Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: As long as we see ourselves as the victim always, we will never conquer our own lives in Christ. We’ve got to take the difficulties of our lives and lay them down at the cross. We need to come to Jesus and say, "Lord, this is the beef that I have with my life, and I’m giving it to You. I can't figure it out."

David J: 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. What do you do when heaven feels silent? When you’ve prayed, believed, even begged, and still nothing changes? When the person you love isn’t healed? When the worst actually happens? When it feels like evil is winning? Where is God in all of that?

This May, Pastor Jack Hibbs' featured resource is *Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayer?* by Erwin Lutzer. It’s an honest, biblical look at the questions most of us are afraid to say out loud. Not shallow answers, but real hope, real truth, the kind that meets you right in the middle of disappointment and points you back to God’s greater purpose, even when you can’t see it.

If you’ve ever wrestled with doubt, confusion, or silence from God, this book is for you. *Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayer?* is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/realradio. That's jackhibbs.com/realradio. Get your own copy of the Book of the Month, *Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayer?* by Dr. Erwin Lutzer, at jackhibbs.com/realradio.

On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called *Disciplines of Life* and a message titled "Disciplines of Difficulty, Part 1." A positive attitude is a good thing, but we’re not actually failing God if the difficulties of life become challenging or even a bit overwhelming.

Many of us have the delusion that the Christian life should be without difficulty, but everyone, including the Christ-follower, will experience difficulty. Hardships are a part of life, and no one escapes them. The good news is that God can use them to teach us, to shape us, and to even strengthen our faith.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that difficulties help us recognize our need for God. When life is easy, we often ignore Him. But the hard times push us to seek Him and depend upon Him even more. Now, with his message called "Disciplines of Difficulty, Part 1," here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Pray now that You’d bless the going forth of Your Word to our hearts. Lord, You’ve been preparing us actually for this discipline tonight in and with our lives. So Father, please help the going forth of Your Word now. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Well, grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 28. Put your finger there, Matthew chapter 28, and the theme verse for the entire series of the *Disciplines of Life* series, Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20. You know that by now. Once you get your finger there, I’m going to want you to go back a little bit and mark Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew chapter 28 and Matthew chapter 9. The *Disciplines of Life* series tonight, we come to the discipline of difficulty. The discipline of difficulty. What can that mean? I’ve got to tell you right now while you’re going there, it is absolutely impossible for me to not only cover this in detail, even if I had all the time in the world.

It’s impossible to do that, and here’s the reason why: God has allowed, ordained, engineered, and uses to His glory, difficulty. Here’s the worst thing of all, it's for the person tonight who might be here or who may be listening or watching right now to say, "I will not confess that, Pastor. I will not see difficulty." Oh, yeah, you will.

"Nope, not going to confess it, not going to say it." Well, you’re going to have it. Just when I say it like that, there’s a little bit of a cringe because you might think, "Oh, no." Why do we do this? It’s because we don’t understand, first of all, the very nature of our God.

When we talk about difficulty, every one of us, to some degree or another, has gone through, is going through, shall go through difficulty. It has to happen. It’s part of life. But if you are a Christian tonight, it comes with great instruction. It comes with great purpose. In fact, listen to these verses.

Matthew 28:18. Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me." Remember, He’s your Pastor. He’s the Shepherd of your soul. "All authority has been given to Me," Jesus said, "in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things—not some of it, all of it because it’s good—that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," or the end of the age, the culmination of time.

Now Matthew chapter 9, beginning at verse 9. "As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office," or the collection gate, the toll booth in our day, literally, on a Roman road. "And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' And so he," that is Matthew, "arose and followed Him."

"And now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it," those are the professional religionists, "when they saw it, they said to His disciples, 'Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'"

I want you to circle the word there that they followed, that Matthew followed, in verse 9, that he followed Jesus. That word in Greek means that he decided in an instant, in a moment’s time, to get up and go in the "same way." That’s what that word means, to go in the same way or to journey. Our video-on-demand, our internet television program is called *Journey*. Why? It’s a form of discipleship. It’s following Christ.

When you follow Jesus, when He says, "Come and follow Me," last Sunday by the end of third service, we saw close to 100 people make decisions for Jesus. What was He saying to them? Why did they respond and make a decision for Christ? He was saying to them, "Come and follow Me, journey with Me." We would also use the word "pilgrimage" or "venture with Christ," to take a journey with Him, to accompany Him. Jesus is inviting us.

Noah Webster, in his dictionary, defines the word "difficulty": that which is arduous. Do we even hear that word anymore? Arduous. A thing that is hard or hard to do, hard to understand, that which is occasioned by labor, by perplexity, hardship, something that which requires perseverance, something that is to be overcome, to be solved, to be defeated. An obstacle which is between you and your intended goal. Difficulty.

It’s been said that the greater the goal in life, the greater the level of difficulty. No one wants to sign up, let’s be honest, for difficulty. Maybe you’re here tonight and it’s your first time in church. Your friends have brought you, and believe me, they’ve been praying for you and they want you to come to Christ. They want you to make a decision for Jesus.

They’ve been loving on you. They might have been buying you lunch or doing things for you, all because they love you. They want you to be born again, Jesus said. They want you in heaven with them. But let me be the first to tell you, you make a decision for Jesus tonight and it is difficult.

But it is a difficulty that comes with great reward. You say, "Jack, you’re not encouraging my friend to choose Christ tonight, are you?" I am, because listen: everybody in life will have difficulty. Only the Christian has it with purpose, has it with meaning, has it with an intended goal in sight. There’s a reason for our suffering.

A lot of people, I don’t know what’s going on. I honestly am going to report to you something that I’m hearing in the last couple of months by so many people. It’s not only here in this church. I’m getting emails. People are stopping me at other churches where I might be speaking, and I’m hearing this.

I don’t put any stock into this because God can show me. He hasn’t shown me this. I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I’m just saying He can tell me if He wants me to know. But so many people are saying, "Pastor Jack, the Lord is showing me great, great destruction. I see visions of tremendous difficulty and peril coming to America and the world. I saw a vision of this happening in the Middle East."

All of these words of foreboding and impending judgment and doom. Listen, I’m not discounting that. I haven’t seen it. Do I doubt such things could happen soon? I don’t doubt it. Is America certainly worthy of discipline from God? Yes, we are.

But without those things, life is still difficult. With the world going on the course that it is around the world, and all the threats that are out there in Europe right now and in China, Russia, United States under constant terrorist chatter and threats, something is supposed to happen. What should that do to you?

Number one, as a Christian, you should make sure that your faith is rooted and grounded in Christ and that you’re not soon shaken by these things. Jesus said everything that can be shaken shall be shaken, and only that which can remain shall remain. So your life needs to be anchored upon Christ. You need to be trusting Jesus.

Things are happening in the world that are encouraging us really and pushing us onward to trust Christ. But no one wants to sign up for difficulty, I think. The reason why I put that in there is because when we begin as Christians to embrace the discipline of difficulty and understand that there is a growth and a maturity that comes through hardship, trials, that arduous journey of following Christ. You can’t buy it. You can’t go to Bible college and get it.

You can’t get it anywhere but walking with Jesus. There’s no other way. In your life, you’re going to have hardship. You’re going to have difficulty, no matter who you might be. But I thank God that for the Christian, the Lord grabs our hand, does He not? And does He not walk us through every difficulty?

I have to confess, I’ve gone through difficulties and I’m going through them. What’s interesting, we’re all praying backstage earlier tonight, and in my prayer with the guys, I said, "You know, Lord, it’s amazing how good and kind You are, because I’ve been going through stuff for so long in my own private life."

Everything’s great with my wife and me. We love each other. We’re crazy about each other. All that’s fine and dandy. My kids love Jesus, everything’s great. I’m talking about just physical things and continuing on and decision things. "Lord, show me and what’s next?" If You don't come back, what about the next 20 years? What about the next 10 years?

All that stuff and people problems, your problems, your situation, all that stuff weighs on your heart. You ought to hang out with Lisa and me someday. You probably never want to hang out with us again because when we’re away from you, we’re talking about you. Not *about* you, but *about* you.

We’re praying for you and we’re discussing, "Well, what do you think we should do? And what about that person?" And he said this to her and she doesn’t want to be married anymore. And then there’s a child who came home and she’s pregnant, and the father wants to throw the little girl out. All this stuff. Difficulties.

You have a tendency to say, "Oh, man, this is too much." Then you realize, wait a minute, in my own life as we were praying backstage, Lord, there are difficulties in my life that are now so constant, so there, that I’m used to them. I want to tell you right now publicly, I thank God for them now.

"Pastor, don't say such things." I thank God for them now because it has brought me to a place of knowing Jesus, His faithfulness, His constant presence in your life. Listen, we haven’t even gotten to the message. This is going to be—I’ll just keep doing the introduction until we run out of time.

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: It’s human nature for us to ask this question: why do people suffer? That’s human nature. The whole world asks that question. Why are things difficult with people? Why does it have to be difficult? Somebody’s asked this question: why do bad things happen to good people?

Do you know what Francis Schaeffer—did you ever read Francis Schaeffer? Anybody ever heard of Francis Schaeffer? Hello? Read the guy. Francis Schaeffer said it’s an easy answer to that question, why do bad things happen to good people? The reason why bad things happen to good people is because there are no good people.

"I’m highly offended at your statement right now. I mean, come on, what’s going on here?" No, the truth of the matter is, why does anything good happen to us at all? Have you looked around this world? This world’s nuts, man. It’s out of control.

But God’s good. The Bible tells us that every good thing that comes to our lives comes from the Father of Lights. I love that, the Father of Lights. God is the light-giver. But it’s also Christian nature to ask, why do God’s people have to suffer difficulty?

In fact, in Genesis 47:7, I love this. It says then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before the Pharaoh. This is cool. Watch this. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, this is awesome. Joseph brings in—they’re in Egypt—Joseph brings Jacob, his pop, before Pharaoh, the earthly god of the world to the Egyptians and to the world.

Look what happens. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh—I love that—Pharaoh asked him, "I don't speak Hebrew, didn't understand a word you said." No, he didn't say that. He doesn't say, "My, these are nice sons you have." He doesn't say, "Joseph, you raised a good boy, he’s a great guy, he’s really saved our neck here in Egypt." No, he didn't say that. He says, "How old are you?"

And Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my pilgrimage are 130." That’s years. "And my years," he says, "have been difficult and hard." Look at that. "They have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers."

"I’m 130 years old, I’ve had a hard life, and I come from a long line of people who have hard times." You ever feel like that in your family? "I come from a long line of losers. I come from a long line of difficulty." Who cannot say that? We all can say that.

But here’s the tendency of our culture today: "I’m the only one. Woe is me. I’m a victim." Hey, let’s get over that once and for all right now, all right? Let’s just join this club, all right? Adam and Eve ripped us off, okay? Want to blame anybody, blame Adam and Eve, all right?

Here’s the deal. If it would have been Fred and Wilma or Barney and Betty, they would have blown it too. And if it would have been you, you would have blown it too. Okay, so we just need to get over that. As long as we see ourselves as the victim always, we will never conquer our own lives in Christ.

We’ve got to take the difficulties of our lives and lay them down at the cross. We need to come to Jesus and say, "Lord, this is the beef that I have with my life, and I’m giving it to You. I can’t figure it out. I can’t do it anymore." And Jacob says, "My life’s been difficult." Every believer can say, "My life has been difficult."

But what if the very things that you and I despise tonight as a Christian that's taking place in our lives, what if the very thing that you and I despise in our lives is the very thing that we have failed to recognize that has been engineered by God and given to us? Watch this.

Don’t think for a moment that the world has slapped you or hit you with some difficulty. Are you a Christian tonight? The world does not slap you or hit you with a difficulty. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you, church family, that may be true for the non-believer, and that’s even a big maybe.

I think God is more involved in the non-believer’s life than the non-believer would ever dare to think. Because I know how He was involved in my life before I came to Christ. And I thank God now that He was involved in my life before I even knew who He was.

But in my life, in your life, Christian, everything that comes to your life is handed on a tailor-made golden platter in the sense that it is engineered by God. Did you get a flat tire on your way to church tonight? God knew about it. He’s doing a work with that flat tire.

"I don't believe that." Well, then you have a long line of difficulties to continue on in before you learn the lesson. Jesus said a sparrow does not fall to the ground without my Father’s notice. How much more does God love every step you take? Every move you make, He’s watching you. It’s true.

That’s why the amazing truth of God is that all the stuff you’ve never honestly—listen. You may be here tonight and you are so not with God, but you can honestly say to yourself tonight—you'll never say this out loud, but inside you’ll agree with me—that down deep inside there has been a nagging constant thought that God may be real.

What if He’s real? The very one that you’re kicking against as a non-believer is the very one that you want to run into His arms and be squeezed by Him and be hugged by Him and bring all your stuff to Him. But as a believer, whatever you’re going through in your life and whatever you’ve gone through has been God’s engineering. Difficulty.

It’s an amazing thing. Point number one, it may be our only point tonight. The discipline of difficulty. Jot it down, it's this: discovering God in the difficulty. Discovering God in the difficulty. And that comes this way, discovering the purpose of what that difficulty is. Discovering the purpose of difficulty.

The Bible is the book of deliverance. You will never find another book in all of the world that will help you, assist you, and rescue you from the dilemma that you’re in. Every year, God’s book is the number one bestseller wherever it’s offered all around the world. And where it’s not allowed, it’s stolen, smuggled, brought into.

Think about that for a moment. That’s bringing the Word of God, the greatest book that brings deliverance to a man’s heart and a woman’s soul, the Bible. And when Jesus said, and when it’s recorded there in Matthew chapter 9, it says now that as it happened, look at verse 10, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, and I love this, that behold, many tax collectors, many IRS agents, really, of our day and sinners, that’s where you and I would be sitting. There’s the IRS guys and then there’s the sinners, and they’re all around the table. So we’re all sitting there and they came and sat down with Him and His disciples.

Isn’t that beautiful? What does that tell you about Jesus? What does that tell you if Jesus walked through this room right now? Roll the hands of time back 2,000 years ago and Jesus walks through this room. According to my Bible, are you listening? According to my Bible, every tax collector and sinner—that’s a whole lot of people—would have gravitated towards Jesus.

If you and I would have seen Jesus walk by, we would have said, "You know what? I’ll be back later, I’m going with Him. Who is He? I don’t know, but I’m going with Him." There’s something about Him, which is radical because the book of Isaiah says regarding Jesus’ physical appearance, He was not beautiful to look at. There was no beauty nor comeliness that when we beheld Him that we should desire Him. There was a sense of compassion, of love, of care that a harlot, a tax collector, sinners gravitated toward Him. Does this world not need Jesus today? Man, imagine.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called "Disciplines of Difficulty, Part 1". You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called *The Disciplines of Life*. It’s a series that highlights the discipline 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.

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. The *Happy Birthday America* booklet, helping the next generation discover the founding truths of our nation. Get your copy for free, just pay shipping, at jackhibbs.com. That’s 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.