen, Saul's gonna do it all. And so listen. The wrong type of worship. Causes us to use the things of God. Look at verse 8: using a ministry that isn't yours to use.
Then Saul waited seven days. Samuel didn't show up.
So he makes the offering, he acts as a priest. Himself. Saul acts in the place of Samuel here. He begins to assume things of God to himself. And he's wrong.
He's entered yet again another danger zone. The things of God. becoming Things and positions. It's a sad and sick day. that a man called by God begins to think begins to assume That you know what?
I can just do it. Uh You know, this is my show. I can do whatever I want to, not accountable to anybody. And I'm not only going to be king, I'm going to be priest also. And the people had no problem with that.
That's sad. It's wrong. I think that happens, by the way. When a church, when a pastor, when a ministry loses the fear of the Lord, loses the beauty of worship. in the things of the ministry begin to be owned by the people.
You ever seen that in a church? Get out of that pew. That's got my name on it. I donated that pew. Have you ever been I've been to a church that the pews have names on them.
I know. Yeah boy, I think that is absolutely what is that for? It's wrong. The people were scattered from Saul. And he panics.
His motive was wrong. Everybody could have said, look at Saul. Oh, he's worshiping. He's making an offering. But his motive, his heart was wrong.
Man, you guys, the Lord's the only one who knows our hearts. You know that? I don't know your heart. I can't. You don't know mine.
You can't. But are we worshiping him? We need to Incline ourselves to worship. One of the things, one of the great dangers Have you Using the things of God. in this area of wrong worship.
Is God grants power to people and using power to cover sin. Power. To cover sin. It says in verses 10 through 12, now it happened as soon as he had finished the offering, the burnt offering. that Samuel came.
Yeah. And Saul went out to meet him. That he may greet him.
Now, watch this. This is a, he's got some tap dancing shoes on here. And Samuel said, What have you done? And Saul said, When I saw that the people were scattered from me and that you didn't come. within the days appointed and the Philistines had gathered together at Mi'kmash, then I said, The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.
Therefore, I felt compelled. And offered burnt offerings. Do you hear that excuse? Isn't that elaborate?
Well, well, first of all The people are scattered and You didn't show up on time. You hear that, people? Do you hear that? You didn't show up. The people are scattered.
We're surrounded. And if I didn't make an offering, listen, if I didn't make an offering, they're going to kill me. That's what he's saying. Do you see how he may have been Saul? But he was not a shepherd for the people.
Man, I got to do something. They were going to kill me.
So I went through this whole deal. And besides, you were late, Samuel. Do you know people like this? Have you seen this happen in life? We've all seen this happen.
He didn't fall on his face and say, Oh, Samuel, please. You know what? I absolutely blew it. No, he's defending the situation. He did wrong.
He knew. Wrong. The set thing is there are three fatal things that he did. In my opinion, three fatal things. Number one, he assumed that the people would be stupid and not figure out what he was doing.
I'll take care of it. The second thing is. is that he's probably thinking that it looks good to God. He had been so far removed from God because of lack of personal worship in his own private life that he's so removed from God, he's probably thinking, this will look good to God. He says, I've got to make supplication to God.
Like God is some kind of a dope. I could pull the wool over his eyes. The third horrible mistake that he makes here is what we mentioned earlier, is I can take care of this myself. You weren't here as him? Samuel, I did it myself.
Listen, Using power to cover sin, that's a dangerous thing. Notice the timing when it says here: as soon as he was done making the offering, Samuel shows up.
Now, listen, if you're faithless like Saul, you'll say God was setting him up. You can almost hear Saul say it, hey.
So kind of funny you show up now. What is God setting me up? No, or if you have faith like Samuel, you'll say, why didn't you trust God? Saul? You notice how it says here: as soon as he was done making the offering, Samuel shows up.
God was in the whole deal. It's how do you take it? Where's your heart at in this, poor Saul? As soon as he got done doin' that, God sent Samuel ruined his day. Situational ethics.
Situational Christianity. Samuel could have shown up and said, Why don't you just wait on the Lord? You know, if you just waited on the Lord, you know, you guys listen. We can run ahead of God and we'll get a bloody nose every time. I have never seen a Christian ever once get punished for waiting on God.
Never. 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. I've seen God stop the world almost. When a Christian waits upon him, that Christian's waiting to make sure that it's the Lord. And God will move heaven and earth. in honor of that Christian waiting upon the Lord.
I've never seen a Christian who waits upon God ever come up short, ever. But I've seen people who will not wait upon the Lord. become very bloody. Very broken and very bitter. Power can corrupt, people say.
And that's true if you live for power. And influence and personal gain. But you know what? I want to say this: I think power can bless people. If you live to be a conduit for God's work, I don't think there's anything sinful with power.
Just like the Bible nowhere says that money's sinful. Did you know that? Money is not sinful. What is sinful? That's right.
The love of money is sinful. The love of power is sinful. But these things in the hand of a worshipper of God is a powerful thing. We need to learn this. These actions come from an insecure man.
And his insecurity will eat him alive. And the tragic thing about people like this Is these insecure types of people? leave in their wake brokenhearted people, used people. prostituted people all for one man's ambition. This is Saul.
And it's tragic. It's sad, though. It's too bad that more people can't handle wealth and Power of money. Jesus tells us that if we'd be faithful in a little bit, we'd be Faithful and more, you know. And finally, verses 17 to 23, we'll end with this.
The wrong type of worship results ultimately in defeat.
Some of this I'm going to weave in between personal observations that I. saw many years ago. Wrong type of worship can ultimately lead to defeat this way, because wrong worship doesn't affect the heart of God. Saul, it says in verses 16 to 18, Saul, Jonathan, his son. and the people present were with them remained.
M that location there. But the Philistines encamped in Mi'kmash. Then, look at verse 17, the raiders came out of the camp. And they are just, you could see these guys. They're dressed in black.
They've got knives in their mouth, probably, you know, they're rigged for battle. no doubt very, very scary. And they're coming against the children of Israel. Watch this. What's tragic about this is, I don't think that verses 16 and 18 ever needed to take place.
if they would have been consulting the Lord. When I say that The wrong type of worship. Is a danger because it doesn't affect the heart of God. What I'm saying is this: when we worship the Lord, Now listen and understand that when we worship him It is not something that is to entertain us. But listen.
And I hope you take this right. Our worship To God is not to entertain us. But you know what? In his goodness it often does. Does that make sense?
In our worship to God and of God, It's not something that's to excite us. But haven't you felt and haven't you experienced excitement in worshiping the Lord? Sure we have. That's a good thing. Let me thread this needle very carefully.
When we worship the Lord, it's not to prepare our hearts. But doesn't it often prepare our hearts? Worship is not for us. It's all for him. But he is so good.
That in an instant of time He excites us. He entertains us. He touches our hearts. Doesn't he? Listen, when the psalm says, come into his courts with praises.
And and thankfulness and singing. Don't think, well, you know, wait, we're supposed to come in and we're supposed to do. Wait, wait, wait. You're coming into his courts. Wait, it's his courts.
Cords! That alone spawns worship. You're coming in worshiping. Who? Him.
Now, when we worship and when we go back to our normal mode of worship, will he touch our hearts? Yeah. Will we get excited? Yes. And even will it entertain us?
Yes. Because he's good. And you can't, in my opinion, you can't put a stopwatch. to this But when we sing to him, When he gets blessed, He brings it right back down on us. It's almost as though he cannot contain your singing.
Your love, your worship. When you bless him, he's blessed by it and spills it right back on top of your head. Truly, I believe that when we worship, we are entering the realm of the Spirit. Truly. Into eternity.
Maybe I can put it this way. It either unlocks eternity before us or it brings eternity down among us when we worship. He gets blessed. We get excited. Last Sunday, I saw some people standing up.
They're kind of like in this area over here, and the biggest smile on their faces, their hands were lifted up. And I was standing right over here and I saw them. I said, Well, Jack, what were you looking for? I don't know. I was just looking.
But I guess maybe God wanted me blessed because I looked at them and I said to myself, that is so cool. They're having a great time with the Lord. They're having a great time with the Lord. That's neat. I love that.
You guys, we go to learn this from this passage, and we'll be done. The wrong type of worship. Verses 19 to the close. Results in ultimately defeat because wrong worship is powerless. And finally, wrong worship leaves you helpless.
What do I mean by that? I'm not going to name the place and in the movement and all that kind of stuff.
some other world. But I remember Years ago Gathering At a place where we were all hearing, oh man, the Spirit of God is moving. The Spirit of God is moving. And I do not deny that the Spirit of God was moving. But My wife and I went and we sat down at this tremendous gathering and And the first thing was there was no Bible.
I mean, people had Bibles, but there was no Bible. Teaching. There was great, great worship. And the guy would move around on the stage, and that's nothing wrong with that. But he would move around on the stage and he would point to Arias.
And there were thousands of people there. He would point to Arias and he would say, The Holy Spirit just came in the door. He just came in the door. Back over here, he's moving. And we're sitting there going, Honestly, we were new.
I mean, I was a new Christian. I'm looking. People were literally going, oh, and they were just shaking, and you could see almost like a line going through these thousands of people gathered, and it looked like. a a s very slow motion lightning bolt going through the crowd. I mean, I couldn't see the light of it, but you could see the act of it.
And people were falling down, and people were like, whoa, you could hear people go, woo! And I'm not knocking it as much as I'm wondering what's going on, what's happening. You suggest you're being kind of critical.
Well, hang on, I'm not done yet. Just wait a second. Seriously? The wrong kind of worship that is not according to spirit and truth. Can give you a real jolt up the spine and give you a real exciting sense.
But you know what? When that service is over, The people left that place and they couldn't lead one person to Christ. They didn't even know what verse to go to. And when their world rocked with a death or unemployment or cancer, They didn't know one verse to go to. You know what they started to do?
God, give me the feeling. God, let me know you're here. Let me know you're here, God. Give me the feeling. What happens when no feeling comes?
You are ruined. You begin to think God's not with me anymore. It's not by feeling. But listen, Christian, do feelings come? Yes.
But are you to base your existence between you and your God on feeling? No, you only thank him for the feeling. But you praise and worship him. Do you understand? It's very important.
There is a wrong kind of worship. It is a worship. That is truly self-centered. Man-centered worship. We would never admit it.
If it were going on in our lives. But it very well could be true. Very dangerous. When we sing the songs, and I'm gonna ask the worship group to come on up right now. When we now enter into worship, Are we in inclined and are we determining In our hearts and minds, I'm going to learn the words of that song.
You know, honestly, we don't need the song. The song sheets printed up, or the songs printed on the wall. Did you know that with the projection? You know Congregations existed for millennia without it. You know what people used to do in the good old days?
They didn't read it. They memorized it to their heart. They put it in their heart. They took how great thou art and they implanted it in their memory.
So that wherever you are at in the world, You could remember that scripture verse, or you could sing that old hymn. Or you can remember that words of that Keith Green song, or whatever blessed you, but you have to commit it to memory. We need to do that. Father, in Jesus' name, Cause us to be right worshippers. Father, that we'd be a church very careful and yet at the same time very free.
Very liberated. To worship you arites. To be excited about who you are? to praise you. And Lord, even as tonight where the whole protocol was Inverted.
Lord, may we just say, who cares? I've come to worship the Lord. Lord, let that be the banner of our heart this year. Worshipper of God. And Lord, may we bless you.
In Jesus' name. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes. here on Real Life Radio, with his message called The Wrong Type of Worship. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel.
It's a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest ages. bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we'll continue 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 know 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. Hey, have you ever looked at a burning fire? Maybe it's in a fire ring, or you're at the beach, and the logs are burning, and someone was to pull out one of the logs and set it off to the side. Have you noticed how quick it cools down?
Because it's not with the rest of them. The rest of the fire continues to burn, but when you break it up and pull it apart, Those pieces begin to grow cold. Friends, listen, that could describe your Christian life right now. But don't let it continue to be that way. You are part of God's family all around the world.
As you and I continue to stand in the truth, we are standing in the very beautiful, refining fire of God. Let Him have His way with you. And you will come out ablaze for his glory. We're near the finish line, friend. Don't give up, don't quit, keep standing because God's truth will never fail.
In Jesus' name, Amen. 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.
