Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Teach it, that is your heart, to praise and worship. My friend, you and I have to nurture our hearts to worship. Don’t ever think the way some people think. Well, we can get to church, they’re just singing now. A born-again heart cannot think like that.

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.

Jack Hibbs: What do you do when heaven feels silent? When you've prayed, believed, even begged, and still nothing changes? When the person you love isn't healed? When the worst actually happens? When it feels like evil is winning? Where is God in all of that?

This May, Pastor Jack Hibbs’ featured resource is *Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?* by Erwin Lutzer. It's an honest biblical look at the questions most of us are afraid to say out loud. Not shallow answers, but real hope, real truth, the kind that meets you right in the middle of disappointment and points you back to God's greater purpose, even when you can't see it.

If you've ever wrestled with doubt, confusion, or silence from God, this book is for you. *Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?* is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/realradio. Get your own copy of the book of the month, *Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?* by Dr. Erwin Lutzer, at jackhibbs.com/realradio.

David J: On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called Disciplines of Life with a message titled Disciplines of Dependability. As Christians, we really have to strive towards dependability. It's a spiritual discipline that helps believers to grow into something that others can depend upon.

This discipline is all about being consistent, to trust and obey God even when it's difficult. Dependability, together with patience and humility, is what you've got to have to face life's obstacles with faith rather than giving up when things get tough. Today, Pastor Jack teaches that dependability is proven through the difficult times.

Our hearts need to be guarded through the pressures of life so that we can praise and worship the Lord, so that we can fellowship with others and meditate upon His word. Now with his message called Disciplines of Dependability, here's Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Reliability, steadfastness, that's a strong word. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 5:8 regarding the heart, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Have you ever thought about that for a minute? Think about that. This is not the study I want to give right now, but let me put this in front of you. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Want to freak out for a moment? God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. In eternity, by the way, the pure in heart, there's not going to be a section in heaven where the pure in heart sit. Did you know that? "Well, I'll be a peacemaker, I'll be over here." No, you're not. Those in heaven will have all of those things.

The true believer in their heart right now, you right here this evening, you long to be a peacemaker. You long to be pure in heart, don't you? Pure in heart, what does that mean? They shall see God. How? How are we going to see the Holy Spirit in heaven? I don't know, but we're going to. It says God, you will see God.

How are we going to see God the Father when the Bible tells us that no man can look upon Him? Because you will be glorified. You will be in your glorified state. You will be in your absolute total redeemed state. Obviously, we can really relate and associate, and so we should, with Jesus Christ. But to see the Holy Spirit, to see the Father, to see the Son, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. That is going to be an awesome moment.

When we talk about the disciplines of dependability, we're talking about something that is installed in the character of a believer. A brand-new heart's been given to us. Why do we need a new heart? Because the Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, now watch the doors, this is where people leave. Cameras, get ready. Follow them out all the way.

Nobody wants to hear this if they're deceived. But if you're honest with yourself, you'll say, "Wow, the Bible looks down into my soul." Jeremiah 17:9 says, this is God speaking, "The heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. Who can know it?" If you keep reading verse 10, God says, "I know it." God knows.

The heart's wicked, says the Bible. It's deceitful. It needs to be renewed. It needs to be changed, I should say. A new heart. That heart needs to be trained in the things of God. That's being born again, Jesus said. In Psalm 14:1, the Bible says, "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." Look up at those stars because the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God.

This morning, I was outside early, it was beautiful and it was dark, and the sky was so brilliant. You think about the heavens declare the glory of God. Sometimes when I'm looking at the heavens and you're thinking about that, it's almost as though, as the scripture says, day unto day, night unto night, and day unto day, they utter their speech.

There's no place where their voice is not heard. It means that the heavens are shouting to a world that's looking on, "God is real!" But the fool says in his heart, "No God, no God, no God." This is the very reason why, as Jesus said, we must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. We need a brand-new heart.

The moment that we come to Christ, that heart needs to be trained in the things of God. Ezekiel 36:26 says that God speaks to the believer and He says, "I will give you a new heart, and I will put my spirit within you." A brand-new life. In 2 Corinthians 5:16, the Bible says, "Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh." I quote this verse often. I love it.

We don't look at each other anymore according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Do we believe that tonight?

Listen, have you had a rough life? Has the input into your life been very bad? Have you had horrible parents or horrible grandparents, or did somebody raise you, were you raised by a pack of wolves in the wilderness? Whatever that was like, listen, you are not an animal. You have been created in the image of God. You're not an angel. You're redeemable. Angels are not.

You are God's treasure, so much so He says, "I've sent my Son to die on the cross for your sins and to not only pay the price that you and I couldn't pay for our sin, He did that, washing away that sin of yours and mine, but on top of it, giving us a brand-new start in life." All the stuff that, mark it down in your head, just think for a moment, all the stuff that we would say is against us.

Is it life? Somebody might say life's not fair. Let me tell you something, absolutely not, life's not fair. It's not supposed to be fair. Where do we get that concept? For you to say that life's not fair is for you to immediately admit that there is something better, and to assume that what's difficult must be bad.

I was talking to someone yesterday at the hospital and they said, "Well, the worst thing that can happen is," and they said what they said. I said, "But is that really the worst thing that could happen?" They said, "Yeah, actually, that's what they said." Is it really the worst thing that could happen that this person's life ends in death? Not for the believer, that's not the worst thing that can happen.

We get this concept, and let me tell you right now, we need to rejoice, God is not fair regarding salvation either. You don't want God fair regarding salvation. Fair is all the super nice good people get to go to heaven. Where's the rest of us going to go? Jesus died for the entire world. He died for the sins of all humanity at the cross, and that's an awesome thing.

The newness of life that He gives us is observable in this area of God working in you dependability. I feel like a salmon right now swimming upstream with what I'm about to say. Our culture is all but lost because somewhere along the line, our kids have been sold a bill of goods. Just get by, don't excel, don't be the star student.

Don't get happy faces, don't get straight A's, you'll make everybody else feel bad. Don't be innovative. We have been sold down the river of just getting by in life. Now we come, there's something to suffering. There is something to duty. There is something to having to be dependable. Mom, Dad, if you think having Junior at eight years of age learn how to take the trash cans out, even though the trash can's taller than him, you think that's evil because you've been sold an absolutely insane way of thinking.

Do you understand that when you're training Junior to take the trash can out, you are building in his life character? "I want you to mow the lawn." The lawnmower might be too big for him, but put him, put her, in situations where they need to sweat and learn and try and try again. We have a culture that says if it's too hard, quit.

It's wrong because it translates into life. You have a bunch of people walking around in life, they're not dependable, but they're holding their hand out saying, "Give me, give me, give me. It's mine, it's mine. I don't need to earn it. Hand it to me." And yet every great achievement in the world, for that matter in America, has been because people have put their blood, sweat, and tears.

What does that have to do with what we're talking about? Because in spiritual matters, too many young people today are brought up saying, "Whatever." When I read my Bible, I see young people pursuing, hungering, can I say, lusting after God, passionate for Him. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:57, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Stop right there. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, what does that mean? I guess we just sit around and wait for the cake to arrive? No. We are to war in the things of the spirit, right? We are to put on the armor of God. The victory's been given, thus we go to war in the things of God. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be," here's that word, "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

Are we teaching our young people today? Do our junior highers and high schoolers know that they are to be laboring in the things of God? It's hard, it's difficult, it's tough, because life is hard, difficult, and tough. Tomorrow night, we'll have a three-time gold medalist speaking to us. How do you think that happened?

Do you think they just walked up there in Greece or in Australia and handed her the gold medals and said, "Here you go, looks good on you, kind of goes with your skin tone"? No, a life was devoted to that. As believers, is eternity, is heaven, is Christ so important to us that we will absolutely be sold out for Him? It's the only way to live, and it's the only way that we're going to have life.

There is no life lived in some mediocre state. Maybe we're too old to hear this message tonight, but there might be a young person listening that might be the next person who either takes the pulpit for Billy Graham or becomes the next president. The Lord knows we need a new governor, right? Dependability is proven through difficult times in life.

2 Corinthians 1:7 says, "And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will be partakers of the consolation," that is the comfort. Heart maintenance is required daily as a Christian. We're to train our hearts up in the things of God and to understand that what I'm embarking upon is going to be difficult.

Don't raise your hand tonight, please, but are you not a Christian tonight? Your friend may have brought you here tonight, they bought you dinner maybe and brought you here. I want to be the first to tell you, being a Christian is the hardest thing in this world to be. "Oh, great, thanks, now my friend's not going to come to Christ." No, listen, you can sleep in and snooze and daydream your whole life away. Anybody can do that.

But the moment you become a Christian for real, I'm talking realzes, I'm talking a real Christian. I'm not talking about a Sunday Christian. The world's full of Sunday Christians. I'm talking about a Wednesday night Christian, and a Monday and a Tuesday. It will be hard. As a believer, it is an amazing thing to realize that what we're fighting for is truth. We are on the side of God.

We're not asking God to get on our side. Ronald Reagan said, "Don't ask God to be on our side. We better be on God's side." There's a big difference. We need to make sure that we're on God's side. In Hebrews 3:14, the Bible says, "For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."

We're Christians before we're Americans. We're Christians before we're Californians. We're Christians above all things. Because He is steadfast, we get to be steadfast. Hebrews 6:18 says, know this, that by two immutable things, God is immutable. There's no one else immutable, that is He is perfect, and in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Don't you need an anchor for your soul? I do. Both sure and steadfast, that's that word dependable, and which enters the presence behind the veil. That's Jesus. Our confidence is in Christ as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. That's our Jesus. And you and I need an anchor in the storms of life.

Okay, listen, I want you to jot this down before we move on to the next point. How do I train my heart? Isn't that what you're asking? Okay, Jack, so you say I need to have my heart trained. How do I do it? Here you go, 10 things. Write them down. There's a piece of paper right in front of the seat there.

Begin these disciplines for your life starting now. Number one, make sure that you have a heart. Make sure you have one, that is a new one. Are you born again? John chapter 3 verse 3, "Are you born again?" Jesus said you aren't going to heaven unless you're born again. The word born again in English is actually the word born from above in Greek. To be born from above.

It flies in the face of having been born of the earth. We've all been born of the earth. We are children of Adam and Eve. Jesus said to enter the kingdom of heaven, you need to be born by the Spirit, which comes from above. John chapter 3. The second thing is, do everything you can to feed it the Bible. Your heart feeds on nothing, let me rephrase, your new heart feeds on nothing but the Bible.

It doesn't have an appetite for anything else. I'm going to prove it to you right now who are born again. When your heart invests in things that are not of the Spirit, you might have fun, you might be entertained, it might be exciting. But when it's over, you know that this was of no eternal value. You know what I'm talking about? It's like going to a movie. You go to a movie, you get popcorn, you watch this stuff.

Honestly, here's the way I think, you don't want to go to a movie with me. First of all, Lisa hates to go to a movie with me because when I go to a movie, if I can figure that movie out in three minutes, in five minutes, I'm gone. I'm out of there. Money back! I try to figure out the movie, and if I can figure out a movie in three to five minutes, it's not worthy of my time.

And you eat the popcorn and all that, you've wasted three hours. Jack, calm down, back off, take a chill pill. What is the deal? But your new heart walks around thinking, "How do I redeem the time?" And so, we'll go and do something or do whatever, and is it of value? Now, just so you don't think I'm some sort of a creep, you can go to the beach and enjoy the whole day and totally be walking or laying out in the will of God.

You could be sabbathing, thinking about Him, thanking Him for the sand, thanking Him for the shore, thanking Him for the dolphins or whatever. But so often we get involved in things that don't matter eternally. So, that's important. Number three, teach it, that is your heart, to praise and worship. My friend, you and I have to nurture our hearts to worship. Don’t ever think the way some people think. Well, we can get to church, they’re just singing now.

A born-again heart cannot think like that. A born-again heart says, "I don't care what Jack says, I got to get there before the worship begins because that's my offering to Him. That's my time with Him in a corporate setting, in a convocation. That's my moment." Teach your heart to praise and worship. Do you know the difference between praise and worship?

Some people get all bent out of shape, it should only be praise or it should only be worship. No, the Bible says that we are to praise and worship. Worship is more like those times when we're singing and it's kind of melodic and it's kind of meditative, you know what I'm talking about? And then praise is more of the time where it's like, "God, you're awesome and God, you're great." Both are biblical. Both we are to do.

Number four, accept the man or woman He has made you or made you into be. Your heart needs to understand this, your new heart, your born-again heart. In fact, Esther, didn't we read about Esther today? She's going to come to the conclusion soon in our daily Bible reading that she's come to the kingdom, she's going to hear this from Mordecai, for such a time as this.

Guess what? Are you alive right now? Are you born again? Are you listening? You've been appointed right now for such a time as this by the hand of God. You understand something now. Whatever your life has been previously to this moment, if you're a Christian today, whatever hardship, difficulty in life you've had, it is to the making and building of your Christian character.

Did you have a rough this or a good that or a whatsoever? It's for your character. Accept the person who you are in Christ and get up and go. Don't look around and say, "I wish I was like her. I wish I was like him." You're not them, you're not supposed to be her. Get up and go. Here's the cool thing, are you ready for this? I've only had about three original thoughts in my entire life, and this is one of them.

It's very hard to have an original thought. I remember 30 years ago really struggling with, "God, why'd you save me?" I'm so stupid, why argue with Him? Just say thank you very much. No, I'm going to get in a debate with Him. "Why'd you save me anyway?" And the Lord instilled in my heart this because I wanted to be somebody else. "I don't want to be me." And God says, "Jack, I didn't die for your personality. I died for your sins. I made you who you are because I like you."

The sin issue, He died for the sin issue. He thinks that you know that stuff in your life that you're kind of quirky about? God thinks that's cool with you. It drives us nuts, but He likes that in you. It's absolutely amazing.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called Disciplines of Dependability. Thanks for being with us today. We really appreciate you being here. This message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Disciplines of Life. It's a series that highlights the disciplines of a Christian-follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. We'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

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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.