ANNOUNCER: The following program is sponsored by generous friends
and partners of Real Life.
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: Whatever this world throws at us, you got to understand
something, that God is not surprised by what's coming
our way. Heaven is listening.
ANNOUNCER: Because heaven is real, we have hope for the
future and hope for today. No matter what happens to us now,
we know it won't last forever because ahead of us is the
joy of heaven. Stay tuned for Jack Hibbs' message, The
Help 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, offensive 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: The help of heaven. How many times do you hear somebody
say, oh, oh God, or oh Jesus, and they're calling out? Little
do they know that there is help from heaven. The Webster's
dictionary defines groaning, for example, which is a type of
prayer we find out in our study, that groaning is something that
is a very deep inarticulate type of sound or something that would
come from a pain or from a grief or some displeasure, that when
we cry out to God, it's almost an expression of oh, where
there's nothing much left but to sit as it were in our grief. The
beautiful truth about the Bible is that God answers us in these
times of grief. There's a great connection for the message that
we're going to look at today regarding where you're at in
life and what God's Word says to you and I. The only way that you
and I can experience the goodness of God in the way that
He would have us to in this area of groaning, we'll call it
prayer, in the time of crisis, is this. Listen, it's Romans
chapter 8, begin in verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit helps our
infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought,
but the spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, Himself make it the
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
articulated or uttered. This is the spirit of God. Verse 27, and
he that searches the hearts knoweth the mind of the spirit
because he makes intercession for His saints, you and I who
trust Him, and He does it according to the will of God. So
God says to us, really, that I've written my existence down
on your heart, believer. And when you feel, I feel with you.
Let's grab our Bibles. The Help of Heaven, let's find out what's
in store for us today.
JACK: The world is searching for peace. How do we get that?
Number one, by listening. Mark it down, if you would. All of
what God has designed for us to help us comes in us listening.
Heaven is listening. Heaven is listening. I'm listening. You
are listening. Why? It's a dialogue. We are to be listening
to God speaking And God listens to us as well. He hears from us
as believers. But the stress here is the fact that heaven is
listening. Look at verse 26, likewise, the Spirit Himself,
the Holy Spirit, this is the spirit of God, also helps our
weaknesses. This is an amazing thing, because the word prayer,
you ought to write that down... Please write this, pray, prayer,
to pray. The root word of "to pray" is proskuneo, and it
simply means this... Proskuneo means to lick or to kiss the
hand. It's referred to in first century Greek as a puppy. You
know when a puppy just automatically licks your hand,
he'll lick your face if he can get to you, they just lick.
That's the word proskuneo. Guess what? The word proskuneo is also
in the New Testament used for the word worship. Did you know
that prayer is a form of worship? Did you ever think
about that? I find it extremely interesting that people have a
tendency to avoid worship and prayer, but God's people will
pray and they will worship. For example, there are those who say
to themselves, we're okay. We're not late for church. They're
only worshiping right now. We're not- Oh, translation. It's all
right. We're just ripping God off. We're not giving what's due
to Him. We'll get there later. You're stiffing God when you
just blow it off like that. Listen, the real believer must
proskuneo. The real believer must experience a relationship
with God and it's worshipful by nature. And prayer is not a
labor. We can labor in prayer, but it's always worship. But
prayer as an opportunity is not a labor. It's an open door. It's
an opportunity, and God's children will pray. Listen, mom
and dad, you've got little kids, you got little kids? I
understand. I already hear you in your head saying to me, yes,
I've got little kids. And what I'm about to say is, don't you
love it when they speak to you? It depends. You need to be able
to quiet them down sometimes, but let's be honest, parents
love when the little kid comes up and says something. I need
help with this. Dad, can you- Mom, can you-. And it warms your
heart. It's part of being that parent where it's so meaningful
the child comes and asks for help. Did you know that when you
go to ask God for help or when you ask God to listen or when
you ask God to answer or when you ask God to hear, you are
actually worshiping Him. Did you know that? You're going to Him
with your need. Wouldn't it be terrible if your kid went to the
neighbors to ask for help in their day of trouble? Boy, what
does that say about you? God wants you to come to Him. Heaven
is listening, and rarely do we often think as a believer that
God is, as it were, cupped His ear and He's waiting to hear
from us. You know, you and I are the same. We get so busy in life
and things are going on, and then there's times when I
realize, oh my goodness, God, you're so good. I haven't talked
to you in a while. You know I love you and you're amazing.
Then there's times when it drags on a little longer and I am
convinced He's in this. I'll stub my toe, I'll do something,
something, whatever it might be, and I'll say, oh Lord. And He'll
say, Jack, it's so great to hear from you again. Heaven is
listening. The question is, how often is Heaven receiving from
us requests, tears, crying out, asking Him to instruct us and to
lead us and to give us guidance? Heaven's listening. He's not
abandoned us. He's not way up there and we're down here. Oh,
no. That's what the Holy Spirit is all about in the, in dwelling
of the believer. But the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. And
that word weakness is an word. It's the coming from weakness.
Listen, you and I are weak because we come from the origin
of weak. It means to come from the origin of frailty, ailments.
You and I were born into a world, this word means, of
diseases, illnesses, infirmities, sicknesses,
distress, depression, physical ailments, mental emotional
ailments. Be honest, this world hurts and it inflicts upon us.
And the word weakness stands for all of human weakness, general
weakness of a human, and the Bible tells us that the Holy
Spirit has come to help us. For those of you who don't know the
Bible, this is the Bible I'm talking about. It's the Bible
that says God has come to help you. It is the God of the Bible.
After last service, somebody was talking to me about how messed
up their marriage is, and this woman was saying something about
her husband who was standing right there, and first thing I
said was, I looked at them and I looked, I said, where's your
Bibles? They said, we don't have any bibles. And I go, that's why
your life is messed up. No, I did. You don't want to counsel
with me. I'd rather give the counseling. I just told him,
your life's messed up. When's the last time you guys have read
the Bible? They were silent and they said, will you just pray
for us? And I said, no. Why? Why should I pray? I said, why
should I pray for you? Why should I pray for you when
you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing? What do
you want me to do? You want me to just- You want me to just put
a pastor's prayer on it? They say, there you go. And what are
you going to do about it? Because you're not seeking God
out of your own hearts. My prayer is not magic. This is not
some sort of a cookie, fortune cookie thing. And I said,
listen, you go seek God on your own. I'll pray for that, God.
And I did. I said, God cause them to seek you, and I gave
them some homework. Now, if they do the homework, praise the
Lord. I gave them a Bible study to do and let's see if they do
it. But the point is this, they weren't even calling out to God.
They said they're at the brink of divorce and they never went
up in prayer to God. How many people live like that when the
Holy Spirit is standing ready to help you to help me? Jesus said
in John 14, verse 16... I love this. John 14:16, Jesus says, I
will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter
or helper that He may abide with you forever, even the spirit of
truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him: but you know him, for he dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. The Holy Spirit. John 14, verse
26, Jesus continued, but the comforter, parakletos, "para,"
come alongside, "kletos," to comfort. The Holy Spirit will
come alongside you and be comforter. We all need comfort
as a believer, but the comforter, which is the Holy
Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you
all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I
have said unto you. Is that awesome or what? He brings all
things to remembrance. If God is reminding you of something, deal
with it, but listen, on the positive, God will remind you, I
love you. I have loved you with an everlasting love, God says.
I've drawn you to myself. I will never leave you or forsake you.
The comforter comes alongside. And it's a beautiful statement
because it's the comforter coming alongside you and I, and
what is implied is not only daily, the word is constant, but
it's most stressed in the time of need. Are you in a time of
need? Jesus says, the spirit of God is there. Are you hurting?
He says He'll be there. He's always with us as believers, but
when the going gets tough, the spirit of God shows up and He'll
minister to you to the Word of God. That's why Bible reading,
you guys get tired of hearing about it, but we're always
talking to you about reading your Bible, reading your Bible.
Why? You want to know? Listen, you read the Bible because in
the day of need, the spirit of God brings the Bible up out of
you and He uses it for the moment. It's like fuel going
into your tank and it's eventually burned out and the
vehicle is moved forward. It's used. The Holy Spirit uses the
Bible in your life, and the Word of God being hidden in you. It's
a remarkable statement. And that word "help," the Spirit of God
helps us in our weakness. The word help means to take hold.
Listen, everybody. It means to take- The spirit of God takes
hold, and the Word implies one end of the log. So think of a
big log. And the Bible is telling us here that the spirit
of God will take hold of the log on this end. Now, if you're
thinking right now, you're thinking, well, what about the
other end? That would be a normal conclusion. Okay, that's
great for that end. What about this end? Oh, this end answers
to, I am called to daily pick up my cross and follow Him. So the
issues of our lives, the Holy Spirit carries, but I've got to
go with Him. That's called discipleship. That's called
living in this world right now. Why is it so tough? Don't worry
about it. God's got this thing. Listen, He's carrying the
heavier part, I'm certain. The end that I'm carrying is
probably the size of a toothpick. The part He's
carrying is probably the size of General Sherman Tree. You know?
I'm sure He carries the heavy part. But what He's doing is
that He's helping me, He's helping you carry the load of
life. None of us are to do this on our own. We're not to go
through this life on our own, and we think about that. Think
about that as a believer. Don't answer, but do you know and do
you name the name of Christ? Well, the next thing should be,
are you listening? For heaven's command, for heaven's leading,
for heaven's guiding. Because listen, heaven is listening.
Heaven is waiting to hear from you. Oh God, help me, we would
say. Peter is out walking on the water. Remember this. He's
walking on the water and he cries out to Jesus, Lord, help.
Shortest prayer in the Bible, by the way. You don't have much
time when you're about two feet from drowning. Lord, help. And
the Bible says, immediately Christ scooped him up. We need
to cry out to Him more. Why? Because it's an act of worship.
Yes. He's promised to be there in our time of need. And church
family, listen. Whatever this world throws at us, you got to
understand something, that God is not surprised by what's
coming our way. Heaven is listening, and verse 26 goes on
to say, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.
Okay, this gets, this gets interesting. The Bible says, we
do not always know what we ought or should pray for. Did you know
that? Our prayers at best are veiled or ignorant. Listen,
everybody. Are we to pray? Yes. Well, but if they're ignorant
prayers, what's the point? Because listen, the Bible has a
key for us. In John chapter 15, verse 7, Jesus said, if my Word
abides in you, you may ask what you will and it shall be done
unto you, for hearing is my Father glorified. What's the
answer to prayer? The Bible. Pray the Bible. When you read
your Bible, pray it. People say, man, I pray. I dunno what to
pray about. Read your Bible. And by the way, we all go through
that. We all have a thousand things to pray for, and then we
go to prayer and it's like, hmm, what do I pray for? When you
read the Bible, you'll be able to take those verses and make
them into your prayer, and it's such a powerful truth. But we
don't always know how to pray, so people will often say-
Listen, this is going to sting. Christians have a bad habit of
saying things like this. Well, you know what? I don't know what
happened. I mean, we met at church and we got married. I
prayed about it, and this guy turned out to be a nut, or she,
and I prayed about it. Notice when we say things like that. Oh
wow, I got this job and it's turned out to be horrible. I
prayed about it. Are you listening to what you're saying?
What are you implying? Well, somebody messed up. Wasn't me.
Are you here? What are you implying? I prayed about it.
Listen, when something goes south, we don't know what to do,
so we tell people, I prayed about it, and we throw this
blanket on it trying to christianize it when God was
never in it. But I prayed. Let me ask you, did you wait for the
answer? Watch. If you say yes, then I get to ask you just like
you would ask me, then what did He show you? Show me what He
showed you when He answered you. Psalm 107, verse 20 says,
behold, I've sent them my Word and healed them of all their
destructions. See, we say we pray as a Christian, but we
don't wait long enough to listen to what He's saying. We assume
because we want it. That's what we want, and that's a scary
thing. That's a dangerous thing. You know I'm going there. It's
James chapter 4, verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from
among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, that
war in your members? Wow, okay. Your body parts are screaming to
do the naughty stuff, but the new you is saying, I shouldn't
do that anymore, and now you have a war going on. You lust
and you do not have. You murder, the word is more hate... you
hate and covet and cannot obtain. You fight in war, yet
you do not have because you do not ask. Isn't that amazing? You
want this thing, but God is saying, excuse me, you're going
about it your way. Why don't you ask me? Because heaven is
listening. God wants to hear from us. In verse 3, He says,
you ask and you do not receive because you ask a miss that you
may spend it on your own pleasures. When we pray, we need
to pray Bible church, and we need to be willing to wait when
we pray. Let's be honest, everybody, when you pray, when
you're really seeking God, let's be honest, most often, if not
always, the first response by God is, wait, and it drives us
crazy, which is why it's always God's first response. We don't
do good at waiting, but that's what He's asked us to do. Listen
to 1 Peter 1, verse 6, 1 Peter 1:6. In this, you greatly
rejoice. Listen, in this, you greatly rejoice, though now for
a little while, if need be, you have been greaved by various
trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more
precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by
fire, the difficulties of our lives may be found to praise,
honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom
having not seen, you love, though now you do not see Him
yet believing you rejoice with joy in expressible and full of
glory. That's the mark of the believer. When somebody asks
you, how are you doing in that thing? I don't know. I'm just
hanging on to God. I'm waiting upon God. Over and over again,
the Bible says, wait upon the Lord, He'll renew your strength.
Wait upon God. So Christian, listen, if somebody's pressuring
you, you got to make a decision. You got to do this now. Don't do
it. You say, pastor. I wish you'd hurry up because that
salesman at the car lot said I had to be there by 11:37 or else
he's going to give it to somebody else. Let him give it
to somebody else, and if you show up two hours later and that
car is still there, then maybe it's from God, but God is never
brought under the pressure of a car salesman or anybody else.
Are you hearing me? This is very important because people get
into a panic or they'll manipulate us and we think, we
got to jump. Where are we jumping? I don't know. Just
jump. God is never in that. Wait, wait. Oh, it's a hard
thing to do though, wait, but it is good. Again, there's hope for
you young people. The older you get, the more we walk with
Jesus. It's like, okay, we're going to wait this out, and it's
fun now to be at the age I am and to what I do in life. People
will say, why doesn't he do something? Why doesn't he do
something about that? He's known about that for months. I haven't
gotten an answer yet. I'm waiting. Why don't you do
something? Like what? Like jump from the frying pan into the
fire. Is that what you want to see? And every time, listen, you
can never say today, you know what? I waited upon God so long
it didn't work out. No, listen, you cannot outwait God. And
listen, be willing to wait and wait, and then God will see to
it that He'll bring it to pass.
JACK: Well, the old saying, don't just stand there, do
something. Well, the reality really is, just don't do
something, stand there. Wait, wait. We so often hear the word,
wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. If we learn to wait for
God, oh, my friend, we'll be living such a different life. I
think a life of peace, a life of direction, but sometimes, you
know, when we are communing with God, we have a tendency to get
impatient. We want Him to speak to us immediately. Get the
answer now. God, listen, let's go. It's our quiet time
together. But because it's a relationship, it's not like
that. He wants you to stand there and wait. That's hard for
us. When we're busy and we're on the go, we're thinking, let's go
God. I think many times God is saying to me, Jack, can you just
wait for a minute? Can you just stand still? So the need to wait
upon the Lord and to pray, to practice His presence is so
needed for you and I today more than ever in this crazy world.
Heaven is listening and God wants to hear from you. He wants
to hear from us as we cry out to Him.And you can simply do this,
you konw? I tell you, there's a little, can I say, trick? I mean
this in prayer. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but
John chapter 15, verse 7 says, if my Word abides in you, you
may ask what you will and it shall be done unto you for
herein is my Father glorified. You say, what do you mean Pastor
Jack? I mean this, pray the Bible. Pray the Bible. Open up
the scriptures as you're reading through John's gospel or the
Book of Psalms, pray the Bible. Come to a verse, and that verse
speaks to you in some way? Pray that verse. Lord, I pray that
you would open up my eyes to show me that you are my
defender. You are my shield. That's what we're here for, to
provide you information on how to get closer to God. Go to
jackhibbs.com. You can find out more, but we want you to wait
on the Lord.
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, offensive 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.
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listen to and see the world today, the easier it is to feel
hopeless and helpless. Amidst the confusion, a voice of hope
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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?
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