Today on Real Life Radio. Faith is meaningful Meaningless. It's the object that determines the value of the faith. It's the value of the object that makes the faith worthy or not. 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. 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 Red Coats 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 Red Coats 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. That's The Red Coats 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. Mm-hmm. On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Parables of Jesus with the message titled Parable of the Two Gates and Two Ways, Part 1.
Now see, whenever Jesus spoke to crowds, he often spoke using relatable stories with common everyday themes called parables.
Now in this parable, Jesus is teaching us about a remarkable truth. It's a parable that's often missed, but it sums up the Sermon on the Mount by helping the listener to discover its deeper meaning, that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and we can only find Him through the narrow path of repentance.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that careless or thoughtless living will lead us down the wrong path. The road to hell, it's like a massive freeway filled with good intentions. But Jesus, He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Now, with His message called Parable of the Two Gates and Two Ways, Part 1. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Think of eternity. Apparently We will have to be In the state of Forever. Relish.
Marinate. Ingest. Uh experience The love of God. There has to be timelessness. Because his love Is so vast.
It can't be put on a clock. For you. And then he turns, and then he says, Now, you love, here's the deal, on the path. Love me. And I get embarrassed.
I'm sad to say. I gotta tell you, I gotta be honest with you.
Okay, here I am. I'm reporting for duty, God. All right, great.
Okay, now here's the deal. You you love me.
Okay. All right. That's like somebody coming up and saying to you, Will you be my friend? I mean, no, it's kind of more than that. I can be friendly to you, but friend friendship kind of happens, you know?
It's a relationship. And so here's the deal. Isn't that amazing? Think about real biblical Christianity. God says, okay, follow me, love me.
In fact, if you love me, there's no law. You don't have to worry about any law. You don't have to worry about any rules. You have to worry about any do's or don'ts if you love me.
So just love me, okay.
Okay, let's go. All right. And you think about that. Really? Because when I say, God, I love you.
As soon as it leaves my mouth, it sounds so hollow. I want to bring it back in. It's like I'm sorry I just told you I loved you because In my patheticness, am I capable of loving the eternal God? Did you see today? Where were you today?
What were you doing today? Unless you're in a submarine, it was a beautiful day today. It was amazing. The wind blowing. We actually, there's clouds going by.
It's amazing. The wind was but the trees were moving. And I just said, God. You're so amazing. I told Lisa, I said, 'Cause it was raining earlier this morning and I said, Look at this.
Will you look at this? Only our God, I said. Could lift water Out of the ocean. Put it in a cloud. and move it across the state.
and dump it. At our house. Is that not? Think of it. Can do that.
His thoughts. Hmm, how am I gonna move water from the ocean and put it over Jack's house? I know. I'll make a cloud. How does something so heavy float?
He's amazing. Do you not appreciate this, people? I know you've never seen rain in this. I'm careful. Number three, Jesus would have us require us to enter in by coming on the way of faith.
Repentance, brokenness, faith. Hebrews 11, 6 says, Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently, fervently with a hot heart. Seek him. Number four, enter.
End by coming on the way of trust. This is an issue for all of us. Trust. Behold, Isaiah 12:2 says, God is my salvation. I will trust.
Trust. and not. Be afraid. Listen to this. For Yah, that is the name of the God of the Bible.
Yeah, that's his name. God is what he is. Yah is his name. For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song. He also has become my salvation.
Next, and finally, enter by coming on the way of holiness. The Bible says, God says, be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord.
Now when you hear that, listen. Because I've had many years of battling this in my mind. For years I heard it this way. Jack, be holy, because I'm holy. And I heard it this way.
Jack, you be pure because I'm pure. I'm pure, you be pure. If you're going to be on my team, you've got to be pure because I'm pure. But Lord, I'd start from an impure state. How can I become pure?
And I hate it. Must have understood that for years. When Jesus says, come and follow me, Remember, he turns around as we put our faith in him, in our brokenness, we see that we're sinners and that we can't save ourselves. We come to the end of ourselves. We're about ready to surrender, and the Lord reminds us.
You are now in a state of brokenness. You have repented. That is, you've seen a mind change happen in your life, and you see me, the Lord. To save you and not you yourself. Yes, Lord, I do.
Then exercise your faith. Yes, God, I want to. I have such little faith, but I have faith. Trust me, That's tough. But listen.
He says, you be holy. Because I'm holy. Maybe you need to hear it this way, church. God says, I'm holy. And now you're trusting me, you're following me, you're my kid.
I declare you holy. Yes. You be holy, because I'm holy. The Bible declares us, in fact, Paul said, to the saints. Who are at Rome?
Grace be unto you. To the saints, don't you have to be like sworn in or do some miracles and get some pixie dust from Rome sprinkled on you to become a saint? Nope. To become a saint, some of you tonight can Become a saint according to the Bible, according to God, if you put your trust in Christ tonight and put your faith in Him and understand that your brokenness is not the end of your life, it's just the beginning of your life, and that you accept Jesus Christ then as your Lord and Savior. You trust Him that He died on the cross for your sins.
God declares you righteous. That's holy. You say, What? What? That can happen tonight?
Right now, tonight. What's going to happen to me? you're going to be declared holy. But w what? Yeah, then you're going to get up and you're going to leave this place and you're going to start living different.
How? What do I do? Where do I sign up? Do I work out? Jumping jacks?
What do I do? Diet? What is it? Nope. God does it.
inside of you. That's what I love about. Our God. You don't have to go through all this kind of stuff, get your book signed, stand on your head, give this away, do that, stand there, you know, whatever, and then that's it, you've arrived next. No God does it inside of you.
He does it. And so the holiness That way is Hebrews 12, 14, pursue peace with all people. and holiness without which no one Will see the Lord. Number two. We're almost done, believe it or not.
Number two. is stay away from strangers. Didn't your mom tell you that? Stay away from strangers. Jesus tells us the restrictive part of this.
Portion of scripture. Verse 13, he says, For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. You say, what do you mean stay away from strangers? Um The other way, the world's way, it's very wide. The word is platus.
And it means, listen to this, this is serious. Think about the world that you live in right now. And think about your critics, for example. Jesus said Watch out! Because Here's the word.
Because massive, spacious. Uh accommodating Available universal Is the gate And listen to this. Um Expansive is the way that leads to destruction. Think of that. Jesus said, the broad path with everybody on it?
Speaking in religious terms, Talking about God, maybe even carrying a Bible. Maybe even going to church. Jesus says there's a way that people go. Most people are on that path. It's off the narrow.
It's way Brought, it's so accommodating, it's so universal. Jesus is saying this, I'm not saying this. Does this not sound like our day?
Well, just believe. Have you heard this? Just believe. On Christian programming, I have heard too many times the preacher say, Just have faith. And I'm waiting for him to finish the statement.
And Faith, you don't want to drive with me if I'm listening to this stuff. Just have faith, and God will bless you. Wait, stop, faith, finish the sentence. Just have faith. What, who, where, and what?
They leave you open to think just have faith. Barbara Streisand recently said, Just have faith. Mick Jager said, keep the faith. What faith? In what?
Faith is me. Meaningless. It's the object that determines the value of the faith. It's the value of the object that makes the faith worthy or not. 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. It's the value of the object that makes the faith worthy or not.
That's why, do you have unbelievers in your life? And they love you, but they're poking your life. They try to poke you. And I like them for this. You need them, and I need them.
You want to know why? They're really going like this. Oh, so did you go to church this weekend? Yeah, I sure did. What'd you learn?
Would you learn about it? Would you learn? Don't they? It's awesome. You have family like that?
Who doesn't have family like that? Those people are sent to us by God. Number one, it's the people who are silent that I'm worried about. The people that are good.
So, what did you learn in your Bible study? Hmm? Yeah. You know what they're actually doing? Translation.
Dude, I wish you'd tell me something profound about what you heard at church because I'm looking to see if your faith, the object of it, Is worthy of my faith.
So I'm going to try to poke to see if you can take it. Because if you can't take it, then I don't need your Bible and I don't need your God if you can't take it.
So I'm going to keep poking you until I get a reaction. Because you know what? I want to believe in someone that can save me. And your God, and your Bible says he can, and I want to make sure by poking you in the eyeball about every half an hour to see if your faith's real. That's what they're saying.
When they want to attack That's a good thing. It's the people who are silent. They're lost, they don't care, they're happy about it. They've never heard his voice. Very, very serious.
Listen, stay away from strangers, meaning this. There are people who are going to say, hey, it. It doesn't matter what you believe, just be sincere. Hitler was sincere. Bin Laden was sincere.
Saddam Hussein was sincere. Sincerity, really. Just be sincere. No. It matters.
Careless, thoughtless living. The word, that word wide is think about it, universally accepting, accommodating. I've driven by churches that say, All are welcome. No kidding. All are welcome.
Every church is that you shouldn't have to put it on a marquee. But listen. Are you ready? I have to end, but this is... This may end with what I'm about to say.
All are welcome. But you have to go by his prescribed path. You don't get to make up the path because you're welcome. Jesus doesn't die on the cross. and then be resurrected from the dead and say, well, you know what, whatever.
He was very specific, was he not? The Bible warns us. And then finally, we end with this. Don't do whatever Everyone else does. Don't do what everyone else is doing.
You see, what is that supposed to mean? He says in verse 13, and there are many who go in by it. This is a shocker. The word many here means the much. The larger amount, the word many here means the most, not a few.
The word means, listen, the majority of humanity, Jesus says. goes in by the way that is destruction. These are the words of Jesus. Church, did you hear what I'm saying? Because listen, you blog this tonight, you post that on some Facebook or whatever, and people are going to absolutely go ballistic on you.
Jesus said, few people make it to heaven. I tell you what. Mm-hmm. Think of it. Who said that?
Jesus said it. Very few make it. This is not the Jesus that's being preached today. Jesus says, listen, you got to choose, and people choose the wrong choice. Notice this, and we have to end.
Notice this, he doesn't make you choose. He doesn't grab you by the ear, you know. Don't you want to take other trash? No, no, don't you want? Yes, okay, yeah, I do.
He doesn't do that. But listen, let's pray right now. We got to end. We'll pick this up next time together. But I got to tell you, what have you chosen?
And tonight, if you say, well, you know, I don't need to make a choice, you're in the gray. You're in the gray zone. Here's the one problem. The gray zone only exists in your world, not his world. Remember, Jesus doesn't have a gray zone.
If you die tonight, where would you go? Gray zone. There is no gray zone. Father, we come tonight, and Lord, we ask in the name of Jesus. The Lamb of God.
The Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Savior. The Redeemer. The Lord of hosts. The Almighty God. But Alpha and the omega.
Wonderful. The counselor. The mighty God. And Father, we ask tonight. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, that Maybe, Lord.
There's a heart that's open tonight. That has come to hear the clarity. Of The decision. Yes, for Jesus. Or no for Jesus.
There is no maybe later for Jesus. There is no. I'll think about it, Jesus. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, Christians, please be interceding right now in prayer for anyone tonight that will make a decision. But maybe tonight God is speaking to your heart, and Jesus said, You must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.
That is, you must. Put your faith in him. For he's done it all at the cross for you. And the reason why he did that is because. We are sinners and He is holy and pure.
He's the Savior. Not us. And he declares that if you will come to me, I will not. Turn you away. And so, right where you're at, you see, it's not even raising your hand or coming forward or jumping up.
It's none of that. Because your mind has got to change tonight. And are you willing tonight to change your mind about Jesus? And from this moment on, walk the narrow path with Him. If that's you tonight, I will not elongate this.
If that's you tonight, and you sense God speaking to you and you know that you are to make a decision on this. in the affirmative, in the yes. Raise your hand up and I'll look across the sanctuary. I won't embarrass you. I'm just going to see that your hand is being raised.
God bless you, sir. Anyone else? In the middle as well, off to the side? Anyone else? Over here to my left, God bless you.
Over there? Several of you to my left. To my far left, God bless you. In the very back, God bless you. Anyone else?
In the very hallway. Out in the hall. God bless you. To my right, right here, God bless you. You can put your hands down.
Church, let's all stand together. We're going to pray. Those of you who've raised your hands, stand as well. Everyone, let's stand. And Christians, listen, only Christians.
And those of you who just raised your hands. Um pray this. Out loud.
Okay? And this is not a magic prayer. If you mean it, God receives it, right? Dear Lord, I come tonight. Choosing you.
As my Lord and Savior. I thank you publicly. For dying on the cross for me. and being risen from the dead. I give you my life.
Sins and all. And I receive your love. and your righteousness. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer and you meant it, the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, is coming into your heart and in your life. And he's done that very thing right now. And the manifestation will be not goosebumps, you won't pass out. You won't immediately lose ten pounds in three days. You will go forth from this place tonight.
And your thoughts will be interrupted by the presence of the Holy Spirit. And from this moment on, you'll never be the same. Read your Bible, come to church, or go to a Bible-teaching church. Pray, talk to God in prayer. It's just talking to God in prayer, and start in the Gospel of John.
That will solidify the deity of Jesus Christ. That's the book of His deity, right there. Watch what happens to your life. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes, here on Real Life Radio, with his message called. Parable of the Two Gates and Two Ways, Part 1.
Thanks for joining 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.
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. You know, the Apostle Peter in his letters to the church urged his fellow Christians to keep on learning and growing in the faith in spite of their suffering and pain. Unlike today, however, resources were scarce. Still, they persevered, and Christ's followers were growing in both strength and numbers.
Now, there's no limit of ways to access quality materials on Christian Living. including Pastor Jack's website. when you go to jackhibbs.com and click the media icon. You'll find not only real-life radio episodes, but real-life podcasts, real-life TV, real-life basics for Christian growth, and even news updates. There's also specific verse-by-verse studies from books of the Bible, and so much more.
So, head on over to our website at jackhibbs.com and click on the media tab. That's jackhibbs.com. Are you looking for some solid biblical teaching that speaks to the world today? At jackhibbs.com, you have access to Pastor Jack's entire library of sermons on demand. Anytime.
Anywhere. Whether you're commuting, you're at the gym, or you need a moment of encouragement, You can dive right into some powerful verse-by-verse teachings that make God's Word really come alive. from deep dives into scripture to practical messages on everyday issues. Pastor Jack's teachings help you understand the Bible in a way that's clear, it's relevant, and it's easy to apply. you're going to find sermons that address today's toughest questions.
With biblical insight and hope in the midst of life's challenges.
Now, whether you're new to the faith or you've been around for a long time, these messages are designed to meet you right where you're at and inspire you to grow deeper in your walk with God.
So don't miss out. Visit jackhibbs.com. Why don't you just start exploring the sermon library today? You're gonna like it. That's jackhibbs.com, where powerful teaching is always just a click away.
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.
