Explore the profound teachings of Jesus through the Parable of the Hidden Treasures, as Pastor Jack Hibbs elucidates the comparison between pearls and believers. From the impurities that lead to their beauty to their ultimate worth in the eyes of God, discover how this metaphor sheds light on spiritual growth and transformation. Pastor Jack examines what true leadership entails through humility and submission to God’s sovereignty. Delve into the current challenges facing the church and how today’s cultural shifts are impacting believers’ ability to express their faith. Through the engaging narrative of the Parable of the Hidden Treasures, learn
00:00:00 Introduction and Current Challenges to the Church
The church is getting beat up by everybody in every corner, all around the world. That just kind of goes with the trend of things. Just know this, Jesus loves his church. A lot of people giving the church a black eye, persecuting the church, killing portions of the church. Just know this, Jesus loves his church.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. What if the greatest battles in life aren’t fought with swords and armies but with the struggles of the heart? What if the most defining moments of leadership come not from triumph, but from pain, betrayal, and humility? How do we handle being misunderstood or wronged? And how do we navigate the deep waters of authority, submission, and forgiveness? In A Tale of Three Kings, Jean Edwards takes us inside the lives of King Saul, King David, and Absalom, illustrating the powerful lessons learned from their brokenness and their failures. Through these kings, we discover that true leadership often comes through humility, suffering, and trusting God’s sovereignty, even in the most difficult seasons. This book will challenge you to reflect on your own heart, leadership, and your walk with God. A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. on today’s edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack continues now with his series called The Parables of Jesus with a message called Parable of the Hidden Treasures. Now, whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke in parables, which are sort of a picture story that has many facets. When it reaches a willing heart and mind, the message is received. But for the unwilling heart and mind, it seals them off from receiving what the Lord has to say. You see, in this parable, we’ll see how the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. And when a person finds it, well, they’re overjoyed and will sell everything they’ve got to buy that field. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that an oyster hides a great treasure that does not appear on the surface, right? And that beautiful thing on the inside starts out as an impure irritant. But over time, it becomes a pearl of great value. And as true believers in Christ, we are those pearls in the making. Now with his message called, Parable of the Hidden Treasures. Here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking. Seeking. Jesus says, I’ve come to seek and to save that which is lost. Beautiful pearls. This is interesting because the Jews had nothing to do with pearls. Is that interesting? They don’t do pearls. Jesus has got everyone’s attention now. Which is really interesting because it’s a Gentile thing, pearls. Even in Jesus’ day, it was a Gentile thing. And isn’t it sweet, though? In the book of Revelation, there’s 12 gates. All made out of what? Solid, each gate is one solid pearl. And the Jew would go, well, that’s weird. We don’t do ocean things. It’s unclean thing. Do you see the message Jesus is sending? Do you remember how we started this message? Jew, Gentile, all one, if you believe in Christ. People go, are you Jewish? Nope, but the God I worship is Jewish. It’s fun. So think, watch. An oyster, this is kind of fun. I did some oyster homework for this message. Where do you get pearls from? Have you ever seen an oyster? I should have brought one out here. They’re one of the ugliest looking things on the planet. If you’ve never seen an oyster, if I showed you an oyster, you’d say, there’s no way that’s an oyster. Well, listen, an oyster… It’s interesting, because it’s a treasure, what’s inside of it, that doesn’t appear on the surface. You’d walk right past it. Look, people walk past us all the time. That’s what’s inside the oyster, huh? Where’s the Holy Spirit? Inside you. Remember how we talked about a Sunday or two ago, whenever that was? The outward man is perishing, but the inward man’s being renewed? Was that like last Sunday or last year? I can’t remember. Wow, listen. Cleopatra. You know Cleopatra? She had that thing, her and Mark Anthony, all that stuff going on. She had a gift given to her. She wore on her neck two pearls that the size of them was recorded in Roman history, that today they’re both estimated at nearly $500,000 each. Pearls. But that’s Gentile. It’s a weird story. You can read it later. It’s She actually drank them. She dissolved them in vinegar to show her opulence and her love for Mark Anthony. Anyway, it has nothing to do with the Bible study. A pearl, listen, a pearl is the only precious stone that comes out from a living organism. It’s considered a stone, a precious stone. You know, like diamonds and all that stuff. But a pearl comes from a living organism. Diamonds are diamonds, yes they’re made, compression, all that kind of stuff, understand that. Secondly, a pearl can only be formed by an oyster that has been affected, affected, with an impurity. Did you know that a pearl starts out, a pearl is an impurity. The oyster’s fine, he’s cruising along, doing nothing, and something gets inside of it, a contaminant enters it. Can I just kind of make this a little bit more romantic? S-I-N, sin, positive. I watched my granddaughter before service tonight sin. She’s two and a half, she committed a sin. Where did that come from? It’s in her spiritual DNA to sin. Listen, an oyster starts, I got something in me, I don’t like it, it’s messing me up. I’m gonna attack it. And it starts to attack it. It doesn’t stop either, by the way. The oyster converts the impurity by wrapping it up, wrapping the irritant up with this secretion over and over again in layers until it’s no longer an irritant. What is foreign is dealt with. And this gets very fun. The word pearl is derived from the ancient Sanskrit meaning the pure. The irritant, could be sand, could be something, begins, bothers the oyster, the oyster begins to attack it. It winds up making one of the most beautiful, highly esteemed stones in all of the world, and its very meaning is that it becomes a pearl. The pearl of great price is the lost sinner that through the work of the Spirit of God, the salvation of God, the blood of Christ, takes what was a sinful irritant, as it were, and brings out of it, makes out of it, something that even adorns heaven. What does Jesus think about you? Well, think about this. Can you imagine how valuable the church is to Jesus Christ? I mean, you can kind of figure that out right now more than ever. The church is getting beat up by everybody in every corner all around the world. Well, that just kind of goes with the trend of things. Just know this. Jesus loves his church. A lot of people giving the church a black eye, persecuting the church, killing portions of the church. Just know this. Jesus loves his church. And he says so. And the Bible tells us that, well, listen, Ephesians 5, 26 says that he, Jesus, might sanctify and cleanse the church, her, with the washing of the water of the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Think about it. Sounds like a pearl in the making. That’s how much God loves you. Our culture has been beaten down. I don’t like our culture anymore. I think I lived it the best time. I loved my, when I was growing up. We were, it was just the best.
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But now everybody is, oh, you work. Don’t, well, it’ll never work. Don’t try. If you try, you’re gonna get in trouble because you’re gonna stand out. Just be down here with the rest of us. Just…
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It’s really pathetic. It’s amazing that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and those dudes were born when they were born because if they were born today, they wouldn’t even get out of, they wouldn’t be able to think a thought. The church today has kind of adopted the culture. Don’t say anything about love and life and eternity. Don’t say the word Bible. Somebody might get upset. What in the world’s going on? How are we ever gonna rescue anybody? How are we ever gonna invite people up to the mountaintop? So much of what is called the church is walking around saying, there’s no mountaintop to go up to. Everything just, just, you know what I’m saying? It’s a sad day. It’s a sad day. If somebody stands up and says, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, they’re calling the cops, you know, my goodness, there’s a lunatic. There’s a lunatic running down the mall. Jesus loves you. Somebody call the cops. We should just, we should do that some night. You know like those flash mob things? We should just, we should go to the mall and just be walking along. Jesus loves you. Jesus. Can you imagine? Hey, if we all do it, then nobody will get arrested. They won’t have enough money. If we all do it, nobody will get arrested, so we should all do that. The third thing is this. The third thing is what Jesus thinks about you is how you’re desired. He desires you. When the Bible here says in this parable, that he had joy, and he goes out and sells. Verse 44, all that he has and buys the field, Jesus left heaven for us. The story is what is going to be saved and found, he gives everything to come to us. How much does God desire you? Listen, how many of you want to go in heaven? You want to go to heaven, raise your hand. You want to be in heaven? Put your hand down. You know what’s hilarious about that? The very want that you have to go to heaven has been given to you by God. He wants you in heaven more than you want to be in heaven. Oh, I really hope I make it to heaven. He wants you there. What’s the problem? Think about it. I want to go. Yes. But I don’t know if he’s going to. Well, he wants you to go. I don’t know if I’m going to make it. Do you trust Christ? He rose again from the dead. Is he your savior? Yes, he is. But I really want to go to heaven. Then go. Go. He wants you there more than you want to go. It’s amazing. His desire. Colossians 1.20. And by him to reconcile all things to himself, that’s a lot. By him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Someone say amen. He wants you in heaven. His desire is to have you with him. Look, can I put it very, very reverently, but to the point. God is the one with the big idea. He’s the one with the big idea. What’s the big idea? He wrote the book and he announced to us, I want you in heaven with me. What’s the problem, people? Come where I’m at. That’s what the whole Bible’s about. Think about the magnitude of that. He desires you.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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Luke 19.10 says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Oh, my goodness. You can’t get better than that. Number four. Amen. What Jesus thinks about you is how you are welcomed. How you are welcomed. Isn’t it beautiful that he speaks to us in the parable as being a hidden treasure? A pearl? John 17 again, verse 23, Jesus in his high priestly prayer says, I in them, speaking to his father, I in them and you in me. they may be made complete or perfect in one and that the world may know that you’ve sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Excuse me, stop. Did you hear that? And have loved them, us as you, the Father, have loved me, Jesus. Jesus is saying, you love me Father, the same as you love them. This is the Bible. This is John 17, 23. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus announced that God the Father loves you as much as he loves his son. I don’t get it. I don’t get it. He said it. I believe that. It’s going to take, no wonder why eternity is a long time. It’s going to take us forever to think about that. You’re welcome. Number five, we end with this. What Jesus thinks about you is how you’re positioned. Oh man, we need this. How you are positioned. If someone’s gonna put a treasure on display, you ever been to a good museum? Good one. You should go to the Getty. I’ve not been, but I’ve heard about it. I’ve been to some great museums in the world, but I have not been to that one, but I heard it’s awesome. They have stuff on display. It’s not just any stuff. It’s amazing stuff. Not too long ago, I was at the British Museum. Unbelievable stuff. I said, man, I’m reading this thing, and this is the scepter from Pharaoh, what’s-his-face, somebody, big time. This guy, they got a Bible reference in this guy. I said, what? And I’m thinking, well, that’s gotta be like a, you know, that’s like a replica. And I’m looking at that, and I said, wow, that’s amazing. There’s no replicas. It’s just, oh my goodness, oh my goodness. And I’m going like this, you see this? And you know what I crashed right into? I’d say it’s in a glass, but I ran right into it. Boom! The Rosetta Stone, you ever heard of that? Say, what is that? It’s a commercial! The Rosetta Stone, which is a miraculous thing. It’s like, oh! Everything in there is real. On display. Saw the Hope Diamond. It’s amazing. Hope Diamond, right here, okay? Four guys with machine guns like this. You had to go through them. They wand you and all this stuff, pat you down before you go in there and look at it. There’s guys like this. There’s just like this. On display. Lighting is perfect. Music, like spa music. On display. On display. Okay? Listen, God has positioned you and I, the believer, in such a way that how we are right now, somehow in eternity, I don’t know how we’re gonna be put on display, but we’re gonna be put on display in such a way that our salvation, redemption, and completion will bring so much glory and honor to the Lord. We’re gonna be like this, and it’s not about us. No angels are gonna be walking by going, oh, man. No one’s gonna do that. But we will be in eternity having been saved by the Lamb of God on display and listen, the universe will say, isn’t God amazing that he would save those people? He saved those oysters, those pearls. It’s amazing. Now watch this and we’ll wrap this up with this big ending. Positioned. I’m so happy about what I’m gonna be reading because the truth is God has a position for you If you trust Jesus tonight, and let this bless you rather than create an argument in your head, stop fighting with God’s word and enjoy it. Are you ready? Ephesians, I’m gonna be reading from two areas, Ephesians and Romans. Blessed be, oh how happy, is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. That we should be holy. Isn’t that amazing? You’re not running toward it. In Christ you have it. And without blame before him in love. You are without blame before God in love right now. Tonight, the Bible says, I don’t know, you better, this is the Bible. God says you are positioned in front of him in eternity, blameless right now. God lives in eternity, it’s all the now there. He’s not waiting for tomorrow, it’s now. Isn’t that amazing? Verse five, having predestined us to adoption. I like that because God knows everything in advance. You can’t teach him anything, he knows everything. And it’s not like we were born and so he stuck with us. Oh man, gotta do something with this guy. Adopted, he picked us out. as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, Romans 8, 29. For whom he foreknew. In advance, he knows, in advance. He knows the whole thing in advance. Based on his foreknowledge, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. You are so beautifully positioned. Like in a crown or a tiara. Positioned. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Is he inviting you tonight? Did he invite you in the past? Whom he called, did he call you? Well, then he also justified you. And whom he justified, by the way, justified, took away all claims against us. Canceled the case. These he also glorified. In the eternal mind of God, all of this is based on his foreknowledge. He sees us. Amazing. Right now, how positioned you are. Wow. Father, you are awesome. You are so good to us. And Lord, tonight, we just praise you and thank you and worship you, Lord, for your goodness. And Father, tonight, may we go from this place reveling in the fact that you see us in such a way that you left paradise for us. come down to this messed up ball at the end of the Milky Way galaxy and you died here for us. May we never stop praising and thanking you for this. May we always be reminded of this great truth. May we look at others with the value, with the desire, with the love with the welcome, with the position, that who knows, maybe the next person we bump into, these things describe your heart for them. Give us your heart. We ask it in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs. Here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Hidden Treasures. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a great series highlighting the teachings of Jesus while he was here walking around on this earth. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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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 slash know God. 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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Everyone, it’s almost impossible to keep up with what’s going on in the world today. I think we’ve all come to that realization. My goodness, just the news regarding Israel and Israel’s neighborhood. We’re looking at what’s going on in North Korea. We’re seeing what’s happening in China and other parts of the world. It’s just overwhelming. But I want to encourage all of you. Be in the Word of God now and more systematically than ever before. In fact, as we are in this season of maybe the first quarter or second quarter of the year, I want to encourage you to join me actually at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, 5 a.m. Pacific Time, And whatever time zone you’re in, you can join me at my Facebook page live for five minutes as we are praying together with people all around the world. And you can leave your prayer request right there. You can leave it in the comment section and people will be praying for you. So listen, with all that’s taking place in the world, you don’t have to walk through this alone. There’ll be others with you to pray with you and love on you. But friends, more than ever, If you draw near to Jesus and practice the presence of God more and more, it means you’re going to have to turn some things off and minimize the distractions. You will see some pretty miraculous things start to happen in your life. So I encourage you to do that very thing. So listen, 5 a.m., you can do it. West Coast time, 5 a.m. For those of you who are in Cape Town, South Africa, it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon. And listen, we’d love to have you. And even if you can’t be with us live, you can always view it, pray with us, and leave your prayer request there at the comment section.
SPEAKER 01 :
The Lift Daily Prayer. That’s every day on Pastor Jack’s Facebook page. That’s at 5 a.m. Pacific time, so don’t miss it. Make it a habit if you would. Come get prayed for and join Pastor Jack in the Word. That’s the Lift Daily Prayer every day this year on Pastor Jack’s Facebook page. Be sure to join us. You’ll enjoy it. Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you like. It’s called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you’re going to love him on TV. So check out your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. 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.
