Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: It’s there because it’s not normal. When the Bible says delight in the Lord, why? It’s not normal. We need him, and it’s going to deepen our trust in him in hard times. Secondly, a real expectation to see God do something with your life is why we want to delight in him. Oh God, I want you to use my life radically.

David J: 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. Are you trying to make sense of a world that feels like it’s spinning out of control? Do you see what’s happening, but wonder what it actually means? In *Happening Now*, Pastor Jack Hibbs takes today’s biggest headlines and brings them into focus through the truth of Scripture.

From global conflict to cultural confusion, nothing is off-limits and nothing is without biblical clarity. This isn't about fear. It's about understanding. It's about seeing the times we’re living in through God’s word, not just the news cycle. Each episode equips you with truth, perspective, and confidence in what God has already declared. So, instead of reacting to the world, you can respond with wisdom and faith.

Watch the latest episode of *Happening Now* at jackhibbs.com. And don't forget, there’s a whole library of previous episodes you can watch at any time. That’s all at jackhibbs.com because when you understand the times, you can stand firm in the truth. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series called *Disciplines of Life* with a message titled *Disciplines of Delight*.

Sure, we can look around and it may seem like non-Christians are happy, healthy, and wealthy to some degree, but the truth is if we learn to find joy in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, we really are truly blessed. Is this suffering and difficulty accomplished in our lives what nothing else can? And the delight comes when we find out who we really are in Christ. Our true existence and meaning comes from the Lord.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches that at the moment of conversion, we’re given a new heart spiritually. This results in a new attitude and through Christ, we’re able to have and enjoy what others in the world strive to achieve. Now with his message called *Disciplines of Delight*, here’s Pastor and Bible Teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: The Bible says that Moses chose to be with his people rather than the riches of Egypt that were there for just a little while. God’s people are still today—where's Egypt? Israel exists. Where's the Egyptian empire? Where are the Pharaohs? I know where Moses is, though. So you think about Moses, how God finishes his promise. Has God given you a promise? He will finish it.

What about King David? This guy’s amazing to me. By the way, of all people of antiquity, all people of antiquity, there is no more of a man written about, found of course in the Bible, than King David. And such in-depth things of his life. Called to be a king at an early age, gifted and favored by God. Listen, my friends, David, did he not delight in the Lord? I don’t know when's the last time you read the Psalms, but you ought to read them again.

I tell you what, are you feeling down? Read the Psalms. Are you feeling up? Read the Psalms. Are you just kind of like... read the Psalms. It is the book of God governing emotions and the man’s life. In the midst of all of his hardships, listen, he delighted in the Lord and you’re going to see David in heaven. In fact, somebody asked me this question. It's a great question. During the Millennium, the Lord reigns, but there’s the prince of the Lord also.

You ever read that in Ezekiel? The prince of the Lord? That’s going to be David. Did you know that? Does God not keep his promises? Taking him from the backwoods of Israel and Judah all the way through to the day when he’ll fulfill the written word of God where it says that the Lord will reign in Jerusalem and he will establish his prince with him, David, for a thousand years. And then what about Daniel?

I mean we could go on all night because you could talk about Jonah, you could talk about Noah. Daniel was amazing. Just a kid, 13, 14 years old. Nebuchadnezzar, then general of his father’s forces. I believe it’s Nabopolassar was his dad. Nebuchadnezzar was the general, and while he sacked Jerusalem, he’s taken Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—but you know them as Shadrach, Meshach, what’s their other name? Abednego. I know them by their Hebrew names. Sorry, you bunch of pagan worshipers. I’m kidding.

And takes them all the way to Babylon and God preserves Daniel’s life all the way through and outlives them all and is able to know secrets of heaven. It’s pretty amazing. And then third, and we’ll end with this, the discipline of delight is this: that our delight in him results in a new attitude of mind. This is important for us right now. A new attitude of mind. In Philippians 4:13, the next verse, it says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Okay, now you got to stop for a second. How many of you have been Christians for any... anybody been Christian for like three years or under? You’re new. Raise your hand. It’s okay. Okay. I figure like three years, you’re a Christian three years old, three years as a believer, you’re still learning a lot of stuff and Bible and this and how do I do this and what... okay. When you hear this verse, let’s admit this.

If you don’t know the power of God at work in your life and you have not spent time to delight in him to see him to that point where you’re saying, "Lord, okay now, take me." If you haven’t gotten there yet, and by the way, you can do that tonight. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t get stripes and say, "Okay, now you can." Tonight say, "Lord, I surrender." If you haven’t seen him work, when you read a verse like this, it sounds like something you’d read out of a Tony Robbins motivational brochure.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." You know the little train, what’s his face, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." Thomas. Without God, that’s a goofy verse. "I can do all things." It sounds arrogant. "Excuse me, will you move over? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It’s like, who are you? This is the great thing. We are nobodies, but with him, we’re his child, we’re his kids.

And the Lord’s in us and he’s working in our lives. So now all of a sudden, when I think about delight in the Lord, what do I find out? It results in a new attitude of mind. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." This is a fantastic verse because as I walk, live, breathe, live with him in this life, the things of my life around my life, situations, choices, decisions, if I’m walking in a way where I’m including him on everything—Lord, what do I do?

Lord, what do you want? Do I go left, do I go right? You know Charles Stanley wrote a book, it’s called *The Presence of God* or *Practicing the Presence of God*. That’s a great discipline. Okay, Lord. You get a new project at work and it gets handed to you. You ought to dedicate it to God. Take it, take that work order, go to the bathroom. Well, I don’t know where you’re going to go at work.

You can’t do it at your office, maybe you can, I don’t know. Go to the bathroom. I don’t think anybody’s going to follow you in the bathroom. Go in there and say, "Lord, I dedicate this to you. This project, give me a good team. And Lord, bless it, Father. Glorify your son in this. And Lord, just may it be obvious to the world around me that one of your kids has had jurisdiction over this project and that I can glorify you in it."

And you give it to him. I mean that, I’m dead serious about that. That changes your complete attitude when you delight yourself in the Lord. In the most difficult situations of life, if you tonight say, "I’m going to delight myself in the Lord." If you don’t, you’re going to get depressed. You’re going to get down. You’re going to get weary. And when that kind of stuff goes on, where do you go in your mind?

Most people when they get like that, they go internal. That’s bad. When we go inside, we just clam up and it’s not good. No, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It’s through Christ that Paul is able here in the book of Philippians to have a life that he actually enjoys. He’s living for other people. And he says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and I thought about this and isn't that what the world is after tonight, you guys?

You can do everything. You can do it. You can do it. Just put your mind to it. Say you can do it, right? Everything the world says and everything that the world wants to achieve, they fall short in. And then the Bible comes along and says you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. What does that mean? I don’t know, but it’s big. It’s really something. Only in and through Jesus Christ is it possible to achieve the stuff that the world is flirting with.

They’ll never get it, but you can have it. It’s human nature to want to go to explore, think about that, to go see what’s on the other side. It’s human nature. It’s what God put in us. But isn't it amazing that the greatest expedition of all life and time is to know the Lord? And the world is pursuing everything that the Lord can give but they don’t go to him. I want this, I want that. Why don’t you get him and delight yourself in him and watch what he does regarding the desires of your heart?

Meaning whatever your heart begins to want has been placed there by God. Listen up, we’re almost done. This is the key to success. What is it? Yes, this is it. Delight yourself in the Lord. He begins to inject in your heart the things that he wants you to be excited about. Here’s the funny thing. You say, "Well, what if I don’t want that thing?" That’s the miracle about it. He, as you delight yourself in him, he begins to inject things into your heart that he wants you to do.

And those are the things that you can’t wait to do. So like, let’s say you don’t want to... "I don’t want to go to whatever, Fillmore. I don’t want to go to Las Vegas. I don’t want to go to Nevada. I don’t want to go to Detroit. I don’t want to go to Philly. Oh God, don’t call me to Las Vegas." If God wants you to go to Las Vegas, he won’t tell you, "I’m sending you to Vegas!" He won’t do that to you like that. You know what he’ll do?

As you say, "Lord, I love you and you’re awesome God," and you pursue him, guess what happens? Las Vegas. Hmm, stupid place. Las Vegas. Wonder what’s going on there right now. Anyway, Las Vegas. You know what happens? You start getting a burden for Las Vegas. And then you have to go. And you drive down some street and you see people and your heart starts to weep for them.

And then you start getting so excited about Vegas that when you come back and you’ve been praying and you tell your friends, "I think I’m going to Vegas to be a missionary." Your friends are going to say, "Are you nuts?" To them you’re nuts. But what happened is God, as you delighted in him, the very thing you thought you would reject winds up becoming the desire of your heart and wild horses couldn't keep you away from Vegas to be a missionary.

Ezekiel 36:26 says, "I will give you, listen, a new heart and a new spirit within you." That’s about the heart. But we’re talking about the attitude and the mind. Did you know that the moment you accepted Christ, you got a brand new heart? What is that? You got a brand new seat of emotion as a believer. Brand new. Our hearts were desperately wicked. God gives us a new heart. At the moment of conversion.

That’s not true about your mind. Kind of a bummer, huh? But God in his infinite wisdom knows all things. We didn’t get a new mind. I want a new mind! Give me a new mind! God says, "Nope. You got a new heart, but you don’t get a new mind. You have to renew your mind." And that’s why we’re here tonight. Like this. You have to scrub your mind. I remember years ago Raul Ries saying, "You have to be brainwashed!"

And I said, "What did he say?" He said, "You have to be brainwashed in your head!" And he’s right. You need a brainwashing. "Oh, you Christians, you’re brainwashed." I hope! We need a mind change. It affects our attitude. That’s renewed day by day. The Bible tells us in Romans 12:1, "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice."

Okay, anybody tells you to put bombs on you and blow yourself up for God doesn’t know Romans 12:1. God doesn’t want you dead. He wants you living for him. Holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing... the word is renovation... your mind. That you may prove, listen, that you may prove, discern, recognize, what that good and acceptable and perfect will of God is for your life.

Wow. Delighting in God will absolutely change your attitude. Do you suffer depression? Delight in the Lord. King David said... it’s so cute, man... I think it’s Psalm 42. Don’t quote me on that, I’m going from memory and I’m not responsible for that anymore at my age. David, David goes like this. He says, "Why so downcast, oh my soul?" Isn't that great? "What’s wrong with you?"

He talks to himself. "Why are you so discouraged, soul? What’s...?" And he begins to talk to himself and he begins to build himself up in the Lord. We ought to do that sometimes. "Hey, put your eyes on the Lord, will you? Now get out there and be a man for Jesus. All right, let’s go." Probably wouldn't go over big. But David strengthened himself in the Lord like that. We need to do that.

And so what does this discipline of delight look like in our lives? Number one: a deep and deepening trust in the Lord in difficult times. Church, we have to have difficult times. Listen, it’s going to get tough, it has to get tough. Every life has its tough times. Why? So we can delight in him. You guys, if there was no tough times, then there is no call to delight in him.

You know, like the Bible says, "Wives submit to your husbands." You know why it says that? Because the Bible knows already that it’s going to be tough for you to do that. That’s why the Bible says it. If it wasn't tough, it wouldn't even say it. Why does the Bible say, "Husbands love your wives"? Why does it say that? Because husbands don’t normally have a tendency to love their wives. They have a tendency to what, "Where's mine? Is that all I get?"

We’re commanded to love our wives because man is kind of weird that way. And then the wife is like, "Why should I submit to this thing here? Why should I do this?" And the Lord says, "Listen, here’s the deal. Listen, you love her the way she needs to be loved and you submit to him and both that becomes your ministry." Some of you young people are thinking, "I thought God brought us together to be happy."

Where's it say that in the Bible? It’s to be holy. It’s to have a ministry. And so the man turns and says, "Man, I got to work on loving her. I got to know, I got to figure this out. I have to listen and I have to figure this out." And she’s like going, "Lord help me to submit." That’s life. It’s there because it’s not normal. When the Bible says delight in the Lord, why? It’s not normal. We need him and it’s going to deepen our trust in him in hard times.

Secondly, a real expectation to see God do something with your life is why we want to delight in him. Oh God, I want you to use my life radically! Start praying radical prayers. Write this verse down if you care. Daniel 11:32. Daniel 11:32: "And those who know their God shall carry out great exploits." Third: a reckless abandonment of your plans and desires to God. Just forget it. God, I give you me.

And so Paul comes and he says in another place, "In myself, there’s no sufficiency whatsoever, but my sufficiency is of Christ." Sufficiency, my absolute confirmation of fullness. Wow. So what does that mean? How do we leave here tonight? Say, "Lord, I’m choosing now," and agree with me if that’s you tonight, "Lord, I’m choosing right now to delight myself in you." For all of us, no matter what your age might be.

You say, "Lord, I am now committing more of myself to you. Lord, tonight I surrender." Maybe tonight you’re living a life that this is absolutely foreign to you and you’re not even sure if you know Jesus Christ personally. Let’s pray. Let’s wrap this up, but not without opportunity for you. If you know the Lord, then just be talking to him now. If you don’t know Jesus or you’re not sure, please believe me when I tell you: every Christian is to know, says the Bible.

You are to be certain that you know your dad in heaven. How can you be his kid and not know that you belong to him? That’s impossible. If you don’t know that you belong to him, it’s probably because you’re not one of his kids yet. So let’s pray right now and just fix that tonight. Father, we come to you this evening and Lord, we ask in Jesus' name that by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, as the storm clouds of culture are forming, Lord, as lightning is on the horizon of our society coming undone and the world’s gone mad without you, Lord.

And then there’s your people. We ask you, Father God, that you’d multiply and magnify your presence in our lives. And while we pray that, we also pray right now that if you’re not a Christian tonight, you’re not sure, you want to be sure tonight, while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I’m going to ask you tonight that if you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from the grave as the Bible says.

The Bible says he’s God come to earth in human form to die for us as our sacrifice so that you can inherit heaven through him and him alone. If tonight you can say to him, "Lord, I have sinned. I’ve had lustful thoughts or angry thoughts. I’ve been selfish or irritable or I’ve committed this crime or the other thing," doesn’t matter. Can you tell him that? Because it’s true.

If that’s you tonight, while I’m looking across this sanctuary, everybody who Jesus called, he called publicly and I’m doing that right now. If that’s you tonight, will you just put your hand up wherever you’re at? God bless you. Anyone else? You? You? Father, for these who have raised their hands, two of you in the back, God bless you. Right here as well. Awesome. Over here. Somebody get in that, huh?

Thank you, Lord. For those of you who raised your hands, just tell him this right now. Lord, I come to you now in Jesus' name. I’m at my end. I’m asking you to change my life. I’m surrendering. I’m quitting tonight. I’m handing you the controls of my life. Jesus, I believe that you died and rose again and I’m calling you to be my Lord now. Take the absolute control of my life. I surrender to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called *Disciplines of Delight*. Thanks for listening today, we sure appreciate you being here. 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.

So as you heard from our broadcast, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you’d like to know what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life personally, we would love to help you out with that. Go to jackhibbs.com/knowgod. That’s K-N-O-W God. And there you’ll be guided through what a commitment to Christ can mean in your life and the freedom that you’ll find in knowing God. Don’t miss out. That’s the Know God tab at jackhibbs.com.

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. *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.