Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: We need to sit at His feet and God begins to speak. That’s the tremendous advantage that Mary had over Martha. Martha was always busy, and we think in our culture busy is really successful. No, it's not. Not in God's economy.

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 First Samuel and a message titled Making a Comeback. Now, Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So, here as we continue in chapter 30, we’ll consider how David reacted when everything he had was gone. You see, while David and his men are away, the enemy burns everything to the ground, and their wives and children are taken as prisoners. When David returns, he quickly sees that he has lost everything, including his family, his position, and the support of his closest followers.

So, today Pastor Jack teaches us that when David drifts from God, it reminds us that we too can drift away out of exhaustion and fear. But also, like David, we can both strengthen and encourage ourselves, knowing that God is not done with us yet. Now with his message called Making a Comeback, here is pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: David picks up the stone, slings it around, hits Goliath, and stuns him. The guy falls down, knocks him out, and then David kills him with the guy's own sword. He talks about great battles and we did this and the Lord led us up on this ridge and we came down upon them and God was with us and it’s alright. And it's like, oh man. And we can write those Psalms too. The enemy fled from us. Oh God, Thou art great and mighty and we love Thee for Thou art strong on our behalf. And it's like, hoorah!

But then there are those times of David when he writes and he says, “Lord, I cry all night long like a dove in the wilderness.” And it's like, what is that? Well, he wrote those tremendously emotional things because David felt everything. He was a real man's man. And he wasn't afraid to cry. He wasn't afraid to go to battle. He wasn't afraid of anything I think except himself. And when David got his eyes off the Lord, though, like many of us, when we get our eyes off the Lord, we become afraid of everything. When we're little, we're afraid of shadows. When we're little, we're afraid of suggestions.

I don't know about you, but was your house as crazy as mine growing up? My mom’s from Hawaii, so when I grew up, it was a real bizarre kind of thinking, I'm telling you. My mom was a clean freak. I mean, she cleaned—you could eat off of any floor in our house at any time. Well, listen, this is really letting you deep into my life here. My mom would clean the house in the morning then she’d say, “Get out of the house.” She didn't say it that clearly because she spoke pidgin English, so it was kind of like, “What?” Whatever, okay. And then she, if we went in there to get something into our bedroom, she would say, “There's menehunes in there.” Menehunes! What's a menehune? And well, and that’s a demon. Oh, that’s great.

Stay out of the room because you know, there's—you can't dirty up your room, I just cleaned it. And besides, there's menehunes under the bed. So then at night, my dad would say, “It's time for you to go to bed.” I ain't going to bed! There is no way I'm going to bed. And they would make me go to bed and then you lay—did you ever—is it just—it's apparently just me. I would lay there and I was afraid to go to the bathroom because if you got off the end of the bed, what's going to get you from underneath there? And it freaked me out. When you're little, you're afraid of everything. Everything. The wind blows. Oh no, I was deathly afraid of the wind because what was going on out there?

Well, then when you get a little older and then, you know, it's 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 on out to 20ish, you’re not afraid of anything. And you’re—in fact, you are so not afraid of anything, you’re stupid in that area. Come on, let's jump. You want to jump? Let's jump. But as you get older, you once again—as you get older—you begin to become afraid of everything again. The shadows, the sounds. Interesting.

But faith in God gives us strength. Caleb in his old age, he said, “Give me that mountain, I’ll take that mountain.” And Caleb as an old man still fought and knew how to follow God and he went and wrought a great victory and then he set up his retirement home on top of that great mountain he conquered. Young, middle-aged, old, faith in God, we don't need to be afraid of anything. God is watching over everything. Just when you think you've reached your end, you haven't reached your end.

In Acts chapter 18, verses 9 through 11. Acts 18:9–11. It says, “Now the Lord spoke to Paul in a night vision saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul, but speak and do not keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you or hurt you, for I have many people in this city.’ So Paul continued there in Corinth a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.” Why did the Lord appear to Paul in the middle of a night dream and say, “Don't be afraid”? The same reason why God would speak to any one of us when He would say to us, “Don't be afraid.” Because we're afraid.

God doesn't waste His breath. When Moses wanted to hear from God, he was afraid. He needed direction. God spoke. When Elijah needed to hear from God, remember Jezebel was chasing him? Big man of God running away from this—I almost called her a lady. She was vicious. She was a witch, that woman was. And he's hiding in a cave. “I'm the only one left.” And God speaks to him again, the Bible says. To encourage us. We haven’t reached the end. No matter how depressed you might be. No, when you and I feel like we've reached the end, it’s not the end. We learn that from verse 7. He inquires of the Lord. He seeks communication with God.

Look at verses 8 through 9. Call out to the Lord even though you're alone. You know what I'm convinced verses 8 and 9 teach us? That God needs, God tries, God often challenges you and I in our life to go get alone. So David inquired of the Lord asking, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And God answered and said to him, “Pursue. For you shall overtake them and without fail you'll recover all.” So David—mark it in your Bible, verse 9—David went. This is great. Church, we can pray all day long. Maybe this is one of our problems. Maybe when we pray, we don't believe God's going to answer, so we don't get up and do. It says in verse 9 that David went. That means he got up. You ever pray and then get up and go do? That's how we're supposed to pray.

God, we pray for the nations of the world. We pray for our community. God, we pray for our neighbor. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Hey, what do you want to go to lunch? What do you—hey, let's go surfing. Let's go goof, whatever. And nothing wrong with that. But what were we asking God? David says, “Shall I go up? Will I be victorious?” God says, “Yes, yes.” So what does David do? That's really great to know. I'm just going to store that in my head. Thanks, God.

A lot of Christians, you know, will say, “God, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Baptize me again in the power of the Holy Spirit.” Nothing happens. You want to know why? Because God knows that even if He were to fill us, we wouldn't do anything. Maybe we read a book, maybe somebody next to us is asking, “God, fill me, Lord. Baptize me again with the power of your Holy Spirit.” Why would God give a sword to a child? Why would God put a jet engine on a go-kart? Many times in our lives we'll ask God, “You know, I asked God, nothing happened.” Listen, we need to ask God and then get up and go do it. And then you’ll see the power of God.

Moses got the children of Israel to the Red Sea and they're all two and a half million of them standing there. Moses stands there and he turns around and he says, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” And the Lord said, “What are you doing telling these people to stand still? The Egyptians are coming.” Now stop right there. Don't you think God can handle the Egyptians? Of course. What's the point? Go. “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” God says to Moses, “No, no, no. Get going, for the Egyptians are nigh unto your heels.”

And the sea parts and they go across. All to learn obedience in God. He controls time. He could have done anything. But even though you and I may be alone or we may be sensing that we’re alone, you know what, let's pause as a church, let’s pause as Christians and figure out maybe in our distress—listen, some of you need to hear this perhaps—in our distress, in our pressure, in our crushing moments where no friend is given us the right answers, no radio program, no Bible study, no navigator notebook. There's no answer coming. Maybe God wants me alone. Maybe He wants to strip everything away. And I know that's true.

Guest (Male): 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 is Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: If there’s a message that’s being taught from this pulpit and it’s not reaching anybody, I know one thing: it will be because I have not spent time alone with God. Here we are into summer, and you look outside the window—bad thing to do when you’re trying to study the Bible. Don’t look out the window because I want to go outside. But I can’t go outside because that’s going to result in a deficiency in the message. Are you kidding me? I am not kidding you.

God is like the ultimate lover. I mean, He is. He loves our soul for one thing. But you know what? You can't go like this with God. “Hi God, it's me, Pastor Jack. You remember me, right? Calvary Chapel, you know. Anyway, Sunday's message is coming up. Been real busy. You know, Lord, we got that construction going on, a lot of stuff going on in people's lives including my life. And well, anyway, Lord, I'm going to give you about an hour and a half to speak so I can get back to stuff and it's a really nice day. So go ahead and speak.” He won't say a word. He will not talk. He'll be silent because I'm not alone with Him.

He's the lover of my soul. I’ve got to draw the curtains. I've got to light some candles—I don't mean that in a Catholic sense. I got to light some candles, as it were, in my heart. The mood, worship Him. He's God. He's not a drive-through restaurant. “Lord, you know I'm busy. Come on, give me the message. Here I go, come on, come on, go, go, hooray!” It's not like that. We need to sit at His feet and God begins to speak. That’s the tremendous advantage that Mary had over Martha. Martha was always busy, and we think in our culture busy is really successful. No, it's not. Not in God's economy.

Sitting down, being still, and don't you hate it? I mean, I hate it. You remember a couple weeks ago, Lisa and I went away? And the first two days, I'm like—ah, ah. My cell phone hasn't rung. There's nothing to do. She's going, “There's not supposed to be anything to do.” Then the third day, after having nothing to do, I felt sick. I couldn't believe it. I was like a noodle. The adrenal gland shut down, I had no more blood going through me. I was like—uh—dead.

But if I'm alone with God, He'll strengthen me. We don't need more input; we need to get alone with God. We got problems in our lives? Who doesn't? We need to get alone with God. Maybe all the stuff we're going through is because God wants to tell us something while we're alone with Him. See, the temptation is so strong to have everybody surround us and start talking to us.

Well, look at verse 10. We need to call out to the Lord because you and I are a work in progress. But David pursued, he and 400 men. Listen, for the 200 men who stayed behind were so weary that they could not cross the brook Besor. This is interesting. I did some research; there's no water in the brook at this time of the year. It's dried up. You know how tired these 200 guys are? They've been following David with the other 400—that's 600 total. They’re so tired that they went down the brook—that's a wadi. Remember when we were in Jordan, we went to Wadi Musa? The creek or the dry riverbed of Moses? It’s a dry riverbed. They went down; they didn't have the strength to go up. Listen, why? Because they were weak? No, they were David’s men of valor. They're losers? No. They were tremendous soldiers.

What's amazing about this, as a work in progress, two great things. Number one: these men are committed, but they couldn't make it. Does that sound familiar in your life and my life? I'm committed, but I often can't make it. Too weak, too tired, exhausted. These men were exhausted. Making a comeback in faith, these men were following David, but listen, something happened. Verse 6 had changed the world because now David was hearing from God. And what does David do? He consults the Lord. The Lord says, “Go, be successful.” Listen, we need to hear this. The lights came on. David had vision again. He had passion again. He had action. He takes off and they're running. They're going.

So fast is David possessed by his vision to serve God again and be valiant and get on track. Listen, church, that even 200 of his own men couldn't keep up with him. And that's what happens when you and I get filled with the vision that God has for our lives. Do you, Christian, have a vision? If you don't, God is willing, God is desirous to give you a vision. It's what absolutely gives you a destination in your Christian existence with God. God says to you, “I'm going to do this with you and for you in your life. This is what role you're going to play in the church that you attend or wherever you're at. This is what you're going to do.”

And your heart gets so excited. Scared? Yes. Fearful? Uh-huh. Those are things that we constantly have to attack every day in our lives. But you know what? We got to go. And you get so excited, you get going for the Lord and you know you're on the right track. That's the cool thing; nobody can knock you off. “Pastor, you bug me.” I'm still going. “I don't like your shirt.” I'm still going. “The building's too small. The building's too big.” I'm still going because He's given the vision. That fuels the passion. That is the fuel, the catalyst when mixed together, there's an explosion and there's an action that takes place, and it's not being busy. In the spirit, it's accomplishment.

Even though you may feel very alone, even though you feel like you've reached the end, the fact is there's a work in progress going on in our lives. David's repented, a revival has taken place. He came close to a funeral, but not for him. He repented and there's a revival. This is the David we know. This is the exciting David. Psalm 138, verses 7 through 8. Psalm of David. Psalm 138:7–8. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble,” is that you, is that me right now? “You will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect or complete that which concerns me. Your mercy, oh Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.” God does not forsake the work in progress, and that’s you and I. He doesn’t give up on us. No matter what we’ve done.

Yeah, but you know what, and we are—we always, always are shooting ourselves in the foot. God says, “Alright, I got you standing up. Are you ready to go?” I'm ready, Lord! “Okay, let's go.” Alright! But you know what? Bang! I failed you three years ago. Why do we do that? We self-destruct before we take off. These guys, these men belonged to David, these 200 guys that couldn’t go on any further. They belonged to David. They just couldn't go any further. Listen, the truth of the matter is perhaps we need to take a lesson from these people not to become weary at well-doing, you know? Maybe you're doing a really great thing, but you're tired. You know what, maybe you need to take a break, or maybe you need to get alone. Maybe you need a Sabbath with the Lord.

In Psalm 18, verse 35 to 37. Listen to this. Psalm 18:35–37. “You give me your shield of victory and your right hand sustains me. You stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath my feet so that my ankles do not turn or twist. I pursued my enemies and I overtook them and I did not turn back till they were all destroyed.” Another Psalm of victory.

Now verses 11 to 16 are just really for our information. They don't really go with the theme, but let’s just look at them anyway. Then they found an Egyptian in the field and they brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. And they gave him a piece of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him for he had eaten no bread or drunk any water for three days and three nights. Then David said to them, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I'm a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion of the southern area.” And he goes on through this listing the territories. Look down at the end of verse 14. “We burned Ziklag with fire.” Uh-oh, David's antennas up.

And David said to him, verse 15, “Can you take me down to this troop? You know where they're hiding out?” So he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master and I will take you down to this troop.” And when he had brought him down, there they were spread out all over the land. You got to see this, bunch of whackos, you know? They were gloating over the victory. They're eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

This is really a perverse thing because what this implies is they are eating like mad dogs and they are grosser than gross, they're drunker than a skunk, and they’ve got the women of David's people and they’re trying to make them dance and make them party. “Come on, what's a matter? How come you're not partying with us?” Well, dodo, you just conquered us and you took us away from everything we know and you burned the place that we're hanging out and besides you stink, you're big and ugly, and we miss our husbands and our kids are scared. “Oh, come on, just dance. Here, have a drink.” You know, it's just a really stupid moment. One of those moments, you know, that where you want to kind of rush in and rescue because these women and the children are being picked on by just the grossness of these men.

Well, look at our second point, making a comeback in the walk of faith, verses 17 to 20. And that is when we obey Him. We need to obey Him and what God says and what He says. We need to obey Him. And look at verse 17. “Then David attacked them.” See what is that? Oh, he's obeying God. David attacked them from the break of day until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled.

So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them. David recovered all. Then David took all the flocks and the herds they had driven before those other flocks and said—now this is what they said, the men of David said—“This is David's spoil.” Well, let me ask you something. They may have thought of it that way, they may have looked at it that way. Can you think of one man, do you know his name in the midst of all those that knew whose spoil it really was? His name is David. He knew that it was God's spoil, not his spoil.

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.

Guest (Male): 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 is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. 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.