Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Do you understand that God says, "I don't want you altered at all. I want you, God says, I want you to feel everything in life, every incredible thing, and every bump in the road."

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: 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.

David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues in his series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled Disciplines of Desire. You know, when a person is filled with Christ, our Christianity is filled with enthusiasm, passion, and zeal that's divinely placed within us.

You see, just as children love the brilliance of life, Christians would be colorless without the desires of the heart that are rooted and grounded in God's love. Desire is that internal drive that influences our will and causes us to take action.

So today Pastor Jack teaches that desire is just part of being human, but there are many types of desire. Some are godly and some are quite ugly. So the discipline of desire is to take control of those desires and to choose the ones that reflect God's glory. Now with his message called Disciplines of Desire, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: So I want you to mark these verses down as we get into this. Keep this in mind. The Bible says in Romans 15:3, "For even Christ did not please himself." That's an awesome statement. Romans 15:3, "Even Christ did not please himself." Do you know what the radical statement of that? It implies, listen, because Jesus was 100% God, 100% man. He was the God-man, the one and only.

It implies that Jesus, who was tempted in all points the Bible says like us, yet without sin. There were times in Jesus' life—I'll give you an example—when he was hungry, hadn't eaten for 40 days and 40 nights, and Satan came and said—by the way, Satan will always come in your moment of desperation.

He'll wait. He'll wait and wait and wait. He's got a lot of time. And he doesn't sleep. Think of that when you go to bed tonight. You're out in la-la land and Satan's fixing up some plan. That's why we need the Lord all the time. And so he's thinking something up and your life gets sideways, maybe you lost your job or whatever. Satan will wait. He'll wait until it comes to the faith hour, whenever that is. Could be a day, could be a month, could be a minute, could be a year.

You're low on money, you're low on friends, you look around and you feel completely abandoned, and then here he comes, comes slithering on in and says, "Hey, how's it going, Steve? Turn these stones into bread and everything will be fine." Satan wants to play off of desire, and yet God uses desire.

Point number one, mark it down: Identifying what a desire is. Identify it. Here in Psalm 27:3 and 4, it says, "Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear." Why does David put that down? Why did God inspire David to say that? "If an army is circled around me, my heart shall not fear." Why? Because our desire is to normally fear. There's some sort of strange compensation to us if we fear.

When we're surrounded by the enemy, the natural propensity is to fear. There's some sort of emotional delusion to that. In fact, listen everybody, this is not going to be a popular thing to say, but people come here to hear unpopular things anyway. To acquiesce or to surrender or to appease is exactly the opposite of what David is saying right here. "Though an army may encamp against me, I'm not going to fear."

When an army begins to encompass around people, listen, ask Europe. They fell once, maybe twice to the doctrine of appeasement, and it leads to death and mayhem, and it led to Adolf Hitler trying to take over the world with a doctrine of appeasement. Satan will never do a deal with you. David says, "No way." The enemy's circling around. From his perspective, he was one man who led a nation.

He was the greatest commando that the world has ever known, and king, and leader, and musician, and songwriter, and lover of God, and shepherd. Where do we stop? This guy. And David says, "I tell you what, when I'm surrounded, I'm not going to fear." He went around like this. He saw every... "Oh, looks like I'm surrounded." And knowing David a little bit, David probably said, "Hey, God, look at these poor guys! You've got them all surrounded!" You can't stop somebody who thinks like that.

Identifying what a desire is. There's an army of innumerable evils that come against the Christian life, and identifying what a desire is doesn't take brain surgery, but knowing what to do with that desire is another thing, Christian. This is where most of us fall into trouble right now is not knowing what to do with the desire, either good desire or an aberrant or wrong desire. David says, "I'm not going to fear."

1 John 4:17, jot it down. This is great. All of us need to hear this. Every one of us need to hear this. If you get a phone call, if you see a person, if you look at the newspaper, you're going to be tempted. Then take this verse. Maybe we ought to make them up on little stickers and slap it all over stuff. Does that thing scare you? Put a sticker on it. Put this sticker on it.

1 John 4:17 and 18 says, "Love has been perfected among us"—it means made known. We have seen it. "That we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love." Listen to all these things that have to do with desire and emotion. "There's no fear in love, but perfect love," that is complete love, knowing it, knowing the love of God for your life, "cast out fear because fear involves torment."

Everybody hear that? Fear involves torment. Are you tormented? Then fear is getting the upper hand in your life. "But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." That is, if you're terrified, timid, and fearful, you're not wrapped up—I should say, you don't understand how well wrapped up you are in the love of God. You're wrapped up, you just don't realize you're wrapped up.

A beautiful young man in this church last Sunday came up to me, such a sweet guy, love this guy, and he said, "You know what, Pastor Jack, I feel like my walk is going by me because I'm afraid. I'm afraid to step out and fail. I'm afraid to sign up. You said sign up, and I want to sign up, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm afraid I'm going to fail."

I said, "First of all, you've heard me say it a thousand times, I'd rather have you get an A for trying than an F for sitting around. You stand before God in the end and God will give you an A for... 'What if I signed up and it wasn't the ministry I was supposed to be involved in?' Then you'll get an A for trying. But if you sit out life, you'll get an F for just sitting around. That's ridiculous. You're burying your talent in the ground."

And he said, "Man, I want to do stuff, I want to do something." Then I think about my inadequacies. I said, "Brother, join the club. Knowing that God loves you will remove the fear from that situation or from that person." Are you being intimidated by somebody? I tell you what, this may sound corny. I don't care how it sounds, actually, to you. I know this works. You ready? You can write it down. It's free. It's not even in my notes tonight.

Listen to this. If somebody starts picking on me, you know what I do? I just say, "Lord, someone's picking... I don't feel good about this, and someone's picking on me. Lord, you deal with them." I'm serious. I got a letter from some lady two weeks ago. She read me up one side and down the other. And you know it's going to be a great letter when they say, "I just want you to know just how much I enjoy and love and..." that's just the butter part... before... and then you read it.

And then thank God she completely made me feel great at the end because she said, "You need to be more like," and she said the name and I said, "What? More like that person? Hallelujah, Lord, now I know exactly where they're coming from. This person just landed from Mars! The ship is probably somewhere near the property! There's burn marks out on the ground! There's crop circles! It was amazing!"

But when you get picked on, listen, somebody picking on you? The desire is: Take them out! The desire is to panic. The desire is to be sad. The desire is to get down. How about this desire: "Lord, your kid's getting picked on down here, and you promised me, Lord, you said no weapon formed against me will prosper."

You may or may not like this, but I was signing some stuff for a soldier heading off to battle tonight. And he's going to go deal with the bad guys. And I wrote in there that just as tonight sending these young men off, I wrote in there that they're enemies of freedom and there's enemies of liberty and it's always been that way. And you're my hero, and you're America's hero.

And I said, "Now get up and get out there and you get the bad guys and make them pay." And then I put Exodus 15:3. I think it's verse three. Exodus 15:3, if it's not, it's four. And in Exodus 15, it says, "The Lord, he is a warrior, the Lord is his name." Now you think about that for a moment. You say, "Jack, wow, I mean, that's like wow!" Amen, yeah, wow! He's the God of the whole earth.

You and I have the incredible liberty to be here happy and safe and free tonight while others pay the price. And we're grateful for that. But there are many types of desire. There's ugly desires, there's neutral desires, there's godly desires. What an ugly desire might be is the things like what I can't talk about in church would be an ugly desire. The things that shouldn't be talked about no matter where I'm at is an ugly desire.

Things that offend God are ugly desires. You ever think about that? You need to mark that down. Things that offend God. Why do I say that? Why do I want you to underline that in your notes? Things that offend God. What's an ugly desire? Things that offend God. Now, here's an amazing thing. For you, you need to find out what that is in your life.

Because God will say things... Now watch this. Honestly, God himself is offended by nothing because he's holy and pure and he can't be tainted. When we talk about God being offended, it's because we're the ones that offend him, and he's the one that is hurt by our offense and what we do to our lives. He's holy. Your sin, my sin will not make him have a tarnish on his holiness. That's impossible. What he's grieved about is when your sin and my sin mess up our relationship that we have with him. That breaks his heart. He loves us kids that much.

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 things that are ugly and hurtful in the sense of desire are usually things that are obvious or dangerous. Listen to this, sometimes too common. That's why in Christian communities there'll be a Christian who has this standard regarding their personal lifestyle, and then there's a Christian on the other side of the room that is allowing all kinds of things in their lives. And what's going on? Number one, on this human plane, we ought not to stumble one another.

For example, I got this at William and Mary, for reals. It's in Williamsburg. Somebody last service said, "You're wearing a t-shirt?" Yeah, it is a t-shirt. But I see where they're coming from because I'm sensitive to this message. The t-shirt might be offensive to them because I'm here teaching the Bible. It's possible. Next week I could come out in a three-piece suit. Ain't going to happen, but I'm just saying, and some will be pleased and some will be offended because they'll feel like somehow I'm better than they are, I don't know what.

Here's the thing. When we talk about desire, we better make sure that we're right with God on something. When we talk about desire, my desire better not run over your heart. You see what I'm saying? "Well, I have the liberty, brother." Your liberty better not stumble me. And this is where as a young Christian America today makes a grave mistake because they judge themselves among themselves, when in reality the Lord is speaking to your heart, young person.

And this is a big deal. This is big stuff. Watch this. Galatians 5:19. This is still in the Bible. At least it is now. I'm sure there'll be legislation in California to have it removed soon. But in Galatians 5:19, it says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident." I love that when the Bible says that. "Now the works of the flesh are evident." So out in your face that any bonehead can figure it out. That's what the word "evident" means. Ain't nobody going to miss this.

What's the work of the flesh? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness. That's not washing behind your ear. Okay? That's naughty stuff. Lewdness, that's making fun of naughty stuff. Idolatry, "I can't live without those curtains!" Sorcery—weird word in English. It's pharmakeia in Greek. You know what that means: hallucinogenic drugs. Contentions, you always got to pick a fight with someone. What's wrong with you?

Jealousies. That's sad. Outbursts of wrath, out-of-control temper. Selfish ambitions, always scheming to run the next guy over so you can get to the top. Dissensions, dividing people up, whispering, saying things, splitting people up, like click creators. God says, "I hate that stuff." Heresies, saying false things about God. Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries—that's parties, partying, living to party. Party! Paul says "and the like." If there's anything I've missed, it's all that stuff.

That any person with an evident concept can figure out. He says, "Of which I tell you before, just as I told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Why? Because they don't belong to God. Now watch this. Are you guys listening to me? Now watch. Can a Christian go get drunk? I hear yes and I hear no. Of course a Christian can get drunk. Of course they can.

But is it right for them to get drunk? Is it a smart thing to do for them to get drunk? A Christian can actually go to a liquor store, they can drive a car or ride their bike. They can go, they can get out, and they can buy alcohol and they can drink and get drunk. Are they going to get in trouble for doing it? Maybe. No, they will. "Well, what if nobody catches them?" God already caught them.

Now look, if a Christian goes and gets drunk, it doesn't mean that they're going to hell based upon Galatians 5. It means that they were stupid, they stumbled probably other people, they've blown their witness to the liquor store man, forget about leading him to Christ. And then you've got to throw away your beer bottles, so forget about witnessing to the trash man. And you know it's wrong when your friend knocks on the door and you go, "Put the bottles away! Put the bottles away!"

So how can you say that you're governing yourself and walking with God when you won't even, can't even do that thing and have Jesus sit down with you? Whatever you and I do as believers, we know it's wrong when we can't have Jesus sit down with us. Now hang on, I'm going somewhere with this.

Can a Christian go to a movie? Of course they can go to a movie. They can buy a ticket, it's America, you can do anything you want unless you're a Christian, but you can do anything you want. Of course a Christian can go to a movie. Now no one's going to say, "Excuse me, excuse me"—although I've had people do this to me—"Pastor Jack, is that you?"

But no one's going to say, "Hey, don't you go to first service? What are you doing here?" "Well, what service do you go to?" The point being, you can go to a movie, but, and this is my personal thing: What are you doing for three hours that's a good investment? It cost you ten bucks to blow your time. And what's in the movie? Can a Christian go to a movie? Yeah. Should you go? I guess it depends on the movie. Toy Story is awesome! It rocks!

But think about that for a minute. You say, "Well, I have the liberty to go do anything I want." Okay, yeah, you're right. Saint Augustine said, "I can live any life I choose to live as a Christian, but I choose to live for Christ." Billy Graham said, "I can do anything I want now that I'm a Christian, but what I want to do is to walk with Christ." Think of that.

You don't use your liberty as a tool to fulfill your desires. There's some desires that need to be brought under control, some even crucified. I had somebody ask me this question just recently: "Can a Christian smoke pot?" Of course a Christian can smoke pot. Are you going to get arrested? Are you going to blow your brain up? "Well, you know, I feel like..." True, I'm not joking. Didn't we all hear this in the sixties? "I feel like I'm closer to God when I..." I'm not kidding you.

Do you understand that God says, "I don't want you altered at all. I want you to feel everything in life, every incredible thing, and every bump in the road." He's God, and he's taking us through all those things. And I got news for you. I read just the other day in Pilgrim's Progress, it was a great statement in that. John Bunyan said, "You know what? On a stormy day is when the rain comes, and everybody likes to drink water, everybody likes to have water, right? But water only comes on a stormy day. Nobody gets any water when the sun's shining."

And that's a great view, isn't it? Storms are good. Bumps are good. But this stuff about, "Can I? Should I? Could I?" Listen, the Bible makes it very clear: you and I as Christians are to be living for other people. And as I said before, can you sit down with Jesus and do that thing? And that's the mark of a believer. The Holy Spirit will say to you, "Excuse me, I'm not doing this." Doesn't he say that?

And if you don't hear that voice, then you need to come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior right now because he loves you so much he's not going to share you with the world. You're his. He's holding your hand. Anybody get near you and he's going to take them out. You are a member of the body of the bride of Christ. He's awesome.

The Bible says in Philippians 4:8, "What's a beautiful desire? What's a good desire?" Things like this, things that cause me or want me to get closer to Jesus. That's good. To find out what he wants for my life. That's good. That's a great desire. Another great desire is to walk with God for the rest of your life. Great desire.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called Disciplines of Desire. We appreciate you being here 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 Christian and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Guest (Male): What do you do when heaven feels silent? When you've prayed, believed, and still nothing changes? When it feels like God isn't answering? This May, Pastor Jack Hibbs' featured resource is Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? by Irwin Lutzer.

It's a powerful biblical look at the questions we all wrestle with, offering real hope in the middle of disappointment and reminding us that God is still at work even when we can't see it. Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? by Dr. Irwin Lutzer is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/RealRadio.

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. 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.