Today on Real Life Radio. I'm glad I know I'm called. Because when there's difficulties in life, You don't have to look to the right hand or to the left to wonder about or to get someone's input. You know. And God wants that for all of us.
Seek the Lord. The scripture says, well, he may be found. He's got treasures waiting for us. 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. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com.
Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests. Diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It's a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today's headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening now. It's not just about information.
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On today's edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack now continues his series called First Samuel. and a message titled, Hearing the Call of God for Your Life, Part 2.
Now, Samuel of the Old Testament was a man dedicated to God as Israel's last judge. and the first of the prophets who heard and understood the call of God upon his life. You see, as we learned in part one, in desperate times there are desperate needs, and the call from God will come to the proper person.
So just as Samuel was ready for the call, God has called us to be ready as well.
So today Pastor Jack teaches that Samuel's ministry grew more and more powerful with time. And the more Samuel did that, well, the more he was blessed.
Now with his message called Hearing the Call of God for Your Life Part 2. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes. I'm not going to mention his name because he's very well known and A great guy and But I tell you, he was getting ready to do a wonderful Big thing. And behind the scenes, he's chewing his fingernails off and they're starting to bleed. Bleed.
You ever seen fingernails that are bitten so bad that they're starting to bleed? This guy's a man of God. He is a man of God. He's being used by God all around the world. Before the service, he's Nobody sees them like that.
Is it? Oh my gosh. And then. Music stops in the You know, it's Thousands of people are there and he walks out there. Good evening and.
You think, who's that? It's not him. He was in the dug out biting his fingernails off. It's the Lord that's on them. It's the Lord that's on him.
Carrying the color of God for your life. There will be no other call. For us there will be no other call. My friend, listen, when God calls you, there'll be no other call. Verse 19 says, So Samuel grew.
And the Lord was with him. and let none of his words fall to the ground. Listen, one call. Tells all. God will call you once.
He only has to call you once, just like he only has to save you once. He'll call you. And you say, well, Jack, you don't care. If he calls me once, am I going to miss the call? No, no, no, he's remember with Jonah, he's persistence.
But He only calls you once. That is, he's got one call for you.
So listen, if in the body of Christ You're to preach. Don't try to be a parking lot attendant because someone will get in an accident. It's not your thing. Get out of it. Listen, if you're hiding somewhere.
You're hiding, let's say, in the children's ministry, but God wants you preaching on the streets. You know what? Get out of there. And go for what God's called you to do. Why?
Because his call sticks. The calling to ministry is progressive, by the way. The more you step out, the more God blesses you at it, and the more He gives you to do in that area. God blesses faithful ministry with more ministry. Isn't that funny?
I thought God would bless faithful ministry with a vacation. God bless this faithful ministry with more ministry. Romans 11:29, a great passage in the Bible. Romans 11:29 says, For the gifts and the callings of God are given without repentance. That is, God does not change his mind once he's given you a gift or a call.
Isn't that neat?
Somebody can live Like Eli! and be used by God. Remember Eli prophesied To Hannah? Even though Eli was a negligent father, and knew all about the sins of his son, never did anything about it. Of course, God judges him later on.
It's amazing, isn't it weird? It's a strange thing. Samuel's ministry grew more and more with power and with time. And so does the Bible teach us the same thing. Secondly, verse 20, we see here.
There will be no other call than that the call will be continually confirmed in our lives. I love this point. Verse 20: The call will be continually confirmed in our lives. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord. I guarantee you Samuel did not walk around saying, hey, from Dan to Beersheba.
I am a prophet of the Lord. Mm-hmm. Yeah. He never said that. God promoted him.
God put it in the hearts and into the ears of the people. They knew that the Lord had called him. The call will continually be confirmed. The more that you walk in what God has put upon your heart to do, the more sure you become at it. The more Samuel did, the more God blessed him.
The more Samuel spoke, the more God confirmed. Start doing more for him, honestly. And grow more. Hebrews 5, 14. Hebrews 5.14 says, regarding those that Follow Christ, he says that those who, by reason of use, that is, of their lies for God, use of their senses of exercise themselves, To discernment or to use by God.
The more you are used by God and determined to be used by Him. The more you become proficient at what he's called you. Verse 21: thirdly, the called will be blessed. You say, gosh, I wish you put that up front in the beginning, a week ago. No, save the best for last.
The called, that's you and I, will be blessed. Remember we talked about last time when God calls you? It's like, no, please, God, don't call me to do that. He won't do that to you. When God says, I want you to do this, you'll be so excited about it.
So I get out of my way. I gotta do this. I love when God puts things on people's hearts in this church. They get all excited about it. I love it.
The called We'll be blessed verse 21 then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh For the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh, By the word. of the Lord.
Now, how about the Lord appeared again to him in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by experiences. No. By feelings. No. By barking.
No? Roaring. By laying on the crib in the fetal position under Christian therapy and reliving your past. This is the big thing now. No by the word of the Lord.
You want to get healed? You want to be blessed? You want to grow strong? Get into the word of the Lord. It's great.
Samuel found God daily through the word of God. The Lord is more interested, my friend, in The missionary than he is the mission. He's more interested. in the servant than he is the servant. God will never prostitute his people.
He wants you blessed. When the children of Israel were being kicked out of Egypt, What did the Egyptians do? They gave them gold and rings and get out of here. Bless them. They went out rich.
God bless them. Interesting. Paul says, you know what? In this life, I've learned how to be a based. And I've learned how to be abounding.
Paul says, in my life, the riches of Christ are mine. He was connected to heaven. That's a great thing. God will never sacrifice his people. I was reminded of this recently.
The United States of America is the most respected nation on earth for this next thing that I'm going to mention to you. I found it interesting. The United States of America is the most respected nation on earth for this reason. That the United States will launch submarines, aircraft, satellites, thousands of soldiers just to rescue one man that is downed or captured. Did you know that?
I was told this by a US Marine that The enemy would rather let a U.S. Marine escape. Capture. rather than be taken prisoner because, quote, he said, one Marine will bring on an entire nation. Don't you love that?
And you know what's true? Remember when Scott O'Brady went down? But born-again Christian, by the way. He gave his testimony on Larry King Live, gave glory to Jesus so much, nobody else invited him on their programs anymore. Scott O'Grady got shot down over a Serbia.
He was down for I don't know how many days. And hiding at times when he said the enemy was poking in the fields looking for him, and he said up to a couple feet away, they had walked right by him. He had to drink his urine to stay alive. But he had as Those pilots do uh some sort of a Top secret. on his body a transmitter.
It was picked up by satellite, transmitted to an aircraft carrier. And they There were ships waiting and aircraft that went in and pulled the guy out under a hostile environment for one guy. And wouldn't it be great if the Church of Jesus Christ acted like that? The Bible says in Galatians 6.1, By the way, this is all of our call. Brethren, that's Calvary Chapel.
If a man is overtaken in a trespass, that's a sin. You who are spiritual, restore him in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourselves lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Get the submarines, the aircraft carriers, get everybody you can and go after that Christian brother. Bring him back.
Bring him back alive. Very exciting. God wants to bless us. 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. I'll be done with this. I jotted some things down that bless me.
And they may not mean anything to you, but... I'm the one giving this message right now, so I thought I'd say it. Because it blessed me. And that is we have to be blessed by God. before we can bless other people.
I know that sounds selfish. But you need to change your thinking about that. I know there are legalistic people who will say, stop asking things for yourself all the time. I think, listen, when you pray, ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins. And before you get anything else, I think you need to say, Lord, bless me big.
in whatever way you want to. Because you can't bless others unless you're blessed. And I thought about that today. I remember on March 30th, 1981, some of you may remember this day for another reason, by the way. It was a Monday.
March 30th, 1981, And it happened to be my first day at a new job. But it was also the day that President Reagan was shot outside the The hotel. It was also, by the way, the same day That a great author that we all love died and went home to be with Jesus. C.S. Lewis died on that day.
I know. On March 30th, 1981, I started a new job at Baxter.
Well, it wasn't called Baxter Healthcare at that time, American Hospital Supply. Corporation, now Baxter Healthcare in Newport Beach. I remember this. I remember the job was so radically beyond me. As I parked in the parking lot, And I started to walk into the parking lot.
I was so overwhelmed by the job that they had given me, I had no business having it. I was so overwhelmed by it. I remember before I pulled out my... My My entry card, my security card. I remember this.
Chuck Smith at that time was teaching at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in Daniel chapter 1. How do I know this? Because Chuck came to verse 9 and it says, brought Daniel into the court. or into favour and good standing among the king's officials. And I remember before I pulled that thing out standing there saying, God, just like Chuck taught us the other night.
Grant me favor. with these people because I have no business being here. And I put my card in the door and the door, you know, Magic Kingdom. And as God began to bless, I became the supervisor of that laboratory. I had people underneath me working that had been graduates of honors from Johns Hopkins and Northwestern, and they're working for me.
And when I should be cleaning the Parking lot. But listen, I jotted these things down. God put me in that position. I began to share Jesus with other people. I remember the manager coming to me and saying, what are you doing here?
And I said, what do you mean what am I doing here? He goes, no, what are you doing here? I said, I don't understand what you mean. He said, I just got a call from personnel. And you know, you ever work for a big company?
That's the last thing you want to hear: personnel department. And they said, um He said, that personnel said, that any time they call him... To free me up, to counsel with somebody.
So let me go. He says, What are you doing here? I said, I'm not, I'm sitting out at the lunchtime reading my Bible. And people are coming up and asking me stuff and sharing their problems and Well, they got the personnel and now when there's a problem, they're going to call you. How am I supposed to get any work done if you're going to be running down to personnel?
I s I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know. Listen, I thought I wasn't even supposed to be there. Then God blesses more and more.
And because I was a supervisor of the lab, I remember I had a radio installed. And it was on Christian radio. And managers would come in and say, We're going to have a walkthrough pretty soon. Can you please not have Christian radio on? when all these doctors come through for this thing.
Well, I would say, all right. I I'd comply. But in the lab Christian radio going? It's great. I remember also on a Friday, December 15th, 1989, I remember where I was?
And I remember when it was. I had an appointment at the lunch hour at Pastor Chuck's office in Costa Mesa. And I walked in there. And um He put his hand on this shoulder, so if you want to touch my shoulder later, you can. No.
He put his hand on this shoulder and he said, Lord, I ask you to bless Jack and what's going on in Chino Hills. May the fruit remain. In Jesus' name. Amen. And I said Oh.
And about two weeks later, I get in the mail an ordination certificate from Calvary Chapel. And it's like Wow. And there's an awesome verse on there that they put. They put John 15, 5. And John 15, 6 on that ordination certificate, and it says, And I am the vine, and you are the branches, and he who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.
And then John 15, 16 says, You did not choose me. Jesus said, but I chose you and I appointed you. That you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That whatever you ask the Father in my name, it will be given to you. Isn't that great?
I loved it. And I thought about this today and putting these notes together, and then I remember. In June. It was a summer. During the Men's Pear Meeting on Saturday night in 1982.
Pastor Don McClurry, now he's doing Calvary Chapel San Jose. He started Redlands Calvary Chapel. His father-in-law, Phil Anderson. Was in the men's prayer ministry. Old guy.
This guy, by the way, was around before Chuck Smith was at Costa Mesa. That's how long he'd been around. And Phil Anderson, we're all praying. There's about 15 to 18 of us in that room, and Phil Anderson walks over during prayer time, puts his hands on my head. And he starts saying The Lord is going to use this man, and this is what's going to happen.
And he's talking out loud in front of these other people. And I'm thinking, honestly, I'm thinking. This old man has snapped. Yeah. And he began to prophesy and it was absolutely...
ridiculous what he was saying. And when he got done, he went and sat back down. When the prayer meeting was over? Everybody went home. I was scared to death to tell my wife what he had said.
And to this day, I think she's the only one who knows. What was said? But I can tell you right now, standing here. Right here? is Very specifically.
One of those things that he had said. And that was in 1982. Why am I saying this? Because I'm glad I know I'm called. Because when there's difficulties in life, You don't have to look to the right hand or to the left to wonder about or to get someone's input.
And no. And God wants that for all of us. Seek the Lord. The scripture says, well, he may be found. He's got treasures waiting for us.
Father, we thank you for your wonderful workings in our lives. You are so Gentle. Lord, I pray tonight. for this church and for us all that we would hear clearly your call. in that path and that direction that you'd have us to go.
Father, I pray that you'd baptize us all with a passion. to hear from you. We ask that prayer. In Jesus' name, Lord, we pray. Amen.
Pastor and Bible Teacher Jack Hughes. Here on Real Life Radio, and his message called Hearing the Call of God for Your Life, Part 2. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel. It's a series highlighting the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest ages.
to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. and will 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. Two things that you've made a major difference in my life. Can I throw this out in front of the audience right now? Two things in particular.
The kind of coffee that you like, I drink it every day. Yes. I won't mention the name, but I drink it every day. Still, I think it was 10 years ago, maybe 20 years ago. Oh, yes, sure.
Also around that same time, you turned me on to Charles Spurgeon. Absolutely. You were the first guy that said the word Charles Spurgeon to me. Let me ask you something. Go ahead.
Do you remember doing for, I believe it was for TBN, you did a Charles Spurgeon video series. I did. You were Charles Spurgeon. That's exactly it. In your voice.
You were acting out sermons and devotions by Charles Spurgeon. You did that back in like 1893. 1894. 94. When I was a younger man.
Well, listen, I mean, Charles Spurgeon's worthy of anyone mimicking his sermons or his devotions. And so the resource for September, this wonderful book, Words of Warning, that's the title of the book. But Davey, I love the subtitle. For those wavering. between belief and unbelief.
All people waver at times between belief and unbelief. It depends on what's going on in your life. I actually think. Everybody needs to get this book because who does not struggle at times where, is God going to show up? Am I going to get that new job?
Is he going to heal my son? Uh you know, when I die, am I really going to go to heaven? This is a great book by Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest communicators ever in human history, truly.
Now Spurgeon was a guy who didn't hold back. No. Right.
So how do you think this book lines up with what you're always encouraging us to do today? Live bold. Live a bold and honest faith.
Well, he lived it. He did. He preached. He crafted his sermons. Again, all of them biblically based.
He crafted them. And then he went and delivered them. And then after he said amen, Spurgeon was famous for going out and living them. Yes. And a lot of people don't realize that you're talking about an era, say, 1863, where When he issued a sermon in London, His sermons were Reproduced and sent out in newspaper form all around the world.
All around the world. He was probably the most read minister of his time. And the power behind Charles Spurgeon was his command of English.
Now, many of us don't have that command. Oh, fantastic. His understanding of the truth, well, we. Thank God, understand the truth. But he lived it out and We can say We can't tell.
My favorite quote from uh Charles Burgen. as a as a not very small man myself. He said, The barrel chested man is probably called to be a preacher. You are talking about the book Lectures to My Students by Charles Burton. And that's exactly right.
Think about it. In those days, he doubted a man's calling to the pulpit if he didn't have a barrel chest. He weren't large-chested, no microphones. Because he was speaking to over 10,000 people in the audience with no microphones. No microphone.
Isn't that something? And so his understanding back then was you got to be able to bellow, he said. You got to bellow. He's going to be a big feller. And God is not going to call a little feller.
To preach, he's got to call a big filler.
So for people who don't know much about Charles Spurgeon, why is he such a big deal to today's church?
Well, first of all, Spurgeon was a self-taught, basically Genius of a young man. I think he was saved at the age of 16. Having said that, At the age of five and six years of age, he read the famous book, for example, Pilgrim's Progress. He read it nearly 100 times. That's not normal, folks, but listen, here's the deal.
his ability to paint pictures with words, is what I would say was the original technicolor. He's able to communicate in ways. And he, by the way, he was a profound student of nature.
So in his sermons, he would often talk about how this particular time of harvest or this time of seeding or this time of spring or winter, he will communicate in ways that your mind. Will just drive that devotion into your soul in the colors of the rainbow and beyond. I mean, it is high definition. Articulation and logic. That truly glorifies God.
I mean, He just raises the bar in your life to come up into the clouds, where Spurgeon, I think, spent so much time with God. Get words of warning by Charles Spurgeon for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That's 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.
