Pastor Jack Hibbs guides us through a crucial lesson derived from the Parables of Jesus, where listeners are invited to confront the thorny challenges of everyday life that often choke out spiritual growth. By examining the worries and distractions that consume us, Pastor Jack offers actionable advice rooted in biblical truths to help reclaim our devotion to God. This episode not only inspires us to prioritize our spiritual lives over worldly cares but also provides tangible ways to nurture our relationship with God and family.
Jesus engineered you. He made you to live a life that brings forth fruit. Isn’t it amazing? God wants you to have a radically exciting, productive, beautiful life that means something to you. He’s radically on your side.
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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 his new series called The Parables of Jesus with his message titled Parable of the Sower Part 2. Whenever Jesus spoke to the masses, he often spoke in parables. Now this is the first parable that Jesus taught. a biblical truth that requires a response in the minds and the hearts of the people. You see, with the parable of the sword, Jesus is asking us to examine our own hearts to see if we truly believe that he is the Christ and that we have received him as our own personal savior. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that if we learn from the parable of the sower and hear God’s Word and want to know it, He will give us understanding and a more productive life wherever we’re planted. Now, with his message called Parable of the Sower, Part 2, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Remember the quintessential Southern California life? It was known to be laid back. It was easy going. I remember things. You guys too, if you grew up in the beach area specifically, I mean, you used to just, we used to drive the cars up and down the beach. And it was just so lazy, California cool, relaxed, and it’s like, amen, whatever, you know. And you could kind of feel how you could really go meditate on the Bible. You could take time to do that. And then everybody realized, you know, it’s just really great to… have the weather here and all this kind of stuff, things built up, things got busy, got to make money, you grow up, you got to pay bills, and it’s like, okay, come on, come on. Okay, Bible. Yeah, let’s do, okay, Bible. Okay, go. And we’re off to something else. Jesus is saying, watch out, the cares of the world will come and choke the word out of your life. Don’t think, any of you who have been Christians for a while think, well, I’ve made it through that. We’re right in it. Because, listen, we could continue on for a good while and become very dull of hearing because cares will begin to take the word out of our life. Listen to this. We all need to write this verse down. Every one of us need to write this verse down. Philippians 4, verse 6. This should be in fortune cookies. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Isn’t that great? Be anxious for nothing. Don’t worry about anything. Oh, really? I’m sure? What do I do? Everything by prayer. In other words, pray about it. Give it to God. And supplication. Get before him on it. Talk to him about it. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Watch what happens. Verse 7. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. Wow. Wow. Will garrison, surround, build a troop around, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This is the eternal word of God. This is the Bible. And what I just read to you is so radically foreign to us because we live in such a constant culture. We drive through the fast food place and we’re wondering, it’s taking them so long. Have you noticed that? Come on. It’s absolutely crazy. It’s absolutely wild. And he’s like, put it in the microwave. Oh, come on. We are sick. We’re caught up, though. We’re caught up in this push. And it can absolutely… You know what? I think it’s safe to say it is robbing us of spiritual growth. Not maybe. It is. Every one of us. We all battle with this. And we need to fight it. We really need to fight this. You know, think about that. How does this sit with you? What if we go home tonight? What’s tomorrow? Thursday. Go home Thursday. You come home from work on Thursday night and you’re going to do an experiment. No TV. No Netflix. No computer. None of that stuff. Bible. Open. You’re gonna talk to God, go to your room, whatever you do, sit in there, I don’t care what you do, but you’re gonna imagine, can you imagine what would happen if you said to your family, hey, you know what? Tonight, we’re gonna, from as soon as dad gets home, we are going to be in the word and we’ll pray for each, you know, you got a test coming up on Friday, we’re gonna pray for your test or whatever it is. There’ll probably be a riot. And that’s to our chagrin. That’s not good. There’s a longevity that God desires that we need to be careful about because the love of the world, the cares of this life, there’s so much bearing down upon us that’s eating us up. And look, our own health or the lack thereof is announcing this in our culture. People are riddled with ulcers and all kinds of things because we’re not taking a true Sabbath with God and resting well. Our nerves, we could be on vacation, but every time you get a text, you’re all tied up in a knot again and you can be in paradise. It’ll ruin your life. We need to pause, think about this. I’m just gonna read this through. This is for me. If it applies to you, great. What are some of the signs of me going through these thorns and weeds and briars of my life And I wrote these down. I guess indicator number one, our spiritual lungs is often revealed in our prayer life. Do we have a private prayer life? If we don’t, it’s probably because there are thorns choking out that from us. Do I pray with my wife or do you pray with your husband if you’re married? If you don’t, it’s probably because the cares of this world The pressures of home life and stuff because we’re out of kilter, it’s choking. I personally, I don’t think, husband, how many husbands are here tonight? Raise your hands if you’re a husband. Your wife should not leave the house or you should not leave the house without praying for her. I don’t care if it’s a 30 second prayer. God will honor that. And what about praying with our children? Why are we not praying with our children? Because the cares of this world have choked out. Well, it’s time to go to bed. Listen, turn off the Rams playing the goats and go put your kid to bed. Put your kid to bed, tuck him into bed. He’s 19 years old. If you’re a pain, listen, if he’s living in your house, tuck him into bed. I’m serious. Tuck him into bed. I’m dead serious. Tuck him into bed, pray for him. Pray for her. That’s one way. Look, he’ll move out if you do this. No, but I’m serious though. You love him, you pray. If we’re not doing this, you know what? Listen, I know how this is. When I don’t do these things, it’s because the cares of this life have pressured this stuff away. The next thing I thought about, indicator number two, would be personal devotion. That time of meditation. Do I make the time to be alone with God? If I’m not doing it, then it’s because the cares of this life, the thorns, the weeds are taking effect in my life. I don’t care if you’re a pastor, if you’re the Pope, or if you’re a contractor or a nurse, it doesn’t matter. If we’re not going through these things, the cares of this world. are getting the best of us. And I’m thinking we have to fight this constantly. What about my personal thoughts, my private thoughts inside of me? What’s going on? How much of it is just laden and burdened with the cares of this life? And what about personal convictions? Are there things that I’m tolerating in my life Because I’ve been too busy to sit down and talk with God that he would probably definitely tell me, Jack, I want you to turn right or turn left regarding these issues. And the third indicator would be in the area of public witness. The cares of this life, the desire for pleasure, And believe it or not, and I know this doesn’t apply to you guys. I mean, you’re faithful on a midweek service, which is amazing. It’s awesome. But church attendance, it’s very vogue right now. Satan’s doing everything he can to beat up churches. And yet the Bible says that you should not forsake the general assembling together as a church. You say, well, it’s tough. Of course it’s tough. Well, I don’t like everybody that’s there. They don’t like you either. It doesn’t matter. You’re still supposed to come together. We’re family. That’s why we don’t get along all the time. We’re a family. Well, it’s really easy with my group of three. Of course it’s easy. But you’ll never get anything done in the world. Don’t do that. This is the hard thing to do. And the Bible says do it. Think of that. If that’s not a priority, it’s probably because the cares of the world have crept into your life.
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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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And then what about evangelizing others? It’s very convicting for all of us. There’s neighbors I’ve not shared the Lord with in my community, and I need to do that. And here’s what I was thinking about today. If I love them, I would go down the street right now. I’d shut this service down because you guys are probably all saved going to heaven Christians here anyway. And what if my neighbor’s going to hell and I need to go there and tell them about the love of Jesus for them? If I really, really, really, really, really took the time to believe that and get away from the cares of the world because here’s the cares of the world. What if my neighbor thinks I’m weird That’s the cares of this world. Right there. But what if they won’t listen? Whatever argument you and I can generate and conjure up will all be linked to self-pride. I don’t want them to think weird of me. I don’t want them to be upset with me. I don’t want them, you see what I’m saying? And why is that the case? Because our love for this world. We want people to think well of us. In the book of Revelation, it says that in heaven, remember this, it dawned on me just recently. In heaven, it says, listen, it doesn’t say there’s not gonna be any tears. We all think so. Read it again. In the book of Revelation, it says that he will wipe away the tears. There’s gonna be a time in judgment when we as believers stand before the Lord that we’re probably, it doesn’t say why we weep. I’m wondering if we weep over opportunities that God wanted us to enjoy and we didn’t do it because we were afraid and we were too much caught up with the cares of this life. And then Jesus says, in closing, some seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop.
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100, 60, 30.
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The volume of production or fruit is not the point. It’s the results. It’s what happens. The Christian Jesus is saying right here, this is key. In Matthew 13, 23, but he who received the seed on good ground is he who hears the word and understands it. And by the way, that’s not some personal attribute of his own. He’s only willing and God gives him the understanding. Who indeed bears fruit and produces some 100, some 60 and some 30. And this is the key. We’re gonna end with this. Do you tonight, don’t answer, just to yourself. Do you tonight, when you hear the word of God, do you want to know it? If you want to know it, then the Bible, Jesus makes it clear, he will give you more understanding if you want it. Remember he said to whom who has, what he does have. If you invest that, meaning if you want God to be in your life, he’ll give you more. More what? Understanding. But he said the one who has, what little he does have, if he doesn’t employ it, if he doesn’t put it, To a willingness, Jesus said what he has will be taken away from him. Why should he? It’s like a little kid. Imagine a little kid who just comes out of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie and he’s got his little eye patch on his eye and he’s got a little bandana on his head and he goes up to his dad and he says, I want a sword. Now what are you gonna do with that little five-year-old with a sword? You’re gonna give him a popsicle stick. There’s your sword. Are you going to give him a sword? Number one, he couldn’t use the sword, but that’s not the point. He’d kill himself with it. Or the dog. He can’t use it. He can’t use it. He doesn’t know how to use it. And he doesn’t even really want to use it. He doesn’t know that yet. Imagine, why would God give to somebody greater light when the light that they do have, they just want to use for evil purposes? Right? Think about it. I have my life. That’s why Jesus warned us about our lives. He said you should take what’s been given to you and don’t hide it under a bushel or don’t bury it in the ground. Because your master will someday return and require from you what was given to you. And Jesus said there will be that wicked servant who will say, listen, all the other guys took what was given to them and they invested their life. Do you guys understand I’m not talking about money or gold or silver? Life. Priceless. God’s gonna come back and say, okay, what did you do with the life I gave you? I did this with it, Lord. And he’s gonna say, well done, awesome. And he’s gonna go to the next guy. And then the Bible says he comes to another guy and listen what the guy says. Jesus says, and what did you do with your life? And he says, I know that you are a hard and ruthless man. So I took it and I just kept it safe and did nothing with it. So here it is. You can have it back. What you gave me 30 years ago, 50 years ago, 85 years ago, here it is, unchanged, just existed in life, had no ventures of faith, had no real belief in you really, played it safe. Here it is. You can have it back. And Jesus said, that master will say to that wicked servant, depart from me into everlasting fire. Why? Because he never took the abilities that he had to believe, to think, to reason. And I’m really ending with this, and I mean this as a challenge. Listen to this. He never took, she never took her thinking seriously and applied it to the existence of God and squandered it. believed in other silly things, other religions. Specifically, I’m thinking atheism. I don’t believe in God. That’s what that guy was really saying. Because when he said, I know you, he calls in the parable that we’ll study in future days, you are very hard and mean. God’s not hard and mean. He perceived God to be hard and mean. Didn’t know him and had nothing to give back. Jesus engineered you, he made you to live a life that brings forth fruit. Isn’t it amazing? God wants you to have a radically exciting, productive, beautiful life that means something to you. He’s radically on your side. We need to remember that. Let’s pray right now together. Father, Lord, I don’t know where we got it in our minds, that you are somehow rude or austere, cynical, that you’re bitter, that you’re angry, that you have some sort of moratorium on spaces in heaven? What is wrong with us? Lord, maybe for some of us, we have carried our earthly relationships with our parents into our spiritual relationship with you. And we’ve imposed upon you, Lord, our earthly parental example and made you the same. Maybe just a bigger version, I don’t know. Maybe we’ve believed just enough, not so much, because we have entertained the cares of this world. money, position, place, where we appear in the picture, status. We’ve made that the pursuit of our life and we’ve been preoccupied with the cares of this life. And the word is being choked And we ask you, Lord, tonight as a church, as a people, to forgive us of our idolatry. And Lord, I absolutely confess that in my own life. And it’s amazing to me because it doesn’t have to be, it’s not even bad stuff. I make it bad stuff. It can be a tree, it can be plants, it can be grass, it can be, I’m always thinking about Just my history and all from Hawaii. Now, I need to be in Hawaii. There’s too much clouds today. I should be in Hawaii. I can make it an idol. You made beautiful islands and I turn around and make it some ridiculous idol. We can do that with cars. We can do that with people. That person can become an idol in our lives and we let that happen. And Lord, tonight, how we are reminded how much we need your forgiveness, your grace, your mercy in our lives to readjust us, to realign us. And Lord, if there’s anybody here tonight that is not a Christian, they may have been told they’re a Christian. They may think they have that label on them, but there’s no real living life of Jesus in them. That tonight, Lord, you’d reach them. that the message of the cross, the sowing of the seed, that Jesus loves them, came and died on the cross for them, rose again from the grave for them, that you’re the God of the Bible, you’re the Messiah of the Word of God, and you’re coming back, your Bible says. How awesome is that? But you are now willing, you are very able, and desirous that if someone tonight would say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins and I wanna have this life with you, I wanna live with you, I wanna live for you, I wanna become a new person. Then Lord, reach them. Father, we thank you as a church, as a people, may your word, may we be galvanized by your Holy Spirit to bring others into the loving family of God. So Lord, as we go from this place, energize us. In Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Sower Part 2. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus Christ while he was ministering right 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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are you looking for answers in a rapidly changing world are you ready to engage in some meaningful conversation about the issues that face our nation and face our faith you can join pastor jack hibbs and his special guest charlie kirk for the next happening now that’s coming up wednesday march 26 that’s 7 p.m pacific now this dynamic event is held live at calvary chapel chino hills and it’s streamed online too by the way and that’s on the real life network Pastor Jack and Charlie offer some timely discussion on current issues from a biblical perspective. You’re going to be equipped, encouraged, and challenged to live out your faith in an ever-shifting culture. Call your friends, bring your questions, and get ready to discover what God’s Word says about the issues that shape our world today. If you’d like more details, go to jackhibbs.com. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to stay informed, inspired, and engaged. Join us for Happening Now and become a part of the conversation. One more time, get all the info you need at jackhibbs.com. You know, as Christians, we have this desire to live out our faith, to become more intentional in ministry so that others we share with can have the life-changing experience of salvation through Jesus Christ. That’s exactly why the Real Life Network was created. Real Life Network offers faith-based content that will strengthen us and the beliefs we value. As big tech, big government, and big business have increased their efforts to silence the teachings of Jesus, the Real Life Network is available on your favorite device. Anytime, anywhere, it really has something for everyone. The whole family can choose from a wide range of categories like culture, current events, faith and politics, as well as programming for kids. So don’t miss out on the relevant life-changing Christian and conservative programming that will inspire you and strengthen your faith. Find the Real Life Network at reallifenetwork.com and sign up for free. That’s reallifenetwork.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.
Pastor Jack Hibbs guides us through a crucial lesson derived from the Parables of Jesus, where listeners are invited to confront the thorny challenges of everyday life that often choke out spiritual growth. By examining the worries and distractions that consume us, Pastor Jack offers actionable advice rooted in biblical truths to help reclaim our devotion to God. This episode not only inspires us to prioritize our spiritual lives over worldly cares but also provides tangible ways to nurture our relationship with God and family.
