ANNOUNCER: The following program is sponsored by
generous friends and partners of Real Life.
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: As a believer, I want to put it to you this way; I only
regret that I have one day to live my life for the Kingdom of
God, because my goal and your goal is to live the rest of your
days until the finish line to live for the Kingdom of God
every day on a grand scale, however God calls you.
ANNOUNCER: Want to transcend the world's YOLO ethos and live for
God's glory in the present world, preparing for eternal
life with Christ? Jack Hibbs teaches us how. Discover the
true essence of living for now, paving the way for everlasting
fulfillment in the message "One Life to Live For Now."
ANNOUNCER: The cross, for many, it's become little more than a
symbol we wear around our necks, display in our homes, or hang
from our rear view mirrors. But what if, instead of being a
decoration or accessory, the cross motivated and shaped the
way we lived every single day? What if it wasn't about hiding
or minimizing our sin, but actually crucifying it in order
to move forward in the freedom Christ offers? In "Born
Crucified" by L.E. Maxwell, you'll discover what it truly
means to live a cross-centered life. This short, yet powerful
book is a classic for every Christian's library, reminding
us that the cross isn't just a symbol, it's the key to victory
over sin and the power to serve God effectively. If you're ready
to experience the freedom and purpose found in a life centered
on the cross, this book is for you. "Born Crucified" is
our thank you gift for a donation of any size
to Real Life. Visit JackHibbs.com or call
877-777-2346 to request your copy. Order now.
(Music)
JACK: Well, listen, as we live our lives out every single day,
imagine that every day there is God's mercy and grace to get us
up and out of bed. And so for you and I, we're going to be
talking about today a message that is titled "One Life to Live
For Now." And it's very important that we stress for
now, because as believers, you and I live in a world that says
things like this you only live once. And so what does that
mean? Well, grab all the gusto you can. Eat, drink, and be
merry for tomorrow we die. And it's a hedonistic, humanistic
way of living. Listen, God didn't make you that way. God
made you to live for his glory. And so the book of Romans is an
awesome study for us to look at today as we dive into the fact
that we can prepare ourselves for eternity with the Lord Jesus
Christ and that, in fact, is real living, friends, that's how
we really live. So as we get ready for this study, I'm going
to ask you to be listening as the Spirit of God will speak to
you. He's going to make that as Paul the Apostle, technically,
the Holy Spirit through Paul is going to be announcing this: How
are you going to live your life? How are you going to choose to
live your life? And will you make your life that's being
lived an act of worship for the living God? So grab your Bibles
and let's dive into this study, "One Life to Live For Now."
Let's go. Let's see what God has to say.
JACK: Talking about "One Life to Live For Now." There was
a young man by the name of Nathan Hale.
And I love this guy. Some of you might
remember him, but he was- he was not only a patriot, but
he was also a- an officer, yes. And he was a spy for General
George Washington. And he was caught spying by the British.
And so he was taken before British ruler there in, in the
east coast during the colonial War, which was just breaking out
by the way, this took place in late summer of 1776. My
goodness, we had just declared our independence on July 4th.
And then just in the late summer, August, September-ish,
he gets captured, and I want to put this quote up by him. Listen
to what he said. He said to the commander. And we know this
because British history wrote this down, that's how we know
it. He said before the rope went around his neck and he died he
said, "It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders
given to him by his commander-in-chief. I only
regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." And
then [claps] to the gallows he went. And what a great statement
that is. I love that. As a believer, I want to put it to
you this way. I only regret that I have one day to live my life
for the kingdom of God, because my goal and your goal is to live
the rest of your days until the finish line, to live for the
Kingdom of God every day on a grand scale, however God calls
you. So number one is this, church, write it down. It's our
only point and then we'll back it up. One life to live for now
we read this, that it says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God," we'll stop with verse 1, and we'll
look at this. And by the way, mark it down. We're looking at
it this way, "One Life to Live For Now," so give God your
attention. Can you write that down, please? Give God- do I
have your attention? Can you write down this? So, give God
your attention. We have a hard time with the word attention,
apparently. I know I do. I was constantly in trouble at school
for looking out the window. It wasn't my fault I had the
boringest teachers in the world, they're horrible. Whatever was
going on outside was way more exciting than what was happening
on the inside. I learned more looking out the window. And then
look, I grew up in an age which I wish our young people could
grow up again. When we went on trips, we looked out the window
of the car and we recognized things, we saw things, we
learned things. But attention is something that we've lost as a
discipline in our world today, and we need to regain it. We've
got to we've got to capture the disciplines of paying attention.
And it's something, listen, in a crowd this large, and it's easy
for me to lose your attention. It's easy for you to give up
your attention to something, and we need to work on that. But how
many of you are married, by the way? You're married raise your
hands. Okay, there's no use talking to you. How many of you,
how many of you are- are single? which poses the possible
opportunity of being married someday? Listen, this is free.
One of the hardest things in marriage is for men to pay
attention. We're just wired different. To pay attention is a
sacrifice, and to prove it for all of us, our- our nature as
humans when it comes to anything else, we can pay attention to
it. But when it comes to God's stuff, we wander and we need to
discipline ourselves. Number one, in this life that you and I
are living for now, we're going to have to fight the battle to
pay attention. We have got to pay attention, and we've got to
ask God, Lord, help me to pay attention to your Word, to what
you're saying to me. Look, I'm going to upset people. It's just
too bad. Watch this. Let's be honest. Right now, there are
tens of thousands of people that are streaming this message right
now all around the world. We know this because we have stuff
that monitors all that stuff. But if you're on any one of
those social sites, I'm here right now. How are you doing?
Wherever you're at, and there's a bunch of people making
comments over here. And they're saying things like, "Omaha is in
the house." And "It's cold in Iowa." And "What color is your
car?" And they're all talking to each other. You're not paying
attention. They're not even listening to me now. I- look, if
I had it my way, I'd remove that feature from YouTube or
Facebook, because, listen, how can you listen to a sermon and
you're typing all this stuff and you're looking up the
temperature and the weather and looking up the cake and all this
kind of stuff. We don't pay attention. And if we paid
attention, a lot of great things would happen like this. We learn
from verse 1, we would remember and we would revel in the fact
of what we've been taught. In Romans 12:1 it says, "I beseech
you therefore, brethren," and this is a tremendous truth, and
watch, I'm going to change it up on you intentionally. I'm not
going to give you the definition yet to the word beseech. I'm
going to give you the definition first to the word therefore, and
I'll tell you why in a moment. Therefore, the word therefore is
actually referring to the 11 previous chapters of this entire
book. Paul is basically saying, 'okay, now that we got to
chapter 11 and that's behind us in light of everything I just
told you guys from chapter 1, here's the punch line and it's
its chapter 12.' That's how important this is. The word
therefore means this, and you might want to either write this
down or take a shot of this. But the therefore here means that
what has been said and what is being said is intentional. The
requirement needed for moving forward. The therefore means
before we can, so to speak, lift this 747 up off the ground, this
is what you must remember everything about those 11
chapters are needed for this very purpose. And Paul now gets
right back into after those 3 chapters of Israel, 9, 10, and
11, he gets back to the discipleship of the believer.
And I don't know if you know it or not, some of you might be
visiting here for the first time, you don't know or you just
stumbled in here, this is a discipling church. This is- this
is a church different than many other kinds of churches. Why? If
you if you've noticed or you will notice it's more- it
resembles more of a worshipful college course than anything
else, because this is our time as a church that we study to
know how we ought to live. It's for us to become or to stay
relevant in this world concerning the things of God.
Are you- are you paying attention? Do you have that? We
have come here today to refuel to go back out to do the work of
God. This is not an entertainment service. This is
not a play service. This is not theater. This is boot camp
before we go and we're deployed into the world, okay? That's
very important. Now, this word "therefore," the Greek is a very
interesting word. Very short word, very big meaning it
actually means "the then." "The then" or "the wherefore." It
means here is the reason or the point. All of this is speaking
of a practical faith in action. That's why true, listen, true
Christianity is very active and very lived out. Why? Because we
have to do that. No, because the Spirit of God takes control of
us. Listen, by virtue of how much the Word of God is in us.
If you have a lot of Bible in you, you're going to be
controlled by God. So to speak, the Holy Spirit's got a lot more
to work with as you ingest the Bible. Does that make sense?
Very, very necessary to know that. Paul is basically saying
in the word beseech, which is that word that precedes. But he
says this way, he says, "I beseech you therefore,
brethren." So he's speaking to the believers. And that word
beseech is this, and you might recognize it. It's a very, very
common and popular word in biblical studies. It is the
Greek word Parakaleos or Parakaleo. And Para, we know
what para means. Para, parachute, paraglider. Para
means alongside in Greek. The word Kaleo means comforter, one
who comes alongside you. Para, to comfort you. This is
beautiful. Paul says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren." I,
Paul, am coming alongside you, I'm putting my arm around you,
and I'm whispering in your ear, I'm telling you things. I'm
speaking to you. I am tutoring you. I am what would we say
today? You know, you see people walking around with their Bose
headphones or Beats or the ear pod things, you know, all these
things that give us brain cancer, those things. And
sometimes you see people walking around. Lisa just made this
comment the other day. She goes, "Look at that guy." She goes,
"That guy looks like he's nuts until you see that he's got some
wire coming out of his ear." Because he's like, "What?" And
there's nobody near him. He's like, oh my goodness. I thought
the guy was like freaking out on something. No, he was having a
conversation with somebody. Imagine God putting His
earpiece, excuse me, His earpiece in your ear, and He's
speaking to you every day along the way, this is how you live
your life. Turn left, turn right. Do this. Say this. That's
what He wants to do. And Paul is living it out this way. He's
saying, I'm going to come alongside you. And he uses the
exact same word that defines the Holy Spirit. The Parakaleo, the
one who's going to come alongside you and comfort you,
that's one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit. I love that. He's
announcing to us, basically, Paul is saying, "Attention,
please. I have a very important announcement to make," and he
gives us the Word. So, mark this down if you would, everybody.
What kind of things do we need to remember? What kind of things
was he announcing to us? Well, there's the issue of
condemnation. I'll give you four of them that we've come to thus
far. The issue of condemnation. The Bible tells us in Romans
3:20, listen, "Therefore, by the deeds of the law," that is your
morality. You trying to be good enough to please God. "No flesh
will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin." Condemnation resides upon all those who do not know
Jesus. It is vitally important you hear and give attention to
what I'm about to say. It's not- This is not me, I'm just
repeating what is biblical truth. A believer who knows the
Lord Jesus Christ may not feel forgiven. In fact, I'm going to
put it to you this way: What does feeling forgiven feel like?
It's not a feeling. Some of you love the Lord, and you're right
with God, but you don't feel like it. And one of those
reasons might be because you're listening to voices inside your
head, and most of those voices are your own, and you are quite
the judge of you. You beat yourself up. And then the
pendulum swings to the other side where that's not the case,
and we can always justify ourselves in whatever we do.
That's not of God. But for him to be announcing to us that the
the work of the Spirit comes alongside you and comforts you.
The important thing is to understand this, that as
believers, it's not based upon your feeling or your assessment
of how your day is going. What does the Bible say? If you
answer what the Bible says, regardless of your feelings,
that's called faith. What does the Bible say when you say to
the Lord God, "I sinned against you. I shouldn't have had that
thought. Please forgive me." Watch this, I'm going to
exaggerate something here. "Please forgive me. I asked you
to forgive me in Jesus name, Amen." And then you walk away
and all day long you're depressed. Why? You keep, oh, it
was 9:00. I had a horrible- 9 a.m. this morning I had a
horrible thought. "Well, did you- did you confess it to God
and tell Him to forgive you? And did you move on?" "Oh, yeah,
yeah, I did." "Well, what are you moping for?" "Oh, I had a
horrible thought at 9:00." "Yeah, you just told me you took
care of that." He says- He says if you ask Him for forgiveness,
He's going to forgive you. What are you doing? "No, no, He's
forgiven me, but I- It was horrible 9:00 thought." You know
what? We would make better Muslims. You know what Muslims
do? They sin, and then they take out... I forget what they call
it, but they flog themselves. Some of them to the point of
blood on the back. I have one of those things in my office, by
the way. It's, it's a- it's from the Middle East. It's a handle
with about 27 razor blades on it. And you go like this and you
bleed for forgiveness. Excuse me. There's one who bled for our
forgiveness, and His name is Jesus Christ. And your blood,
your blood couldn't forgive anybody anyway. His blood saves.
My blood stinks. Think about that for a moment. And by the
way, how insulting is that to God? That that we could come in
and help God out. No you can't. No, the issue of condemnation is
gone in Jesus. And then the second thing is justification.
The issue of justification. What is this justification? To the
Christian, the real born again Christian, not the Sunday
Christian. The everyday Christian, they revel in the
doctrine of justification. What does that mean? That Christ,
that God the Father put on Christ Jesus the sins of
mankind. Did you know that? That's what He was doing at the
cross. And when Jesus died for our sins, He paid the debt that
you owed to God. But when He rose again from the dead, He
rose again from the dead for our justification, when meaning He
worked the work on the cross and then He got up out of the grave
and applies the work that He did. He is now the one who
implements the working actions of His labors. It's called
justification. Meaning what? Meaning I, you who trust Him
were forgiven of all sins and not only forgiven of all sins,
that sins past, present, and future that will keep you up
tonight. How does God do that? How could Christ pay for such a
great price? Only God could. But justification is this which He
not just expunges the record or He somehow says, "Well, you
know, we erased it." Oh, no, no, no, listen, God's Word for
justification for every believer is that He removes not only sin,
He removes the remembrance of sin. When God looks at His kids,
He sees nothing but the blood of Jesus covering you. In other
words, the righteousness of Christ shed for you, shed for
me. What's wrong with you, guys? You should all clap. You should
all be clapping. Really? Oh my goodness. See, it's crazy for us
to look back at 9:00. "I remember 39 years ago." "Are you
a believer? Do you trust Christ?" "Yes, I do." "Well,
then, knock it off." Seriously, it's ridiculous. What are you
doing? You're just keeping yourself back and Satan's loving
it, because he can't take your soul. But he'll sterilize you so
you don't tell anybody else. No, you move on with Him all the
way, justified. And then thirdly, there's the issue of
assurance. I didn't read the verse Romans 5:1 for
justification. Look at this. Romans 5:1, sorry, let me back
up. Look at this verse. "Therefore, having been
justified." Notice, past tense. "By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." Kaboom! Right? Right there.
Assurance, Romans chapter 8, verse 1. Assurance. "There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the
Spirit." Let me make something clear, "Who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit," that's
not a qualifier, it is a reality. Let me explain. Don't
think for a moment that if you walk according- that you do not
walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit that
qualifies you now to have no condemnation. Did you guys all
hear that? Don't mess it up. That would be damaging the
scripture, because there's no condemnation upon your life
anymore, you now walk in the Spirit by the power of God. You
don't earn it. You don't achieve it, because God's done this, you
live it. Right? So watch this, "As far as the East is from the
West so far have I removed from you your sins." God says, "I
have taken your sins, and I've cast them into the depths of the
sea." And I like what J. Vernon McGee says, "Once God puts them
in the depths of the sea, He puts up a little buoy and it
says, 'No fishing here.'" So stop going back to 9 a.m. So
stop going back to 37 years ago, will you? As a believer, your
greatest passion is to live for Christ today. God has given you
and I, as far as we know, today, right? We can't assume anything.
Will we see the sunset? We don't know. But we've got right now.
And if we're living for the right now, for Him,
for His glory, oh, wow, it's a great way to live.
JACK: Well, with that said, I want to challenge you, and I
wish that we had more of a dialog, you know? But that said,
I would love you to challenge me as I challenge you, as brothers
and sisters in Christ, to live out the gospel like we never
have before. Friends, I don't have to stress to you how late
the hour seems to feel seems to be as believers. All of us, no
matter young or old, we can all sense a great push of urgency,
and I think that's by the Holy Spirit. And so let's join
together, let's be 100% committed to living out now our
lives for God like never before. It's tough. We're under attack
on all fronts. I get it, you get it, you feel it. Our jobs, and
schools, and neighborhoods, family, relationships. It's a
hostile world. The world's at war. But my hope and prayer for
you and I is this as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
we would wake up and live for Him like never before. That you
and I would be, frankly, on fire for Jesus. And so we want to
share the Gospel, that keeps us on fire for Jesus. We want to
live for Him like never before. Now I'm going to say something
in closing that I hope and pray comes across correctly. We have
been on the ground with our feet in the ravaged areas of the Los
Angeles fires, from Malibu to the Los Angeles mountains. The
devastation is overwhelming. Things have been reduced to
dust. But listen, out of the ashes God brings forth beauty,
out of total sacrifice in our lives to Jesus. Meaning, if you
just yield yourself to Him, watch Him bring beauty out of
the ashes of your life. He can do it. He can do it physically.
Thank God He does it spiritually. So until next time,
friends, let's stay tuned at JackHibbs.com. You can connect
with us there, Facebook, Instagram, various platforms.
But until we see each other again right here
in the Word of God, God bless you and stand
strong and be looking up for the Lord Jesus.
ANNOUNCER: You are watching Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
ANNOUNCER: The cross, for many, it's become little more than a
symbol we wear around our necks, display in our homes, or hang
from our rear view mirrors. But what if, instead of being a
decoration or accessory, the cross motivated and shaped the
way we lived every single day? What if it wasn't about hiding
or minimizing our sin, but actually crucifying it in order
to move forward in the freedom Christ offers? In "Born
Crucified" by L.E. Maxwell, you'll discover what it truly
means to live a cross-centered life. This short, yet powerful
book is a classic for every Christian's library, reminding
us that the cross isn't just a symbol, it's the key to victory
over sin and the power to serve God effectively. If you're ready
to experience the freedom and purpose found in a life centered
on the cross, this book is for you. "Born Crucified"
is our thank you gift for a donation of any
size to Real Life. Visit JackHibbs.com or call
877-777-2346 to request your copy. Order now.
JACK: Well, friends, listen up. We are living in remarkable
moments, remarkable times, and you literally need the Real Life
Network to be able to be available to you in an instant.
In fact, we have just been meeting on how we can reach you
live 24/7, 365, in the event of an emergency, in the event of a
crisis, in the event of war in the Middle East or in the United
States. How can you connect with us and get biblically based,
honest news in light of what's going on in the world around
you? RealLifeNetwork.com. We cannot be canceled, and for this
reason now we see the clarity of why God brought us to do this
channel in the first place. RealLifeNetwork.com. Sign up.
Subscribe. Get ready, because we will come to you even
if we're in our pajamas in the middle of the night,
we will literally be broadcasting the truth to you.
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.