Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: We naturally love ourselves. The key is, Lord, You love me more than I could ever take care of me. So Lord, I relinquish my life to You.

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 and a message titled Disciplines of Daring. The Bible is full of action and adventure. It really is. The book of Joshua is no exception. It's a great lesson of spiritual exploits.

You see, to make a real difference in the world for the gospel, we need to understand that we are in a real and actual war. A spiritual war, of course, invisible to the human eye, but the effects of this spiritual war always reveal themselves in our physical world.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches that to be daring is to have a sufficient amount of courage to meet a challenge. Now daring can mean the difference between living defeated by not doing what God calls us to do, as opposed to a completed challenge that He calls well done. Now with his message called Disciplines of Daring, here's Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Guest (Male): Pastor Jack, a lot of people don't realize that there is a real and actual war going on for our souls. It's happening. A war that requires us to be daring in our faith, right? Tell me about it.

Jack Hibbs: Everything that we love about the Bible—think about it—when we read the incredible feats of saints before us in the Old Testament, these great victories in battle, these awesome encounters with either God Himself or the enemies of God, where you see Elijah circled about with over 850 prophets on Mount Carmel and the challenge of the gods, as it were.

All of these things that we love, David and Goliath, all these things that we love to read about, I think we sometimes make a big mistake thinking that these are stories. These are not Bible stories. A story is something that is most often not true. These are Bible events. These are Bible accounts of things that really happened.

And so when we see God's Word being a living, breathing dynamic, then our lives are going to be daring. They're going to be lives that, as Daniel 11:32 says, "Those who know their God will carry out great exploits." And so I personally believe that there's not only Christians waiting to see faith that is daring, but I think the world out there that doesn't know what to believe in is waiting to see a Christian who believes that their faith in their God is worth being daring for.

And so I would not live a Christian life that does not involve being daring. It keeps you praying, it keeps you in the Word, and it frankly keeps you humbly tight and close to His side.

Guest (Male): Christians these days, what we see our future as is either something to step into boldly or something to manage safely. That second one you don't like much, do you?

Jack Hibbs: No, He's a radical God. He's awesome. He does tremendous things. Everybody wants Him. Even I want to see Him do great things. So then why play it safe? If God says, "Give My gospel to those you meet," then give the gospel to those you meet. If you see somebody sick, pray for them. Start living daring. Start living obedient. Watch what happens. I think you'll be thrilled and your old Christian life you won't want to go back to because God will be on the move through you.

Guest (Male): So even recently, do you find yourself in that battle? You're Pastor Jack. Do you find yourself in the battle of playing it safe or not?

Jack Hibbs: I've a lot of things going for me. Number one, I've been a Christian for almost 50 years and I have the wonderful joy of handling the Word of God. That said, I get just as dry mouth and upset stomach as anybody else with butterflies before a Wednesday night service or guest speaking somewhere in the world or on a Sunday morning.

But I've got to tell you, just a couple of weeks ago I was asked to be on Fox News to analyze a situation and this was not like some local LA channel. This was the nation. And when they said, "Smile, get ready, you're going to be speaking to about 3 million people right now," I felt like just kind of falling over and dropping dead at that moment. But I was too scared to fall over and drop dead.

Let's get into it. Grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 28. Matthew, Chapter 28, as we're looking through this special series: The Disciplines of Life. Tonight: The Disciplines of Daring. Write that down. Daring. Daring like radical, daring like being extreme for God. What does it mean?

One of the great reasons why you and I love reading the Bible is because it is an action book. You don't read the Bible to get bored. You read the Bible to get pumped up because it's radical stuff you're reading about and it's all ventures of faith. It's tremendously powerful. But tonight we'll kick it off by looking at Matthew Chapter 28, beginning at verse 18, where Jesus commissions us to live a radical life.

Verse 18: "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore'—that's radical—'and make disciples of all nations, all people'—that's radical—'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.'"

That's radical. We're looking tonight at the disciplines of daring. What does it mean to be a real Christian that is going to make a real difference in a real world? There's a big effort right now in Churchianity to spend all kinds of money, do all kinds of things, to make the church relevant. That kind of cracks me up.

We've got to do this, we've got to do that, we've got to act like this, we've got to do all these things. We can't mention the word "church" because that causes people to not want to come and we can't use the word "worship" because that causes people to think serious thoughts. We'll rename everything and maybe people will come.

Are you kidding me? Be careful about that. That's a dangerous thing because, first of all, Jesus called the church "the church." He said, "The gates of hell will not prevail against my church." In the book of Revelation, seven times He says, "This is the name of the church I'm speaking to."

And it is an amazing thing to consider that we don't have to worry about being relevant if we have our Bibles wide open and if we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Because God's Word is more relevant than tomorrow's newspaper and the Holy Spirit knows exactly the direction that a culture or that a nation or that a people need to go.

We need to be in line with the Holy Spirit to find out where the church ought to be going. We need to be with the Bible open, rather than 10 steps to building a successful church. Are you kidding me? A church is built by us preaching the Word of God, making disciples, praying and baptizing and raising up others in the name of the Lord. And then of course, Jesus said, "Send them out." Well, not yet, but when this is over, then you go out to the ends of the earth.

But there's a real battle that you and I are engaged in, a real actual war that's underway as I speak. A war that is nearly almost 100% invisible to the human or naked eye, but it affects every one of us every day. You and I are involved in a spiritual battle.

Ephesians Chapter 6, verse 10, you know the scripture. It says, "Finally," Paul said, "be strong in the Lord." I appreciate that now more than ever. "And in His mighty power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood," listen up, "but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." That is an awesome statement. Christian, you and I are standing or sitting right here right now in a physical world.

But we are spiritually energized against a battle that is spiritually based but manifests itself in a physical world. And what we do is we put on Christ, we know the Word of God, we study the Bible, we worship together, we serve together, we get equipped, we get ready like an army, but our battle is not with the guns and weapons of this world. Our battle is against forces of invisible spiritual darkness.

Imagine for a moment if you could think that in this gathering here tonight, we know from scripture that the Bible teaches that there are spiritual beings that look into the proclamation of the Word of God. We've read that in scripture. Angels. There could be an angel sitting right here right now. I'd have no idea.

He doesn't take up this material space. I could be walking through a couple of demons or angels right here right now. There could be an angel sitting right up here or right up there right now. The scripture says that when the gospel is proclaimed, these are things that the spirits desire to look into.

Isn't that amazing? You say, "I never heard that before, you're freaking me out." Oh listen, you want to get freaked out? Check this out. The Bible says that we'd better be careful how we treat strangers because we have unknowingly treated angels without being aware when you bump into somebody. "Hey man, that's my parking spot!" Watch out, could be an angel driving that car, you know. Amazing.

The worlds are in collision, as it were. I'm going to give you four verses that say the same thing a little bit different but say the same thing and it's all in route to you and I being daring in our Christianity. Four verses that appear in the first chapter of one of the most daring books in the Bible and that is the book of Joshua.

Joshua Chapter 1, verse 5: God says, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, Joshua. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage." Joshua 1:5. How many of you would love to hear that on the eve of battle?

In fact, if I knew that on the eve of battle, I'd probably go out to battle with iced tea and a baseball hat on. No, I'm kidding. I mean, you've got to go to battle, but man, if God tells you that, aren't you just going to walk on into that battle with confidence?

Joshua Chapter 1, verse 7, same chapter, different verse. God says to Joshua, "Only be strong and very courageous." Joshua 1:9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." That's the truth of the Bible.

Joshua Chapter 1, verse 18: "Only be strong and of good courage." Joshua went forth with the disciplines of daring in action in his life and the rest we read about it in human history. This message this evening is especially appropriate for the new believer. Maybe you're a new believer tonight. You need to hear this message.

In fact, you need to hear this entire series because ultimately it's on discipleship and being a follower of Jesus. Listen, new believer, avoid at all cost what far too many Christians have fallen into the trap of and that is that they've engaged themselves into a complacent Christian life.

Those verses in Joshua here Chapter 1 are the verses you and I need to advance in our Christian experience. And there are a lot of people tonight that are Christians, but they're stagnant in their development and it's not God's fault, it's our choosing if that's our case tonight. It's a serious thing.

Noah Webster in his 1828 dictionary defines daring as this: "Having a sufficient enough of courage to meet a challenge. To be fearless, adventurous, to be brave, stout of heart." I like that. "Audacious, defying, heaven-daring. A courage that comes from the heavenly source," Noah Webster says.

Daring. See, you and I think about daring in the sense of, "Oh man, look at that guy, he's going to do this or do that." Remember that ridiculous program—please tell me it's not on anymore—the Fear Factor, where they ate those bugs and they ate pig guts and stuff like that on the show? What kind of a lunatic would do something like that?

But it was all about, "I dare you man, okay come on just do this. Will you do this for 50,000 bucks? Will you eat a moose nose for $50,000?" No. But people get all excited. "What do you do this for?" "Oh, it gets my adrenaline going." You want to get your adrenaline going? Be a radical Christian. That'll get your adrenaline going.

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: Number one, jot it down you guys. Here we go as we look into this. The Disciplines of Daring: Number one is this—daring the weaknesses in your life. Can you write that down? I want you to meet this head-on. Weaknesses. The weaknesses in your life. Dare them, as it were. Daring the weaknesses in your life.

We are all, listen, plagued with certain internal struggles and weaknesses. If you know somebody, hear me out, if you know somebody who when you look at them it's, "Oh wow, I wish I could be like them. Why? They've got their act together." No, they probably have learned how to hide their weaknesses very well.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you don't know, let me be the first to tell you, everybody's got internal weaknesses and frailties. Everyone is plagued with a certain depth of struggle in their lives. Everybody. Most people view themselves in a very poor light.

Now I'm not here tonight to say, "Well you ought to have a lot of self-esteem." I think that is a losing direction. I think you should understand what the Bible says about what God says about you. And when you do, you will not be based on a self-esteem evaluation which oscillates from Monday to Tuesday.

You will realize no matter how you feel or how you think you look, God loves me, the Bible says so, Jesus died on the cross for me, I'm valuable to God, and because that's true, I'm going to live my life for God. And you get up and you move that way.

But the moment you start to chant to yourself, "I'm special, I'm someone important, I'm nice, I'm a good..." Listen, this is the big deal in the world today. You've got to understand something. You will only do that for as long as you feel good about doing it.

And when the war or when the storm or when the wave hits, all that little positive talk goes right out the door because you're saying it to yourself in your own ears and you ain't got no power. But God says, "Listen, stand up, be of good courage, I'm with you, I'll never leave you or forsake you, wherever you go I'm going to be with you." And when you understand that, you will say, "Lord, I want to live a daring life for You." It's an amazing way to live.

Philippians Chapter 3, verse 3. Here we go, Paul says this: "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." He's not talking about physical circumcision. He's talking about spiritual circumcision of the heart.

"Though also I might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may, check this out, listen to what he says: Circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; Verse 6, concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."

Ladies and gentlemen, we can't say that. Paul the Apostle, before he met Jesus, this was his evaluation of himself and he's probably pretty accurate. Verse 7: "But what things were gain to me, these I have 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 have suffered the loss of all things."

See all that stuff was evaporated when he met Jesus. Why? Because it was of the flesh. "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; Verse 10, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, listen to this, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death."

Paul is saying, "You know what, I have found out, I have been the most righteous guy in the block, I was the most holy guy in the synagogue. Nobody thought anything other than of me of absolute, I want to be like Saul or Paul. Look at him, he's the Pharisee point, look at him." He was it.

And Paul said, "All of that stuff translated to nothing the moment I met Jesus." And then he found his strength in Christ so much so that he was so strong in Jesus that he said, "You know what, I want to know the power of His resurrection." And we could all say, "Amen, yes Lord, I want to know that power of the resurrection."

And the very next statement he says, "and the fellowship of His sufferings." What? Paul found the secret that to be daring for Jesus, you can't love your life. Here's the trick: the world tells us and our flesh tells us, "Love your life, love it, take care of it."

First of all, we automatically love our lives. We automatically do. We are the first ones we think about, we're the first ones we feed, we're the first ones to get a drink for ourselves. We naturally love ourselves. Paul says here's the key, Jesus said it, He said, "Listen, you want to give up your life, you'll find it."

We naturally love ourselves, the key is, "Lord, You love me more than I could ever take care of me. So Lord, I relinquish my life to You." And that is a form of surrender that is unlike anything you've ever experienced in life because that type of surrender causes you to come to the front of the line, as it were, and say, "Lord, I surrender." And the Lord says, "Okay great, then stand up and let's go." It's an awesome way to live.

In 2 Corinthians 12:8, the Bible says concerning this thing, Paul was attacked and sick by physical ailments as well as spiritual demonic attack. He says, "Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me." Here's the apostle praying to God to have his sickness removed from him.

"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities or weakness, in my reproaches, in my needs, in my persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

This is a secret to Christianity. How can we be daring in this life? By being reckless. And how can we be reckless for Jesus? Because we need to understand, no matter how weak we are, those weaknesses literally become the platforms of our victories. You guys, this is contrary to everything that you and I have been fed in the natural world. "Oh, I could never do that." God says, "Awesome, then that's what we're going to do." That's how God gets the glory.

Daring the weaknesses in your life. Number one. Number two, jot it down. It's this way: daring to go on with Jesus. Tonight, new Christian, you say, "I'm going to go on with Jesus, I am not going to look back." Jesus said, "No man putting his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

We don't plow anymore, but some of us mow our lawns. And if you're mowing your lawn, and if you look back, you're going to go off the course with your lawnmower or if you're a sailor tonight or whatever you do, if you're setting on a course and you're looking at it and you look to the left or the right, especially behind you—in fact, you can be driving your car, don't ever do this—if you're driving your car and you look too far to the left or too far to the right, guess what happens to your steering wheel? Did you know that you change lanes? You'll naturally turn.

Pressing on, going with Christ. Colossians Chapter 1, verse 9 says, "For this reason we also, since the day we heard of it," Paul says, "do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." In one sentence, he just made a statement that could fill up the rest of our lives.

"That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." Man, could Paul talk or what?

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called Disciplines of Daring. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Disciplines of Life.

It's a series that highlights the disciplines of those of us that follow Christ and the high cost of sharing our faith with others in a lost and broken world. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

You know, Jack Hibbs truly believes that we are living in some of the most exciting days in history, which brings some great opportunities to share with the world a powerful, no-nonsense presentation of the gospel to this generation who, by the way, are really searching for answers and for truth.

Will you stand with us in sharing this message in real and practical ways? We ask that you commit to support Real Life and the teachings of Jack Hibbs with a gift of your choice. Simply go to jackhibbs.com. There you'll find instructions on how to give a one-time gift or a recurring gift.

If you'd prefer to call, here's that phone number: 877-777-2346. One more time, 877-777-2346. Your gift will be faithfully put to work because it's our desire that through Jesus Christ you will know Real Life.

Hey, thanks 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.