This episode of Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs invites listeners to consider how God’s goodness is evident in every aspect of our lives. By examining verses from Ephesians and James, Pastor Hibbs emphasizes how everything that is not sin comes from God, encouraging believers to resist temptations from Satan and instead focus on heavenly gifts. Listeners will gain insights into the biblical assurance that God’s plan is inherently good, designed for personal growth and spiritual maturity. Dive into a compelling discussion that connects the dots between Scripture and everyday experiences, illustrating how God’s declarations guide us toward
Romans chapter 1 verse 18 to verse 23 says that God has created us and that his invisible attributes and his godhood has been clearly revealed to his creation so that we stand before God without an excuse.
SPEAKER 01 :
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. Did you know there’s an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com. Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It’s a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today’s headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening now is not just about information. It’s about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what’s happening around you. Now, these discussions are eye-opening, they’re thought-provoking, and they’re a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening Now will help keep you connected to God’s Word and what’s going on in the world today. Visit jackhibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don’t just watch the news. Understand it from a biblical perspective. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Book of James with a message titled, Considering the Goodness of God. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was simply a letter sent to those Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James is direct in telling them the true character of God. You see, we really need to understand that God is good. At this very moment, we are receiving his benefits. Every good and perfect thing, as we know, comes from Him. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that God is the origin of all that is good. This means that everything that exists that is not sinful is from God, and His plan? It’s good for our lives. Now, with his message called, Considering the Goodness of God, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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In Ephesians 4, verse 14, the Bible says to the Christian, you don’t need to be like a little child anymore, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the slights of men and their cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait or knock on your door, waiting to deceive you. This is what the Bible says, that there are people who are lying in wait to deceive us. Isn’t that bizarre? Why can’t we all just hug one another and get along? That would be nice, but it doesn’t work this way, God shows us in the Bible. There are people there to deceive. Did anyone by any chance, I happen to have been, I don’t even know why I did this. I was in the living room. I grabbed the remote. and I turned on to see if any news was on, and it was just the closing segment of Good Morning America last Friday. Did you happen to see that with a Catholic priest and a rabbi? Did you see that? And they were asking children in New York on the street, they can ask questions about God, and these men would answer. And they’re all there, and Good Morning America’s there, and this one little girl says, why are there so many religions in the world? And both of them go, great question. That’s just a great question. She asked a great question. And I’m sitting there going, I wonder if I’m going to hear a great answer. Both of them agreed together and said, honey, all faiths, all religions lead to God and to heaven. That’s what they said. I’ll have you know that both of the religions that they represent teach the opposite. Judaism and Catholicism teaches the opposite. They don’t agree. I got to tell you that all roads lead to God. Oh, no, it’s not what the Bible says. Jesus says, I am the only way. I am the only truth. I’m the only life. And no man goes to heaven but through me. Jesus says that there’s robbers, deceivers, and thieves coming in the spiritual realm that will deceive us in the last days. He goes on to verse 17 now. Verse 17. Regarding us in verse 16 having to think with intelligence and not with emotion, now he tells us in verse 17 that we need to consider the goodness of God because all that is good originates from God. All that is good originates from God. And I’ve got to tell you, I have to keep my eye on the clock on this one because I’m so excited about what verse 17 means that I get lost with it. I get overwhelmed by it. This is awesome stuff. Listen to this, verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Now listen to this. This is incredible. When he says… Every good gift, look in your Bible, every perfect gift. Two different Greek words are used. We use two English words, good gift, and then we use two words again, perfect gift. The meaning is this. In the original language, it’s every or all. You know what all means? The word all means all, every bit. Every, all, all good gifts and every perfect gift. The word good gift is the word dosis in Greek, and it means not the gift, even though our English makes it look like it’s a gift, huh? The good gift, the word dosis means how you give the gift, how you give it. Have you ever received a gift from somebody and you thought it was a cool gift until they gave it to you or they made the announcement? Well, I hope you like it. I won’t be eating for a month after the price I’d pay for that. Here, take it, okay? I don’t even want it. Oh, no, go ahead and keep it. God knows I’m broke after I bought this. Hey, I don’t want the gift. Have you ever had that happen? Hey, here you go, buddy. There it is. Merry Christmas. Bust me an arm and a leg. Hey, keep your arm and your leg. I don’t want the gift then. The word dosis means God knows how to give gifts right. He knows how to do it with a class. He gives it, and there’s none of that, well, I hope you like it, you ungrateful twit. No. You know, he gives it. That’s how he gives the gift. Every good gift. He gives it good. And the word perfect gift is a totally different word. That word is dorema. And the word dorema is the complete or exactly what is needed gift. And you say, well, that’s cool. I like this. I like this a lot. Are you ready? Hang on to your seats. It’s in relation and in response to verses 1 through 15. Everything that’s good, trials, difficulty, money management, the lack of wisdom and having to cry out to God for it, God says, it’s good. It’s just exactly what you need to be crying out to me about. Now, right now, okay, decide right now. I don’t know if I like this. There you go. You and I are being tempted right now to think emotionally in our experience with God or biblically, aren’t you? It’s funny, isn’t it? God says, that big health crisis you’re going through right now could be a life and death situation. I’ve engineered it for your absolute goodness and perfection as a believer. Our emotions say, you can just keep it. Don’t they? See, that’s what you and I struggle about. I want, I want, I want. I’ve got this plan. I think it should go this way. Don’t we lecture God all the time? Excuse me, God, I think it should go this way. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll listen to what I have to say. Oh, God says, listen, sweetheart, you don’t know what’s good for you. I know exactly what you need to prepare you for eternal life. And so that’s why you have this situation. God says, I’m doing to you exactly the right thing, but it’s limited, verse 16 told us, to brethren. Are you this morning a Christian? Are you sure? Do you want Christ? Do you want him? Do you believe he died on the cross for you, that he rose again from the dead? Then stop complaining. Jack, stop complaining. Rick, John, Mike, stop complaining. We need to give up and say, Lord, I believe what your Bible has to say. I feel totally different about it. You see? Can you imagine? You’re hungry. So you eat. Your body’s telling you to eat. I don’t want to eat. Little kids are great for this. I remember being a little guy and ditching my meal so I could play with my friends because the sun was going down. Come in and eat. I don’t want to eat. I know I should eat. I’m growing. But I would ditch the meal because I want to be with my friends longer. You got to eat. Your body says you got to eat. But you’re choosing not to eat. Think about it. You know, we just went through, right? All of us just went through April 15th. And it says you have to pay the government this much. I don’t want to. You see, you laugh because you’re going to. Isn’t that something? You owe us this much. I owe them. But them are me. I am the government. Thus, we are me. We are us. I am us. I’m not going to pay me nothing. You see? It’s like you try to justify it. No, the fact of the matter is, you will pay the IRS. Your emotions say, uh-uh, but the law says, uh-huh, and it will happen. God says regarding this, that His activity to us is good, and it is good in all ways. And this is the wonderful thing, It’s the gifts from above. And you can mark this in your Bible. From above, it implies against verse 15, where the flesh, the world, and Satan tempts us, and temptation, and the geographical location of man’s mind is where’s the devil? Beneath. Where’s the earth? Around us. Where’s the problem? In me. But the good stuff comes from God above. What good stuff? All of the good things. to the point that it’s kind of eye-opening. And this is what’s exciting. All things that are not, listen, all things that are not evil temptations come from God. The carpet. See this carpet? I know it’s ugly, but it’s come from God. You might say, well, that’s ridiculous. Oh, no, just wait. I’m just getting started on this. The clothes you’re wearing has come from God. The aspirin you’re gonna take after I give you a headache today? The aspirin, the aspirin has come from God. I thought man made it. No, they didn’t. God gave them the idea. The chemicals and the products that they use to create the aspirin, where do you think they came from? God. When a surgical procedure is created and used to save life, who gave that? God did. All of a sudden, he who looks and cares about one little sparrow falling to the ground which you don’t even care about, God does all the time around the world, constantly. He cares so much that it is God in our lives that when we get up in the morning and say, what a beautiful sunrise. You know who did that? God did that. In fact, it is so technical, the terms that are used here, that God knows where you’re gonna be at tonight’s sunset. He knows what you’re gonna be seeing. This is the omniscience of God. He knows. He’s all-knowing. And from your vantage point, you’re going to see sun rays coming through a cloud, and you’re going to say, wow, God did that for you. And listen, here’s the tragic part, Christian. You and I are really goofing up if we don’t see God in it. If we go, what a nice sunset. Thank you, Mother Nature. Who? Who? That is so stupid. Mother Nature is for people who don’t know God. God does it. And we’re going to go, praise God. That’s awesome. Thanks for the sunset. Hey, man, whatever’s going on, no matter how simple it is, no matter how you think God doesn’t care about this, He does care. It says right here that everything that is good, which is not sinful temptation, has come from Him. The problem is our mismanagement of what God gives us. He gives a good thing, we pervert it, make it a bad thing. God gave sex, what does the world do? Pervert it, mess it all up. God gives life, what does the world do? Kill it. God gives money, what does the world do? Abuse it. God ordains authority, what does the world do? Crush people with it. You see, everything that comes down outside of evil temptation, is from God, everything. The temperature of the sanctuary. The ladies are saying, not good. Very important.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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The Bible says in Psalm 84, 11, no good thing will I withhold from those who walk with me. Isn’t that great? Do you want a good life? Does anybody want a good life in here? Raise your hand. Do you want a good life? Walk with him. God says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, they are what? Good thoughts. You see, you can’t believe that verse in Jeremiah 29, 11 unless you believe God is good. The problem is many of us are like the rich young ruler. We acknowledge the fact that he’s good, but we’re not willing to follow him. That’s sad. He loves us and he wants to bless us. It says that these good things come from above in opposition to what comes from beneath. Then it says in verse 17, and comes down from the father of lights. And this is very wonderful. The father of lights. Notice that in your Bible, it is not the father of light. You know, the Bible does say that God is light, right? That he is light. But here it says that he’s the father of lights, plural. And the word in the Greek is illuminators or illuminations, plural. We don’t say the word illuminations, but that’s what it means. All lights, the candlelight has come from God, right? You see now how this is going to dovetail together. Candlelight? Oh, yeah. You see with it. It has come from God. The campfire fire there, it’s come from God. The warmth that it gives, the power that it gives, the light that it gives, it’s come from God. All of a sudden, I don’t know about you, but I see this message as one that you and I have a hard time with. But if I went across the street to the children’s sanctuary, they would grab it like this. You know why? That’s how they think. You hear them. Don’t you hear them? The little kids, thank you God for the aunt. Did you say thank you for auntie, auntie, you know, auntie whoever, auntie Ann? No, I said thank you God for the aunt while you’re killing them in your kitchen. That’s how kids are. They talk about butterflies. And you ask them, who made the butterfly? Charles Darwin. No, they don’t. They don’t say, the evolutionary process, which is non-scientific and doesn’t apply to any of the known sciences. No, they don’t say that. Ask a kid, who made the butterfly? God did. They know this. Romans chapter 1 verse 18 to verse 23 says that God has created us and that his invisible attributes and his godhood has been clearly revealed to his creation so that we stand before God without an excuse. Professing to be wise, we become fools because we have in fact suppressed the righteousness of God. That’s the perfect description of evolution and atheism. You want to You want to wig out your professor at school? Try this. It’s truth. Just do it after you get your grade. Go to her or go to him and say, based upon Romans 1, verses 18 to 22, I know that every day of your waking life, you struggle with the fear and concept that God is true. Did you know that’s a fact? God says, I argue inside of every man’s heart my existence. So when that guy is standing there saying, well, you know, this is the evolutionary chain and this is the deal and there is no God. You know, the moment he says that there is no God inside of him, I promise you, and those of you who may be atheists, you know this is true. You know it’s true because I remember how it was true in my heart. God does not exist. It’s a myth. It’s a fairytale. And inside, right when you say that, you’re hearing inside your very core being, you’re hearing, man, I sure hope this is a myth. I sure hope he doesn’t exist. What if he does exist? Man, am I in trouble. Then I’ll have to be accountable for all the things I’m doing wrong. How can I think if anything’s wrong if God doesn’t exist? To know right from wrong is to admit that God is true. There must be absolute truth. See, all this stuff’s going on in your teacher’s head when he’s talking. God exists. No, he can’t exist. He can’t exist. They struggle with it. Who says the Bible says Romans chapter 1 says it? They’re being deceived. Now, the fact of the matter is God does exist. He loves us. Everything good comes from above. All you have to do is get a microscope and look and see what’s there proclaiming the goodness of God. It’s incredible. It’s all there. It comes from the Father of lights. And the word means not only, as in Genesis chapter 1, verses 14 and on, not only the sun and the stars, but all light, fire, things like this. Lightning comes from God, though. Anything that lights comes from God. That’s why Satan desires to manifest himself as an angel of… Light. To deceive people because people naturally, internally know that light has come from above. God’s written it on our hearts. It makes sense. It’s a divine manifestation. And by the way, where hell is, God is not. Where God is not, that’s where hell is. Heaven is full of light. In fact, the Bible says in the book of Revelation, there’s no need for the sun or the moon because God is the light. But in hell, the Bible says that it is exterios skotos, outer blackness, the deepest of darkness. That’s called hell. It is where God is not. Absolute darkness. That’s what hell is like. Totally black. You can’t see past your eyes. Completely black. That’s hell. God says, I’m light. Don’t you want to be where there’s light? God says, then you come and be on my side. Choose me. And then finally this, verse 18. He is saying, to consider God’s goodness is to realize that God’s got a plan for our lives. He says, of his own will, he has brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Of his own will. The word is that he has decreed it so. You can just make a mental note. He has decreed it so of his own will. Of his own will what? He’s brought us forth by the word of truth. Hey, listen, not only were you born by the will of God, but if you’ve given your heart to Jesus Christ, you’ve been born again by the will of God. In 1 Peter, 1 Peter tells us that he has begotten us again. Well, when did he begotten us the first time? When he gave us life. John chapter 1 and 1 John chapter 1 tells us that God has given us light and life. You see, that’s why abortion is so wrong. It takes away what God has intended to be. We… Assume the position over God or murder. The Bible says in the Old Testament, thou shalt not murder. Why? It’s taking the position of God. He gave it. Man should not take it away. We’re out of our realm. We have violated the rule of God. You see? And so his own will, by his will, he has brought us forth into existence. And all of a sudden, this should bring us comfort. Are you going through difficulties and trying times? God gave you life, and not only that, he gave you a new life in Jesus, born again. The trials that you’re going through has been brought to you by God. This trial brought to you by God. It’s exactly true in your life. Well, that’s true for them and him and her and those guys, but not for me. Listen, you’re dead wrong, friend. The difficulty you’re in right now has been brought to you by God. Remember from last week, don’t blame Him for evil temptations. That doesn’t come from Him. But the trial you’re in, if it’s not evil temptation, it is of God. If it is of an evil temptation, it is from Satan and it must be resisted. God is so good.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Considering the Goodness of God. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on being doers of the Word of God and not just hearers only. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Hey, Pastor Jack, there’s a pretty cool book that you’ve actually read. Yeah. I’ve peeked at it. It’s One Day Nearer by Steve Miller.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
You like it?
SPEAKER 03 :
Listen, I love it. I’m encouraging everybody to get their hands on this. That’s why it’s being featured with us right now, Davey. One Day Nearer. It’s a daily devotion. Here’s what’s cool about it. Anticipating the Lord’s return. It’s 365 days of worship. scripture verses that walk you through how the believer should be living with the expectation. You know, throughout the theology of the scriptures, the believer is to be waiting constantly. The Bible makes it clear. Jesus even makes a strong argument how in the parable of the ten virgins, they were to endure waiting for His imminent return. They didn’t know when He was coming, but they were to be prepared for His coming. And this is actually a great book because it keeps you every day in the mindset that today could be the day, or this year could be the year. And somebody might say, well, nobody knows the day or the hour. Of course that’s true. Nobody knows the day or the hour. The point is this, friend. Every day that you get up, you are one day nearer to the return of the Lord. And this is a great book. Steve Miller is a friend. He is a great author, and he has put out a great book. Please get your hands on it, everybody. You will not be disappointed, I promise. Make sure you make it part of your 365-day experience with One Day Near with author Steve Miller.
SPEAKER 01 :
One Day Nearer by Steve Miller, available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.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.
