Join Pastor Jack as he unpacks the lessons from the Book of James, guiding us in understanding the benefits of trials and the growth of enduring character. The episode emphasizes reliance on God for clarity and wisdom, dissecting the concept of double-mindedness and its hindrances. The biblical stories of King Solomon and David serve as powerful examples of faith in action, showing us the impact of believing without doubt and the legacy of wisdom shared across generations.
00:23:36 Generational Wisdom Sharing Through the Bible
00:25:34 Program Conclusion and Listener Contribution Acknowledgment
SPEAKER 03 :
Today on Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
If you could see from God’s vantage point how we’re supposed to be with Him, we would all have these little bonnets on with a baby bottle in our mouth and booties on and He’s just holding us. And in the mind we’re thinking that we can do all these great things and God says, not without me helping you.
SPEAKER 03 :
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. Have you ever stopped and thought, boy, what if Jesus were to come back today? In a world that feels more uncertain by the minute, it’s easy to lose sight of eternity. But what if we lived each and every day with the hope and anticipation that Christ is coming back? Now that’s the powerful perspective offered in One Day Nearer, written by Steve Millard. And it’s this month’s featured resource from Pastor Jack Hibbs, One Day Nearer. Through biblical insight and practical encouragement, this book’s going to help you face life’s challenges with faith and purpose, reminding you that with each sunrise, get this, we are one step closer to being with Jesus. If you’re ready to realign your focus and rediscover the joy of living for eternity, One Day Nearer, it’s really a must read. The point is this, friend.
SPEAKER 02 :
Every day that you get up, you are one day nearer.
SPEAKER 03 :
This book is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Book of James with a message titled, Lord, Give Us Wisdom. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to those Jews who chose to follow Christ. You see, they had a limited understanding of how God’s grace really does work and why life is so full of hardships. You see, the trials in life can cause us to want to know why. But as we grow in the Christian faith, we’ll see how trials can produce a deep and enduring character within us. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that Jesus is the personification of wisdom. It’s why we need to go to him, recognize our need for clarity, knowing that he will supply all of our needs according to his riches and not ours. Now with his message called, Lord, Give Us Wisdom, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
You can miss something that’s right in front of your nose if you don’t ask the right questions. You know, some people get upset with children. Man, all she does is ask questions. Or all he does is, Mommy, why? Mommy, why? Hey, don’t frustrate that. That brain has grown faster than you, Mom and Dad, can answer its questions. You better get on your horse there. And when that little guy says, why is the sky blue? You better have an answer for him. You better have an answer. Tell him. They’re growing so much. And when you ask the right questions, it’s a good thing. We need to ask the right question. Oh God, I’m in the middle of a trial and I’m asking you for wisdom, please. Lord, get me through this. But let him, verse 6, ask in faith. That is the requirement. Ask believing. Ask in faith. with no doubting. This is heavy. No doubting whatsoever. You pray to God for wisdom with not one doubt in your mind or else don’t ask. It’s as pungent to the family and to the heart of God as if your child walked up and said, mom, can I have something to eat? That mother is gonna turn and feed that child. Can you imagine the child coming up knowing that the refrigerator is so full? And that little tummy is telling him or her, I’m so hungry. And for years, that little baby, well, not for years, but for months, that baby nursed upon mommy. And then for years, been fed by the spoon and fed by the table and fed by the hand. And then that little baby someday comes up, that little five-year-old walks up and says, mom, can I have some food? And mommy discerns this little hesitation. Well, yeah, why? I just don’t know if you’re going to give it to me or not. That would break your heart as a parent. That would break your heart. What do you think I am, some kind of a wacko? Are you hungry, honey? I don’t even want you to get hungry. And God is saying to us right now, you lack wisdom in something. Is there anything in your life and in my life that we don’t have exactly the… Squeeze on it. Is there something in our lives that’s kind of flapping out there in the wind? We don’t know quite what to do with it. Let’s ask him for some wisdom. Could be anything at all. We just don’t ask. And we need to start asking. Asking in faith with no doubting. Why? It insults him. believing when you ask him. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Well, that’s pretty serious stuff. And listen, this is very serious language here. See the word tossed? The word tossed means to be bellowed. It’s where we get like a… You know where you… Take like the billows that generate wind and you stoke the flames. It means to agitate. And by the way, the word is not, don’t think in your mind that the waves like we have here in Southern California, the waves continually move toward the shore. It’s not waves of direction. It’s as though the person is in a tank and the tank is on the table and it just jitters. And have you ever seen what water does when it jitters? It doesn’t go anywhere but up and down, up and down, up and down. It doesn’t go left, right, north, south, east, or west. It doesn’t do that. It just goes up and down, up and down like pistons. That’s the word that’s used here for tossed. Have you ever felt like that? I told you last week I got a note. Or I got a note, I’m sorry, it was last Sunday after first service. A person had written a note and they used this exact word and they didn’t even realize it. We hadn’t gotten to it yet. They said, my life is like on a sea and I’m being thrown up and down and I can’t see anything. I don’t know where to go. I have no direction. In fact, it was spoken in there, I’m like a boat. You ever felt like that? Up and down the raging of the sea, seemingly going nowhere. An unstable man, a man that has no faith is like that. He’s got no rudder. He’s got no direction. Well, how do we get that? By coming to God and literally, and here’s where we begin. We bow our knees down to the ground if necessary and say, God, I’m hearing that you’re big. I’m understanding you wrote the Bible. I can’t fix my life. I’m asking you to take the helm of my life. And Lord, I’m coming to you and I’m asking to give me wisdom. Only a fool would not ask God for wisdom. For the Bible says in Psalm 14, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And that person is tossed on the sea of life, up and down, no direction. All the while looking like they got it all together. Tossed by the wind. Verse 7, For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. Boy, that is a strong statement. The fact of the matter is, a person who comes to God doubting and asking and requesting regarding worship, wisdom, if he’s doubting, God says no. No way. You see, what’s very interesting about it is that the very thing we need is wisdom and we’re to seek hard after it. In fact, Psalm, you can jot it down later, I believe it’s Psalm chapter 8, that personifies wisdom. And the scriptures tell us that we’re to seek after wisdom with all of our heart. Remember in 1 Kings with great King Solomon? Solomon receives the kingdom from his father. And Solomon, such a precious, humble man at that time, at that time, Solomon says, Lord, I don’t know when to go in and I don’t know when to go out. I’m king, I don’t know what to do. And I’m asking you, Lord, to give me wisdom and understanding that I can govern your people. And God responds. And he says, Solomon, because you have asked this for my people and nothing for yourself, I will not only give you wisdom and understanding, but it will be wisdom and understanding that surpasses all humankind. And even today around the world, the rumor and the lore of Solomon being the most brilliant man that’s ever lived still reigns today. The smartest man, the wisest man, the wisdom of Solomon. And then God says, you know, because you didn’t ask something for yourself, I’m not only gonna give you a wisdom and understanding, I am gonna give you riches beyond measure. I’m gonna give you influence and blessing that you can’t contain. We as Christians need to be wise in these last days. The Bible tells us that we need to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. Now, we all know what a dove is like. We have doves every night and every morning come into the yard and you can hear them. You know how they flap their wings? They make that funny little squeaky sound. And they’re all over the backyard there feeding. And they’re so gentle. We get the binoculars, even though they’re just maybe 30, 40 feet away, we’ll get the binoculars and look at them. And they look like they’re airbrushed. They’re so perfect. And they’re so gentle. They’re so peaceable. Gentle as a dove. But what about a serpent? Man, you’ve got to be pretty wise to be a serpent, don’t you? You ain’t got no legs. You look across the street on a flat road, you could look 10 miles that way. 10 miles the other way. Here we go. And you start going. You know, 15 minutes could go by. Okay. That’s one laying down. They got to think, man. They’re cunning. They hide. They know when to move. They know when not to move. They know how to scare you. Some snakes that don’t pack a venom, they’ll bluff you even. Some snakes will curl up and they’ll act like they’re going to strike you and they’re thinking, I hope this idiot doesn’t know that I’m not a rattlesnake. Wise, that’s how they live. We need to be wise. Asking God for the wisdom, and it’s a wisdom for the moment, wisdom for the situation, because God wants us to keep asking. Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. Look, here’s the reason why, verse 8. He’s a double-minded man. Unstable in all of his ways. The word double-minded means he’s got two souls. Now, he doesn’t really have two souls, but he kind of does. He can’t make a decision. He vacillates from one view to the other. You ever notice someone like that? What do you want to eat? It’s just better you order for them. They can’t decide. Well, should we go north or south? I don’t know. It’s like they’re divided, and they’ll get in an argument with themselves. They’re divided. Well, this word means to be divided in the soul, to have a soul going to the left and a soul going to the right, to be double-souled or to be dual-minded. They’re split right down the middle, and they can never come to any kind of a direct path. They can’t make up their mind and move. Why? They have no faith. You see this? They have no faith. When they do pray, it’s down in everything. When they go to pray and ask God for wisdom, they don’t believe God’s going to give it. And this is a serious thing because you and I can become guilty of this. They don’t believe that God will give the wisdom even though they’re praying for it. Isn’t that a terrible thing? Lord, I ask you for wisdom. and believing that you’re going to get it. Now, I can understand us having doubt if we’re saying, Lord God, I just asked you for that winning lotto ticket. Now, you ought to doubt about that. First of all, you ought not to buy the ticket. That’s your first mistake. God, can I use your money to buy a lotto ticket? Now, you’ll hear them loud and clear if you ask them. We just don’t ask. Doubting. Doubting. This man’s not going to receive anything. Why? Because he’s double-minded. He’s dual-minded. He has no conviction.
SPEAKER 03 :
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.
SPEAKER 02 :
The tragic thing, very, I think, most important thing is that a double-minded man is an affront to the nature of God because God does not vacillate. If our God does not move, then can’t we stand firm on him? You see, a double-minded man is insecure about everything. Many of us as new believers, when we start out our walk with Jesus, what do we suffer from? Am I saved this week? I was saved last week. Am I saved this week? You vacillate. Why? Because your faith is weak and you’re learning. But what happens after a time? You begin to know, hey, there’s nothing that can separate me from the love of God. Not even myself. Hallelujah. Thank you, God, for John chapter 10, verse 28 and 29, that tells me that I’m hidden in the hollow of your hand, and I’m also hidden in the Father’s hand, and I’m stuck between the Son and the Father in the palm of their hand. Hallelujah, Jesus. Hey, that gives confidence. That gives assurance so you can pray and act in faith. But a double-minded man, he’s unstable in all of his ways. And this word unstable is better more described than it is told in words. His feet and his very thinking is housed and positioned on jello. Think of that, jello on a dish. Why is it when we pass jello on the table, we got to shake it? It’s just the coolest thing. All I have to do now is do jump rope and see the same thing happen, you know. Look at that jello. But this gel, look at this. And that’s the man who’s unstable in all of his ways. It’s just like that. He’s constantly moving. One of the tall tale signs to identify an unstable man or woman in all of their ways is that they worry about everything. They worry about it all. There’s no peace. There’s no rest. There’s no stillness of the soul. They can’t lay down at night without their gears spinning because they’re worried about things. They can’t leave it on the incredible foundation of God’s hand. Oh, if we could see ourselves from God’s vantage point. I don’t mean this to sound rude by any means, but if you could see from God’s vantage point how we’re supposed to be with Him, we would all have these little bonnets on with a baby bottle in our mouth and booties on, and He’s just holding us. And in the mind, we’re thinking that we can do all these great things, and God says, not without me helping you. We hear all these… supposedly mature thoughts going on in our minds, and God says, you’re just my child. And if I don’t set you on the path and help you along and keep you from falling down, you’ll crash. That’s who we are. And when you start to see people like that, I don’t care who it is, if they walk up and they’re 900 pounds and seven feet tall, you know what, they’re a baby in the hand of God. David had faith when he ran up to Goliath. I love it. By the way, it’s awesome. We stood in the Valley of Elah. They know exactly where that spot is at because that valley snakes along. And then there’s two big ridges that go up. And the Israeli army was on one side and the Philistine army was on the other side. And in between that valley is a creek bed of smooth stones. They’re perfect. And it’s so cool. David goes up there, and we read the story, and we have a hard time believing it. Oh, man, I’m sure this kid was 12, 13, 14 years old. He goes after this guy that’s 9 feet 6 inches tall. His spear weighed 135 pounds. He slept in a bed according to the scriptures in the book of Deuteronomy. The prince of Og, his bed was 14 feet long. Six fingers and six… And toes. He put an end. Weird guy. Weird people. There were a bunch of them. David, I love his attitude. I like what our tour guide told us. He gets out there and he goes, David is a man. He’s a young man. He’s a little guy with a lot of chutzpah. He had a lot of guts. Well, we say, well, was it guts or was it God? It was both. God brought the giant down. It was his guts that trusted in the Lord. David shouted out, hey, you uncircumcised Philistine, you. That’s pretty, that’s a heavy, that’s a, you wouldn’t say that with women present anywhere. They didn’t have women in the Israeli army on that day. You come in the name of your armies, while I come to you in the name of our God. Goliath says, what, do you take me to be a dog? He sent a little kid out here? I bet he laughed. Can you imagine the laugh of a giant? The ground probably kind of shook. David picked up five stones. Do you know the reason why he had five stones? One was for Goliath. The Bible tells us by name, Goliath had four brothers. It gives their names in the book of Samuel. That’s cool. That’s faith. Come here, you big pile of uncircumcised flesh. He gets that thing going and he checks his little pocket. Yeah, got four more right in there. Because the brothers come up. I’m going to knock them out too by the power of God. And Goliath’s standing there and he just goes. And notice the stone didn’t kill him. Read the fine print. He didn’t kill the giant with the stone. Stone knocked him back on his back. Stone knocked him over. Well, I don’t know. This part scares me. David runs up there and stands on his chest and pulls out a sword. He’s a little guy. Pulls out a sword and plops it on Goliath’s neck and starts sawing. The guy wasn’t dead yet. He was dazed. David cuts his head off. That’s an awesome story. Every guy loves that. It’s like, yes! Now David could have sat there and said, with knowledge. Knowledge isn’t bad, but if you don’t have wisdom, what good is it? With knowledge, you could have said, you know, the trajectory of this thing, when I let it go, this velocity is going to basically, his skull is about six inches thick. I think maybe if I hit him just right, I don’t know. Then it checks the wind. No. David had wisdom to trust in the power of God Almighty, and it brought the giant down. David was not double-minded. And you’ll be able to do those things if you’re not double-minded. Well, Jack, I’m double-minded and I don’t want to be double-minded anymore. What do I do? You ask God believing with faith for wisdom and your life will become still and calm. I’m not saying your trials will go away, but they will keep you awake at night. And in the morning when you arise, the Lord will have baptized you with wisdom on how to deal with them. And you know when God’s wisdom is in effect because it brings him honor. Some may recognize that, some may not. But it’ll bring him honor.
SPEAKER 03 :
Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called, Lord, Give Us Wisdom. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on being doers of the Word of God and not just hearers only. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know if I’d call it a bribe, but I make a deal with my eight-year-old grandson. And we pick out a Bible verse that I haven’t memorized it and he hasn’t memorized it. And the next week, I’ll call him to do the next one. And if he has the one from the week before memorized, I put $5 into a bank account for him. And I’m kind of bribing him, but that’s all right though, isn’t it?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, listen, that’s not bribery. I think it’s fun. Listen, well, you think it’s fun because it’s a biblical thing to do. And let me explain. The scripture commands the grandparents to be laying up money for the children. In our culture, we’ve so abandoned God that now when people grow older, they lean on their children to take care of them. The reverse is biblical. The parent, the grandparent is to labor in such a way that they save up resources for the grandchildren. In this case, it’s beautiful because you’re teaching your child that good behavior can be rewarded. It doesn’t have to be, but in your case, you’re doing that. There is a relationship established where you guys are exchanging the word of God together. And the fact that you are putting it in a bank account.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
is actually brilliant because it’s teaching him a plethora of things. The Bible, Papa loves the Bible. I want to be like my Papa. We memorize this together. The legacy, let’s be honest, the legacy is when you pass into the arms of Jesus, he’s going to miss that like crazy. That’s a legacy. And that’s what you want to experience. But the cool thing is this little account that will build up over time, he will have a great respect for I predict a great respect. He’s not going to spend that money on bubble gum or some plastic piece of junk because I got that with my papa.
SPEAKER 03 :
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.
