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In today's world, standing for your faith isn't easy, but it is incredibly important. The culture is shifting fast and the pressure to stay silent is growing. In his powerful resource, Called to Take a Bold Stand, Pastor Jack Hibbs shares how believers can rise with courage in uncertain times. With biblical insight, real world examples and practical wisdom. This guide will help you speak truth with love and boldness influence culture without compromise and face fear, fear, rejection or opposition without backing down. It's time to live with bold faith, unshakeable hope and kingdom purpose. We'd love to send you a copy of Called to Take a Bold Stand as our thanks for your generous gift of any amount to Real Life. Go to jackibbs.com radio or call 877-777-2346 to request your copy today. Stand firm, be and keep your eyes on Jesus. Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast. With intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture.
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To be busted means predominantly in our culture that you got caught. We'll use the word man, you got busted. To be busted means that you know what you're doing is wrong, but you're not willing to stop it. And even though that you now have just been busted, you still might be thinking about ways in the future on how to pull it off next time more discreetly so that you don't get busted. Are you with me when you're broken? Oh, that's completely different.
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You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackibbs.com podcast today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying Amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.
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Listen, are you broken or are you busted? And this is something that we deal with in life all the time. By setting this up, everybody, I'm going to ask you to consider these verses. And by the way, it's only in Christianity, as I mentioned a moment ago, that being broken is a good thing. In Matthew chapter 21, verse 44, Jesus says something that is quite shocking. And you don't usually hear sermons preached on this. In Matthew 21:44, Jesus said, Whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but whoever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Translation Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. He's exposing them because they got Busted, but they're covering up their sins. Jesus announces regarding himself, he's saying that he's the stone. And here's the difference between being busted or broken. Whoever falls on this stone, they're going to be broken. That's a good thing. Fall on him for mercy, fall on him for grace. But on whomever it falls, what falls? The stone. Whoever the stone falls upon. When Christ has to fall upon you, it's because you've got busted, you won't repent, you won't turn away, and you won't be honest with yourself and with God. And so you're covering up your story. And Jesus said, you know what? Your life is going to end eternally being ground to powder, and it doesn't need to be that way. So, church, family, as we look at this today, I think it'd be good, as I put down in the notes, that we need to be reminded of what is known as the Romans Road right out of this great epistle. Are you ready? It starts in Romans, chapter 3, verse 23. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and falls short of the glory of God. Guess what the word in the Greek all means? Very good. It means all, all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Meaning every human being cannot meet the standard that God has set for us to enter into heaven. We can't make it. You might say, oh, man, I'm busted. And you're going to try to cover up and make some legal excuse as to why you're better than the person next to you. Or you hear that and you say, I'm broken. That just breaks me. I have nothing. The next verse is this. In Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Wow. Next verse, Romans 5:8. But God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners. That's amazing. Christ died for us in the mind of God, which is eternal. Even though Jesus died 2,000 years ago, according to biblical theology, because it was God on the cross, not some superhuman. It was God at the cross. He had you on his mind, whoever you are, every single one of you. I don't know. Only God can do this. But he had you on his mind. And it was for good, by the way. He was nailed to the cross for you. Because you and I are guilty of our sins. And to benefit from that, don't say you're busted, but be broken by this beautiful reality. Next verse, Romans chapter 10, verse 9. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Boy, is there any kind of doubt about that statement there? None whatsoever. None whatsoever. And then finally it's Romans 10:13. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what? Saved. Listen, my friends who are involved in cults, you need to read the Romans Road. It's right there. You can't save yourself. You can't be good enough. You've got to be broken. I could say a lot of things about the difference between being involved in religion and being a Christ follower. But one thing I will say the Christ follower is happy to be broken. Happy to understand that we come with all of our spiritual needs and every need for that matter to be met by God. We can't do it on our own. And so when you hear those verses of the Romans Road, how do you respond to that in your mind? Are you thinking of excuses to every verse I read a moment ago, if you find yourself making up excuses or justifications, it's because the Holy Spirit is busting you. But if you're saying, thank God for that verse, thank you Lord for that, then you're broken. Number one, mark it down. Church. Busted or broken. It's our first argument and installment of this point today. And it is this coming to the end of yourself. Coming to the end of yourself according to the Bible is a great thing. It's what you and I need to know. Now listen, I understand that what I'm saying here today in the 21st century flies in the face of every motivational speaker that's out there today. I understand that what I'm saying today is probably going to go against many sermons that are being preached in American churches today. But I'm telling you right now, according to God's word, that we need to come to the end of ourselves if we're going to succeed as believers. And he's going to walk us through that. And so get ready. This is strong, but it's healthy. Number one is this. We need to come to the end of self defense. Will you write that down, please? We find that in verse 14, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Now, church, write this down or remember it, please. That is impossible. I want all of you to know this. Bless those who persecute you. That is humanly impossible. You say, I think I can do it, Jack. I think I can do it. Persecuted. Listen, all of us can handle a few Words spoken at us that are ill. But can you, can you bless your persecutors? If they're removing your fingernails with pliers, can you do what the Christians did in Libya who, when their Muslim killers took the sword to their throat, they began to sing the praises of God. It's easy to say in our self reliance. Yeah, I'm being persecuted. Somebody at work stole my eraser versus now, today, this day, this Sunday morning. Being a Christian in Kenya and in Nigeria will get you killed today. And the Bible. Are you kidding me? The Bible tells me to bless those who persecute me. Yes, it does. But I you. We cannot do that in and of ourselves. You want to know why? There's too much of us that exists even though we are redeemed by the blood of the lamb and we're on our way to heaven and there's still this flesh that seeks its comfort, does it not? And when push comes to shove, and when it gets bad enough, according to the word of God, this is the power of the Holy Spirit that will work in and through you, that when your persecutor is persecuting you, you can bless them. Because you and I do not have that in and of ourselves. We cannot do it. Well, Pastor, I beg to differ because I really bake a really great pie and I give it to every one of my enemies. Again, that is sweet. Keep doing that. But we're going deeper in this. We're going deeper to bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. The only way that we can do that is that for you and I to come to the end of ourselves and to understand that I cannot live my Christian life without God living it through me. And that means I need to stop defending myself. I need to stop defending myself and my rights, so to speak. I guess I should say this up front when I say the end of self defense. I am not talking about you providing defense for your home, for your family. I'm not talking about becoming a doormat. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is something different than that. The Bible says, by the way, if you do not protect your home against an assailant, you're worse than an unbeliever. You understand that? I'm kind of hinting around, you know what I'm saying, If somebody comes into your home in the middle of the night to kill you, you don't say, well, I'm just going to trust the Lord and I'm going to stand here and you know, I'm going to Turn the other cheek. That's not what that means. If somebody comes into your home to destroy your family and to pillage or to rape your wife, the Bible says that you are to provide for your family. And if you don't, you're worse than a non believer. So we're not talking about being passive. We are talking about in the sense of someone persecuting us, persecuting you. And you get all upset about it, you get all defensive about it and your feelings get hurt. This is one of the great indicators that we're not in the spirit on this one, is that when somebody says, oh, man, you know, you're a Christian and something, something, and you get your feeling, that hurts. Your feelings, listen, your feelings should not get hurt. Your feelings. Listen. Your feelings will lie to you every single time. And most often feelings will panic. Feelings are prone to panic. Why do they not like you? It's because whatever you've said or whatever you're doing or however you're living is reminding that hostile audience of Jesus. They see Jesus in your life and they can't stand it. And because you're a follower of Jesus, your life being lived for his glory makes them look bad. I remember being, I think in junior high, or maybe I was in the ninth grade, and I went to my first party and I was never into drugs, never into drinking. It just wasn't my thing. And I remember, I remember a friend of mine and I, we didn't want to do what the world was doing at that party, but we didn't want to look like idiots either. So what we did was we were so desperate to blend in that we poured out a can of beer each. We poured the beer out and we literally put Coca Cola or Pepsi in the can. And then listen. So carnal. But I was not a Christian. But the moment I had the beer in my hand, that wasn't really a beer, right? I'm sending the message. I'm just like all you guys. I'm fine. What was I doing? I was caving to peer pressure. I was caving to the audience that I didn't even even know. But I wanted to be accepted. So I pulled off this charade, my friend, and I did. And I remember again, I was not a Christian. But I remember thinking, man, this is weird. If they only knew that Coca Cola was in this beer can, they probably beat us up. But I'm making this part up now, right? But so I don't suffer persecution, this is what I will look like right now. I'll make Them think I'm holding a beer can and make sure they never know I've got Pepsi inside that beer can. We'll do anything to justify ourselves to look good in front of the world. And God says, don't do that. The fear of man is a snare. And you need to understand that as long as you yourself are trying to look good for self gain and self promotion and self defense, the Holy Spirit's power will not be present. It's when you and I come before God and we are weak. And I don't mean to be funny about this whatsoever. I've just learned to embrace it over the decades. And that is I'm weak pretty much all the time. And I kind of try to keep myself in a weak position, meaning I can't do what I'm being invited to do. I can't do what I'm being asked to do. And I love, so to speak, living on the edge. Well, I like living where I don't have the power to pull it off, but God does. And when he does it, I get to go, woo, thank you, Lord. And he shows up. He's never not shown up. And I want to encourage you, especially some of you young people. Young people today are suffering social suicide because their lives have no challenge. There's no white knuckle moment in their lives. There's something that they're not living on the edge. I tell you what, you want to really feel your blood pumping. I see people. You do too. You see people jumping off a bridge with a rubber band on their ankle. And then you ask them, why are you doing that? Oh, they get a rush, man. It's a little living. You want to live? Become a follower of Jesus for real and live. Listen, you can do it every day and you won't even have to have a rubber band tied to your ankle. It's a thrilling way to live. And God shows up when we're weak. And so he says, bless those who persecute you. In Acts, chapter one, verse eight. The Bible says Jesus said it, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be witnesses. You ought to circle that word witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Because that word witness is the Greek word martas. It's where we get the word martyr. Jesus said, you'll go and be my martyr. You say, wait a minute, Jesus wants us to go to the. Go out to the end of the world and get killed. No, he's Saying every day that you live, live for me, not for you. And that's how God would have us to live. The persecution, church, family is just part of Christian life. And I know that in the west, we have gotten away with it for several centuries here in America. And I think it's pretty evident if you look around that those days are evaporating. Our world is getting more hostile and more dark and more mean. And listen, it doesn't mean that God slipped off his throne. It means that God is getting his people ready all around the world for his great return. And in the meantime, we are to live for him. And we're to live for him in such a way that we do not have to defend our position. We can say this. The Bible says, well, why did you do? And why do you say. And why do you. The Bible says you don't have to defend yourself. You simply say, the Bible says, why do you have this particular view about that particular thing? Because the Bible says. And that's not deflecting, that's not pawning off the persecution onto the Bible. No, that is exact opposite. It's standing on the Bible. You're representing the word of God and you're saying, I am no longer the one in charge here. It's not about me, it's about God. I'm representing the word of God by quoting the word of God to you and my friend, listen, the Bible tells you that you shall not commit adultery. And God loves you and you should stop that now. He wants you to repent and come into his kingdom. And people will hate you for that. They will hate you for that. We need not defend ourselves, stand for the word of truth. And when he says bless them means, it means this. It means to speak well of your persecutors. That's what the word means. Speak well of them. Really, that doesn't. I don't know about you. It doesn't come natural to me. I first have my thoughts and then I have to repent of them. And then say, lord, I need your thoughts to value them. It's a remarkable thing. And then also this. The word persecute means this. If we're going to be persecuted as believers, and we shall be, and we may be right now is that it means to be having the cause, to flee or to run, there's a reason. It means to be put to flight. It means to be ostracized or marginalized. So are you a Christian? And are you. Listen, are you standing for Jesus? And are you walking in the spirit? And you know the word of God and you're. You're doing your best to follow Christ, but there are those, maybe even in your own family that can't stand you because of your association with Jesus. And the Bible says that when they persecute you, they're going to be giving you the opportunity, so to speak, by their persecution, that it's time to flee, that it's time to run. And sometimes it is. The Bible says in First Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 20. And what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults and you take it patiently? Well, I mean, that's. People get beaten for their faults in this world, but when you do good and suffer for, you take it patiently. This is commendable before God, for to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. That's. Wow. You know, this kind of talk will thin this church out. If you're not a Bible student of God's word, this is strong stuff. You might say, well, Pastor, I brought my friend here to get saved today. Trust God, because listen, we're all gonna die for something in this life. I'd rather live and die for Jesus. Verse 22, who committed no sin. That's Jesus never sinned, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. In other words, Jesus in the flesh showed us how God the Father comes through when we call upon him. And when the Bible here says, don't curse them, the word means. Here it is. Wow, okay. This is convicting. Am I busted or am I broken when I hear this? The word do not curse them means do not bring a curse down upon them. Or listen, do not speak in such a way that you damn them a word by word or speak in any way against them to misrepresent the kingdom of God, man. And again, this is us being completely dependent upon the power of God for us to deal with this. It's to have God so present in our lives and so much in control of us that there's a supernatural moment that the Lord takes over in our lives, that we do not curse those who are attacking us. Is it even possible? Yes, it is possible. And it happens all the time. In Matthew, chapter 10, verse 34, this is a chockaroo. In Matthew 10:34, people read this, they're like, what? This is Jesus speaking. He says, do not think that I came to bring Peace on earth. So what? I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Watch this. Say, what is this? This is not the Jesus I know of. Let me keep reading. He's not talking about pulling out a knife or a sword. He's talking about division. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's enemies will be those of his own household. In context of that, chapter 10, what does this mean? Jesus says, when the Gospel is preached to all people, including those within the same house, some of them will accept me, some will reject me. The moment that happens, there will be a supernatural split that takes place in that home. And he said, the mother in law and the daughter in law will be completely divided. They once maybe even got along before, but all of a sudden, because of me, they'll be divided. Jesus is saying there'll be those. A father and a son, Everything's tracking fine in life. And then the Son accepts Christ and all of a sudden the father can't stand the Son. And all of this division takes place. And yet in the midst of it all, the believer in the equation is to bless those who are his enemies.
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