Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: 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. God is using you as a child of his.

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.

Guest (Male): Your week is packed. You're running on empty, and sometimes Sunday already feels like a distant memory by Wednesday. That's exactly why Real Life Devotions exists. Each week, Pastor Jack Hibbs brings you a short but powerful moment in God's word, designed to encourage, equip, and refocus your heart.

It's not another podcast or a long sermon. It's a few meaningful minutes that meet you right where you are. Whether you're on a commute, going for a walk, or you just need a reset in the middle of your day, Real Life Devotions are ready when you are. Fresh encouragement straight from the scripture, and it's all just one click away. Check out the newest devotion now at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Your place for real faith, real encouragement, and real life. That's Real Life Devotions at jackhibbs.com.

David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called "The Disciplines of Life" and a message titled "Discipline 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. Но this doesn't mean something's wrong; it often means we're doing the right thing. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that difficulties are part of the Christian life, and we should not run from them. Instead of avoiding hard situations, we need to trust in the Lord. We need to stay faithful, knowing that he's working through those challenges. Now in his message called "Disciplines of Difficulty, Part Two," here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

I've told you this before: when Ashley, our youngest daughter, was eight months old, she got sick. She's allergic to antibiotics. We didn't know that. The doctor gave her an antibiotic, and it lyses her blood cells. She has Stevens-Johnson syndrome. She's allergic to synthetic antibiotics; she can't have them. It could have killed her. We didn't know. She's bleeding from the inside out.

Have you ever seen a person bleeding from the inside out? Their skin—as soon as you touch their skin—the blood comes through the pores. She's suffocating to death. They told us she had less than a 50% chance to live. They put her in quarantine at St. Jude's, and a pediatric hematologist just went after that issue. I mean, just attacked it. And she said, "Now we wait. We wait for seven days."

Let me tell you something: when you're gripped with that moment, you realize real quick. We had her for eight months. Jesus brought her into the world, and you realize real quick Jesus owns her. And when that moment comes, there's a depth to the fellowship of the understanding of the difficulty that God's in control, and he doesn't often ask us for input on our part. He doesn't say, "Jack, what do you think I should do on this?"

Lisa and I, one Saturday morning, were sitting in the cafeteria because that week Lisa lived at the hospital. And one Saturday morning we were sitting there, and we're just so tired. Pastor Chuck Smith walked by St. Jude's Hospital—walked right by. We saw him. "Pastor Chuck! Pastor Chuck!" We ran out. "Our daughter Ashley's in the hospital. We don't know if the office told you or not." We were, of course, fellowshipping at Costa Mesa.

Pastor Chuck says, "Well, that's why I'm here. I'm in between weddings. I thought I would come over and pray for her." He said, "I prayed with her." And he goes, "Listen, she's going to be fine." Nobody knew that. Nobody knew she was going to be fine yet. Pastor Chuck's not one of those guys that just speaks this thing on you, like, "Oh, it's going to be—you're going to be a millionaire, and you're going to be fine." He doesn't talk like that.

He usually says, "Well, just trust in the Lord." But Pastor Chuck had said, "Ashley and I just had a little time"—that's how he put it—"Ashley and I just had a little time of prayer, and she's going to be fine." Nobody knew that. And she was fine. But let me tell you, that answer did not come through the mouth of a man until God had settled the reality in Lisa's and my heart that there was a depth to this, and it's a realm that God presides over.

In Philippians 1:20, the Bible says, "According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Amen! To understand that there's a depth to the suffering that you're going through.

I was studying for today's message, and I had to have a repair guy come to the house. The guy was there, and he didn't know me from Adam. He's doing whatever he's doing, and I'm sitting there typing away on my computer. He turns around out of nowhere and he says, "Hey, can I ask you something?" I said, "Yeah." And he goes, "I just went through a divorce, and how does somebody get through a divorce? It's hard."

I thought, "Man, do I have a label across my face?" We had a great time of fellowship, this guy and I. A depth to the difficulty. The hardship in your life—is it bringing you, taking you to Jesus? That's its intended purpose. Or are you kicking against God and you're fighting and swinging and punching?

Have you ever seen someone come close to drowning? Only one time in my life, down at Newport Beach, I saw—I didn't actually see it, I heard about it—a lifeguard. You ever see those guys go out in the water when someone's going down? They're like animals. Those lifeguards hit the water like little torpedoes.

And that guy's going out after some guy that's drowning out there, and the guy wouldn't let him. You could see the guy attacking the lifeguard. And the lifeguard just swam away from him and just waited. Yeah, have you ever seen it? He just waited until that guy—I guess when you're drowning, you'll take people down with you. So the lifeguard's waiting. He's just waiting, just waiting until the guy starts drowning. Yeah, they do. And the guy's going under, and then the lifeguard grabs him.

Why? Because in the depth, he began to understand, "I can't save myself in this difficulty. I need help." Philippians chapter 1:28 says, "And not in any way be terrified by your adversaries." I like that. I don't know, you guys keep it on the screen. Look at that. "Do not in any way be terrified by your adversaries." You want to know why?

Keep it on the screen. You can just see David. He's standing there, a little ruddy guy, right? He's got his sling, he's got his five stones, he's going to go after Goliath. And standing behind David is the God of Israel. He's got a little snot running down his nose, he's got dirt all over his face. He says, "I come to you in the name of the Lord, you uncircumcised Philistine!" He starts running after Goliath.

I wonder what Goliath saw. But man, I think maybe Goliath saw God standing behind David. There was certainly an angel attached as a propellant to that stone that sunk into his head. "Do not in any way be terrified by your adversaries." Somebody coming against you? They're coming against the living God. Think of that.

"Which is to them a proof of perdition"—their very actions prove that they don't know Christ—"but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, Church, but also to suffer for his sake." It's okay. The depth to difficulty. Paul didn't know anything special that you and I don't have today. The difference is, Church, he lived through difficulties.

Isaiah 26:3-4 says, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah"—that's his name, by the way—"Yah." That means the Rock or Salvation, or the Rock of my salvation. That's the name of God. "Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength." I love that. That's the name of God.

The Judeo-Christian God of the Bible has a name. Why do I say that? Because, for example, in Islam, they don't know the name. I mean, you can study and find out the name, but they'll say they don't know the name. Allah is Arabic for God. God's a title. The God of the Bible gives you his name, and he calls you his friend, and he's with you in your difficulty.

Job 23:10 says, "But he knows the way that I should take; and when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Shiny, you know, all that. Lisa had a women's leadership tea at the house. All I know when she has this once a year is the silver has got to be polished before you ladies come over because it's got to look really nice.

God says, "I put you into a trial in life, and when I pull you out of it, you're shiny, shiny, brilliant gold." What does that mean? It means your faith has been tried and found to be true. Isn't that great? How do you know if your faith's real? Honestly, listen, you won't know unless you have a life-shaking event.

Also this: the discipline of difficulty is that it develops a maturity in the difficulty. There's no way, Church, listen—man, I don't know how to put this to you gently—you will never encounter a deep, mature Christian who has not suffered. I don't know how to tell you.

In Philippians chapter 3:10—the maturity comes from difficulty—listen to this, Philippians 3:10. Paul's prayer is "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection." How many of you would like to know the power of his resurrection and knowing him? It's the next part of that verse: "and the fellowship of his sufferings."

"I want the power. I don't want the pain." But you can't have the power without the pain. And I'm not talking about "no pain, no gain." I'm not talking about that stupid statement because you can't earn it. It's the pain that allows the mantle of power because you can't handle it. It's like giving your nine-year-old the keys to your racecar or lawnmower. They can't handle it. It's too much power for them.

God wants to use you in this life and you're saying, "Oh, I want to be used by God." That's awesome. You just signed up for pain. Don't laugh about that, you're scaring me. Listen, God is gracious. I would rather trust God in his dealing out of pain—customized pain for me—than to take my chances in this lunatic world. God is merciful. God is gentle and kind. And when suffering comes to my life, I need to catch my breath and say, "Lord, mature my life with you."

David J: You're listening to Real Life 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: Paul goes on in Philippians 3 and he says, "Not that I have attained, but God has called me to. I haven't attained that," he said, "but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself as apprehending; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me, I reach forward to those things that are ahead in Christ."

Wow, ladies and gentlemen, that's Philippians 3:13. You need that for your life. "Forget about it." Forget it. You ever been to New York? "Hey, you stepped on my shoe! Forget about it!" "Hey, that's my cab! Forget about it!" It's funny. They're living in the now, man.

So check this out. God says, Paul says, "You know what? The past, forget about it. I'm looking forward to Christ. I'm grabbing everything that I can from him, for him, to get to him." He says, "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God which is in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind." Isn't that amazing? That's awesome.

Listen, difficulty develops faith very quickly: faith, hope, and love. Watch this. Number one is faith. Difficulties develop faith. Every faith lesson in the Bible was prepared in advance. Think about that: Noah, Abraham, Joseph—he's amazing, that guy—Moses. Sometimes Moses deserved the stuff he got himself into, but Joseph was just flat-out amazing.

Paul—Paul blows my mind. I would not want to meet Paul in this life. Paul was intense; he scares me. The disciples—they're kind of funny. I'm sorry, but when I see the disciples—this may freak out some of you—but the disciples, when you put everything together and you read them in the Gospels and in the book of Acts, they do pretty good in the book of Acts because the Holy Spirit's got a hold of them. In the Gospels, it's pretty terrifying.

I hear the theme to the Three Stooges. And it's like, "What are they doing now?" They're always getting in Jesus' way. They're always goofing things up. They're always getting it wrong. He always has to say, "Come over here. Didn't you understand what I—look, I'll explain it to you. I said that to them because this is what it means. Come on, you guys. Have I been with you so long and you still don't get it?"

Remember, he said it? He goes, "Look, Philip, come on, man. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. What's the thing? Come on!" He meets the centurion in Capernaum, and the centurion's got it. "Hey, I know who you are, and I know that I, like you, we are people under order. You've got your orders from your Father, and I've got my orders from Rome, but I turn around and I tell these soldiers that are lower in rank than me to do what they—and they do it." Jesus says, "I have not seen such great faith in all of Israel."

It's amazing to me. Difficulties develop faith to the point where you've got disciples who were a bunch of bumbling funny guys who wind up dying for their faith. They cannot deny Christ 20, 30 years later. The only one, I think, if I remember right, that died of natural causes is John. And even then, did you know the Roman Empire, according to church history, put John in boiling oil and they pulled him out and nothing happened?

So then they said, "Get out of here!" And they sent him to the Isle of Patmos as an old man. He lived to be in his 90s. He was the bishop of Ephesus at one time, the pastor at Ephesus. He was banished by the Roman Empire to the Isle of Patmos. I've been there, I've stood there with John Miller, John Corson. On a tour, we stood there. It's a little tiny, deserted little rock in the middle of the Mediterranean.

And God reveals to John the Book of Revelation. Faith is born out of difficult things. Church, listen, I know that you don't want to sign up for difficult things and challenging things, and things that he would even put us in the place of a challenge. Но God loves when his kids say, "Okay, Lord, here I come!" And we jump into that whatever.

Will God provide? Will he do this? Will he be there for that? When God speaks—listen, this is the radical thing about faith—when God speaks to you, obey him. Know that God has spoken; obey him. People will have opinions; that's normal. Expect them. Obey him, and then watch what happens. He will put the puzzle together. I say puzzle together because sometimes puzzles sit undone on a card table for months.

I will not touch a puzzle. I hate them. Lisa loves them. A couple of years ago our house was in this thing about puzzles, and Rebecca, Ashley, Lisa, they'd walk by every so often and click pieces into place. I just thought, "This is stupid." "Oh look, we're building the castle." We had this Ludwig's castle from Austria, about a thousand pieces. It's like, "What do you want to do this for?"

God works on our lives like that sometimes. And as time goes by, it's not until you're nearing the end that it all comes together. And you and I are going through difficulties, and how are we handling them? Watch out. We were just talking about this before service. As you get older, there's some benefits to getting older. Denny's 4:00 specials, you know, half off. But you see things differently.

And I remember, when you're younger, it's so funny. You've got teenage kids, or you've got young people today. Either they're not even married or they don't have kids, and they're telling people how to raise their kids. "Yeah, you know what you need to do? You need to do this for your kid." And how many kids do you have? "Well, we haven't had any kids yet, but..."

And I've got to tell you, if that's happening in your life, just know this: that person you were talking to with the kids was biting their lip to keep from laughing at you in your face. You've got to live it! And you go through these difficulties, and your faith is strengthened.

1 Peter 1:5-7 says of us, concerning the believers, "who are kept by the power of God"—oh, that's enough, we could say amen right now and go home—"who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation"—that's the total, absolute redemption of body, soul, and spirit in the end—"ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to the praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

How cool is that? You ever pray that prayer? I hope you do. "Lord, I hope you come today." You pray that prayer more and more? I am. Lord, come today. I was marrying a couple a little while back, and I had said this before. So the father of the bride remembered it and he had said, "Pastor Jack, remember before in a message you said that you always pray with the husband and wife to be before service?" "Yeah."

"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 groom-to-be, he's like this. "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."

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.

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 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.

Guest (Male): 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.

David J: Hey, thanks 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.