Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: I have to tell you, start nurturing a devotional life and you're going to get hooked on God. When a Christian winds up spending time with God, it's like, "I have to have more. I have to have more time with Him." You know what? You will get creatively protective of that time with you and God.

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.

Guest (Male): Three years ago, the Real Life Network launched with a clear purpose: to bring truth to people wherever they are. Since then, we've seen God do so much through this growing platform. Viewers around the world are watching news, sermons, interviews, documentaries, conferences, cartoons, and other biblical worldview programming designed to help believers fast-forward their faith.

And RLN continues to grow. With the addition of our new articles page, viewers can now find timely, biblically-grounded insight on today's most important issues. There is so much to thank God for, but we believe there is still much more ahead.

Jack Hibbs: He's used us in amazing ways. He's used you in amazing ways. I believe that the Lord is continuing to open doors and we're going to continue to move forward. So my prayer is that RLN will keep reaching more people with truth and equipping them as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and pointing them to this generation for His glory.

David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues in his series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled, "The Discipline of Distraction." 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 most constant attacks we face is simply being pulled in a hundred different directions at once. You see, distraction sounds harmless, but it can quietly drain our walk with the Lord. Just like Martha in the kitchen, we get so busy with the urgency that we miss out on what matters most.

But handled the right way, distraction can actually draw us closer to God. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that we conquer distraction by building a daily devotional life with God. When we make time for Him before the world starts screaming at us, we find a calm and a strength that everyone around us will notice. Now, with his message called "The Discipline of Distraction," here's Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: I was talking to somebody on the phone yesterday and the guy said, "I tell you, I couldn't believe that this thing took that long and that took that long, and we had this kind of problem. Quite frankly, Pastor, I thought you were nuts when you said, 'Let's just wait on the Lord.' I bit my lip and I wanted to say to you, 'You dope, don't you realize we have to do this now?'"

But it was outside of anyone's power to do it. So what happened was, you either choose to wait on the Lord and rest in Him, and He'll take care of it, or you can bite your fingernails, get an ulcer, and freak out about it. It doesn't change anything.

Tonight, I can feel it in the room. The person who is almost comfortable worrying and fretting says, "Yeah, right." And yet you're the very one who needs to hear this tonight. You are distracted about many things.

I read the story of a seven-year-old. The father said, "I took my daughter to Disneyland for her birthday." He said they got on the rides and he started thinking, "Oh my goodness, she wants to go on Space Mountain." So the father was trying to talk her out of it, and he couldn't do it. They got on the ride and she loved it. She got off the ride and said, "Daddy, let's go again." They got right back on Space Mountain again and went on the ride.

He said she wanted to go back to Disneyland on her eighth birthday one year later. He said they got in line, never once discussed it, and never once talked about it. They got in line and he said they got right up to the time to get on the ride and she goes, "I don't want to go on this." He said, "What?" She said, "I don't want to go on this. I want out of here." He goes, "What's the matter with you? Last year you went on it twice. You loved it."

Listen to this. She said, "Yeah, but now I can read." Do you know what happened to her? She saw that sign that's at the entry. "Violent roller coaster ride. Make sure your back doesn't have any problems, your heart's working right, and you're not prone to fainting and vomiting." She didn't know that a year earlier. She didn't know what those words meant. So she's standing there like, "What? I'm not going on that thing."

Aren't we like that? When we know too much about something, we freak out. Then we get encumbered by many things, worried about so much. It tugs at our heart. We're like that little girl.

The second thing under this is identifying distractions: what are those things that pursue us? There are things that tug on us and then there are things that are just like that lion that's chasing you in a dream. It sounds great when she says, "I need help in the kitchen. Send help." Martha's desire, she says, is help. Now look, I'm not an analyst on this, but she says, "I need help in the kitchen."

I take her at face value, okay. But what's her motive, for sure, really? We don't know. What is pursuing Martha? It could be the very same thing that pursues us. What I mean by that is: what's driving her worth? Listen, every one of us, we were created this way. We enjoy feedback from what we do. That's normal.

When somebody, and look, all of us have different languages. Some people, they work for a company, they don't even care if they get paid at all. They live for the pat on the back by the manager. Really, there are people like that. You say, "Well, of course there are." I'm not that kind of person. Here's the thing: I'm a terrible person to work for. I never grew up having accolades at all.

When I grew up and had to be an adult and work for the world and in the world, I didn't care if anybody said "good job" or not. I wanted more money. "Did I do a good job? Okay then. Don't even talk to me. Just pay me." Right? Can I have an amen somewhere? Okay. Then there are those who say, "I don't care how much I get paid. Just tell me every week I'm doing an awesome job." That's how the world goes around, so to speak. That's fine. People are different.

But what is Martha pursuing? What is she deriving from her state of being distracted and pressured? Again, it's very complex. We're all different in this area. But there's a real powerful thing here. Matthew chapter 6, verse 31. We'll look at several of these verses tonight. Matthew 6:31 says, "Therefore," Jesus says, "do not worry." Don't be distracted. Worry, distraction, distraction, worry, they live together. Saying, "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?" For after all these things do the Gentiles, or the non-believers, seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.

Church, did you see that? Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. He knows that you need clothes to wear. He knows that you need something to drink, and He knows that you need something to eat. He knows this. So what do we do with that information? Let's be honest, come on. We worry about all three of those things.

We wake up. "Hey, what's for breakfast?" You know what? I don't know, this is terrible to admit, but if you're ever on a vacation, our vacations are like this. "Hey, where are we going to eat this morning?" And then before we're done eating breakfast, right? We're talking, "Man, where are we going to have lunch?" And before lunch is done we're talking about, "Where do you want to have dinner tonight?" That's sick.

"Does this look okay on me? Does this look all right? Should I get this one or the other one? Should I get blue or white?" Isn't that funny? We have the luxury of this, but instead of thanking God, we get all goofed up with it. "What am I going to wear?" It's pretty amazing, the things that pursue us. Something's pursuing Martha. Something's pursuing us, me, you.

There will be these things that in and of themselves, they cannot feed us. The food can't feed us. The clothes cannot feed our soul. These are things that cannot feed our soul. Jesus says that worrying is connected to the soul, that being distracted is connected to the soul. He's saying, let your Father in heaven take care of the stuff that you really need. It's going to be okay.

We are so blessed in our world that we all have what we really truly need. We all have it. You see, "I'm not happy unless I have what I want." You see? We're spoiled Americans. We're spoiled Christians. I'm not necessarily even putting that down. God has blessed us. But when I say spoiled in a negative way, it's when we become spoiled and we're not happy with all the stuff we have. That's unfortunate because there's things pursuing us, constantly getting our attention as to if you have this, you'll be something. And we're distracted by that.

I'm distracted every Christmas by the Audi commercial when the garage door opens up and the two Audis are blinking their headlights at me. It distracts me. I look at my Ford, and I look at it and I say, "You're nothing like an Audi. You don't look like an Audi. You don't move like an Audi." But 99% of the people on the planet would like to have a moped, if you think about it. It's amazing.

Thirdly under this point: identifying distractions. There are things that concern us. In Luke chapter 10, verse 41, Jesus says, "Martha, Martha." Two times. "Martha, Martha, you're worried and troubled about many things." The word worried here means great anxieties. It means disruptive thoughts. Isn't that a great word for worry, disruptive thoughts?

The word troubled means this: something turbulent. It means an angry or unruly crowd. Oh my goodness, when I saw that today in the Greek language, this word for troubled, all you have to do is turn on the TV to see an angry crowd. Wow. Jesus said your soul can be like that. Turbid is the word. Water churned up.

And then He says "many things." Polys in Greek, abundance of great amount of things pressing in against you. A large overflowing amount. Listen, a large and overflowing amount of common things, concerns. So put that together. You have these great anxieties disrupting your thoughts and you're like a troubled crowd in murky water and you have all of these common things that you've made great concerns. We worry about things. Identifying a worry.

Jesus, I mean we love Him and He is the Lord of our lives, but moment by moment, I think by hour by hour that fluctuates. Because whenever you and I are worrying, He's not Lord at that moment. Let's be honest. If He were Lord in the moment, we wouldn't be worrying.

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: In Matthew 6:25, the Bible says, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry." Worry leads to distraction. "About your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, what you're going to put on your body. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" I would say yeah, until I see a guy being buried in Forest Lawn in his Ferrari. And you wonder, well that's kind of weird. What does that guy think he's going to do, drive that thing around heaven or hell? Where is he taking that car? What kind of thinking is that?

Is it your body? Is your very soul worth more than all of these other things? That's what Jesus is stressing about. Point number two tonight is this: that the discipline of distraction is that we need to be conquering the distraction. We identify them. What is it in our life? And now we move to conquering it. How do we conquer it?

Number one, and I really hope you write this down and more than writing it down, I hope you put it into practice. I would love to challenge you to put this into practice just for a week. Not so I could say, "I told you," but because of your liberty and your freedom. I mean, I really want you to experience this. Number one way of conquering distractions is to establish a devotional life with God. Number one on the list.

Please listen to me. We will all agree that we live in a nutty, crazy world. Even if everything was perfect, it's still a nutty, crazy world. We have to get up, we have to go. The alarm goes off at 4:00 AM or whatever. You have to be on the freeway by a certain time. You have to do all this stuff. Then you have your career and you have the home and you have the kids, you have the dog, you have all this stuff going on. Pressure, relationships, finances. All this stuff happening.

And listen, when you and I reach a point of so much distraction being tolerated in our life that we get strangely used to it, we get strangely used to a hectic, insane life. We're living off of adrenaline. You know you're living off adrenaline. I often live like that. I don't sleep much, I go all the time. And then when it comes time for me to take a break, it takes me three days to detox from adrenaline rush. And when you know when it happens, because when you detox from your adrenaline going constantly, you fall asleep for like three days. Really, it's horrible. And it's not right.

We're supposed to Sabbath with God regularly. "Oh man, that's a loser. Losers do that." I don't think I would say that to God. He knows how He made us. He knows exactly the wiring of everything. He knows how it all works. And He says once a week I want you to do zip, nothing. "Man, what kind of who gets anything done doing that? I have to work seven days a week." You're going to die young.

Establish a devotional life every day. And here's the challenge: what time do you have to wake up in the morning? In your normal routine, what time do you have to wake up? You say, "Well, I have to be on the freeway, I have to be on the road at 7:30, so I have to get up at 6:00." Okay, watch this. If you have to do your thing at 6:00, then set your alarm for 5:00. Are you crazy?

Here's the challenge. And by the way, I know how to do this. Take your alarm and put it in the other room. Or go to the store and buy those coffee makers that you can program the time. And the coffee comes on and that'll wake you up. Here's the deal. I'm asking you to pretend you're going to boot camp. You set your alarm for 5:00 and you get up and you start reading your Bible. Read it out loud if you want to, it'll help. And you start reading it.

And then close it and pray it. Whatever you've read, pray that. Watch what happens. Establish a devotional life. You know what happens? You're going to find out that all of a sudden the drive into work, you are much more calm. And you know it. And then all the crazy people you work with, you're much more patient with them. And you're like, "Where's this coming from?" This is real Christianity, I'm telling you now.

And guess what? You come home at night and you'll fall asleep earlier. Why? Because you got up at 5:00, you crazy person. You start getting a new routine. You start getting a new routine and all of a sudden, in about a week, 5:00 isn't so bad after all. And I have to tell you, you start nurturing a devotional life and you're going to get hooked on God. You know how people get, "I have to have a drug, I have to have a drug." The Christian gets up, you wind up spending time with God and it's like, "I have to have more. I have to have more time with Him."

And you know what? You will get creatively protective of that time with you and God. I got a text this week from Pastor Len and he goes, "I need to talk to you right away." You can ask him, I texted him back and I said, "From 4:00 to 8:00 I'm with Jesus, I'll call you at 8:01. Unless you're bleeding, call 911." You say, "Man, you didn't really do that." I certainly did.

Because you know what? That's the only time of the day my house is quiet at that time. I think Satan's even asleep at that hour. You'll get hooked. Nurture a devotional life. Listen to this. Matthew 6:26 says, "Look at the birds of the air," Jesus says, "for they neither sow nor reap nor do they gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they?"

I mean, I say yes. Environmentalists would say no. "Which of you worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about your clothing? Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow. They neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? Won't He take care of you?"

Look at the hills right now, you guys. And in about another two, three weeks, you're going to see the hills covered in two crazy colors, maybe three. There'll be yellow sunflowers growing all over the place, all down the freeways, all around the hills. You're going to see lupines, that's those purple, amazing purple flowers that grow everywhere. And you're going to see our state flower, the California poppy. Yellow, orange, purple. You would never paint your house that color. God paints the hills and you drive around going, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing." People are pulling over taking pictures.

Why? That's a good thing. Jesus says, when you see that stuff, remember, as cool as all that is, you're more important to God than that stuff. He can make orange, He can make purple and yellow look fantastic and arrange all that stuff. And He says all that's nothing when it comes to what I think about you.

And we will go, "Yeah, awesome, thank you God." Or if we're prone to worry and be distracted we'll say, "What? That's ridiculous. Don't lay that sloppy stuff on me, God. I'm too busy for that." Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Are you hungry for more of God? That's a great place to be.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio and his message called "The Discipline of Distraction." Thanks for spending part of your day with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called "The 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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David J: 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.

Jack Hibbs: 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.

David J: 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.