Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: He's talking about getting a crown and Rome's sharpening the blade to cut off his head. What is done in the physical didn't take Paul's head away in the spiritual. The apostles were daring about the outcome. Christians tonight we need to be daring about the outcome. We are going to heaven.

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): US strikes, Israel on alert, Iran escalating. Does anyone else feel like today's headlines sound straight out of Bible prophecy? Jesus told us these days would come, not so we'd panic, but so we'd be prepared.

That's why we created the Prophecy Pack: Understanding God's Plan for the Future, a practical guide to help you live ready. Don't just watch the news, understand it through God's Word. Get your Prophecy Pack now for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com.

David J: 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. 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 we need to be daring to love the Lord and be daring to obey Him. Our future is in His hands, and to be bold is to be daring about what's coming next, no matter what. Now with his message called "Disciplines of Daring", here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: The children of Israel crossed over on dry ground over to Gilgal in Jericho. How did that happen? Worshipers. They went first. No, you send your army, you send your engineering corps first to build a bridge. No, not with God. You send the worshipers out first, and they go out there and they're doing their thing and they're praising the Lord and the water goes...

Now what would happen if you, now imagine, alright you guys, we're going to do this. First of all, God tells Joshua, then Joshua turns and tells the people. God is into divinely appointed authority. Joshua says, "This is what we're going to do." Can you imagine? Okay.

And the first guy, can you imagine, "I hope this works, I hope this works." Think about it, think about you being there. There was over two million people. Somebody in that group had to be thinking, "Man, I hope this, I hope he knows what he's doing." And the Bible says that they just got their feet in the brim of the water, it says, and then it began to part. You guys, that's daring. It'll never work. Step out there. Watch what happens.

Numbers 13:33. Here's another amazing thing. It's all about Joshua too because remember Joshua and Caleb? Remember they were the twelve spies went out to spy out the land under Moses' command? Twelve of them came back. Remember what happened? Ten of them had this LA Times kind of report, all negative.

Numbers 13:33 says regarding their word, the ten said, "No, we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight." Look at you, you look like a grasshopper. So do you. We're going to die. That's encouraging.

And so we were in their sight. How did they know what they were thinking, the bad guys? But watch how fear spreads. Chapter 14 verse 1. So all the congregation when they heard that lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night. Can you imagine? "We're going to die!"

Now watch. Numbers 14 verse 6. "But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh who were among those who had spied out the land tore their clothes." These two guys, "That's enough." They ripped their clothes. That is a Hebrew expression of absolute grief.

And they spoke to all the congregation of Israel saying, "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land." It's beautiful. Remember the grapes they brought back and all the food? "If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear." That is General Joshua talking. And we need that kind of leadership today in the church.

The church is scared, timid. The ACLU goes "boo" and the church runs in the corner. Now listen, I'm going to be very direct right now. What in the world are we doing? We think it's Christian to suck our thumb and hide in the corner.

So what are you suggesting? Stand up for your rights as a believer. I don't care what country you're listening in right now on. We're Christians. And we need to stand for what is right. If we are not going to have any statesmen in America, you be a statesman, I'll be a statesman. Our state though that you and I support and stand behind is the Kingdom of Heaven.

That's the difference. And so when the needy are in need, what do we do? We're going to call the government to feed the needy? The church should feed the needy. Is somebody perpetrating an injustice of someone? Listen, we need to be the ones that keep civility in our culture.

It's a serious thing. These are tremendous opportunities, not dangerous challenges. "Oh there's giants in the land." That's right. But God already said go. So what does that mean? Giants in the land, but God said go. Well that means God's going to deal with the giants. What else can it mean?

God's either true or He's not true. He has proved Himself true. Daring to love Him. How about that one? Daring the opportunities in your life. How about this, daring to love Him. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, "Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength."

By the way, any relationship that you're involved in, you want that person and that person wants you to love them with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. God's a person. You say, "Well why should I love Him?" Well seems like a normal question until you stop and think about all the things He gives you.

For one thing, I'm grateful. Look beyond what He gives you. "Lord if You've given me this things, then what does that speak about Your nature? What kind of a God are You? You're benevolent. You're patient, You're kind, You're loving."

Jeremiah 31:3 says, "The Lord has appeared to me of old saying, yes I have loved you with an everlasting love." This is the God of the Bible. "I've loved you with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you." God wants you with Him. Isn't that great?

John 15:10. Jesus said, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I keep my Father's commandments and abide in His love." That's great. If you keep My commandments, you'll enjoy Me. It doesn't mean He stops loving you if you disobey His commandments, but you're silly to disobey them because you're going to get hurt.

Can you imagine a police officer saying, "Look, I'm here to catch the bad guys. So I'm here to protect you, unless you're a bad guy. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to go down that freeway at 65 miles an hour, whatever it is.

You do fine and stay in your lane, okay? But put your blinker on 100 feet or 200 feet before you cross over and you'll be safe." Those rules keep you alive and they're good. "I'm not going to listen to that! No one's going to tell me what to do!" Then that guy's going to come after you. And he's doing his job. But with God He loves you even when you're rebelling.

He won't give you a ticket, He'll just spank you and say, "Now stay on the road, you're going to get yourself hurt." Jesus says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments. It's going to go good with you." You Christians, "Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not."

Every one of the thou shalt nots, notice, if you obey those thou shalt nots, you won't get hurt, you won't get in trouble. Imagine having a kid, "Hey Junior, look at you, gosh you nine years old now, isn't that great? I tell you what, you can do anything you want. You're nine years old."

You would never do that. You would do that to your neighbor's kid, but never your own kid. You love your kid, you would never tell your kid that. They'd get hurt. Daring to obey Him. Mark that one down. Daring to obey Him. And here's the million dollar bit of advice. Don't miss it.

Daring to obey Him. Be very careful Christian to walk through the door that Jesus opens for you in life. It's easier that way when God opens the door versus you running ahead. Listen, daring to obey Him. For you tonight to say, "I am going to obey God over my emotions, over what everything is going on, I am going to obey God!"

When God opens a door, go through it. You'd be surprised how important that is to your life right here, right now. Are you asking God to show you something or to do something in your life right now? When He opens the door... and I wrote down a few things. These are three things that I have heard said or people have said to somebody else. "But I felt like the Lord might have said that to me, so I did this thing." I felt like the Lord said. Watch out.

If God opens the door, walk through it. If man opens the door, get away from it. I've heard this, "But I thought it would be the right thing to do." Did God open the door? "Well I thought it'd be the right thing to do." Get away from it.

I watched a friend of mine get his life ruined because he said, "But all my friends told me that I should be a pastor and that's why I went out and did that." Almost lost his family, almost lost everything. His friends told him he should go be a pastor. So that's how you become a pastor, your friends tell you.

What are you saying? This is what I'm saying. Mark it down. Revelation 3:7. Jesus said to the angel of the church at Philadelphia, "Write these things says He who is holy, He who is true, and He who has the key of David. He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens."

God opens the door to the direction of life for you, just find out what God is saying. Obey Him. It's an awesome way to live. A lot of people have ambition and think that it's a spiritual call. Let God lead you and guide you. What excites you? What gets you pumped up? What's going on? Lord is that from You? If it's from You, open the door. Don't go around and try to unlock doors. Let God open the door.

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: It's crazy. It's amazing. God will bring things... if you're open to obey Him, God will bring... are you listening you guys? God will bring things into your life that you will have to step back and be in shock about. There's things going on regarding this church right now that I can't tell you about yet. I can't wait to tell, I want... I can't wait to tell you. It's amazing.

Ministry opportunities that nobody on the planet could have arranged. It came to us. "Pastor Jack?" "Yes." "Want to meet with you." "Alright." "This is what we've been doing for the last 60 years and we want to make sure that Calvary Chapel Chino Hills is the one that inherits this particular ministry and carries it on to the next generation."

"Are you sure? I'll pray about it." And I'm right now, I'm in that moment, I'm in that zone of praying about it. I gotta get back to them in a couple weeks I think it is. It's over the top. It's to the ends of the earth. It's beyond anything we've ever thought. I'm getting goosebumps talking about it. It's a God thing. Why? He opened the door. Unbelievable. Stay tuned.

Daring to trust Him. Love Him, obey Him, trust Him. Do we really trust God? Honestly. You're not going to like what I'm going to say because I'm not going to like what I'm going to say. You know like when things are really tough and it's really challenging you?

And because it's tough you think God can't be in this. And yet He is. He's trying to make your life a daring life for Him. "Jack you know what, I got this class project and they... we can't have, we can't say anything about Jesus in it or else we're going to get an F."

Call your attorney tonight or tomorrow and tell him you're going to say Jesus in your project. Like what is the true meaning of Easter? Tell them the resurrection, okay? "Well I'm going to get an F." Get an F. Just make sure that you call your attorney and CBS News and all that kind of stuff and have them record it.

What's your option? "Well things are really rough with my wife." Yeah guess what, time to trust Him. God. Last Sunday a guy said, "Can I get a divorce?" Well I guess you can, just go down to the store and buy one or however you do it.

But is that what God wants you to do? God wants your marriage to work first. "Oh my wife's a loser." When men say, "My wife's a loser," you know how to read between the lines? If she is a loser, who made her the loser?

Did you think she was a loser when you married her? What are you marrying losers for? "I didn't marry a loser." The story's bigger than what you hear. It's best to trust God for him, for her, for your kids. Seriously.

Point number three, I have thirty seconds to do this. Daring the future. Daring the future for your life very quickly. Daring the future for your life. You guys, guess what, listen to me very quickly, the future's coming if you like it or not. Tomorrow's going to be here. What are we going to do?

Literally where are you going? I have to be in Indiana tomorrow. So I know this, the future's happening. Okay. I know what I'm supposed to do when I get there. I know what I'm supposed to do on the plane while I'm getting there. The future's coming. I'll be back with you on Sunday. You won't even know I'm gone.

Where are you going? What are you doing? Your future's coming. It starts tonight, starts tomorrow morning. Daring about what's coming next in your life. Church, the Bible tells us that God knows our lives and He says all things work together for good to those who love the Lord who are called according to His purposes. Be bold in that.

Also daring about His return. He's coming back. He said He's coming back. Matthew 24:44 says therefore, Jesus said, "Therefore you also be ready." That's a precondition. "For the son of man is coming." That's a warning.

"In an hour that you do not expect." That's imminent. Christ could come back tonight. He doesn't have to do anything. All the stuff that you're thinking about he has to do before he comes back is all tribulation stuff regarding the second coming.

The rapture could happen tonight. 1 Corinthians 15:50. "Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Oh is that a problem? "Nor does corruption inherit incorruption." Is that a problem? Verse 51.

"Behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep or die, but we shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed."

The last trumpet deals with the church. The first trumpet deals with the nation Israel. There's two trumpets. There's a lot of trumpets in the Bible, but these particular trumpets, one deals with Israel, this last one deals with the church. By the way you and I are living at a time right now for the first time in human history where Israel as a nation and the church exist on earth on the same time. That's how close His coming could be at any moment.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 18. The Bible tells us, "I do not want you to be ignorant brethren of this thing for those concerning those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." He goes on to say that the Lord Himself will come with the shout, with the voice, with the archangel, the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet them in the air. That could happen tonight. That could happen tonight. Are you ready to meet Him? And then finally this, daring about the outcome. This is fun. I don't care if we're over time or not. You gotta hear this. This is the last moment.

Watch this. Daring the future for your life is this, daring about the outcome. Keep heaven in your focus. Watch this. Noah was daring about the outcome. Noah built an ark. How long did it take him? Anybody remember? 120 years.

Can you imagine? "Hey are you an idiot or what? What are you building?" It hadn't rained prior to that. Where's he taking this thing? "Noah you're nuts." Noah knew what God wanted and he was firm about the outcome.

Abraham was daring about the outcome. He obeyed God. Moses was daring about the outcome. He told the Pharaoh, "I don't want your job." David was daring about the outcome. David said, "I know that someday I'm going to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." That was an eternal statement, forever.

Daniel was daring about the outcome. The King of the world and Daniel walks up there and says, "Oh yeah listen to this." Lions, thrown in the den. Daniel said, "Well you know God if I die I come see You. If not You got work for me to do. These lions are just going to sit there." They went to sleep.

Joshua was daring about the outcome. Rahab was daring about the outcome. Paul was daring about the outcome, was he not? Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 4 near the end of the verse... no, 2 Timothy chapter 4 near the end of the chapter. It says his last writing, he's going to die. He says, "You know what? What is laid up for me is a crown of righteousness which the Lord Himself will give me." A crown of righteousness.

Excuse me Paul. Hello. You're in Rome. They're going to cut your head off. Paul says, "That's what I'm talking about. There's a crown laid up for me that the Lord's going to give me." Did you see that? He didn't see his head cut off in eternity.

He's talking about getting a crown and Rome's sharpening the blade to cut off his head. What is done in the physical, listen, didn't take Paul's head away in the spiritual. The apostles were daring about the outcome. Christians tonight we need to be daring about the outcome. We are going to heaven.

Father we come to You tonight. And Lord God we pray right now, we're ready to go right now to heaven. But Father we pray in Jesus' name that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, Lord God, that You would so equip us.

There's enough people in this Wednesday night service to change the world right side up right here. If twelve people 2000 years ago could bring the gospel to Chino Hills, then this gathering of people can take the gospel to the ends of the earth in a moment's time.

Heavenly Father in Jesus' name I pray that You... all of us. Church, while I'm praying will you lift your hands please? Just lift your hands up to the Lord. I'm going to pray for you. Lord I pray now in Jesus' name that You would come upon these precious people, Your lambs.

And Lord that You would fill them with Your Holy Spirit. That You would anoint them and baptize them in Your Spirit. Father we pray now, we thank You for that in Jesus' name and all God's people said, "Amen."

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.

Guest (Female): 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.

Jack Hibbs: 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.

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.