Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Listen my friends, cheer up. I don't get to carry your cross and you don't get to carry my cross. It's a custom cross. Some of our crosses are pinstriped and some of them are on fire. He'll never give you something you cannot bear.

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.

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David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now in his new series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled Disciplines of Discipleship: How we should be living in the world matters. Discipleship takes faith, wisdom, and perseverance. You see, as Christ followers, we need to develop a lifestyle that's usable to God.

Christian discipleship is not passive, but it requires intentional spiritual discipline that deepens our relationship with God. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the disciple of Christ loves the Lord and makes Him their supreme pursuit in life.

If our love for Him is first and passionate, it will enable us to love, care for, and provide for others, even if it costs and even in the face of hardships. Now, with his message called Disciplines of Discipleship, here's Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Discipleship is the purest form of worship. Second Samuel 24:24 says, "I will not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord," David said, "my God, with that which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. That's a lot of money. David said, "I am not going to worship God without a cost in my life."

Discipleship requires costs. Exodus 20, verse 3, listen to this. Exodus 20, verse 3, the divine priority of discipleship. God says in the Ten Commandments, the first one is, "You shall have no other gods before me." Wow. So mark this down. Discipleship requires a cost, and that requires us finding our heart's treasure.

This tonight causes you and I to have to look inside of ourselves. This is very clinical tonight. Do you claim to be a Christian? If inside your mind and heart you say yes, then follow that through all the way. If you say you're a Christian, is there evidence of you being a disciple? Are you following Him?

You've read the Gospels. The disciples followed Him. Was it always easy for them to follow Him? No. In fact, most of the time it appears they were making mistakes most of the time or misunderstanding Him. Is that not where you and I are at right now in our walks with Him?

Please don't think for a moment that God is only working in the lives of supersaints, which don't exist. We have this tendency to look at all these other people and think, if our hearts are tender, we think everyone's just doing so much better than me. I am the bonehead in the body of Christ.

And then, if you're a legalist, unsaved religionist, you say things like this: "Boy, it's too bad all these people around here are not like me." Do you see the opposite ends of the spectrum? What's in your heart? Matthew 6:19. Matthew 6:19. Jesus says, "Don't store up treasures on earth where they can be eaten by moths or get rusty and where thieves break in and steal."

"Store your treasures in heaven where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherefore," He says, "your treasure is, and wherever that is, there your heart and your thoughts will be also." That's a great statement. That's out of the New Living Translation. That's why you didn't recognize it so easily. I like the end of that. Wherever the treasure is in your heart, whatever it is, that is where your thoughts are going to be.

So listen, what occupies your thoughts more than anything else in any given day? Now, some of you, and I used to be very, almost convicted sick regarding this challenge. That's why I'm sharing it tonight. The job that I came from, the career that I had, you couldn't mess up. I mean, I messed up once, and I cost the company $17,000 in a minute.

It was terrifying. And so you're so focused, you know what I'm talking about? You're so focused on what you're doing and you're not even—there's nothing else in your mind. And I remember when it was done, like, okay, it's done. Wow. Next thought: Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I'm a Christian. Hallelujah. Thank you, God.

Do you know what I'm talking about, or am I just nuts? You get so caught up in what you're doing, and then when you break away, it's like, oh yes, I belong—I belong to God. It's like fresh air again. It's wonderful. Treasures. In Luke 14:33, Jesus says, "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple." Wow.

You say, "Jack, does that mean I should give stuff away?" That's not what he said. You are to have nothing attached to your heart but Him. Now, if you cannot own that skateboard without worshipping the thing, then you need to get rid of it. If you have lost your identity because somebody stole your what, then that was an idol.

You know, I don't need to get into this, but go study later all about Abraham and Isaac. Why—ask yourself, go find out—why did God have to take Abraham to Mount Moriah regarding Isaac? I'm not going to tell you; you have to go find that out. There was something wrong going on there. Abraham saw Isaac, his son, too big, too much, too dear.

How do you know, Pastor? Because I read the book. It says, when God spares Isaac's life there on the altar, God says, "Now, Abraham, I know that you love me and you will not withhold anything from me." Do you see? Is there somebody in your life that's an idol and they're between you and God?

Did somebody say to you, "I can't live without you"? That's not the person to marry. "You mean everything to me." And you want me to marry you? You want somebody to say, "Listen, I love God first, I love God the most, I love you too, and I'm going to follow Him if you're coming or not." That, hey, listen, young man, young lady, that's the person that you want to pray more about getting married to, you know?

But if somebody says, "I can't live without you! I need you in my life!" Get out of there. That's an idol. You're an idol. Not good. Things that can destroy us. Philippians 3:7. "But what things were gain to me," says Paul. He is the absolute disciple. "What things were gain to me," he says, "these I have counted loss for Christ. I don't care about them."

"Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ." I did a search today. Watch this. Was Moses awesome? He was awesome. But did Moses get in arguments with God? Yes. Funny arguments, even.

Peter, how about Peter? Did Peter love God? Of course he did. Did Peter get in arguments with Jesus? Yes. Then comes Paul. Paul blows my mind. I can't find one argument in the Bible where Paul takes God on. Paul—and let me tell you, I'm going somewhere with this. You say, "Jack, come on, he was Jewish before, a Pharisee who was killing Christians." Yeah, before he got converted, that's right.

He sanctioned murder of Christians. And he even says, "I did it out of the goodness of my heart." He said, "I thought I was doing God a favor there getting rid of these bonehead Christians." Then he got converted. For him to have been a Pharisee, you guys, he was an extremely disciplined man.

When he decides to follow Jesus, Paul never looks back. He didn't care about the world. He said, "I'll lose it all." And that's a powerful thing to keep in mind. Point number three, we'll end with this one: The disciplines of discipleship require a cross. You're not going to hear this in church anymore.

You're going to be a disciple of Jesus? You have to have a cross. I'm not talking about the one around your neck. I'm talking about the one that you're on. You say, "I'm not on a cross." Well, you better hurry up and find one and get on it quick. "What do you mean?" This is what I mean.

In Luke 9:23, Jesus says, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me." And as I thought about that word "daily," I looked it up and it means literally a 24-hour day, hour by hour. Daily. Something that is an absolute routine.

Jesus said that the believer takes up the cross; it's the routine of his life, it's the routine of her life. It's in the face of hardships. Listen, church, those things that cause you and I to flare up or to judge or to be angry or to say, "Man, that drives me crazy!" We're supposed to stop and say, "Wait, am I actually refusing the opportunity to embrace this cross?"

That's why, listen, marriage is so hard and so rewarding. It's so strange and so fulfilling. At times your emotions say, "This is wrong!" And then your will says, "No, this is life." Did you know it's the closest thing you can find on earth with our relationship with God is being married? Our God invented marriage.

And I don't know what people think today. "Let's get married! Why? We could have sex all the time!" Wow. Bills come. Husband throws up in the carpet. Wife gets laid off. The lawn is—you know what I'm saying? "What? What?" Marriage is a ministry and it's hard. But if you get on the road and determine to make it happen, guess what?

There's a reason why the Bible says that the pastor of a church needs to be the husband of one wife, have his kids under order, for how will he know how to govern the church if he doesn't govern his family? Think of that. That's powerful. That was not in my notes; I thought I'd give that to you freely there.

But I thought about this: I daily take my one-a-day vitamin daily. I daily drink water, I daily eat. And you know what? I daily pray, I daily read my Bible, I daily ask God to forgive me of my sins. Well, daily also add those things that are driving you and I crazy. What is it?

And then those words come into my mind of encouragement: "Pastor Jack, you're going to stand up and you're going to do this," as the General was telling me, "and you're going to stand firm and you're going to—and I'm going to—I'm going to call you tomorrow. And I'm going to see how you're doing." Isn't that awesome? It's like, okay!

By the way, we need—we need one another in our lives just like that. You guys better start getting along or hugging or whatever you need to do with one another. You're going to be with each other in heaven forever, so get used to it now. Discipleship requires a cross.

We'll quickly look at this and then we'll end it. It's this: Walking the believer's road, church, is amazing. It's amazing. In Mark chapter 2, verse 13, walking the believer's road, it says there that then He went out again by the sea and all the multitude came to Him, that is Jesus, and He taught them.

That word is didasko in Greek, by the way; it means He taught them verse by verse. Wow. As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus. We know him. Levi Matthew, Matthew Levi, sitting at the tax office. He was just working for the Rome. He's a turncoat Jew. He's Jewish, Matthew Levi, you can't get more Jewish than that, but he's working for Rome.

He's a traitor. And he's sitting there making money. Probably got his nose down, holding out his hand. "Yep, okay, go. Next." Jesus walks by. Oh man, wouldn't you love to have seen that happen? I mean, what happened? Jesus walks by. "Come and follow me." This is a radical moment. "Come and follow me." That's all he says. "Follow me."

The word is "be my disciple." "I'll be the journeyman master, you be the apprentice student." What do you think about that, Levi? Four things he did. Remember that? Luke 9:23, when Jesus says "come after me," that means that I, you, we together must deny ourselves. Number two: Take up our own custom cross. That's the stuff that goes on in your life and mine. It's custom for us.

Listen, my friends, cheer up. I don't get to carry your cross and you don't get to carry my cross. It's a custom cross. Some of our crosses are pinstriped and some of them are on fire. He'll never give you something you cannot bear. Three, it's daily. And four, He said, "Follow me."

Galatians 6:17, Paul the Apostle, the ultimate disciple, said, "From now on, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." What a statement. You know what this is a reference to? You know the scars Jesus has on Him? This is what Paul is saying: "The scars that Jesus has on Him, because I'm walking with Him, I've got those same scars."

And Paul was scarred. Brutally beaten numerous accounts. So many stones thrown at him in one account that it killed him, and the Lord brought him back. This guy must have looked like—can you imagine what he must have looked like? We have these ministers of the Gospel coming in and it's like—in an entourage of limousines.

Paul comes walking in. Who knows what he looked like? What he had, half an ear? Cheekbone crushed by rocks and stones? His flesh ripped open because he was beaten so many times? Can you imagine if Paul walked in here right now? You'd say, "Somebody call security!" Remember what we learned a few weeks ago when the General said right here in this pulpit, "I'm going to stand before God with scars all over my body," and he's got scars all over his body.

And he said Jesus is going to look at me and say, "Jerry, those scars look good on you." And he's going to respond and say, "Lord, I got them serving you and I'm very happy about that." Come on, disciples. So what does it mean to take up the cross? First, this is what it doesn't mean: It's not the cross of salvation. That's already settled.

Can someone say, "Thank you, Jesus"? It's not the cross of salvation. But if you're going to hang out with Jesus, the cross that you will bear are the daily callings that He places upon your life to be a witness. It can be in a thousand different angles. It can be 360 degrees. It's what comes into your life.

Did the boss say this to you today? He said it to you today under the watchful eye of your Father in heaven. And He wanted you to be a disciple today so that you'd respond in a certain way that would give honor to God. That when the Lord heard your response, maybe nobody else in the office smiled, but the Lord smiled.

Maybe somebody did this to you on the freeway or whatever it might be. And that moment flared up inside you. "Why, I ought to cut that guy off!" And then you remembered, "Lord, that would not be right." Roy, did that happen to you today? Roy's going, "Man, I'm convicted over here right now. I'll see you later."

But that comes up and then the Lord says, "Now, Jack." "Yes, Lord, you're right." That's being a disciple, you guys. It's fighting thick and through, all the way. It's taking up the cross and following Him. Listen, concerning Paul the Apostle, but it also concerns us: A man who is known to carry his cross.

Listen, when called to follow Jesus, Paul did. He just got up and he did it. You guys, when asked to take the Gospel to Europe, he did. When commanded to explain to Caesar Christianity, he did. When they said, "You know what? Deny Jesus. We're going to throw you in this prison here in Rome and you're going to rot and before you're done rotting though, we're going to cut your head off."

He stayed true. It's an amazing thing to realize. We are called to be disciples and it is going to be a hard thing. And I want to tell you now: This is the 21st century, you guys, and it is quickly, rapidly in our own backyard becoming anti-Christian. If I offend you tonight and you say, "I'm going to take my toys, I'm going home," please don't do that.

You need to be ready for anything and everything. And so I'm going to ask you to commit. So here's your assignment: Come back. Notebook. Drag some unsuspecting other Christian friend with you. Why? So that when we come to the end of our services, you are released into a world that is dying.

And they need us to be disciplined—they don't even know it—so that we can give them the real deal. I'm going to ask you to remain seated right now and let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight and this is a serious thing. In my heart, specifically, goes out to the younger generation that's here tonight.

I feel so much like their dad right now because thinking if they'll just do this, their life will be blessed. But I'm not their dad. But you are their Father. And Lord, in Jesus' name, I pray right now that you would move upon this gathering of saints here and now. And Lord Jesus, that you would pour out your Spirit upon them.

Father, that you would move, and Lord, that you would galvanize us for these days. And Lord, that to be that disciple, we would begin tonight by saying, "Lord, here I am. Take control of my life. Give me a greater hunger for your Word, a greater passion for your truth."

Let's begin tonight by worshipping Him. As we worship Him now in our song, in our giving, may we approach Him with an absolute sold-out heart and soul. He is your love. He is your life. And we give unto Him our praise, our worship, and our thanks. Let's bless Him now in Jesus' name. Amen.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called Disciplines of Discipleship. 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 in a lost and broken world. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

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.

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Don't just watch the news; understand it through God's Word. Get your Prophecy Pack now for a gift of any amount at 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.