Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Satan cannot cause you to become disillusioned. He can’t do that. He doesn't have that power. But he can lay the groundwork to get you to experience disillusionment. He can get you so excited about something. He can lead you on. What's the word? He can drop breadcrumbs along the way to get you all enticed.

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 now in his series called *Disciplines of Life* and a message titled "The Discipline of Disillusionment". 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 one of the hardest is when life lets us down and we feel like we've lost all hope. Disillusionment is that crushing feeling when something we counted on turns out to be false. It's actually stronger than disappointment, and it can shake us to our core.

But God never leaves us nor forsakes us. Today, Pastor Jack teaches that disillusionment deceives us by breeding confusion, and confusion always brings fear close behind. When we begin to doubt what we know is true, we need to run back into God's word because that's always our rescue. Now with his message called "The Discipline of Disillusionment", here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Guest (Male): Lord, we ask you to bless the going forth of your word. Father, we pray right now that wherever we may be, as we are gathered as the body here—there are those traveling, there are those on the road in other states, in other countries right now. Father, we pray right now that you'd be with all of our friends and family that's joining us, Lord. And Father, those of us that are here right here, right now, we ask you, Lord, to take your word and rivet it to our hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen.

Jack Hibbs: Amen. Church, grab your Bibles tonight if you would and turn to Matthew chapter 28, which you know well by now. Matthew 28, mark your spot, and then Luke chapter 24. We're looking at tonight the discipline of life and specifically this evening, "The Discipline of Disillusionment". What does that mean, disillusionment?

We are in week 25 of our 31-week series, so we're getting near to the end. Tonight, I've got to tell you, tonight is one of those topics regarding our disciplines of life that is extremely hard to teach on. It's extremely hard to receive as students of the word, which we all are. This is tough stuff.

And here's the reason why it's tough stuff. It's not that I've got something tough to say. It's that the very topic is tough because it's something that you and I deal with in our lives, and it is not a pleasant thing regarding disillusionment. Very, very serious. Matthew chapter 28 is our theme for the entire series. Jesus said in verse 18, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples."

That's what's happening tonight, right here, "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 that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Now, look over to Luke 24:21. Jesus is speaking. No, Jesus is not speaking. They're speaking about Jesus.

It's the road to Emmaus, and listen to what they have to say. They said in verse 21, the two disciples that were walking along, they said, "But we were hoping"—you ought to circle that word—"that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things have happened."

The context is Jesus Christ had been crucified on that close of the weekend there in Jerusalem. He had been now laid in a tomb, and it is now Sunday. In this particular verse, verse 21 of Luke 24, the Emmaus Road disciples have left Jerusalem. So, in your mind's eye, Jerusalem's behind them. They're walking back home to Emmaus.

If my memory serves me correctly, it's about seven miles away from, or the original Emmaus I should say, is about seven miles away from Jerusalem. The location today is different. As they're walking, it's getting late on Sunday afternoon, and Jesus comes up alongside them. As they are talking, Jesus says to them—now remember, this is after His resurrection.

This is later that day on Sunday. Jesus says to them, "Why are you talking among yourselves? What is it you're speaking of, and why do you look so depressed? Why do you look so down?" And they said to Him, "Are you a stranger in these parts? Haven't you heard what's happened here?"

And it's really cool because here's God in human flesh, Jesus now forever. It blows my mind. When Jesus rose from the grave, He's the resurrected God-man, Jesus Christ, God forever in eternity. Yes, but that resurrected Jesus Christ in human form, glorified state. Amazing to think because we know from scripture that He bore all of His scars in His resurrected body.

In fact, the Bible tells us in the book of Zechariah that when Christ returns in the Second Coming, Israel will recognize Him, and they're going to ask Him about His wounds and His scars in His body. And so He comes up alongside them asking this question, and they said, "We're talking about Jesus, mighty in word and deed, a prophet, and we had hoped that He was the Messiah."

Now listen to the past tense of verse 21: "But we were hoping." They've lost hope. "That it was He who was going to redeem Israel." Do you hear that? This is key. This is how you and I think and feel when we've experienced disillusionment. I'll define that in a moment. "Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things have happened." We've lost all hope. It's the third day.

Why did they say that? Because those two walking on the road had heard that Jesus was saying previously, "I will go to Jerusalem, I will be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, I will be beaten, crucified, but on the third day be risen again." They had not heard the good news. Somehow now they're heading back dejected, disillusioned, depressed.

Jesus comes up alongside them knowing that these two people who are forever recorded in the Bible, it concerned Jesus enough to pull up alongside them and say, "Hey, what's going on?" And the Bible says that as it was evening, they invited this stranger who was with them in for supper.

Jesus went in with them, and the Bible says that as they were going to eat, Jesus broke the bread and with that, their eyes were opened, and He then vanished from their sight. They got up out of their house, and they ran back to Jerusalem yelling and screaming, "We've seen the risen Messiah." Disillusionment to absolute delight.

Why? What about your life? What about my life? Disillusionment, we've all suffered it. If you have suffered it in the past, or maybe you're going through it now, or I guarantee you, no matter who you are, you will go through it in the future. And by the way, disillusionment can visit you more than once in life.

So cheer up for those of you who think you missed it; your day's coming. It is an amazing power. Let me say this regarding disillusionment and the discipline on how to combat it. Listen to this. Webster defines disillusionment as the feeling that arises from the discovery that something is not what it was anticipated to be.

Stronger than disappointment, disillusionment is the feeling of loss, especially when a belief central to one's identity is shown to be false. Wow, did you hear that? One's identity, when proven to be false, devastates a person's perspective on life and disillusionment then swallows them up. That's why the Bible says all those who hope in God shall never be put to shame.

Think about that tonight. If you are not a believer in God, I want to ask you why. I've been asking this question of people for 35 years, and I've not yet once heard a decent answer. I've heard personal responses as to why I don't believe in God: because my dad beat me, I don't believe in God because my mom was ugly. It's always something that has nothing to do with God, but people are blaming the situation on God.

And the very statement that they make, "I don't believe in God because..." because what? Because you're blaming Him for something. It's a funny backhanded way of having faith that you're blaming a God that you say you don't believe in, but you're blaming the God you don't believe in. Your very argument is hypocrisy.

When you believe in some evolutionary answer for your existence, there's going to be a day of disillusionment coming to you. Imagine how disillusioned tonight Charles Darwin is to have the chance to believe in God and he didn't. In fact, you know Charles Darwin did originally believe in God. He went to seminary. Did you know that?

Charles Darwin went to Baptist seminary in London, and he gave up on his faith and went on a pursuit to discover some other reason for man's existence. One thing's for sure, Charles Darwin's theology is perfect tonight, no matter where he is. Disillusionment. Now listen to this. This is very, very important. I read this today, and it excited me very much.

Satan is the master craftsman of disillusionment. Though unable to splash us with it, he creates the groundwork, the atmosphere for disillusionment that it be formed in us. Satan cannot cause you to become disillusioned. He can’t do that. He doesn't have that power. But he can lay the groundwork to get you to experience disillusionment.

He can get you so excited about something. He can lead you on. What's the word? He can drop breadcrumbs along the way to get you all enticed. You know, a drug pusher does that, right? Doesn't he give free drugs to people at first? And it's smart for him. It's easy for him. It's a good investment for him.

He gives a little bit of drugs, maybe he gets you hooked on this or hooked on that, and you're thinking, "Well, this guy's great, he's giving me free drugs." Uh-uh, it ain't free. What happens is he gets you hooked on it, and then you'll come back. If Satan can bait somebody along and hook them, he'll lead them down a path of disillusionment.

He sets us up. He builds something up. The world tonight is experiencing disillusionment because the world over-sells, it over-hypes, it over-promises. And then when people sign up, buy up, get in, go for it, they come out on the other end and they say, "Is that it? Is that all? Is that what we've paid for?"

And life is that way without God. You can go after the greatest pursuits and come up empty in the end. The world is designed in such a way that it cannot fulfill who you are because the world is material, but you are spiritual, and you have spiritual longings. Now I'm going to give you part of a verse and we'll come back and visit it later tonight, but it's Matthew 13:18.

Listen to this. Matthew 13:18 says, "Therefore," Jesus says, "hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of God or the word of the kingdom and does not understand it"—notice this, the burden of understanding is laid upon the hearer, Jesus is saying—"then the wicked one," reference to Satan, "comes and snatches away what was sown in their hearts."

The very hope and cure and meaning of their lives Satan wants to take it away. Every time the Bible goes out, either truly in the life of a Christian—maybe you're a Christian tonight and when a Bible study goes out, Satan's desire is to get you to not put it into practice as a believer. If you're not a believer, Satan's desire is for these words to come out, and he's targeting those words.

By the time it lands into your ear, he'll try to get you to misunderstand what's being said, to try to get you to have some feeling that overrides the theology, to try to get you in a place where you'll think about it for a little bit, but don't make a mistake. Satan is out to steal the word of God out of your heart.

That's one of the reasons why all of us, when we leave a message or a sermon or a context where God is being glorified and we walk out of the building or we get out of the car—maybe we're listening to a study or something—immediately there are things there to try to take our attention away. And I know how that is. I do the same thing.

We'll leave church and we'll look at the clock and we'll say, "Man, the Laker game's on." There's nothing wrong with a Laker game, but I need to be still, and so do you. I'm saying I'm indicting us together. We need to be still and meditate and take it in. Why? Because the Bible says Satan is out to pluck the word that is being sown in our hearts.

So number one, as we look at "The Discipline of Disillusionment", what we're really talking about is learning to recognize and to resist the enemy of our faith. Mark this down. Number one: disillusionment deceives us by breeding confusion. That sense of confusion. Disillusionment breeds confusion and when we're disillusioned, we become confused and confusion breeds fear.

Whenever we are confused, fear will be right behind. It'd be right there when you're confused. Confusion undermines our faith. Disillusionment is when we begin to back up and we say, "Wait a minute. Have I believed wrong? Is God not God? Am I saved?" You start to question. Confusion comes in.

What you know to be true based upon your faith in God—and it doesn't even have to be God. You can have faith in something, faith in a thing, and it fails. Maybe it's a system. Look, maybe it's the US economy and it fails, and you're disillusioned and people don't know what to do. What happens?

It's that definition. It's when you are attached to something that you expect to bring blessings or hope or meaning or love or life or security. Maybe today it's retirement and people get disillusioned, and the letdown is so huge. Now when that happens, church, listen spiritually, Satan is out to destroy you and I spiritually in that area.

This is a big deal. And if he can get you and I to become disillusioned in God, in the Bible—why do you think Satan's always attacking the Bible? To try to get us disillusioned. Why do you think the National Geographic channel is always pushing theology at Easter time? To get you in a sense of confusion.

Cults will confuse God's truth. False teachers, false prophets to confuse God's truth. One of the most dangerous things is for a Christian to get confused. Now watch this. It's okay for a Christian to be attacked and challenged, and that's okay, that's fine. But what we are to do every day, listen everybody, you and I every day are to pick up our Bible and I'll put it this way: every day we are to pick up our Bible and we are to read it so that we can have a good brainwashing.

You want to know why? We listen to stuff in this world and it's filth. "You Christians are brainwashed." I pray to God I get brainwashed. What do you want me to do? Think like you do? I want to think like God thinks. And if I think like that, my faith is going to be strengthened. But when I get my eyes off of His word, I begin to suffer disillusionment and fear comes in because of confusion.

It happens to so many of us, and we have to be very careful. No one's exempt from this. It's how we handle this discipline. In the day of battle, I think you all know this, but in the day of battle, it's key that you confuse your enemy's ability to communicate. I'll never forget, as you probably will never forget, the opening moments of Desert Storm One back in the '90s. Remember that?

And what did we do? We first of all flew aircraft into the region to do electronic warfare. Electronic warfare. That it sends signals that damages your enemy's ability to communicate through their equipment and to one another. And then the next thing you do is you send in your stealth bombers.

Because once their system is disabled, now you send in your planes that are invisible and they start to take out the things that can make your life uncomfortable. And war is on. You take out your enemy's ability to communicate. Satan loves getting people to be confused in their conversations. "I thought you meant this." "No, I meant the other." "Oh man!"

Husbands and wives who love Jesus and serve the Lord, that's one of Satan's great plans is to get them to not be communicating. Communication's a big deal. More people get a divorce over communication. Some people say finances. I think it's over communication, unable to talk about finances. It's always communication.

Isn't that how you fell in love in the first place? Communicating. You know, communicating could be a wink, but it's communication. And then you're talking. And you know when you’re insane, you’re on the phone and you’re talking to her and you lay awake at night with the phone on: "Are you still awake?" "Yeah." Anybody remember that? You guys are all sick, man, sick!

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:2, "In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air," Satan. By the way, that's atmospheric. Satan is the power in the atmospheric realm. Imagine right now what's going on between you and I right here in this room.

What is my hand passing through right now? Can you imagine? All kinds of things in there, all around. There's angels in here and there's demons in here and there's stuff going on, big war going on. Absolutely amazing. He's in the atmospheric realm. The Bible says, "The spirit who now works," that word means actively, he's at work never sleeping, never stopping, "in the sons of disobedience."

He's at work. The world's coming unhinged right now like I've never seen it in my lifetime. Violence everywhere. Nations are losing governments. Look what's happening in various parts of the world. Nations are coming unhinged. Unbelievable stuff. The Bible says in Psalm 61:1, "Hear my cry, O God." Listen to the psalmist in his sense of disillusionment.

"Hear my cry, O God, attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to you when my heart is"—what?—"overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I." You're supposed to pause right there. I don't know if you know that or not. That's his prayer. He's crying out. He's disillusioned. He's overwhelmed. And you wait, selah, wait, wait, and you think about what he's talking about.

There's a pause. And then you look at the next statement: "For you have been a shelter for me." This is the answer now. It's come. "You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in your tabernacle forever. I will trust in the shelter of your wings." And at the end, it says "Selah". Selah is Hebrew.

It means this: pause and meditate on this. It means get it under your skin. Don't go to the next statement without getting this under your skin. How do you like that? Every time you see that word selah, you're supposed to stop and pray that into your life. How do you fight off disillusionment?

There's times people in life, and it will come to you, where you'll sit down as Job did in a heap of ashes and just sit there and no one can understand you. No one can relate to you. No one feels what you feel. You can't even form words anymore. Have you ever been to that place? And you just sit in that moment and you say, "O God, where are you? I'm filled with fear, I'm filled with confusion, I don't know which way to go." And you wait, selah. Wait. Wait.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called "The Discipline of Disillusionment". Thank you so much 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, the setbacks, and 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.

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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.