ANNOUNCER: The following program is sponsored by
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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
JACK: You've been created in the image of God, and your value is
infinite. And Satan tries to convince you that you should be
somebody else. And the world will transform you with drugs
and with a knife. Jesus transforms you with love and
forgiveness and joy and peace and meaning and purpose. And
it's available for anyone and everyone.
ANNOUNCER: "For as a man thinks, so he becomes." On Real Life
today, Jack Hibbs asks the question, what
occupies your mind? Stay tuned for the message
Occupation of the Mind. Real Life starts now.
ANNOUNCER: What do you do when you've been treated unfairly?
When someone wrongs you, abuses their power, or betrays your
trust? When God seems silent in your pain? In "A Tale of Three
Kings," Gene Edwards weaves the biblical stories of Saul, David
and Absalom into a powerful narrative about surrender,
trust, and finding peace in the midst of suffering. This
timeless book speaks to anyone who has experienced hurt,
disappointment or or conflict, whether in relationships, the
workplace, or even the church. Through these pages, you'll
discover the true strength isn't found in retaliation, but in
surrendering to God's will. If you're wrestling with
unfairness, brokenness, or heartbreak, this book will offer
wisdom, healing, and a new perspective. "A Tale of Three
Kings" is our thank you gift for your donation of any
size to Real Life. Visit jackhibbs.com or
call 877-777-2346 to request your copy. Order now.
(MUSIC)
JACK: Hey, I have a question for you regarding your mind and
regarding your thinking. What governs your thought life? If
there could be some form of a database that records what you
think about the most, most often throughout the day, what would
that be? Well, listen, the Bible talks about that in our lives.
What occupies our mind actually results in how we live our
lives. The Bible talks about, "As what a man thinks, so is
he." You will become more like that which you are thinking
about. That's both exciting for the believer, it could also be
terrifying. And we want to make sure that our minds are given
over to God, and we renew our minds in the Word of God. So the
message today, my friend, will be this. Encouraging if you're
listening, and if you incline your mind to be touched by the
Word of God, which is always a wise thing to do. So I want to
encourage you, let the Word of God examine your body, your
mind, your spirit, the total person of who you are. That's
what God's Word does. God's word is so powerful that it's able to
even divide between our thoughts and our motives. So grab your
Bibles and let's dive into this study that
we're looking at today, Occupation of the Mind.
(MUSIC)
JACK: Three things that won't won't take long for us to knock
off these three things right here, right now, and that is
this. So give God your will by an act of violence. And you
heard me right. By an act of violence. You say, "What do you
mean?" Well, this is what I don't mean. I don't mean rocks
and bombs and swords and shields and war. That's not what I'm
talking about in this sense. I'm talking about our spiritual
relationship that you and I, who are real followers of Jesus,
understand that we are going to pursue Christ with all of our
hearts because of His goodness for us. And this is what he
says, "Do not be conformed to this world." The Bible tells us
that in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9, regarding conformity to
this world, we've got countermeasures, church. And we
want to accept this with a violence, as it were, of faith.
You say, "What do you mean by that?" Where we stand up
today... Don't stand up. I'm just making this up. We stand up
today and we say, "That's it. I will to pursue Christ. It's what
I'm going to do." And this is one of those things. 1
Corinthians chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, "But as it is written,
eye has not seen." He's talking about forever, eternity. "...Eye
is not seen." Stop right there and ask yourself, what have you
seen in your life? Whatever you've seen in your life, it's
nothing compared to what's coming. I'm talking about
beautiful things. "...Nor ear heard. What's the most wonderful
thing you've ever heard? It's nothing in this world. "Nor have
it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for those who love Him." Listen, church. Do you
love Him? I mean, this is awesome. God has prepared things
for us who love Him. But here's the-- here's the beautiful thing
about this. We don't love Him because He gives us stuff. We
love Him because of who He is. We, we wake up to the
realization that we love Him because He first loved us. Verse
10 says, "But God..." So this is amazing. We haven't seen, we
haven't heard. It's not-- it's not entered into our hearts,
regarding the things that God has prepared for those who love
Him. But look at verse 10, "But God..." We have an interruption.
"But God has revealed them to us." Really? "...Through His
Spirit. For the Spirit," that is the Holy Spirit, "...searches
all things, yea, the deep things of God." Church family, listen,
as you and I grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, I don't
know how else to tell you, but I'm pretty sure if you attend
this church, you know it. How am I supposed to experience verse
9, as verse 10 says I can? How does that happen? It happens
like this. You find out what His will is, and you allow your will
to be assimilating His will. And you do this by doing this.
You've heard of Facebook, haven't you? This is it. Right
here. Face in the book. Facebook. More of this in your
face gets into your heart, and these God given gifts of
reality. God will give you, can I put it to you this way? He
will flirt with you, glimpses and, and words of Heaven, words
of eternity, words of forever. And they'll hit you in a moment.
You'll have a thought, and it's like, "Oh my gosh." Or you'll
see something and God will speak to you out of that site or out
of that moment. But there's an amazing thing. And I love when
that scripture says, "...yea, the deep things of God." It
means that God has the ability to illuminate or to deal with
things surgically. We're talking about presenting ourselves in a
sense that it would be violent to the body, meaning, my body
wants to take it easy, my body wants to do what it wants to do.
But because I'm a new creation in Jesus, my new life says, "Hey
body, this is what we're going to go do." And our body becomes
the tool by which we present ourselves a living sacrifice.
Does that make sense? You guys awake or did I kill you? Jesus
put it this way, it's quite remarkable. You know it very
well, Matthew chapter 7, verse 13. Jesus says, "Enter by the
narrow gate." This is violent. The flesh says, "I don't want to
enter in by no narrow gate. I want to enter in any way I want
to enter in." Jesus says, "Enter in by the narrow gate, for wide
is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction,"
that's hell, "...and there are many who go in by it." You know,
the vast majority of people, according to Jesus, are heading
toward a priceless eternity. Why? Because they took their
will and they yield it over to other gods and other pursuits,
and they presented themselves a living sacrifice to all kinds of
pleasures and short lived opportunities that have nothing
to do with eternal life. And He goes on. He says, "There are
many who go in by it." Verse 14, "Because narrow is the gate, and
difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who
find it." You know what that is? That's the description of a
disciple. "Lord," we would say, "...don't let me wander. Lord,
look close into my life. Test me. Show me. Speak to me," and
he'll lead you and he'll guide you. And then, this is fun, the
word here, where it says. "Do not be conformed to this world."
The word "do not" means stop it. You want a fancy definition?
That's all there is. Stop it. It sounds like we talk to our kids.
"Stop that!" God is saying, "Stop yielding yourself to this
world. It's not going to go well. Stop it!" And that word
"conformed." The word "conformed," look at its
meaning. Pressed into. It's a very uncomfortable sight that
you'll see in your mind with this definition. Pressed into,
to be placed into something that does not fit, nor is it designed
to fit. The world wants to take you and your life. Now watch,
two things. Number one, if you're not a Christian, the
spiritual dark world is constantly trying to pressure
and put you into a mold that represents this world, and you
will bear the image of this world. You will. We all have.
And by God's grace, many of us have gotten out of that. God
broke the mold, no pun intended, and He brought us into a new
life. The believer... Listen. The believer, you and I are
constantly ministered to by the Holy Spirit, warning us to stay
clear of the conformity of the world. And one of the great,
great movements in our modern age has you-- have been you and
I waking up to the reality that fear is a great power to
conform, to have people conform. Fear, manipulation, name
calling, and any way that causes you to pull away and to
sequester yourself. Satan loves it, and God says, "Stop it. Stop
letting that happen." Because God has so much better for you.
But that word, to be pressed into... I don't know what comes
to your mind, but have you ever tried to take, like, 5 pounds of
meat and stuff it into a 2 pound bag. You see the picture? It's
like some people. "How did they get into those clothes?" I don't
know how that happened. It should be studied. There should
be research done on this. How did you do that? There's some
things that just ought not to happen. But notice that the
world is constantly, if you're not a Christian... See, here's
the deal. If you're a Christian, you're full. And so the world
tries to conform you. We've got a great, great defense because
we don't recognize it or we remember it from the past, and
there's no more room for it and we push it out. That's awesome.
But the world. Listen, if you're not a believer, you're wide open
and the world is constantly trying to shove its agenda down
your life. More drugs, more drink. Sleep with this person,
sleep with that one, sleep with them all and do some drugs on
top of it. Dull yourself to all of this while the world puts its
mold upon you. Are you hearing me? This is the world we live
in. And if you live for that, you're going to be a slave. And
it's going to be miserable. And it ends miserably. And if you
yield your life to Him as a living sacrifice, there's
absolute freedom. Because, number one, you're not being
pulled by anything of this world. It doesn't mean we're not
tempted. We talked about that on Wednesday night in the book of
Hebrews. We are tempted, but it's not a sin to be tempted.
It's a sin to give in to the temptation. Always remember
that. The Bible says in 1 John chapter 2, verse 15, "Do not
love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life..." That, those three things are key to
all sin. "...Is not of the Father, but is of the world."
And then James. If you guys can handle this, I'm going to read
James 4. James, he's a tough nut. James... You're going to
see James in heaven. I'm going to kind of be, I'm going to kind
of stay away from James. He scares me. James is the guy,
when you read his epistle, James is the one that you can-- you
can render this overview of the Epistle to the Book of James.
James is saying this, "You say that you have faith? Great. I'm
moving into your house, and I'm going to live with you for four
weeks. I won't say a word. I'll just listen and watch everything
that you do. And then at the end of four weeks, I will tell you
if you are a Christian or not." That's the book of James. That's
why it's one of the least read books in the New Testament. He
says, "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not
come from your desires to, or for pleasure that war in your
members?" Now, he's very blunt. I would have said, "That war in
your body." He didn't say body. He said body parts. When your
body part says, "Hey, this is what I want to do," James says,
"Isn't that where wars originate from? Wars in your family. Wars
in relationships. Wars among nations." Think of that. You
lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot
obtain. You fight and you war, yet you do not have because you
do not ask. That's an interesting statement. He's
actually saying, "God knows what you need. You should ask Him."
James is warning us of the personality that we can have
that says, "I don't want what I need. I want what I want."
There's a big difference. Are you hearing me? Big difference.
Verse 3, "You ask and you do not receive, because you ask amiss."
That's another funny one. "Oh, God, please help me win the
Powerball this week." You've never prayed to Him before, but
all of a sudden, God is getting bombarded when there's $400
million to win. Everybody's praying. James says, "You're
asking God to do something for you that he doesn't want you to
have." Have you ever done that? We've all done that. I mean, not
Powerball, I don't, I don't know. But something. "Oh, God,
if you want me to do this or that, cause the sun to rise."
And it doesn't happen because we're not asking rightly. "That
you may spend it on your own pleasures. Adulterers and
adulteresses." By the way, he means that spiritually, not that
they're out doing stuff. "Do you not know that friendship with
the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore wants to be a
friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." And so
we want to stop being conformed to the image of this world. And
then quickly this, absolutes. Verse 2 teaches us about
absolutes. "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
That's an absolute. Give God your will with an act or by an
act of absolutes. The Bible here tells us that we can be
transformed. I'm going to step on some toes. I don't mean this
to hurt you. I mean this to set you free. If you only knew. God
says, "I want to transform you. Every believer," God is saying.
"The sanctifying work in your life I do," God says, "by the
Holy Spirit, and it's a transformation of your life."
The word transformed or transformation. To be
transformed, to be transfigured. To go through a transformation,
becoming more and more like the original pattern or blueprint.
Stop right there. This is the Greek definition, metamorphoo.
You know the word metamorphose. We live in a world right now
where Satan has pulpits everywhere. And what is his
message? You can change who you are. Satan has hated the fact
that you and I have been created in the image of God since the
Garden of Eden. He is jealous, he is angry, and he can't stand
you. And now, all around the world, we humans are being
attacked by a satanic agenda to disfigure, to destroy and to
confuse the human, God's prime creation. Because you've been
created in the image of God. And your value is infinite. And
Satan tries to convince you that you should be somebody else. And
the world will transform you with drugs and with a knife.
Jesus transforms you with love and forgiveness and joy and
peace and meaning and purpose. And it's available for anyone
and everyone. Church, this is a critical hour. Satan is lying
wholesale. And our children and our friends are in the
crosshairs of the enemy. You want to-- you want to be
transitioned? Give your life to Christ. Oh, He'll transition
you, all right. He'll make your life so absolutely dynamic and
filled with meaning because He loves you. These are absolutes.
Absolutes exist. I know it's contrary to our college campuses
today. I love this. It's so... It's so crazy. We need to get
back to the good old days of what is known as critical
thinking. When a professor says in a classroom, "We do not
believe in absolutes in this class." - "Excuse me, sir, isn't
that an absolute statement?" Oh, you can't dare say that because
you'll embarrass them, because they have nowhere to go with
that one. Think about it. No, there's absolutes, all right.
God is an absolute for one thing. Maybe for the only thing.
He is the one that matters. Transfiguration. You know what
God wants to do in our lives? Listen, He gave us an example in
Matthew chapter 17, verse 2. I love this. Matthew chapter 17,
verse 2. A little bit of background. Jesus took Peter,
James, and John up to the top of what I believe is Mount Hermon.
It says in the Bible that Jesus took them to exceedingly great
and high mountain. There's only one. Mount Hermon, 9000ft. He
takes them up there. The Bible says Jesus is praying. Peter,
James and John are some distance away. Jesus is praying, and the
Bible says that a cloud of glory came down upon him and He was
illuminated, He was white, brilliant like the sun. And
Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke to him about his coming
death. He was brilliant. And if you think about that, that's not
abnormal for Jesus. That's the world he lived in. He came here
for 33.25 years. He was inside a human body. Think of that. I
always wonder in my cartoon mind, if Jesus was stretching up
behind His tip of His toes to reach an avocado or an orange to
pull down, and He stretched His skin too far, did light shoot
out? I'm kidding. Be happy you're not me. Inside He's,
He's... God is light. Of course He was all human, yet without
sin. But He was transfigured. There's a day coming when the
one who transforms will transform you and I. The Bible
says, in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye. But church,
we want to make sure that our will is something that we make a
firm and absolute decision upon. Because Proverbs 23, verse 7
says, "For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." You will
become like that which you think about the most. Only you know
the answer to this. What is it that occupies your mind? That's
who you are, and that's what you will become. And so God's desire
is for all of us to present ourselves to Him and say, "Lord,
here I am. I'm all yours. I give you my body. I give you my mind.
I give you my very spirit. My born again, the new me. And
until I see you face to face, God, I pray that you would
assemble me to live for you in harmony." That the body would
have its right place. It is now the subject by which I execute
the will of God in my life. God says this in the Bible. I make a
determination based upon my will. I will obey God.
JACK: Wow. Okay, so the occupation of the mind. What a
powerful truth. God's Word is for us. And it's important for
you and I to know this. That we must give our will to God by the
act of willing that. Meaning, I surrender. A Lot of people today
talk about, you know, have faith and and tell God what you're
going to do. And no, no, no, no, listen. I want to take the
capacity of my free moral agency to choose, and I want to submit
it to the will of God. I wa- I want my will under His will. And
that's going to be an act of war against my flesh. So, friends,
that's a good thing. If you don't have a fight in you and
against yourself and you claim to be a Christian, something's
wrong. It is a glorious battle at all times. And so I have to
take my life and present it to Him as a form of sacrifice or
worship. And to do that, I have to get my body and my spirit and
my will aligned with God's will. That's what I want to do, is
live my life for God that way. So remember, He wants all of us
to yield our will to Him. So I want to encourage you today, my
friends, to give all of yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no better way. There's nothing greater to do. In fact,
let's do it now. Dear Lord Jesus, we ask you to receive our
surrendered will to you. We ask you to control us, to take us
and to seize us. And Lord, bring us in alignment with your will.
We pray in Jesus' name. Friends, listen, if you want more
information on how you can grow your walk with Jesus, you can go
to jackhibbs.com. You can connect with us there, Facebook,
Instagram, various social media sites. But we're all about
bringing you the Word of God. So God bless you. Until next time.
ANNOUNCER: You are watching Real Life with Jack Hibbs.
ANNOUNCER: What do you do when you've been treated unfairly?
When someone wrongs you, abuses their power, or betrays your
trust? When God seems silent in your pain? In "A Tale of Three
Kings," Gene Edwards weaves the biblical stories of Saul, David,
and Absalom into a powerful narrative about surrender,
trust, and finding peace in the midst of suffering. This
timeless book speaks to anyone who has experienced hurt,
disappointment, or conflict. Whether in relationships, the
workplace, or even the church. Through these pages, you'll
discover the true strength isn't found in retaliation, but in
surrendering to God's will. If you're wrestling with
unfairness, brokenness, or heartbreak, this book will offer
wisdom, healing, and a new perspective. "A Tale of Three
Kings" is our thank you gift for your donation of any
size to Real Life. Visit jackhibbs.com or call
877-777-2346 to request your copy. Order now.
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ANNOUNCER: The preceding program was sponsored by generous
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