Today, Pastor Jack teaches that despair can settle us in for life. In other words, it’s all about deciding to be with Jesus. In any circumstance, or in any dilemma, it’s safer to be with the Lord than with anyone else, in spite of our fears.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen who wait for the morning, more than watchmen who wait for the morning. There’s nothing like the morning coming when you’ve been up all night.
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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. What do you do when heaven feels silent? When you’ve prayed, believed, even begged, and still nothing changes? When the person you love isn’t healed? When the worst actually happens? When it feels like evil is winning? Where is God in all of that? This May, Pastor Jack Hibbs’ featured resource is Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayers by Erwin Lutzer. It’s an honest biblical look at the questions most of us are afraid to say out loud. Not shallow answers, but real hope, real truth, the kind that meets you right in the middle of disappointment and points you back to God’s greater purpose, even when you can’t see it. If you’ve ever wrestled with doubt, confusion, or silence from God, this book is for you. Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayers? It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Get your own copy of the Book of the Month, Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayers? by Dr. Erwin Lutzer at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues in his series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled Disciplines of Despair. In our journey to develop a lifestyle that’s usable by God, despair can sometimes overtake us. But when all seems lost, we can cry out to God who can save us. You see, our deep discouragement or hopelessness can actually be used by God to grow us spiritually. Despair drives us toward Jesus, and when we realize that we can’t fix things on our own, it creates a dependency on the Lord instead of ourselves. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that despair can settle us in for life. In other words, it’s all about deciding to be with Jesus. In any circumstance or any dilemma, it’s safer to be with the Lord than anyone else in spite of our fears. Now, with his message called Disciplines of Despair, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
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Despair opens us up to his ways. You can’t see him rescue unless you’re in trouble. Notice, we’re all going to be in trouble. The Bible says we were all experiencing and we shall experience tribulations and difficulties in this life. That’s going to happen. It’s happened. It’s happening. But he will deliver us his way. But you’ll never know his mighty hand being stretched out to grab you unless you’re in that pit of despair. And it’s a strange thing in the Christian life. When things are going too smooth, maybe I’ll, okay, let me back up. This is my personal thinking. Lord, things have been kind of smooth. Are we okay? I mean, come on, God, give me some hardship, will you? Yeah. Bring it down. I need to know that I’m yours. He said, Jack, you don’t mean that, do you? Listen. If we just walked on water, we’d be light as a feather. We’d be so shallow. We had no character. We’d have no character whatsoever. We would have no depth. There would be no stability to our lives because it’s been so smooth. But when you go through a storm and you’re filled with despair and you cry out, Lord, save me! And his arm stretched out rescues you. Whoa. Why did you doubt? Sorry. It’s not in my notes tonight, but this is bonus points. Bonus points. Years ago. You can read about it online. And I’ll probably mess it up because it’s about a 20, 30-year-old study. I think it was University of the Sequoias up in Northern California. Not sure. It doesn’t matter. A university psychology department took the San Francisco wharf rat and they did a study on him. They took the San Francisco wharf rat and they put him in an aquarium, a bunch of them, and they were swimming around, swimming around, and they drowned. They pulled him out and revived him. Brought him back, recovered them, warmed them up, fed them, got them all happy. And two days later, put him back in the aquarium again and let him drown again. Pulled him out after they drowned and revived them. And they did that over and over and over again. You know why? Because the first time they put the wharf rat in the water, it swam for 15 minutes and then it drowned. And they rescued it and revived it, put him back in the water. He swam for 30 minutes and then he drowned again. Pulled him out of the water, revived him, put him back in the water. He swam for an hour and a half. Drowned, picked him up, put him up. That stinking rat wound up learning how to tread water for three hours before he drowned. See, what’s the point? If a rat can be taught hope. Can’t a human being, can’t we, the children of God, believe? Oh, Lord. Listen, you see, what’s your point? What’s your point? If a rat can learn that his mighty hand will come, his outstretched arm will deliver me from this, then what about us? Who can say tonight? Everything he’s delivered us from thus up till now. Huh? Has he not delivered us? Will he not deliver us? Yes. Well, watch this. If a rat can learn that, why can’t we learn that? We’re so funny because when the news comes, even though he’s delivered us in the past, see, listen to the fine print. Even though he’s delivered us in the past, will he deliver us now? Jesus says, why are you doubting? Why are you doubting? And then, because I know what’s in the back of your head. I can feel it from here. It’s, oh yeah, but what if I’m gonna die? Are you a Christian? Yes. So how do you think you’re gonna get to heaven? How do you go? I just thought I’d like live forever and never have to deal with that. You’re gonna die, man, you’re gonna die. Before you do, you’re gonna pay taxes apparently, a lot of them. And then after you die, you still have to pay taxes now. but you’ll be in heaven, so who cares? Think about it. I saw a bumper sticker years ago. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Why do we think like that? Because we fear that he’s gonna abandon us in the moment. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That’s truth, my friend. For the believer, that’s a reality, and it’s a shadow. I walk through the shadow. The shadow. Death is a shadow. The valley is a shadow. The whole thing. You’re just passing through. And you can’t have shadows without a lot of big light. Despair opens us up to his ways. Peter was the only one who heard those words when Jesus said, I love it, when Jesus said to him, Why are you doubting or why are you afraid? Listen to this. Those are not the words of condemnation from Jesus. Don’t think that Jesus rescued him and then spanked him and put him in the corner of the boat and said, you sit there. Oh, no, no, no, no, uh-uh, no way. Those are awesome words. You know what Jesus is telling Peter? This is so cool. He’s telling Peter, look at this. Oh, ye of little faith, why did you doubt? Jesus is telling Peter, you know what? Good move, dude. That was awesome. Peter, you rock. Got your eyes off me. Saw how big the waves were. Freaked you out, okay? Here’s the cool thing, Peter. You learned a huge lesson tonight on the water. Your faith just grew big time. Good job. Jesus is not rebuking him. Jesus is saying, hey, man, you see, you don’t need to have little faith. Look at you. That’s awesome. Believe. It’s going to be great. You learned a big lesson. In the midst of your despair right now, what is it? Think in your mind. Write that thing that’s despairing to you. It’s your desperation. Jesus is saying, hey, you know what? This is the only thing in your life right now where you and I, we’re working on this, and I’m gonna bring you through this, and when we’re done, you will never be tore up by that again. What are you afraid of tonight? Today, Lisa was, tonight, right before I came down here, she was reaching over to something outside, and she thought she got a spider on her. It was hilarious. I wish I would’ve had a camera. Because she was doing this freaky dance, man. It’s like spider dance. Get it off me. What are you afraid of? I hate snakes. What are you afraid of? God says, hey, that thing, I’m going to work with that. I’m going to work with that in your life. Lord, I have a tendency to be afraid of this or I’m scared of the other thing or I’ve got this fear that someday someone’s going to walk up and they’re going to say or someone’s going to do. And the Lord says, I’m going to work on that. O ye of little faith, listen, don’t be afraid anymore. Don’t doubt, I’m gonna work on that. Psalm 130, verse one says, out of the depths, imagine this, his emotion and his spiritual pressure. He says, out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice. The psalmist cries, let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O Lord, keep a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? Boy, is that not true? No. Imagine that. Pause right there. Keep it up on the screen. Imagine Peter steps out and he starts sinking. And if the Lord did not have mercy and only kept record of our sins, imagine that for a moment. Peter, are you sinking? It’s because you’re a sinner. Almost down, Peter. Almost underwater. It’s because you’re a sinner. He didn’t do that. Who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness. Therefore, you are feared or the word is awed. You put us in awe. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. And in his word, I put my hope. There’s your answer, everybody. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen who wait for the morning. More than watchmen who wait for the morning. There’s nothing like the morning coming when you’ve been up all night. Man, I remember I took the pastors out. And we got together, I think we got to the church at like, I don’t know, I don’t remember, like seven, eight o’clock in the evening. And we drove around the town, the city all night, the city, like we live in a city. We drove around the town, drove around all the schools, parked out in front of the schools and prayed for them. Prayed for the schools, prayed for the teachers, drove around our community, drove around, drove all over. Walked around, drove around. And when it was like about three and four in the morning, it’s like, okay, somebody pray loud. And we got out of the cars and we walked up to the top of the hill in Chino Hills where the big oak tree’s at. The oak of Mamre, that gigantic oak of Abraham’s up there. And we got up there and it was cold and we’re sitting there and the morning began to come. And you know, you’re so tired and we’re just talking about stuff. And I told the guys, I took my kids up here when we were just moved to Chino Hills. We stretched out our hands over these hills in the valley and we said, Lord, deliver them into our hands for your glory. In 1986 or 1886, I don’t know. So we’re talking about that and we stood in the same exact spot. We did the same thing as the sun began to rise. And as soon as the sun came up, everything changes. It’s like, all right, yeah. Yeah, all right, you’re on. Why? Hope, new mercies. Despair evaporates when you set your eyes on the son of his righteousness. He’s amazing.
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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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And so also this. It’s very clear that as Peter began to sink, he cried out. The word cry here is that he cried out for his life. His life was coming to an end. And Jesus says, why did you doubt? I love the confidence of Jesus. And I love the reality of the Bible. You guys, we’re almost done, kind of. So listen, you need to grab onto this. I know this sounds nutty, but I spend a lot of time in airplanes, which I hate. Have you ever seen them when they say, right before you take off, they point to the exits? You follow the lights and it’s still this stuff. And then they’ll say stuff like this. In the event of a water landing, oh boy, sounds great, doesn’t it? In the event of a water landing, they’ll tell you, your life jacket will deploy automatically. And they’ll tell you that upon entering the water, the strobe light will automatically illuminate on your shoulder. It’s like, gosh, that sounds great. Can we do that? Upon entering the water, your life jacket will automatically automatically inflate, and there’ll be a light that goes off. Sharks, here. I’m sure it means to a shark, hey, eat at Joe’s. Hey, look, Bob, there’s another guy in the water. Anyway, I hope you don’t have a flight tomorrow morning to Hawaii or something, but leaving for Honolulu, you know? But imagine, in the event of life’s difficulty, when you enter the water, Jesus, the lifesaver, will appear immediately. And the light of the world will illuminate and rescue you. But I always get a kick out of how those flight attendants are so confident. In the event of a water landing, you put your seatbelt on, and you just duck your head. When we impact, it’s going to be great. And they’re just so… And the Christians should be like that in this world. Hey, you know what? When the moment of death comes and you’re gonna die, okay, all you need to do is call out to the Lord and remember all the things that he’s promised you and he’ll show up for you. You know what I’m saying? Man, we trust in the craziest thing. Oh man, I feel better. I got my life jacket on. You’re going down, man. And then the Bible says, I will be with you, yea, I will uphold you. I will put you upon a firm rock and I’ll see you through. Neither death nor life nor any created thing will be able to separate you from the love of God. And we’re like, oh no, can we believe that? I don’t know, what do you think? But we have our life jacket on in the airplane. It’s unbelievable. Finally this, despair settles us in for life. Well, you say, well, you act like it’s a positive thing. Despair settles us in for life. No, it means this. That despair causes you to make a decision. The darker, the more dangerous, the greater the sink rate of you and your dilemma, the greater God comes through. When our daughter was eight months old, the pediatric hematologist told us she’s got 50% chance of life. 50% chance she’s gonna live or die alive. Only God knows. And we waited for that night. What do you do when those moments hit? Man, Lisa and I prayed, prayed, prayed, and then realized, you know what? She belongs to him anyway. Have you ever come to that point? Your house belongs to God. Your husband belongs to God. Your wife belongs to God. Your kids belong to God. Everything you have belongs to God. And when we wake up to that reality, it’s like, you know what? It all belongs to him. She belongs to him. If she lives or dies, he gave her to us for eight months. Think about that. When you decide to be with Jesus rather than go down in a sinking boat and we tend not to venture out of things, we find ourselves glued to the seat because of fear. or because of the unknown, or doesn’t make sense to get out of a good boat, as we talked about before. And in the end, listen to this. You know what’s embarrassing? In the end, everybody was saved. They all got to the shore in the end. But Peter’s the only guy who could say, hey, James, wanna touch these feet? They walked on water. Only Peter could say that. How was it, Peter, how was it? It was awesome. It was so cool. Only Peter can say that. Do you understand that, you guys? Only Peter could tell you what it’s like to walk on water. He listened to Jesus and stepped out of the boat. For the rest of his life, people could have said to Peter, I want to ask you something about that. How was it? Think about it. He got the chance to boast in the Lord. And when God calls you to step out in something, you ought to step out. In the end, they all made it to the shore, but only Peter. could tell the story. Your moment of despair, you’re gonna get out of it, you’re gonna make it, and you’re gonna be able to tell the story. It settles us in for life. I got a picture today emailed, I want you to see it. It’s about security. This is the cutest picture. You know what that is? That’s a porcupine. That’s a baby porcupine. Now watch, watch this. He has no idea Apparently he thinks that his quills are painful, but they’re not. They’re like hair right now. He doesn’t have to defend himself. He’s got a big mama to take care of him, but he doesn’t know that. So he’s a cute little guy. Now watch as he gets a little bit more. He’s thinking, I’m going to be protected. I’m going to protect myself. Next slide. Look at this. I’m kind of okay. What’s he doing? He’s going inside. He’s a porcupine. Isn’t he cute? You put a little hot sauce on him. He’s so cute. Next slide, next slide. There he is. What’s he thinking? I’m safe in here. Ain’t gonna get me now. I’m all right. People hiding out like that in fear. I’m okay. I’m just hiding out. I’ll live like this. He can’t live like that. He can’t walk anywhere. He can’t eat anything. He can’t do nothing. He can’t go anywhere. He can’t do anything. He can’t walk. He can’t nothing. He can roll, but who’s going to push him? Huh? Look, people, listen, get out of your despair. Call upon the name of the Lord. Watch what happens. Call upon him. Despair settles us in for life. And that is, it causes us to come to the reality of grabbing God’s word and saying, you know what? I am going to stand upon the rock of God’s promises will never fail. And I’m going to choose now to believe that. And I’m going to tell my soul, soul, get up and stand upon this truth. My friend, you grab a Bible verse tonight that ministers to your heart and your despair and you stand on it and you watch what happens. Father, we thank you for your truth and for your word. And right now, while we’re here now, every one of us have got a need to And despair sometimes walks down our street. Sometimes it stands out in front of our house. Sometimes it starts to make its way up the driveway. And that would be terror enough. And sometimes it knocks on the door. Sometimes it creeps through the window. All because we have let it, Lord, be so powerful. We’ve allowed it to be that big. We’ve allowed the waves to become so big and the shadows so dark that we’ve gotten our eyes off of you. And we’re asking you, Father, in Jesus’ name, as a church, as a people, and as a person, as an individual tonight, that in the name of Jesus, we pray now for the filling of your baptism, power of your spirit in our lives. Lord, come upon us with your great wisdom, your great power, and your outstretched arm. And Lord, that you’d pick us up from the miry pit. And Lord, that you’d set us firm upon the rock. And tonight we would leave this place saying, I will follow the Lord. I will believe his word. I will be strong in our Lord most high. Father, we thank you now. While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, tonight, if you’re not a Christian and you’re going through it, you’re in the pit of despair and you are going through it in life. You need to right now pray right where you’re at. You need to say, Lord, I’m asking you now to take control of my life, to take control of my despair. I’m asking you, Jesus, to save me from my sins and from my decisions and from my life. And I’m asking you, Lord, to come in and be the great victor, the king of my life. Jesus, I believe tonight that you died on the cross and rose again from the grave, just as the Bible says, and I give you my life. And you tell him that right now, right where you’re at. You make a decision for Jesus. Nobody needs to hold your hand. Nobody needs to burp you or somehow coddle you right now. You know what you need and you know you need him. Father, bless them now, we pray. And all God’s people said, amen.
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pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called Disciplines of Despair. 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.
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Daniel Cohen here from Israel. If you love Pastor Jack Hibbs’ fearless approach to teaching God’s Word, you’ll love The Real Life Network. It’s built for warriors who want the truth, God’s truth. On The Daniel Cohen Show, we bring you stories the mainstream media downplays. It’s time to start getting your news from people you trust, and it’s totally free. Sign up now at reallifenetwork.com.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
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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.
