Scars – Jack Hibbs

The trials, hardships, and tribulations you’ve experienced have brought you to a new place of strength and understanding. The scars you bear are a testament to the experiences God has seen you through. In today’s episode, Pastor Jack encourages you to use your scars as a testimony and let perseverance finish its work in you.

This Real Life TV program is taken from a recent teaching by Pastor Jack. It has been formatted for TV and contains some additional material. We hope you gain new insights as you enjoy this message.

Well, hey, my friends. Listen, the Bible says in the book of James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4, and this is powerful stuff.
So true. The Bible says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds.
Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. That perseverance is an endurance.
It is a, an ability to continue on long and hard in the things of life with god.
So listen, what’s your story? We all have one. Every single one of us right now can reiterate some story.
But what does god brought you through.
Those are the stories that so often make for tremendous, tremendous testimonies as believers.
So as you consider that, the fact that difficulty trials and hardships is something that the Bible anticipates.
The Bible in structure on how to deal with these things. It doesn’t ignore them.
It doesn’t gloss over them.
The Bible is the only book in the world that gives you the literal answer.
So, listen, the best thing that you and I can do is let perseverance finish its work so that you and I may grow more mature and complete not lacking anything in our Christian experience.
So grab your Bibles. Let’s dive into a message that we are titling scars.
We’ve all got them, but how do we handle them?
And when we look at them, by the way, do they bring us down?
Or have we come to the place that when we look at our scars?
It tells us that we’ve been brought through a situation that god was faithful And this scar is more like a badge rather than something of defeat.
Scars, we all have them. But god wants to make them great victories in our life.
What are you gonna do?
You cling to Christ? What are you gonna do when the doctor makes announcement.
You cling to Christ, and it’s not, you know, listen, it’s not such a I understand none of us wanna go through any pain.
We’re all on the same team on that. Okay?
If we could just die, just and then we open up Verizon. We’re in heaven.
I don’t want needles. I’m not afraid of dying. I’m I don’t wanna get there.
But his grace will be there.
He’s promised us his grace, but, you know, listen, we’re going to heaven.
Now the Bible doesn’t say much about heaven.
Just enough, Paul the Apostle, we infer from his writings, it says that I know a man who was killed and who was caught up to heaven and saw things that is not legal for a man to speak of they were so glorious.
It’s so amazing Paul said, I’m not gonna talk about the glory.
It’s illegal for human words to describe it. It’s so awesome. Them. So you think about that.
How can that possibly be? CS Lewis tries to describe such differences from lostness and redemption.
And he talks roughly this way.
He says, you know, concerning what god is going to do with us, who trust in Christ, he said, consider a cow How bad can a cow be?
A cow? You know, black and white cow? How bad can a cow be?
How good can a cow be? This is the cow being bad?
It’s the cow being good. Looks black and white to me.
What about a dog? Can a dog be a little bit worse than a cow?
Can the dog be a little bit good better than a cow?
I think way better than a cow. I mean, I I don’t know.
Um, we’ve had 3 dogs in our lives. They’ve all been born again. Amazing.
They exhibit the fruit of the spirit. Like, I’ve not seen in people.
But the more you emanate out from that, the more risk it gets, how bad can an angel be?
How good can an angel be? Wait a minute.
Angels were not created in the image of god. We were. How good can we be?
How bad can we be?
When Christ comes back to get us, he’s taking us to you and I being the absolute perfect, will, and expressed image of god like Jesus was here on Earth He’s going to glorify us.
The Bible says, we’ll get to this later in this chapter.
You guys, we have an amazing future.
This earth is not, you know, man, I gotta grab up a gust though I can’t because I I could die tomorrow because it’s lit up.
Man, you need to get a heavenly perspective You don’t understand.
Living it up with Christ is coming. It’s amazing.
The Bible tells us in Philippians chapter 3 verse 10, a very dear verse to me personally.
I didn’t understand standard for years until, frankly, I went through a bunch of suffering.
And it’s Philippians 310, and I have to tell you before I went through something.
This is how I read the Philipp 310 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
Wow. What a verse. I’m honestly tear don’t tell anybody I’m telling you. This is personal.
What does the rest of the verse say?
And the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. What?
What is that? I never read the whole thing. You know what?
You know why this verse had become dear to me for for life?
We were a little home fellowship group in Chino Hills and a couple of houses, and we decided to host a Sunday Easter Sunrise service at the park.
We had no idea what we were doing. And hundreds of people showed up.
We were completely blown away.
We were talking about all the stuff that God had done that day, And later that evening, we’re at Mark and Mary’s house, and we’re talking is amazing.
And I’ve and we’re and I felt this What was that?
I felt like I got a bee sting inside my inside my guts. It was like, what was that?
And then have it again. And I totally said, I have to go home.
So I I just walked across the street or house.
And, um, frankly, I started going to the bathroom, and I didn’t stop for 9 months.
And I was in the hospital.
And I was going through every test you can imagine, And the pain is increasing, and it’s not a happy picture.
And I lost 30 something pounds and I was going anemic. I couldn’t keep anything in.
And so now they’re telling me, well, it looks like you have either stomach or colon cancer.
Uh, but we’re sending it to this specialist, and then they did this again. And I don’t know.
You know, doctors do Doctor. Joe does the test on Monday, but Doctor Phil, he’s gonna have that same test done on Thursday because he doesn’t trust Doctor.
Joe’s. So it’s like, it’s just my body. Who cares? Just do your you know what I’m saying?
And it’s just like after a while, you’re just like this. Right?
And then you get to the point when you’re looking at Philipp 310, and I remember saying, I’m good.
Whatever you’re doing. I’m good with it. Everybody sprayed for me. My company Baxter they were amazing.
They broke all kinds of rules to keep me still employed because I missed months of work.
And I resigned. That’s it. God, you’re so good. You’re amazing.
And he spoke to my heart. I didn’t hear a voice, but he spoke to my heart.
He said, that’s you’d love this verse. But you’ve never read it all the way through.
This is what I’m doing in your life.
And then it dawned on me right then and there.
Lord, if you’re putting me through this suffering, then you have a plan. Friend, are you suffering?
Are you going through something? It’s not the end. He has a plan.
Who won’t wanna know what it is? He’s not gonna tell you. That takes faith.
If he told you, it wouldn’t take any faith. I wanna see all the I wanna see everything.
Not gonna happen. Abraham went out following god, not knowing where he was going. How’s that?
Abraham gets an a. Sara gets 2 a’s. Can you imagine Sarah follow me? Where are we going?
I have no idea. And she followed him. So both of them amazing.
He says also regarding verse 18 is that we have to have the right perspective.
And the word there is are not worthy that these difficulties are not worthy to be compared.
The word worthy is Axios and here it’s in the negative sense, obviously, if you look at this.
But the word is announcing that what heaven awaits us to enjoy that there’s nothing on earth that you can compare it to.
Um, it’s not in the same league. It’s not weighty compared to where we’re going.
So as we wrap this up, you need to be thinking, are you going to heaven? Where are you?
Do you listen, If you’re inside your head, if you’re today saying, I think I’m good. Don’t think you’re good.
The Bible says you are to know that you’re good. I don’t mean good good. I mean, good. Secure.
And know this. You can’t get to heaven by any good deeds of your own.
The Bible says. Well, what about all the nice stuff I’ve done? Good. Good. That’s it. Good.
Good for you. But doesn’t that get me into heaven? Nope.
You can’t get to heaven by being good.
You get to heaven by being washed in his blood.
You get to heaven by trusting him and leaning upon him.
And then he goes on, and we’ll wrap it up here.
This is where we’ll end is that we’re to be looking forward to what I call the beginning.
What god has in store for us, he announces here with the glory, which shall be revealed in us, the glory.
What an amazing thing. Doxah. It’s where we get the word Doxology. You’ve heard that term.
Give us or present the Doxology.
Ology, words, biology, words about bio, right, uh, ology, is the study of, or you could say words of Daxa, the words of glory.
We should be talking, by the way, about the words of glory, the things of glory, the book of glory.
Because that’s where we’re going.
And what is gonna be revealed in us, this world cannot this world cannot cast a shadow upon in its most grotesque suffering.
Uh, this I speak to you by faith.
I don’t understand what I’m about to say, but I believe the Bible. How in the world?
Will god make right?
Somebody who brutally rapes a one year old child to death.
If I were god, I know exactly how I would deal with it before that event even got started.
Are you hearing me? What does any do? Something about it is our earthly question. I get it.
Can you imagine weight? It’s not just him.
Can you imagine god holding the angels back at bay who they would delight to kill that perpetrator?
In a second, and god says, wait. I don’t understand it.
Somehow, some way god is gonna be glorified, and that those who have been victims god is going to vindicate I don’t understand it, but we’re talking about heaven here, but it’s so horrible in the now.
Listen. It might get worse. Well, It will get worse according to the Bible.
It’s just gonna make heaven all that more weighty for us.
We need to stop looking at the here and now as the terminus.
We’re all hurt in some ways regarding something.
But this I’ve learned in a very tiny way, what I’ve gone through in other areas It was necessary for what he wanted to speak to me about.
And then he always lays this on me because he’s really loving is are you are you willing to go through this, Jack?
That somebody might get saved.
Are you willing to go through this right now so that others might grow in Jesus?
How do you answer him when he says that to you? Yes.
No. I have to confess it makes things beautifully, perfectly in perspective.
Are you willing to suffer through this so that others might know? Yes, sir.
The glory of heaven, I wanna remind all of you.
Heaven is gonna be awesome. According to the Bible, I probably should put it this way.
Some time ago, somebody was listening to our program on the radio in LA, and they came, And they were they were horrifically offended and upset, and they’ll never be back here again.
You wanna know why? Because we had drums on the stage.
And everyone knows that Satan lives See that little hole right there?
And I said, have you have you read your Bible?
Yes. Of course. Have you read the Psalms? Yes. How about 1 5th Psalm 150?
Have you read Psalm 150? Psalm 150 is really a loud Psalm.
They’re a cymbal slamming There’s drums beating. There’s sound singing. The voice of people shouting.
It’s it’s like an ocean waves roaring.
God speaking, the Bible says that when Jesus speaks, it sounds like a gigantic rushing waterfall.
Heaven is loud. Well, I don’t like loud. No.
See, we get this thing. Rest in peace. May he rest in peace? Who?
Our brother who just passed? Well, he’s not resting in peace. I mean, let’s be honest.
He’s not resting in peace if he’s a brother of mine.
If he’s a brother or sister of yours, they’re not resting in peace. They’re parting in praise.
They’re worshiping god. The the praise the angels are singing. That’s loud and noisy.
So I don’t want that. Well, that’s your choice. We’re gonna have a great time up there.
And it’s gonna be amazing. I wanna leave you with this picture, everybody. Includes your bibles.
We’re all done. It’s pretty amazing. We’re on the the Mount of Beatitudes.
Now when you go to Israel, uh, there are locations where uh, you you are in the vicinity of archaeological evidence when we are in the area of Gideon Springs.
We’re pretty sure that the spring, no doubt, has been here for 1000 years.
We have all kinds of records of it, but where did Gideon and his 300 kneel down?
We don’t know or when we’re over at this site, what about this? What about that?
And this coin was found right here.
So we’re pretty Now, when we go to some sites like Magella, now you’re standing in the synagogue where Mary of Magella Mary Magdalene, stood.
They’ve entered a a flood on earth, the old synagogue, and it’s beautiful. You’ll see it when you go.
But when when you go to the mount of beatitudes up in the country in the Galilee, it’s gorgeous, by the way, and it’s very much untouched.
And, um, there’s one spot up there where it is well known and documented that that’s where Jesus gave the teaching of the beatitudes, blessed are those who, right, And, um, it’s one of the things remarkable about it, you can talk right there, and the sound just goes forever.
You can you can talk to a huge crowd, not that he needs help, but maybe Jesus used the acoustics that he created.
But the Bible says there are thousands there listening.
And so we were taking our tour and teaching the people, and we got done.
And there was a back over by the road.
There was a backhoe, you know, like a case or a John Deere back backhoe tractor.
It was all locked up, shut up. But we noticed that there were, 2 dogs tied to the tractor.
Uh, in fact, if I remember right, John Strash and Morgan Lawrence, my son-in-law, Uh, they saw the dog, and they went over there.
And the dog, the 2 dogs, one dog was in a bad way.
It was chained to the track but the other dog was loose. It was free.
But, uh, the dog didn’t wanna leave the chained up dog side.
And, uh, the dog that was chained up, if you know what a German shorthaired pointer is.
In the chain, the dog had been there so long.
I I think either the worker died or went away for the season or something, but this dog has chained to this tractor and the other dog must I’m I’m guessing how does this dog live?
There’s no food. There’s no water. And so I think his buddy was bringing him food.
I’m I’m guessing, but when they showed up, the dog ran away, but the other dogs just chained like this mortified.
And they began to calm it down, and they realized the chain had grown into the neck of the dog.
So it must have been there as a very young dog in it.
The chain So just getting that chain off is gonna be a bloody mess.
But those guys, they broke into the tractor cab, and they got out tools, and they started prying the ugly, horrible chain.
I’m talking about a construction chain, not a chain like, oh, you know, yeah, across at the end.
This is a brutal this is a chain that you chain fences with, and that dog is just there mortified, and they got in his blood and all this, but it has the incredible scar of links around its neck.
And they got him, and he took off running And then his buddy came up, and they got together, and they looked back at everybody, and they took off running.
And, really, everybody in the bus is here. Yes.
And so you think for a moment, how’d that dog get like that?
I don’t know. What was going on in that dog’s mind? I don’t know.
But that dog was not made to be tied up like that.
But a stranger came along and set him free.
He still has the scars, I’m sure, to this day, of that chain around his neck about his past, Skars are still there as a reminder, but no longer controlling them.
That dog probably won’t get near a chain again.
Bear the scars been set free.
Do we not all bear the scars, but we’ve been set free?
Don’t let your scars determine your liberty or not, your freedom or not as a believer.
Oh, my life’s been so bad. Scars that he birds into displays of glory.
It’s true about his own body.
It’s true about our testimonies and stories as believers what god has brought you through. Is it not?
So friends, scars, scars, What’s your story regarding your scar?
It could be that you got this injury here or this scab or something over here, or maybe it’s that scar in your knee from that surgery.
Yes, of course. But listen, we’re talking about the scars of life that make up for your story.
And only god can convert scars into great, great victory marches. And so it goes to this.
What is your story? Jesus Christ has been faithful through all of our sufferings to bring us hope.
What do we do when we hurt? We go to the word of god.
What do we do when we’re injured? We go to him in prayer.
Remember that Christ converts our scars into displays of glory.
And that I mentioned, uh, and alluded to before the apostle Paul, his back was scarred throughout his life.
I think of ends that I know that have been in the military who have received purple hearts as their medal because they’ve got deep scars within their flesh.
But listen, Christ suffered on the cross so that you and I might live eternally.
That’s what I want you to take away regarding scar.
The scars that Jesus received were scars to set you and I free from the power of any scar that would come into our life, the scars, and that he would convert them into great victory.
Because 3 days later, Jesus rose again from the dead.
So I just wanna encourage you and your walk in that way.
So, lord, I pray that you bless my brothers and my sisters right now as they press on with Jesus.
And so father god galvanize us in this walk of faith.
We ask it in Jesus name and all god’s people said, Amen. Well, amen to you, let’s friends.
As always, you can go to jackibs.com, where all of our teaching and materials are there for you.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. So until next time, stay close to Jesus. Amen. God bless.
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