Explore the depths of spiritual wisdom through an enlightening conversation with Pastor Jack Hibbs. This episode navigates through the trials outlined in the Book of James, guiding listeners on how to transform hardships into platforms for spiritual maturity. Pastor Jack shares moving accounts of individuals who have found strength through faith, encouraging listeners to turn to God for wisdom in times of uncertainty. Join us in seeking a deeper understanding of how divine guidance can illuminate the path through life’s toughest moments.
So it’s not so much anymore, oh, I can’t believe this happened to my house or my car or to my body or to my friend or whatever. I can’t believe this. No, what we say now from here on out, we should raise our right hand and repeat, oh, Lord God, help me to have wisdom the next time I have a trial.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey everybody, brand new year. Listen to this. What a promise. Psalm 65, 11, God there announces that his paths drip with abundance and he makes his way prosperous. So listen, draw close to God, enjoy the new year in Christ, celebrate him every day and everything that you do. Listen, let God’s work in your life be an incredible witness to other people. Bring them along. Bring them along with you into the kingdom of heaven. Love on them. Listen, the people in your life who are not Christians, start treating them like a Christian. Watch what happens. Share the joy of the Lord because you can. And exalt in his liberty and freedom because he’s given it to you. Let’s have an awesome new year in Jesus Christ together. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 Christians are developed under the pressure of trials. In the world, we have trouble, that’s true, but we can still have peace knowing that when we ask the Lord for wisdom to overcome, He really is faithful to give it. Now with his message called, Lord, Give Us Wisdom, Here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re talking here now about wisdom. James goes from verses 1 through 4, talking about trials in life. And we covered that last week, how we all go through trials. You can be in here tonight and say, I’m not a Christian, and I’m not going to give my heart to Christ because I don’t want trials. Look, these things come with life. You can go through your trials in life without God, or you can go through the trials of life with God. The beautiful thing about being a Christian is our trials have meaning. And I don’t know about you, but I want to know. If something’s wrong, I want to know what’s wrong. If the doctor can’t find out what’s wrong with you, it drives me nuts. I want to know what’s wrong. At least they can start fixing it, right? Or if you take your car in and they work on it and work on it and they say, well, we think we’ve got it. You think we’ve got it? I think I’m going to pay you. Maybe. You know, what does this mean? And so, you know, you go away thinking and driving and listening and worrying because you’re not exactly sure. Right? Well, trials come and they’re ordained by God for the life of the believer. And if you’re not a Christian tonight, the things that happen in your life that would pressure you and come down hard on you is in fact God’s gentle, loving care, believe it or not, trying to get you to a saving knowledge of Jesus. A lot of hardships bring people to God. I don’t know where he is at now in his walk with Jesus Christ. But years ago, Lisa and I had a chance to meet and to talk with BJ Thomas. Remember him? Raindrops keep falling on my head. Guy that sang that song. And we had a chance and we were talking with him. He was at Calvary Costa Mesa. And… He said, you know, I was so hooked on drugs. I was spending somewhere around three or four thousand dollars a week on drugs. He said, I was so devastated by drugs. I was so messed up, lost everything I had. He said, I literally could not go any further. He said, the best thing that could happen to me is my life could have been taken from me. He said, I hated to live, but I didn’t have enough courage to take my own life. And he said, then Jesus Christ came into my life. And that’s a beautiful thing. And sometimes trials can get you so down, as the old saying goes, I’m so far down or I’m so flat on my back, I’ve got nowhere to look but up. And that is so true in so many people’s lives. And so he was talking to us about trials. Remember he spoke to us about being a bondservant of God? That James is a bondservant and that he was owned by God. It was a beautiful, beautiful statement that James now came out of his servitude to the world and he wound up yielding his ear. Do you remember? Were you here last week? Yielding the earlobe? to the bondservant tag that he would receive, that metal awl in the ear, that would declare that he had now, by his free will, accepted his master forever. And that master would have been God. And so now James works for God. And he was speaking to the 12 tribes dispersed throughout all of the area of Asia and of the northern regions of southern Russia or northern Turkey. And then he said to us, my brethren, count it all joy. That word count, remember, was a word of mathematical terminology. Tally up all of your hassles and put that number over here. And then look at the will and the plan of God and put that number over here. And you will see how wonderful God’s plan is. You can count it joy when you fall into trials. And that was not a happiness. It was a joy, a joy that sticks, a joy that can’t be shaken. A joy that even when tears are flowing down our cheeks, we can have that peace and that joy. And then he challenged us in verse 3. He said, knowing that the testing of your faith, you got to know it. You got to know. You got to have that knowledge that God is testing our faith because there’s a good thing to be produced in the end and that would be patience. And that patience would have its complete work. Now remember, so that you’re not frustrated in verse 4, he mentioned to us that let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect yourself. And that word doesn’t mean perfect as you read it. The best word that we can come to in the English is the word perfect. But in the Greek, the word is mature. Most mature. that we would grow up, that we would be people that would not be so prone to say, oh God, why are you doing this? Oh God, how can you do that? When in reality we can say, God, this terrible thing that’s going on in my life, you know all about it and I’m asking you to help me. Give me your peace. And now we come to verse 5, which is very, very important. And what I want you to jot down tonight is just a few things, and that is in verse 5, we are going to be looking at who we are to talk to. Who are we to ask about trials? Who are we to talk to when we’re in a trial? Now, all of us need to commit this to memory. Verse five means, who do we talk to when we’re in a trial? And I’ll explain why in a moment. He says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Notice this, ask God, ask God for what? Wisdom, why do we need wisdom? Well, let me ask you, how well did you handle your last trial? You see how we need wisdom? Because we get overwhelmed. Oh, how could this be happening to me? God says, well, why not? I couldn’t think of anybody better. Oh, God, don’t you love me? Yes, he does. In fact, all your friends, like Job’s comforters, would come up and say, wow. Wow. What about this? What about that? I know why you’re so sick, Job. You know, you’ve had this problem in your life. You’ve got this secret sin, Job. Confess it and you’ll be okay. That wasn’t Job’s problem. And then one guy comes and says, Job, you know what you’re doing? You’re sinning. You’re just sinning left and right. That’s your problem. That wasn’t Job’s problem. It wasn’t his problem at all. At the end of it all, Job sits down and he’s vindicated by God, even though he got through a terrible fiery trial. By the way, do you remember what Job’s trial was? He lost his children. I think he had 10 kids. Wasn’t it 10 kids? He lost 10 kids in one night. In fact, what a godly man. He gets up and he says, you know, I’m going to pray for my kids because who knows, they could have sinned last night. What a parent. Lord, I just ask you to bless my kids. And he goes down that list of 10 kids. And he’s praying for his family. And of course, while he’s praying for his family, Satan is up there talking to God. And God says, have you considered my servant Job? Now I pray to God that if Satan comes knocking on God’s door, God never says, consider Jack. Just, it’s okay. I don’t need that. Can you imagine? Oh, and the Lord, it’s so cute because the Lord, I mean, it wasn’t cute on Job’s side. That’s the whole thing about trials. We’re down here in the dust. God’s up there and he says, you know, look at my servant, Billy Graham. Served me all these years, loves me, faithful, great man of God. And because the Bible says in the book of Revelation, Satan is the accuser of the brethren day and night, Satan’s up there saying, Billy Graham, please God. I mean, look at him. The guy picks his nose when he is being driven around places. He snores. Those are probably big sins for Billy Graham, I guess. I don’t know. But Satan’s there accusing, always pointing the finger. And God says, well, have you considered my servant Job? And Satan says, I tell you what, you know what? You’ve blessed him so much. You just let me at him. And I tell you, in a moment, he’ll curse you to your face. Take away all the blessings and he’ll let you have it, God. And the Lord knew better. The Lord knew what Job could handle. And the Lord says, I tell you what, Satan. You can have this, this, this, and this regarding Job, but don’t you take his life. And so what did Satan do? If you want to know what’s in Satan’s mind, God didn’t say take his kids, burn his crops, destroy his livestock, and wipe them out completely. God didn’t say that. God just says you cannot go this far. You can go to a certain point, but that’s it, Satan. And by the way, Satan had to obey God, and he did. Remember that. But Satan launches his armada against Job, and Job winds up losing the very children he was praying for. A storm came and fell in and killed all of his children who were all together fellowshipping. Now, I know that in your mind and my mind, that doesn’t make much sense to us, but it sure does to God, and I can’t tell you anything more than that. I don’t know why things go the way that they do. They just do. And I got to turn to him and say, God, you know. Why is this happening? Lord, I don’t know why this is happening, but you alone know. And we need to take comfort in that. And that’s why we need wisdom in the midst of trials. Wisdom. So it’s not so much anymore, oh, I can’t believe. This happened to my house or my car or to my body or to my friend or whatever. I can’t believe this. No, what we say now from here on out, we should raise our right hand and repeat, Oh, Lord God, help me to have wisdom the next time I have a trial. That’s what we need. Lord, I’m in a trial. I ask you to give me wisdom. He says in verse 5, if anyone lacks wisdom, in the Greek, the word implies all of us lack wisdom. So it’s not some, well, you know, I’ll pray that for him over there. He looks like he could use some wisdom. So what is wisdom? First of all, there’s a wisdom of the earth, which is not necessarily on the surface, hear me out carefully, good or bad on the surface. But the Bible does say it’s devilish. Isn’t that interesting? It’s weird, huh? There could be a wisdom of the world that is really brilliant, and we probably wind up praising it a lot of the times. Wow, that was a really super stroke of genius that whoever did about whatever. But it’s not from God. There’s a wisdom of the earth that is devilish, and then there’s a wisdom of God that’s from heaven. And this is the wisdom that comes from heaven, obviously. And it says, if you lack it, we all lack wisdom. Now, here’s the deal. Wisdom has several definitions, really, but they all say the same thing. Wisdom is the correct appropriation of knowledge is one definition. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge is the other one. And I read this this week, somebody really brilliant who spoke real simply, and his name was Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein seemed to be, the more I read about this guy, seemed to be really down to earth. He upset a lot of the intelligentsia of the world because he was kind of a cool guy. Albert Einstein says, when you have knowledge, if you’re going to take that knowledge and benefit anybody with it, It’s what you do with it determines if you have wisdom. Man, that is easy.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 :
You can be a rocket scientist. and have no wisdom. You can be able to answer every question on Jeopardy and have no wisdom. You can be able to say this and say that about, oh, that guy knows everything about everything, and then the guy turns around and just absolutely falls off the edge of the curb. There’s almost a density about the guy. I knew somebody, well, I knew somebody And this guy was a brilliant electrician. Brilliant. And his problem was he just knew it. And he went to school and he like fell asleep in classes and just wound up nailing all of the questions on the test perfect because he’s just a smart guy. For him, electricity just flowed in his head. But yet this guy was walking through sliding glass doors. he would take his car and put it in drive and look behind and go right through his garage door. You never wanted to be with him. And yet he sat down at the books and he was brilliant. But the guy was a minister to society and himself as he got around. He had no appropriation regarding that knowledge. Knowledge is great. You know, knowledge is something that is acquired. You can obtain knowledge, but you cannot obtain wisdom. Well, you say, well, wait, I thought experience breeds wisdom. Experience does breed wisdom, but the wisdom we’re talking about here in the Bible is wisdom from above. It’s given by God to God’s people, and it’s got to be asked for. So what we want to do is, who do we ask in the midst of a trial? Well, I know what most people do, and this kind of bugs me, and I’m not innocent on this either. But you know what we need to stop doing, every one of us? When we’re in the middle of a trial, we need to stop asking other people. You got it. Men. Men. Mr. and Mrs. Men. Mankind. Something happens, and we’re on the phone. That is an absolute insult to God’s character. That is just, to me, that is just disgusting. Something happens, and whoom, to the phone we go, oh, Betty, oh, Bobby, oh, you know what? Get on your face and talk to God. It’s happened for a reason. Fall on your face and call Him first. His number is Jeremiah 33.3. Did you know that? Jeremiah 33.3. You can call him. Jeremiah 33.3. It says, call on me and I’ll answer. That’s his number. Jeremiah 33.3. Jot it down. Call him up. God, I’m calling upon you, God. And he says, I will answer. Nobody’s calling. His phone sits there. Everybody’s in the midst of a trial, but who calls him? No, we wind up calling people. And then we wonder why we’re so messed up in the trial. The Bible says in Proverbs 3, verses five and six, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not to your own understanding, but in all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Hard to do if we’re not talking to Him. Ask God first for wisdom. What this implies is rather convicting. If you and I don’t have wisdom, what is implied is we don’t talk to God. What should I do about this situation? I tell you, in this ministry, including myself, any pastor or any lay person in this church, if you come and ask them, what should I do about a situation? The first thing out of our mouth had better be, have you talked to God about that? Have you asked Him? Well, no. You know what? That pastor or that evangelist or that priest would do you an injustice if they began to regurgitate answers right into your lap because that’s not what’s supposed to happen. We are to go to God ourselves. and talk to Him. The Bible says there’s one mediator between man and God, and that is the man, Christ Jesus. We’re to talk to Him. I know that’s kind of alarming. Some people might think, this lunatic thinks he can talk to God. It’s true, we can. We don’t always hear an answer. But we can talk to Him anytime. This afternoon when I announced to these kids that Jesus Christ is in heaven and he loves you, no matter what you’ve done, he loves you and he wants to make your life all new again. You should have seen the tears in the eyes of young girls in that stadium. Tremendous. God cares. God wants to hear from us. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Ask the Lord. No man can give us wisdom. Nobody can. And look what else. Who gives to all liberally. The word liberally is generously, just incredibly generous, God is. So you ought to circle that word liberally in the New King James or generously. If we lack wisdom, we can ask of God who gives it liberally, and look, without reproach. You know what the word reproach means? It means without being frustrated, without being upset by your continuous asking. That’s what it implies. Isn’t that great? Lord, I need wisdom. You know how often God wants to hear from you and I about wisdom? About every five minutes. Oh God, I need wisdom. And the beautiful thing is, He’s tender about it. He’s tender. He’s not only generous, he’s tender. He doesn’t say, what is it? This is the fourth time today. I’m running the universe. I’ve got the eons to maintain. I mean, what is it? I need some wisdom. Oh, brother. He doesn’t do that. He’s so kind. He gives and gives more, as the old hymn says. He gives more. God, I need wisdom. What do you think he says? No. I’m not going to give it. But you said that you give it generously. Well, that was yesterday. No, I am the Lord and I change not. I tell you, we’re going to need wisdom tomorrow. And Monday and Tuesday, we’re going to need it. So we need to start getting into the mode, not just coming to church and doing our Christian. No, we need to do this from now on. Lord, give me wisdom. Some of you, I look around here, some of you are seeking God for direction in your life. Some of you are going to Russia. God, I want wisdom for that. Some of you are on business ventures and your business that you do. God, I need wisdom. Schooling, I need wisdom, Lord. Some of you are in the medical field. Lord, I need wisdom. How do I deal with this? God, give me. I tell you, I’d like to have a doctor and a surgeon and a nurse full of wisdom, wouldn’t you? Especially if they have a knife in their hand, I want them to have a lot of wisdom. But think about it. God, I need you in my life and I need wisdom. Recognize this, that we need to confess our need in this area. That’s what God’s going to do. He’s going to bless us with wisdom when we ask him. The Bible says in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And we need to seek him. Let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Can you underline that in your Bible? It says in my Bible, it will be given to him. Do we believe this? It says that he’ll do it. If you and I lack wisdom, this verse is warning me that it’s not his inability to answer prayer, it’s my inability to ask. Because you know what? We don’t think about it. I remember years ago where I used to work, the big president came into the room and They had been interviewing a certain person or certain people for a certain job and they all got together and they’re kicking around the idea about who they’re gonna hire. And they had these people from Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University and all these great, great schools where there’s medical programs, super duper things and these great, great people. And all these guys are spouting off, giving their inputs about who to hire. And I remember the president, Beautiful Christian man, by the way. He said, you know, we’re going to go with so-and-so. And it kind of stunned everybody because they didn’t come blazing through the interviews like everybody else. And he said, you know, nobody asked the president why. He’s the president. But he’s such a kind man. He just says, you know, and this is the reason why. That person in our interviews knew what questions to ask. And that’s a key. You can miss something that’s right in front of your nose if you don’t ask the right questions.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 02 :
Hey everybody, this is Pastor Jack here, and I want to encourage you to get a great book. Now listen up, I know there’s a lot of books out there, and we certainly do push a lot of books on this program because we want you to grow, and you should have a great library. Well, listen, One Day Nearer is a book written by Steve Miller, a dear friend of mine, and a great author, and here’s the kick. It’s a 365-day book. devotion, one for every day, and all of it is themed around being prepared to meet the Lord Jesus Christ, how to be looking for him, how to be walking in light of his return. What are the scriptures that should encourage us? All of this in this fantastic book, One Day Nearer, by my good friend, Steve Miller.
SPEAKER 01 :
Get a copy for yourselves, please, and grow. One Day Nearer by Steve Miller, available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash realradio. 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.
