ANNOUNCER: The following program is sponsored by generous
friends and partners of Real Life.
Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: The Bible says, our hope is so assured and certain we can
rejoice in hope. The Bible says patient and tribulation. That
means all the hardship, all the difficulty, all the stuff we're
going through. God's going to get us through this. He's got a
purpose. I don't know what it means. He does. I'm hanging on.
ANNOUNCER: Today Jack Hibbs talks about belonging to Christ
in the truest sense. You do not live here on earth but there in
heaven. He's with you now and for eternity. Stay tuned for the
message "The Heartbeat of Heaven."
ANNOUNCER: In a time when our culture is increasingly hostile
to the teachings of the Bible and the traditional values they
impart. Christians face the challenge of being labeled
intolerant, defensive, and homophobic. How can we approach
controversial topics with both reason and tact? In "Correct,
Not Politically Correct," author Frank Turek tackles the
sensitive topics of same-sex, marriage and transgenderism,
addressing common arguments
about equal rights,
discrimination, tolerance, and being born a certain way. This
powerful and insightful book firmly yet respectfully defends
biblical truth about sexual identity, marriage, and gender.
Don't bury your head in the sand, but learn to stand with a
biblical worldview. You can receive, "Correct, Not
Politically Correct," when you make a gift of any amount to the
ministry of Real Life today. Visit jackhibbs.com or call
(877) 777-2346. Order now.
(Music)
JACK: Well, the heartbeat of heaven, there is a continual
thread throughout the Bible. There's no escaping it from
Genesis to Revelation, there is the thread of redemption that
God has so perfectly woven throughout the Bible that in
God's communication to man, it's always about redemption. Listen,
you cannot find that in any other book in all of the world.
For example, God spoke through the prophets regarding
redemption. He spoke through Moses regarding redemption. He
spoke through the apostles, He spoke to David. I'm deliberately
mixing all that up in its chronological order to tell you
that it's one great theme and as we unpack this today, we're
looking at really the number one thing for all believers who love
the Lord Jesus Christ and that is this, do we have a heartbeat
for heaven? That's how you can tell in the fellowship of God's
people does your He beat for heaven and I want to challenge
you to check your pulse. It's very important that you do that.
So let's not get caught up in spirit of religion, but rather
have confidence in God rather than what people are saying or
what opinion is this or that. No, no, no. Listen, it's
relationship. Please, if you get anything out of this message
today, get this challenge, you must have a relationship with
Jesus Christ and if you do, it's going to be alive and you'll be
able to check your pulse from time to time to see how your
heartbeat is in sync with the heartbeat of heaven. So listen,
grab your Bibles, get out some note paper, get out a
highlighter and let's dive in to the heartbeat of heaven.
JACK: See you and I get confused, we think people can
lose their salvation because we heard about some talk or we
listened to some person or some denominational theology or we
knew somebody who walked with Jesus for 30 years and then
abandoned everything, crashed and burned and then we conclude
because of ignorant theology, they must have lost their
salvation. Nope. Jesus said that as time goes on, there's going
to be people who look just like us, act like us, smell like us,
do like us, but in time He says they eventually give up. He says
these are they who believe for a while, but when all these
difficulties and persecutions come, they quit and they were
never saved, their belief never brought them to faith. There's a
lot of people in the world today that believe, but they have no
faith and that's why there's trials, friends. That's why
there has to be difficulties. Trials shake the tree so to
speak, and all the ripe fruit is harvested while the others are
left behind. You need to understand that. You need to
know that. Well, my friend lost his salvation. No he didn't. He
never had it. You assumed that. Well, they went forward. Listen
to this stuff. This is the stuff we have to listen to. Well, they
went forward at the crusade. I like Chinese food. That doesn't
change me. Are you hearing me? Well, they got baptized. If
they're not saved, they got wet. Are you born again? Do you know
it? Listen, those who are born again either know it or they
need to be encouraged that they are. We're not talking religion.
Forget it. Is your heart beating with the heartbeat of God
because you long for Him? You've read His book and you think,
you've concluded He's awesome. I want to be with Him. The Bible
is His love letter to you and when you read it, you find out I
want to be with Him and heaven is where He lives and that's
where we want to go. Remarkable. The existence of this hope,
heaven's existence is our hope, but hope that is seen is not
hope. You don't hope for something that you're holding,
for why does one still hope for what he sees? This is stressing
the fact that the remarkable characteristic of the Christian
is that we live for heaven. We talk about heaven, we study
about heaven, we act upon heaven, but we're ultimately
going to heaven, and it governs the way that we are right now in
all of our listen, you get the reality of heaven cooking in
your heart and that's going to change things. I'm going to give
you proof right now. It's beautiful. By the way, I can't
read this verse without thinking about Charles Stanley. Charles
Stanley, who's better off today than ever has been now having
transitioned out of this world and into the presence of God.
You want to talk about transition? That's a transition.
He was transformed at the moment of his death. Charles Stanley's
in heaven with God today, and I remember years ago him teaching
this verse and he had his suit on, but look what he did. He
said, this verse demands that you preach to yourself. We
should all learn how to do that, by the way. Take the
Bible and preach it to yourself. Psalm 42 verse 5, why are you
cast down oh my soul? Charles Stanley looked inside of his
shirt and looked down at his chest. He's talking to his soul.
Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why are you disquieted
within me? Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him for the
help of His countenance. Announce to yourself the Bible
friends. You take the truth of God and you announce it to
yourself. There's days when you're not feeling just right,
God, I just feel odd. I feel off. My thoughts are wandering.
It's weird and you preach to yourself. God, you said in the
Bible to bring every thought under your captivity, under your
authority, and I'm doing that right now. Jesus, I just feel
depressed right now. I feel down and I can't explain it or maybe
I can explain it and I'm still tempted to feel down. Hope thou
in God. Why are you cast down. oh my soul? And the scripture
there says that His countenance brings help. I don't know how to
explain this. I don't think I rightly can and I'm glad about
it. Maybe if I could explain it, it would be too frail. I do not
know, nor can I articulate what it is in the midst of life when
God in that moment when it's least expected, smiles or puts
His countenance upon your life. It's like somebody walks in the
door and lights up the room of your soul, gives you a thumbs up
and walks away. The smile of God, it's native to the believer
we're in the family and if insecurity is something that is
in the family of God, I don't want anything to do with that
family. If I have to have insecurity regarding does God
love me or not, did Jesus forgive me or not? I don't want
anything to do with 'em. Why? Because if that's the case, then
the Bible's a lie. Nowhere does He say guess, hope for it,
maybe. These things have been written that you might know you
have eternal life and every true child of God is very aware of
their frailty and sin as a human being, but this we know God is
forgiving and gracious. He dwells within us. And if we
could be perfect, we would do it right now and you know, wake up
in the morning and you start out perfect. Don't you? Think about
it, you'll wake up, God, it's a new day. What are we doing
today? What are we doing? And you start heading to the shower
and you step on the cat or something's going on and you get
an attitude and you go, oh God, forgive me for that bad
attitude. I was awake for seven minutes and I just flew off the
handle and bit the cat. God's grace is there for that. But
listen, what's inside the heart of the believer is, Lord, I want
to be perfect. And then when you're not, you say, Lord Jesus,
forgive me. You are faithful to forgive me of my sins. If I
confess my sins, you're faithful and just to cleanse me of my
sins and of all unrighteousness, 1 John 1:9 says, we would pick
perfect if we could. At this time we have these bodies we're
dragging around and that's the battle. 1 Peter Chapter 1 verse
3, 1 Peter 1:3 says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has, this is
the born again statement, has begotten us again. To what? To a
living hope. What's it based on? Through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. Is Jesus Christ risen from the
dead? Yep. Then my hope is secured and my hope is anchored
in the existence of heaven itself. Can't wait to get there.
Looking forward to it. In the meantime, let's be busy about
our Father's business and here it is, verse 4, it's describing
heaven and to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled that
does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by
the power of God through faith for salvation. Notice this is
regarding the totality of us. This includes our body. It's
referring ultimately to our body as well for salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time. When Christ comes back for us,
remember we talked about last week, our bodies are going to be
changed, okay? And if you die and we bury you, your body's
still going to get changed at the coming of Christ. But the
Bible here says, reserved. Listen, I am so grateful. The
existence of our presence in heaven is based upon God because
He books the reservation. Lisa and I landed in Colorado
Springs, went to the car rental place that we had a reservation
with. All I need is my confirmation number. Do you
understand this? Everybody? Hi. Yep. Here's the confirmation
number. I am serious. In fact, I'm making it short for you
guys. Well, you're going to have to wait an hour, hour and 15
minutes for a car because they're just changing things
over and- I'm sorry ma'am, I have to go speak someplace like
by then. I'm serious. And I said I have a confirmation number.
Confirmation number. I mean that means something, doesn't it? You
walk up and you say, it's my confirmation number. I mean that
empowers you, you know. Excuse me, sir, do you have a
confirmation number? Yes, I do. And here it comes. We're sorry.
We just issue those like candy. We don't even know what it
reserved for nothing. No car. Heaven does not work like that.
Yes. (Applause) No,God reserves. Man, the confirmation number is
not a number, it's a name. Yes. Can you imagine I die, I show
up. Hello? What's your name? Jack? Oh, here you are right
here. Can you imagine? The Bible also says that you're going to
die and they're going to say, what's your name? Wilbur. No,
Wilbur here. But I thought I had my confirmation number. I got
confirmed. I gave a million dollars. I changed diapers in
the children's ministry. What's your answer? If it's other than
Jesus and His blood, you're in trouble, man. No reservation for
you, no confirmation number for you. Are you trusting in Christ
to get to heaven? Romans 15, verse 4, for whatever things
were written before we're written for our learning that we
through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
It's all based on the scriptures. Roman 12:12, rejoice
in hope. That's awesome. That's the opposite of the world. The
world is worry, while you hope. Oh, I hope. Oh, I hope. Nope.
The Bible says, our hope is so assured and certain we can
rejoice in hope. The Bible says patient and tribulation, that
means all the hardship, all the difficulty, all the stuff we're
going through, God's going to get us through this. He's got a
purpose. I don't know what it means. He does. I'm hanging on
and it says continuing steadfast in prayer. Let me put it to you
this way. If you're in tribulation, you will be
praying. So the key to Christianity is keep yourself in
trouble. Always be in trouble. You'll always be praying. And
then finally, church, we look at this, it's in verse 25. We'll
end here today. And that's heaven's expectation is our
hope. Heaven's expectation, that glorious awesome sense of
eagerness and it says, but if we hope for what we do not see, we
eagerly wait for it with perseverance. In other words,
heaven, you've never seen heaven. I wrote a book about, I
don't want to hear it. I had a dream and I went up and floated
in the corner of the operating room. I don't want to hear it.
That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about the
fact that you haven't seen heaven and so you eagerly wait
for it because you take God at His Word. This is the big
takeaway for this. You take God at His Word. What does He say?
Now look, let's do this in the reverse. You know as I know that
people have said things to us with words that have broken our
hearts, so you cannot say words do not matter. They do matter.
When God says something, it's never in doubt, and when you
hang onto what he says, that's called persevering. We don't
need to make the word bigger than what it is. It is an
amazing word. The word perseverance, listen to this. It
means to endure patiently or patient enduring. It means
steadfastness or being steadfast. It means hanging on.
Just hang on. Some of you need to hang on, I can't take it
anymore. We all feel like that at times, sometimes even more as
we get into these latter years of this bizarre time of life, I
can't take it. Yes, you can just calm down. No, God loves you and
going through these things of life, you've got your decision
making process, or you can have the expectation of heaven, God's
way. And listen, we eagerly wait. The word eagerly wait is
awesome. It means to be waiting with full confidence. Isn't that
beautiful? It's what we've been talking about. Full confidence
to be without doubt. Anticipation, totally unlike the
rental car company. Anticipating the moment, the events, the
promised Word coming of the full redemption. Oh my goodness, the
promised Word. We as Christians walk around, we should be
absolutely like Tigger. If you're a fan of Winnie the Pooh,
if you're not, you should be. There's great theology in that
stuff. Nothing gets Tigger down. People insult him. Pooh insults
him. I mean, Eeyore insults him. Everybody insults Tigger and
he's just so happy. Listen, the Christian is like, what? What's
going on? Oh, I'm sad. Oh really? Well, Psalm 42 says,
hope thou in God. Why so cast down on my soul?We've got the
answer. It's absolutely remarkable. It's precious. The
expectation of heaven will transform our lives and that
perseverance is hanging on. Someone wrote that in that
meaning of steadfastness, the perseverance. This steadfastness
is to be firmly fixed in place to be immovable. Listen to this,
not subject to change. Doesn't this sound beautiful to you?
Listen, a firm or to affirm or to be firm in belief, the
adherence to what is known, loyal, loyalty to the evidence,
Psalm 121 verse, Psalm 121 verse 2 says, my hope comes from the
Lord who made heaven and earth. If God made heaven and earth,
can you not help you in your relationship? Can you not help
you with your sickness in your disease or your issue? Can you
not help? Yes. You know what He loves and H.e's amazing. He
could just dole it all out like welfare, just here it goes. He
doesn't do that though. He's got all of these benefits right here
and He's waiting for somebody to ask Him. Charles Spurgeon, I
don't remember the title of the book exactly, but it's something
like God's checkbook and it's a checkbook of promises that you
can write. You can look it up later. It's a blessing. That's
all I remember. It's a blessing and it's about God's checkbook.
And you can write yourself a deposit in this promise of God
in your life. So I end with this, Revelation, chapter 22,
verse 17. The spirit and the brides say, come. Notice this,
if you're not familiar with the context, lemme put it to you
this way. The Holy Spirit and the bride of Christ, the church,
by the way, the church is in heaven by this time say, come
and let him who hears say come and let him who thirst come.
Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. For I
testify to everyone who hears the words, listen carefully of
the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to these words, God
will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if
any man takes away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God will take away his part from the book of life. Why?
Because you don't mess with the promises of God. You don't mess
with what He has said. And listen, we might say, I'm not
messing with it. Do you believe Him? If you don't believe Him,
you're messing with it. Verse 20 says, he who testifies to these
things says, surely I'm coming quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord
Jesus, that is absolutely spectacular.
JACK: Well, The Heartbeat of Heaven. Does your heartbeat
with the heartbeat of heaven? Do you
think about heaven? Do you want to go to
heaven? Do you wonder what it might be like? Do you
look around this world and see some really beautiful things and
wonder is that going to be part of heaven? God's promises are
something that you can count on. God cannot lie. Isn't that
awesome? And listen, as you heard a moment ago in the book
of Revelation chapter 22, verse 20, a powerful statement, the
Bible there tells us He which testifies of these things says,
surely I come quickly. That means He's going to come fast
when things get set off. Even so come Lord Jesus, that's the
heartbeat of heaven. That's the heartbeat of the believer.
Heaven is real and I want to make sure that you go there. You
can make your plea to God, you can ask him, Lord, will you save
me? Will you rescue me? I want to have a heartbeat for heaven.
You know it's funny, I have with me a brand new device, and it
may be old to you, but it's a Fitbit. I just got it the other
day and it's telling me right now that my heart is beating.
Sometimes I have to look at it to see what rate is it beating
at? And you know what? It seems to beat more when I'm more
excited about something. I can sense a little thrill about this
topic, and I've been snooping, I've been investigating myself,
and I've been looking at the fact that I am at 98 beats per
minute right now because I'm excited about talking to you,
and then it's going to go down to a lower beat in a moment.
Why? Because I'm talking about heaven, my heart is beating and
it matters. I have a heartbeat for heaven. We're talking about
the things of God. So imagine God being able to see how fit
your heart is regarding the heartbeat of heaven. Listen, if
you want to know more, go to jackhibbs.com. You can follow us
on social media, on various platforms. We're there on all of
them, but we'd love to hear from you. Pray for us as we pray for
you. God bless you guys until next time.
ANNOUNCER: You are watching Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
ANNOUNCER: In a time when our culture is increasingly hostile
to the teachings of the Bible and the traditional values they
impart. Christians face the challenge of being labeled
intolerant, defensive, and homophobic. How can we approach
controversial topics with both reason and tact? In "Correct,
Not Politically Correct," author Frank Turek tackles the
sensitive topics of same-sex, marriage and transgenderism,
addressing common arguments
about equal rights,
discrimination, tolerance, and being born a certain way. This
powerful and insightful book firmly yet respectfully defends
biblical truth about sexual identity, marriage, and gender.
Don't bury your head in the sand, but learn to stand with a
biblical worldview. You can receive, "Correct, Not
Politically Correct," when you make a gift of any amount to the
ministry of Real Life today. Visit jackhibbs.com or call
(877) 777-2346. Order now.
ANNOUNCER: Life is full of fear, doubt and worry. The more you
listen to and see the world today, the easier it is to
feel hopeless and helpless. Amidst the confusion a voice
of hope has emerged. The Real Life Network founded by Jack
Hibbs, the Real Life Network is a free digital media platform
void of the noise of secular media that attack people of
faith. Click on the QR code or sign up for free
at Reallifenetwork.com. Fast forward your faith.
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: God's Word never will return void. God's Word is
spirit. It's power and it has its effect. God did not give us
Bible prophecy to scare us, but to prepare us. You are the light
of the world Jesus said, you are the salt of the earth.
How does that happen?
ANNOUNCER: Jack Hibbs truly believes we are living in some
of the most exciting days in history, which brings some great
opportunities to share with the world a powerful no-nonsense
presentation of the gospel to this generation who are
searching for answers and truth. Will you stand with us in
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ANNOUNCER: The preceding program was sponsored by generous
friends and partners of Real Life.