ANNOUNCER: The following program is sponsored by generous
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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: There's no sin that Christ did not pay for, and he
says, come to me heaven or hell. You decide,
but come to me and I love you. Come.
ANNOUNCER: Is heaven your goal? Are you looking forward to going
there? Don't let the burdens in hardships of this life
distract or discourage you. God is with you always stay tuned
for the message. Heaven is Listening.
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.
JACK: Have you ever wondered that when you pray, where does
the prayer go? Where does it go when it leaves your heart, when
it leaves your mouth. Where does that prayer go? Well, here's the
great news from the Bible. Heaven's listening. There's
actually a living true, eternal, holy, righteous and awesome God
that wants to hear from you. He wants to hear from us. Listen,
isn't it amazing that when you open up the Bible, he's the one
that tells us to call him Father? He didn't say, call me
king, despot, ruler, president, head honcho. He said, call me
Father. Abba. The word for Father in Hebrew is Abba, isn't
that beautiful? Abba. It sounds awesome. If you're in Italy, you
hear the kids running through the streets saying, Papa, it's
the same meaning, same word. Why? Because God wants to
commune with you and I in fellowship with him, we are his
children. He calls us his children and we enjoy him as
Father. Now, listen, one of the things that you and I are going
to need to get over is thinking that God is just a big version
of our earthly father. Not at all. God in heaven is a father
that is the perfect Father, and he wants you to be very specific
when you pray, when you pray and talk to him, don't be generic.
Be specific. Like you would with any relationship. Talk
specifically, share specifically what's on your heart. He already
knows. Jesus said, my father knows before you ask, but ask.
And so it's beautiful to realize that the windows of heaven are
open to your prayer. Daniel opened the windows back in
Babylon and he prayed. But listen, even if Daniel didn't
have windows, God would've heard him because the prayer comes
from the heart to the God who is listening and all of heaven is
waiting to hear from you. So let's grab our Bibles and dive
into this message. "Heaven is Listening."
JACK: Psalm 46:1. God is our refuge and strength, the very
present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear even
though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though it's waters roar and be
troubled though the mountain shake with its swelling. Look at
that last word is Selah. The word means there in Hebrew to
wait, ponder, think about this, slow down. The Bible warns us.
We do not know how we ought to pray always. Listen to what
William Barclay wrote in his commentary and he's quoting by
the way, someone else. So this is Barclay quoting Xenophon. He
says, from history we learned that Xenophon of Athens wrote
that Socrates taught his disciples simply to pray for
good things and do not attempt to be so specify or specific I
would think he's saying, but leave God to decide what the
best things are. Isn't that wise? That's good. People, and
I'm grateful. People will often ask me, pastor, how can we pray
for you? And they think I'm joking when I tell them, I
simply say this, all you need to know is this prayer for me and
my family and for this church is pray for God's favor. Well, it
sounds kind. That's it? Are you kidding? That's all you need
because listen, God's favor takes care of my health. God's
favor takes care of my marriage. God's favor takes care of you.
God's favor takes care of my grandkids and my kids. Are you
with me? You get that? God's favor is the greatest request
you could ever ask. And I think that's an extravagant prayer to
have the favor of God. And listen, I so often pinch myself,
I can't believe the things that happened in my life and it's
none other than your prayer is being answered by the favor of
God. So remarkable. He's so good. And Matthew 6:8, Jesus
says, "for your father knows the things that you have need of
before you ask." Now this is fun. See, Jack, you just said to
ask because heaven's listening and now you tell me that Jesus
says the Father knows what I have need of before I ask. So
why ask? He doesn't give anything unless you ask. He
knows what you have need of before you ask. Right? He knows
what you should ask. For example, let's say God wants to
do a deep work in your life regarding your faith. He needs
to take you to the next level. Hope you know that your
spiritual development upward is always preceded first by a trip
downward. If you want to grow up in Jesus, you're going to get
cut off at the knees. That's how we go up. It's an opposite
thing. You want to be in the front of the line, you got to go
the back of the line. You want to be in the back of the line,
you go to the front line, you want him to increase, we
decrease. So watch this. If God knows what I've needed before I
ask, then what's the purpose of me asking? And yet the Bible
says you have not because you asked not So what is this? A
game? Not at all. It's for your faith. And by the way, when you
pray, I want to encourage all of you. Pray specific. Start
praying specific and the more specific you pray, the more
sensitive you'll be to when God answers your prayer. Listen
young ladies in here, are you looking for a man? You better
pray. Ask God. Lord, I want a man who loves you. How about
this? Be specific. I want a man who loves you more than he loves
me. That will be the man for me. And show me a man whose
spiritual leadership is something that I can applaud,
that I am impressed by young ladies. Don't be satisfied with
some guy. Yeah, I believe in God. But his biceps are like 19
inches and he, you know? So seriously, this goes both ways.
Listen. Don't even get interested in people that you're
not impressed by their spiritual maturity. And you don't have to
be old to have spiritual maturity. That was free, it's
not even in my notes. You can have that. But you know that
sometimes we get everything jumbled up by our pursuits and
instead of calling out to God and praying and seeking his
face, heaven is listening. And we don't take as much advantage
of that as we ought today. If you're a Christian today, the
Bible says in 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us of all of our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. That's written to the Christian, not
the non-Christian, only to the Christian. But the Bible says to
the non-Christian that you need a repent of your sins and
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what do we have going
on here? Number one, the non-believer who's becoming the
believer must hear this first, repent and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And the word repent means
change your mind. Changing of the mind needs to happen in our
world today. Don't you agree? My goodness. Change your mind.
Change the way you think You've changed your mind on other
things. Change your mind on this. God is who he says he is.
And you're alienated from God and you need his salvation. He
died on the cross once, rose again from the dead once and you
need to run to him now while you still have a breath. That's to
the non-believer because what Jesus did, is he took away the
power of sin and death at the cross. And look, God died on the
cross for your sins. God the son. And it had to be him
because he knew that when he, just think about this, there
have been billions and billions of people that have lived since
Adam and Eve, and when Christ went to the cross, it had to be
God. It couldn't have been a good man. God at the cross
literally thought about every individual. He loved them and
every one of their sins, he paid that price. And you and I have
no clue what that means. It's beyond our imagination. It's
beyond our scope to comprehend there's no sin that Christ did
not pay for. And he says, come to me heaven or hell, you
decide, but come to me and I love you. Come. But to the
believer, we're already in the family, we're secured, we're in
Him. And when God says to us, you need to repent, when we go
to watch, when the Christian goes to pray and it feels like
you're hitting a block wall, don't be surprised when God says
things like this, listen, you're still at odds with your husband
or you're still at odds with your kids. I don't want to hear
from you. Go set it straight and you come back to me later. You
know he says that in the scriptures. Go set it straight
and then I'll talk. I'm not going to listen to you right
now. Did you know that? It shouldn't be a surprise to us.
You know if you have kids, think about your kid. Your kid does
something terribly wrong. You said, no, just stay home. I'll
be back in five minutes. You come home and they've painted
the garage door pink or something. You say, what are you
doing? Go to your room. Your kid goes to the room. When your kid
is in his room, is he still your kid? He's still your kid. But
you hear the door open up and he comes down the hallway and he
says, while I've been in my room. I went online and I saw
what I want for Christmas. What are you going to say to him?
Back to the room. Get back to that. We're not talking about
Christmas. We're talking about punishment, not blessings. Get
back to the room. Our fellowship is get back there. Our
fellowship has been broken. But dad, do I belong to the family?
Yes. Get back there. Are you going to throw me out? No. Get
back there. Come to me when your heart is humble, when you've
repented, and then when they come, I'm sorry that I did that.
What happens? Fellowships restored. That's true in the
Christian life, many prayers are not being heard because you've
had it out with your family, friend, neighbor, husband, wife,
whatever it is. And God is saying to you, I'm not talking
to you right now. You got to go fix that. Lay your gift at the
altar. Go settle the score with your friend, with your enemy,
with whoever it is, and you come to me. Our God is good. Isaiah
59:1, Isaiah 59:1 says, "behold the Lord's hand is not short
that he cannot save. Neither is his ear heavy that he cannot
hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God and
your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not
hear." And I cannot help but think that lived out, friends my
mind jumps to a moment in time 2000 years ago when I believe
was the fulfillment of Habakkuk 1:13. When the Bible says "God's
eyes are too pure to behold evil, he cannot look upon
wickedness." 2000 years ago, the Bible tells us that Jesus
Christ, Yeshua Moshia, Jesus the Messiah, went to the cross and
died fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies in our
place on that Passover weekend. And when you think about that
you know as a gentile believer, that one of the things that
Jesus cried out from the cross are those funny words you have
written in your New Testament that can't quite make out. It's
a foreign language of some sorts, but you have learned that
it means, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me, "Eli, Eli,
lema sabachthani,"Jesus Christ from the cross. My God, my God.
Why have you forsaken me? Which is a fascinating statement
because number one, Jesus had done nothing wrong. Number two,
Jesus had shown everyone the way of the Father. Number three,
Jesus had ministered under the power of the Holy Spirit and no
one could bring an accusation against him. Everybody
scrutinized him and came up with nothing. And he says, why have
you forsaken me? Did you know that that was an incredible
announcement to the Jews that were there? That's Psalm 22
people. And every Jew would've known it. They would've
recognized the messianic Psalm of Psalm 22. Listen to this,
everyone. Psalm 22:1, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? Why are you so far from helping me?" Do you know what
that is? That's Psalm 22. It's also Mark 15:34. What about
Psalm 22:6? "I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and
despised by people. All those who see me ridicule me. They
shoot out the lip, they shake their head saying he trusted in
the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him since he
delights in him." Friends, that is Matthew 27:42, and Isaiah
53:3, because you can now be forgiven, heaven is listening.
You can have your sins taken away if you recognize who was on
the cross and what he was doing for you, what he was doing for
me, the Holy Spirit dwells in you as a believer. Psalm 22:31,
they will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet
unborn that he has done this. Well, that would be Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, and Mary including you. That's
the New Testament that counts. And then we'll end at this.
Heaven is speaking, I'm convinced of it. Heaven is
speaking. So Jack, I'd love to hear the voice of God. Answer.
Pick up his word. I don't understand it, church. I can't
explain it to you. Those of you who know what I mean, you know
what I mean. But how is it that you pick up the Bible and you
read it. And how is it that the words that he wants to speak to
you will somehow jump up almost as though they are done by a
graphic artist. They'll pop, they'll lift up off the page to
announce to you this is the answer, and you'll put it down
and you'll fall to your knees and you say, God, thank you.
Thank you for that answer. That makes perfect sense. And you can
go in confidence, you can be rest assured and people will
attack you and people will give you alternate ideas. You don't
have to worry. You got the answer from God because heaven
is speaking in Luke chapter 22:31. You want to see how
practical heaven can speak? The Bible says in Luke 22:31, and
the Lord said to Simon, Peter, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has
asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed
for you. Notice I, Jesus have prayed for you, Peter, that your
faith should not fail. Isn't that an amazing? You guys, if
you've heard me comment on this before, to me this is absolutely
fascinating. I can't see it happening other way. In fact, if
you read the context, all the guys are there, all the
disciples, they're all hanging out, they're all talking. And
Jesus just says, Peter, Satan has been asking me to have you.
Can you imagine? He's been asking me by name, Satan wants
to rip you one. He wants to lay into you and destroy you, Peter.
Now, I don't know what was going on, but in my head I'm thinking
if I'm Peter, I mean, I don't know what he was doing. Was he
mending a net at the moment? Was he doing his nails? What was he
doing? So Jesus says, Peter, Satan has asked me if he could
have you to tear you to shreds. Whoa, really? James, did you
hear that? Satan's not asking for you. No, Peter, Satan's been
asking you by name. Yeah, that's crazy, right? You told him, no,
I'm sure, right? No, Peter, you're not hearing me. Satan has
been asking for you by name and I've prayed that your faith not
fail. What does that mean? That means he asked for you and I'm
going to allow it. I said, well, wait a minute, we didn't. I
dunno if we signed up for this, friends, listen, are you okay
with God using you any way he wants to? That was kind of weak.
And so it should think about it, Christian. Yeah, yeah. Jesus, I
love Jesus. Yes I do. I love Jesus. How about y'all? Hey, how
about this? How about Jesus saying, tell you what Jack,
Satan has been asking me for you by name. So here's the deal.
When you return, strengthen your brothers and sisters. That's
what he told Peter. What if the pink slip from your doctor means
you have to go to the radiologist and they find a
lump? What if the blood draw shows an incredibly high amount
of white blood cells? What happens if the job that you are
supposed to have tomorrow by the time you pull up, there's
somebody else's car in the spot? I prayed about it. Is it
possible that all of these fiery trials of life, God is literally
using you, his tool, his instrument to communicate the
gospel of God has to speak to a radiologist or someone otherwise
would never tune into a Billy Graham podcast or go to a
church, but God will allow you to go through this to get the
gospel to that nurse or to that copilot. Are you hearing me? Oh
Lord, I'll follow you anywhere. Listen, let's be honest. Lord,
I'll follow you anywhere so long as you give me the grace and the
ability to follow you because I can't follow you. I'll run so
fast away from you if I get a chance because I don't trust me.
So God hook me up. Don't let me go. And so as long as we
understand that, I'll follow you wherever you go because I
don't trust me. And he says, I will not allow you to be
tested beyond that which you are able.
JACK: Well, listen, what an encouraging word that is, that
heaven itself is listening, which means of course God is
listening. And here's a little something for you to know.
Before Christ, my world was kind of an ugly place. I was filled
with anger, confusion. I stuttered very, very bad. I had
a temper problem and I grew up in a home that was moral. It was
a moral home, but it had no God and I had no hope. And so
because of that being somebody who didn't fit in, somebody who
stuttered, having no faith background, I became a very
angry young man and long story fast forwarded, I wasn't born in
front of a camera or I wasn't born with a Bible. I had a life
that's rough like your life. Okay, let's just deal with that
right now. All of the setbacks and hardships and fears and
intimidations, yours is so unique to you, but you think
you're the only one going through it when in reality every
single one of us are so different, but with the same
struggles like a snowflake. It's a snowflake, but it's different
than all others. So is your life and mine, and yet God's the same
healing loving father. He wants to touch your life. And here's
the point of what we're talking about. He wants to make you an
instrument of his power and of his grace to proclaim the name
of Jesus in light of all those hardships in life. In fact, he
wants to use those difficulties to make you an effective
witness. Friends, listen, no more excuses. I've already tried
them all. He doesn't listen to that, but he listens to this.
Lord, here I am. Send me Lord. I'll do whatever you want to do.
Surrender. Listen, you may be a Christian but you haven't yet
surrendered. I'm calling upon you today to give up, quit, give
up, hand your life to Jesus and say, I'm prone to worry or I'm
anxious about this. I've got a temper. I've got these
addictions or these struggles. I hate them. I want to be somebody
brand new. I know who you are, Jesus, and I'm calling out to
you. Please do that. And if you do that, get ahold of us,
JackHibbs.com. Tell us your story.
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.
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listen to and see the world today, the easier it is to feel
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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?
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ANNOUNCER: The preceding program was sponsored by generous
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