Escape: Breaking Free From Fear, Sin, And Death

The following program is sponsored by generous friends and partners of Real Life. Welcome to Real Life with Jack Hibbs.

Christian friend, one of the great comforting facts about our lives is that we're not perfect and we know it. But He is. And Him in us causes us to continue on.

Escape from fear, sin, and death is Pastor Jack's message as he challenges us to stop striving and start thriving. The gospel offers a real escape from chains that have you bound. Grab your Bibles. Real Life starts now.

All year long, don't just celebrate America's 250th birthday. Stand for what it was built on: faith, freedom, truth. These are the values that shaped this nation from its very first days and our Faith and Freedom collection was designed to help you carry them boldly wherever you go in a culture that is working overtime to silence those convictions. A simple shirt can start a powerful conversation.

And right now, when you order from the Faith and Freedom collection, we'll also send you a free copy of the Happy Birthday, America Kids Guide, a faith-centered resource that puts America's founding story in the hands of the next generation. Order soon and be ready to celebrate America's 250th birthday with conviction. Shop today at jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-2346.

In today's message, breaking free from fear, sin, and death, those things that call people to panic and to lose faith. Listen, we're going to dive into the word of God and we're going to see how if we take those steps to follow Jesus, those things will begin to evaporate in our lives. Jesus Christ alone gives freedom from all of those plagues that people deal with. Think about this, only the Holy Spirit can truly change our lives. That's what God's promise is all about to us. He will prod you, he will move you, he will uh love on you in the direction that he wants to work in your life, but far too many of us are bound up in legalism. And yet Jesus sets us free from all of that. He gives you and I the power to walk with God freely and in a loving dynamic relationship. But you must decide, my friend, whether you're going to receive that free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ that he bought, that you cannot work for, and you're going to let Him rescue you so that you might become one who has surrendered to Him. Christ is all. He paid it all, and He loves you. Legalism puts that upon us, and the two cannot coexist. Friends, faith will set you free from all of these things and give you a brand new path of life, new life to be quite frank with you. And if you're tired of fear and calling the shots and tired of sin promising you things but never fulfilling, in fact leaving you empty. And you're tired of living in the shadow of constant fear of death and all of those things that come with it. The gospel offers you and I the real true escape that God provides. Not by trying harder as I've been saying, but by the Spirit of God. Let God move in you. So grab your Bibles and let's dive into the word of God together as we study today this message, escape, breaking free from fear, sin, and death.

The Hebrew Bible refers to the Messiah being Yeshua Hamashiach in scripture. Put up this Hebrew word if we have this. Hamashiach. This is amazing. Look at this. Yeshua. That means there's only one Savior, one God, one Redeemer and His name, He's announced His name as Yeshua. It's shortened to Yah in the Bible. And some of you may be hearing this for the first time ever, but if you dive into this, you will find out from Genesis through Revelation, it's none other that the Yah is the one that is that Yahovah, the one that is Halleluyah. That's His name, His actual name. My name's Jack, His name is Yah. The Bible reveals the name of our God. And He is to be praised and He is to be honored. And why do I bring this up? Because He's transparent. He's open to us. And Paul is saying, "I'm not going in my my power. You guys are going to send me in prayer, but I'm going with God on this." Listen, friends. Listen carefully. You go with God, you're not shaken by stuff. You understand that? Listen, I mean this with all love. The days are very soon coming and you will experience them when your faith is going to be challenged. And you're going to choose to listen to God or to man. And as it were, the ground's going to shake underneath you and I'm not talking about an earthquake. And you'll be called upon to choose whom you will obey. Will it be the Lord Jesus Christ?

I heard a podcast this last week driving home. I listened to this guy's podcast often. And the guy's a new believer. He's very famous, one of the largest podcasters in the world. He recently came to Christ. And he said, "I don't know what's going on with me. I was completely fine. I didn't fear death when I was sleeping with everybody. I was doing all kinds of drugs. I had no fear." And he said, "Then I accepted Jesus and I've been reading people's books and I've been reading or listening to sermons and I've been going to various churches." And he says, "Now I'm scared to death to die. I'm scared to death. I'm absolutely paralyzed by fear." And I, I, I was yelling, I was yelling in my truck to the podcaster. And my, here's what I was saying. In fact, I got so frustrated, I had to text all the pastors and I just said, "You pray for me. I'm listening to this podcast right now. I'm about ready to have a heart attack." Because the guy that he had with him was not answering the question. Dude, if you've, if you've come to Jesus Christ, you've been delivered from the grip of fear and death. That if you trust Christ and Him alone, He'll raise you from the dead. That He's taken the sting of death, the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, away from us. Do you understand that? Look, nobody wants needles and tubes and all that kind of stuff and suffering. Nobody wants that. For the believer, death is not a problem. I'll admit it's getting to that is a problem. But the moment we die, the Bible says, God says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Listen, some of you may not be here next year or next month. Maybe your time is up. If you're a believer, if you trust Christ Jesus, listen, your graduation's coming. And you don't need to fear that. Don't, Pastor, don't talk like that. Only a non-believer would be terrified of death or, as in this man's case, let's give him a benefit of the doubt. If he came to Christ, notice that his fears came listening to various ministers and reading certain books. Answer to the problem. Stop listening to others and stop reading other books. Read God's book and thereby hear Him speak.

There'll be a great shift, but a lot of people don't want to do that anymore. Why pray when we can ask Alexa? Why pray when we can ask Chat GPT? And a lot of people today, a lot of young people today get all their answers from AI. They don't pray. They don't need to pray. You think I'm kidding? Only old people think I'm kidding right now. The young people are saying, "Oh, dude, that hurts." John 14:23. Jesus answered and said to them, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." The life of the new believer, the life of the spirit, the of the spirit. Paul is saying, "Will you come with me in spirit?" The Bible says in Romans chapter 8, verse 11. Romans 8:11. "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." That man who was afraid of dying, he needs to be reminded. This Christian needs to be reminded that's in the Bible. Romans 8:11. Last time I checked, which was yesterday, it's still in the Bible. God raises the dead. And the Spirit of God, look, the Bible says the Spirit of God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and the same Spirit will raise you from the dead also. That's the best news in the entire world. Amazing. I have this in notes. It's on page six, and it says, I just called it move-in day. Can you say today that the Holy Spirit dwells in you? Don't answer. Don't answer. Can you honestly say, remember, forget about everybody in church, be all alone for a moment. Can you say to yourself, I know the Holy Spirit dwells in me? I'll tell you, I'll tell you how you'll know. If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, He will constantly prod you towards things of meaning, of purpose, of good, of hope, of life. Things that matter. You know what? If the Holy Spirit's in you, He will move you toward vision. Vision meaning, I see that. I'm not going to wait around for anybody else to do that. I'm going to go do that. By His power. Just like the Apostle Paul. I'm transparent. I'm weak. I'm nothing, but He is all-powerful God. And then look, He goes on. Or this goes on. Can, can you say that the Holy Spirit dwells in you? Let me tell you this, if He dwells within you, then you will know it. Nobody moves into a, our house or their house where you live and you do not know it. When someone's in the home with you, you know it. When you go into a place, you know it. When someone comes into that place where you're at, you know it. We know this as humans. Christian friend, one of the great comforting facts about our lives is that we're not perfect and we know it. But He is. And Him in us causes us to continue on. His presence can be experienced. I'm not going to define how because it's, I'm sure it's in various ways in people's lives. But He's present. Look at verse 30, eager. He's saying, "Will you please come with me and as we continue on together?" He's talking to us here about being eager. Eager enough to change the world. Now, I hesitated in pointing out that subpoint that underlines the main point, but it's true nonetheless. But you know, we hear about this stuff all the time, but the world doesn't change. "Oh, be a, be a change maker. You can change the world." We tell our kids. "You can change the world." And it's all true if, right? It's all true if. If we're focused on the things of God and if we're powered and empowered by God, that you strive together with me in prayers for God for me. This one, this man's precious. Do you hear him? How many, how many men just look, how many people would say this? How many people would say it's really important to me. I'm asking all of you to determine to go through whatever pains it takes you to please remember to pray for me. Who says this? We're a strange culture. We are a hard people to bless because we're proud. I'm proud. 68 years old and I'm so immature that I still get into these loving, cute little debates when we might go out to dinner with friends and I've got to be the one that gets the, the bill. It doesn't matter what my motive is. My motive could be spectacularly honest and true. I love them and I want to, I want to bless them. So, I've got a routine and I'll either tell the server or the manager in advance. Sometimes I'll call ahead and say, "Um, listen, this is a setup. I love my friends. They have a tendency to grab the bill. Don't give it, don't give it to them. I'll, I'll, I'll come in with a code." You know, I'm the guy. That's the one. And it's done from love, but then I also, I also realize that there's pride in that. And the danger of that is what? Here's the danger. Well, gosh, you, I guess you're right, Pastor Jack, cuz there could be pride in whatever I do. So, I'm, I don't want to do that. So, I'll do nothing. Listen. Together. You guys listen, together we are so absolutely weak. Even together. We're weaker when we're apart. But we're weak. And the Bible says, "In your weakness, I will perfect My strengths." Only God is the one who can say, you know, you've been a horrific sinner. Yes, Lord. Let me just show you Jack a little brief snapshot of your past. Right. For young people, that was the, that was a, what is it called? See, I look, I don't even know. That was the camera, the projector. And as He issues you, you know you're getting into trouble. And God says, "I have it all on record." You know, the Bible says it writes everything down. And you're mortified. And just, just listen, just when your chin gets welded to your chest because of shame. He, He picks you up and He says, "But I, I died on the cross for that. If, if you're willing to invite Me in, I died on the cross. I already paid the price for that, but it doesn't benefit you at all, Jack. The price has been paid, but you have no benefit from that price I paid unless you apply what I gave or made available for your own life. Will you accept Me? Will you receive?" No, it's okay, Lord. I called ahead and paid the bill in advance. I told the server to bring it to me. That's human works. I prayed three times. I did this. I prayed five times. I gave this much money. I'm good. Little, little do you know that the film is still running. And God is saying, "By the works of the law, you cannot come to Me. You can't see Me. You could be so pure in your eyes, but I already, I'm talking like him. He said, 'I already told you in the book of Isaiah that your righteousness is as filthy rags.'" The word in Hebrew is, "Your righteousness are as menstrual cloths." Yeah. Yeah. It's like, "Really? Really? That's gross." And God says, "That's right." So, what do I do about this? Take all of this and hand it to Me. Wait. Wait. The eternal God who's pure, who came into this world to show us the way, died on the cross for me, rose again from the dead to empower all of these promises, you will take it for. You want me to hand it to you? That's right. I can't believe you would even touch me. I can't believe you would even take this from me. Give it to me. That's the struggle. Pride immediately erupts with stupid things like this. I'll come back next week. I'll think about it. Or I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm going to clean up my act, and then I'll give my heart to Jesus. You'll never, you'll never be saved. You'll be lost for all eternity that way. Have you noticed one of Satan's greatest tactics is to tell you tomorrow? Ah, don't, don't become a fanatic. You don't want to be one of those Jesus freaks, do you? Little later. You're young. There's so much of life to live. Translation: we're terrified that you're listening to the love of God. You better run away from that because listen, we want to shorten your life as fast as possible by keeping you blinded and suck you into the pit of hell so we can inflict pain into the heart of God because we hate Him because He made you humans in His image and He loves you. And He redeemed you and we will do everything to stop that. So they do everything to tempt you to stay drugged, to stay sexed up, to stay pursuing money. Whatever the distractions are, trinkets, glitter. Let's pray. Father God in heaven, I'm asking You, Lord, enough has been said. It's decision time. Lord, I pray for every person that's hearing this message. Only Bible, only verses, only Your Holy Spirit. They're brought into the valley of decision right now. Yes or no for Jesus? You're going to stand on the dock or you're going to get on board? You're going to stand on the platform or you're going to get on? You're going to stay in your religion or you going to meet God? Are you going to try to keep convincing yourself that you're okay instead of giving up your life to Him. Wherever you're at, whoever you may be, you know enough right now from this message to respond to Jesus. Tell Him right now in your own words, "I'm asking You, Jesus, to forgive me of my sins. You know everything that I've ever done. You know the things that I thought I had kept secret. And You're exposing them right now. And, and I'm mortified. If that ever got out, my friend, it's all coming out. Unless it's covered by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus died on the cross for you. And the only way that you can survive death is by putting your faith in Christ Jesus now. To say to Him, 'I believe You died on the cross for my sins and You rose again from the dead. And I receive You as my Lord and Savior. I decide today to walk with You, Jesus. I want to go with You.'" And we say to you, "Come with us. Come with us, brand new brother or sister. Come with us, for at the end of our journey we enter into His very presence of glory. Because Jesus has paid it all. And all to Him we owe. In His name we pray, and all God's people said, 'Amen.'"

God bless you, church. If you just prayed that prayer with me, you are a new creation in Christ. That's what the Bible says. The old things have passed away. All things have become new, which is why I want to say congratulations in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are now His. And the next thing you want to do is this. Start walking with Jesus every day, talking with Him as you simply open up the Bible. Open up the Bible, talk to Him like a dialogue. That's what prayer and Bible reading is all about. Speak with Him. Talk with Him. Learn of Him. He will show you the way through the Bible. Live by the Spirit of God. That's what I'm talking to you about right now. That's what it's all about. Not by rules and regulations, not by some organization, but by the Spirit of God using the Bible in your life. And the Holy Spirit loves to move in your life, and He wants to set you free with purpose. And He's the one that will make you obedient as you make that step with Christ. And again, welcome today to that very step. The rest of your life will change from this moment forward.

To help you in your walk with God, go to jackhibbs.com. There are so many other ways for you to get involved and find out how you can grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. And also for those who would like to support this work in getting the gospel out. Now, a moment ago, many came to Christ. But together, we support to get the word out and bless new believers just like these that prayed with us a moment ago. So, please connect with us at jackhibbs.com and learn how we can strengthen those who just made a decision for Christ, but at the same time, reach more and more people. So, until next time, God bless you, guys. You can stay tuned at our various social media websites, Facebook, Instagram, so much more. But listen, be looking up, stay in the word of God, and let's walk with Him all the way to the end.

All year long, don't just celebrate America's 250th birthday. Stand for what it was built on: faith, freedom, truth. These are the values that shaped this nation from its very first days, and our Faith and Freedom Collection was designed to help you carry them boldly wherever you go in a culture that is working overtime to silence those convictions. A simple shirt can start a powerful conversation. And right now, when you order from the Faith and Freedom Collection, we'll also send you a free copy of the Happy Birthday America Kids Guide, a faith-centered resource that puts America's founding story in the hands of the next generation. Order soon and be ready to celebrate America's 250th birthday with conviction. Shop today at jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-2346.

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