Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: God is taking in a world of death and it's as though you're being crushed. As the world watches your witness, diffused from your life in the spiritual senses of the world and of God, there's an aroma being sent out.

David J.: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J., thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.

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From deep dives into Scripture to practical messages on everyday issues, Pastor Jack's teachings help you understand the Bible in a way that's clear, it's relevant, and it's easy to apply. You're going to find sermons that address today's toughest questions with biblical insight and hope in the midst of life's challenges. Now, whether you're new to the faith or you've been around for a long time, these messages are designed to meet you right where you're at and inspire you to grow deeper in your walk with God. So don't miss out. Visit jackhibbs.com and just start exploring the sermon library today. You're going to like it. That's jackhibbs.com, where powerful teaching is always just a click away.

David J.: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called The Disciplines of Life and a message titled Disciplines of Difficulty, Part Two. Following Jesus can sometimes be hard, even uncomfortable. But those difficulties are actually part of how God matures us as believers.

You see, when we truly follow Jesus, life can get challenging. People may not understand us. Some will criticize us while others will totally reject us. But this doesn't mean something's wrong. It often means we're doing the right thing. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that difficulties develop hope, and without that, we're liable to stumble and fall. Hard moments can build within us a stronger faith, a humble attitude, and the courage to stand for the truth. Now, in his message called Disciplines of Difficulty, Part Two, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: I was marrying a couple a little while back and I had said this before, and so the father of the bride remembered it. He said, "Pastor Jack, remember before in a message you said that you always pray with the husband and wife to be before service?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "And sometimes you say like when you get all the guys together, now let's pray before the wedding. Let's pray that Jesus comes back right now."

And everyone closes their eyes and prays but the husband to be. He's like, "Just one night." You can hear him. He doesn't even say it; you can hear it in his head. "Lord, can you come tomorrow?" It's kind of funny.

But church, listen regarding difficulties and faith. Do this the next time you find yourself in a difficulty. Pray this, something like it. You just pray, "Lord, I know this could not have come upon me without You knowing about it, and I'm asking You in Jesus' name to cause me to get out of this all that You've intended." My friend, you pray that prayer. Write it down if you have to. You pray that prayer the next time you are in the midst or you sense a difficulty coming on. "Lord, don't let me miss the lesson in this."

And that will bring the next thing: hope. Difficulty develops hope. When hope is lost, my friend, we crash. Listen, this is a scary thing. When hope is lost, we crash. I don't remember how long ago I heard this, but it seems like forever ago. Somebody was being interviewed and they were asking questions about this and about that. And the person said, "Well, you know, if you have this disease, you live this long. And if you have that cancer, you might live this long. And if you have this issue, you might live that long." But listen to what he said. "But if you lose hope, you die now."

I've never forgotten that. But if you lose hope, you die now. When a person loses hope in the midst of difficulty, they pull the trigger. They die now. We crash without hope. And the amazing thing about the Bible that's in our laps is that you think about these verses that are found in the Bible. I think about this one verse. This verse that I'm going to give you is 3,000 years old. Wisdom from the Bible. 3,000 years old. Psalm 42:3. Check it out. This is the wisdom of God.

The Psalmist cries out and says, "My tears have been my food day and night." Depression brought on by circumstance. Difficulty. "While they continually say to me, 'Where is your God?' And when I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me." Listen to this. "For I used to go with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God. I used to, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept a pilgrimage feast. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you so disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." For the help of His countenance.

Countenance. You know what that is? The radiance or the mood, the look of His face. God, just look at me. Just look at me. In the midst of my pain, just look at me, Lord. Have you ever felt like that? When people say, "Yeah, where's your God now? Look, you lost your job. Where's your God." Things happen in our lives. Listen. You're the Christian. Things happen in your life because you're the minister of God to that people group that you're around.

And God is using you as a child of His. He will develop your spiritual maturity and faith and hope in the entire event while at the same time your friends will say, "Hey, where's your God now?" And here's what they're saying. "We're watching you to see how you handle this hardship. We're watching you to see all the preaching that you've done to us is for real." "Amen, just trust the Lord, dude. Just trust God." And then God puts you into that moment, and your unbelieving friends will say, "Are you just trusting the Lord now, buckaroo? Is that what you're doing right now as you're white-knuckling it there and hugging the little stuffed bear in the corner?"

It's amazing. Hope, faith. Psalm 18:33 says, "He makes my feet like the deer's feet, and He sets me on high places." How many of you have been with us to Israel and we've been to the Valley of the Goats where David confronted Saul? Remember those Ibex? Those amazing Ibex. They're like the size, well, the little tiny guys, brand new babies are little tiny little guys. But the big daddies, they're like the size of a North American elk. They've got these ginormous, ridiculously gigantic horns.

And they go down that sheer cliff in En Gedi like it's nothing. And you see this little baby, and he's just dancing on the tips of rocks, and it's a thousand-foot drop like it's nothing. And the Psalmist David writes and he says, "You know what? You've put my feet on high places. You've made me like the deer in this world." Christian, this is not a storybook, the Bible. This is a book of facts. And your challenge and difficulty right now, God is saying, "I want to train your feet to maneuver these high places."

Love. Developing maturity in difficulty develops love in our lives. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 1:8, listen to this, "Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." We get to understand His love in the midst of hardship and difficulty and these challenges we're talking about.

In 1 Peter 4:12—you're going to want to write this down—"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you are partaker of Christ's sufferings, and when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. For you are reproached for the name of Christ. Blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you."

Now listen. God loves you. You're going through a hardship. God loves you. Understand this. The Bible says those who judge themselves among themselves are not wise. What does that mean? Do you know somebody going through a difficulty? Don't think for a moment that you're not. "Oh man, look at her, what she's going through. She must be so much more spiritual than I am because I'm not going through what she's going through." Don't do that.

Are you listening? Every one of us, God will mature and God will show us His love and develop hope in us based upon a measure of grace and a measure of faith. God has dealt her a measure of faith and her challenge is equal to her faith. And God has dealt you a measure of faith and your challenge is equal to your faith. Remember that. He will not give you that which is beyond your ability through Christ.

David J.: You're listening to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: Number three, and we end with this. And you need to pay attention. I'm excited about this part. The discipline of difficulty is this: distributing life through the difficulty. Christian, distributing life through the difficulty is God's discipline for us in these times. Christian, the lordship of Jesus Christ is what defines you. And your level of submission to Christ determines His lordship.

Jesus said in Matthew 16, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the entire world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

The life of Jesus—mark this down—is experienced through the difficulty like no other way. John 16:33 says, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Isn't that a good word? Listen. The keys in the combination of knowing Christ in this moment in life unlocks the doors in the windows for the next step of your development and growth in Christ. And when that happens, you're able to share with others your experience with Christ Jesus.

Secondly, the life of Jesus is known in the difficulty. Ephesians 5:1 says, "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has given us Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." You say, "What on earth does that mean?" Let me give you this next verse and this will come together.

In 2 Corinthians 2:14, Paul says, "Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." God is using us in our difficult moments. Now watch this. "For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death, leading to death. To the other the aroma of life, leading to life."

And finally watch this. The life of Jesus Christ is dependent upon in the difficulty. "Oh God, get me through this. Lord, get me through this." Now watch. Jesus said in Revelation 1—you're not going to see it, just write it down, think about this—in Revelation chapter one, Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last." There is nothing beyond that.

By the way, it's the title of God in the Old Testament. The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. "What you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches of Asia of Turkey today." Book of Revelation. You keep reading, you come to chapter 2:8. "And to the angel of the church at Smyrna write, 'These things that says the First and the Last, who was dead and came to life: I know your works, your tribulation and poverty.' Verse 10 goes on, 'Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. But be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.'"

Smyrna. The church of Smyrna. You all hear about that church? You've read in your Bible? Smyrna. When Jesus was born, the wise men came from Babylon and brought what? Gold, frankincense, and what? Myrrh is the root word of Smyrna. Myrrh name means bitter. Myrrh is a resin from a tree, a sap. And I read this to you. It's bitter to the taste. And once crushed, it is used as a perfume, incense, or as a preservative during the times of Christ in burial. It is a symbol of death in the Middle East.

It is interesting to note that it was one of the gifts brought in Matthew chapter two regarding the worship of the Christ child. Gold symbolizing Christ's deity and His kingship. Frankincense symbolizing His priesthood and His offering. And Myrrh symbolizing His suffering and death upon the cross. And here's the secret, my friend, to the discipline of difficulty. It's been custom-designed for you and I. Now watch this and we'll end.

I have Myrrh from the Middle East here, from Israel. And I don't know if you can see this or not, but you know what amber looks like? Okay, this is Myrrh. It's pretty radical-looking. Pretty strange-looking. Now, if you taste it, it has like an herbal, a bitter taste to it. And Jesus says to the church at Smyrna, "You hang in there in the face of difficulties and don't give up. You will suffer," He said to that church. "Be faithful unto death."

Some of you may die for Christ in this life. I don't know. But you know what we'll do? The way you get perfume from this is you crush it. Jesus says, "You're just, you know what? To the world you're ugly and bitter-less and you're like the taste and aroma of death to those who are dying. But you are a sweet-smelling aroma to those who live." He's talking about those who live in Christ.

Here's the thing. It shatters. And if you can smell it now, it is absolutely completely different. It is absolutely aromatic like driving through the canyon tonight, you would smell milkweed. You know that smell? It's actually refreshing to the lungs to smell. Myrrh. Your difficulty, God is taking in a world of death and it's as though you're being crushed. And as the world watches your witness, diffused from your life in the spiritual senses of the world and of God, there's an aroma being sent out. This is great. I wish you could just come on up here and smell this.

Father, tonight, for the difficulties of our lives, the crushing. Your Bible tells us regarding Jesus that He was bruised. The word is crushed for our iniquities. And Father, we pray tonight that in our lives as believers, these hardships and the hardships to come, that we would calm down and that we would remember that we will stand before You. We and we alone will give account for ourselves. And Father, like never before from this moment on, may we hone our lives in on You, to know You more than ever.

Christian, right now, right where you're at in this attitude of prayer, will you be giving to the Lord right now your difficulty? Ask Him for grace, sufficient, enough to endure. Faith to trust Him that He will not allow you to endure that which you cannot bear up through Christ Jesus. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, maybe you're a Christian here tonight and you're so in need of just dedicating your life afresh to Him. You go do that right where you're at right now. You just tell Him, "Lord, I haven't been handling this trial or difficulty very well." You talk to Him right now.

But maybe tonight you're not a Christian. And your life has been crushed, and it's being crushed, and you feel like there's no way out, that there's no hope for you. I want you to call upon Jesus tonight. I want you to ask Him tonight to take absolute control of your life. Invite Him right now to be the Lord of your life. By doing so, you're saying, "Lord, forgive me of my sins. I repent of them. I don't want them around my life anymore. I want You to give me, Lord, a new life and I want You to, I don't have the power to take this stuff away from me, so Lord, You take it away and fill me with Your Holy Spirit."

And if that's you right now, right where you're at, nobody's looking around this sanctuary but me. Every person Jesus called the disciples called, they called publicly. And I'm looking right now, and maybe publicly right now you'd raise your hand and I would see your hand up and you're saying, "Pastor Jack, I'm accepting Jesus tonight." Is that you tonight? Raise your hand. God bless you. Oh my. Hands, keep put your hands up because there's just hands all over the place. And so this is between you and God. By raising your hand, you're saying, "Lord, see my hand. It is representative right now, Lord, of a changed heart. I'm accepting You as my Lord and Savior right now."

You can put your hands down. Pray this prayer and mean it. Dear Lord, forgive me now. Change my life and make me new. I want to know that I'm forgiven. I want to know, Lord God, that You're in control of my life, and I want to know Your love, and I want to know Your hope. Lord, I confess You today as my Lord and Savior. I believe You died on the cross and rose again from the grave for me. Give my life its intended purpose now. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Disciplines of Difficulty, Part Two. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Disciplines of Life. It's a series that highlights the disciplines of a Christ-follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you'd like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com/knowgod. That's K-N-O-W God. And there, you'll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you'll find in knowing God. Don't miss out. That's the Know God tab at jackhibbs.com.

Jack Hibbs: Do you think that your kid has a solid understanding of where America came from and why we're so blessed? Happy Birthday America, 250 years of God's blessings, is a production that we've put out there that you're going to want to get your hands on for your kids and your grandkids because it's all about God's good hand upon America. Get a copy for yourself and you'll enjoy it immensely.

David J.: The Happy Birthday America booklet, helping the next generation discover the founding truths of our nation. Get your copy today for free, just pay shipping, at jackhibbs.com.

Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode. 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.