Today on real life radio. If ever in doubt, default to God's nature. Didn't God say, I'm gonna take those Ninevites and I'm gonna absolutely judge them? Jonah goes, Oh boy, oh boy, I like to see Ninevites fry. This is great.
40 days, you guys fry! And then they all repent. And Gun says, hold it. Jonah, hold it. They're repenting.
No judgment. They repent. 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 got our first time ever actually devotional. We have a 40-day devotional called Watching Waiting. 40 days of walking you through biblical passages that excite you and prepare you for the soon coming of Jesus Christ. Watching Waiting is a 40-day devotional that's all tied to biblical prophecy. Watching Waiting.
It is our featured resource for this month and it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/slash real radio. Jackhibbs.com/slash real radio. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called 1 Samuel and a message titled When All Else Fails. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of its prophets.
So here in chapter 15, we'll discover that when human plans fail, We have got to turn to God alone. You see, we need to know what to do when every other option is exhausted. As Christ followers, we need to pray instead of panic. King Saul seems to go from one disaster to the next, making some poor choices instead of listening to God.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that failure can be redirected when we repent and rebuild from the inside out. God is aware of our inner life, our motives, and our needs, and He patiently waits for us to humble ourselves and come back to Him when our choices fail us miserably.
Now, with His message called When All Else Fails, here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. Last week I was in Valley Forage. And Under Washington's command, the soldiers were dying so horrifically that there's so many soldiers were dying. And they didn't understand. They told us, they were able to figure this out, and they tell you later, of course, in the tour.
That when somebody would die, they let the people were laying out there in the fields, they had horses dead. And they were camping right next to the dead horse. The horses were beginning to rot. It would go into the ground. It would seep into the water, go down into the creek.
They would scoop up water from the creek. They would drink it. And the soldiers were dying. Can you imagine? They were dying of dysentery.
Can you imagine of uh having diarrhea so bad it kills you?
Soldiers were dying, the disease was everywhere, and it continued until they figured out, A, we must move away from this disease or completely put it in a heap and burn it all. And you see, God is not against the Amalekites because they're Amalekites. I mean, think about it. If ever in doubt, default. to God's nature.
Didn't God say, I'm going to take those Ninevites and I'm going to absolutely judge them? Jonah goes, oh boy, oh boy, I like to see Ninevites fry. This is great. 40 days, you guys fry! And then they all repent.
And God says, hold it. Jonah, hold it. They're repenting. No judgment, they repent. Jonah's all bent out of shape.
What a goofy evangelist. A million people get saved and he's all ticked off about it. What a weirdo. All these guys repent. Listen, God's not against them.
They would not turn from their sins. The Bible speaks that their sins had reached the point. The Amalekites' sins had reached a point where God says, that's it. They got to go.
So before you run out of here thinking, well, that's an evil, wicked God of the Old Testament. I'm not going to read it. No, God is practical, just, holy, loving, caring. And if the Amalekites wouldn't have been destroyed, The disease From their aberrant sexual practices, it would have spread amongst the earth. and killed people.
Now here's the deal. That freaks everybody out. This nation of ours is so stupid. And sick. That We will allow disease to permeate a society and eradicate it.
rather than step in and save life because we might hurt someone's feelings. Your daughter? Can go get an abortion. without you knowing about it. Here's the true story.
But if she comes home from the abortion clinic and bleeds to death in your house because of a complication from the abortion, You are responsible. Sick. is this country. Sick. When you have to report certain sicknesses.
But if you have AIDS Where you're carrying murder in your bloodstream. A doctor can't report that to anybody. Because it's a violation of your privacy, though you are now authorized to have sex with people and kill them. potentially kill them.
So You can have your right. That's sick. It is wrong. That is a sign of a sick culture. When we Watch on Animal Planet.
This tremendous effort to determine if this Pregnancy of an elephant is coming along properly. And as we were watching it, they invented this. Did you see it last night, anybody? They had the. This high-tech infrared system and sonogram that just developed for An elephant uterus and all that, and this guy, this poor guy, he's got his arm.
Up inside there with the scope, and he's looking around, and people are going, Look at the trunk of the little fish. It's only three months along. And it's got a trunk. They were all excited about, well look, we can see the trunk. And right on the mouth Right in the middle of the of the show.
We're watching this thing. And I just said right out loud, Somebody ought to come along right now and abort that thing. And I just did that for effect. No, really, think. Can you imagine?
What if your German shepherd's pregnant? And you take that into the vet. You say, I want these little pieces of flesh. Abortum. Your vet would probably chew you out.
Your vet would probably say, you know, come on, have a heart, will ya? At least put these puppies up for adoption. Come on. But not humans. Micah the prophet says Shall I give the fruit of my womb for the transgression of my soul?
Wow. This is a sick country.
So, before we get all upset, thinking God's on some kind of a crazy rampage and He's killing donkeys and sheep for no reason, take into consideration these people were so weird. That they had somehow, in their pagan practices, even corrupted the bloodline of oxen, sheep. camels and donkeys. That is unbelievably ill. Think about that when you come across this type of.
Scripture. When all else fails, verses seven through nine, obey him in that thing. And Saul attacked the Amalekites. And skipping down to verse 9, because there's the wars going on and they're taking place. They take Agag, he's the king.
Verse 9 says, But Saul and the people spared Agag. Listen, and the best of the sheep, The oxen, the fatlings, the lambs. And all that was good. and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, they utterly destroyed.
Look at this. What did God say? Go in and wipe out everything. Didn't God say that?
So now Saul, he's on his march to do Supposedly, what God said to do through Samuel. But what does look what he decides? We're gonna spare the king. We're not going to kill the king. We're going to keep that disease going.
And you know what? We think that there's some pretty good-looking sheep and oxen and fatlings and lambs and stuff like that. We're going to take what's good. Listen, you guys, this is a great temptation for us as humans. God says this.
You shall do this. And you know what we do? Yeah, we read God. Yeah, that's right. You do that.
And then by the time we get home, we've totally rounded off the edges and put on a little bondo and shaved it down and painted a different color, and we made it us. And we often do this with emotions and feelings. God says this, but I feel like I ought to do the other. How many times do we hear people say, well, I feel like God. wants me to do this.
Okay. What verse in the Bible backs up your feeling?
Well You know what, you're really actually hurting my feelings when you talk to me like that. Look, you can obey your feelings. and crash and burn. You can destroy your life that way. It's not that we shouldn't have feelings.
We should have feelings. I think Christians should have the greatest feelings. But they don't lead our lives. The Bible leads our life.
Okay. 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. But we're to obey God in that thing, and God told them what to do, and then. Samuel, excuse me, Saul and the people, they decide, hmm, I know God said to go slay everything, but that's a good-looking lamb over there, isn't it? Wow, yeah, and that's that's a pretty healthy looking donkey. And the king, nice robes.
Maybe we can take them back. Not a bad deal. They begin to think for God. God said something. And they start to tamper with it.
So they got their King alive, they got some of the livestock. By the way, According to Ancient warfare In fact, I say ancient. It's more modern right now to you and I than you think. Ancient warfare says, if you kill the king, You've got the kingdom. As long as the king's alive?
The kingdom is still Thriving. Are you with me? Do you hear that? That's how the ancient world thought. Kill the king.
End of kingdom. You know who thinks like that right now? It's a fact. They state it clearly. In fact, it's been proven.
Osama bin Laden thinks that way. Kill the king, take the kingdom. Did you know that? It's an ancient Law of the Middle East. You got the king?
You got the kingdom. That's the whole thing behind playing the game of chess, isn't it? Osama bin Laden went after the World Trade Center because the World Trade Center is the focal point of global commerce. Keep that in mind right now, okay? Osama bin Laden went after the Pentagon because it is the symbol of global.
power, military strength. Got that? Very specific. Thanks to the heroics of those on Flight 93. Osama bin Laden was either A going after the White House or after the Capitol, but that was thwarted by those brave.
passengers. Either way. Symbols of Global. Freedom. concerning killing the king to conquer the kingdom.
All I can say is that Osama bin Laden definitely went after the President of the United States personally.
So the problem here is Saul not obeying God. The king is still alive, which means officially The evil kingdom. of the Amalekites is still in power. Keep that in mind. A couple of more minutes and we'll be done.
We won't make it all the way through, obviously, but we're doing okay. in this chapter. When all else fails, look at verses 10 to 13. Saul, when all else fails, humble yourself.
Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, Listen, how sad. I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king. For he has turned back from following me. and he has not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel.
And he cried out to the Lord all night long.
So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, It was told Samuel saying, Listen, Saul went to Carmel. And indeed, he has set up a monument for himself. What a nut. And he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down. He's covering some ground.
He goes to Gilgal. That's a long way. Those of you who've been to Carmel, he went from Mount Carmel. He would have gone down the mountainside across Megiddo. Armageddon, the valley.
He would have headed south East to Gilgal. Remember Gilgal when Joshua and the gang crossed over? They came to Gilgal? That's down by the Jordan River, near Jericho. That's a long way.
And what's he doing? It's a parade. I am Saul. I don't do everything God says that I should do. He's on a parade.
He's parading himself as something, and Samuel's grieved and crying to God because. Saul has failed the Lord terribly. Listen. I believe there's still hope for Saul if he would humble himself. Look at verse thirteen.
Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said, Blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Really, James chapter 4, verse 6. Says But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you. That's an eternal truth.
Now you might say, well, gosh, Jack, you know, go easy on Saul. He didn't have James chapter 4, verse 6. God would have still given him the truth. Saul, draw near to God. He'll draw near to you.
Resist the devil. Saul, don't be so proud. Humble yourself. This is a tough thing for us guys. We need to humble ourselves.
Pride. Arrogance Why do we have to be right? I honestly don't know that question, except that it's pride. But why do we have to be right? All the time.
It's hard for me, though. I have four women that live in our house. Uh three Human and one dog. They're all female though, and they gang up on me and But there's this thing within us. You know, there's a time if a man is left alone to himself, we'll get in fight with an ant.
I mean, what? We're so we'll take on a marshmallow if we have to. That's weird. I know, you know. You know, it's kind of like this, maybe we can justify it.
And don't ever underestimate a man's ability to justify himself. By the way, ladies, that's mankind. It was on sale. Hey! But um Saul's parading himself.
And he's in deep trouble. He's you know, I You read commentaries on this Story here, this event, and the commentators are so divided that it's almost not even worth reading. One guy talks about how great Saul was, but he struggled with the flesh, and down deep inside, he was a wonderful guy. I don't buy that one. I think the people from the very beginning said, you know what, we want a king.
to rule over us like all the other nations have. And Samuel freaked out about that, and God said, Samuel, calm down. They haven't rejected you, they've rejected me. And so I'll give them a king like all the other nations. I think that's a very key word.
I'll give them a king like all the other nations. And remember what their request was? We want him to fight our battles. Yeah. How convenient And Saul in my estimation is a madman.
He's an emotional madman. He shows all the characteristics of a person who does not know God. Can talk about God all he wants. Greetings, Samuel. I have kept the commandments of the Lord.
Can you imagine Sammy just looking at him going, what a ding-dong. King ding-a-ling. Terrible. Pride will kill you. Saul we will see.
In this chapter, Samuel's going to say. Saul, it's over for you. God has found himself another king. And Saul is going to reach and grab Samuel. and tear the prophets Robe.
You never touch a prophet of God's robe. And he tore it. And Samuel turns in his old man way with his finger probably outstretched. And he says, this day, Saul, God has rent the the kingdom from you. For he has chosen your neighbor.
Who is a better man? Yeah. Because of pride. When all else fails, my friend, go to God. Don't lean and depend on self.
Be a disaster every time. Father, we come tonight, and Lord, what lessons we learn from The Living, my goodness, the bare life. Mm-hmm. of true historical figures God, we wonder sometimes. I know I wonder sometimes, if my life was written in this book, what would it look like?
What about all of us? What about this church? Lord, where in the announcements In Revelation, would this church be? Would we be a Laodicean church, Philadelphian church? Would we be an Ephesus church?
Would we be a Smyrna church? Who are we, lords? What are we? Lord, cause us tonight to search our hearts. To search our minds.
And Lord, as we consider you now in prayer. And as we think Lord, is there anything in our lives? Is there anything, God, that must be dealt with tonight? Father, is there A room, is there a door? that we have left locked.
in our lives, Lord, that Frankly, we don't want you looking at. We do love you, but There's a place, perhaps A hidden passion, a hidden love. A hidden affection. A secret thing, maybe just in our imagination. That we have failed to yield to you.
Lord, we ask in Jesus' name. That you'd search our hearts tonight. And Lord, that you would cleanse us. God, that we would cry to you with hearts that are true, stuffed. Hearts that are stopped.
Thinking about the remainder of the evening, minds that are not wandering any longer, but crying out to you tonight, saying, Oh God, rend the heavens and come down. Visit us, Lord. Touch us like Jacob, who wrestled all night long. God, please put it within us. I fear, Lord, that we ourselves are not wrestlers.
Enough with you? Cause us, make us people. to cling tightly to you. to cry out like he did. As morning began to come, Jacob cried, Bless me before you go.
Lord bless us. Father, let the man know tonight that's here. That there is nothing that will save him from eternal destruction but you alone. It's not his voice, it's not his grandeurous pocketbook. his status in life, Lord, tell the The young woman who Feels so Resilient and Isolated from the world's dangers and evils, that life will go on forever and ever without a hitch.
Lord let her know. you And without you. There's no hope. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Yeah. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hughes. Here on Real Life Radio. With his message called When All Else Fails. You know, this message, by the way, is part of Pastor Jack's series called 1 Samuel, a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship.
And will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Yeah. You ever felt like something's missing in your life? Maybe you've been searching for answers for peace or a sense of purpose? You know, the truth is those longings are there because you were created to know God.
At jackhibbs.com, there's a tab called Know God. It's designed to help you discover what it truly means to have a relationship with God. This isn't about religion. It's about understanding who God is and why he loves you and how you can find hope and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. The page breaks it down in a simple, clear way, answering common questions and guiding you through the steps of faith.
It's a great place to explore and reflect whether you're just curious or you're ready to make that next step.
So don't miss out on the most important relationship you'll ever have. Visit that tab called KnowGod at jackhibbs.com and start your journey today. That's jackhibbs.com because knowing God changes everything in your life for the better. Take that next step. Explore and reflect at the Know God section at 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.
