ANNOUNCER: The following program is sponsored by generous
friends and partners of Real Life.
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: Some people wear their scars on the outside, some wear
their scars on the inside. But the thing as believers, we're
going to get scarred up and those are not shameful things,
those are things of honor. Suffering for the believers a
tool. And suffering ends the moment you and I see Jesus. Are
you hearing me? When you and I see Christ, our suffering ends.
ANNOUNCER: Jack Hibbs in his message, Battle Scars of
Suffering, explores the concept of suffering, which can be a
tool for sharing our faith. Remember, in Christ, we are more
than conquers. Real Life starts now.
ANNOUNCER: Is God different than He used to be? More tolerant of
sin? More politically correct? In today's world, many are
trying to reshape God to fit modern ideas, leading to
confusion about His true nature. This confusion has even seeped
into some churches. In, "The eclipse of God," bestselling
author Erwin Lutzer reveals how our culture is trying to make
God more inclusive and accepting of things that the Bible clearly
says are wrong. But God's character hasn't changed. His
truth remains the same, and He calls us to stand firm in it
even as the world around us shifts. Pastor Jack Hibbs says,
many people hold to a horribly distorted view of God. Pastor
Lutzer shows us how to engage with the culture lovingly,
boldly, and effectively. This book comes at a critical hour.
"The Eclipse of God" will be sent to you when you make a gift
of any amount to Real Life today. Visit JackHibbs.com or
call (877)777-2346 to get your copy. Order now.
JACK: Well friends, listen battle scars. Battle scars we
think are somehow limited to those that are maybe recipients
of the purple heart, here in America, meaning you've been
wounded in battle. Or some other type of very, very aggressive or
violent act. But truly as believers you and I want to make
sure that you and I in our Christianity are living in such
a way that, we are making such a difference. That we are not on
the defensive position always, but we are on the offensive. We
are to be advancing the kingdom of God. So I want you to be
thinking about like a military soldier because the Bible
depicts you as that. That you are in a world, you're in a
hostile world, and you and I are warring against very, very
dangerous powers. Of course, they're demonically, spiritually
driven, but you and I need to be careful that we move forward in
the power of the gospel, on the offensive, moving the fight
forward of truth. Today, you and I are talking about suffering,
and all the things that are going on in the world around us,
but you don't need to lose hope. The fact of the matter is we
should be talking about suffering in light of Christ. We
need to understand this, that suffering is a tool that God
uses. He may not cause the suffering of this world, but He
will use the suffering of this world to be a great and powerful
tool. To increase your faith, to strengthen your faith. That's a
very important fact. Every Christian is going to suffer.
Many of us are suffering right now as I speak to you. But that
suffering as a believer is actually going to be used by
God. It's not without hope. It becomes a honor to have the
battle scars upon us as a Christian warrior for the
kingdom of God to promote truth. The battle scars of suffering.
Let's dive into this study today.
JACK: Listen to what Charles Spurgeon
has to say. Now, Spurgeon used a word craft just
brilliant. Listen how he thinks as if we were only meant to be
killed and made on purpose to be victims, as if, it were as easy
and as innocent a thing to slay us as to slaughter sheep. What
is he saying? He's saying, listen, you can attack us. You
can make fun of us. You can slay us. You have no idea what you're
doing. Paul put it this way, to live as Christ, to die is gain.
The Christian always wins. Always. If we live, we live for
Christ. If we die, we go to Christ. The great scholar
Frederick Derek Kinder put it this way, and I love this. This
is a great statement, a revolutionary concept to the Old
Testament man or woman of God, that suffering may not be a
punishment, but a battle scar. The price of loyalty in a world
which is at war with God. I love that. I have a friend that was
one of the founding fathers of US Army, Delta Force. General
Jerry Boykin. This man has got numerous purple hearts. He took
a 50 caliber round. 50 caliber, you know what that is? 50
caliber, round through the armpit and they were able to put
his arm back on. Shot through numerous times, body scarred,
special ops wars, events, from the Middle East to the jungles
of South America. And he looks great in a suit, but if he takes
his shirt off, he looks like he's been put in a meat grinder.
And I love what Kinder said that in our lives, these are scars
from the battle. Listen, don't you want, Christian, don't you
want scars from being in the battle? You can't challenge
General Boykins patriotism. He doesn't have to stay a word. All
he has to do is take a shirt off. Paul is saying, stand in
there as a believer. You got to remember church Paul, the
apostle, church history, not the Bible. Church history tells us
that Paul's eyes were very close set together near the bridge of
his nose, unusually so. He had a very, very large beak like hook
nose. He was very unattractive. Baldheaded with hair in the
back, very petite and severely bow-legged. Poor sight, very
poor sight. This is the great Paul the apostle. Don't you
think Paul the apostle would've been more like, I don't know,
like Dwayne Johnson or something, The Rock. Yeah right?
Paul walks into town and people come to Christ. Paul came into
town and nobody knew who he was. And the Bible does tell us that
his voice, his speaking is contemptible. Can you imagine
you guys, Paul's going to speak. Hey everybody, it's Paul. He's
going to speak and some guy stands up there. When's Paul
going to speak? Oh, that is Paul. He's going to speak.
That's Paul? You ever meet somebody they only know you from
a radio voice? And I meet them and- you're Jack? I
envisioned something different. It's funny. That's Paul. And
then Paul would go, (in a high voice) I want to talk all you
Romans here. His speech was contemptible, but the scriptures
say he was mighty with the pen. Wow. That's encouraging. Let God
establish you. But I want to be in the battlefield of this world
fighting against evil. God help the Christian who sees it as a
spectator option. These young people that are standing today,
I am very encouraged. Look, these two that are standing
against the evils in our public school system. They're under
attack. Are you fighting for anything that is worthy of being
attacked? The old saying goes like this, if you were to be
arrested for being a Christian, would they have enough evidence
to convict you? Are you guilty of following Christ? Are you
guilty of association with Jesus? And then the other thing
is this church is that we no longer want our way about life.
Say are you sure about that? Yeah. Listen, the longer we
live, the more sure we know this is that we are counted, counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Don't let that throw you too far
off at all because you actually know exactly what that means.
He's quoting the 44th Psalm as I said earlier, but Jesus put it
to us this way. Deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow
me. That is God. Good morning, this is Jack. I'm asking you to
live your life through me today. Please God, keep me out of it. I
mean, help me to, hang on. Let's go. Whatever's coming, but don't
let me mess it up. So I'm getting out of bed now, God. So
let's live the life that you have for today for me to live. I
don't want to do my thing. And the longer you walk with Jesus,
the less you want to do your thing. Doesn't go well. I take
the application this way. In the world that you and I live in, it
looks like we're outnumbered. It feels like we're dying. It
sounds like we're losing. It seems like we're alone. That's
all through the human perspective. And that's a normal
thing to feel, but it's not accurate. I have this question
written down in my notes. It's on page seven. Has God worked a
work in you enough so that you are both unwilling and unable to
walk away from Him? Let me explain what that means. Has
God, can you say today that God has worked enough in your life
that you cannot walk away from Him? This is a very, very kairos
moment for somebody that might be here today. You would call
yourself a Christian, but you have no testimony of God's
dynamic working in your life, and you're troubled by that. And
so you should be. You know enough that you can't go back
into the world and say, I'm an atheist now. You know enough,
but you've never gone forward. And I want to say to you today
that God, the Holy Spirit is saying, let's go forward now.
Let's go for it. You yield to me and let's go. The man, the
woman, the teenager is blessed in this moment where they might
be in doubt or they might be in fear and you speak to them and
you question them and you're talking with them and then you
say to them, listen, then just put down your Bible. Walk away
from God. Never bring His name up again. Forsake everything
that you've learned. Never go back to church again and go live
your life. And you know what? You'll always spot the believer
in a second when that happens. They'll say, I can't do that.
Why can't you? And I have to say it for them, because He's done
enough in your life for you to know that He's real. And I'm
asking you let go and let Him take you the rest of the way. He
is so good to finish what He begins. John chapter 6, verse
65. Jesus said, therefore, I have said to you that no one can
come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father.
Verse 66. From that time, many of His disciples went back and
walked with Him no more. They just quit. Then Jesus said to
the 12, do you also want to go away? Gotta love Peter. He's the
best. Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life. Okay? Isn't that amazing? Jesus
just got done preaching a very hard thing in chapter 6 of John.
Basically whittled it down to this, Hey, you're either with me
or you're not. It's time to get up. Let's just get going. Let
you've got to be one with me or you're not. And people heard
that and they went, yeah, no. And they left and they're
watching. The 12 are watching people walk away, and Jesus,
they're just walking away. What's awesome about Jesus?
Jesus never went and ran after the person that was walking away
and said, did I say something to offend you? Can we talk it over?
Listen, church leaders, church pastors, boards, whatever.
Listen, when somebody says, I'm leaving, don't ever talk them
into staying. Don't do it. It may be a blessed subtraction
that they're leaving, but don't try to convince them. Trust God
to speak to them. But when Jesus said, so are you 12, any of you
guys going to go away too? Let's just finish this. And you could
just see, Peter, Jesus, you alone have the words of eternal
life. This is the best deal in town. No one's ever said this
stuff or has done the stuff you've done. Where do we go?
There's no place else to go. I mean, we've got all kinds of
places to go, but there's really no place to go. It's Him. Psalm
138 verse 8 tells us, the Lord will perfect that which concerns
me. Your mercy, oh Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work
of your hands. Is that precious? And then finally, this verses 37
to 39 is the fact that you're suffering. Listen up, we're
going to end with a bang. Your suffering, my suffering, our
suffering under the watchful eye of God. Pick it. Listen, don't
say it out loud, but what is it in your life that's causing
suffering? Is it the past? Is this the memory of something? Is
it currently what's going on? Is it financial? Is it legal? Is it
relational? Something's going on in our lives, but we're
believers in Christ. He's our God. Which means our suffering
is only a tool. It's a tool. Michelangelo picked up a mallet,
and he picked up a chisel. And he had a big block of granite
and he went to work. And he created some of the greatest
sculptures that have ever been produced in humanity. Of course,
David being the pinnacle. But think of the chipping. God is
chipping on your life. You might be able to say, well, it came
about this way, or Pastor, I did it to myself. I did this. I made
the biggest mistake. God is going to use that as a tool.
He's the only one that can convert either the world
attacking you, or you attacking you into a tool. Because nothing
shall separate you from the love of Christ, not even yourself.
You thinking about it, you grab the wheel, I'm going to drive
now. I'm going to drive. Now don't do that. Let God drive.
But even as a Christian, you can crash the car. And listen God
will see to it you learn. Suffering is a tool. That
should be a tattoo, I'm not endorsing tattoos, but if you
have a tattoo, whatever, suffering is a tool, across your
chest. I dunno. Suffering is a tool from God. How do we know?
Because it causes us to rise above. Suffering allows you
united to rise above, verse 37. Yet in all these things, we're
more than conquerors through Him who loved us. More than
conquerors. A conquer is being, I think a conquer is good
enough. He says, no, no, no more than that. Isn't that amazing?
By the way, the word conquering means an overwhelming victor.
It's not that you're a victor. You overwhelmingly won. A
warrior having been victorious in battle, standing over the
enemy. Wow. Could you imagine Christian, if we understood that
dark forces that were in our world today are demonic activity
type of forces and we stand over the enemy in Christ. We stand in
full and total victory. That's what the Bible teaches us.
Scarcely do. We believe it. More than conquerors. So I'm putting
this together with the scars of the battlefield and we're more
than a conquer. I want to stand before God. I pray I stand
before God at the end and my armor is all dinged up. I want
my armor oily, bloody bent, dented. I'd love to have a
helmet on with this big dent over here, and my shield is
just, in fact, it's a great God got me out of earth just in
time. My shield is about ready to be worn through. Don't you
want to die like that? I want to die like that, as a Christian.
See, I understand. Listen, scars, all the listen, look,
some people wear their scars on the outside, some wear their
scars on the inside. But the thing as believers, we're going
to get scarred up and those are not shameful things. Those are
things of honor. Like, I was mentioning General Boykin, but I
got this in Somalia. I got this. Listen, he was the one that got
the phone call from Bill Clinton himself. Bill Clinton said, go
in now. And he said, Mr. President, we never attacked
during the day. The operations forbid it we're going to lose
too many people. Do you remember the, in fact, they made a movie
of it called Blackhawk Down. That's him. And I got this in
Somalia. I got this in South America in a covert CIA
operation. I got this. He's remember, remember Jaws, the
movie Jaws where they're talking about, where'd you get that
scar? I got this one, Susie threw a pencil at me. Richard
Dreyfus points this one out. The other guy puts his leg up there
and says, I got this, a shark bit me right here. And what's
his name? Robert Shaw says, I got this in the war and it's
some big bad scar can imagine being as a Christian standing
there in the day. Where'd you get that? Oh man, we got this
battle in the Orange School Board. Right? Right. Oh, where'd
you get that? Oh man. That was up in Sacramento. It's fighting
for the unborn children. That one, right? What about that one?
That's when we sued the governor over churches having to pay for
abortions. Yeah, real stuff. The Bible makes it very clear that
suffering also, listen, suffering prepares us for what's
about to come. And this is okay. Don't freak out. Don't get up.
Now, ushers locked the door. It's not the time for you to
panic. It's like, is this where the ride drops off all the way
down? Suffering prepares you. Listen, you don't know this or
not, but you love being around people who have suffered. They
just don't tell you about it. I'm talking about Christians. I
love being around new believers. They're like, bring it. They're
the best. You know what? It's the mediocre Christians. I
cannot, I'm sorry. I just can't hang around. I can't. New
believers, they're like, come on, let's go down the forest
line. Let's raise the dead. Yes, let's go. They're amazing. And
the only other group of people I'd like to be with are seasoned
saints. You know why? We all love it. You know, bedtime, can
you tell me a story? Papa, Mimi, can you tell me a story? Kids
love that stuff. We love that stuff. Well, on the other end of
that pendulum is somebody saying, you know what you asked
about my life. This is what God's done in my life. And they
tell you a tale of this incredible battle. Suffering for
the believer is a tool. And suffering ends the moment
you and I see Jesus. Are you hearing me? When
you and I see Christ, our suffering ends.
JACK: So what are your battle scars? If you think about it. If
I were to ask you that question, what would you say is the very
thing that's causing you to suffer? For some of you, it
could be the looming court case that's coming up. It could be
the wayward child or a stubborn, rebellious child within your
home. It could be very tragic parenting. My heart breaks for
you, if that's the situation. It could be somewhere, the issue is
financial. It's limitless. You get what I'm saying? It's
limitless for me. Listen, for me and my life, the battle for me
is to make sure that I'm hearing, what I'm hearing is
from God. My battle is this for my glory or is it for God's
glory? Lord, don't let me do anything that is not of you and
for you. Issues of life, physical. That's another battle
of mine. Physical things. But listen, friends, some of us
struggle with invisible things where it's just the pressure and
the tension of spiritual warfare, thought life. Where
things pop up that are senseless, making no connection
whatsoever to reality. In fact, bringing in an elevated sense of
fear, some sort of strange, hopeless thinking. Listen, left
unchecked, that stuff could lead to total disaster. We don't have
to do that. Our God is a God who's with us in the battle. Our
past is taken care of in Christ. He's given us the ability to be
rational as we go to the Bible regarding what's happening
around us. Listen, something in your life is causing you
suffering. There's no doubt about it. None of us are exempt,
but Jesus Christ is there in the midst of it. And you must
believe this because the Bible says so. As Jesus was comforted
by the Father in his suffering, so you will be comforted by
Christ in your suffering. We are more than conquerors in Christ
the Bible tells us. JackHibbs.com is where you can
find out so much more teaching and I hope you do
exactly that. Until next time, God bless you.
ANNOUNCER: You are watching Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
ANNOUNCER: Is God different than He used to be? More tolerant of
sin? More politically correct? In today's world, many are
trying to reshape God to fit modern ideas, leading to
confusion about His true nature. This confusion has even seeped
into some churches. In "The eclipse of God", bestselling
author Erwin Lutzer reveals how our culture is trying to make
God more inclusive, and accepting of things that the
Bible clearly says are wrong. But God's character hasn't
changed. His truth remains the same, and He calls us to stand
firm in it even as the world around us shifts. Pastor Jack
Hibbs says, many people hold to a horribly distorted view of
God. Pastor Lutzer shows us how to engage with the culture
lovingly, boldly, and effectively. This book comes at
a critical hour. "The Eclipse of God" will be sent to you when
you make a gift of any amount to Real Life
today. Visit JackHibbs.com or call
(877)777-2346 to get your copy. 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 of 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 attacked 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
sharing this message in real and practical ways? We ask that you
commit to support Real Life and the teachings of Jack Hibbs with
a gift of your choosing. Simply go to JackHibbs.com and there
you can simply follow the instructions of how to give a
one-time gift or a recurring gift. If you would prefer to
call our toll free number is (877)777-2346. Again, that's
(877)777-2346. And of course you can write us. Our address is
Real Life with Jack Hibbs Box 1273 Chino Hills, California
91709. Your gift will be faithfully put to
work because it's our desire that
through Jesus Christ, you will know Real Life.
ANNOUNCER: The preceding program was sponsored by generous
friends and partners of Real Life.