Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: When Jesus says the sinner is the one that is sick, He says, "I've come to heal those that are sick. I have not come," He said, "to heal those that are healthy."

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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David J: 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.

You see, 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 that Jesus came for people who know they need help. Trials can deepen our appreciation toward the Lord. And difficult experiences often make us more grateful, more prayerful, and more aware of God's presence in our lives. Now with his message called Disciplines of Difficulty, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: In verse 11, "And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'" They didn't have enough guts to ask Him Himself. Why didn't you ask God? Ask God; He's sitting right over there.

And when Jesus heard that—oh man. Can you imagine? They're all eating. They've got hummus, falafel going. They've got it all happening, man. They're eating. They're having a great time. They're sitting around talking. Jesus—can you imagine? God in skin is looking at these ones that are the offscouring of the planet that nobody wants.

And what was going on in the heart of God? I bet you if you could have stopped right there, Jesus would have been able to turn to the camera and say to Wolf Blitzer, "I'm having an awesome time." "Why are you having an awesome time?" "Look around this table. Sinners, tax collectors, rejects of humanity. These are the ones who need Me."

And look at them. They're eating, they're talking, they're sharing conversation. And by this interaction, they'll follow Me. They'll follow Me right into eternity, into heaven. And all of their difficulties—think about it. What qualified them to be a sinner? Listen, what qualified them to be a tax collector?

In the Roman view, tax collectors were an extension of the Roman arm, the Roman power. Matthew was the worst of the worst. He was a Jew turncoat working for the empire. He was the worst. Surprisingly, in fact, his life would have been under constant threat from his own countrymen because he was an absolute traitor.

And then to the religious zealots, these sinners—they didn't even deserve to occupy a place on the earth. And when Jesus heard the criticism, I'd love to have seen that. Maybe His jaw got a little set. I don't know. Did He look over at those Pharisees?

Some of the strongest language found in the Bible is the language of Jesus when He said unto the Pharisees, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel land and sea to make one convert to your cult. And after you've converted him, you make him seven times the child of hell than you are yourself. Woe unto you."

The word "ouai" in Greek for "woe unto you" is "condemned" or "damned be you." You are a child of hell and you're leading people astray and you're condemned. From the words of Jesus, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees. Those who look down their noses and say this person is not worthy of eternal life."

No man on earth has that ability or power. We are to instruct, yes. We are to instruct, yes. We are to give by line upon line and by precept upon precept. But no man has the authority to say you're condemned. And Jesus comes along and looks right into the heart of a human being and into the heart of these soul judges.

It's been said that they were fault-finders and sin-sniffers and all that stuff. You know, sin-sniffers sniffing out sin, pointing it out in everybody's life. But what did He say to them? He says, "You point at the splinter and you've got a beam stuck in your own eye." You think Jesus was a wimp? Man.

And then He says, listen, in verse 12, "When Jesus heard that, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.'" That's His answer. You say, "What kind of answer is that?" Jesus was calling the tax collectors and the harlots and the sinners and all that were there, sick people. They were sick.

They were S-I-N positive. They were sin-sick and they knew it. That's what He's meaning. That's what He's saying. You think He's insulting the sinner? Listen, do you think He's insulting you tonight because maybe you're convicted? Because you're thinking, "I'm not walking with Jesus and I'm not a Christian and I feel uncomfortable." Wait a minute. Wait.

When Jesus says the sinner is the one that is sick, He says, "I've come to heal those that are sick. I have not come," He said, "to heal those that are healthy." It's a backhand. He's saying to the Pharisees, "You guys don't need help. You don't need a doctor. You are so self-righteous."

"You are so healthy spiritually in your mind that you've become your own savior. You don't need Me." Only people who can recognize their need of the Savior see themselves as sick and see Me, Christ Jesus, as the healer. And so those are the ones I've come for.

Difficulty in life causes you and I to see the purposes of God. We don't like to hear this, but it's true. Listen, no one loves their eyesight more than those who have it threatened. What are you going through tonight in your life? Are you on the brink of losing something?

Is it the life of your child? Is it the life of a parent? What is it? You never appreciate it more unless you're on the brink of losing it. And I think about my eyesight. Whatever is dear to you. We all need our eyes, of course, to live, to do our stuff, to do what we do.

I read tons all the time and I think, boy, if I lost my eyesight, I'm out of a job, let alone out of a calling. And then I have these things, "Well, I'll just have to teach and preach from memory, from my heart." Oh God. And then I think about my memory. Oh God, my memory!

And then you start appreciating—every day I remember something, I go, "Yes! I remembered that! Hey, I remembered that!" It's a good day. Years ago, obviously, Ashley was only one year, maybe two, I don't know. She was young. I was—we had just moved to Chino Hills.

I mean just moved, like right then and there. And it was night. We were not familiar with the street. And we were taking a walk and I was walking with Ashley in my left hand. I remember picking her up, walking on the sidewalk. I picked her up and I looked at her, I'll never forget it, because of what is about to happen.

I take a step and I look up and there was a branch hanging from a pine tree and it went right in and punctured my cornea and into my eye. And without dropping my daughter, I went right back and I set her down. I was terrified about—and forgive me for not remembering the name of that fluid.

But I immediately went back and held my head up because if you puncture it that bad, that miraculous, God-given fluid can come out of your eyeball and you're messed up. You're blind. And went to the hospital. It was horrible. And it took a long time to heal.

Let me tell you something. Ever since that day, when somebody moves something fast near my eye or somebody grabs a piece of paper and brings it near, I flinch because automatically I remember how precious the thought was of the sight of my left eye. Or whatever it might be for your life.

And when we have difficulties, my friend, listen. When we have difficulties, it brings us to a point of appreciation that otherwise we would not have. There's no way. And so for that, we embrace difficulties. You're going to have them, so embrace them. Don't deny them.

Next week, on this same topic, we're going to talk about how to embrace them. Why should I embrace them? How do I talk to God in the midst of this discipline and the difficulty? How do you know? And a lot of people spend a lot of energy—"Is this from God or is this from Satan?"

"My house burned down. Is this from God or is this from Satan?" Let me tell you something. It may be from Satan, but I'm a Christian. And I read the book of Job. Read the book, Job. Oldest manuscript, confirmed manuscript in the world. People will claim, "No, there's oriental writings older." Not so. Job. Read it.

Nothing can touch the Christian's life without God's permission. Nothing. You need to understand that! The moment you realize, "Wait a minute, this is going on and God knows?" He not only knows, He's got a victory plan! All of a sudden now I want to back up and say, "Okay, Lord, get my emotions out of the situation. I want to be out of the factor."

"Lord, show me Your will for this difficulty. What's the problem?" Think about it. What problems? You've got problems, I've got problems. All God's children got problems. And ask God, "Lord, what's the answer to this problem? Show me." The option is to panic.

You know what panic means? Some of you have been to Caesarea Philippi with us in Northern Israel. Pan, the Temple of Pan. It's where they get the worship act called panic. They would not know what to do. They wouldn't know from Pan like panacea, like panorama, like pantheistic.

They wouldn't know what God to go to. "My life! My life is freaking out! Where do I go? Where do I go?" And they panic, not knowing what God to cry out to. The Christian never is supposed to panic. Do we weep? Do we cry? Do we have anxiety? Yes. Do we even worry about things? Yes.

But the reason why we freak out is because we're tempted to panic when there's only one real God to go to in the first place. Yahweh Lord. He's the only one. And we don't have to be involved in that panic. Our souls can be still and discover that God is in the midst of the difficulty and that there's a purpose to it.

The Bible says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 12, "But I want you to know, brethren, the things which have happened to me, troubles, difficulty," says Paul, "have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel." Wow! "So that it has become evident to those in the palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ."

"And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold now to speak the word of God without fear." Did you guys all hear that? The purpose for Paul's difficulty in that situation—a man of God was with Paul. Why did God allow him to get arrested?

Because God was going to use that great fear that must have been in the minds of the first-century believers, that Paul was fearless even in the face of being arrested for Christ. He got in trouble for preaching, by the way. We'll end with this. The last tour that we had just this last spring with you in Israel, coming out, we had our tour of Rome.

And on your open time, your free time, you go to the northwestern side of the forum, the famous Roman forum, and there's the Mamertine Prison where Paul spent his last night on earth. And it's there! It's not one like it. It's it! And it was his resting place the night before he was beheaded.

And I challenge you, it's very exciting. Find out why. Go find out why Paul the Apostle was executed by the Roman Empire. He was a Roman citizen. The guy had degrees on both sides of his arms. He was a genius. He was a brain. We know this from Gamaliel's writings that he couldn't even keep Paul in books.

He consumed everything. He was brilliant. A Roman citizen. Why did they kill him? You say, "Well, man, you know, talk about difficulty. God didn't deliver him out of that difficulty." Oh yeah, He did. You think this body of yours is something to hang on to forever? It's amazing.

We'll end with this. The Chilean miners had been rescued and the bells were tolling from one end of the nation to the other. And the Associated Press reported when at least 24 of the miners had climbed up out of the rescue cage there, they were wearing their t-shirts that said "Gracias Señor", which is "Thank you, Lord".

And while on the back of their t-shirts it was printed Psalm 95:4, which said, "In His hand are the depths of the earth." Isn't that cool? They came out of the ground. They had the shirts sent down. They said, "We're ready to pull you guys up."

And the Christian in the group, on the 17th day when they had no news, they didn't know if up top the people up top knew if they were alive or not. Can you imagine being in a hole 2,000 feet in the bottom of the earth? In the bowels, it's 93 degrees at that point at 2,000 feet below. And it gets hotter the deeper you go.

And they're in there and for 17 days they have no idea that the world on top knows that they're alive. That they started to beat each other up and fight over food. And that Christian man—even if I knew his name I couldn't pronounce it—he said, "Grow up. We're going to die like men. Stop it."

"We're going to have a service at noon and at 6 p.m. every day in this hole until we either get rescued or until we die. So be here." Like they're going... "We're starting on time!" And when they were rescuing the miners, they sent down a team of rescue guys.

And what's interesting was it was not readily reported but now it has been. Did you know one of the big concerns for the rescue team and the reason why they sent down a contingent of guys into the hole to make sure, after being in the hole in the earth for 69 days, they said, "What's going to be the effects of a man?"

"Number one, the one who's most weak physically, mentally, spiritually, get him out first." So the weaker, listen, the weaker got out first. That's a great decision. By the way, NASA, come to find out, were the ones who said, "We've learned this in space stuff. The guy that's easier to crack gets out first."

The stronger guy gets out last. But even for the strong guy, they said, "We have to send down a team because here's the deal. We don't know what's going to happen if we send down the little escape module thing. If we don't send anybody down there to help them, no matter how strong he is, we don't know the spiritual and psychological effects."

"If we take—there's only two guys, three guys left, now two guys left, and then there's only one guy left." That within an hour and a half—that's how long it takes to get the guy out—in an hour and a half, they concluded that a man could go absolutely utterly insane in an hour and a half without hope.

And so they sent a team down there of rescuers to put him in and send him up. And I want you to think about that. Whatever you're going through in life, difficulty is not for you to lose hope. Difficulty is the opposite. It is to build your hope.

Financial stuff going on, can't afford stuff anymore, our world is evaporating, it's not bad. You think it's the end of the world because someone took your whatever. My friend, you thought you needed that thing. And you're fine. You lost your home, and you're fine. Look, you're alive.

The troubles and the difficulties of life, God has a great purpose for. Let's bow our heads reverently in prayer right now because you're going through something, or you have, or you're gonna. And I'll be right there with you. But I want to ask you right now in the silence, I want you right now where you're at, thank God for your situation right now.

Just thank Him because one of the great things about understanding God's will is to always know it could always be worse. Number two, understand that He has never left you or forsaken you. In fact, you've been listening to Him more than you ever have. You've certainly been praying more and you've been seeking God more.

The third thing is you don't need to be scared of what's going on in the world or in your life. God is not panicking. He's not the God of panic. We get spooked and scared when we get our eyes off Him, like Peter when he sank. You've got to get refocused on the Lord.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called Disciplines of Difficulty. 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.

Ever felt like something's missing in your life? Maybe you've been searching for answers, for peace, or a sense of purpose. You know, the truth is those longings are there because you were created to know God. At jackhibbs.com, there's a tab called "Know God".

It's designed to help you discover what it truly means to have a relationship with God. This isn't about religion; it's about understanding who God is and why He loves you and how you can find hope and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. The page breaks it down in a simple, clear way, answering common questions and guiding you through the steps of faith.

It's a great place to explore and reflect, whether you're just curious or you're ready to make that next step. So don't miss out on the most important relationship you'll ever have. Visit that tab called "Know God" at jackhibbs.com and start your journey today.

That's jackhibbs.com, because knowing God changes everything in your life for the better. Take that next step. Explore and reflect at the "Know God" section 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 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.