Today on Real Life radio. But do you and I really believe in God if we do that means we would believe in His word.
And if that’s true, then we would have to say to the Lord, everything I have is yours.
And thank you for letting me borrow these things from you, God, 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 Life. According to who?
Part one. Now, this series on the Gospel of Luke is a series that gives us both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus Christ as really only Luke, the physician could do here.
Now, as we continue in chapter 12, we’ll consider the definition of life.
The human answer is based on desires and feelings. But the Bible defines life from a broader perspective.
You see the truth is we are unable to determine the definition of life.
We don’t have the, the knowledge or the authority life has been granted to us and only God can define what it is.
Still, we’ve been sold that line that what we own and how much of what we own defines our lives.
You know, that’s a dangerous belief when in reality, the world is the Lords and everything in it.
So today on this part of the message, Pastor Jack goes on to say that it’s time to ask ourselves if we see the things that we have as belonging to the Lord.
The Bible reminds us that we brought nothing into this world. And guess what? We’re gonna bring nothing out.
We can be so self absorbed that we can’t see reality and can only see to our own comforts.
Now, before we jump into today’s message, have you heard about the great reset?
Well, it’s a dangerous new world order and it concerns every American.
Really thankfully, our friend Charlie Kirk is very knowledgeable on the subject and he’s written a really good book.
It’s called The Christian Response to The Great Reset.
It’s our current featured resource and it’s available for a gift of any amount at Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. Now, in his message called life, according to who part one here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
So what defines our life? Is it the things that we have?
No, it’s not the things that we have and you and I live in a culture that’s very dangerous because our culture looks at others and says, and they make a, they make a judgment.
I can tell that he is or she is by what, by what she drives by what she looks like by the clothes, by the yard, by the house.
And God doesn’t care because you can have the best of the best and be lost on the inside.
You can be so miserable. Let’s be honest, please.
Those of you who are just kind of resisting everything I’m saying right now, don’t you think if materialism without God is the greatest thing in the world, then don’t you think we’d all be at the doorsteps drooling right now in Bel Air, Malibu and all of these places just down the road here in Hollywood.
Because if they’ve got the money, the money must be translated into value and it must be then brought into peace and love and happiness and meaning then it would mean that the rich are happy and the rich are the most unhappy people.
Why? Because they grab that golden ring and they make it all the way to the top and then they find out they’re just as empty as they were at the beginning.
It is, listen, it is a trap.
You see Jack, are you saying that none of us should have any money at all whatsoever?
I’m not saying that at all.
I’m saying this, you can’t acquire money or things, blessings from God and then turn and say, well, look at all the stuff I have.
I got to build bigger barns. I gotta, to store this stuff. I gotta to hoard it up.
Could it be that God has blessed you because He wants you to become a conduit for what he’s given you rather than turning into a little God yourself and ho hoarding it all up for your little kingdom.
Think about it. He has blessed you to give it away.
He’s blessed you to help others to better those in the church that are hurting to get the word of God out.
It’s an amazing thing. Or if we don’t, we will be a covetous people.
We will hoard it up and keep it to ourselves.
You know, this covetousness also.
I said earlier that it could be the route to all sin.
It was the route to what happened with Eve in the garden. She was in the garden.
You know the story, the Bible tells us there in Genesis 36 that when she saw that it was good for food.
Now, look, Satan didn’t come up and say if you don’t pick that fruit, I’m gonna shoot you.
He didn’t come up and say if you don’t pick that fruit, I’m gonna bite you.
Satan came up and said, hey, look at that, you know, the day you eat of it, you’ll be like a God.
Really? Hm. Well, I’m looking at it. It’s pretty cute.
I think I’d like to have that. It’s good.
It’s nice for the ice to look at and it’s pleasurable for the taste.
I mean, it looks like it tastes really good. Notice what’s happening here.
She’s being tempted and now she starts to think what’s in it for me.
And then she says, and to make one wise, yeah, I’ll be wiser than Adam.
I’m gonna do it.
She takes the fruit picks of it and eats it. The fruit wasn’t poisoned.
The fruit didn’t have skull and cross bones on it inside her heart.
She began to covet what Satan said, it would give her.
And this has become so subtle in our lives that people will come up and say something to us.
And before we even think we conclude, we make an assessment. Yeah, that’s what I want.
In fact, I’ll take two of them and we never follow it through.
It’s dangerous. This man in the midst of Jesus.
So don’t tell me it can’t happen, sided with himself and with his desires.
It’s amazing. Also Jesus says in verse 15, because of one’s life, it does not consist in the abundance of the things that he has.
Is it more better? Not necessarily to the Lord? These things can kill us, it can be dangerous.
It can wipe us out. The amazing thing also is this to keep in mind my friend Paul the apostle, you can read about it later in Romans chapter seven.
And in Romans chapter eight, regarding covetousness, it, it seems from Paul’s own writings, the Apostle Paul that he did not see his need for Jesus Christ to be his forgive or his savior.
Until in Romans chapter seven, beginning at verses seven through eight, Paul, the Apostle said, I didn’t know that I was a covetous man until I read the law and it said, thou shalt not covet.
And when that happened, he said sin revived in me, I saw my transgression and I died.
In other words, he was convicted.
The apostle Paul appears to have been converted to Christ on the conviction of the Holy Spirit in the area of covetousness, a man so righteous, a man so good in so many areas.
But a man, I think according to his own words, who coveted and it’s a dangerous thing.
It happened to Eve, it happened to Paul. It happens to us. Secondly, what defines your life? Is it volume?
Is it, how much is it in the volume of what you and I have Americans have more stuff.
I wish I would have gotten statistics. How many TV. S do we have in our houses?
And now they’re making TV. S so you can wear on your watch. What is that?
And now you got to count your computer like a TV, because you can watch TV.
How many computers do you have stuff? He said, I don’t know. And I know how that goes.
I went and bought something not too long ago, brought it home and I had the, I had the thing in my garage.
I already owned it. That’s pretty sick. That’s pretty bad.
But I need, I really need that. I already had one.
We have so much and we know we’re in trouble when we have so much of volume that we look at our, our shirts and stuff and we’ve got, you know, 30 shirts, but we only wear like about seven of them.
What are we doing to all those other things? I don’t know.
You know, I just, I stop right there because of this message.
We need to get them all bound up and either get them to the Salvation Army or get them somewhere as we’re getting updates from the mountain top and as we’re getting ready to be deployed, you’ll hear more about that.
Maybe that’s where those, those older shirts or pants or whatever. But we hoard it up.
He said I would never hoard things up. How many shoes do you have? And how many do you wear?
Well, I’ve got like 20 pair but I wear three. Think about it.
Yeah, but I might need it some day. Let God worry about that.
It begins to creep into our lives. It’s kind of scary. The volume of things.
Verses 16 and 17 regarding the volume.
Then he spoke, Jesus did a parable to the people and he said, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
That word means more than what he needed.
And he thought within himself saying, what should I do since I have no more stuff or no more room to store my crops.
Wow. Volume. Wow. I’m rich and I’m gonna get richer.
Jesus warned against these things to watch out for them material things really don’t have, listen, any value.
They really don’t watch this material things really have no value but that which the holder or the beholder places upon it.
You can take a gold nugget and go to the Sahara desert and you can have a loaf of bread or a gold nugget.
I promise you at the end of the day, you’ll be holding a gold nugget because the people will have taken the bread.
Tell me which one is more important when you live in a world as I do that is detached from reality.
Then we begin to think that amassing things is security, amassing things is comfort, amassing things is smart.
According to God’s economy, it is not a smart thing to do.
And we don’t want to hear this stuff. Has God blessed you praise the Lord.
How is it being used to the glory of God?
What you and I have, you know somebody, well, not that somebody Charles Spurgeon wrote years ago that are checkbooks and I know very few people use checkbooks anymore.
I mean, now it’s your online account your wireless transaction. Your checkbook doesn’t lie.
What do I value in my life?
You should be able to open up my checkbook or go to my computer banking account and it will tell you what I value where I invest my resources is what matters to me.
Question, is it eternal things of God that will last forever?
Or is it stuff of this world that if you have God bless you just use it to His glory.
Don’t give it up because I guess uh you know, for me to get saved, I got to give away my car.
That’s not how you get saved. But just understand this, your car belongs to the Lord.
Everything you have, everything I have belongs to him.
Has he brought it your way then use it to His glory.
Well, Spurgeon said our check, our checkbooks cannot lie.
There’s a lot of truth to that. The volume of what I have.
Listen to this first Timothy six verse six.
Now Godliness that is knowing God with contentment is great gain or wealth for.
We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we will carry nothing out. Did you hear that everybody?
You didn’t bring anything when you came in?
You’re not going to take it out when you leave. That’s a fact.
I know we, we think we’re taking it with us.
Get an 18 wheeler behind the hearse not going to happen.
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 and having food and clothing with these things.
We should be content. But those who desire to be rich, fall into temptations and snares and into many foolish and harmful lust which drown men in the destruction.
And the tradition of their souls.
For the love of money is the route to all kinds of evil which some having strayed from the faith in their greediness have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But you old man flee these things and pursue righteousness. Godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Wow.
Thirdly, under this point, what defined your life life according to who?
Well, let’s talk about my life or your life. What defines our lives?
Is it the dreams of what can be, you know, someday when I win the lottery some day, when you win the lottery, 74% of the people who do turn out being drug, drug addicted alcoholics, ruin families and wind up being broke.
How in the world can that be possible?
But it happens apparently, God is not into lotteries because 74% of the people who get them crash 10 years afterwards.
Amazing dreams. Well, when my ship comes in, what does that mean?
When your ship comes in if it’s not to the glory of God, it’s gonna sink.
When my, well, when I stir, I get rich.
When you strike dreaming, dreaming, watch out because you can affix your life’s existence to the day that your ship comes in and that’s no way to live.
Verse 18. So he said, speaking of the man, I will do this, I will pull down my barns and build greater runs and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
Verse 19 is scary. And I will say to my soul.
So you have many good things laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. Wow.
First of all, if you’re giving advice to yourself, it’s a pretty scary thing.
My my, I’m so rich. Listen to this guy. Wow. Ok.
He tells his servants tear down the barns. We got to build bigger ones instead of my barns full.
I need to give this to my neighbors, my barns full.
I need to give this to the church, my barns full.
I need to give you fill in the blank as God leads you. No, no, no, not this guy.
He can’t think this way because all he can think about is not the kingdom that will exist after his life.
He’s only thinking about the kingdom that’s right in front of his nose.
He’s got no concept that he can start investing in the future eternally, by investing in the things of God.
He can only see to his own comfort. That’s how he defines his life.
And he says to his soul, soul.
Now you listen to me, we’ve got a lot of stuff laid up for many years.
It’s gonna be great, eat, drink and be married. That verse is found in Isaiah.
Does anybody know how that rest of that verse goes?
The guy forgot the last part of the verse God said to Israel. You don’t listen to me.
You do your own thing. You won’t pay any attention to me and you’ve got all this wealth that I’ve given you.
You have forgotten about me and you say we’re not going to follow God and when you turn around and you declare we’re going to eat, drink and be merry.
The verse says next for tomorrow we die as though it’s over that humanistic thinking.
Come on, man, look out for number one. Grab all the gusto you can live for yourself.
All that stuff never looks past the nose.
The people who think what’s in it for me never looks past their nose to realize that God wants humans to say, you know what?
Thank you very much. How can I help the person that’s next door to me or my husband or my wife or my kids?
And how can I help this community? I’ve got enough.
You said no, Jack there in lies the problem. I don’t have enough.
You know why you and I don’t have enough because of greed because God has already said if I have food and clothes, I should be content.
I don’t want to bum you out. But the US economy is going to crash.
It’s a matter of time and it’s not going to be that far off the way things are going, the US dollar, it’s going down.
Those of you who are investors, you are already putting money into Europe, into China and India. Why?
Because you’re protecting yourself against it.
W what, what, what you guys, this is why church is going to become even more important as time goes on to love one another.
If I’m loving you, Chuck, if you’re loving me and if I’m loving you, I’m gonna Chuck. Is that sure?
Are you warm enough, Chuck? Are you OK? You wanna use my shoes today?
You guys that could happen?
Hey, we need each other and our love for one another should start growing and why?
Wait, I just don’t have enough. We’ve gotten ourselves in trouble because of greed and covetousness.
What we need to do now is be able to say, Lord, thank you so much for the pants and the shirt and the shoes.
Thank you so much for what you’ve given and Lord God, whatever I have, I stand ready to help others around me.
Do your possessions own you or do you own them?
Makes all the difference in the world and how you dream about them, look at them and are concerned about them.
And then fourth under this point is this you guys, how do we defend or how do we define?
I should say our lives. Is it in the God lower g is it in the God of our making?
You say no, what is that? The God of our making? I’m a Christian. I believe in God.
What are you talking about? Verse 20?
But God said to him full this night, your soul will be required of you then whose will those things be which you have provided?
So is he who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God?
This is absolutely terrifying. Jesus is announcing here that covetousness causes us to build altars of worship.
When something controls our worship, we spend our time thinking about it.
We spend money on it is pleasure. Is it entertainment?
Whatever we bow down to it.
You see, I, I I’m not bowing down to anything.
I’m speaking spiritually, Jesus is saying, be careful because if you’re not rich this morning toward God, you’re a fool says the Lord.
Why? Because at any second, you guys, this is amazing. These are banking terms in the Greek language.
He says your soul could be required of you. What does that mean? You guys?
The word required here is a word that it just jars me.
It means that your time has come to give an accounting.
It means to call into account your investment.
It means to review or audit what was given to you to handle God will say to every human being.
Now, now is your moment? Excuse me, God, I’m right in the middle of building bigger barns.
Your soul is required of you tonight. And what will it be like?
The word used? Simple question, the life that I’ve given you and the 73 years that were yours?
How did you invest my gift to you?
You cannot stop in that moment and say, I’m sorry. Did you say your gift to me?
Because I thought I made it. I went to U C L A, I earned it. I became a doctor.
I made all this money. I, you’ll say nothing like that.
God will say I, I’ve, I’ve called you here today.
I’m doing accounting and I need to see what you did with what I gave you.
He’s gonna ask me of, he’s gonna ask me that. He’s gonna ask you that.
You said Jack, I don’t believe in God. He’s gonna ask you. He’s gonna ask us.
And in that moment, there will be no lying in his presence. There will be no storytelling.
He’ll know everything and so he’ll call to accounting everything.
Verse 20 tells me has been loaned that I have. It’s not mine.
So is he who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God. I’ve never owned it.
He’s only let us use it.
And so the litmus test church, listen, be silent. Don’t say anything.
Just let it sink in. Why are material things so important to us?
Because material things on the surface appear to bring us comfort, security, dependence, acceptance status appearance.
Why do we put so much value on material things? Power, acknowledgement, meaning attention position.
Why or I should say are all material things bad? No, it’s just your appraisal of them.
It’s in that moment that I appraise something to be mine.
To bring me meaning and purpose is when I begin to store up a treasure here on earth.
When I look at that car or that account or that person or all that I’ve accomplished and I stand there and I get satisfaction out of it.
Oh my. Look what I have done you and I have done nothing but that God has given us the ability and the gift.
Colossians 3 23 and whatever you do do it wholeheartedly as unto the Lord, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance.
What is the inheritance? Matthew 1929?
The inheritance is eternal life through Jesus Christ, pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called Life.
According to who part one, you know, this series, the gospel of Luke is 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.
So good to see my friend, Pastor Jack sitting in the studio with me. Good to see you, my friend.
It’s great to see you again. Always.
So we had our buddy Charlie Kirk in to do a uh a happening now segment and um there’s a book coming out of that.
Tell me about it. Would you? Yeah.
By the way, we’ve done it a few times that sit down with Charlie Kirk literally changed.
Um The way that Charlie is identified publicly.
And what I mean by that is this Charlie said that wherever he goes now, uh they say, hey, you’re the, you’re the great reset guy.
Uh because listen, we have to date, I think, well, over 1.5 million views on that get together.
And um so yeah, is a great thing what Charlie did.
He took 90 minutes and he, he uh brought it down to a pocket sized reference book and it is very, very powerful and everybody’s gonna want to get a copy because let me tell you the great reset, it’s happening now it’s actually underway.
And for those of you who don’t know about it, you need to get a copy of this book and uh learn about it because it’s here.
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.
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you.
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.