What happens after this life is over? Is there really life beyond the grave? In Life After Life, Pastor Philip DeCorsi explores what Scripture says about eternity, heaven, and the hope believers have through Jesus Christ. Discover the truth about what comes next and why it matters today. Request your copy of Life After Life with a gift of any amount to real life. Visit jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-2346. Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. Listen, we're not of the rainbow, alphabet soup world of confusion. We actually love people, and we love them honestly, and we love them fully, and we want all people to be with us in heaven forever with Christ, for giving of their sins like he has forgiven us and for us to experience that eternal life that Christ purchased, but the world is against that. The world wants people to be blinded, and the world wants people to be lost. And that's why you see today the battle for the microphones, so to speak, because whoever has it is gonna speak either truth or they're gonna speak error, and we are called to speak truth. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash 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. You and I are living in a hostile age, so we better be nice to one another. We better love one another all the more. If we could actually see God's assessment and God's call upon your life and mine as to how much we should be loving one another, I think it might shock us. Because things could change in a second whereby your life and my life become incredibly dependent upon your life and my life. And we have this sense of being individuals in America, and I get it, and independence in America early on was never independence from God. It was independence regarding our personal responsibility to God, but as a nation, we were a nation that proclaimed that our dependence was upon God, which allowed for us to be individually dependent or independent. As we were dependent upon God, we were able to stand on our own two feet, so to speak. The church today more than ever needs to heed the call to stand upon the truth of God and to speak the word of God, and to live out like never before our Christianity. Folks, we don't have much time. You say, why what's coming? I don't know what's coming, but you're getting older by the minute. And how do I know? Because I resemble that remark. We're running out of time, and while we were able, we wanna live for Christ. And so the title of this series right now is this, What This World Cannot Say. Can you write that down? We're gonna be talking about the things that this world cannot say. The world can tell you a lot. Boy, the world is very proud of all of the social media stuff that it puts out. The world is just publishing everything. But you know what? The world can only repeat. Like a one string guitar. It's own philosophy, it's own views. What the world cannot say are the eternal things of God, and you've got them. You've got them in your heart, I trust. You've got them in your hand right here, the Bible, and you've got them in this Bible study today. Number one, we look at it, it's in verses one to three, and it is this. What this world cannot say, we see it here, and that is when this world speaks ill of you. Can you write that down? And I want you to write that down and put a little smiley face off to the side of this first point. The world and what it cannot say. It cannot understand your Christian life and it cannot give you the do that this world should give you and I. Folks, we cannot expect the world to pat us on the back because they are of the world and you are not of this world. You are of the kingdom of heaven. And you think God thoughts, the world does not think, those kind of thoughts. So how does the world respond? And by the way, these points were made up Friday and early Saturday before I ever got a phone call regarding the persecution in South Korea. So maybe God is trying to say something to us that the world of unbelief will speak ill of you. They will view you and I as the enemy. They will view you and I because we don't, listen, we're not of the rainbow, the alphabet soup world of confusion. We actually love people and we love them honestly and we love them fully and we want all people to be with us in heaven forever with Christ. Forgiven of their sins like he has forgiven us and for us to experience that eternal life that Christ purchased, but the world is against that. The world wants people to be blinded and the world wants people to be lost. And that's why you see today the battle for the microphone so to speak because whoever has it is gonna speak either truth or they're gonna speak error. And we are called to speak truth, but just know this, the world is going to speak evil of you. Young people today, can you just get that into your bloodstream please right now? If you think that you're gonna be looking at social media and you make a post about, aren't those lovely butterflies, someone's gonna write on your post, I hate butterflies, what's wrong with you, butterflies are evil, don't you know it's a conspiracy? And then your feelings are gonna get hurt and they're gonna wanna go commit suicide because somebody that you don't even know criticized you about your post on butterflies. I'm being facetious, but not really. The world has gone mad. And as the world goes mad, you and I need to be more anchored in truth than ever. And so when the world speaks ill of you and I, we shouldn't be surprised. Number one, we see it here, it displays by the way, when it does, it displays our values. This is in verse one, when they who are strong, we then who are strong ought to bear the scruples or the weaknesses of the weak and not to please ourselves. This is a conclusion of the previous chapter of chapter 14. He's talking about brothers and sisters bearing one another's weaknesses, that we love one another to put up with the fact that we might be different from one another and we might be in different development areas of our spirituality and none of us are to congregate as the super holy over here, the kind of medium holy here and those guys don't even know what they're doing over here and we divide up, not at all. The church is supposed to be the opposite of that. I don't know if you realize this or not, and I don't know how it is, but many years ago, 20, I don't know, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, I spoke quite a few times in schools in Germany and I was really impressed with some of their structure regarding education because their whole thing was this. In those days, they set a really high standard and kids, they were eventually brought up to those standards. In other words, they didn't have kids in a class and then dumbed them down and kept them there. They put the kids in the class, they set the bar high and the kids eventually, some sooner, quicker than others, made it to the high bar, are you with me? And I think of the gospels like that, the word of God is like that. The word of God speaks the truth to all people and he calls us up. He calls us, number one, to love one another and to bear up with one another's weaknesses. If we do that, then all criticism and all clicks will begin to go away. Your spiritual welfare will become the most important thing to me and mine to you. And so to speak, we will hold each other's hand as we grow along, but this word bear in the Greek language is this and it's a beautiful word to bear up. It means to take up, to carry alongside. I love the picture that that paints in my mind. Alongside, I see somebody walking along my life carrying the burdens that I'm experiencing in this life. Of course, who is that someone? Is Jesus himself? But when the scripture says that you and I are to bear one another's burdens, we'll read that verse in a moment. We are to take up whatever is burdening you, to carry alongside, to lift up and off from another. This is the Christian life, this is what we live for. To take a burden off another and to have it placed upon you. We would say something like this, how can I help you? How, what can I do to alleviate? We just, this last week, heard that a man at this church, a doctor cycling on his way home died, was killed. Leaving behind his two children here. And this church now is mobilizing on what to do and how to do it. There's family involved as you can imagine. But to hear such a thing, you don't say, oh wow, that's unfortunate. Hey, you know what, what's for lunch? You can't do that. Notice that in your life as a believer, when you hear about something, the response is, how can I get involved? What can we do to help? A vitally important truth regarding us as believers. Galatians chapter six, verse two, is a good verse to apply here. It says, bear, same exact word, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Let's carry one another's loads. It's remarkable. So I often now, since I got this thing, I've been using it as illustrations. But you guys know that I have this old beat up pickup truck and I had it here on Thursday. And a woman who was here for some services, she said, that's the truck? And I said, yes, she said, well, when you said it was old and beat up, I didn't think it was that old and that beat up. And Matt and I were looking at her. Matt and I, two guys looking at her, the woman, she's looking at this truck, which is absolutely perfect. And Matt and I are going, and she says, oh, why don't you paint it? What she doesn't know is that it's a four wheel drive. And when you put it in four wheel drive low and put it into first gear and you let the clutch out, you could fall asleep. Why? It will just go in a drive through fences, over hills, over cars, through buildings. And you'll, whatever direction it's pointing, it will get there no matter what's in the way. And it goes about this fast when it's in first gear and two wheel drive and you can't stop it. It's just along. And you know what? That, it reminds me, now when you see me driving around town in that truck, you got to remember this illustration. That's like the Christian life. You can put tons of stuff in the back of that thing and then put it in low gear and it just goes, you can't stop it. You're not going to get there fast. It ain't shiny. It's not cute, but it's beautiful. Why? Because it is carrying a load that most vehicles cannot carry. And it's going to make it all the way to the end. That's your life and my life. Hey, listen, we may not be cute, but we're beautiful in the eyes of the Lord. Carrying one another's burdens, finding out what is it that you need? What is it in your life? How can we help? It's simpler than what you think. If each of us, Armin, had you turned and greet one another a moment ago, do you realize if before you leave this service today, you were to say, hey, can I get your cell number if I'm not being too forward, please? Can I get your cell number? And if you ever have need of anything, let me know. And here's my number, let's exchange numbers. And let's be brothers and sisters in Christ. If you need me, call me. Imagine what would happen just this service alone because it may be just like this. Hey, I'm just calling you. I don't need anything from you. I need everything from you. I need you to pray for me. Think of that. Just pray for me. Somebody might call you. That's burying one another's burden. And this world knows nothing about that. And it can't. Don't expect the world to do good things for you. You are not of this world, but those of us who are of the kingdom of heaven, we need to love on each other like we have never loved on each other before because the hour is late. Christ is coming and we may not always have these freedoms. And we might look, I hope not. I don't ever wanna look back and say, oh, I wish I would have taken advantage of that opportunity when we had the freedom to. Or the health, I was healthy enough to do it. Or I had an extra $10 in my pocket and I didn't do it. Yeah, are you hearing me, anybody? Yes. So very important. The Bible tells us regarding what Christ set for us as an example, that if we carry one another's burdens, we so fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ is love. And I see love displayed this way. This may surprise you, but this is, in my opinion, God's love on display. It's an ancient prophecy. Isaiah chapter 53. It's nearly 3000 years old. The prophet said, who has believed our report? That's God speaking through the prophet. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. Speaking of the Messiah, folks. If you're Jewish today, you know this. This is the Messiah. This is one of those forbidden scriptures that the Jews are not allowed to read. Of course not, because if they read it, they'll find out who their Messiah is. And as a root out of the dry ground, he has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. That might come to a shock. But according to the prophet Isaiah, God is speaking, that if you saw Jesus walking the shores of Galilee, you couldn't distinguish him from any common individual. Did you know that? Because in our minds, if we're looking at a Rembrandt or some sort of oil painting, Jesus is kind of glowing as he walks along the shores of Galilee. There's a little gold halo over his head. Not so according to the Bible. I appreciate this. I don't know about you. But Jesus wasn't born in some ivory palace. He was born in a stable and he was laid in a manger. Do you know what a manger look like? Listen, if we ever get a chance to take you to Bethlehem, right now, Bethlehem's not a safe place to go. But if we went to Bethlehem like we have in the past, if I showed you a manger, you would be appalled. A manger was a slobber, crusted, stinky trough that you fed cattle and sheep or goats with. They must have lined that and put Jesus right in that manger. If you were God, would you bring your son into the world like that? God did. Why, to associate with us. And if you were God, wouldn't you have Jesus looking perfect? Like, I don't know who perfect is these days. What is perfect these days? But who are you? This person, the most handsome man in the world. Who says, who says this stuff? She's the most beautiful woman in the world. How do you know? But these are magazine covers. Jesus would never make the magazine, folks. He looked just like you and I. Common. But this is God's love on display. Do you view him like this? Verse three goes on in Isaiah 53. He is despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Wow, the Messiah came into the world and that's what he felt. That's what he went through. Yep. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has, here it is, born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Can you say amen? Amen. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. This is the Messiah. He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, by his beatings, the lashes upon his back and his face being hit. We are healed. Why would God do this? Verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him, the Messiah, the iniquity of us all. This is Jesus. The ultimate example is Jesus carrying the sins of the world to the cross. That means you and I can carry one another's cares and concerns in the burdens that you have. Christ carried our sins and he washed them away. He did that. And if you understand that, then you get to experience freedom from guilt and shame. Because you're the one that become keenly aware of the fact that there used to be a different you and now there's a new you. And he died for you because he loved you. This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.
