Navigating through the complexities of modern life, Pastor Jack Hibbs shares profound insights from the Book of James, urging believers to ground their purpose in God’s will rather than worldly pursuits. This episode provokes thought on what it means to truly live a life aligned with divine purpose, exploring how human desires can blur the truth and calling for a redirection toward servitude and faithfulness in God.
The answer to life’s questions is first realizing I don’t have all the answers. That comes to a shock to the arrogant. That comes to a shock to the proud. We don’t have all the answers. And God has made it so.
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, Pastor Jack here. I want to give you guys a quick update on what’s going on in Southern California in wake of the devastating and forever life-altering fires that have ravaged the Southland. Things have never been like this before. And I mean that where a fire has never been seen like this before, where the sky was aflame and the winds were blowing 80, 90 miles an hour, flames and fire horizontally. has devastated homes by the tens of thousands, and there’s over 150,000 people without a home. And I say all that, my friends, to encourage you to consider this. Please, please consider giving to the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Franklin Graham, We’re working with them. We’re on the grounds here in our own neighborhood, so to speak, of Los Angeles, Malibu, the Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Altadena, areas of Pasadena. And it is overwhelmingly epic. I promise you this. Give what you can to Samaritan’s Purse. SamaritansPurse.org. Go there and send support to them regarding the Southern California fires. Please do not send us any of your money. Do not send it to Real Life. Do not send it to Real Radio. Please send it direct. Your contribution is a 501c3 tax-deductible contribution to the right people. Samaritans Purse, and you can go to SamaritansPurse.org. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 01 :
On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues with his series called The Book of James and a message titled The Answer to Life’s Greatest Question. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James shares with them life’s greatest question. You see, within the heart and mind lies the greatest question that mankind has ever faced. The question is simple, and yet it’s profound. What is my purpose in life? So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the answer to life’s greatest question is first realizing that we do not have all the answers, and we never will. Our normal perception of life is wrong. Our perception of time is wrong. and our own will can never dictate reality. Now, with his message called, The Answer to Life’s Greatest Question, here’s pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
Grab your Bibles and open to James chapter 4. We’ll be in verses 13 to 17 this morning. James 4, 13 through 17, and the title is, The Answer to Life’s Greatest Question. The answer to life’s greatest question, James is going to answer that for us this morning, and it may come to you in a way that you maybe perhaps didn’t quite think of. That’s a question that plagues, I think, everybody at some point in time in life. It seems to be that God has created us with an internal void. There’s that little saying that God has made us and created us so, with a space missing that only Jesus can fill. And I think that’s true. I think if you look around at the world today and all of the things that are going on and man’s pursuits of trying to make a meaningful and purposeful direction for his life, you’ll find that people are filling themselves with all kinds of things. They’ll try anything. I find it interesting that so many wealthy people or so many famous people go to the ends of the earth and do the most strange and extravagant and sometimes twisted things to find fulfillment. Everything is at their table. Everything is before them on their plate. They sample life. They’ve got it all. And then they just turn and they say, you know, what is there to life? Why do I feel so empty? And the world is like that. The world wants us to enjoy life, it says to us. It promises us on the little 30-second blurbs of advertisements, come and buy the Buick or the Olds 88 and your life will be filled. Oh, baloney, you know. It’s not true. But the world would have us to believe that. That if somehow we acquire things, we’ll be content. Somehow if we make a successful life by profiting things, by having that home, or having those toys, the airplane, or the boat, or the activities that somehow will be fulfilled. But soon, very soon, those who have such things find out that that’s not the answer to life, and they still have questions. Maybe there are those who will never have those types of luxuries, and they think, if I just had that one thing, then my life will be content. And that’s not true. Maybe you’re thinking this morning, if I just have that husband or that wife, my life will be content. That’s not true. Driving around. My kids love the new Volkswagen. And who doesn’t? You know, you look at that car, and you have to smile when you look at it. You expect it to talk to you. It looks like a cartoon going down the street. And oh, oh, you know, I’m hearing, oh, if I just had that. And I tell them, I have a 1967 Volkswagen Bug, and it’s in the garage. And I’m telling them, as soon as you get your license, you can drive that Bug. But it’s not the new Bug. If I just had the new bug. Well, you can keep praying all you want. You will not get from me the new bug. That’s not how life is fulfilled. In Luke 16, verse 13, Jesus says, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. Jesus says you cannot serve God and Wall Street. That is money. You cannot serve God and mammon. And I find it interesting that he has really brought us all down to one place. We are either lovers of God or in this life, no matter what culture you’re in, you’re going to be either a lover of God or a lover of money. one promises everything and produces nothing the other produces all that you need and has the power to deliver it and yet within our own nature there is this thing to pursue that which cannot satisfy and james is going to be talking to us about that this morning In our last study last week, we saw things that Christians do. And this study this week is built upon that. Things that Christians do, and we saw eight birthmarks of the believer. The first one was last week that Christians are to submit to God’s desires. Remember that as we go through today’s study. The second birthmark is that the Christian resists the attacks of Satan as they come in their various forms. The third birthmark is that Christians seek God above all else. It’s built into their heart to do. To seek Him. To seek first the kingdom of God. And then the fourth mark was Christians are dedicated to leaving the old world behind. The old life behind, when it rears its ugly head and reminds us about our past, the Christian is quick to bring that thought into the captivity of Christ and to put it back. And as Paul said, leaving those things that are behind, we press forward to the high calling, which is in Christ Jesus. And then the next birthmark was that we were determined, or we are to be determined as Christians to live in the presence of God. And we saw also that we are to exercise grace toward others and also to yield to the rule of God. In James chapter 4, verse 6 and 7. There it said, but God gives more grace, therefore he says, that is God, he says of himself that he resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And it says, verse seven, James chapter four, therefore submit to God and resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. So that statement that he made in verses six and seven, we build upon this morning, that is submitting to God, very important. And so he says in verse 13, come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then it vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance, all such boast in his evil. Therefore to him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin. We’re gonna look at four points this morning. And the first point is this, regarding the answer to life’s question, the first thing that we wanna come to is in verse 13, and that is that you and I do not have, listen, you and I do not have all the answers. Can you believe that? You mean you got up early to hear that? I got offended, you might be saying, so early in the message. Yes, it is true. The answer to life’s questions is first realizing, I don’t have all the answers. That comes to a shock to the arrogant. That comes to a shock to the proud. We don’t have all the answers. And God has made it so. So the first thing we notice is that you and I do not have all of the answers. So if I’m going to ask this great question, what is the meaning to life and what is the purpose? Why am I here? We have to come to this place of asking the question. God, what is the… Express purpose of my existence. Why do I really live? And built into every human being is the desire to answer that question. If you don’t know, you will search. And cultures all around the world are searching. There’s not one culture that is not searching. To find the answer to that question, you might be thinking, well, what about the little guy running around in Australia or New Guinea, the little pygmy guy? running around with the bone in his nose and the spear, and he’s, you know, you mean to tell me he cares about where he comes from? Oh, absolutely. That’s why he erects his little temples and bows down to them, trying to find this god or gods. in his ignorance that he’s seeking to find. The book of Romans chapter one tells us that God has revealed his eternal existence and his Godhood to all of his creation. Even that little pygmy running around down there in New Guinea, or I don’t know, wherever they’re from, Chino Hills, somewhere. It’s true, it’s in the heart. And so I want to look at a few things concerning the fact that you and I don’t have the answers. And in our pride and in our arrogance, we do need to be obedient to jot them down because maybe the Lord will convince us. He says in verse 13, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? In fact, we go to school to learn how to do this. This is our culture. 2000 years ago, James wrote this and it fits today right now more than ever. Does it fit? What do we think even as Christians? Hey, I got an idea. You know what, if you just buy into this deal, few other people I know bought into it, we’ll do this thing packages up and then we’ll sell it to the next guy. And you know, we’ll make money as he goes on and makes money and we’ll make money and everybody just makes money. And it’s a sure deal. We’ll make a profit. And in about a year, we’ll be sitting happy. is that wrong you know what it could be wrong if God is left out of the equation well I’ve been very careful to make sure God is in the equation are you willing to accept whatever profit or loss of profit comes to pass in a year’s time and still say praise the Lord you see or at the end of the year if you’ve made a Negative on the venture. Is it a great depression for you? Are you absolutely bummed out and scratching your head wondering what went wrong? Maybe everything went right and God was protecting you all along. You see, we need to be careful as Christians that we don’t get on some venture and then we, oh yeah, God, will you bless this? And we join in with him halfway through the deal. That is the first step, Christian. Listen, to ruin everything. Oh Lord, I’ve made these plans. I’ve got this thing all laid out. I got the flow chart. Bless it. That’s not how it works. That’s not what the Lord is looking for.
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.
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When he says in verse 13, come now, the first thing we want to see is our perception, our normal perception in life is often wrong. If you and I don’t have all the answers, why is that the case? Because our perception is often wrong. James says, come now you who say. This is a very interesting construction in the Greek. Some of your old King James Bibles, don’t they say, or doesn’t it say, go now? Like, go away, it sounds like. Go from here. No, in the Greek, it’s come now. Watch this. Come now, you who say. In the Greek, it’s this way. Come here now, you who say. And it’s the individual, you, me. This word, come now, is specifically to me, Jack. It is specifically to you, John, or Betty. It’s you. The word in Greek is singular. When James says, come now, James is literally in his pulpit. If you could allow me to do this 2,000 years ago, James is saying this in the original language. Come now, Linda, and listen. You who say today or tomorrow is not Linda. It is all of the world around you. You see what he’s saying? Come now, Don, and I want to talk to you. Because there are those all around you in life who say… Today or tomorrow, we’ll go do this, that, or the other thing. You see this. It’s very important. Individually, every one of us who name the name of Christ, we are to come before the command that James is going to give us. And what is he going to say? He said, listen, there are people surrounding your life who will say, today or tomorrow, we’re going to go to such and such a city, and we’re going to be there for about a year, and we’re going to make a profit. Have you ever heard someone, and we all do this, we all make this comment, well, you know, they say that it’s going to rain tomorrow. Or they say that it’s going to be a very profitable year. You know, we should always ask the question, who are they that we’re talking about? It’s exactly what James is saying. You come here because they say… that we should leave and go today or tomorrow and go to such and such a city, go on a traveling kind of a thing and invest and make a profit. Now, again, listen carefully. I’m not slamming the making of a profit. But what James’ point is, that is not why you have been created. What? I thought we’ve been created to make a profit. You see how this slaps our culture in its face? If we don’t make a profit, if you make less money this year than last year, you’re considered a loser. If you don’t make as much as you did halfway through the year as last year, we’re not making it. Things are going down. We’re suffering. We put so much on the fact that there are those who say, come, let us make a profit, that we begin to equate our profitability with our very existence and self-value. When God turns around and says, you come here, my little child, your life’s existence is not caught up in making a profit. And it almost sounds like heresy in the culture that you and I live in. Today or tomorrow, he says, we’ll go to such and such a city. Very important that we understand that it is what they say, the general populace. It’s what the Gallup poll would suggest. Well, everybody’s doing it. You’re hearing a lot about that, aren’t you? Well, everybody is doing that kind of thing. The polls show that 67% believe. You know what? With all due respect, who in the world cares? Since when does the popular opinion dictate the execution of the law? It doesn’t matter if 99% said the law is the law. Popular opinion doesn’t form or empower or negate from the law. The law is. And James is telling us there’s a thing within the human nature, with all of us, even as Christians. Well, can I make any money out of the deal? And that’s not bad. But we should continue that lofty thought that’s in our head. Am I going to make any money in the deal so I can give most of it to the work of the Lord? You see? And I knew you were going to say that, weren’t you? All of us were going to say that. You see how funny it is? Wow. And we start to think, I can get a new car. And your mind goes, huh? Don’t tell me it doesn’t. All of our minds just begin to go. If you give me $1,000, I promise to bring 23% return on your dollar this time next year. Yeah? Well, hang on a minute. You work that out? Yeah. Where do I start giving? You see? It’s in the nature. James says, be careful. Be careful about your natural perceptions. The next thing that we see in this verse is that we have to be careful because we have the wrong perception of time. You who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city. Well, it sounds like the guy’s got a day timer. It sounds like he’s got a little poem pilot. He’s got it all nailed out. Well, this is where I’m going to be tomorrow. And this is what I’m going to be doing. Listen, James is saying he’s not against planning. He’s saying you better be careful. Your breath may be taken away today. And all of our plans, James wants us to know, we had better put God first at the top of our list. By the way, people who do that sometimes drive me nuts. They’re trusting in God so much. They love the Lord so much. I’m expecting them to be somewhere at 2 o’clock. I went to a meeting a while back, and this guy was supposed to be there at 2 o’clock, and the Lord interrupted his life. But the Lord didn’t tell me he was going to interrupt his life. So I’m wondering, where is this guy? Well, the Lord radically interrupted his life. And now he’s getting all bent out of shape about it. Lord, how could you do that? He does what he pleases. But my day timer, it’s right here. Jack one one, it said right here, two o’clock. You know God reserves the right to interrupt our day tomorrow, did you know that? He can do anything he wants to do. Well, he better look at my day timer first. We have the wrong perception of time. We don’t have the answers and we don’t know what time it is. We really don’t. Only God knows, today or tomorrow. The next thing we see in verse 13, we have to be careful regarding you and I not having all the answers because, listen, our will, our desire can never dictate reality. And I know that flies in the face of some popular TV shows right now. Our desire, our will, what we want does not change reality. I know there’s a young lady on TV saying, you create your own reality. Isn’t that something? Stand on a train track. Look down that train track and see that light coming. And you, she said, you meditate on a wonderful forest and stream flowing by. What’s flowing by is a million-ton train. Your meditation on creating a new reality does not change the facts. We can be absolutely loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, but the fact of the matter is we don’t have all the answers. You may be seated here this morning and you’re thinking, well, you know what? I think I’ve done pretty good in my life. Maybe you have by the grace of God. But listen, you do not have all the answers. You don’t know really what time it is. You don’t know. The Bible says God numbers our days, and He pulls our number up. He pulls that number, and it’s your day today. Maybe it’s your day, my day tomorrow. And our number’s up, and we’ll be going to either heaven or to hell. We don’t know what time it is. We have the wrong perception of time. We say, and we traffic with those who say, tomorrow, today, we’ll do this and so. James is going to be telling us as we come to the end of this teaching, if the Lord wills, is what we should say. God willing, I’ll see you tomorrow. Isn’t that amazing? So simple. But the pursuit of profit can skew our thinking.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called The Answer to Life’s Greatest Question. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on true Christianity and how it creates a new way of living. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. What does it take to be a great leader? Whether you’re managing a business or running a household or navigating relationships, leadership is about so much more than titles and tasks. In The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman, you’ll discover some timeless principles of biblical leadership that really apply to every area of your life. Through some compelling storytelling, Dr. Lehman shares seven powerful secrets that’ll help you lead like the Good Shepherd does. Those secrets include understanding the people you lead, assessing their strengths, building trust, ensuring safety, providing direction, implementing correction, leading with compassion, Personally recommended by Pastor Jack Hibbs. The Way of the Shepherd is available today for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Get your copy of The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman at 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.
