In today’s episode, Pastor Jack Hibbs explores the relevance of Jesus’ parables in our modern lives. With a focus on the Parable of the Sower, learn how the various conditions of the soil reflect our own readiness to accept the word of God. Through vibrant analogies and powerful insights, Pastor Jack guides us to examine our hearts and challenges us to grow our faith deeper, beyond mere beliefs.
It’s safe to say most of the world, 99% of the world probably believes in God. That’s why I challenge you guys to always, when you hear that, ask the person, God who? There are a lot of gods out there. Which one?
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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. The cross. For a lot of us, it’s just a symbol that we wear around our necks, right? Display in our homes or maybe hang from the rearview mirror. But what if instead of being a decoration or accessory, the cross motivated and shaped the way we live every single day of our lives? What if it wasn’t about hiding or minimizing our sin, but actually crucifying it in order to move forward in the freedom that Christ offers? Born Crucified, it’s a book by Ellie Maxwell. In this book, you’ll discover what it truly means to live in a cross-centered life. This short but very powerful book is a classic for every Christian’s library. It reminds us that the cross isn’t just a symbol. It’s the key to victory over sin and the power to serve God effectively. Now, if you’re ready to experience the freedom and purpose found in a life centered on the cross, this book is one that you should get. Born Crucified. 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 and a message titled Parable of the Sower, Part 1. Now, whenever Jesus spoke to the masses, he often spoke in parables, and this is the first parable that Jesus taught, a biblical truth that requires a response in the minds and hearts of the people. With the parable of the sower, Jesus is setting the stage for teaching this way in the future. It’s a powerful revelation of truth given to us through Jesus in story form. He’s speaking to the masses of a time long ago, but his parables are just as relevant for us today. Pastor Jack teaches today that the challenge is to listen to the parable of the sower and examine our own hearts. Have we truly accepted salvation, and are we believers who’ve gone forward in spite of criticism or the cares of this life? Now, with his message called Parable of the Sower, Part 1, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Matthew 13, 19. Anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, then look at this, look at this. Then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the wayside. You see how the Bible’s interpreting the Bible? Isn’t it awesome? Now you know that the birds are evil. Jesus even says the wicked one is being revealed in the picture being painted by the birds. Wow, now I get that. Satan comes. Jesus is saying Satan and his workers try to keep you from hearing the word of God. Think of that. You ever go to church and you’re excited and look, this happens to all of us, even Christians. He’s still, in fact, I should address this. Non-Christians, he’s trying to steal the word away from constantly. Then once you become a Christian, he’s trying to steal the word away from you constantly. Why? Because now that he lost your soul, he’s lost you forever. You say, why doesn’t he just give up then and leave me alone? Because you now, though he’s lost you, you are a great threat to the kingdom of hell. Because God wants to use you to rescue your husband or your wife or your mom or dad or your kids or your neighbors. And Satan, he may have lost you, but he is not going to let you succeed because you could be used by God to win others to Christ. That’s why your witness is always under threat. Amen. He’s terrified of you and he hates you profusely. Smile, God loves you. True. Hang on to your seats because Satan hates you. Think of that. I pray, we pray all the time. Pastors, we pray this all the time. And we use this kind of thinking that when demonic forces might go by, let’s say they drive down the street And they’re like those cockroaches in the commercial. They drive down the street. I want them to be afraid of this church. Very important. So listen, can this particular heart be saved? I don’t know how to answer that. I know that it needs to be broken up though. The ground needs to be tilled. The ground needs to be broken up. Can this person who has this heart be saved? I honestly do not know. But I know this, that if the ground is gonna be broken up and able to receive seed, then this is what’s gonna happen. To have it broken up, there’ll be health issues. There’ll be death crises. There’ll be difficulties. There’ll be financial problems. There’ll be spiritual crises. For a heart to be broken up to receive the word of God, if there’s any hope for this heart right here, somehow that ground’s gonna have to be torn up to receive the word of God. Are you with me? Yeah. And that’s why many times you will see people whose lives are going through the ringer. They get knocked down. Their life is, it’s like what in the world’s going on? And then they become a Christian. God in his infinite mercy will only put a person through to the point of them saying yes. He will never, never go one inch or one moment longer or further. That’s how ground is broken up of the heart. When I say ground, I mean the heart. The soil is the heart. The seed is the word. The sower is Jesus. The field is the world. It’s very important. Number three, the parable of the sower, verses five to six, consider the reception. The reception of the word. Look at the second illustrative warning. Matthew 13, five through six. Some seed fell on stony places where they did not have much earth. Notice, it’s not any earth, it’s much, not deep. And they immediately sprang up. So the seed is growing in this picture. Because they had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up, they were scorched. And because they had no root, they withered away. Jesus now is talking about another heart. This is a different kind of heart. This is a different kind of person who hears the word. Watch this. It’s in stony places. In Israel, the fields are like this. If it’s on flat land and Boaz owns this field and Jochebed owns this field, the difference between who owns the fields is delineated by rocks or stones. For those of you who have been with us to Israel, you have seen shepherds’ pens in the middle of the wilderness. We could be in the middle of the desert. We can be on Mount Carmel. Or we could be on the Jericho Road from Jerusalem to Jericho. And what do you see? You see stones built up either as demarcation lines of property or sheepfolds. Stones. When it rains in Israel, stones grow. It’s amazing. Stones everywhere. And when you have a field, you’ve got stones separating the two fields, okay? Sometimes, as I said, on flat land, sometimes it’s land elevated. This field is like this way because it’s on the slope. There’s rocks and stones, and then there’s the next. And here’s the thing. There’ll be earth that will cover much of those stones, but not much earth. And when the seed lands on it, because the sower’s throwing the word of God out liberally to everybody or to all areas of the field… Some of it lands on this kind of dirt, and it looks good to your eyes and my eyes. Oh, look, here’s the amazing thing. When the rain falls, the dirt that is there stays very wet. You would think, are you guys with me? You would think, oh, this is gonna be fantastic. The ground is wet, it’s nice and moist. Watch what happens, and it’s true. The seed hits, but it’s only about three inches deep, the soil, and it’s wet, And it begins to grow quickly in that warm environment. It’s nice and wet though where the roots are at and the roots take off and a sprout begins to grow. And then when the heat becomes to be intense, you think you’ve got this amazing crop going on. And then, oh my goodness, you come out to the field in the afternoon and it’s all wilted over and it’s fallen down. Why? Because there’s no depth to what was going on. Jesus is saying there’s a lot of hearts like that. Think of that for a moment. In Luke 8, verse 13, Jesus talks about the same thing from Luke’s angle. And Luke says this, that Jesus spoke and said, but the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, watch, number one, receive the word with joy. Have you ever seen somebody come to church or go to the crusade or you witness to them and they go, oh my gosh, this is fantastic, and they’re very excited. We’ve all seen this. They’re all pumped about Jesus. It’s incredible, watch. And because, number two, they have no root, the third thing happens. or the third issue is this, who believe for a while and in time, temptation, they fall away. This is profound, watch this. They never allowed themselves or never had the opportunity to go through a trial or difficulty. Christians, listen, if you’re a Christian, God will tailor make you a trial. You say, no, no, you have to have them. Watch the Bible. You’re getting Bible right now. With one verse I read, it gets right into your head. You got it. But that’s not good enough. Not for a Christian. If you want to be a theologian and that’s all you do is write books and talk and you don’t live it and you get your check and then you go home, you can do that. You can have Bible. But if you’re for real, God will take the Bible that just hit your head and went inside your brain through your ears. It’s rolling around in there. God will grab you by the shoulders and shake you a little bit. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Because when he shakes you, it could be a health issue, it could be a person issue, it could be whatever issue. It could be an internal spiritual issue. It could even be the issue of I want more of you, God. Now, look, we all pray that. I pray that all the time. I always pray it because of my lack of faith. I pray it. I mean, that is faith, to pray it. But my lack of faith, I cringe when I pray it. I go like this. God, I want to be as close to you as possible. Please be gentle. Do you know what I’m saying? God, I want everything you want for my life. Just remember mercy as you do it. It’s kind of like a tree. When you go to prune, your trees are your rose bushes. Can you imagine? You’re walking out there with your clippers and the rose is going, no! Can you imagine getting all cut up? And yet the rose, I mean, if the rose knew anything, the rose would know, man, springtime, I’m gonna look better than anybody else. God takes the Word of God in the life of a Christian, sends a trial, and knocks it from the head, and it falls down when he shakes you into your heart. That’s how you become a growing believer.
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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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That’s how you become a growing believer. This person hears the gospel, wow, awesome, woo, awesome. Hey, and most often this person acts like this. We’ve all seen them. And I’m not saying if you’re acting like what I’m gonna say in a moment that you are condemned to hell forever. I am saying you better be careful. You better be careful and you need to embrace God’s work in your life. Here’s what happens. After about two weeks of being a Christian, they’re preachers. And they want to take Billy Graham’s place. And they have visions of a church, and they’re going to be pastoring it in about a month. And they’re going around witnessing to everything, including cars, dogs, and cats. And they’re super zealous. but they have no depth to them, you see? And so somebody either punches them out for being a Christian or what happens most often is they wind up breaking their foot or getting sick or somehow something challenges them in their zeal and they wither up. They just, that shooting star glory is gone. And a lot of people who fit this bill in the parable, they are super loud, super excited, super crazy about God. And over time, they quit. They’re like shooting stars. They’re like going to Disneyland. Everybody at Disneyland, you see the fireworks go off. Oh, wow, wow. Oh, man. And then it’s over. You want some popcorn? Okay, let’s go. Right? It’s over. That’s how they are. Very careful, very serious that we examine our hearts regarding this reception into the heart. We’ve all seen that. The reception of the word of the seed reveals the condition of the heart. And we want to be very careful about that. And so in verse six, it says, but when the sun was up, they were scorched. Wow. Because they had no root and they withered away. Jesus interprets this in Matthew 13, 20. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is the one who hears the word and immediately rejoices with it, with joy. Yet he has no root in himself. Notice, Jesus says inside of him, there’s nothing there. But endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Again, in Luke 8, 13, listen church, Jesus said, these are they who believe for a while. Say, pastor, oh my goodness, I’m afraid I could lose my salvation. That’s not what he said. These are they who believe for a while. There’s a big difference from having belief and having faith. They never allowed their belief to take them into faith. Okay? Belief is almost everybody in the world believes in Jesus. What do you mean you believe in Jesus? It’s safe to say most of the world, 99% of the world probably believes in God. That’s why I challenge you guys to always, when you hear that, ask the person, God who? There are a lot of gods out there. Which one? Okay. God who? I’m a Christian. What kind? Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors. I’m sure Satan’s got a million. Yeah. I’m those kind of Christians that don’t read the Bible. That’s the kind of Christian. I belong to the kind of Christian club that doesn’t worship, doesn’t read the Bible, doesn’t obey God. We’re free. That’s no such thing. Be very careful. You want to examine your heart. Is it time? I thought, Mike, you were just being so blessed by the message. You were just going. All right. Let’s pray. Look, come back next week. What am I supposed to tell you? Father, we thank you that in heaven there’s no time. We thank you, Father God, that as Jesus teaches us again, 2,000 years removed from the moment. And the Holy Spirit takes up the word just as your son promised us and drives it into our hearts even right now. And Lord, the challenge is upon us tonight to examine our hearts to see what kind of believer are we? Are we a believer who we have gone through these challenges? We’ve gone through rejection. We’ve been mocked. or beaten or ridiculed or scorned for the word, and we were happy to do so. We were honored to do so. Or have we been a group of people who have recoiled back when criticized or misrepresented? Have we stepped back from our witness experience Have we been tempted to be ashamed of you? Lord, you know each and every one of our hearts right now. And Father, I just pray that we would open up our spiritual ears to listen to what you’re saying to each of us right now. Are we for real? Are we real Christians? And for a time, we can deceive ourselves and deceive others. We’ll never fool you. And so, Lord, tonight I pray that you would keep us from being seed that… or I should say soil that is on the wayside so that we cannot receive the seed. I pray that you would keep us, Lord, from having the word of God snatched out of our hearts by the wicked one. Even tonight as believers, his desire is to steal away the challenge of the Holy Spirit tonight, to sterilize us so that we don’t share with others. Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that you would shelter us, Lord, by your blood, by your power. that any weapon formed against us would not prosper. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Sower, Part One. Thanks for being with us 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 here on 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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Something amazing has been going on as part of this ministry, and that is our Happening Now series. I mean, you look at that series online, and there’s been millions of views. Jump into that for me, would you?
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Yeah, it was actually started. I saw all of the rhetoric going on some time ago, some years ago, where, if you remember— Most recently, Jesus would be back on this date. And this is what’s going on regarding Bible prophecy and the other thing. So there’s a lot of people panicking. The end of the world is on such and such a date. The Mayan calendar says so. All of this kind of stuff. So what the Lord put upon my heart to do was to debunk all that stuff and to bring truth, biblical worldview truth, into the momentary dynamic of life. So it has kept true to that vision. But it has been expanding. God has seen fit to expand it. So we’ve had many, many Happening Now guests from Ben Shapiro to Dennis Prager to so many others, including Amir Sirfati and Don Stewart and biblical scholars. It’s been amazing. But it has also allowed us to have a good friend of ours, a personal good friend of mine for years, and that is the wonderful young man, Charlie Kirk. Yeah. So Charlie Kirk, uh, he’s probably been with us more happening now than anybody else. But, uh, Charlie Kirk is going to be coming back to be with us in March, March 26th. It’s a Wednesday night, 90 minutes of live unscripted dialogue, uh, in the main sanctuary here at the church that I pastor in Southern California. And it is, there’s nothing like it. You’ve got to experience it. Yes, it’s going to be, it’d be broadcast on the real life network. By the way, everybody should get that app just by going to the app store, download it. It’s free. And you’ll be able to have the real life network with you 24-7, 365. And on that network, it will be broadcast live and will also be streaming from the church. But it’s going to be epic. And, you know, right now, by the way, ever since about two weeks before the election. Charlie has been side-by-side with Trump, and he’s been there in Mar-a-Lago, had to move into Mar-a-Lago for a good while, and now up into D.C. There’s so much happening. So Charlie’s a good friend. We’ve done a lot of great stuff together. Of course, he’s the founder and president of Turning Point USA. I think what’s going to shock a lot of people, we’re going to look at the Book of Chronicles. Specifically, the man of Josiah, Josiah’s life, and how Josiah’s life parallels the moments that we’re living right now in America. Is it possible that God is doing something in the United States, quite shockingly, even in the realm of what we would call politics? God put a non-politician back into the realm of politics yet for a second time.
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Yeah.
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Quite amazing.
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I pay attention to Charlie Kirk online. And some of the stuff that comes out of his mouth, how does a person put that much into his brain?
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Well, first of all, Charlie will not be offended if I say this. He’s a freak. Yeah, gotta be. Charlie is too smart. He’s, I don’t know, his brain, I’m convinced that there’s a cloud of his own that follows him somewhere where the downloads happen. Charlie’s so quick, so fast, and never more entertaining and thrilling than to watch Charlie Kirk on any university campus here throughout the U.S. where Charlie will set up a table and… and a microphone, and he’ll encourage people to come and debate him. And Charlie usually, not usually, he always defeats them with part of his brain tied behind his back. He’ll still win. And he doesn’t demean the people that he’s talking to.
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No, he’s wonderful.
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He’s spirit-filled. And Charlie loves the Lord. I’m telling you right now, him and Erica, Christian home, Christian life, spirit-filled family, loving the Lord.
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I’m jealous of him, though. The fact that he was in the jump seat on Air Force One, are you kidding me?
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Charlie probably gets to go places that we’re not allowed to talk about.
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So at this point, it’s kind of good luck getting a seat if you come to the sanctuary for a Happening Now event?
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I’ve got to be honest with you guys. If you come, you’re going to find this out anyway. On a Happening Now night, people start showing up, standing in line at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
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Remember when there were 20 people in line for these? I mean, it wasn’t that small, but…
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No, I don’t. I never remember that. It’s never been. We have never. I’m being facetious. Davey meant to say.
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I remember you talking about this idea of happening now, and it’s amazing to see how it’s grown over the past few years.
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Yeah, it’s funny you say grow. I mean, from the very first one, there’s been standing room only, and now it’s gone into the overflow of the courtyards and various areas. external sanctuaries here on campus. I mean, it’s a full house. It’s not uncommon for us to have 5,000 people here at a Happening Now.
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That’s Happening Now with special guest Charlie Kirk, Wednesday night, March 26th, 7 p.m. That’s Pacific time. If you can’t come in person, join us online. For more info, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. 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.
