Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: So Christian, you and I need to wake up to the fact that there are very serious issues in this world that are designed to come against your faith. Your faith is the most precious thing you have.

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.

Jack Hibbs: Hey everybody, listen. All of our Happening Now events are amazing, but this one's special. On April 22nd, on a Wednesday night starting at 7:00 Pacific Time, I'm going to sit down with Chris McKenna.

He is an expert on internet pornography and how it gets into your home, how it destroys your children, how it destroys your marriage, and you're going to want to be brave enough—I stress, brave enough. You know, you mention this topic and people don't want to show up. Show up and save someone's life.

David J.: Happening Now with Chris McKenna and Pastor Jack Hibbs. Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:00 PM. Learn more at jackhibbs.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled "Disciplines of Defense." Now, what do we mean by defense? Well, the heart is the source of our thoughts, our attitudes, and actions, and we've got to protect our hearts from anything that pulls us away from the Lord.

You see, we have to guard our hearts from harmful influences. What we let into our minds and hearts shapes who we become. Just like a soldier defending his territory, believers have got to defend their spiritual lives through prayer and by living according to God's word.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that when it comes to our spiritual life, we've got to be intentional. What's inside of us—our desires, thoughts, or beliefs—that's going to affect our actions and how we live out our faith. Now, with his message called "Disciplines of Defense," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: So the scripture says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." Now, in this sermon, you talk about the heart being something that has to be guarded—not just guided, but guarded. Why do you think we underestimate as humans? Why do you think we underestimate that?

Chris McKenna: You know, there's the old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. And that is the people that are around you the most, we have a tendency not to treat them as worthy as they should be treated. Well, when it comes to self, we have a tendency that familiarity breeds contempt thinking, "I can take care of that. I can do the other thing. I got that, God. Don't worry about me. I can take on that issue."

And what we really need is to be operating not in the defense of our opinions, but to be operating in the defense of God. Leaning upon Him. He's the one with the sword, He's the one with the shield, He's the one that's got the helmet for us to put on. We need to realize that.

And so, it's certainly a contrast to a proud Christian. I mean, a proud Christian would be a backslidden Christian. They're dependent upon nobody and nothing. They've got themselves, they keep in touch with themselves, and they're legends in their own minds. Those are scary people. And I don't think God will allow that to go long without humbling us back to His defense, His protection.

Jack Hibbs: Why do you think the Bible uses the term "guard your heart"?

Chris McKenna: Because it's a choice of ours that we make. God, who is sovereign—no doubt about it—all-powerful, all-knowing, but He made you and I with the ability to exercise what we call free moral agency. For example, today you're going to choose what you're going to have for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. God didn't write that down in the Bible. But He knows what you're going to pick even though you don't know.

That said, the things that you choose, are they going to be things that are bigger than you? In other words, are you going to go to breakfast and do you have the opportunity to take someone with you? Maybe it's a coworker. Or lunch, you're going to take a friend. Or maybe you're going to swing by and pick up your daughter or your son. Those kinds of choices, those things that we make, that is inviting people into your life. It's being more open to experience God with other people. And I think that's important.

Jack Hibbs: Let's get into it.

Pray that You would just right now move in our hearts. And God, that You would just take Your word and emboss it within our souls. Father, that You'd give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us. And Lord, that we would leave tonight different people than having walked in this room.

So Father, we ask You now. And Lord, we pray that wherever this message goes, that it would affect people for the glory of God, for salvation in Jesus Christ, for hope, and for understanding.

And Lord, that we would be ready. Father, I just have this deep sense in my heart that something big is coming. And I don't know what it is and I don't need to know. I just need to be ready. We need to be ready for whatever's going to happen or wherever we're going or whatever's about ready to be done. Lord God, You're on the throne. Nothing, nothing goes on without Your incredible watchful eye. So Father, we rejoice tonight in Your name, in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen.

Grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4 in your Bibles. We are in our series, and we get back into our series, I can add, regarding the disciplines of life. The disciplines of life. And it's all about discipleship. How do we live our lives in these last days?

You say, "these last days, what's going to happen?" I don't know what's going to happen, but 2,000 years ago, the Bible says we've entered into the last days. So if 2,000 years ago was the last days, then we're like John says, we're down to the last hour. And we need to get ready to meet the Lord.

And discipleship is what it's all about. Keep your finger there in Proverbs chapter 4. Just wait right there. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 28, as He gathered the disciples together, He said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the 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 unto the end of the world."

Discipleship, the disciplines of life. To make disciples. And Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23, says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." So church, I want you to jot that down tonight because the title of this evening's session is "The Disciplines of Defense."

The disciplines of defense. What does that mean? Well, we're going to be looking at that tonight. And when, by the way, Proverbs does state that we are to keep our hearts with all diligence, that is a very strong statement. Think about that for a moment.

First of all, the word "keep" means to guard your heart. Christians, we are to be guarding our hearts. The word also means to protect our heart. It means that whatever is in our heart is a very precious and holy thing, and we are to guard that thing. We are to protect that thing. And it means also to set a watchman over our heart. We are to have our heart, as it were, guarded. And I think you know by now that our hearts are to be guarded by the word of God. It is the word of God that suits us up.

The New Testament counterpart to that is in Jude 1, verse 20 and 21. It says, "Brethren, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit." Verse 21, "Keep yourselves in the love of God."

Christian, you and I have got to work at our Christianity, and I want to make that very clear. We are not to work at getting saved. That's impossible. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone in His finished work at Calvary's cross. Jesus did it all. All to Him we owe.

But now that we're believers, we are to give all diligence to guarding our hearts. And you and I live in the most perverse age that perhaps the world has ever seen. This is a dark and sinister time.

But in Jude verse 21, when it says "keep yourself," that New Testament counterpart to the old, it means the same thing but more. Yes, to guard the heart, to protect the heart, to set a watchman over the heart, but it also means this: to prevent from escaping. To prevent your heart from escaping the truth of God. To assemble a fortress or to put in place a full military detachment.

That's what the Bible says about how you and I are to be guarding our hearts as Christians. Don't raise your hand when I say this, but how many of you are Christians tonight? If you're a Christian tonight, you need to be serious about guarding your heart by what we read, by what we see, by what we listen to, where our feet go, what our hands are involved in.

If we name the name of Christ, as the Bible says, let us depart from sin. If we name the name of Christ, we ought to walk lives that are worthy of His name. But how do we do that? And tonight when we look at this discipline of defense, what is it that we mean? I'll put it to you this way.

Our hearts as a human, as the human nature is, our hearts challenge the power of God in this sense: God is all-powerful, we're not. But God has made us available and responsible to make the choices in our lives. And that is a scary thing if you think about it.

I'd almost want to be a robot, but then there's no love, there's no true worship, and nobody wants to marry or have a relationship with a robot. If you do, you're sick. God is not sick. God is the great creator and He made you with the ability to make a choice so that there could be real love, real experience.

And even though Adam and Eve were created in absolute perfection, imagine that for a moment. Adam and Eve were perfect. Built inside of them was the ability to choose. And you know the story. The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve collectively sinned against God and chose their own way.

There's a right way to exercise a discipline of defense and a wrong way. And Adam and Eve is definitely the wrong way to exercise this attack against the heart when temptations come against us, when the world comes against us. What are we to do?

But we also know this: that Paul the Apostle was concerned in his Christian walk about becoming disqualified. Adam and Eve disqualified themselves in the Garden of Eden if you think about it. They exercised their own will over the will of God.

By the way, let's be honest. Every time you and I exercise our own will over the will of God, we get messed up. Church family, listen carefully. I'm not going to give you details because it's private. But as a pastor, it doesn't take an Einstein to figure this out.

In a ministry like this, I get calls all the time. I hear stuff all the time. And there's people that I look at that I respect highly and love tremendously. And then when I hear them giving up on their faith, giving up on their marriage, giving up on their children, and going into the world or going back to the world, Lisa and I look at each other and we just... we both shake our heads and then we cringe at the same time.

No wonder why I think about the disciples when Jesus said, "One of you at this table will betray Me." Do you remember what their words were? "Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I?"

And Lisa and I have been looking at each other recently with hearing all the things that are going on in our Christian world and the friends that we know around the world, and to hear some of them giving up on faith in these last moments. And then the fear comes up in your heart, "Oh Lord, is it I? Oh God, don't let us fall."

And Paul the Apostle had that same thought when in the Bible in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 25, Paul said, "Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things." That is, he has a disciplined life. "Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown."

He's talking about Olympians in Greece, in Corinth, in his day. "But we do it for an imperishable crown." Our crown's going to last forever. "Therefore," Paul says, "I run thus, not with uncertainty." Like Forrest Gump? No, Paul says, "No way. Not with uncertainty do I run. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection."

That is, the passions of his body do not control his commitment or devotion to God. He says, "I bring it under the control or subjection, lest I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

So Christian, you and I need to wake up to the fact that there are very serious issues in this world that are designed to come against your faith. Your faith is the most precious thing you have.

And I want you to think about that right now. Sad to say, most people who are going through the trenches of their faith being challenged may not even be here tonight. Maybe they're out in places where they ought not to be, I don't know.

But let me tell you tonight, if you are not nurturing and protecting and watching out for that faith of yours that you have in your heart, if you're not letting it grow and get strong in the true things of God, then you're in danger.

And you need to be doing everything you possibly can to see to it that you are rooted and grounded and built in your most holy faith. These are serious things.

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: So church, we're going to go through these tonight. Mark it number one, it is this: In the disciplines of life, there's the disciplines of defense. And the first one is this: responding to the challenges of life.

A defense in response to the challenges of this life that you and I live in. What are we going to do? Even the Christian suffers in this life. Can someone say amen? Christians suffer in this life. And the way the world is going, there's probably more Christians suffering now than in most recent years.

But the Christian deals with his or her problems differently. So as a believer, I would ask tonight, how do I, Pastor, deal with the issues and the challenges of life and how am I to defend myself in this world?

In John 16:33, Jesus said these things: "These things I have spoken unto you that in Me you may have peace." Wow. Ask Jesus for peace. Number two, "In the world you will have tribulation." That's difficulties. "But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

What a great word. Be of good cheer. You know what that means? This is amazing. Jesus says you're going to have hardship, it's going to get tough, and some of you are going to be put to death. But you know what? Cheer up. Have a great attitude about it. That word means your attitude is at a higher altitude than what's going on in the world.

You guys, we are—and I know I've read this, you've heard it before—but some people have said, "You know, you Christians need to watch out. You can become so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good." I have never seen that happen yet. The truth is, we can become so earthly minded that we're no heavenly good.

We are to set our affections on the things of heaven, church. We're going to go home someday. We're not home yet. You think you're home? You say, "Well, I'm comfortable." Well, you're not home. We're going home.

When you go home tonight, you're not going home unless you go home to see Jesus. You're going to the house or the condo or the apartment that you reside in for now. It's temporary. We're going to see Jesus.

And all of the stuff that's going on in our lives, Jesus says be of good cheer about it. We're losing our home, we're losing this, we're losing that, and all the stuff is... and the ground is shaking and it's hot outside and all this stuff is going on. Hey, you know what? For the Christian, what was it today? 100 degrees here? For the Christian, this is as hot as it gets. Remember that. We can take it. Jesus says be of good cheer when it's difficult.

And so one of our great defenses in this life is to be strong in this fact: that I'm not home yet. We're in boot camp, as it were. And it's our time to live out our faith. Because you know what, church? The time is coming when we won't need faith in heaven because we will see Him face to face. And we will have lived our life and we would have run our course.

Philippians chapter 3, verse 7, says, "But what things were gain to me," Paul said, "these I've counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ."

Listen, that's for the believer. Everything Paul said I've lost in this life. Listen, he was a Pharisee. That means he was probably a pretty wealthy guy at one time. And most scholars believe that because he was a Pharisee who had to have a wife, that him coming to Christianity, his wife must have left him.

He lost his wife, possibly. He certainly lost his wealth. He became a nomad, as it were, for Jesus. He says, "I've counted the loss for Christ." That's nothing. Yet indeed, he says, much more for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ.

That's the heart in life and attitude of a believer. You can't stop a man, you cannot stop a woman who's like this. Church, like never before, the Christian needs to be galvanized for these days. We're the only ones who know what's really going on. We see what's happening in the world, and instead of stepping back, we need to step up. We need to step up.

And I thank God for you. I mean this. I was on the email today with brothers back East and things that are going on. And I got to tell you, I thank God for you. I thank God for your commitment to your community, to your state, to your nation. You're amazing people. You guys make me look really good. It's all you guys following Jesus. You are taking the challenges of life and you're responding to them with the right attitude.

And Paul had that attitude. How do we defend ourselves against this crazy age? Well, listen, mark this down: temptations will come. But temptations come from this evil world and we choose to embrace them or not. You'll choose to embrace a temptation or not. Please, don't embrace the temptation.

Trials, on the other hand, come from the hand of God and we're better off for them. You need to settle that in your soul tonight. Temptations come from the evil of this world. Trials come from the engineering of God's hand. You and I don't understand everything.

You say, "Man, wait a minute, my trial sure seems like a temptation," or "my trial is getting me to be tempted to lose my temper." I understand that. That's important. But your trial is different than a temptation.

If you are tempted by sexual lust or something like that from the world, that is a temptation. But listen, if you're put into a financial situation or whatever and you're feeling the weight of that pressure or whatever it might be in that area, that's a trial. Are you fighting a health issue? That's a trial.

One is from the world and we choose to embrace it. The other is engineered by the hand of God. How do we exercise a defense as a disciple of Christ in a time like this? Listen, we begin to discern and understand: Lord, listen. Lord, if this is from You, give me the grace to get through it. If this is not from You, in Jesus' name, Lord, You rebuke it from my life.

Listen, I know some of you are saying, "Pastor, I was always raised that I should stand there and I should rebuke it and I rebuke and, you know, I'm going to stand there and I'm going to rebuke the... yeah, I rebuke you, Satan." Listen, that is nowhere in the Bible. The Bible says, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan."

So I don't know about you, but I'm not going to sit there and go, "Come on, Satan." I'm going to say, "Dad, Dad! He's picking on me." You rebuke that temptation this way: Lord, I'm being tempted. And in Jesus' name, Lord, give me the power to walk away from it and/or drive it away from me now. And He will be faithful.

If it's that trial, yes. If it's a temptation, yes. The answer is God in both. Psalm 107, verse 20, the Bible says He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. What a great promise that is. Psalm 107, verse 20.

So responding to the challenges of life, mark this down: what to do? Turn your thoughts toward the Lord. If your life is under attack, turn your thoughts toward the Lord. Is somebody attacking you? Turn your thoughts toward the Lord.

What do you do about that? How do you do that? Job 13:15. Job 13:15: "Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him." Wow. And 1 Peter 5:7. What a graphic verse this is. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

That word "to cast" is to heave. Grab it and throw it at the foot of the cross. Take your thoughts and direct them toward the Lord. What not to do? Don't analyze the problem. It just grows.

This is the problem a lot of people have. They look at the problem and the problem looks like an anthill. And then they keep looking at it and it turns into a mountain. And then all they can do is talk about their problem. "What am I going to do?" They start to panic.

Listen, stop analyzing it. Why? Because if you're going to analyze your problem, it turns into worry. Worry will destroy you. Worry will rob you. Worry is powerful, debilitating. It kills that attitude of "I'm going to put my heart and mind on Christ." Stop staring at it. Look up. Call upon Him.

Number two, the disciplines of defense is this: learn how to wait on the Lord. Christian, learn how to wait on the Lord. This is going to be tough. I have six points. This is number two. This one may be just impossible.

Why? Because we are a no-wait generation. We go through fast food, fast food's not fast enough. You drive in, they just throw now... they just throw the food in your window. It's amazing to me.

Learn how to wait on the Lord. Church, this is a serious issue. Waiting does not come naturally to us humans. We hate it. I personally believe that many Christians today are in a state of crisis because they refuse to wait on the Lord or they don't know how to wait on the Lord.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio, and his message called "Disciplines of Defense." Thanks for being a part of our study today.

You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called 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.

Jack Hibbs: Hey everybody, have you ever thought about what's after life? Do you know that the Bible teaches life is after life? If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, my good friend Philip De Courcy has written a great book, and that's the title, Life After Life: Exploring the Bible's Wonderful Promises About Heaven and Eternity, published by Harvest House Publishers. Get a copy for yourself.

David J.: Life After Life by Philip De Courcy: Exploring the Bible's Promises About Heaven and Eternity. It's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That's 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.