Today on real life radio. Maybe God uses you in your pen or in your voice or in your music or in your witness at work or your company or your. Whatever. Isn't that where he attacks in the choice things? He's not stupid.
He's wicked. The enemy. 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.
This December, Pastor Jack Hibbs is doing something a little different and a lot special. All month long, he's offering a double feature Book of the Month. Two very powerful resources to help you finish the year strong and step into the next year spiritually grounded. First, Pastor Jack's annual favorite, the One Year Bible. Every year, lives are changed as people discover how simple and doable it is to read through the entire Word of God within just a few minutes a day.
Also, Pastor Jack's going to include his brand new devotional, Watching Waiting. It's a 40-day journey designed to help you slow down, look up, and recognize what God is doing in your life.
So this December, why would you choose one when you can get both and grow deeper? Visit jackhibbs.com to get your December Book of the Month double feature, The One Year Bible, and Pastor Jack's brand new devotional, Watching Waiting. They're available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. Again, that's jackhibbs.com. On today's edition of Real Life Radio.
Pastor Jack continues now with his series called 1 Samuel and a message titled Winning the Battles of Life Part 1. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and he was the first of its prophets.
So here in chapter 17 we'll rediscover that well-known story of David and Goliath. You see, the event before us was a true battle. Young David facing the giant Goliath. Israel is now being threatened as Goliath mocks God's people. Fear is everywhere, and when it comes to Goliath, well, we have giants in our lives as well.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that when we face our giants, we can't just shrink back and assume we're helpless. When we are in Christ, He is by our side and the outcome is in His hands.
Now, with His message called Winning the Battles of Life, Part 1. Here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs. I believe that a company We'll be blessed by the Lord. Because a Christian works there. Hey.
If there's any non-believing company owners here tonight, You ought to hire a Christian. I think God will bless your company. God will keep your doors open because He's got one of His kids working in your company. I've seen it happen. I've also seen it happen when the Christian or Christians leave, the company shuts down.
Isn't that interesting? Kind of goes along the lines where God speaks regarding Abraham. I'll bless those who bless. And I'll curse those who curse. Interesting, huh?
It's all about territories. In your life, Have you advanced in an area? In God, you've gotten success in an area, maybe it's been years, and all of a sudden, things are slowly now. You're noticing there's a creeping back of the world, almost like weeds in a garden. Was there a time in your life Where you prayed and you were earnest about prayer.
Was there a time in your life when you were so excited to share Jesus with people? Or what about just telling your friend? You love them, you do everything with them, they're important to you, and you care for them. But there was a time when you would tell them about Jesus, and now you don't. Are there territories in your life that God has conquered and set up a boundary to, but you and I, we've let those fences get.
Torn down? Maybe it's in the ear of your mouth, or what you allow your eyes to see, or your ears to hear. There was a day, maybe, when you said, Well, I walked a little bit more holy than I do now. Be careful, these are dangerous moves. And the world is against us, and Satan's against us, and our flesh is against us to get us out of an advancement with God.
Satan's already lost your soul. He can't do anything about that. You belong to Christ. But The danger is he wants to sterilize you so that you don't Influence anyone else for Christ. Like Lazarus.
Lazarus knew the Lord Jesus, but Jesus gave him life. He came hopping out of the tomb, but he was still wrapped in his grave clothes. He couldn't speak, he couldn't walk, he could only hop. And that's why Jesus said, after Jesus had given him life, somebody to loose him and let him go. It's a great verse, huh?
Jesus has given us life, but maybe over the course of time we've let things creep back into our lives. I'm absolutely shocked and amazed. How so many Christian homes are falling apart, and marriages are breaking up in this area of men getting online with pornography. I tell you, if there's anybody in here tonight that's struggling with that, watch this. Take your computer.
and throw it out the window. I'm sure, Pastor. It costs $1,700. Then what give us your house key. Go take a walk and we'll bring a hammer over.
You know why? It's destroying your home. Destroy your cans! You don't think your kids are on it? They know how to get on it.
Oh, they don't know my password. They know how to get your password. Uh-huh, what? Then it affects your thinking. Then it affects your time with your wife.
It affects your time with the way you look at people. And then you go to pray and you're wondering why God's not hearing you. Battleground, territories. The enemy's trying to take them back. Jesus has erotically delivered you out of these things, and there's the thing of the world pulling in.
I hear people about going online. I tell you, I guess if there was ever a computer system set up where you could research National Geographic and NASA, I guess that would be all right. But people start out researching NASA and they wind up wandering over to their. class reunion thing. and meeting up with an old boyfriend and Jeopardizing now their husband and wife, their kids.
It all started on the internet. What is this? It's the enemy coming back, using whatever he can to take ground. To steal what God has established. It's all about territories.
The Philistines showed up and they are in the area that is. owned by Israel. That's why your Bible says in verse 1 that it belongs to Judah. God had delivered them from bondage. Second Corinthians 10, verse 3 says, For we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, meaty.
Fleshly of this world, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. You see, God. Takes an area. And then the enemy will try to take it back. And this will happen.
But we don't need to give the enemy any foothold.
So many people are struggling, they're wondering why things are going so bad and why they can't progress in their Christian walk. They can't have victory. Because they're almost, as it were, handing the keys over to an area where God had provided deliverance from. Romans chapter 8, verse 37 says, Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Did you know that?
Do you feel like that?
Something comes on the TV screen, or somebody says something to you, or that boss comes up, you know, and sticks his face in your face, and he says, Oh, you know, you goofed up again, and your temper starts to rise.
So wait a minute, Lord. I'm more than a conqueror. Whatever it might be. What kind of victory? God says he has given us The power through Jesus Christ and territories.
I want you to start thinking that the battles that you and I go through, it's all about, so to speak, spiritual Philistines moving into the area that God has already claimed to be his own. Didn't Solomon say it's the little foxes that spoil the vineyards? Did you know that? You know why? If you've ever seen a vineyard in Israel, the fences are built a certain size to keep the.
The fox is out, but you know what happens when a little pup, a little puppy. A little baby fox. It's those little stinkers. They slip through the gate where the it's to keep the big ones out, but the little guy gets in and he starts eating all the tender, brand new little branches and the grapes. And Solomon said, Hey, it's the little foxes that spoil the grape, spoil the vineyard.
I was building a fence to keep out the big wolves and stuff, and it was those little cute things. Oh look, isn't this a little cute thing? Look how cute it is. Whatever it is, look how cute it is. And it wouldn't harm a flying.
And Solomon says, Watch out. It's those little things that'll mess you up. This in the scripture says that there are sins that can so easily beset us. Book of Hebrews warns us. The Bible talks about how we ought to be like sprinters.
We prepare ourselves for a run. In the Greek Olympics, the wrestlers used to actually wrestle what they called naked. They actually just had a gourd. You know what a gourd is? I don't need to explain it to you, it's rather a grotesque thing.
Uh anyway, they wrestled almost naked. And before they went out into the ring for the Olympic Games, they covered themselves in oil. Why?
So that the opponent could get nothing on them, so that they couldn't find any kind of a grasp or upper hand to wrestle down. You to the ground. And Paul speaks about how we need to agonize. Agonadzo is in the Greek word. We need to, and the word is gemnadzo.
We need to work out in the spirit. We need to prepare ourselves for a race or for wrestling. To win. It's very important. And so you can just think of a sprinter.
Um In the blocks. And can you imagine that sprinters in the blocks? You see those guys? Who's that guy? Is it Michael Jordan?
The sprinter, not Michael Jordan, the Michael Johnson. Oh, that guy, have you seen him run? It's not right. It's not right that a man could run that fast and feel good about it. He's running, I mean, he just.
Yeah. He's just moving in his legs and going. And he's having a great time. My my disc would be slipping out, my My teeth would be falling out. This guy's just running.
You know, you'll see him in Levi's. He doesn't have a parka on. He is lean. And he's got clothing on that I would imagine weighs an ounce or two. And he's running for his life.
We need to awaken to the fact that we are in a spiritual battle. and that our opponent is invisible. 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. In verse 1, we learn this, that awakening to the fact that we're in a battle, it's about defending what God has given us already. Jot that down. It's about defending what God has given us already.
It says: Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered to Soko, which belongs to Judah. They encamped between Soko and Azakai in Ephes Damim. Areas that God had already given. God does not give up territory. Aren't you glad?
Has anyone ever backslidden in their life? That is, you have not progressed with Jesus, but you went backward. Anyone? See, I knew I know when to ask you questions. To get you to lie at the critical moment.
And you just did it. You fell right for it. Everyone has backslidden at some point in time in their life. Everyone. It may not shine forth on the outside.
It could be the attitude of your life, it could be the attitude of your heart.
Okay. And uh When you were backsliding, did you notice how heavy God's hand was on you? Huh? Man, I tell you, I don't know who's listening in right now, but if you know Jesus and you're saved, you're going to heaven and you're not walking with Him, aren't you miserable? I mean look at you.
You're disgusting. You can't stand yourself. You're so unhappy. You're trying to do this thing and God's saying, mm-mm. We're not going to do that.
Anyway, yeah, we are. And you get in an argument with God every day, you're in an argument with Him, you're not doing what He says, and you're fighting with God. And there's a war. And his hand is heavy on you. That's one of the great signs of being a believer.
He will not let his children go away too far, and when they do, he disciplines them good. You belong to him. He will not give you up. You may give up on you. He will not give up.
He will pursue you, he will keep you. And by the way, the Bible says the God who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps, and I happen to believe that's true regarding my soul. He will not sleep, he will not fall asleep on guard when it comes to my soul. Doesn't the Bible say that nothing will separate us from the love of God? And it says in there in the fine print, nor any created thing.
Are you created? I believe that I cannot separate myself from God. He's going to keep me with him, he's going to have my heart in his hand. I'm a created thing and I want him to be the Lord of my life. And even when you're not walking with God, you still cannot, you cannot deny Him.
You wrestle with him. God will not give up ground. God had blessed Israel. But they're in this place of a battle. And they have a pretty formidable enemy before them, as we'll see.
There are studies about Goliath and all. But um The devil is wicked. By the way, this area that we're talking about is about 20 miles. Listen carefully if you haven't been there. It's about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem, south-southwest of Jerusalem.
The valley of Elah personally reminds me of many of the meadow. Valleys of Lake Tahoe area. It's beautifully wooded with pine trees, green valleys, and the Valley of Elah is as it was thousands of years ago. It's the same today. In fact, it's one of the rare places in Israel you can go, and the creek bed.
has smooth round stones. Israel does not have smooth stones. But they do right there. And by the way, when you're there, there's nothing there. In fact, when we go there, When we go there, we reenact the Goliath deal.
Anybody was anybody with us on that one trip where we did that? Wasn't that fun? Yeah, Jeff, you were Goliath, weren't you? You were. It was great.
He still bears the scar today. Look at his forehead. No, it's just beautiful, beautiful area. You never think, oh, you know, Israel must be sand dunes. It looks like Lake Tahoe area.
Sure. Beautiful area. And so they're fighting. Isn't that just like the enemy to come into an area? Have you noticed?
I don't want to get off the track, I'll just say this: have you noticed in areas that are extremely beautiful nature-wise, it's always given over to weird satanic paganism? You'd be hiking down the trail in Yosemite. It's just so beautiful, and there's some nut sitting on a rock naked, focusing on his navel, humming something. Hmm, hmm. What are you doing?
Why does it? It's almost like Satan wants to conquer these beautiful areas. Have you been. I hope nobody gets our. Teaching in Sedona, Arizona.
Have you ever been to Sedona, Arizona? Is it not beautiful? It's like a feast for your eyes. The mountains are so red, the sky is so blue, and the trees are so green. And we're just, oh, look at this, whoa, look at this, it's so beautiful.
We're just enjoying it. And some nut walks by with a pyramid. On his head. Yeah. And he's trying to find his harmonic.
Convergence. What is this? Satan's not attacking the ghetto in our story. He's going after the choice area. of Israel's life.
How does that equate to us? Satan will go after the choice areas of our life. What is your joy? God has blessed you with it. Whatever it is.
Maybe God uses you in your pen, or in your voice, or in your music, or in your witness at work, or your company, or your. Whatever. Isn't that where he attacks in the choice things? He's not stupid. He's wicked.
The enemy. The conflict is over the possession of land. Or something more important. the ground that God has granted us and victory. Satan will try to take background that he has lost, and he'll try to do it through temptation and possessions and pride and power.
The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 5, you're going to want to jot this down and memorize it. I want to have it blazoned into your heart and mind. 1 Peter 5, verse 6 through 8 says, Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. That's the first step. That he may exalt you in due time.
Listen, anybody prone to worry? Listen to verse 7, 1 Peter 5:7. Casting, the word in Greek is to heave, to throw it. to as it were Catapult it. Catapult your cares upon him.
For he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. I want to show you something. If you put your eyes to the screen, we cut this on film with some miraculous. technology here about what a child of God My go-through in life.
Walking along, fine. There you go. The enemy's like a lion. There you go again. Look at this innocent One more time.
Let's do a slow. Be on your guard. Your enemy is like a lion seeking whom he may. Devour. You see how that works?
That little guy is walking down a path, child of God that he is. He's on the path. He's right where he should be. That little guy was not in some area where he ought not to be. He's walking along the road, and right out of the.
Bushes comes the enemy. See, now you'll know, you'll always remember this now. You're I I saw that we I had to show you that, doesn't it? But God has given us the victory. And I wonder, has that little child just think, I wonder what that little kid, I don't know what happened.
after that, but I wonder how that little kid walked down that path from that time on. Did that little guy get up and choke that cat? We don't know. We don't know. Did the father walking behind with the video camera deal with the cat later?
Listen. That kid was walking down the path and yet he was attacked.
Okay. You will be doing what God's called you to do, and the enemy is going to come after you. But listen, greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. God will absolutely give you the victory. He's promised it to us because Jesus Christ has won the war.
It's true. The third thing that we consider right here is that awakening to the fact that we're in a spiritual battle, it's about something bigger than what we often think. It's about something bigger. It says in verse 2, And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against. The Philistines.
Get this in your mind's eye and away we go. They have got an army there, and they're in total army gear, and they're all poised and ready to go. And they, as we'll see in following studies, they're not fighting. It's been that way for 40 days. They're in battle array.
Do you know what that means? That means you're like this. But there's a valley between them. The enemy is in your land. And yet you stand in battle array.
Okay, they're standing. But they're not advancing. They've got all of the military armament that they need, but they're not going to go forward. And we'll see because of fear. They won't advance for fear because there's this champion called Goliath.
But how many times are we Failing to pick up on the fact that we're in a spiritual battle. We've got our Bible, we've got our shield, we've got our sword, we've got our helmet on, we're ready to go to battle, we're ready to go to battle. But listen, as Christians, we're not going to battle because we get scared, we back up.
Somebody takes the position and they come in, as it were, to the land, and they're big and ugly, and they're boasting big things against God. And what do we do?
Somebody needs to do something. Yeah, yeah. At least we should drop to our face and pray. But listen, Christian, behind everything in your life is a spiritual. Power.
a spiritual purpose. And we need to think spiritually. Uh Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Here on Real Life Radio, with his message called Winning the Battles of Life, Part 1.
So glad you're with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called 1 Samuel. It's a series that highlights 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.
So the lingering effects of the government shutdown, right? I mean, when, you know, I mean, when the movie business goes on strike, right? It's not just the guys behind the, it's not just the people in front of the camera. It's not just the actor. Right.
I mean, it's the people that, you know, that sweep the floor on the studio. It's the people that do the, you know, run the cleaners, you know? These people are out of work also. In lingering effects of the government shutdown. How do we deal with that as Christians?
Well, look, there's people trying to figure out how to recover or how to sail through this or how to maneuver this. And when we get into the seasons that we're in right now, This is what I hope people do. Yeah. Especially the Christian is, hey, it's all about knowing Jesus. We can get together as a family.
And we can love on each other. And we can keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is Jesus Christ instead of. Oh man, are you kidding me? I didn't get that.
I thought you were going to get me a car for Christmas or whatever, that shirt.
Well, these are hard times. Guess what? Hard times Produce strong people. Yeah, true. And when we find our strength in Jesus, then we're all the stronger.
Can we pray for the folks that, well, pray for all of us? Absolutely. Yeah. All of us that are affected by the government shutdown, particularly. Let's do it.
Father, this uh Huh. You're the Lord of all things. You know everything and you know the intrigue. that is going on by individuals who are manipulating this government that was only designed for a moral and religious people, said John Adams. We've certainly lost our moorings to you, to the Bible.
Lord, we just ask you that you would cause each and every one of us as individuals. No matter what our nation decides to do, that our faith would be in you and you alone, that our rock would be Jesus. America has come and America will go. But your word endures for ever.
So may we choose today to believe in, trust in, and rely upon You, Lord, are shepherd. We are your sheep. And you have promised that you would take care of us. all the way to heaven.
So, Lord, we yield to you, and we trust in you now 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.
