Real Life Radio

Guest (Male): He will guide you into all truth, and that it's a constant act of the Holy Spirit guiding you into all truth. He's at work. God's got a plan, and God's plans to create within you and I a dynamic, healthy, vital Christian life.

This is Real Life.

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.

Guest (Male): Truth doesn't need permission, and it doesn't need a filter. The Real Life Network delivers bold biblical content that addresses today's toughest issues with clarity and conviction. Watch teachings and interviews and the special programs that equip you with God's truth for the world that we live in today.

Sign up for free at reallifenetwork.com. Stay grounded in Scripture, gain perspective, and remain confident in Christ no matter what's happening around you. Stream for free today at reallifenetwork.com.

David J.: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series called "The Disciplines of Life" and a message titled "Discipline of Delay." Isn't it true that lots of us are waiting to hear from the Lord about some thing in our lives?

Waiting can wreak havoc on our emotions as well as our patience. We can't see what good can come out of our waiting, but God knows exactly what time it is. Timing, of course, is His sovereign business. When He delays, all we have to do is obey.

Today, Pastor Jack teaches that God has a plan for our lives. His delay is what separates us from the advice of the world and even from those who are closest around us. The longer we have to wait on the Lord to act, the more clearly we see and the more simple things become. Now with his message called "Discipline of Delay," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: It says now Bethany was near Jerusalem, verse 18, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, and I love this, this is humongous faith: "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

Isn't that great faith? No, really it is. She is full-on rebuking Him for slacking off. But she's saying if You had been here, he wouldn't have died. You could have done something about this. This is great faith, mind you. Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

When she had said these things, verse 28, she went her way secretly and called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you." As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town but was in the place where Martha met Him.

Then the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there." Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, so precious is this, and she said to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. You're coming up on one of the most precious verses in the Bible. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Verse 35, look at this, shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept.

Why did He weep? I think Jesus wept over the pain of what death causes. Death is not supposed to happen to us. It wasn't supposed to be death in the Garden of Eden. Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him." Some of them said, "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying?"

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, probably at unbelief there, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus says, "Take away the stone." That had to be radical. It's been four days. You don't do this. Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." Notice, not three, not five, four was the key. He's gone.

Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?" Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You've heard Me, and I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."

Now when He had said these things, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out, bound hand and foot with grave cloths, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. So he's totally mummified and Jesus said to them, "Loose him and let him go." I love it. Why'd you take us all that time to read that for?

Because when Lazarus had died, even before he was dead, they prayed. Did they not pray in a sense? Quick, send help, get Jesus. He hears that Lazarus is sick and He waits. He waits until he's dead to leave the Jordan River valley to go up to Bethany. This is the discipline of delay in action.

God responds in His time so that the Lord may be glorified. He does not delay that we be glorified. He delays in your life that your faith may be strengthened. He delays in my life that I might have greater faith. Here's the thing. We must be willing to embrace His sovereignty in this area tonight or we will suffer greatly.

This is not popular, but God will answer your prayer in His timing. He calls the shots. We don't know how long Paul prayed for his healing, but we know that Paul prayed three times. And the Lord said, "I'm not going to heal you, Paul, because My grace in your ailments will be a source of power in your life."

Then Paul turns around and says, "Okay, then don't heal me. I'd rather have Your power." He fell in love with the discipline of delay. The delay was, I'm going to do My sovereign thing, Paul. God is saying to you tonight, you've been crying out to God and He hasn't answered you yet. Just because He hasn't answered you yet with a yes or a no doesn't mean He hasn't answered you.

His answer may be later. His answer may be delay. I'll look into that. We do that all the time. People will say, "Will you sign up? Will you do this? Will you do the other?" And you know what we say? "I'll pray about it." God does it to us and we panic. God please! And He'll say, "I'm going to pray about it." And we don't like it.

But He knows exactly what time it is in your life. If He knew what time it was in my life, here I'm 35 years old and I'm not married yet. Maybe He's sparing you from a world of grief. Who knows? Maybe, I believe what I'm about to say right now, I believe that God has that right person for you.

I'm 32 and he hasn't come yet. It may be he ain't ready for you yet. I mean the Lord is, the guy's not. Maybe he's got some growing up to do. I don't know. But God's not so concerned about that stuff. Sometimes we think that He's going to answer my prayer so I'll be happy. I haven't read that in the Bible anywhere.

He answers our prayers that we might draw closer to His will. If we pray according to His will, He hears us. That's important. So when He delays, we are to obey. That's very important. So you've prayed and so you've been in the Bible, you've been asking God for an answer to your prayer request. What are you supposed to do? You wait on God.

I hear Christians say that a lot, to wait on God. What does it mean to wait on God? Get ready, write it down. You people say I'm just waiting on the Lord. It's Christianese to talk like that. How you doing? Doing just waiting on the Lord. No one outside of Christianity knows what in the world you're talking about.

Let me tell you what it means. It is a willful commitment to seek after God, no matter what, in His word, in prayer, with this intent: to obey Him. When you say I'm waiting on the Lord, I'm seeking His word, I'm praying, and I will obey Him. I'm waiting upon the Lord. I'm at His feet. I've got my ears turned upward, listening for His command.

When we say we are waiting on the Lord, listen Christian church, we better watch what we're saying because that is very nigh, very close unto saying, thus saith the Lord. Because that is a serious thing. I'm waiting upon, listen everybody, I'm waiting upon God. That means your friends and the people that you're influencing in this life, they're expecting you to get an answer from God.

But here's the thing. When? And here's where the Christian church trips up often. We are such a drive-through culture that, I'm just waiting on the Lord. That could take years, and I'm not joking. In my life personally, becoming full-time in ministry, getting involved in ministry, for me, took years. And here's the funny thing. To cry, to pray, to seek Him.

I've got to tell you right now, I think I'd rather crawl across California on broken glass would be easier. To get alone with God in a disciplined routine of life, we've lost that. You know what we call it in the Old Testament? To meditate. I was at the airport in New York coming back home and they had this meditation room. I almost took a picture, but you're not allowed to take pictures in airports now.

I was walking by and there's a sign that says "meditation room." Meditation room. Now first of all, I'm a Christian, I know what that means. But they don't want to offend anybody by using the word "prayer room." It was a prayer room, which was kind of funny. You walk into this room, it had a cross, it had a Jewish star on one side, a cross, and it had a Muslim prayer rug on the other side.

And it's all in one room. There's no partitions or nothing. It was kind of cool actually because there's only one God listening. So I just ran around the carpet, went over to the star, no I did not. I did not. But the logo on the airport wall was like this, and it said "meditation room."

Only a Christian knows what that means. Because when we pray, we are to be meditating and saying to God, I wait upon Your will, I wait upon Your word, I wait for Your answer, not mine, and not my friends' answers. I mean this with all due respect, not even my husband's or my wife's answer.

Now here's the cool thing. If you're a husband or a wife, when you're praying and God gives you the answer, He will confirm it with your husband and your wife. Hear me? And there's a pretty lame response out there a second ago. That's important. God will never have a husband and wife be at a rift regarding ministry or direction. I know this when it comes just for a day off. "Lisa, I want to go to Santa Barbara."

"Well, I want to go to San Diego." Two opposite directions completely. And so what's the answer? Well, the answer is you said Santa Barbara. That's right.

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: But no, when God is moving in a married couple's life and a believer's life, they're in unity. That's very important. But we are to be meditating to discern and to know God's will in prayer. Prayer, meditation, there should be no difference for the believer. So that airport sign really works for us, but only us. It's a very important thing.

So to wait upon God is to obey Him with ears open to His word and for what God says. And when He says it, you do it. And it's only by waiting on the Lord that you and I listen, this is not going to be popular tonight to say this. By you and I seriously waiting upon God is the only way that you and I will be able to face the challenges of our day.

There is no other way to whip anxiety, fear, phobias, timidity, all of these things that crush your heart. There's no way, listen, hear me out. There is no way to beat the oppression of what comes against the believer except by this waiting upon God. Too much of the Christian church today suffers because we are a go-go-go generation.

And we think for a moment that if we stop and wait on God, that we're sinning because we're not. It feels wrong to stand still. You know that's called Sabbath? We are supposed to Sabbath with God. When? Well, for the believer every day. We have to be very careful about this. Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still," that's a commandment.

"Be still and know," yada in Hebrew. "Be still and discover that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth." That's awesome. Number two, God has His own plan in action right now. He's got it. You see what's going on in the world? Yep, God's at work. Oh my goodness, did you see this and did you see that? God's at work.

Hey, you know how much flak we're getting for the Bible in the schools? Are you guys aware of this? We're going to, this is war. We're launching war next Sunday. We're going to war. It's revolution time, baby. It's awesome. So listen, here's the thing. God knows. What if they overturn their original vote? God knows.

Here's the fun thing about being a Christian. We fight like there's no tomorrow. And if we lose, it's like, God knows. It's so cool. Well, that's, you know, there's a vote coming up in November and if God knows, I'm not going to vote. No, you vote because He's going to hold you responsible. You vote, vote, you have to vote biblical values. That's biblical, right?

So we're all going to register to vote and we're all going to go vote Bible. We're going to vote biblical values. Here's the cool part. In the end, when we stand before God, even if we were to die burning at the stake, which a lot of our brothers and sisters died at the stake for their faith testimony, their faith in Jesus, guess what we get to do? We can stand before the Lord very much alive and say, "Lord, I honored You all the way through to the end. I waited on You and You did not let me be put to shame."

And believer listen, you do not sign up becoming a Christian for a popularity contest to win your happy face or whatever. You are a believer in Jesus Christ. His doctrine is not of this world. Are we to love people? Yes, but love God first. That's the only way we can really love them is if we love God first. Christianity is a bad word today and it's going to get worse.

The world doesn't understand us. The world can't understand us. There's blinders on their eyes. But we're the bad ones, we're the weirdos, we're the whatever. What do you do about that? You wait on God. Are you under attack? I pray for each of you that you'd be under attack. It's the best thing in the world. Seriously, you know what man? Because when it's easy, you can get sleepy.

And somebody comes up and challenges you. "What? Pastor, I had a teacher at school last week make fun of me as a Christian." Praise the Lord! Honestly, think about it. It's pretty amazing. We're not of this world. But God's plans are in action. And you and I are getting to live at a time where God's plan is in action.

In John 16:13 Jesus says, "When He, the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth." And that it's a constant act of the Holy Spirit guiding you into all truth. He's at work. God's got a plan, and God's plans to create within you and I a dynamic, healthy, vital Christian life.

In Ephesians 2:10, mark it down. This is for every Christian tonight. Are you a Christian tonight? Listen to this. This is pre-packaged program stuff. It's in the spiritual DNA of being born again. Here it is. Ephesians 2:10 says we are His workmanship. He is at work with a plan. Listen. I know you can't tell because the construction company is doing too good of a job, but they've been working next door.

Tons of work. You don't think they're working, do you? There's no dust, there's no hammers laying around, there's no junk out there, but they're working. They're working. And you go in there, and here's the cool thing. Everything's being done according to a blueprint. And if it's not on the blueprint, stop, stop everything!

And they've got to call people, call the architect, all this kind of stuff. That thing's not drawn in here. Got to change that, got to fix that. Why? It's not on the blueprint. Listen, this is the blueprint. This is the blueprint and it goes into our hearts. And when He puts it in our hearts, He says stuff like this to us: "I am the craftsman, you are the project. I am working."

And we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. God says I built you to do something. What do you think of that? Here's the blueprint. He folds it out. And while you're praying, while you're waiting, while you're talking to Him, He'll start revealing it to you. He'll give it to you.

Now watch this. It's going to come back and bite you if you don't pay attention to this. For good works, which God actually pre-prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The Lord has got a blueprint for every one of us who are Christians tonight to walk a certain path of ministry life. And you are not to tell Him what that is. He's to tell you what that is.

And here's the thing. When He delays, we are to obey. But when He delays, if we don't like the delay, you know what we do? In our emotions, we start to panic. "Oh, I'm losing time. I'm getting older. I've got to do something. And I like this and I like that. And they said this and maybe I could and I think I will."

And you gather people around and you get them to confirm what you want done in your life, like buy a house or a car. That person to date or marry or this idea about ministry or the other thing. And you have no idea whatsoever that God has said no to that. He hasn't said yes. He is silent or He's waiting.

But you won't wait. And so you'll concoct an answer, and your emotions will fool you. Your emotions will listen to the things that people are saying and you go, "This must be God's will." You guys, I can't tell you how often I've heard this stuff when people say, "You know what? We've had it with this crazy state."

First of all, we're in California right now. We've all had it with this crazy state. But wasn't today's weather perfect? I thank God for this weather. But this state's nuts. Well, here's the thing. "Well, you know, I've had it with California. We're moving." Oh, where are you going? "Pick something, you know, Kentucky." Okay, Kentucky. Did you find a church before you moved? "Nope, we're just going."

And then you hear this. "Lord told us to go." Because they look at me when I don't jump up and down. "You're going to Kentucky, that's great!" I would just go. And here's the thing. What do you think about that, Pastor? Honestly, Pastor, we're moving to Kentucky. They tell me, "We're moving to Kentucky. What do you think about that?"

Why are you asking me for? Who am I? Honestly, why don't you ask me? I'm nothing. I'm nothing. I'm nothing. What did God tell you about Kentucky? Huh? And then from insecurity coming on, "Well, the Lord showed us we're supposed to go." Really, what verses did He give you? Because He speaks from here. What verses? "Well, we have to leave now."

But I, listen. Because I love you, I tell you. What are you doing? It's a crazy state, we all agree. Kentucky's nice, fantastic. But did God say go? Here's the thing. We can surround ourselves with people who tell us, "Yeah, yeah, let's go!" But God didn't say go. This is very, very important stuff. We need to wait on God.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called "Discipline of Delay." Thanks for listening today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called "The Disciplines of Life," a series highlighting 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.

Hey everybody, have you ever thought about what's after life? Do you know that the Bible teaches life is after life? If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, my good friend Philip De Courcy has written a great book and that's the title: *Life After Life: Exploring the Bible's Wonderful Promises About Heaven and Eternity*, published by Harvest House Publishers. Get a copy for yourself.

*Life After Life* by Philip De Courcy, exploring the Bible's promises about heaven and eternity. It's available for a gift of any amount 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.