Luke 12:1-12

When all else fails, Jesus wants to be our friend that sticks closer than a brother. An intimacy that is hard to comprehend. Jesus knows everything about us, and yet, He still wants to forgive us when we sin, and save us from eternal sorrow and death.

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

Today on Real life radio, Jesus calling us friends.
He’s reaching out to us and he’s saying, listen, here’s the deal. We’re in the family.
Now, my blood, my message, the gospel has brought you into the family.
I call you friends and that is to be a love relationship. This is real life.
Welcome to real life radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay.
Thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn and are challenged by God’s word the Bible on today’s edition of Real Life Radio.
Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Gospel of Luke with a message titled Christian when all else fails.
Part two. Now, this series on the Gospel of Luke gives us both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus as only Luke, the physician could really do here.
Now, as we continue in chapter 12, we’re reminded how Jesus knows and sees all things including our hearts and never contradicts himself.
You see Jesus warns us of the nature of hypocrisy. It’s like yeast hidden inside the batter, right?
There’s nothing covered that won’t be revealed nor hidden that will not be made known.
Jesus does not want us to be like the religious leaders, judgmental and legalistic.
They looked holy and religious on the outside. But Jesus looks at the heart.
So today on this part of the message, Pastor Jack tells us that when all else fails, Jesus wants to be our friend that sticks closer than a brother.
That’s pretty close. It’s an intimacy that’s hard to comprehend.
Jesus knows everything about us and yet he still wants to forgive us when we sin and save us from eternal sorrow and death.
Now, before we jump into today’s message, I want to remind you that all sorts of resources for your spiritual growth are available at Jack Hibbs dot com.
Things like devotions, podcasts, interviews, previous messages, special events, all this and a lot more available at Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. Now with his message called Christian, when all else fails.
Part two, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. When all else fails.
Luke chapter 12 verses one through 12 in the Bible there.
If you’ll mark that spot, uh Jesus is going to speak to them some very, very strong, very listen, convicting but comforting words and we do well to pay close attention.
It says there that in the meantime, verse one, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another.
He began to say to his disciples.
First of all, beware of the 11 of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy for, there is nothing covered that will not be revealed nor hidden, that will not be made known.
Therefore, whatever you have spoken in the dark, it will be heard in the light and what you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms, it will be proclaimed on the house tops.
But I say to you verse four, my friends do not be afraid of those who can kill the body and afterward have no more than that they can do to you.
But I will show you whom you should fear.
Fear Him, who after has killed has the power to cast into hell.
Yes, I say to you fear Him are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins and not one of them is forgotten before God.
That is the sparrows. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered, do not fear.
Therefore, you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Also, I say to you, whoever confesses me before men Him, the son of man will also confess before the angels of God.
But he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of God, that’s Jesus speaking of himself, it will be forgiven Him.
But to him who blasphemy or speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven Him.
Now, when they bring you to the synagogues, Magistrates or the authorities do not worry about or what you should answer or what you should say.
Verse 12, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour. What you ought to say?
Why is Jesus saying this? Now verse one there announces, makes a very important little uh statement in the meantime, or in the meanwhile, some of your Bible say and the meaning what in all of the events of chapter 11.
And it was a tremendous chapter. Chapter 11. Jesus is doing great miracles. He’s instructing his disciples about prayer.
Jesus is preaching the Kingdom of God all in the presence of enemies. Yes, there were those hearing.
Obviously a great multitude was listening, but Jesus was proclaiming the Kingdom of God and the enemies were those who were of the organized religious group, they were against him, they were attacking, they were trying to undermine, they even sought how they might kill him by catching him in his words and getting him arrested and then condemning him to death in the midst of all that Jesus was doing.
You would think that people would have laid down their garments and lifted their hands in praise and said, thank you God of heaven and earth for sending us your son.
You would have thought their hearts would have swung wide open to believe in Him and church.
This is an amazing thing about what Jesus is announcing because number one is the fact that what we say, you know, Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks what comes out of our mouths is what’s in our hearts.
We don’t like to hear that.
We don’t want to hear that when we say things, look, when we say things that are sweet and wonderful and great, then, then that’s fine.
But have you heard something be blurted out of your mouth?
And you wish that you could just catch it before it went into somebody’s ears. We’ve all had that happen.
You look at me so piously right now.
I know you have, we’ve all done that and Jesus is saying that everything that man speaks, uh it will be accounted for in the judgment of God.
God knows everything he hears it all. And that should send a little bit of terror into our hearts.
And so it should, but as he goes on to this teaching, he’s announcing some very tender words that I’m wondering if you’ve picked up on as we’ve looked at chapter 12 verses one through 12.
Last time together. It is important this morning that you understand something here. Is there a day of judgment? Yes.
For believer and non believer alike, for the believer, it’s not a day of judgment, determining your uh in heaven or not, that was settled, has nothing to do with being evicted from heaven that was taken care of.
The believer will go through a judgment as to what did we do after having come to Christ in our bodies in this life for the glory of God.
Did we invest in the kingdom of God? And I don’t mean money. I don’t mean money.
Only our resources, our time, our energy are we committed to the things of God?
Do we take Jesus Christ seriously? And what the Bible has to say.
In other words, Jesus is saying to us, I don’t want you to be like those religious hypocrites, these people who are attacking, judging everybody.
We’ve called them before. In times past sins, sniffers and fault finders.
He says, I want you to be like that. I want you to know me.
I don’t want you to be involved in religion. I want you to be involved in a relationship with me.
And you’re going to hear this in a moment as he announces to his disciples about a friendship.
He wants us to be friends with him. So wait a minute, Jack, what are you saying?
I thought we’re supposed to be in fear of him. Technically not scared of him.
The word fear means in reverential awe. We are to be in awe of God.
Yes, but we’re to be his friend and he wants to be our friend. Yes.
There’s a holy balance that meet head on that makes for a relationship between the savior and those he has saved those he has extended his life and love and salvation to.
And so as we looked at this before Christian, when all else fails. Where do we go?
What do we do? You know, I got to tell you when I was given this message last time together with you, I had no idea that I would be the one failing in a matter of an hour.
You know, I was talking about when all else fails.
Remember our God is all knowing verses one and 3123 there. And uh I talked about also compassion.
I talked about God being so kind and gentle to us.
And when I love how kind the Lord is to us.
But when we’re sick, when we’re wounded, I told you guys, I said, remember if you’re sick or wounded or if you’re hurting, you want a doctor who cares for you who’s gentle, you want to have a nurse who’s very, very kind to you.
I just didn’t know that I would be with a doctor and a nurse how God causes us to live, to live the messages he gives us.
Uh number one thing we saw last time and we just glean over it is remembering that our God knows all Jesus is announcing that regarding judgment and this life here.
And now that He knows everything that God even knows about the sparrows that fall from the sky.
And in that we remember this, that He knows our hearts.
We saw that in uh verses one and two that God knows our hearts. There’s nothing hidden from Him.
We saw in verse three also that we remember that He knows our life, the very life that he’s given us.
So how should we be responding to that? That God knows everything. And so we can rest in Him.
Thirdly, we saw that He knows what motivates us, the motive of why we do what we do.
He said in verse three, what you have spoken in the ear, in the inner rooms? That’s a whisper.
Hey, do you know what he says? It’s going to be proclaimed from the house, stops. Jesus is warning us.
Now, remember in the mixed multitude of those who were listening, there were his disciples standing there, there are also those who didn’t want anything to do with them.
And there are those who wanted to actually attack him.
And then secondly, we saw that we need to rest.
Not only remember verses 1 to 3, but verses 4 to 7 to rest rest.
Our God is in all places, Jesus is announcing to us also in verses 4 to 7 that God is present.
The soul king David wrote, where can I flee from your presence?
Now, normal mind would be thinking, why would you want to flee from God’s presence?
You don’t want to flee from God’s presence unless you have something to hide, right?
What did Jonah remember Jonah was in the presence of God? What did Jonah do?
He went down to got on a boat and he tried to take off, heading towards Spain Tarsus, that region of the world to run from God.
He had a great theological understanding come upon him.
God is in the Mediterranean God is in a, a merchant vessel, God’s there.
So then Jonah thanks guys, throw me overboard. The reason why the storm is the way that it is.
All this stuff is happening because the fact of the matter is, it’s my fault.
I’m not listening to my God. I’m disobeying him. If you throw me over, everything is going to be fine.
And that was kind of a sad moment. You guys remember the story. They were kind of arguing.
They didn’t want to throw him over.
They, they, they went down to straws and over the side goes, Jonah, the storm ceases immediately.
What else does Jonah find out in this theological journey that not only did the Lord prepare a great fish to swallow Him, but while he was in the belly of that great fish, God began to speak to him.
God is in the belly of a great fish. God is everywhere.
Notice this, please don’t misunderstanding God is not everything.
The trees are not God, the rocks are not God, but God is everywhere. You can’t run from Him.
Do you feel like today you’ve run from Him or you feel like today you’ve lived your life distance from God that you don’t know Him, that you have some uh uh salt and pepper seasoning as it were of religion.
But you can’t say you really know him. Oh, yes. You cry out to him when things go rough.
When the earth begins to shake, or the fires come too close, you call out to God.
But on a day to day basis, you don’t consult him. You’re not looking to him.
You’re not in his word to get his direction. Jesus is not condemning you this morning.
He’s saying I want you to get away from that because that’s pure religion and I want you to come and find a pure relationship in me and with me and so he speaks these tremendous things and he also encourages us that we can rest in the midst of suffering.
We can rest. You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching once again, here’s Pastor Jack versus 4 to 5.
Note it with me and this is where we kind of want to hang for just a little bit here because it is so incredibly tender.
And I say to you notice your Bible, the letters are written in red. It’s the voice of God.
My friends do not be afraid of those who kill the body and afterward have no more that they can do unto you.
But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear Him. Capital H in your Bible in the Greek.
It’s a reference to the deity of God fear God who after he has killed or allows or presides over watches.
Let’s say someone be martyred, someone is killed for their faith.
God sees that but note this has power to cast into hell. Yes, I say to you fear Him.
What is Jesus announcing that? Number one as a believer? We can rest.
Oh Christian, I want you to do this because it’s meaningful and uh it’s powerful when God says rest.
Uh you know the word in the Hebrew, peace or rest interchangeable Shalom. It’s the greeting. Shalom.
Be at rest, be at peace. Peace to you, rest to you.
It is the will of God that you and I experience the rest or the peace of God.
Listen, this world is pressuring us constantly to not know anything about that. You guys look.
Um I was uh yesterday I, I, we were driving somewhere and there was a whole foods market now.
I don’t think we have any of those around here, but I guess apparently a lot of people like whole food market because we couldn’t find a parking space.
And once we got in there, you couldn’t find a place to walk through the store and I’d never been in a whole foods market before.
Why did I go in there?
Because uh Lisa and Rebecca had said Oh, they’ve got great stuff, stuff I’m into stuff. Let’s go.
Look, I didn’t know what kind of stuff they were going.
I, I walk in first thing on the right hand sign are these, these, um, shoes that are environmentally friendly.
Well, that’s nice. And they’re made with all the natural stuff and it looks great.
They look so comfortable. I’m squeezing the sole of them. Wonderful shoes. 150 bucks for these slipper type shoes.
Not so economically friendly. I put them back looking and see all these teas.
Now, if you’re into teas, you got to look at this place because they got, they got tea for your liver, they got tea for your kidneys, they got teeth for your eyes.
They got teas for your feet.
They had teas if you’re a male teas, if you’re a female, literally, I’m not, I’m not kidding.
They had teas for everything. They had one tea and says tea to be gorgeous.
That was the name of it.
Of course, I grabbed that and looked at that has something to do with your skin.
We invest so much into now. Oh, is uh is it healthy for me?
Is it safe for me? I don’t want to eat this stuff anymore because the latest findings have proven that.
So I want to eat and drink and breathe these things. Because why?
Because we’re thinking about care, we’re thinking about health.
We’re thinking about life and thinking about preserving and living a healthy life longer. That’s great.
And may God use our healthy lives longer for His glory.
But the truth of the matter is if we spend our whole life shopping at whole food markets and being very careful and never come to know the God who made the soul that dwells within us.
We may have the healthiest body in the graveyard, but our soul is departed into hell.
And Jesus said, you don’t wanna go there.
The Bible says that hell was created for Satan and his demonic angels, it was never made for humans.
God doesn’t want us to be there.
Jesus went to the cross to die there for us in our place so that we would never have to go.
And the Bible makes it very clear that trusting in him.
And I know that sounds, you know, it sounds so simple, but to a man or a woman who is struggling with control, that’s one of the hardest things to hear.
Who’s in control. Is it the Lord or are we trying to control?
Listen to what Jesus says, maybe this will help you and let him go.
He’s there in the midst of suffering he’s promised.
And he is in John chapter 15 verse 13, Jesus said, greater love has no man than this than a man laid down his life for his friends that happens throughout every generation.
And it’s a noble thing. It’s a tremendously powerful thing. But listen to verse 14.
He says in John 15 14, you are my friends.
If you do whatever I command you henceforth, I call you not servants for the servant doesn’t know what his Lord is doing.
But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of. My father.
I have made known to you.
He said, well, Jack, I want to argue with you on that for just a moment. Jesus makes it conditional.
What do you mean? He says you are my friends.
If you do whatever I command you, well, that’s a very good argument you raise.
But the word is not uh conditional because in the Greek, the word if you do as I command also is translated.
Since you do as I command, our scholars will argue back and forth as to the meaning of the if is it since if we’re his friends and since that’s true, we will do what he says or we’ll be his friends.
If we do these things, then he comes right back and says, you’re no longer servants of mine, you’re friends of mine.
That’s what Jesus says to us. So then which is it all the, the very scripture answers it itself.
I am not speaking to you as servants.
Then it would be an if in other words, you work for me, you will do this, our, our natural response to that would be, that’s because I’m your servant.
Uh Jesus ruled that out. I’m not speaking to us servants.
Well, then we would come back and say, well, how much are you gonna pay me? Then?
It’s not about that. It’s the understanding of the word since you are my friends.
Since that’s true, you will do what I’ve commanded you. Well, how can that be?
So how can we be certain? Because listen, you cannot have a friend that you hate.
You may have, you may have a friend that you’re upset with.
You may have a friend that you have to go make up with. Jesus is calling us friends.
He’s reaching out to us and he’s saying, listen, here’s the deal.
We’re in the family now, my blood, my message, the gospel has brought you into the family.
I call you friends and that is to be a love relationship.
When we look at these things, how do you read this portion of scripture?
How do you read these verses?
Oh, I’m gonna, I’m in trouble because of the things I’ve whispered in secret in the inner chamber and it’s gonna be shouted from the listen.
Every one of us is guilty of that.
Don’t panic, give up and quit, rather surrender and say, Lord, forgive me. Now, watch this.
Lord, forgive me. I’m convicted by that.
There are things listen church, there are things you may be thinking, there are things Lord that I have said in secret that I never want to announce from any house.
Top by the way, next time you go with us to Israel, you’ll see exactly what Jesus is talking about.
It’s never changed. When someone goes up, they spend all their time on the hill top, their flat roofs, they have their barbecues up there.
They have chairs, palm trees, they sit down. It’s awesome. It’s Mediterranean life.
They’re sitting there and when somebody says something, your neighbor can hear you because those houses are close together and what you say in the what you say somewhere else.
When it says about speaking it from the house top, you don’t have to shout it too loud and it’s gonna go a long way.
Does that terrify you? Are you convicted by that? You should be? I am.
So then what should we do? Lord, forgive me?
See if he’s our friend and we are friends of the Lord.
We have a relationship and this is what it means. He says and speaks to us.
These words of love, my concern for you is like that of my father caring for sparrows.
The most numerous bird on the planet.
Sparrows, I guess in the ecosystem are hatched and given to the animal kingdom for other animals to eat sparrows.
If you come to my backyard, you will literally see that happen.
I have bird feeders all over the backyard and there’s birds everywhere. It sounds like a jungle paradise.
And then at least once a day, we have a resident that lives in our trees.
He’s called a sharp shin hawk.
And he comes through and he gets as many sparrows as he needs during the course of the day.
You see? Well, that’s mean. I don’t know if it’s mean or not.
I think the, the hawks got to eat like the spar.
I provide the seed, the sparrows come and the hawk dips his beak to me in thankfulness that’s up to God.
But God cares. God cares.
And you might be saying this morning, well, am I a friend of God? I, I don’t know.
Are you? Here’s the, the telling moment. Is it your desire to do what he’s commanded you to do?
Is that what you want to do? Yes, Jack. But listen, yes it is. But I feel so miserably.
I, I may have 10 things that God’s given me to do and I got three of them and I failed on the, on the next two.
And I got, I got the next one and I don’t know how the others are gonna go.
Listen, I understand that struggle. But let me encourage you. Do you remember before? You were a Christian?
You never had that struggle at all. You didn’t care.
In fact, you were living for your big 10 items to, to do that day.
Now you’re living for the Lord. We struggle. Yes, this flesh is weak.
I understand that Jesus says, if you love me and since you do, you’re gonna be doing those things they tell you to do.
And so that wonderful struggle that you and I have of wanting to follow God and the temptation to be derailed or pulled away from that is proof that we’re a friend of the Lord and wanting to do what God wants to know what we want.
Jesus says, you’re my friend and I love that pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called Christian.
When all else fails. Part two, you know, this series is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this World.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
Hey, have you heard about the great reset that’s coming?
Well, listen, it’s coming if you know about it or not.
And my good friend Charlie Kirk, we sat down and we had what is called a happening now session for 90 minutes.
We discussed what is coming with the new world, order, the new world currency and the great reset.
So that sit down, wound up producing a book by Charlie Kirk. It is fantastic. It’s small.
It’s basically pocket size for you to carry around.
In fact, it’d be great for you to get a copy for your friends and family.
But the great reset, it’s a Christian’s response to the great reset.
So you’re gonna want to get a copy of this and you’re gonna want to do it by going to Jack Hibbs dot com and making sure that you secure your own copy.
The Christian response to the great reset, get your copy right now.
The Christian response to the great reset by Charlie Kirk.
It’s our current featured resource and you can get it at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
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Our listeners visit us at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio.
Wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life radio.