Today, Pastor Jack teaches that joy strengthens our faith and brings contentment to our hearts. When we recognize who really owns what we have, a real peace can sweep over us and bring rest to our minds.
Delight is truly finding out who you and I are in Jesus Christ. To delight is to find out your position with God.
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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.
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On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series called Disciplines of Life with a message titled Disciplines of Delight. Sure, we can look around and it may seem like non-Christians are happy, healthy, and wealthy to some degree. But the truth is, if we learn to find joy in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, we really are truly blessed. You see, suffering and difficulty accomplish in our lives what nothing else can. And the delight comes when we find out who we really are in Christ. Our true existence and meaning comes from the Lord. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that joy strengthens our faith and brings contentment to our hearts. When we recognize who really owns what we have, a real peace can sweep over us and bring rest to our minds. Now with his message called Disciplines of Delight, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. And so we’re in this series called the Disciplines of Life, and the Disciplines of Delight is specifically what we’re going to talk about. In this sermon, you talk about, you know, delight or joy, not being tied to circumstances. Ooh, that’s a toughie.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Why do people struggle so much with that whole idea, do you think?
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I think…
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Because circumstances are so loud and immediately present, right? In other words, they pop up like the whack-a-mole. One goes away and another one comes up and has a tendency to grab our emotions because we as humans, we have a tendency to do like that crazy dog you might see chasing its own tail. We are prone to that as humans. God comes along and says, wait a minute. Just calm yourself down and look over the long haul of things. I’m at work. You call these things situations and or emergencies. I’m working in your life. And so when you begin to realize that God in this discipline we’re talking about, we can delight in the fact that he’s at work. Well, it’s raining outside. Delight in that. Well, my kids are struggling in school. You need to delight in that. What does that mean, delight? It doesn’t mean that you’re happy because your kid’s failing. It means that you go to the Word of God, the answer is there, and that you can go to your child that is in this stressful situation and say, listen, I’m praying for you. And this scripture says right here that if you seek first the kingdom of God, all these other things will be added to you. So, son, daughter, you can delight in that truth. That is something that you need to apply like a Band-Aid to a wound. You need to apply this to the issue right now. And you can delight in the damage that is going on around you and have peace that passes all understanding.
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Awesome. Let’s get into it.
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Father, we ask you, Lord, in Jesus’ name, that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon us. Father God, that you would take us as a church, and Lord, that you would propel us to the world, that we would never be content to be spectator Christians. And Lord, I pray that in this gathering tonight, here now, Wednesday night, with all these young people that are here, Lord, that you would just… Provoke them to good works, to righteous living, to holy living. That Father, all this ridiculous stuff of the world, the things that the world parades out in front of the church, of us, of your people. to indulge themselves, to intoxicate themselves, to prostitute themselves. Father God, that the people of this body would be open and their eyes would see and discern that those are evil things that are just as powerful as fruit hanging from a tree in the Garden of Eden. So Lord, give us ears to hear and give us eyes to see what the Spirit would say to us tonight. We ask it in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, amen. Church, grab your Bibles then tonight if you would. And we’re going to ask you to turn to two places as is the protocol for these Wednesday nights. And one of them is Matthew chapter 28. So go there. That is our theme verse for these Wednesdays. Disciplines of Life series that we’re in, Matthew chapter 28. They’re the call to discipleship and missionary venture and Christian living. And put your finger there and then jump on over, hold your spot, and then jump over to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians 4 verse 11. You guys been reading Philippians in the morning? Really? Good job. Okay then. You guys been getting up earlier than normal? Makes a big difference. Some of you are groaning right now, I know, but it’s only your body, it’s only flesh, and it needs to be kind of beat up from time to time in the things of the spirit. Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said, in verse 18, as he came and spoke to them, he said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, and that’s a lot. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, And teaching them, once they come to Christ and they go through the rite of baptism, that’s that outward display of an internal commitment. Verse 20 says, teach them to observe all things that I’ve commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Now run on over to Philippians 4, verse 11. As we look tonight, as the scripture would say, the discipline of delight. What does that mean? Philippians 4, 11. Not that I speak in regard to need, Paul says, for I have learned in whatever state I’m in to be content. Even California. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry. Both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. What a tremendous statement of the apostle. Look at that again, Philippians 4.11. He says, I’m speaking in regard to need. In other words, I really don’t have any. Not that I speak in regard to need. He’s saying, I don’t need any help. Because I’ve learned something. He says, I have learned. That word in Greek means I have learned by experience to understand something about God and how he deals with his people. Church, listen, you and I need to hear this. America needs to hear this. There’s something that we can learn through hardship and difficulty. There’s something to be learned when we would say the chips are down. At a time like this. Paul says. It’s a time of great learning. It’s a time of great discipline. And listen. If we’re going to be Christians. And you young people listen. Because you think you’re having a rough day. Because your iPhone seizes up. Or your printer won’t work. And you think it’s the end of the world. Listen. Listen. There are difficult days promised us in the Bible, and they’re coming. And I’m not saying that to bum you out. I’m saying that to prepare you and to prepare us for the days ahead. Paul says that there is a discipline of delights, and we’ll define that in a moment, but that it’s found in learning in whatever state you’re in. Whatever condition you’re in, this is amazing. Are you healthy? Praise God. Are you sick? You can praise God. Are you rich? Praise God. Are you poor? You can praise God. Do you suffer in any capacity? You can praise God. is his challenge to the believer. He says, I’ve learned that, and I’ve learned how to be abased. Paul says, I have learned to be rejected, kicked out, scorned, and left for nobody, and I’ve also learned how to abound. In other words, Paul is saying, I love it, Paul is going through this world with all of the stuff going around him, Paul is saying, Christ has taught me how to fly level in this world. And that’s exactly the opposite of our culture today. We have been taught to base so much on happiness and happenstance. That word means that I’ll be happy if things around me are happy. But if they’re bad, boy, I’m going to really let you know that they’re bad. No, Paul says, no, not with Christ. Because even in the difficult times, the Lord is in the midst of these things. Listen, everybody. And whatever hardship you’re in tonight, the Lord is saying, I got you. I’m teaching you something. I’m walking you through this. It could even be death itself. Now death is a great thing. Because if you’re the one dying and you know Jesus, I mean all is well with you. It’s us poor bums that are left behind that have gotta deal with everything else that goes on. But in the midst of it all, the Lord is saying I can make sure that you’re stable in this life. The discipline of delight is this, that in all things I can rejoice. Have you ever looked at the world around you? I know you have. I’m just putting this into your thought. You look around at the world. Do you know any non-believers that are doing really good? Huh? I do. They’re doing really good. They still have their really nice cars. They got their boats and their mansions. And they’re doing great. And the temptation is to ask, Lord, why them? Why not me? Do you remember, have you ever seen Fiddler on the Roof? Fiddler on the Roof is awesome. I’m talking about the one with Tevye. The old one, the real one. Fiddler on the Roof.
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And he’s talking to the Lord. And he goes, he talks and he says, God, if being rich is a curse, I wish you would smite me with it.
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And people think, man, if I was just rich, it would be great. Do you really believe that? It’s not true. But we look at the world around us and we think, now they’ve got the opportunity to delight. And yet they’re not. The world puts on a face that it’s delighting, but it’s not really delighting, it’s acting out. And in truth, we’re talking about a delight in the Lord that the world knows nothing about. The world, watch my hand, the world delights like this. Whoop, and then whoop, and then, why? Well, this is some radical, crazy sexual experience, and then it comes down, and then this is some big drug rush, and then it comes down, and then this is landing that big super deal, and then it comes back down. That’s how the world lives, from high to high. That’s not how the Christian lives. The Christian is to live with a deep abiding delight in the soul that is placed there by God. Every one of us that walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a depth, there is a delight that is one of our characteristics as a believer. There’s a peace and there’s a joy in the life of a Christian. Now, you may be a wonderful Christian this evening, but you have no peace right now. And I can tell you right now, we can all, listen, for those of us who’ve lived a little bit longer in Christianity, we can tell you something. Even we come unglued at times when we don’t refuel in spirit with the Lord. Can someone say amen to that? It is true. Because listen, here’s the thing. We can become weary at well doing and it ought not to be so. It doesn’t have to be so because we need to stay plugged into Jesus. That’s why I challenged you a couple weeks ago, get up an hour early and watch what happens. Now some of you may be more physically tired in the evening, but you must confess that you are more spiritually strengthened during the day. Which means the Bible tells you that you should go to bed early and get up early, you know that? That’s biblical. I’m not kidding. He’s so legalistic. I’m just beginning. Be happy you don’t live in my house then, huh? Get up in the morning, you know. It’s dark outside. The stars are out. It’s a wonderful morning.
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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.
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But the world around us seems to be prospering and even King David himself says, why do the heathen prosper? Why do they delight? And God’s answer to him is that there’s a delight that’s deep within the soul. In Psalm 73 verse 7, the Bible says, the world, their eyes bulge with abundance and they have more than what their hearts could wish for. Isn’t that kind of the picture of the world? Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. The world looks like it’s getting by, but it’s got no peace and it has no delight, like you and I have opportunity to. And what about the Christian family, the church? Why are some doing well and others seem to be doing poorly, just getting by, while others seem to be so favored by God? And maybe you’re a Christian and you’re just languishing Those are things that are quite often reserved to the mind of God. But even in the body of Christ, you can be tempted with the thought of, well, why do some seem to be favored and be delighting while other believers are not? This is my personal belief. I can’t tell you that God laid this on my heart. It’s just something that I think, and I think about often, that in a church body where it’s a real body alive, there’s gonna be those that are doing great, and there’s gonna be those that are doing okay, and there’s gonna be those that are not doing so good. And I think that those of you, like Tevye, who says, you know, why? You might be here tonight and you’re hurting and I believe that God in every body of believer, God will bring believers into a body that are in need to see how that body responds to that brother or sister in need. We can, well we do. There’s millionaires in this church and then there’s people just reduced down to maybe one or two meals a day. That’s the opportunity to love and to give and to share and to delight in the Lord. Proverbs 11 verse two says, when pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble, there’s wisdom. It’s pretty powerful stuff. So listen, look at this as we consider the discipline of delight. When I say delight, I should probably define that as delight is truly finding out who you and I are in Jesus Christ. To delight is to find out your position with God. To delight. We’ve seen this, and you know this in life. To delight in an earthly sense, my position with God, it would be that a parent looks at their child out on the field or in the crowd, and the child turns and sees the parent, and the parent’s eyes are fixed upon that child. Does that connect? You know what I’m saying? Or have you ever watched little softball, little baseball, little guys that swing the bat? You know what, they’re more concerned to see if their dad saw them hit the ball than they are about running to first base. Isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? The coach has got to grab them by the pants and pull them to first base because the little guy, he actually connected with the ball, freaked himself out so much, and he turns to see if mom and dad are looking. It’s absolutely, well listen, for delight, that’s the word for us in the scripture. for us to turn and look and God is looking at you and he’s fixed on you and he’s watching you. To have, as it were, heaven’s approval, heaven’s thumbs up. That’s why I think there’s such a strength in worship. When we worship him, you can’t worship the Lord in spirit and in truth without him being affected. That’s why worship is so important. Well, why do you sing, why do we sing 30, 40 minute worth of songs for? Well, why are you asking? like it matters to you? Those are his songs. And when you worship him, when he’s affected by the worship, the body, the worshiper or worshipers, you can sense God’s pleasure. Remember Eric What’s-His-Name and Chariots of Fire? Whatever his name is, Little, Lytle. That’s a true story, you oughta rent the movie. It’s true. He was supposed to run in the Olympics on a Sunday, and he said, I’m not running on a Sunday. I want to worship the Lord. I can’t. Yeah, I rent the movie. See how it turns out. It’s amazing. This guy asked him, what’s your deal? And he goes, I don’t know. I just know this, that when I’m running, because the guy was an amazing runner. He said, I don’t know, but when I run, I just sense his pleasure. Isn’t that a great line? That’s the way I want to live Christianity, don’t you? Don’t you want to live your Christian life that way that you just sense his pleasure? That is his delight that is given to the life of the believer. And of course, the discipline is the practice. And so I want to give you this verse. This is an awesome, wonderful verse. Very powerful. And trust me, you’re going to want to write it down because you’re going to want to pray this verse into your life. It’s Psalm 37, 4. It’s a very famous verse. It says, delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Keep it up on the screen for a minute. Look at it. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. I believe that’s true because it’s Bible. But as soon as I read that verse, I almost want to apologize for it because it sounds carnal. Hey, are you kidding me? If I delight myself in the Lord, he’s going to give me everything that I want that’s in my heart? You gotta read a little deeper. Delight yourself also, what? In the Lord. Not in the Nordstrom’s catalog. Delight yourself in the home goods catalog or the Lowe’s. No, delight yourself in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Meaning this, that if you delight yourself in the Lord, if you catch the glow of his face, Listen, young people, this is gonna sound nuts to you, but actually get alone with no technology. What? Take the phone out of your pocket, go put it in another room. Seriously, take the headphones out of your ears. Go to another place without any wires connected to you. and get alone and just begin to pray and talk to him and say, Lord, I want to do what Jack was talking about Wednesday night. Help me, God. Help me. I want to think about you. What do I know about you? I know that you’re holy. I know that you’re light. I know that you’re love, God. I know that you are pure and that you’re powerful. Start talking to him. Watch what happens. Have you taken the time to meet him? Watch what happens when all of a sudden he begins to turn on the glow like he did with Moses. He’ll begin to pour on the light in your life. And you’ll come out of that place of being alone and you’ll be completely pumped up for the day or for the challenge or for the issue. Delight yourself also in the Lord and then when it says he’ll give you the desires of your heart, it means this. He’s not gonna give you a Ferrari so you can drive to church faster. That’s not what it means. I’ve already tried that, it doesn’t work. It means that as you are delighting just in the person that he is, he begins, as Charles Spurgeon put it, mind you, he begins to have intercourse with your heart. It’s the deepest relationship that you can experience with God. He begins to change you from glory to glory, from the inside out, a new creation in Christ. Something begins to happen. And the things as we sing in the old hymn, the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. The stuff, all the problems, all the issues, the people stuff, the drama in your life, the issues, the finances, the marriage, the kids, all begin to be shaken and sifted and only that which is worthy remains. And you have a much more clear understanding of what you ought to do. When you come out of his presence, when you come out of his presence, you always have a clear direction of where you should go now rather than a life that’s seemingly confused all the time. Get alone with him. Why? Mark it down. Number one, delight does this. It develops contentment in our hearts. It develops contentment in our hearts. Will you write that down? In Philippians 4.11, we read it, of course. We’ll look at it more deeply right now. It says, now that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned. The word is confirmed by experience in whatever state I’m in to be content. What a wealthy place to be. Imagine how free you can be if Christ rules and reigns your heart. You don’t have to get the next greatest thing on the magazine cover this month to keep your identity or your worth going. No, no, no. Your identity’s in Christ, and now you’ve learned something, that there’s a confirming experience. And what is it, Paul? What is it? In whatever condition, whatever situation that I’m in, I have found this out. I’m content. Wow. Honestly, think. What if we all lost our homes right now? Boom, gone. You say, that would never happen. Let me remind you, you live in Southern California where the earth moves under your feet. What would you do then? What would we do? First of all, whatever we do, we’d be doing it together. But you think, I tell you, our Christianity would grow so much in one month of having to live with one another. Can you imagine? And here’s somebody griping, grumbling, complaining. Let me tell you something, man. You got to make it work. And Paul says, I’ve learned in whatever condition I’m in, I’m content. Paul’s the guy you’d want to go camping with. Because he makes it work. Contentment.
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pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called Disciplines of Delight. Thanks for listening today. We sure appreciate you being here. 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. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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Hey, everybody, have you ever thought about what’s afterlife? Do you know that the Bible teaches life is afterlife? If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, my good friend Philip DeCourcy 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 Harrah’s House Publishers. Get a copy for yourself.
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Life After Life by Philip DeCourcy, Exploring the Bible’s Promises About Heaven and Eternity. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com.
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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.
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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.
