Pastor Jack teaches the importance of approaching God with a pure heart, detailing the futility of setting conditions upon divine love. Through the rich story-telling of Jesus, He exposes human tendencies towards self-dependence, exploring the fallacies of perceived wisdom in our youth and the societal challenges that compound these issues. Join the conversation as Pastor Hibbs inspires believers to find fresh perspectives on faith and redemption by reflecting on their own spiritual paths and relationships.
There’s a, I believe, a God-placed fear in the heart that isolation breeds because it’s unnatural. God made us to fellowship and to be with one another.
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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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Hey everybody, we want to introduce you to what we’re calling our Summer Bundle. It’s two great books, and you’re going to want to get them for the little ones in your life. The first book is called Prayers and Promises for Kids. It’s a great resource to not only teach your children about the promises of God, but how do we take those promises and pray them into our lives? You’re going to find this a great resource to develop a prayer life with your child. And then the book, The Redcoats Are Coming. Written by our own Nancy Sanders, who attends our church, it is a great, great book. It is featured by Adventures in Odyssey and the wonderful people at Focus on the Family, Prayers and Promises for Kids, and The Redcoats Are Coming. They’re two children’s books that are very powerful. Get a copy of both these books as we bundle them for the month of July.
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That’s The Redcoats Are Coming and Prayers and Promises for Kids. A couple of great books available as a bundle for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Parables of Jesus and a message titled Parable of the Prodigal Part One. Now, whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke using relatable stories with common everyday themes the Bible calls parables. Now, you see, this parable is one that’s very familiar to a lot of us. But what we may not know is that it’s not just about the sins of the Son and his unlimited extravagance, but about God and his immeasurable love that he has for his people. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that we can’t come to God with conditions. I’ll follow you if you do this or that. Apart from God, we set ourselves up as a God. And the truth is, that never works. But when we do come to Him with a humble and pure heart, He’s never going to turn us away. Now, with his message called, Parable of the Prodigal, Part 1, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hughes.
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Kids don’t, little kids don’t know. They’ll get themselves in deep trouble. They’ll get themselves killed. They’ll walk right over the edge of a cliff. They don’t know. But all of a sudden, we think that when we reach a certain age, I got this. How old are you? I’m 13, I got it. Have you noticed when you reach a certain age, it’s somewhere like around 12 or 13, that you are actually the smartest person in the world. And you know things that no one else has ever discovered. And it’s not until, it depends, it’s not until you reach a certain age when you begin to realize, golly, I don’t think I’m as smart as I thought I was. Up until now, I’ve been a legend in my own mind. Why didn’t this work out? I don’t get it. And that’s a tough thing, you know, because here in America today, we raise our children up and they’re somewhat abiding under our roof to some degree, and then it comes time to all of a sudden send them into what I think is the most destructive atmosphere in America today, and that is our America’s colleges and universities. I’m not talking about necessarily the sciences or engineering or mathematics that’s being taught. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about all the stuff that goes on that has nothing to do with why you’re paying 25, 30, $50,000 a year to keep your kid in school. Because listen, parents, maybe you haven’t heard this yet. But while you’re paying your kids adventure in college, the professors are turning around and telling your children today in school, your parents, by the way, have been wrong all their lives, all your life. You need to reject their authority. You need to walk away and you need to embrace this new thinking. Why does this happen? Because it’s in the heart of a person, like this young man in the parable. The story goes like this in our human heart. Dad, I wish you were dead. In that wish, give me the money that’s due to me. I wanna go do my own thing. And the kid goes and does his own thing. There’s no restraint, he doesn’t answer to anybody. He can do whatever he wants. The Bible says a child left to himself brings reproach to his parents. Making all these decisions with the power to do it. And you can go on down that list. What’s going on here? This is in the heart of a human being. And listen, apparently the more money you have, unrestraint, extravagantly so, the greater the trouble you can get in. Interesting, huh? It’s a very scary thing to consider, where does this come from? Well the greater thing, as we lay the foundation of this study, is throughout it, we’re gonna be focusing on our prodigal God, our extravagant God, to love you. Tonight, you may be so far from God, you may be so incredibly lost, and he loves you. He sees past your sin, watch this. He blows past it. You know all this stuff in your life? He blows right past it. He sees everything, he knows everything. And he connects, he knows. And you’re thinking, he doesn’t know what I’ve done, right? He knows everything you’ve done. He knows everything you’ve thought. Besides that, the Bible says that our hearts are so wicked, we can’t even know what our hearts contain, and he knows that too. And you say, well, man, why don’t you just shoot me now? No, because he loves you. And he wants you, isn’t it amazing? He wants you to be with him. His nature is love. He’s not, watch, he’s not learning to love you. You know that sticker? Actually, I haven’t seen it in about 30 years, but there was a sticker way back, and it said, to know me is to love me. Really? Really? God knows you more than you know you, and he loves you. And it’s not a weak word. Weird love. It’s not that, well, I love you so much, you go do whatever you want to do, and it’s just going to be so good when you and I, we’re like this. No, he says, you know what? I love you so much. Wake up, watch out. You’re in a battlefield. This world has fallen. There’s demonic powers at play. The flesh is trying to pull you down into the pit of hell. I want you to be with me in heaven. I sent my son to die on the cross for you. I paid the price to get you out of here because I’m holy and righteous. The sin of mankind had to be paid for because I’m no bum. I’m not gonna run out on the debt. The debt’s got to be paid. Unrighteousness took place. And so because I’m holy, unrighteousness must be canceled out. That can only be done through righteousness, but there are no righteous men on earth. So what am I going to do? My son is going to die in your place on the cross. And then once he dies on the cross for your mankind sins, to empower what he’s done, he’s going to be resurrected from the dead because sin in the grave couldn’t hold him down. And once he’s risen from the dead, he will be the one who… activates the testament of his sacrifice. The New Testament that is in his blood and his resurrected state as the son of God, he is going to guarantee, because he’s eternal, he’s gonna guarantee your salvation forever. And here’s the deal, though your sins be as scarlet, I’m gonna wash them away. You come to me, you look to my son, my son saves, you come to him. Because I love you, I provided my son. And right now we need to understand something. There’s nothing that the prodigal, notice what Jesus is saying. There’s nothing that the prodigal son and the prodigal father goes through whereby the father says, you know what, son? Good job, you’ve earned my love. It’s not in there. Maybe it’s in your heart. Pastor, what do I do? Jesus said, this is what you must do to do the works of God. Are you ready? Jesus said this. It’s in our human heart. Whoa, okay, what do I do? What do I do? Listen, Jesus said, this is what you do to do the works of God, to enter heaven. What is it? You can imagine all the disciples pull out their tablet or hammer and chisel, right? What is it? Jesus says, believe on him whom God has sent. That’s it. Don’t you want to elaborate on that? No, not when, listen, not when the belief is exactly what this parable is all about. The son went into the world, squandered all of his money, and by the way, I guarantee you this, while a person has money, they’ve got a lot of friends. His money ran out. And then he finds out, well, that’s weird. And then the famine hits, it gets worse. And here’s a, in the story, this is a Hebrew boy, Hebrew young man, and what’s he doing? He’s working for a Gentile at a pig company, at a pig farm. That had to be amazing. And he’s looking at the food that the pigs are eating and he’s hungry and he’s thinking, these pigs have it better than I do. My servants back home in my father’s house got it better than I do. What’s happening? Maybe that’s happening to you tonight. How’s life been going for you? Maybe you’re thinking, man, you know what? I remember when my life was a lot simpler. Okay, good, keep thinking. Well, you know, I did some things. I came into some money or I came into some freedom and I did this and I did that and I kind of messed it up and I kind of got myself into some trouble and listen, Jesus is saying to you tonight, you need to come back. Maybe you’re a Christian tonight and you just got sideways. You got lured away. Listen, it happens all the time. I’ve found that Christians coming back to Jesus can exercise the same amount of pride that an unbeliever exercises. Well, I’m not gonna let anybody know that. You know what? You need to understand something. The whole parable story is that the young man decided, you know what? I’m gonna go back and be a servant at my father’s house if he’ll have me. Isn’t that awesome? Isn’t it awesome that when you are truly repentful, You have no conditions. Oh, honey, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Oh, okay. Well, let’s go to marriage counseling. No way. Then it ain’t happening. He’s sorry for nothing. When we come to God, we have no conditions. Hey, God, I’ll come to you. I’ll accept Jesus as Lord and Savior if you make me rich. Ain’t gonna happen. Hey God, make my life happy, I’ll accept ya. If you make me happy, not gonna happen. You can’t pimp God like that. He’s not a toy. You can’t make a deal with him because you know what? He is pure love. And he makes no deals. That would be less than him. Are you with me? He says, I love you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you to me.
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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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Jeremiah 31.3. I’ve loved you with an everlasting love. And you go, whoa, that’s cool. Cool. No, no, it’s not cool. It’s impossible. It’s fantastic. It’s outrageous. It’s prodigal. You see? It’s extravagant. Is it not? It’s unlimited. Is it not? You and I have spent time in our lives thinking that if we got people to like us, it’d be good. If I just do this self-help program, if I learn to wear a red tie or whatever, you know the need is in your heart. You know it’s there, you can’t deny it, that we are creatures of interaction. Now, I know there’s a man here tonight or a woman here tonight who’ll just say, I don’t need any money. I’ve moved beyond all that. That’s not true and you know it. Especially as you get older. There’s a, I believe, a God-placed fear in the heart that isolation breeds because it’s unnatural. God made us to fellowship and to be with one another. And We’ve tried maybe in our life to get people to like us and it’s never worked. It will never work. God loves you. And he doesn’t want you to bow 25 times or stand up and do this incantation. He doesn’t want you to spin around three times and do this or that or to cross your chest with a cross or poke your eye in it. I don’t know. He doesn’t want that. He wants you to see him for who he is. And he is the God who is extravagant. He is unlimited. He is riotous in his love for you. And he says such things to us like, if you come to me, I’ll never turn you away. Isn’t that a great word? Wouldn’t you love to have that in your relationship? Where that young man or that young woman says to you, if you just come to me, I’ll never turn you away. And you go, oh, oh my gosh. You should put that in like a card or something. And yet God says it to us in the Bible. I love you so much, I’ll give my life for you. Oh my goodness, that should be in, you should write a song. He wrote that in the Bible. Are you with me? Everything you want is in him. And so we’ll be getting into the parable of the prodigal son. And my hope, my desire is that our appreciation of his love for us just explodes. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your preciousness. Jesus. Lord, we think about man’s attempt to do things. It’s pathetic. We will build ourselves a tower. And we’ll scale that tower and we’ll call it Babel and will reach to the heavens and we fall. We send up a telescope into deep space looking, searching for intelligent life and find none. We come to a relationship and place the burden upon someone else’s shoulders to meet all of our needs and to make us the happiest person in the world. And we ask them to make us promises to never leave us, to never hurt us, to always be with us. Good intentions, no doubt. Impossible to fulfill. You are the only promise keeper, God, they’ll ever be. And your promise to us is turn to me and live. For why will you perish, saith the Lord? For I, he says to you, so loved you that I gave my only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. You want your sins forgiven tonight? Jesus is waiting. You want to have your guilt and your conscience cleansed tonight, lifted? You want acceptance, love? You want to change? You want a new life? You want to start over? You want to be new? While heads are bowed and eyes are closed tonight, I’m not asking you to look to a feeling. I don’t care if you have a feeling or not. I’m asking you to make a choice. And is your choice tonight to choose God? If you’re choosing God tonight, if you understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, if you understand tonight that he wants you with him now and forever, Are you willing tonight to walk away by walking to him? Christians be praying, if that’s your decision tonight, if you want a new life, if you want to accept Christ once and for all. Raise your hand up and I’ll look across the sanctuary tonight and I’ll see your hand and I’ll just acknowledge your hand. God bless you on the aisle. God bless you and you. Anyone else? You right here in the back. Several of you to my right. Up front here, God bless you. Anyone else? God bless you. If you raised your hand, you can put it down. God bless you over here to my left. God bless you as well. Awesome. In the back too. Very back as well. God bless you here in the middle. You can put your hands down. What if tonight you’re a Christian and you’re acknowledging that you have wandered? It may have been in thought and deed. It may have been, it doesn’t matter. It’s what God is speaking to you about. And the Lord is speaking to you tonight and he’s saying, you need to come back to me. You need to renew our love relationship. He would be saying to you tonight, my Christian friends, Child, come to me again. Come back now, come. If that’s you tonight, put your hand up wherever you’re at. Christians be praying, heads bowed. Nobody needs to know about this. And look, some of your hands I can see, some I can’t. It’s not me who sees the hands. It’s God sees your display. God bless many of you. Let’s do this. Church, let’s all of us stand together. Let’s raise our hands, all of us. Let’s just stand. Let’s just pray this out loud. Will you do this? Repeat after me. Dear God, I come tonight and I ask you to invade my life. Show me that you’re real where I’m at. Don’t let me forget you. I’m opening my heart my mind, my ears, to listen for you. Jesus, come into my life. Father, for those who have prayed this prayer, I ask Jesus that you’d overwhelm them. For those that are searching tonight, for those who even asked that, not knowing of your existence, how awesome is that? Father, we pray as a church, that you would not let them rest day or night until they hear you. And when they hear you, God, may their finding of you be so sweet as it is. We praise you, God, in Jesus’ name, 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 Parable of the Prodigal Part One. Thanks for being here today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering right here 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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Looking for real answers in real time? JackHibbs.com is your go-to destination for resources on faith, world events, and everything in between. Explore Happening Now, where Pastor Jack Hibbs takes a timely, no-nonsense look at today’s biggest issues, blending biblical insight with the latest headlines. Now, whether you’re curious about the world around you or you want guidance on a personal level, Pastor Jack has you covered. And, by the way, don’t miss the Real Life Network. It’s packed with relatable, family-friendly content that really speaks to everyday challenges and triumphs, offering something really valuable for every member of your family. Now, if you’re new to the faith, you want to refresh your perspective, start with that tab that says Know God, an accessible, welcoming space to learn and reflect and find your footing. Now, whatever your path, jackhibbs.com has the tools and the insights and the encouragement that you need. Tune in, log on, find something real. Once again, the website jackhibbs.com. Pastor Jack, a listener letter from Kevin in South Africa. How about that? He says, I personally have not been a very good Christian for the majority of my 48 years of my walk with the Lord. He says, I wish I had heard you many years ago and then I would not have failed God as much as I have. Kevin says, keep on serving him the way that you have. God bless and thank you, Kevin. Wow, he really shared his heart there, didn’t he?
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Yeah, Kevin. And wow, thank you for listening from South Africa. Kevin, here’s the amazing thing about the Lord. And please read Joel, the book of Joel in your Old Testament. Why? Because there’s going to be a passage of scripture in there, Kevin, that God is going to announce to you that the years that have been eaten up by the worm and the canker worm as well and the grass and the locusts all that wasted time or lost time the lord is able to bring that time back to you to renew the time to bring to you so kevin here’s the thing as you and i approach the nearness of jesus that you can redeem that past by staying close to him now. Just make that a resolve of yours. I’m going to stay close to Jesus no matter what from here on out, period. And you and I will do it together, Kevin, and I’ll see you in heaven.
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Hey, you know, if you’d like to drop a note of encouragement to Pastor Jack, that’d be awesome. He’d really love to see what you have to say about him and how his ministry’s affected your life. So please do that. Go to the Connect tab at jackhibbs.com. That’s the tab labeled Connect at 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.
