Today on real life radio.
Well, to help build you up, then let's talk about the gifts of the Spirit. No, I'm talking about that. Scares me.
Well, doesn't Satan just put a believer right where he wants him? If he can't get your soul anymore, he'll just neutralize you.
So you just sit in the corner and suck your thumb until the rapture happens. And nothing comes out of your life. You just bury your talent in the ground and sit on it. when God wants to use you. 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. Hey everybody, we got our first time ever actually devotional. We have a 40-day devotional called Watching Waiting. 40 days of walking you through biblical passages that excite you and prepare you for the soon coming of Jesus Christ.
Watching Waiting is a 40-day devotional that's all tied to biblical prophecy. Watching Waiting. It is our featured resource for this month and it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/slash real radio. Jackhibbs.com/slash real radio. On today's edition of Real Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called First Samuel and a message titled Church Growth 101.
This is part one. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets.
So, here as we continue in chapter 16, we'll look at how the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David and even today, comes upon the life of the believer. You see, the Lord comes to us by the person of the Holy Spirit. Every believer has the Holy Spirit within them at the moment of coming to Christ as Savior. It's the Holy Spirit that is our helper and comforter, and is both with us and within us.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that we need to examine our own motives for growth. Is it to impress or is it to serve, to build and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? Church growth begins from within. Before there's outward expansion, inward development is really quite essential.
Now with his message called Church Growth 101 Part 1, here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Higgs. All of the gifts recorded in your New Testament have been given. For the edification of the body of Christ. Is that not what the scripture says? Then let me ask you this.
Do you not need to be edified? Do you not need encouragement? Do you not need strengthening? Then, whenever any gift, I don't care if it's tongues or healing or as I'm doing now, this is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Did you know that?
I'm teaching. Every gift is to be used to strengthen the body.
Well, then, why do people go? Oh no! Last Wednesday we had tongues, interpretation of tongues, we had a word of wisdom and a word of exhortation. People can handle the words of exhortation and the word of wisdom. Did you know that?
You didn't have any problem with that. But some people, no, what was that?
Well, wait, why are you acting like that? The only way that you would act like that is because someone's fed something to you. They scared you, or you were in a church setting when, you know, somebody says, All right, let's worship the Lord, and Peter went, blah! Boom! It's like, what is this?
Well, that was a service out of control, obviously, out of order. But just because someone's had a bad experience doesn't mean the Word of God is void. It means that you had a bad experience. It means that you were involved in a weird setting. No matter how sincere they might have been, everything is written with great detail and order concerning the operational use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And the funny thing is, every one of you who are born again tonight, you rely upon and you need greatly the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Some of us have just gotten by, though, because we refuse to acknowledge all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God wants to move. Are we not closer to the days of Joel? Than ever before? We are.
Hey, what happens if your sons and your daughters start prophesying and seeing dreams and visions? Sit down, Junior. You're out of control. What are you gonna do? I don't know what you do.
You're gonna quench the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine?
Now, I don't know if you're visiting here, but I'm really mellow tonight. But on Sunday mornings, I'm like, I'm excited on Sunday. And you could come in here and say, you know, where's his robe for one thing? Where's his robe? And why is he talking so loud?
Why is he getting so excited? You could say, you know what, Pastor, you need to sit down, you need to shut up, you need to get control of yourself. You know what? Quench. Quince.
Can you imagine when Jesus says, consider the lilies of the field. Oh, you're getting weird on us. What do you mean, lilies of the field, Jesus? Calm down. Just talk normal.
A certain man went out to sow seed. I'm not a farmer. What does that mean to me? Be careful, Quench. You have to be careful.
Tragically, the church And it's exactly what the Bible warned about. We ought never to be ignorant about prophetic things, prophetic events. Did you know that? The Bible warns us in 1 Thessalonians 4: don't be ignorant about future events referred to in the Bible. In other words, know them.
Then the Bible says in Ephesians 6, encouraging us that we need to be wise, not ignorant, concerning the evils of the devil. Interesting, huh? The future Satan's tactics And then third, The warning is, don't be ignorant about spiritual gifts. Referred to in 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about it. And what is the church stupid about today?
Prophetic events, don't want to talk about it. Scares me.
Okay, we don't want to talk about future events. Don't want to talk about Daniel. Don't want to talk about. The great prophetic books of the Bible.
Okay, we won't talk about that. But listen, we need to get you strong. We need to get you ready.
So, we're going to go to Ephesians 6 and we're going to learn about spiritual warfare. I don't want to talk about that. Excuse me!
Okay then.
Well, to Help build you up then. Let's talk about the gifts of the Spirit. Don't want to talk about that. Scares me.
Well, doesn't Satan just put a believer right where he wants him? If he can't get your soul anymore, he'll just neutralize you.
He'll just neutralize you.
So you just sit in the corner and suck your thumb until the rapture happens. And nothing comes out of your life. You just bury your talent in the ground and sit on it. when God wants to use you. It's very, very important.
And so Want to consider a few things. The word of wisdom, what is it?
Well Before we go and get into that, turn in your Bible, if you would, to... Romans chapter 12. In Romans chapter twelve, it is the list. And by the way, you would have to read about four different books of the Bible to get all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But Why am I connecting the gifts of the Holy Spirit with the coming upon experience referred to in 1 Samuel 16, 13?
Because you cannot have the gifts of the Holy Spirit operational in your life without the Holy Spirit coming upon you. That's listen, that's why many believers today, if I were to hand out a piece of paper, And man, I I don't even want to ever do this because I'm afraid of the answer. But we ought to be able, I ought to be able to take a piece of paper and pass it through the sanctuary, and you ought to be able. To write down what your gift or gifts are to the body of Christ. If you cannot Then Satan's got you in that corner sucking on your thumb.
Nobody needs you in this church. Think about it. You're born again, you're going to heaven. But you know what? Here You're sterilized.
Here's the most tragic thing. If that's you. I don't need you. Nobody else around here needs you. But if you say, Lord, I don't want to be like that.
I want to be vital in the body of Christ. I want to live. With all that you have for my life. Lord, come upon me with your Holy Spirit and show me my gifts. Here's the deal.
You will find out that I need you greatly. And everybody around this church needs you. You know why? Because if God placed you in this body of believers, He's got a gift ready packaged for you to use that we all might be strengthened. And the faith by.
I don't know, I'm going to guess, but you know, when I'm teaching, you know, you come back the next week. A friend of mine told me, Jack, you know, every Sunday people will vote with their feet. That's a good word.
Well, if you're coming back, why are you coming back?
Well, you know Well, if you're coming back because you are growing in the Word of God. then you know what, you need the gift that God placed in my life. But it's not a one-way street. My gift is teaching. But you know what?
You may have the gift of helps or the gift of fill-in-the-blank, the list.
Now I need you. You need me, I need you, we need each other. Though the body of Christ is one, there's many members. And yet were many members, were one. But if if you can't Write down on a piece of paper what your gift is.
My friend, I got to ask you: have you ever asked Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit? And then have you asked Him to show you your gift? How does the church Need you. Ask him.
Someone manifested last Wednesday night. The word of wisdom. You say, well, what is that?
Well, it's a a statement. It's the receiving of a of a uh a thought It's not wisdom itself. It is a word of, and listen. It's special insight into a situation. It's being granted by God a special understanding to resolve an issue or to.
understand what's going on around. And so someone Was given that word last week and it fit perfectly. Acts chapter 6, verse 10. Stephen had that. Acts chapter 6, verse 10.
It says, but they could not withstand. the wisdom or the spirit by which Stephen spoke. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. And again, a word of wisdom. Is a very, very insightful word.
And someone, I don't remember exactly. Um What the words were, but as that time was going on last week, Um I jotted that down. Because that word of wisdom was instruction and insight. To certainly one person in this body, but I venture to believe there was even more who needed to hear what that person had said, and though it wasn't that person saying, it was the Spirit of God at work. That's very cool.
And you say, well, gosh, Jack, can that really happen?
Well God has done it, and He's going to do it, and He's listed it, and He's even told us about it in His book.
So just because you may not be open to it doesn't negate it. It just means that you're not open to it and you're not going to receive what he wants to do to that. 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. Isn't it amazing today? I understand this guy's program is just skyrocketing to the top. This uh channeler, this demonized guy.
John Edwards, is that his name? I don't know about you, but I would forbid that program being on TV in your home. It's demonic. Satanic. If you're watching it, turn it off.
If not, may God smite your T V. 'Cause that is satanic. Say, whoa, whoa, man. That guy's really. Hey, why would you even consider such a thing when you won't even let the Holy Spirit be God?
Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Here we go.
For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, we all don't have the same gift.
So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Let us use them. If prophecy Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. That word means to proclaim.
It has two functions by the way. And both often work together to proclaim the truth of God, and in that sense, Billy Graham's a prophet, to proclaim the truth of God, but also in that God can grant. The ability And by the way, that person may or may not understand it at that moment, but that teacher or that preacher or that evangelist or that person can speak out the word of God. And in speaking, by inspiration, he may say something that's prophetic. That is futuristic.
Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Verse 7, or Ministering. Let us use it. In our ministry, he who teaches in teaching, these are gifts. He who exhorts, we'll talk on that gift next because we saw that last time.
In exhortation, he who gives, let him do it freely. He who leads, let him do it with commitment. And he who shows mercy, let him do it. Cheerfully. That's a list of the of some of the gifts.
Turn in your Bible, if you would, to 1 Corinthians. Chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12:1.
Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant, or don't be dumb or uninformed about it. He states up front, just for time's sake, that you were once Gentiles, tossed. By various pagan worship systems Verse 4, look at verse 4. There are diversities of gifts, but it is the same Spirit or Holy Spirit. There are differences.
of ministry, but it is the same Lord. There are diversities of action. But it is the same God who works all in all. Verse 7: But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of who? One person?
Everybody. For to one is given the word of wisdom. We just talked about that. Through the Spirit. To another, the word of knowledge.
Through the same Spirit. To another, faith. By the way, this is special faith. By the same Spirit to another, gifts of healings, plural, by the way, healings. By the same Spirit.
To another, the working of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, discerning of spirits, to another, different kind of tongues, to another, the interpretation of tongues. But 1 verse 11, and the same Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, works in all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills. Wow. Look at all the people in here tonight. God wants to make sure that you know your gift.
That's a that's an amazing thing. Go to um Verse, let me see, look at verse twenty-eight, same chapter. 1 Corinthians 12, 28. And God has appointed these in the church first. Apostles Second, prophets.
Third, teachers. After that, miracles, then the gifts of Healings helps. Administrations, varieties of tongues. By the way, that covers both angelic and earthly tongues. And I love verse 29 to 31.
Don't raise your hand, but have you ever been involved in a church or saw something on TV? when somebody says, all right, If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, Speak in tongues. Go! And the guy like, huh? And they make it a big deal?
Have you ever heard, or is it just me? I've heard ministries where they say, Well, were you filled with the Holy Spirit? Yeah, did you speak in tongues? No, then you weren't filled with the Holy Spirit. Have you ever heard that?
They think that that is The Hallmark of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Look what Paul says. I'd love this. And I wonder how many people, maybe you're here today, and you've, you have. Ben Just sidelined by that kind of baloney.
When if you would have just kept reading The Bible would have given you the answer, and the answer would have been to kick the dust off your feet from that church and get out of there. Look what he says. Verse uh twenty nine. By the way, in the Greek, it's absolutely fantastic. He says, are all apostles?
Is everybody in here apostles? No? Are all prophets? Nope. Are all teachers?
Nope. Are all workers of miracles? Nope. Do all have the gifts of healings? Nope.
Do all speak with tongues? Nope. Do all interpret? Nope. Isn't that great?
Some of you are like, man, I wish we would have read that 30 years ago. Think about it. If God gave everybody the gift of healing, nobody would ever get sick.
So what sounds good to me, that's where that doctrine comes from. Yet the truth of the matter is some people have the gift of healings. Do all Prophesy. No, can you imagine? Nobody would have any ears.
They'd only have mouths. We're all prophets. Think about it. Are all apostles? Does everybody go out and start churches around the world?
If they did, there'd be nobody in the church. Do all speak in tongues? Can you imagine?
It would be nuts. That's why the answer is no, no, no, no, no to all these things. Everyone doesn't have this, but some do, but not everyone. And then First Corinthians 14, which I was hoping to get at. Half an hour ago.
By the way, just let me hit this quickly and hold our place right here. We saw last week also the gift of exhortation in operation, and that was beautiful.
Someone here in this fellowship, as we waited upon the Lord, someone here said something along these lines. Um Yeah. Don't doubt me any longer. I am your Lord. I'm watching over you.
Don't fear anymore. Don't be, you know, Brought into that place of being held captive by your fear, I'm your God, I'm going to see you through, I'm with you. And they said, I will never leave you or forsake you. You say, Well, yeah, that's from the Bible. That's exactly how the Spirit of God speaks.
But the word of exhortation was very personal to someone or to this entire church. Don't doubt. Here's how the gift of exhortation is used.
Well, at least in my life, this is how I need to hear it. Jack, stand up. What? I'm with you. Quit your whining.
There's no reason to do that. I am going to see you all the way through. I'm with you. Even though when you don't think I'm with you, I'm with you more, even when you think I'm not with you. Stop doubting me.
I'm going to perfect everything I start in your life.
Now you stand up and you be a man and you go forward and don't doubt anymore because I am with you. That's how he talks to me. Kinda he sounds a little bit more soul-like though when he speaks to me. I am with you. That's how he talks to me.
But here's the deal. The exhortation came last Wednesday and it was like that. It was almost on the borderline of a rebuke. And he said, Oh, no, it was an exhorting word. It was, yeah, hey, he's with me.
Come on, let's go. Are you with me? Do you understand that? It's fun. It's great.
1 Corinthians 14. Pursue love. And desire, listen, listen to this. I hope this is your life. Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.
Do you? Oh, I hope so. Oh, if you don't, what are you doing? What are you doing wasting your time? Desirous spiritual gifts.
But especially that you may prophesy, that is, speak the word of God to people. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. Wait, is that evil? Isn't it funny? People that see?
A person who speaks in a tongue doesn't speak to men, he speaks to God. Is that wrong? Go watch this. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one or no man understands him.
However, in the Spirit He speaks mysteries. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called Church Growth 101, Part 1. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel. A series highlighting the prophet Samuel who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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.
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So don't miss out. Visit jackhibbs.com. Why don't you just 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.
Daniel Cohen here from Israel. If you love Pastor Jack Hibbs' fearless approach to teaching God's word, you'll love the Real Life Network. It's built for warriors who want the truth. God's truth. On the Daniel Cohen Show, we bring you stories the mainstream media downplays.
It's time to start getting your news from people you trust, and it's totally free. Sign up now at reallife network.com. Hey, this is Pastor Jack, and I want to encourage you to join me every morning this year at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, where we literally get together online in a prayer group, and there are thousands who are joining us. I'd love for you to participate.
That's 5 a.m. every day throughout the entire year. We get together and pray. I look forward to meeting up with you. Come get prayed for and join Pastor Jack in the Word.
That's the Lyft Daily Prayer every day this year on Pastor Jack's Facebook page. Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you like? It's called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you're going to love him on TV.
So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. That's 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.
