Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: God has put eternity in their hearts. They may go, "I don't believe it!" Inside they're going, "Man, I want to believe that." When you say Jesus died on the cross for your sins, "I'm not a sinner!" And inside they're going, "I am a huge sinner."

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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On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called Disciplines of Life, in a message titled Discipline of Discontentment. If we're always feeling unhappy or dissatisfied, that's something that the Christ-follower really has got to learn to control.

Discontentment comes when our focus is not on the right things. When we focus on what we don't have instead of what God has already given us, or compare ourselves to others, or expect life to go our way, our complaints overshadow the good things in our lives. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that true contentment comes from trusting in God's plan for our lives and by being thankful right now and not waiting until things improve. When our focus is on the Lord, discontentment loses its power. Now with his message called Discipline of Discontentment, here's Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Hebrews 13:14 says, "For here we have no continuing city." Did you know that? But we seek the one to come. Did you know Abraham went looking all around for a city whose builder and maker is God? I love that. There's no city in this world that's going to make us content. "Oh, man, I'm moving to Bel Air." Big deal. We're waiting to move to a place where they use gold for asphalt.

Can you imagine you're going to open your door in heaven? "Oh, man." Step outside, angel goes flying down the street. What do you think it's going to be like? I don't think it's going to be like some strange dream where we're wearing these robes that kind of just fade away into nothing like gas.

I don't think so. I think the Millennium, how He's going to restore the earth, I think things that you and I love—blue skies, mountains, clouds—it's going to be, Paul said, beyond what you can ask. I mean, it's beyond what mind can imagine, or eyes can see, or ears can hear. It's beyond all that. I think it's going to be amazing. It's heaven, man. It's going to be incredible. That's our city.

Psalm 16:11 says, "You will show me the path of life, and in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." How cool is that? And then Matthew 6:33, Jesus said this, this is the verse for our culture forever: "But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you." His righteousness and all things will be satisfied.

Number three: recognizing that spiritual discontentment can be bad. Spiritual discontentment can be bad. This is the most often associated, I would say, with bitter people, wounded people in heart. Listen to me, this is serious. This is a grave danger for our soul and we must regard that enemy: bitterness. Discontentment of the spirit in a negative way. Not longing for God, but either not wanting God or holding God in some lesser degree.

Remember how the Bible says that the first commandment is that you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind? That's what's required. That's why the born-again experience is necessary for heaven.

We must guard, though, our hearts against, listen, the scars of pain and hurt that come to each and every one of us. Church family, listen, just get this into your head. There will be people in your life, Christians, who will hurt you and wound you. It's going to happen. "Oh, Pastor, don't say that." It's going to happen.

Notice that I said this: guard our hearts against the scars of pain and hurts. Why? Because hurts are impossible to avoid. Some of you who live in some dream world, you're saying, "No, I'm never going to be hurt." What's Paul Simon say? "My life's an island, I'm a rock and a rock feels no pain." The only person who doesn't feel any pain is somebody who's dead.

Just understand this. If you get hurt by people—and you will, listen—you be here tonight, but if all the Christians who are at home right now sucking their thumb or licking their wounds because somebody hurt their feelings six months ago or 10 years ago, right? They're not fellowshipping with God, they're not being used by God. They're in a spiritually retarded or, you know what I mean by they're not advancing, they're going backwards.

They're in a retarded state, a suspended state of spiritual growth. Imagine if people tonight said, "You know what? I'm just going to take what all my hurts and pains and all the stuff that people have done to me, and I'm just going to leave it with God and I'm going to follow Jesus with all my heart." Do you realize there will not be enough churches in America to house all those wayward people?

And the wayward people predominantly are blaming others for their carnal situation. That will never fly with God. We've all been hurt. We've all been misrepresented. We've been attacked. We've been maligned. You name it. What are you going to do about it? Take the scars and give them to God. Let Him rub the balm of Gilead on them. He'll take care of them.

Listen, to not do that is to never grow up. And you know how birds of a feather flock together? Well, whiny spiritual wimps will flock together and they'll whine to each other. And it just never stops. I don't know about you, I do know about you, we don't have time for that.

No, think about it. We can go to people and say, "Come on, let's go." If I've wronged you, please forgive me. I'm forgiving you. Let's go. Let's go build a house for Jesus. Let's go take care of the people in Mexico. Let's go something. Let's get going. Don't let the enemy rob you and steal from you anymore. Why are you letting those people hurt you? Of course, people hurt you, but why are you letting them still have so much power over your life? I will not. You fall right into the hands of the enemy.

Bitterness, discontentment, yes, can be very bad spiritually. In Matthew 13:15, the Bible says, "For the hearts of this people," Jesus said, "have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed." Isn't that sad? It speaks about willful disobedience.

Hebrews 5:11, this is actually, if you know the Greek language here, it's actually comical. It's very funny looking. In Hebrews 5:11, it says you have become dull of hearing. The word dull means to have lard hanging out of your ears. You've stuffed your ears with lard so that you cannot hear anymore. And you see Jesus, He's going, and you can't even hear anything. And what will do that? Bitterness, resentment, spiritual discontentment.

People will say things like this, "Well, Christianity never worked for me," as though Christianity is the problem. The Holy Spirit, I don't know where he's at, but he's fine, it's you, you see.

And so here's the fix for that. Hebrews 3:13 says, "But encourage one another daily." I hope you have friends in your life, Christian friends that will encourage you daily. "As long as it is called today," that speaks about imminency while we have it, we only have today. "So that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and by this many become defiled."

Wow, and number four, we'll end with this: the discipline of discontentment is recognizing that spiritual discontentment can be a very, very good thing. It can be a very good thing. Like physical discontentment can be a very good thing, so with spiritual. By the way, think of this, mankind's, the human race's discontented heart because of the fall. But God will change that.

Listen to this. This is a beautiful, beautiful event. In Mark chapter 9, verse 23, Jesus said to the man, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." And listen to this beautiful response. This is spiritual discontentment that is good. Verse 24, Mark 9: "Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.'" Have you ever told God that? I can't tell you how many times I've prayed that prayer. "God, I believe, but help my unbelief."

And you know, when you pray that prayer and you mean it with tears—I mean, you don't have to cry about it, but mean it—the Lord will say, "All right, watch this. Come here, take my hand," and He'll walk you through it and your faith gets bigger.

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 and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Ecclesiastes 3:11, I love this verse. This is why, listen, you guys, when you share with people, be bold about it. I don't mean be rude, but be confident. When you share Jesus with people, please listen to this. My wife was such a sweetie, we were either engaged or we had just got married, and she used to work at State Farm Insurance in Costa Mesa off the 405 freeway, a huge thing.

And she would share Jesus with people, and they would say, "Oh, man, leave me alone! You Jesus freak!" And so she'd call me, "What's the matter, Ice?" "I was sharing with this person and they told me to..." "So what are you crying for?" "Well, it hurt." It was so cute. But Lisa, I mean, it's okay, you just keep sharing. "I can't share again." "Yes, you will share again."

Listen, this is the way it works. Someone rejecting the witness of Jesus, that loyalty and service to the Lord even in the rejection is just as valuable as the person accepting the Lord. We are ministers and ambassadors of His truth no matter what they decide.

Listen, we're not to make people make decisions. If that were the case, we'd be Muslims. I mean, right? Convert! We preach the gospel. The decision's theirs. I mean, truly. There's no compulsion. We invite the world, we plead. Jesus says, "Listen, what shall I liken this generation? I have played music and you didn't sing. I played the flute and you did not dance. I've asked you to come and you would not come."

So then He turns to His disciples in that parable and He says, "Go out now, seeing how the children will not come that I've invited. Go out now to the highways and the byways and to the hedges and invite as many people as you can. Invite them all, all who will come, invite them all." Amazing.

Spiritual discontentment is a very good thing when you wake up to the fact that you can't save yourself, that Jesus is the only way, that religion's not the answer, a relationship is. Spiritual discontentment is when you look around and you say, "You know what? There's got to be something more to life." And Ecclesiastes 3:11 says this: "That He has made everything beautiful in His time. He has put eternity in their hearts."

That's why when we share with people, we need to be bold. They are all, are you listening? And a lot of young people over here. Listen. Okay, I went over there. When we share with people, don't tiptoe around about it and apologize for it. You share while it's still somewhat legal to share, you share. Because God has put eternity in their hearts. They may go, "I don't believe it!" Inside they're going, "Man, I want to believe that."

When you say Jesus died on the cross for your sins, "I'm not a sinner!" And inside they're going, "I am a huge sinner." I'm telling you the truth here. And when you say, "But Jesus rose again from the grave," they'll say, "He did not, that's ridiculous." And the Holy Spirit is inside talking to them, "Hey, everything they're saying is true." It's a fact. Why? Because God has put eternity in the heart of every human being.

That's why every human being—this is going to upset people, I know because I get emails—every human being is religious. "Oh, Pastor, I'm an evolutionist." And your religion takes more faith than any one of ours. At least my religion is founded upon a fact.

Almost done. John 2:13 says, "Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and money changers doing business. And when he had made a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned their tables. And Jesus said to those who sold the doves, 'Take these things away. Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise.'"

Here's the punchline, verse 17: "Then the disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house has eaten me up.'" That's spiritual discontentment. You don't think of Jesus having spiritual discontentment, do you? When Jesus walked in the temple, He was so disgusted with what happened to the house of prayer that in His actions, the disciples remembered because they're good Jewish students, they knew the word. The zeal of the Lord hath eaten me up. The zeal of God is consuming me with grief. Jesus is fulfilling the scripture. For the Lord shall suddenly come to His temple, said the Old Testament prophet.

And so I give you this last couple of verses. Philippians 3:7, and we end with this: "But what things were gain to me," spiritual discontentment in Paul's life is a good thing, "but what things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. Not that I have already attained," notice this discontentment, "or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Last verse, Psalm 17:15: "As for me, I will see your face in righteousness." That's in the future, in eternity. "I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness." We must live with eternity in our hearts. And with that being our roadmap, we will be content. iPhone, iPad, Cadillac, Gucci, it won't matter. Because what shall it profit a man, Jesus said, if he get an Xbox and lose his own soul? What shall it profit a woman if she gets an unlimited Nordstrom's gift card and loses her own soul? You'll only be discontented. Better to have God than to die in this world with everything. He who dies with the most toys wins nothing.

Father, we thank You for Your word. And right now tonight, we just pray that this message would realign our soul, our mind, our affections, our passions, our desires. And Father, that we would see everything in light of eternity. And it's getting pretty easy actually, Lord, when we look around this world, we see nations, economies failing. A much of Europe, we see what's happening, Lord, in certain parts of the Orient and in America. The world is in tremendous pressure, and yet we know, we know our Bibles. The Bible makes it very clear even that the Antichrist will ride in a wave. Daniel warns us of economic peril, and he'll have the answers.

So we look around this world and we say, "Lord, everything is right on time. Everything's right on target." Cause our hearts, Father, to be in tune with Your will. Right now, Lord, I pray that we would just yield to You now.

While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, maybe right now you are one of those people tonight that are saying, "Man, this is true stuff and I need Jesus." Jesus Christ wants you personally to know Him. He wants your sins forgiven. That's why He gave His blood that you could have your sins forgiven. But you and only you can take Him up on that offer.

And maybe tonight is your night. Imagine we come to the end of the year, and eventually we're going to come to the end of life or the end of time. Or maybe you'll come to the end of your life and the Bible says, "The harvest is passed and the summer is ended, but we're not saved." Where are you? If you die tonight, are you confident when you breathe your last breath and close your eyes that you'll see Jesus on good terms? That can change for you tonight.

Heads are bowed, eyes are closed, Christians praying. Tonight, maybe now, as I look across this sanctuary, you're saying, "I want Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior now. I want my sins forgiven, I want to live for Him forevermore." Put your hand up if that's you tonight. Don't be shy. God bless you. If God's stirring your heart, raise your hand. You know it, there's a little bit of an unusual anxiety in the middle of your chest right now and you can't really recognize it, but you know it's Him. God bless you in the back. Anyone else? I knew that was going to happen this evening when I saw you, sir. Anyone else back there, you can put your hand down. Anyone else? God bless you. Wow.

You can put your hands down. Father, I pray that You'd bless our brand-new brothers and sisters right now, Jesus. What an amazing work of Your Spirit. I ask You, Father, as they articulate to You right now in their own words, that You'd forgive them, that You'd cleanse them, that You'd wash them, that Your Bible says any man or woman who comes to me, you will in no wise cast out. That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. It's amazing for us to think, Lord, that You have that discontentment of spirit when it says that You're not willing that any should perish. That is a grievous thing to You. It grieves the heart of God. And that You would leave that up to us individually to choose You. Father, bless these right now who have lifted their hands, who have said in their heart, "Yes, God, I need You now." Father, do what You do in their lives. In Jesus' name and all God's people said, "Amen."

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Discipline of Discontentment. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called the Disciplines of Life. It's a series highlighting 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, 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 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 here on Real Life Radio.

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.