Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: We've shielded our kids from that, and we've actually, with good intentions, did the wrong thing. And we've hindered them. We hamstrung them because, for those of us who were brought up having to pull our weight, it built into us an integrity.

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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On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series now called Disciplines of Life, in a message titled The Discipline of Distinction. 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.

And today we learn how to handle the blessings, the success, and the recognition that God may bring without letting it go to our heads. You see, when life is going well, it's easy to start believing in our own headlines. But everything we have—our money, our influence, our energy—that all belongs to the Lord.

The discipline of distinction is learning to manage his blessings without forgetting who gave them. So today Pastor Jack teaches that real success isn't wealth or achievement, but a life fully sold out to the kingdom of God. When we let the Lord put a handle on our back, he can pick us up and use everything that we have for his glory. Now with his message called The Discipline of Distinction, here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: In Luke 16:10, Jesus says, “He who is faithful in what is least is also faithful in much.” Man's inability to manage influence is scary. Adolf Hitler—did not Germany love him? You remember, do you know history? They loved him. Then what happened? Man's inability to manage influence, power, is amazing. It's terrible.

Proverbs 28:11 says, “The rich man is wise in his own eyes.” And I’m not just talking rich in money—rich in time, rich in influence, rich in fill-in-the-blank. He’s wise in his own eyes when he forgets God. Jesus said, “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” That sums it up perfectly, doesn't it?

To exercise the discipline of distinction is to realize, God, I'm yours. I know who I am, and that I was a lost sinner. Now I'm a saved sinner. And I'm asking you to use my life to your glory, God. Another prayer that we pray often is, Lord, establish your authority through us, versus Lord, establish my authority. What a dope. You haven't got any. We don't have any of that. You say, “Pastor, you clearly don't know who you're talking about. I am the president of the…” Listen, you are because God allowed it to be. That's how you got that.

We need to be very careful. Jeremiah 45:5 says, “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” Don't pursue them. Why? Daniel chapter four is a great reason why. Daniel four is amazing. You ought to read it from time to time. It’s so exciting. Nebuchadnezzar—you guys all know him. By the way, I believe he's in heaven. I believe the scripture tells us he's in heaven.

But Nebuchadnezzar, in verse 30, says then the king spoke saying, as he overlooked his incredible kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar says, “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” And while he was speaking those words, in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven. “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you.” Boom. And he turned into a literal idiot right then and there.

He began to crawl in the ground and scratch. He began to eat grass. And the Bible says for seven seasons—we don't know if that was basically a year and a half, seasons being months, or seven years, we don't know—the ruler of the world turned into an idiot when he said, “Oh, look at what I've done.”

We've been to Caesarea by the Sea where Paul was when he was arrested. They brought him down from Jerusalem to Caesarea. It's a beautiful spot right on the ocean and the theater has been unearthed. Remember that Paul was getting ready to give his defense and Herod comes up there and he's wearing that gold woven thread robe and the people began to shout, “The voice of a god and not a man!” He began to speak.

And what's amazing, at the podium where you stand, he was standing facing the crowd. And when he faces the crowd, he's facing east. Historians tell us the sun came up, the sun hit that golden robe, and people began to cry, “The voice of a god and not a man!” And the Bible says because he did not give glory to God, he was smitten, struck by God, and worms began to crawl around in his bowels. Can you imagine? “I'm the great…” Can you imagine? And he died. Watch out. Boasting, arrogant, proud—your influence has been given by God. It's not unto us.

And then, in my opinion, the most well-balanced, well-adjusted man that's ever lived, the guy saw stuff that we could only dream about. God used him in ways that we could only dream about. And yet, listen to this man. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, chapter three: “But what things were gain to me, these I've counted loss for Christ.

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.”

You want to be wise? You want to be smart? You want to exercise the discipline of distinction? Look at this man who was famous. Look at this man who was used by God. Look at this man who knew how to handle wealth and poverty. Paul the Apostle, he says, you know what, out of all that stuff, it doesn't matter what I have and what I don't have, it's all about Jesus. You can't stop someone like that.

Fourth, the discipline of distinction is this: it’s the godly stewardship of success—achievement, accomplishment, exploits. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Success. Some people pursue success; that's all they're living for.

Listen, I’m going to sound like a dinosaur right now. I understand parents, because we get stuck in a groove. We groom our kids to go to Harvard. We groom our kids to go to Stanford, or wherever. We groom them. We're working hard, we're working extra hours, we're doing all this stuff to get our kid to a great college or a tremendous university. And listen, on the surface, I know exactly where you're coming from.

And then we find out that 88% of the Christian kids who go to universities and colleges lose their faith in the first year because they get eaten alive. They don't know how to defend their faith, taught all kinds of liberal shenanigans. We hear from the President last night that our kids in school are failing horribly. Out of all the industrialized nations on the earth, the American kid, literally, the longer they stay in school, the data shows the dumber they get.

That's a fact. And I was yelling at my TV. He couldn't hear me; I don't know why. But I said what we heard last Sunday. Stop teaching them how to put a condom on and have them learn science. Stop teaching them how to figure out if they have this female leaning this day or a male leaning the next. Teach them English. What's the deal? Think about it. Our kids are failing.

But we have this desire and this commitment; I understand that. And we think success is this. Is it really? You know what success for me and Lisa, our success is going to be, Lord God, by the end of our children's lives—we'll be long gone by then—by the end of our children's lives, will they have lived a faithful, spirit-filled, anointed life for the kingdom of God?

I don't care, and listen, soon the world economy will remind you. It doesn't matter how much, “Oh, look how successful, I got this, I got the other thing.” That's not success, not at all. And we've swallowed the bill of goods. No, true success is seeking God's kingdom, asking God tonight, Lord, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to breathe? Where do you want me to go? “Man, you Christians, you're talking like you're being all sold out.” That's exactly what I'm talking about—being totally sold out.

When we're sold out for him, listen, we don't have to worry about influence. We won't have to worry about wealth. We won't have to worry about these other things because it's all about him. And think about that. Literally, a friend of mine in Texas was building a church. They put a drill in the ground to lay the pylons for their parking structure. The trucks were there, the drivers were there, and they’re drilling down in the ground and they’re ramming cement pillars down into the ground, okay? Boom, boom, boom. Oil.

They struck oil. You should give that to the National Satan’s Academy. A church struck oil. And then people were debating, “Is that even… can they keep it? Should they be able to keep it if they’re a church?” It was their land. No, let's just give it to Satan. Isn't that amazing? Think about how weird that is. The world would say that's success, we want it. That's not success. Success is what they do with the money that the oil brings. Will it glorify God or not? That's success.

Psalm 25:9, “The humble he guides in justice, and the humble he teaches his way.” What a great thing, huh? Stewardship, responsibility, success. Jesus said in Matthew 13:23, “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, and who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

In my opinion, I think I've got God's heart on this matter. This is the key to success. God's not against success. In fact, I think success comes from God. But here's how it's managed. Here's the distinction and its discipline. Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”

I've known people like that. I've never met them, but I feel like I know them. I read a lot of dead guys' mail, people who have died long time ago. I read their mail. I read George Washington's mail. You can get it in libraries, you can go read it. They're great, reading the old guys. Who lets you read their mail anymore? The old guys do. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, and Dr. Benjamin Rush—all of them got together and said, you know what, we're going to spend this much money of the national budget each year to have Bibles printed up and distributed to the American Indians. When’s the last time you heard that in American history class? To me, that's awesome. That's success.

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: And then number five, we'll end with this one: it's vitality—a godly stewardship of vitality. Vitality, by that I mean energy, health, vigor. It’s defined as well-being—vitality, your life, the full package of who you are. Now listen, this is most often a young man's or a young woman's danger, vitality. I’m going to try to be really serious about this, because this is a serious issue. But it seems kind of funny sometimes.

The vitality—now that you're older, for some of us who are older, we're smarter now. We're wiser. But now we don't have the energy to implement these great wise things we know. So we watch people go by and we’re just like, “Well, you know, that guy's going to go over there and fall right off the end of that cliff, but I’m too tired to tell him.” You know what I'm saying? It's just kind of funny.

When you're young, you do the craziest things. “Let's stay up all night!” “For what?” “I don't know, let's just do it!” Imagine if that vitality, and the vitality that you and I have no matter what age we're at or whatever physical condition we're in, is used for the glory of God. Can you imagine if the young people jumped up and said, “Let's stay up all night!” “What are you going to do?” “We're going to pray and worship and sing, and we're going to go down to the truck stop and hand out tracts all night long!” Now you're talking. Now you're talking.

Using the God-given vitality that you have to the glory of God. Lamentations 3:27 is awesome. It says, “It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.” You know what that means? Let them suffer. No, I mean that affectionately. I mean it. I’m being serious now. Let them suffer. Let them feel the yoke of labor and sweat and long hours and back-breaking detail, digging trenches, going door to door, handing those things out, making the calls.

You want to know why? You want to know why it's great? We've shielded our kids from that, and we've actually, with good intentions, did the wrong thing. And we've hindered them. We hamstrung them because, for those of us who were brought up having to pull our weight, it built into us an integrity.

“How long's that going to take?” “Four hours.” “Well, let's get started.” Versus now, “How long's that going to take?” “Four hours.” “Oh man, really? I don't know. Really? I mean, come on now.” Think about it—to dig in, to make it work. Vitality in ministry—we give up too soon. Every Christian should be serving in the particular home church that they reside in. But if somebody says, “Well, you know this or that, or sit down or wait, or do this, fill out the paperwork,” we give up too soon.

No, listen, we need to stay at it. Listen, a young man, a young woman—they'll stay at other things with vigor. Why not the Lord? Paul said it this way in Philippians 4:11, “Not that I speak in regard of need, for I have learned in whatever state,” even California, “I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound.” I'll define that in a moment. “Everywhere and in all things, I have learned.” That's it.

“I've learned,” says the Apostle, “both to be full and to be hungry.” Listen, we all know what it's like to be full. Have we learned how to handle hunger? There's a discipline to handling hunger. “Both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That's awesome.

The word “learned” means this: to come into the place of understanding. The word “abased” means to be pushed down or to be depressed into a mold, or to be humiliated. Paul says, “I know how to be humiliated.” Think of the value of that. We teach our young people, “Well, you know, we shield them, you can't let them be humiliated.” Listen, there's a value to being humiliated. I’m not going to give you the details, but I know what that's like growing up. And I tell you what, the stuff I went through as a kid, maybe it would have put me in a nut house. Now as a Christian, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I wouldn't change a thing. Why? Because I survived that stuff. Listen, I survived it without Jesus. I say that knowing him; I didn't know him then. He got me through it. And now that I am a Christian, I know he got me through it. And if that happened to me when I was nine years old and then sixteen years old, then what does it matter to me if it happens when I'm fifty-three years old? I'll survive. I'm going to make it. It's not a problem.

Valuable lessons to learn. And the word “abound”—the word “abound” means to have absolute over-superabundance of quantity and quality. We'll end with this: as a Christian, God wants you and I, whatever you and I have—if it's the air we're breathing or the nickel in our pocket, everything in between—I want you to leave this church with this thought in your head forevermore.

In fact, on your back, on my back, think of your body having a handle on it. Years ago, I did a men's retreat and I took this little guy we used to use in the parking lot. I forgot what I called him back then, but it doesn't matter. It's a little plastic guy and he held a flag. He’s lime green, had a little helmet on. He's a little traffic guy and it said like, he's like this, a silhouette, and it says, “Slow.” And he had a handle on the back. I took that guy, took him to a men's retreat and I said, “Man, this is a Christian right here. This little piece of plastic's been born again. It has a handle, and whatever I choose to do, I can pick him up, move him all around, I can set him anywhere. He doesn't complain, he's totally obedient. I can grab that handle and move him around anyway. He's out there in the rain, in the heat, right there.”

Think about you as a Christian. The nickel I have in my pocket, the breath that I'm breathing, the car that I have, the burger that I'm eating—everything. If you begin to see everything as part of the tool, you're the tool. And whatever he brings into your life becomes part of that tool. And notice how much stuff gets done that has a handle on it. You can build cities. You can build worlds. And I want to see all of us have a handle on our back. There’s nothing like it. And we'll be exercising the discipline of distinction.

Let God exalt you because you've been faithful. Just use it to the glory of God. “Pastor Jack, what if I work hard at my company and God blesses it and it makes a gadzillion dollars?” Use it to the glory of God. “Well, Pastor Jack, what if I do this thing and I’ve got all this energy and all this vitality and I don't have any money but I want to do this and I want to do that?” Use it to the glory of God.

Let's pray right now. Father, I ask you Lord in Jesus' name for these people, and for me included, us together, that you Lord would fasten upon us, as it were, a handle. That Lord, from this moment on, maybe in the spirit realm popping up from each chair around this place tonight is your people, your dear one praying, “Lord, use me, put a handle on my back, God. Take everything I have and cause the discipline of distinction to be active in my life. That Lord, if you want to use me, if it causes notoriety, if it causes wealth, if it causes whatever, success, vitality, on it goes—God, may it be solely to your glory. May I keep my hands off of it, and may you Lord multiply our influence, my influence, this church's influence for the glory of God.”

Tonight as we end this, if you don't know Jesus Christ personally, I just want you to know tonight that you are missing out on finding out what your life is all about. If you don't know Jesus tonight, you need to say yes to him. He died on the cross for your sins and mine. He rose again from the grave to set us free. And many of us in this room are free.

Are you free tonight? Do you know what it's like to have your sins forgiven you? You can ask Jesus right now to come into your life and to wash your sins away. Talk to him in the silence of your soul. You can say, “Lord God, I've sinned against you and I'm sorry. And I ask you to forgive me.” You tell him about it, and you give your heart to Christ tonight and ask him to forgive you and he will. And allow him to put a handle on your back to use your life. Father, we thank you Lord tonight, as we leave this building, may we be energized, spirit-filled to be dynamos for the kingdom of God, in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called The Discipline of Distinction. Thanks for joining us here 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, the setbacks, the hard seasons that he uses to shape a believer's character and to deepen our faith. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

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.

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 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.