Today on Real Life Radio. know right now. If in your moment of Disappointment. There's not some divine, supernatural, invisible answer. Right over your head.
Radio waves are flying through this room. Data is coursing through this room. You can't see it. Is it a fact that data is flying through this room? Absolutely.
But you can't see it. Yeah. 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.
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Uh On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called Disciplines of Life and a message called Discipline of Disappointment. You know, we've all felt it. Disappointment, it's a normal part of life. But if we handle it well, it can actually make us spiritually stronger and wiser. You see, disappointment comes when reality doesn't match what we've hoped for.
Maybe we're expecting too much from people or wanting life to go a certain way. We could avoid disappointment by avoiding risks or relationships, but that's certainly not the life that God intends for us.
So today, Pastor Jack teaches that we often place hope in the wrong things. Many disappointments happen when we rely too much on our good intentions or others' unreasonable expectations.
So we need to move our trust back to God, who never disappoints.
Now with his message called Discipline of Disappointment. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs. In Genesis 3, verse 4, The Bible says, Then the serpent, listen to this, then the serpent said to the woman, Eve, You will not surely die. For God knows in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and The tree desirable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate. What is that all about? Listen, disappointment comes when hope is misplaced. Was not Eve supposed to be hoping, trusting, living, and walking with God? And then Satan comes along and says, Hey, I got an idea.
Why don't you eat this thing? God says not to eat it. Oh, yeah. You know what? He doesn't want, listen, he doesn't want you to become like him.
Any doctrine that says that you can become A god. comes right from old Satan himself. Oh, come on, Eve. And what she did was she Took that, and it must have been so appealing to her that she. misplaced her hope.
She took another doctrine. She listened to another form of teaching. Other than that which was scriptural from the mouth of God. And here's the fix for that: God's word says in 1 Samuel 2, verse 2: No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.
Okay, listen to this. I hope this is exciting. to you what I'm about to say, because it really Got me going. If there is no God like our God, I want you to get your finger ready, everybody. Get your finger ready.
If there's no God like our God, He's the only one that there is. He's enthroned in heaven. Take your finger, get ready. and point to where heaven is. I mean, you know, symbolically, right?
Yeah. Okay, now watch this. We need to stop thinking. From the bottom. Up.
in our life regarding disappointment. If he is our God and our Lord, and there's none like him, and that's where he's at. Is not our citizenship, says the Bible, in heaven? Is that not our home? Does not the Bible say that we're not home yet?
We're passing through? We're going home. We're en route.
So check this out. We need to stop. Thinking from the bottom, earth. Upward. If our citizenship's in heaven, We need to start thinking from the top down.
We need to isn't that what God does with the Bible? He wants us to think heavenly thoughts. He wants us to think godly thoughts. He wants us to make our decisions based upon the information from above. I find it kind of interesting that everything that you and I do now is almost predicated upon you and I getting information from above in the sense of: well, what's my phone say?
What time is it? What temperature is it going to be? How should I dress today? Where am I going? I mean, this is true.
Maybe you have this app on your iPhone. But if I park at some big place where I'm not sure I'll remember wh where my car is parked, when I pull up, I pull out my iPhone and I press a button and it memorizes the exact GPS spot of where my car is parked. I go on my trip, I come back, I walk out of the airport, I press the button, and there's a little blue dot. That's me. And a little red dot, that's my car, and it leads me to my car.
When you're over 50. That's what you do. It's really cool. It's a great little app. Everything, everything's coming down from above.
If things can come from a satellite and direct us, Don't you think it would be even wiser, yet still, to have God let his wisdom and his guidance rain down from above? and speak to us and lead us and guide us. God speaks to us from the top down. We need to stop viewing it all from the bottom up. His vantage point's perfect.
I love this. In 2 Kings chapter 6, this is a great, great event. Elijah, you know, can you imagine hanging out with Elijah? Gehazi, his assistant, he had an assistant, personal assistant, Gehazi. Elijah, he saw things.
He could see things. Elijah would talk to God, God, show me something. Boom.
So check this out. In 2 Kings 6, verse 15, it says, And when the servant of the man of God arose early, he went out. got out of his tent or stood up and walked away Out, and there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?
So he answered, Do not fear. For those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Excuse me. There's two of them. And they're surrounded by a massive army.
Yeah. Then the Lord, then, then Elijah, or Elijah, prayed and said, Lord. I pray, open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire. all around Elijah.
So the enemy had his army that you could see on this level, yeah? like you and I. Oh my goodness, we're gonna die. In the invisible realm, looking from above. Elijah just simply says, Can you imagine walking with God like that?
Elijah was like, Hmm. Those poor armies. And his assistant's freaking out and he says, Lord, open his eyes so he can see what we can see. And the guy blinks and opens his eyes and he sees flaming chariots. about ready to slaughter the armies of the enemy.
How do you know right now? If in your moment of Disappointment. There's not some divine, supernatural, invisible answer. Right over your head. Radio waves are flying through this room.
Data is coursing through this room. You can't see it. Is it a fact? Is it a fact that data is flying through this room? Absolutely.
But you can't see it. It's completely invisible to your naked eye, to your human eye. But it's here. And think, the Bible says that Whenever the word of God is opened up, angels look into those things. There's angels in the atmosphere right here where we're at.
Spiritual entities. Can you imagine?
Now, I have never prayed this prayer. I don't ever intend to pray this prayer. But can you imagine? If Elijah, imagine if I were in the place of Elijah and I said, Lord, open up their eyes that they might see. Let me tell you, we would probably freak out.
at what is going on. in the spirit realm. But you know what I learned from the Bible? I bet you we'd be radically encouraged. Because those that are with us are much more.
than those that are with them. Also, this: why do we experience disappointment? It's disappointment comes. By others letting us down.
Now, listen, disappointment comes by others letting us down. That's going to happen. This is just part. of life. Setbacks, difficulties, rejection.
But it's not the end of your life. Why is it we've gotten so thin-skinned that if somebody rejects our offer or rejects our affection or rejects our Whatever. We freak out. What is are we still thin skinned? Are we so fragile?
I don't think so. When I read history, I know that God has made the human heart and the mind and the spirit stronger than that. When you look at Great moments in history where people were let down. And when you see in your Bible, when you read your Bible, by the way, it's God speaking to you when you read your Bible. And he's constantly making promises to us, is he not?
Is this not the book of promises? God gave us this book. And you might be here tonight and you're saying, well, I... You know, I'm cool with everything, but... If I read that and he doesn't come through for me, then it's going to break my heart.
Listen, you got to trust him. He's the one saying to you tonight: step out of the boat. And follow me. You've got to trust him. He will never let you down.
Now listen. People Disappoint us. It's going to happen. I've learned, there's a couple things I've learned, just a few things. And number one is to stop.
to stop making promises to God. That's a joke. Because as much as I want to I'll fail at them. I learned that from Paul the Apostle, by the way, chapter 7, Romans chapter 7, and Romans chapter 8. But listen.
I've learned to stop making promises to people. I don't think. I'm pretty sure I've stopped saying, I promise I'll be there. Do you realize I have no power? to fulfill that promise.
Do I intend to be there? Yes. Do I even set out to go? Yes. What if I run out of gas?
What if I drop dead? What if I'm late? That's why, you know, I'll pick you up at nine. Listen, if you say to somebody, I'm going to pick you up at nine. I don't know how you were raised.
This is how I was raised. My dad said if you're gonna pick somebody up at night if you're supposed to be somewhere at nine o'clock You better be there at 8. My wife was brought up. If you're supposed to be somewhere at 9, get there at 10. I mean to tell you the biggest struggle of our marriage has been what time are we going to get there?
I'm serious. Disappointment. Expectation. Promises. Yeah.
You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackibbs.com. That's jackibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
Promises. We should, in fact, the Bible, James tells us. You should say, if the Lord wills. We will go to such and such a place and do such and such a thing. He said, well, Pastor, I'm sitting here to the man I'm engaged to, and he's promised me to love me all the days of his life.
I understand his emotions saying that. But let me tell you something right now, young people, listen, write this down. It's free. The only way that that marriage is going to truly work out. If each of you are lifting one another up to the throne of grace and asking God.
to fulfill His promise to your marriage. Because he's in on the marriage. He digs it. He loves it. He wants it to succeed.
But the ultimate keeping of a promise is a divine. Move of God. Psalm 61, 1, here's the fix. Psalm 61, 1, how do I overcome the disappointment of others? Psalm 61, 1 through 3 says, Hear my cry, O God, and attend to my prayer.
You don't cry to your friends and say, Answer my prayer, Bob. Not gonna happen. From the end of the earth, I will cry unto you when my heart is overwhelmed. Disappointed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for You have been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy.
Those are beautiful promises, yeah? Here's the thing. You can see them on the screen. You can write them down. But unless you apply them, they'll never become your promise.
They've got to be your promise. Parents sometimes have huge or place huge. burdens on their kids. that are unreasonable and Set the kid up to let the parent down. A lot of parents listen.
A lot of parents live their lives vicariously through their kids. Maybe the dad was a rotten basketball player, so he wants to compensate for that by having the kid go to every basketball camp on the planet. And when the kid misses a shot, the father has a heart attack, breakdown. What's wrong with you? How could you miss that?
Listen, the truth is, when a father does that, what he's really saying is, you missed it just like I missed all the shots in my life. Huge, setting the kid up for huge disappointment. Listen, don't misunderstand me. We need to pursue excellence. If you're a basketball player, Do your best for Jesus.
Play basketball for Jesus. Be the best at it. But listen, parents. If your kid fails after having done his or her best... Make sure they know you love them anyway, regardless.
And by the way, I think if They know you love them no matter how it turns out. I think they'll try harder. Encourage your child, support your child. Pray for them, obviously, and let them hear your prayer for them. I think that is what the whole story of the prodigal son is all about.
The prodigal son, you know the story. I don't need to tell you that he's off living his life being an absolute mess. running around, hanging out with girls, getting drunk, winds up losing everything, sleeping with pigs. in the mire. And the father was consistent, and that boy knew he could always go home to his dad.
That love. People are going to let us down. How many of you have kids in here? Raise your hands. You have children.
Wow. Have you let your kids down? You want to think you haven't maybe, but you have. You can make that such a, what's the buzzword these days? You can make it such a teachable moment.
You can tell them, listen, Junior, I'm sorry, I was 15 minutes late in picking you up. Just understand this. God is not like me. And that kid knows that love. There's a lot of grace.
The Bible says in Ephesians 3.20. Listen to this. You say, well, Jack, this is a big expectation verse. Yes, it is. But notice the target and notice the base.
Ephesians 3.20.
Now to him that's your father in heaven, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all. That we ask or thank according to the power that works in us. That's the Holy Spirit. Sets huge expectation, is it not? Notice, God does not want to set you up for pain.
He's not wringing his hands right now, trying to figure out how to ruin your life. He wants you blessed. He wants you growing. This verse is God's promise that if you let Him lead and guide your life. Stop scheming, stop planning, stop trying to do that.
Thing, and let him rule, let him guide you, let him lead you. He'll never let you down. And when you think this moment of disappointment has come, The truth of the matter is God is preparing you for a great thing. Point number two tonight is this. The disciplines of disappointment is preparing for the disappointments of life.
We need to prepare for them. We need to prepare for them. And you need to be able to think mature thoughts about that. It requires us to grow up in spiritual matters when we talk about disappointment. How do we handle them?
How do we deal with disappointments?
Well, it requires you and I to grow up spiritually in regarding spiritual matters. There's, listen, this is going to sound harsh, but man, do I believe this? There is literally no biblical excuse for you and I to Whine or complain about why did God have me lose my job? Notice how God always gets blamed for everything. First of all, people lose their jobs.
Did you know that? It happens. You want to take it a little deeper? You can be in this room tonight, in the sanctuary, the most right-on, godly Christian on the planet. And your child dies.
It would be Completely, biblically. Incorrect. For you to stop and say, How could this happen? We say things like that. And we get disappointed horrifically because...
We view it wrong. We somehow think that maybe because we're Christians, we're exempt from certain pain. From certain disappointment, not so. The truth of the matter is, you and I need to know our Bibles. Everything, listen, everything that happens in your life, in my life.
is pre-programmed to be answered in this book. Every one of us. Every human being that has ever lived. The answer to life's Disappointments is in the Word of God, guaranteed. This book is the answer.
to your soul's quest.
Well, I don't know why God answer is in the book. Honestly, look, none of us are exempt from this. When I'm tempted to say, I don't know why the Lord just doesn't bring fire down and have him consume that guy. The answer Uh is in the book. Mm-hmm.
God says when I calm down, I'm slow to anger, I'm patient. Back off, Jack. Vengeance is mine, I shall repay, saith the LORD. You see? Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Discipline of Disappointment.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Disciplines of Life, a series that highlights the disciplines of a Christ follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. And will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Pastor Jack, every once in a while I like to feature a listener. And I want you to do a shout out to Vonnie. Get this.
Vonnie says, I stumbled upon Pastor Jack about two weeks ago and I wanted to shout with joy. She says, I'll be 92 in August. Oh, wow. And she says, I've lived in Brazil for the last 50 years. She says, I've had an adventure I would have never dreamed of as I serve God.
Ooh, that's a topic for another day, isn't it? She says, I'm amazed at how Jack and Amir are filling some of the gaps in my life. The Lord has been using them to give me more hope. The world is crazy, but the Lord isn't. I'm gonna have a t-shirt with that.
Wow. She says, I'm thanking God for you. And if there's any way that I can help. She says, let me know. I'm here.
Send me. Blessings to uh that's vine.
Okay, first of all, all of us. Should be ashamed. Right. Come on. What's our excuse for not serving the Lord?
Vonnie, at what was it? 92? 92. Yep. God bless you, Vondi.
That's incredible. And you might even find it to be a little bit more of a fun insight to know that Amir, by the way, friends, she's referring to Amir Serfate, the founder and president of Behold Israel. And you need to listen to Amir. He and I have been very, very close friends. We're almost going on three decades of being close friends.
In fact, I'm going to be with Amir in a couple of days. But yeah, Vonnie, what an encouraging word that is. God bless you. And you know, you asked how can you be involved. Wow, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you already are because there's probably a good chance that you pray for us.
And that's the greatest thing you can do is ask God to grant us his favor. Hey, you know, if you'd like to drop a note of encouragement to Pastor Jack, that'd be awesome. He'd really love to see what you have to say about him and how his ministry has affected your life.
So please do that. Go to the Connect tab at jackhibbs.com. That's the tab labeled Connect. At jackhibbs.com. Hey, thank you again so much for listening.
And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.
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.
