Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Someone or something is governing your life. I'd rather have God govern and dominate my life than anyone else or anything else in all the world. Why? Because He is good.

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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This is more than a vacation. It's a time of rest, renewal, fellowship, and spiritual strength in the Word of God, all centered around the Bible. You can reserve your spot by going to jackhibbs.com.

David J.: That's the Bold Faith Hawaii Cruise, June 12th through the 19th, 2027. For more information, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called *Disciplines of Life* and a message titled "The Discipline of Domination". The Christian walk is full of disciplines: the trials, the setbacks, the hard seasons that God uses to shape our faith from the inside out. Here, we'll discover that every one of us is being controlled by something, and the question is, what is that something?

You see, whether we believe it or not, someone or something is governing our lives right now. It might be a job, maybe a relationship, a habit, or our own emotions. But God wants us to be the one who dominates our hearts because He is good, and following Him is the best thing that can happen to us.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the discipline of domination begins with refusing to let our flesh run the show. When our feelings, our eyes, or our pride start calling the shots, we have to surrender it all to God instead. Before we get into the message, I had a chance to sit down with Pastor Jack and talk about it. So let's get into that.

So Pastor Jack, talking about the discipline of domination. In this message, you make this really sharp point: what dominates you is what dictates your decisions, your purpose, your future. So why is identifying that so important for every believer?

Jack Hibbs: We must recognize, we must discover: what is it that dominates? Now, that's a very violent word if you think about it: dominant, dominate. But I picked that word deliberately because to dominate means to control, or to have under your heel, or to bring under subjection.

I forget who it was who said this, but it's so accurate: that without Christ, we are rebels against God. Now, how do we make sure that we're not rebels against God? That is that we make very, very certain that our power and our pursuit of Jesus Christ is done by the power of God. The Book of Acts makes it very clear that what we do as believers is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit or else we should just wait and get His power before we embark upon our own.

I want to be dominated by the Spirit of God. People will say, "Oh man, you Christians talk like that? That scares me." No, you have no idea, my friend. The greatest victory and freedom for you to experience is to be domineered by God and to become His slave because He is the most liberating one who dominates and He is the most generous one who enslaves us to His will.

To walk with God and know God is to open up a world—it almost seems like a contradiction, I know—but to open up a world of dynamic, and thrill, and victory, and freedom whereby God dominates you and nothing of this world, including yourself, no longer dominates you.

David J.: The *Disciplines of Domination*. Thanks for spending a little extra time with us today, Pastor Jack. Let's jump into the message.

Jack Hibbs: You would not only inhabit this sanctuary as you were in the worship, in our singing, and in the worship of our giving, and now in the worship of the study of the Word of God. Father, that You would be blessed and pleased, and Lord, that You would somehow bridge that gap that is natural in the sense that there are many people, tens of thousands of people, we know that are viewing live right now from around the world.

Lord, there's people where they're already into Thursday and they're having coffee or tea somewhere in the world, and they've got their program on right now, and they're here with us in spirit, as it were. Father, we pray that You would move profoundly because, Lord, we understand that these are the last days and that the Gospel needs to go out to the ends of the earth. But it starts right here, right now in our hearts first.

So Father, we pray that You would assemble the body of Christ around Your Word. Lord, may You give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church right now, in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen.

Grab your Bibles tonight and turn as we continue in our series of *The Disciplines of Life*. Turn to Matthew chapter 28. You probably have a spot worn out there now on Wednesday nights. Matthew chapter 28. That is our theme verse in this tremendous series.

Tonight is part 28 of our 31-part series of *The Disciplines of Life*. Matthew chapter 28, hold your finger right there and then move a little bit to the right to Acts chapter 1. Matthew chapter 28, Acts chapter 1. Tonight, we look at the discipline of domination.

Domination: who dominates you? What dominates you? You might say tonight, "Well, nothing dominates me." I appreciate your passion, but you are so wrong about that. Every one of us is being dominated by something tonight, someone or something. And we're going to learn about this this evening and what God's will is for your life and my life about you and I being dominated.

Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 says, "Jesus spoke to the disciples and He said, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.'" And I love this next part: "And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." You may understand that part of that verse more profoundly tonight than these last 28 weeks.

Now, look at Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Acts 1, verse 8. Jesus said to the disciples—He's about ready to ascend into heaven—He says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem"—that's where it all started—"and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Jesus is saying that for the believer, a monumental moment would take place. He said there's going to come a time when you're going to be sent out into all the world as a Christian. Often, we think that as a Christian we get saved and we get up on Monday morning and we go to work and we just stay in that routine, and it could be like that, sort of. But as a Christian, we see right here in Scripture that God commands us from the get-go that we are to go into all the world.

That's pretty radical if you think about it, that God would say to us, "Okay, now that you're Mine—I mean, you've been in the camp of the world all your life, and the world has dictated to you where you'll go, what you'll do, and all this kind of stuff—but now you're Mine. And being Mine, I am going to now lead and guide your life in the plan, by the way, which I created for you since before the foundations of the world."

And you would think that as a Christian, we'd go, "Yes! Yes! I've already traveled the world selling shoes, or I've spent my life as a telephone salesperson, or I spent my whole life sitting on the freeway commuting for the world, for the almighty or once-mighty dollar. But now I belong to Jesus."

And you would think the Christian would say, "All that stuff I got it, it's all in the past. Okay, God, send me. Where do You want to send me?" As Christians, we should be asking the Lord, "Do You want me to stay?" Because He already told us to go. "Go therefore into all the world."

So Lord, I'm going to go somewhere. I'm sure You're going to show me where. But if You want me to stay, You've got to tell me to stay, because You've already told everybody who comes to You to go. And you would think that in reading that portion of Scripture, we would say, "Here I come to save the day," and God would propel us to the world. I know He wants to do that. And how does He do that? By the power of the Holy Spirit.

The argument tonight is we are all under the domination of someone or something. But the ultimate goal for every believer is to be possessed and controlled and dominated by the Holy Spirit. This is key and it is the absolute, as we'll see tonight, the joy of the believer's life: to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Tonight, the discipline of domination. By way of introduction, great quote: "All great leaders were, first of all, great followers." Think of that for a moment. When we talk about the discipline of domination, the reason why that even comes into the factor is because Noah Webster connects domination and control together.

He says that it is to be under the rule or under the jurisdiction of another, to keep in order, or to keep in the proper place. Domination or control: it means to provide by governing, to be under the command of a greater authority than yourself. So then, now we see that all great leaders were, first of all, all great followers.

Jesus says to His disciples, "Come and follow Me." He said to Matthew at the tollgate for the Roman Empire, He just walked by. It must have been awesome. People in line getting ready to pay their tax or their toll to get on the toll road with their donkey, the Roman toll road. They had to pay to get on the highway. I'm not joking, really. They had a little thing on their donkey and it beeped when they went by the gate and it automatically deducted money from their account.

Jesus just walks by. Can you imagine? I wonder if Matthew said, "Excuse me, excuse me," and Jesus just turns and goes, "Come and follow Me." And the Bible says Matthew got up and he left the tollgate and he followed Jesus. James and John, same thing. Jesus walks by the shore on the Galilee and says, "Come and follow Me. Let's go."

And they left their boat, they left their nets. Their father owned the company, but the two boys got up and abandoned the whole thing and followed Jesus. That is being dominated by the will of God. That is the greatest thing that can happen in your life. You might be a non-Christian tonight. You might be somebody who doesn't even know what it's like to have the power of God leading and guiding you, and you would say, "I don't know if I'm for that or not."

But listen, I want you to think about this honestly: someone or something is governing your life. I'd rather have God govern and dominate my life than anyone else or anything else in all the world. Why? Because He is good. It's great to follow Him.

So as we go through the study tonight, I want you to be thinking about this regarding things that may be in your life, things. I want you to ask and be asking yourself this question: what dominates your life regarding things? Is it a car? Is it a job, education? What is it?

What is in the sense that's controlling your decision-making? It controls your purpose, your future, your hope. Whatever that thing is, it governs your life. And you're pouring, by the way, by nature, you are pouring your life into that thing with hopes of getting dividends out of it. It could be a relationship. It doesn't have to be things; it could be people.

I want you to be asking yourself personally tonight as you go through this study: who dominates your life? As a Christian, I want to be able to confess that Christ dominates my life and that thing that dominates my life would be to do the will of God. He governs my life, that's the person. And the thing is that I want to do the will of God.

That's the possession of the believer. So tonight, we want to be identifying the issues that dominate our lives. That's key. And by the way, if you apply this message to your own life tonight personally—imagine if right now tonight you would just start a little journal about this—I trust God's Word to work in your heart to give you an answer tonight for the struggles of your life. I believe that.

Because all of us tonight are being, listen, we are either being blessed by God because of obedience, because the fear of the Lord—I don't mean scared, the fear of in awe of God—has caused us to make the right decisions in life. We didn't make those decisions because we're real smarty-pants; we made those decisions based on the Word of God. We'll hear more about this in a moment, okay?

And you may or may not like this what I'm about to say, but it is an absolute fact. It is as true as gravity is upon this earth. And that is: God blesses obedience. If you decide to obey God, your life will be blessed. What does that mean, blessed? Define blessed. I have no idea what I'm talking about because God chooses to define what blessed is in your life.

And then listen, there will be those people—there always is—who are not obeying God. They walk in almost a perpetual state of disobedience because their passions and other things dominate them. But they're Christians, they're in the family of God. But they look at those who are blessed and they're upset with them.

"How come? And why them?" Have you ever thought for a moment that that person's life is blessed by God because that person has decided that the person in their life that will dominate them will be Jesus and that the thing that dominates their life will be the will of God?

I'm all excited about this right now because I'm taking a very slow journey through the Old Testament in my morning devotion time. I'm telling you what, I'm addicted to it right now. I go to sleep at night, I can't wait to get up in the morning to get into this thing that I'm—it's just a wonderful time. I don't even need you anymore, I don't need you. No, I love you. I love you. I'm just saying it's like, "Oh man, Lord, do I have to get up and go to work now? Do I have to get up and leave? I just want to be here." Lord, it is good that we are here; let us build three tents, you know.

But as we get into this, we are going to get into it sometime tonight, we are. But in Luke 17:33, this is exactly what Jesus was talking about. Luke 17:33, Jesus said, "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."

This is exactly what He's talking about. Stop dominating your own life, or having other people dominate your life, or having other things dominate your life. Jesus is saying give that up and let God dominate your life, and then you will find true living. If you're trying to protect your life, if you're trying to shield your life, if you're trying to make it all work out so that it all matters in the end, you're going to wind up losing your life and it is going to be a horrible end. But if you give it up to God and let Him control it, you'll find true life.

Point number one, jot it down. The discipline of domination is this: to be refusing the domination of our flesh. Will you write that down? Point one: refusing, be refusing the domination of our flesh. And no one is exempt, if you can hear my voice right now, from that discipline.

In 1 John chapter 2, verse 15, listen to this. 1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world"—mark it—"for all that is in the world, listen everybody, this is great therapy, this is a great healing moment. Number one is the lust of the flesh. Number two, it's the lust of the eyes. Number three, it's the pride of life. These things are not of the Father but of this world."

Those three things, mark them down. This is key. This is our problem. Those three things, by the way, we don't have time to do it right now, but if you match those three things that press against us are exactly the three things that Eve tripped up on in the Garden of Eden right there, those three things.

She saw, she saw that it was good, that it would be tasty or pleasurable, satisfying, and that it would make one wise. Those very issues, those three match here 1 John perfectly. The domination of the flesh we must learn as Christians to refuse those things, and we have to fight them. You say, "Well, when will the fight be over?" The day you drop dead.

It's true. So watch this. Refusing, number one, listen: refusing what we feel with our emotions. And I want you to write that down, but I've got to qualify this so you don't think this is unrealistic. I'm not talking about your emotions being demonic or evil or—no, God gave you those emotions. Emotions are fantastic in the right application.

Emotions out of control can destroy your life. we must first of all be learning how to refuse what we feel when our emotions try to take control. So look at verse 16, 1 John 2:16 again. 1 John 2:16 says, "For all that is in the world"—well, wait a minute, I'm in the world? Yes. So put your helmet on and listen up because we're in the world.

Number one, we've got to deal with the lust of the flesh. Feelings are always wrong when they contradict or seek to override the Word of God in our lives. Church, the Bible is our plumb line. It is our foundation. And we're in deep trouble when we begin to say, "Well, I know what the Bible says, but I really feel like I should..." Disaster.

"Well, I know the Bible says this, but I prayed about it." Can you believe this? This is—I'm really talking about real stuff that people say. "I know the Bible says this, but I prayed about it and..." Unbelievable. This is why tonight so many lives are messed up. The Bible says this so perfectly clear. "Yeah, but you know what, I had a friend who told me this," or "I went to some churches and I got some counseling."

That's a little tip right there too. "I went to some churches to get some counseling." Translation: I kept going to spiritual institutions until I found the answer I was looking for. Watch out when the Bible says something and it might fly in the face of our feelings. Obey the Bible. Always obey God's Word. It will give you life.

I have never, I have never heard someone ever say, "You know what I did? I obeyed the Word of God, and look what happened." Have you ever heard that? I've never heard that. I've heard people say, "You know what, I knew down deep inside the Lord was saying no, and I married her anyway, or I married him anyway, or I bought it anyway, or I didn't go where I should have gone." Fill in the blank.

But I have never heard someone say, "Well, there you go, I followed God and the whole thing blew up." Never happened.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called "The Discipline of Domination". Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called *Disciplines of Life*. It's a series on the disciplines that God builds into the Christian life: the trials, those setbacks, and the hard seasons that He uses to shape us as believers and to deepen our faith. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

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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 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.