Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Go after him! God in the Old Testament said to Israel, "Where are you? When you got up early and came after me like a lover and searched for me, where are you now, Israel?" And he says, "Return to me."

David J: This is Real Life Radio. 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, 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.

Guest (Male): *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.

David J: 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 that we need to eagerly wait on the Lord. It feels wrong to wait, but David tells us in Psalm 46 to be still and know that He is God. In His time, He'll strengthen us as we exalt Him through life's difficulties. Now, with his message called "Disciplines of Defense," here is pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: 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 is our time to live out our faith because 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 will 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 he lost in this life. He was a Pharisee. That means he was probably a pretty wealthy guy at one time. Most scholars believe that because he was a Pharisee who had to have a wife, him coming to Christianity, his wife must have left him.

He lost his wife possibly, he certainly lost his wealth, and he became a nomad as it were for Jesus. He says, "I've counted the loss for Christ. It'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 everything, 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. I thank God for you. I thank God for your commitment to your community, to your state, to your nation. You are amazing people.

It is all you guys following Jesus. You are taking the challenges of life and you're responding to them with the right attitude. Paul had that attitude. How do we defend ourselves against this crazy age? Mark this down: temptations will come, but temptations come from this evil world and we choose to embrace them or not. You will 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, "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? We begin to discern and understand, "Lord, listen, 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." 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 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. 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. How do you do that? Job 13:15, "Though he slay me, yet I will trust him."

And 1 Peter 5:7, what a graphic verse this is, "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. Then they keep looking at it and it turns into a mountain. Then all they can do is talk about their problem.

"What am I going to do?" They start to panic. Listen, stop analyzing it. Because if you're going to analyze your problem, it turns to 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. We are a no-wait generation. We go through fast food; fast food's not fast enough. You drive in and 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.

The problem is this, listen, waiting feels wrong. It just feels wrong. In Psalm 46 verse 10, the Bible says, "Be still." How do you like that? "Be still and know that I am God." By the way, the word is *yada* in Hebrew. *Yada* and it means "Be still and know, discover who I am in that moment." See, all of a sudden you and I want to panic about the moment and yet God is saying, "Excuse me, in the moment you're in, I want you to know who I am in that moment." Isn't he awesome? I am the God of the moment. Yes, he's eternal. But remember this, you and I are a blip on the screen in eternity and that blip on the screen is held in the palm of His hand.

He's in the moment with us. "Be still and know that I am God, and I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth." And let me add this, "I will be exalted in your life if you wait upon me," He says. In Romans 8:25, this is kind of cool because if you are tempted to not wait, God understands. You can tell because in Romans 8:25, there Paul writes, "But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance."

That word "eagerly wait" is cool. It means that you're waiting eagerly. "What are you doing?" "I'm eagerly waiting!" Because when we think of the word wait, we're thinking like this. "What are you doing?" "Waiting." I love how realistic the Bible is. I am eagerly waiting with perseverance for the Lord to do His work in my life and for Him to come back and for the next thing. And I love that. Learn how to wait on the Lord.

What to do: Get alone with the Lord now. Get out a pen, get out a piece of paper. This is serious. I'm going to get you in trouble. Here you go, this is I'm dead serious about this. And you know what, watch this, if we do this, watch what happens in the next couple of weeks. Get alone with the Lord, and I don't mean ASAP. I mean now. Now, don't leave. I mean determine now because here's what's going to happen.

Step one, write it down: Starting tomorrow, set your alarm before you go to bed tonight, one hour earlier. But Pastor, I get up at 4:00. So get up at 3:00. Believe me, I'll be up at 4:00 with you. Set your alarm for one hour. It's going to hurt for the first few days, but do it. Set it for two weeks like this and begin to evaluate your life every day. Watch what happens for the next two weeks starting tomorrow.

Number two: Get alone when you get up, get alone with God with your Bible and with a little notebook. And I want all of us to start reading—I don't care how far you get—but start reading the book of Philippians in the next two weeks. Okay. Step three: Repeat steps one and two for the rest of your life. Watch what happens. Look, mark your calendar. The 14th? Okay, the 14th. Next two weeks, watch what happens in our private and public lives as a church.

Watch what happens as a people, as a family. Watch what happens. Anybody not taking me up on this challenge, you're a wimp, you're a weasel and a snake, a loser and a bomb. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you," says the Lord, "thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you've searched for me with all your heart."

Amen! That's what he loves. Go after him. Go after him! God in the Old Testament said to Israel, "Where are you? When you got up early and came after me like a lover and searched for me, where are you now, Israel? You've gone." He says like a dromedary. Do you know what a dromedary is? It's a female camel who's in heat. He says you've gone off and you've been sniffing the air looking for a male camel and you've left me. And he says, "Return to me." Isn't that powerful? He says, "Come to me."

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.

What not to do: Listen, don't consult with your friends first about this. "Well, you know, our pastor challenged us to seek God alone. What do you think of that?" Don't even ask them. "An hour? He wants you to wake up an hour? Sounds legalistic to me. What are you, in a cult?" Now, if I would have said, "Sleep in an extra hour," people would have said, "Man, that church is of God. I'm going next week." Don't listen to people, listen to God first. Always God first.

When new believers make a decision, we tell them right up front right here, we tell them, "Here's your Bible. Start reading it. Come to every service you can, dive into all these wonderful things that you can get involved in. And if you have a question about what you read in the Bible, ask God first and then call us." Ask God first. Don't allow yourself to be manipulated into a hurry because we need to learn how to wait on the Lord.

I looked this up today. In 1709, the English poet Alexander Pope wrote, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Why do fools rush ahead? Because they can't wait. Come on! In our lives we've made the dumbest decisions because we wouldn't wait. And listen, I know I'm going to get a letter about this from somebody, but I'm just using this as an example. When you go buy a car, or now, I don't know, do they give cars away now or what? Or do they even make cars anymore? I don't even know.

"Listen, mister, if you don't buy that car, I got a guy coming down, he says he's going to be here in about an hour and a half to buy that car. If you don't buy it now, it's going to be gone. You'll never get that one again." Listen, don't ever get backed into a corner like that. "Oh man, you know what, if you don't buy this house, you know, you got five minutes, you got to sign on the paper." Listen, God is never in a hurry and he doesn't put his kids in that place either.

It's very, very important. Wait. Psalm 62:1 says this, "Truly my soul silently waits for God. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be," listen, "greatly moved." And when you read that you go, "I don't like that verse because I don't want to be moved at all." "I shall not be greatly moved." Well, the word means in Hebrew, "I will not be shaken to the core."

I love the reality of the Bible. Listen, church, are we not all moved? We're moved. We have pressures, we have difficulties. But the Bible says you're not going to get knocked off your horse. It's going to move, it's going to shake. We're moving, but you're not going to fall down. Point number three, the disciplines of defense is this: stand in the power of His might. This is important. Are you not tempted to panic, jump from the frying pan into the fire as people would say?

"Oh my goodness, what's going to happen? I'm under attack." Whatever it might be. The disciplines of defense is to learn this: stand in the power of His might. And how do you do that? You know what, first of all you take your Bible and because you're getting up earlier now, you got more of it, you're doing Philippians, and you're going to read it and you're going to stand there and God, I promise you, as you read the next two weeks, your life will literally work in concert with the scriptures you're reading. Watch what happens.

And something's going to happen and you're going to go, "Wait a minute. I know where to stand about this thing. I know what to say. I read it yesterday." You watch what happens. And let me tell you, your faith will just grow. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." You want greater faith? Only comes one way. I met a man last Sunday. He said, "Pastor Jack, I live in Temecula and I come here now on Sundays. I've been listening to the radio program."

I said, "Temecula? Do you know you drive past about 17 great churches to get here? You need to save your gas." And he said, "No way. I'm coming." And you guys, what do you guys drive from? Crestline. We need to call a doctor for these two. The amazing thing, that gentleman said as I'm driving along, as I'm going to work and I'm listening to the program, I got you on my podcast. He said the time just goes by because I'm in a Bible school. I'm in a Bible class and I'm hearing the word of God.

Listen, that guy's faith is growing and that's how it happens. Would to God our phones and TVs would blow up that we'd hang onto the Bible more. Stand in the power of His might. Patriot revolutionary Samuel Adams said, "We shall never be abandoned by heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection." And I love that quote. "We shall never be abandoned by heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection."

Did you get that? Samuel Adams said that if we are in the right cause and we've got heaven's approval for what we're standing for, we can expect this: heaven will never abandon us. And you and I, our Father is God. We are His children, we have His eternal word, and if we act worthy of His protection, we will never be abandoned. Do you believe that, church? You are invincible if you are engaged in the things of God. Stay committed to what God's called us to. Don't move. Don't waver. That's why we need one another, to encourage each other along.

I don't want to sound cold. I'm not cold when I say this. I have to confess it's a discipline that I've learned. You're looking at a guy who's been mocked all his life. Because of that, I was a very violent man. Thank God He saved me. Thank God the Lord rescued me because I probably would have been in prison today or dead. I was mocked all my life for stuttering so badly I could hardly put a sentence together. Couldn't even recite the wedding vows in my wedding because I stuttered so terribly.

But all my life growing up, singled out, made fun of. I can tell you classrooms, I can see it in my mind's eye where the teacher said, "Stand on top of the desk and read the book. Hey class, you want to hear him read the book?" To stand in front of people? No way. I used to fake getting sick so I would stay home from school because I couldn't face the people. And I can't tell you some of the other things that some gangs did. "Oh, he stutters, let's do this," and they held me down and they had fun.

Why am I saying this? Because all my life I grew up with this, "If I don't defend myself, nobody will." And I began to hurt people. I'm not all that big. I'm 5'10", 210, and this is the smallest I've ever been. And I learned how to hurt people in football because I was so angry. And I could defend myself. And then I come to Jesus at the age of 19 and I find out, "Wait a minute, Jack, don't defend yourself any longer." "Lord, are you what?" "Don't defend yourself any longer. That's what I do, Jack. I defend you now."

And listen, even to this hour, I've learned this the hard way, but I'm glad I learned it. When people attack you, when people write stuff in the newspaper about you, let it go, my friend. The truth's going to come out someday and it will be glorious and you need to stand like that. You need to be fearless. Paul said, "None of these things move me." Why? Because he said, "I know the one in whom I've been persuaded." At the end of the day, and I mean at the end of the day of eternity, when we stand before God, maybe sooner, maybe in this life, you stand there, God is your defense. Let Him defend you. The wicked shall perish. That's God's business. Stand in the power of His might.

Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:16, "At my first defense no one stood with me, all forsook me. May it not be charged against them." Verse 17, 2 Timothy 4, "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me." What a great word, huh? That's an awesome statement. I suggest that you and I stay away from the power that you and I have. It'll lead you to destruction. Let Him be your defense.

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 *The 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 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.

Guest (Male): That's happening now with Chris McKenna and Pastor Jack Hibbs, Wednesday April 22nd at 7:00 PM. Learn more at jackhibbs.com.

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. 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.

Guest (Male): 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.