Today on Real Life Radio. Lives are being injured and hurt and ruined, and there seems to be no way out, and God is waiting for the man. to come. Have we not all singing when a man gives his heart to the Lord, what happens in a home? It's awesome.
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. You ever feel like your Christian values are under constant assault? In a world where biblical truth is often labeled hateful or backward, how do we stand firm without becoming combative or isolated?
Pastor Jack Hibbs wants to help you find answers with this month's featured resource, When Culture Hates You. It's written by Natasha Crane. And in this straight-talking book, you'll discover how to tackle tough conversations, maintain biblical convictions, and respond to cultural hostility with both grace and truth.
Now, think of it as your essential guide for navigating a world that often views faith as the enemy. You'll learn how to speak confidently on issues of morality, identity, and belief without losing sight of God's love because sometimes the strongest stance is one that balances conviction with compassion.
Now, if you're ready to stand strong in ever-shifting culture, look no further. When culture hates you, it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. One more time, jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack now continues with his series called The Parables of Jesus and a message titled Parable of the Great Supper.
Whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke using relatable stories with common everyday themes, and the Bible calls these parables. Jesus shared this parable during his last week here on earth. And Jesus extends an invitation to all of us. Anyone who answers his invitation will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that our God is generous beyond our imagination. He wants us to be with Him in heaven. But if we think we have eternal life like the religious leaders of his day did, we are truly mistaken. We have to come to him leaving our excuses behind.
Now, with his message called Parable of the Great Supper, here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Higgs. Jesus is trying to get the audience to understand that God is like a certain man who wants to invite people to a grand party. to a beautiful gathering.
Now We are going to hear some excuses. And I want you to mark these things down. Look at this. We learn from Oh, what verse? Six uh The first excuse comes where?
In verse 18, but they with one accord, mark that in your Bibles, they all have, watch, they all have exactly the same spirit of thinking. It doesn't mean they're texting one another and they're, what's your gonna be response? No, no, no, no. They're independent. They're not in contact with one another.
But each of them have the exact same spirit of response. They initially commit When it comes to the actual event They all have this thought in mind. I gotta think of an excuse. They don't have a real excuse. Are you with me?
They don't have a real excuse, they've gotta think of an excuse. We've all been there, haven't we? When someone says, oh, you're going to come, you're going to go, you're going to do this, and you're thinking, oh, man. I don't want to go. And in your mind, you're thinking, I gotta think of something quick.
You know that thing? Don't look at me like that. You know exactly what I'm talking about. That's exactly the spirit of these. Regarding the invite.
Oh man, it's when? I said kinda yes a month ago. It's when? in a few days. Oh!
Oh, you know what? I just remembered. Right? Each of these excuses that you're going to hear are a smoke screen. for them not wanting to be involved.
And this is going to be quite shocking, I think, as we come. Through this, verse 18. But they all with one accord, united in the same spirit or belief, began to make excuses. first guy. said to him, I have bought A piece of ground.
And I must go and see it. I ask you. to have me excused. One commentator points out, I forget who it was, it's very, very funny. He points out that in the Jewish culture which Jesus is addressing here.
That it was the custom of the Jews We would say today, don't buy anything unless you kick the tires. You know what that means? Anyone remember what that means? No, few of us do. If there's a newer analogy, let me hear it.
But if you're In other words we would say today, don't don't buy the car unless you test drive it. Show me the perfects. Show me the what? The carpet? Show me the Carfax.
Okay, there you go.
Okay, so watch. Yeah. This one commentator points out that there, in the culture, nobody would buy a thing in the Jewish culture. Unless you absolutely Tasted it. Kicked its tires, checked the car facts, whatever the situation, you didn't do anything.
Because you want to be absolutely sure. And that's good practice. That's good in anything, okay?
So this guy is, Jesus is saying, And the crowd knew the answer. Jesus, in fact, if we were doing it right now, If Jesus was speaking to us, you'd say, you know, there was this one guy. And he said he couldn't come. Because He bought some land and he needed to go see the land he bought. Everybody in the room would go, what?
What a jerk. Are you with me? No one buys land. Without walking it and In fact, you don't even buy land because you walked it. You better get a title report, and you better get all kinds of investigation first.
Two even before you commit. And so they're all going. This story he's telling. What a bunch of dops! Who would buy land?
without seeing it. Jesus is radically setting them up. Actually, Jesus is taking advantage of them setting themselves up. This man's excuse gets weaker. Again, who buys land without seeing it?
It's a poor investment. If you put money down for something you didn't test or look at, Not smart with your money. And listen, the invite. The invite was to a formal dinner. The word here to a supper, it's not lunch.
It's not brunch. It's supper. The word means an evening meal, a formal evening meal. This was the big deal. You're gonna dress up with your best robe?
You're going to put on your best sandals? This is a big deal. And the guy goes, I got to go check out some land. His timing is even off. You don't go check out Land in the Dark.
You go to the party in the dark. You look at the land and the day. The excuse has fallen apart in the audience, and everybody around is looking at Jesus saying, okay, we get this. Duh. Look at verse 19.
And another one said, I have bought five yoke of oxen. This is a huge investment. I'm going to test them. I ask you to have me excused. This man's excuse gets weaker.
Number one, who buys oxen without testing them? Are they alive?
Somebody said to this guy, Hey, you want to buy my oxen? How many of them? There are five of them. Oh yeah, I'll buy 'em. This is insane.
And everybody in the room when Jesus is speaking is going Who would do this? This guy needs his. Head checked. This is crazy. Who would buy all these oxen?
Well It's another poor investment, is it not? He's been asked to a formal supper. He's gonna listen, this is great. You go to a formal supper at night. I just said that a moment ago and I'm going to say it again and with the third excuse.
You dress up for this event. You don't yoke up five oxen in the middle of the night. And pull them out in the field to see how strong and stable they are. Can they pull a straight line for a furrow with your plow? People in the room are laughing now what Jesus is saying.
Oh, this must be some kind of a joke that the Son of God tells. This is great. This is funny. In fact, listen to this in Luke 21:34. Jesus says, Watch out.
Do not let your hearts be pulled down by carousing and drunkenness. And by the worries of this life, don't let the day catch you unaware like a trap, for that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times and pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man. The interesting thing about this is that. In this man's life, he's announcing about his five oxen.
He doesn't even veil his response. I mean, this guy just says. I've got five oxen, I'm going to go test drive them. End of story. I don't even want to come to your party.
Why? His life is caught up in the cares of life. Look, everyone has to own. I'm making this part up right now. Every one of us have to own our five oxen.
Right? We've got to have clothes to go to work. We've got to have maybe a car or a motorcycle or whatever to get there. You have to have this stuff. It's not a sin to have five oxen.
What's the problem here? The problem here is the stuff I've got. It's becoming an excuse for me to use. to stay away from things that really are important. It's this common stuff.
Listen, it's the common stuff that I've got my tentacles so deeply wrapped into and my heart attached to. It's the everyday stuff. I can't think of anything else but that. Will you come to a party? I can't come.
I've got five oxen. Are you with me? Do you see this? I've got to do these things. That's almost like Martha.
Remember, Martha and Mary? Jesus rebuked Martha. Jesus, she says to To him. Jesus, will you talk to my sister Mary? She just sits around and listens to every word you say.
Tell her to come into the. Isn't it amazing? Martha, because you know, when we get caught up in that tornado. of d of busyness. You miss things.
You can see Martha. She's got her apron. She's got flower on her forehead. Flower on her cheek. Jesus, what's going on here?
Mary. Can you tell her? To help me. In the kitchen. You think the food's just gonna...
And Jesus is Martha. Martha! He had to say her name twice. Arthur, Mary has chosen the best thing to do. Oh, I bet that just got her going.
Unless, could you imagine? Jesus, unless you're going to like speak the food into the existence, which you can do, it would help me out greatly if you did. I need help in the kitchen, Mary. And we forget the supernatural. existence of things.
And you get so caught up in your oxen. And your stuff. And all of this And you don't even have a veiled response. You just simply say, Look, I'm not coming. I got oxen.
I want to go test driving. That's the way it is. I'm not going to come to your silly party. I don't really care about it. This guy's brutally honest.
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.
The third guy in verse 20, still another one, he said, I have. Third argument: married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. J. Vernon McGee says this is the only guy with a good excuse. Can you imagine?
Jesus, I know these other guys have pretty lame excuses here, but I just married a wife. I got a wife. I can't come. She's not letting me come. Isn't this a great this is great But this man's excuse also gets weaker.
Because The man was invited to a formal dinner. And he says, I can't come, I got a wife. Listen, there's not a wife around that is going to miss a formal dinner. This guy could have said Hey, that's cool. Free night out in the town at your mansion?
My wife would love this. This guy says And you know, you know, there's people like this. They love to throw people under the bus. Jesus, you know. Yeah.
You know I'd love to come to your party. But Just So happens, I have a wife, you know, you know, the old ball and chain there. And I can't come. Imagine if he would have to be able to do it. Said, Jesus, we'd love to be there.
My wife will flip over this. Maybe this guy's excuse is the one worst of all because. He's not only not coming himself But he's messing up his family. There's a lot of men today messing up their family because they won't come.
So much, you know? Lives are being injured and hurt and ruined, and there seems to be no way out, and God is waiting for the man. Yeah. Have we not all seen when a man gives his heart to the Lord, what happens in a home? It's awesome.
It's fantastic. I've seen godly women in a home with an ungodly man. And she's pretty stable. She's got the word down, and she's faithful at church, and she's chugging along for Jesus, and it's going great. And then he gets saved.
It's kind of a cute complaint. We've heard it so many times, which I'm grateful to report on. Where he finally accepts Christ, and she accepted the Lord. Lord today. He got saved.
And then a month later, Pastor, he's like... He's like reading everything about God now. That's a good thing.
Well, yeah, I mean, now he's asking me questions I don't know the answer to. I said, that's a good thing. It's so cute. God makes up for lost time. A guy gets saving.
It's awesome. It's incredible. It's like this caterpillar gets wings, man. Born again. And that's an exciting thing, transforms the home.
God has ordained the man to transform the home. I don't understand it. I might even disagree with that. But God God engineered it to be so. Isn't it weird?
It's just so strange. A woman has tried all her life to get the home on order and the kids in line, and a guy finally gets saved, and all of a sudden, God anoints that because God is, He's called a man to this position to lead in the servant leadership role, servant leadership role. The man, so to speak, should be washing the feet of the kids and the wife and. Were you here on Sunday night? Oh my goodness, if you were not here, you were not here.
And you missed the biggie, man. The whole thing. was all about servant leadership. in the home. And it was a fantastic man.
It was exciting.
So, man, I'm not going to do that. Then just stay in the messed up life you have. But if you want to be like Jesus, You'll reach out. In fact, Some of you might need to take notes on this. Uh It's well known to some.
It's this. Marriage was and is And I know we're in California right now. But marriage was and is a sacred institution created by God. And a governor, a couple of judges might try to redefine that. They're just playing God.
They're having a good time. They're goofing around. They're goofing around your life. But what they don't realize is they're messing up with God. And God will settle the score at some point in time, so you don't need to be alarmed by that.
But you don't mess with God's stuff. It's designed and engineered by God. It's an environment, the marriage, and it's an experience engineered by God. And young people today, I understand you because I hear about it. I understand you saying, I will never get married.
and I will never have kids. And when you're asked why, you say, because my parents are horrible at marriage. And I'm not going to do that. And I understand that. But just know this: the reason why your parents are horrible at marriage.
is because they didn't follow God's instruction manual. And just because it was horrible for them, it doesn't have to be horrible for you. Because listen, God... Invented marriage when it's done according to God, there's no other experience on the planet like it.
Well, I'm gonna get a dog. A Christian marriage, listen, everybody, assumes something. A Christian marriage assumes something, and it assumes It's very basic, what it assumes, a Christian marriage.
Now, look, marriage in general. You see, what if two non-Christians get married? Two non-believers are coming into an institution created by God. God actually honors what He made, even if a non-believer is driving it. It's pretty amazing.
But when a Christian couple enters into marriage, what is that all about? This is what it's about. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Here you go.
Make no mistake about this. She's a Christian, he's a Christian. They're both nuts over each other. And they get married. God brings them together.
To double their ministry influence and A fact.
Well then warning. Two Christians serving the Lord. Get married, stop serving the Lord. I've never seen that go well.
Well, we're going to take a year off. You know, the Bible says that in Israel, when they got married, the guy didn't go to war for a year. Oh yeah, you're not Jewish and you're not at war.
Okay, so listen. A lot of people say that, well, we're just going to enjoy each other. You can do that still serving the Lord. It's a dangerous thing. They stop serving the Lord.
They start to. Spiritually cool down. They start losing the grip, as it were, on that anchor. Happens so often. I've seen it so many times.
And their effect and influence for Jesus begins to weaken. The next step is they begin to become more pleasure-centered. I'm not talking about sexual pleasure, I'm not talking about going out to dinner, I'm talking about they wind up spending time that they normally would have spent serving others. In the name of Jesus? They wind up having to make stuff up, like, what do you want to do?
I don't know. What do you want to do? I don't know. Well, let's think of something. How about serving God?
Like you used to do. But no, that doesn't happen. God invented marriage for, listen, God invented marriage. That we would live out a loving, meaningful, and dynamic relationship through that entire process. By the way, children will be brought into the dynamic if God had plans for that, and the children will be brought up in the, what does the Bible say?
The admonition, the knowledge of God. The parents are supposed to teach the kids about God, not Sunday school. The parents. Every day. And you raise up this incredible Christian family.
And In the midst of all of that, God wants Papa bear, mama bear, baby bear. to grow up being those who bear one another's burdens. and the burdens of others. Servant leadership mindset. The mind of Christ.
And when we get off of that, we get messed up. It becomes me time.
Okay. I want. It's all about, you see, this is what happens. It's one of the great indicators that you've departed. From the once nearness of God that you had in your life and you want to be careful about that.
Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes, here on Real Life Radio. with his message called Parable of the Great Supper. 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 highlighting the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering here on this earth.
And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack, this month's featured resource, it's called When Culture Hates You. It's written by Natasha Crane. You really like Natasha, right? I do, Davey.
And the reason is, Natasha. Is one of the great defenders of the faith that we have today. She is on a continuous speaking circuit, defending the truth from the word of God and into the culture. She's fearless. In fact, I've always often joked with a mutual friend of Natasha, Dr.
Frank Turek, and I've always told Dr. Frank Turek: if we had more men like Natasha, the church would be a lot better off because she's fearless and she's all about truth. And she's written a tremendous book, When Culture Hates You. I love the title because if we're going to be actual followers of Jesus Christ, the culture will hate us. It must hate us.
And so it's a great book. I don't want anybody to be scared by the title. But you really need to know, in fact, listen to this. Persevering for the common good as Christians in a hostile public square. That's exactly where we live.
And her book will help you be equipped to do exactly that.
So, if listeners were to take away just, you know, one key point from this book, what would you hope that point would be? Yeah, evaluation, self-evaluation. Who am I? Is this really? A life that describes me as a believer.
Am I? Am I hitting those points? the evidences that Jesus talked about whereby I'm actually a real Christian. I have these kinds of friends that are for me, and I have these kinds of enemies who are against me. And that may sound like a strange thing for people to hear.
But Jesus said, If you love me, The world's gonna hate you. And so the big question comes to us is Is my witness effective enough to where people love it? And people hate it. And that's an important, very deep probing question that we have to ask ourselves in the 21st century as we name the name of Christ. When Culture Hates You, written by Natasha Crane, it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/slash real radio.
One more time, jackhibbs.com slash real radio. 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.
