Today on Real Life Radio. My encouragement to you tonight is: if you have stood your ground, now granted, none of us have been perfect parents, but if you have stood for Jesus, that you've presented the word to your kids, that you've given them a witness. That they have something to turn away from. That is the first signs of the hook to bring them back. that they actually have a godly example to come back to.
Are you with me? 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?
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Understand it from a biblical perspective. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called 1 Samuel with a message titled Living Life the Hard Way, Part 2. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets.
So as we continue in chapter 8, We'll see how God was welcome in Samuel's house as well as his heart. But Samuel's sons, who were also judges of Israel, strayed from God. and refused to follow in Samuel's footsteps. You see, back then as well as today, corrupt leaders will win over people with their man-made solutions. But the consequences of this can be devastating as it was for the people of Israel.
They saw the corruption of Samuel's sons and demanded that Samuel appoint an earthly king to rule over them instead.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the people of Israel eventually begin to understand the high cost of wanting a king. They find out that quick fixes rarely end well, and choosing to follow only God would truly have been the answer.
Now, with his message called Living Life the Hard Way, Part 2. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Living life the hard way. We're learning from Samuel That he Did well in his home. Remember?
The Bible says that he had two sons, but they did not walk in the ways of the Lord. They did not walk in the ways of Samuel. And we immediately understood that Samuel was a godly man. Samuel loved the Lord. Yet his sons grew up to not walk in the ways of Samuel.
How can that be? How can that happen?
Well, listen, you may have a A home, you may be raising children, and you're praying and praying, and Asking God to touch them and lead them in the ways of the Lord, or maybe you're on the other side where your children are older. And you're wondering what happened to my prayers. God, I prayed for them, I fasted for them, I would stay awake at nights interceding for them, and they're wayward from you. In the prayer meeting prior to service, tonight, there were people praying for their children to come home, come back to Jesus. How can a child who has been raised in a Christian home, or like Samuel, in a godly home of a great prophet of God, how can they go astray?
How can they wander off? It's very simple. It's very easy. The fact of the matter is, we looked at two of them. Number one, God has no grandchildren.
God has no grandchildren. You must be born again into the family of God. God has children, but He doesn't have grandchildren. Just because your child is growing up in a Christian home does not mean that that child will necessarily go to heaven.
Now, listen, when that child is I'll put it this way: underage, they're not yet accountable before the Lord. That child is protected by your faith. The Bible teaches us this: that if that child, very young, should die. That child goes into the presence of the Lord. I rejoice in that truth.
The Apostle Paul teaches us that where there is no law, there's no knowledge of sin. And Paul says that where there's no preaching of the law, sin is not in the mind. But when the law is established in the heart of a man, in the heart of a child, where the law is clear. They come to be accountable to God. We don't know, and we dare not say what age that is.
That child, that young man, that young gal begins to make that transition from the covering of faith. That the parents By believing in Christ, provide for them, they move out, as it were, from that. envelope or that Umbrella. And they must come to that own Place of faith in God. We noticed last time in our study that God has no grandchildren, and number two, that teen rebellion is often the indication of them coming to that personal place of coming to know God or coming to know the world.
Remember how we talked about when your child begins to Reject authority, namely, number one, they'll reject yours first. Not to get in their face about it. but to fall on your face in prayer for them. When they begin to question authority, know this. Mom and dad know this, that when a child begins to buck you, You are simply a figure of authority.
Internally, they are questioning and bucking and fighting and kicking against God, though they may not even know that yet. But when all is said and done, the fact of the matter is their soul is coming to that place of: hey, who is this God of my parents? Who is this God of my church? Who is this God of Whatever. and they come to that place of struggle.
Be very, very careful to understand that your child is not freaking out, your child is not somehow a freak, that your child is now lost forever because you've worked so hard to raise them in the Lord and now they're rebelling. And some kids rebel worse than others. But I tell you, and and listen. People will say, Well, my child never rebelled at all. You should thank God.
There are some kids who Grow up in a Christian home, they make a wonderful transition. They go right into their own faith. God touches them, and they just go on and. Wow. That's great.
But that's not the norm. Samuel knew the heartbreak of two boys who grew up And a godly home. And yet failed to follow the Lord. In Samuel chapter 8, it says, Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that He made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his first born born Joel And Abaya And they were judges in Bathsheba.
But his sons, verse 3, did not walk in his ways. Those were godly ways, by the way, it's a godly example. But they turned aside after dishonest gain and they took bribes and they perverted. Justice. Then verse 4 says, Of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.
Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. And that sets the theme. for the remainder really of this book. The people are going to cry out, Samuel, you're old. Your sons are grown up, and they should take your place, but they don't walk in your ways.
You would think that the elders of Israel would fall on their face and seek God, but they don't do that. They come to the kingmaker, so to speak. Samuel, the prophet. And they say, make us a king. And did you get that?
Did you hear what they said? Make us a king like all the other nations. Dangerous, tragic. That is the step forward Into a pit. Rather than wait and be still and know that the Lord, He is God.
They're running ahead outside of the Lord. Listen, Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 5 through 8, great portion of Scripture. You know it well. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, and you shall love yourself. shall love him with all of your strength.
And these words, verse 6 says, which I command you this day. shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them, that is the word of God.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, And they shall be, as it were, frontlets between your eyes. What is? The word of God. To whom? The family, the children.
Why?
So goes the family, so goes the nation. Samuel was a man of God, but his children were erring in the way. The nation begins to err in the way. Proverbs 22, verses 5 and 6, again, a well-known passage of Scripture. Proverbs 22, 5 says, that the rebel walks a thorny and treacherous path.
The man who values his soul stays away from it. Teach a child. to choose the right path. and when he is older, he will remain upon it. Living life the hard way is rejecting the things of God.
But the contrast is living a life the right way. Job is an awesome book where it says there in Scripture that Job. Got up in the morning to sacrifice and to intercede and pray for his children, lest perhaps they have sinned. Isn't that amazing? He prayed and interceded for them.
just in case they might have sinned. What a heart. What a great Witness an example. God's blessing the family. We rejoice to see what the Lord is doing.
If you remember from our study last time, We looked at the first point and we considered this: living life the hard way. We saw that it begins at home. It says that his sons did not walk in the ways, but turned aside.
So we saw, first of all, that it all begins at home. Samuel taught his boys at home. Even though they didn't listen, there's no apparent Scriptures that teach us that Samuel's sons ever come back to the Lord. But it begins at home, and we saw this also: that God was in the house of Samuel. He had a witness, like we heard tonight, there was a witness.
That the boys listen, this sounds kind of strange, but I want to encourage you. There was a witness there by Samuel. that his boys could turn away from. Do you hear me on that? It wasn't that there was no witness at all, that they were like without a rudder and they had no hope, because God was in the home.
Samuel was a witness, he was in the house, that is, the Lord was. The boys had a godly example to turn away from. My encouragement to you tonight is: if you have stood your ground, now granted, none of us have been perfect parents, but if you have stood for Jesus, that you've presented the word to your kids, that you've given them a witness. That they have something to turn away from. That is the first signs of the hook to bring them back.
that they actually have a godly example to come back to. Are you with me? When the scripture says they turned aside, that presupposes that they had a godly witness to depart from. Like the prodigal son, he had a godly home to come back to. Two, didn't he?
He didn't have an ungodly home, else he probably wouldn't have come home. at all. Then we saw last time that God was in the heart of Samuel. Samuel's heart concerned him. It was heavy upon his heart.
No doubt he was torn up over the matter. Thirdly, under this point, we saw last time that God was in their thoughts. God was in their thoughts. How so? We know that Jesus says that the Holy Spirit of God has come and He convicts the world of sin.
And the Holy Spirit no doubt convicted people then. He is righteous. He's holy. Samuel had a godly witness, so it stood in the hearts and the minds of his kids, though they, listen, though they rebelled against the witness. It is our experience for all of us in here, even for those of you who may be in here tonight and you don't know Jesus, you don't know him at all, you know what it's like to sin against your own conscience.
But it's not just your conscience you're sinning against, it is the holiness of God. And God uses that in the life of a believer and a non-believer. In the world A non-Christian, a non-believer, someone who hasn't had their sins forgiven? They are swallowed up with guilt. But Thank God that.
When we come to Christ, our guilt is removed. It's very powerful. moment in the conversion. experience. The Bible tells us, and we looked at it last time, that as they turned after or turned aside, after these things.
We remember that in Romans chapter 1, verse 28, it says, for they did not like to retain God in their knowledge or in their thinking. And to those who hold that ground, the Bible says in Romans 1:28, God will give them up to a debased mind.
Now, no man knows when that happens, only God knows. But what a horrible thought that if tonight you're rebelling against God and you're thinking, well, hey, I can do whatever I want, I'm getting away with it, I can just live as I please. Know this. That you will either A, come back to Christ or come to Him tonight. Or you will harden your heart against God, and the Bible says that He will grant you a debased mind.
Isn't that a scary thing? To think? The Bible says in Genesis that my spirit will not always strive with man, God says. There comes a time when he gives up. 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. And then we come to where we left off last time in our study.
Verses 4 through 5. Living life the hard way means that this. Direction that rebellion takes. Spreads among the community itself. Look at verse 4.
It says: Then all of the leaders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel. There it is home The leaders become corrupt. The elders began to seek after, listen, the elders began to seek after. a man-made remedy to their problem. God was to lead Israel.
God was to be the one that led them along. They were different from all other nations of the earth. And they were to be that way. But the elders come, and rather than say, Let's fast and pray and seek God, the elders said, Samuel, you're old, your sons are a bunch of jerks, so what we're asking is. Make us a king.
We want a political leader like all the other nations have. In Proverbs 29, verse 18, the Bible says, where there is no vision, the people Perish, and that's certainly true for a family where there is no vision for the family. If God is not present, your children, your home, will perish. It's a dangerous thing. It's really a failure to include God in every aspect of your daily life.
There is a great danger for What I call recreational Christians. They come out on Sunday morning. They carry their Bible. They come to church, maybe. Don't even open up their Bible.
Sometimes I see people and it really, it really drives me crazy. to see people come to church without a Bible.
Now, if they don't have a Bible and they're coming for the first time, I understand that. That's why we have Bibles all over the place. Give them a Bible. Hopefully they'll steal it and take it home and read it, you know. But give them a Bible.
But I see people coming and they don't have a Bible. I'm wondering: well, they must be new believers, or they must not even be believers at all. They haven't gotten into the. groove of holding the Word of God and having it near to them. And that's so very important.
Of course, carrying a Bible doesn't make you a Christian. But it speaks of maybe a hunger or a yearning that's in your heart. The leaders became corrupt in that they didn't seek God. They came and they asked for something of the world. They came in to Samuel expecting a worldly remedy to their problem.
They failed to include God in every aspect of their lives, and that's a very, very sad thing. They resorted to human efforts. Make us a king. They're going to require of Samuel. Another thing in verse 5, we see that the leaders who are obviously commanding the nation.
That the nation itself begins to be corrupt. It says in verse 5: And they said to him, That is Samuel, Look, ye are old, and your sons do not walk in your way.
Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Their excuse. is lame. We want to have a leader. That we can touch and feel and see, one that we can.
Relate to. Make us a king. What a strange request. Make us a king. That's what they're asking for.
And it all begins, listen. It all begins with the children, the two boys, that manifested to the leadership, that manifested to the nation. If you keep reading, and we shall. Samuel. and go through these two books of Samuel.
The entire nation will become corrupt. the entire nation will be led into judgment. Where did it begin? With two men who failed to take the reins from their father. You say, Jack, you know, that's just the Bible story.
Wait a minute. If you go to Germany, One of the very, very... Sad things that you'll experience today among the older people is that they're carrying a heavy load upon them, and they will apologize to you as a German. For it. Adolf Hitler's antics.
How could one man take a nation, hey, a world? Almost to the brink of disaster. One man. It's been said that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Don't laugh that off.
Hudson Taylor, one man brought the gospel to China. And from Hudson Taylor's 30 plus years of ministry, one man was converted. One. In 30 years. I would have quit.
30 years, one man converted, Hudson Taylor dies. That one man becomes responsible for leading millions of people to Christ. One man, one woman can change the course of human history. All because God can govern over your heart. The tragic thing is, you and I approach God, and we have this.
It can't happen with me attitude. God wants to do radical things in your life. He wants to do it with us. And the nation began to decline. And they ask this horrible thing: Samuel, give us a king, make us a king.
like all the other nations. The family, listen, the church. The nation. Will go in the same groove, the same path. How is Calvary Chapel?
How is this church? It's only as strong as the families that are represented in this church. You say, well, you know, what's my family? Nobody even knows our names. This church is as strong as your family is.
Now some of you are saying praise the Lord Some of you are saying, oh oh. But here's the awesome thing. God's word has been given for our learning. Where are we right now in our families? It can change tonight.
Where are we with our church? It can change tonight. Can the nation change tonight? Absolutely. God said, Of my people who are called by my name, Will seek my face and pray.
He goes on to say, I will hear from heaven.
Well, let me ask you, when does he hear? The moment his people seek his face. I am afraid that we don't believe God anymore. Yeah, we trust them for the big one. You know what the big one is?
The big one is heaven. Just get me there, God. But we're living like paupers now. We just get by in a spiritual sense when we should be great. In our exploits for God, Daniel 11:32 tells us that those who know their God shall carry out great exploits.
Where? In heaven? What are we going to do there? Can't evangelize anybody, they're all saved. You can't take care of the homeless.
Everybody's got a mansion. It's here, it's now. By the way, Daniel 11. Is in the context of the days of the Antichrist yet to come. And those who know their God will carry out great exploits.
How much more shall we be able to carry out great exploits now? But listen, the family of the church shouldn't look anything like the world. They're asking for Israel to look like just The world does. God says no. That was never his desire.
The family should look altogether different than what the world. Portrays family. Have you seen how the world portrays family? Gee whiz! What a freaked out.
Mess! The world depicts the family as a joke. Have you noticed on these sitcom things I hope you haven't noticed. Hope you don't even watch them. But you can learn everything about it from the little clip.
Watch so-and-so tonight at 7. It's idiocy And rarely is there, if at all, a normal family. In fact, if there is somewhat of a normal family in the program that I'm thinking about, I've watched it twice, it's not normal. is a seventh heaven. Everybody watches it because it's so unique.
I watch it and get all bent out of shape because that pastor looks like he's got all the time in the world. I got news for it. That is the Hollywood version of the pastor. That guy's available for everybody at every moment. Comments.
Teen Wiz. That guy gives my calling a bad rap. He just sits around and waits for a crisis to happen. Yeah. Anyway, we have to keep going because we're going to get this chapter done.
We're not going to do a part three on this one. Listen, the way of the world is the way. Without God. The way of the world is a nation without God. And the way of the world is a family without God.
There is an absolute Venture. In screenwriters and Authors of books, there is a demonic effort. To dismantle the family, the nation. The home. Know it.
Understand that. Why?
Make America that was once great like all the other nations of the world. That's the cry right now. If you go into the international community and say that Jesus Christ is Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, You're going to be expelled and thrown out. You can't talk about things like that. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes.
Here on Real Life Radio, and a message called Living Life the Hard Way, Part 2. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel. A series highlighting the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest ages. his calling to bring the people back to a true heart of worship.
And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. The culture is shifting. Pressure is rising. Faith is being tested.
Now is the moment to take a stand. Pastor Jack Hibbs' brand new book, Call to Take a Bold Stand, Resilient and Effective Faith for a Godless Age, is not just another Christian read, it's a call to action. A roadmap for every believer who longs to live with courage when the world demands compromise. With biblical truth, real-life conviction, and a forward from Franklin Graham, Jack equips you to face fear without flinching, stand strong when others fall away, live with purpose, clarity, and holy sacrifice in a chaotic world. This is the moment to rise above intimidation.
to hold fast to truth and to let your faith influence a culture desperate for life. Don't wait. Order called to take a bold stand by Pastor Jack Gibbs. For a gift of any amount at jackibs.com slash real radio. That's jackkibbs.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.
