Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / How to Handle Criticism with Class, Part 1 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Few things are more painful than personal criticism. Attacked, accused,
- 0:12Speaker 1: unfairly judged, perhaps by someone who doesn't even know the facts.
- 0:16Speaker 1: It's tough to take that without swinging back. Today on
- 0:20Speaker 1: Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll describes a man who endured
- 0:23Speaker 1: relentless false accusation from a so-called friend and never once retaliated.
- 0:29Speaker 1: What was his secret? And how do we respond to
- 0:32Speaker 1: a verbal assault with maturity, restraint, and faith?
- 0:35Speaker 2: Chuck calls it grace.
- 0:37Speaker 1: Under pressure, and there's no finer example than Job. Chuck
- 0:41Speaker 1: titled his message, How to Handle Criticism with Class. Job
- 0:46Speaker 1: 22 and 23.
- 0:46Speaker 2: We are still in Job.
- 0:47Speaker 3: We may be in Job until Jesus comes back.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Who knows?
- 1:03Speaker 2: We are in chapter 22. You'll be happy to know
- 1:05Speaker 2: we are halfway through. This is the third cycle of
- 1:08Speaker 2: the fight, the verbal fight between these alleged friends and Job.
- 1:12Speaker 2: This man's name is Eliphaz the Temanite, who comes out swinging.
- 1:18Speaker 2: He responded, can a vigorous man be of use to
- 1:21Speaker 2: God or a wise man be useful to himself? Is
- 1:25Speaker 2: there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous
- 1:29Speaker 2: or prophet if you make your ways perfect? Look at
- 1:33Speaker 2: the sarcasm of verse 4. Is it because of your
- 1:36Speaker 2: reverence that he reproves you? That he enters into judgment
- 1:41Speaker 2: against you? Is it because you're so holy? And then
- 1:46Speaker 2: his accusation is not your wickedness great and your iniquities
- 1:51Speaker 2: without end. So he accuses him of great wickedness and iniquity.
- 1:59Speaker 2: And then he gives him a message. Verse 21 says,
- 2:02Speaker 2: Yield now and be at peace with him, thereby good
- 2:06Speaker 2: will come to you. Please receive instruction from his mouth
- 2:10Speaker 2: and establish his words in your heart. If you return
- 2:14Speaker 2: to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove
- 2:17Speaker 2: unrighteousness far from your tent and place your gold in
- 2:23Speaker 2: the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of
- 2:26Speaker 2: the brooks, then the Almighty will be your gold and
- 2:29Speaker 2: choice silver to you. Job responds in chapter 23, verse 3, oh,
- 2:37Speaker 2: that I knew, chapter 23, verse 3, oh, that I
- 2:41Speaker 2: knew where I might find him, that I might come
- 2:45Speaker 2: to his seat. I would present my case before him
- 2:48Speaker 2: and fill my mouth with arguments. Verse 8, behold, I
- 2:54Speaker 2: go forward. He's not there. Backward, I cannot perceive him.
- 3:00Speaker 2: When he acts on the left, I cannot behold him.
- 3:04Speaker 2: He turns on the right. I cannot see him. But
- 3:10Speaker 2: look at the faith. He knows the way I take.
- 3:15Speaker 2: When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
- 3:19Speaker 2: My foot has held fast to his path. I have
- 3:22Speaker 2: kept his way and not turned aside. I have not
- 3:27Speaker 2: departed from the command of his lips. I have treasured
- 3:31Speaker 2: the words of his.
- 3:32Speaker 3: Mouth more than my necessary food.
- 3:45Speaker 1: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into
- 3:49Speaker 1: Job's story on your own, be sure to purchase your
- 3:51Speaker 1: copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks by
- 3:55Speaker 1: going to insight.org. Chuck titled today's message, How to Handle
- 4:01Speaker 1: Criticism with Class.
- 4:03Speaker 2: Ernest Hemingway reduced his definition of courage to three words,
- 4:10Speaker 2: grace under pressure. Appropriate words, aren't they? They apply to
- 4:18Speaker 2: anyone who can handle criticism and the blast of other
- 4:23Speaker 2: people in a calm and mature manner, demonstrating grace under pressure.
- 4:32Speaker 2: In my study these last two weeks, I came across
- 4:34Speaker 2: a story that emerges out of the life of the late,
- 4:38Speaker 2: great Martin Luther. One of his harshest critics came and
- 4:44Speaker 2: presented him a litany of his mistakes and failures and sins.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Luther's mistakes, failures, and sins. He gave them to him
- 4:55Speaker 2: with a frown so that Luther would read them. The
- 5:00Speaker 2: reformer read them, shook his head, sighed deeply, and then
- 5:05Speaker 2: said to the man, Think a little harder, you have
- 5:09Speaker 2: forgotten some. It was grace under pressure. Our 16th president
- 5:17Speaker 2: was a masterful model of handling criticism and verbal assaults.
- 5:24Speaker 2: One of his biographers named Donald Phillips writes, Abraham Lincoln
- 5:30Speaker 2: was slandered, liable, and hated perhaps more intensely than any
- 5:36Speaker 2: man ever to run for the nation's highest office. He
- 5:40Speaker 2: was publicly called just about every name imaginable by the press,
- 5:46Speaker 2: including a grotesque baboon, a third-rate country lawyer, a coarse,
- 5:54Speaker 2: vulgar jokester, a dictator, an ape, a buffoon, and others.
- 6:03Speaker 2: The Illinois State Register, which was the paper of his
- 6:08Speaker 2: own state, labeled Lincoln, quote, the craftiest and most dishonest
- 6:14Speaker 2: politician that ever disgraced an office in America. I'm holding
- 6:20Speaker 2: back from saying something right there. Mr. Lincoln handled that
- 6:26Speaker 2: with great, great maturity. In fact, he had four ways
- 6:32Speaker 2: of responding to such criticism. First, and most often, he
- 6:35Speaker 2: simply ignored it if it was what he called petty.
- 6:40Speaker 2: And most of it was. Second, he answered back only
- 6:45Speaker 2: when it was important and would make a difference. Third,
- 6:50Speaker 2: he formed the habit of sitting down and writing lengthy
- 6:54Speaker 2: letters of refutation, venting his anger and emotions, and then
- 7:00Speaker 2: tearing them up. Never mailed them. Or fourth, he always
- 7:06Speaker 2: looked on the brighter side of life and kept a
- 7:08Speaker 2: good sense of humor. Grace under pressure. One of my
- 7:14Speaker 2: favorite characters down through the years has been Sir Winston Churchill.
- 7:19Speaker 2: He not only handled criticism with class, he invited it.
- 7:24Speaker 2: In fact, he personally engaged himself in self-criticism every night
- 7:31Speaker 2: of the Second World War. Says his biographer Stephen Hayward,
- 7:36Speaker 2: Every night, said Churchill, I try myself by court-martial to
- 7:43Speaker 2: see if I have done anything effective during the day.
- 7:47Speaker 2: I don't mean just pawing the ground. Anyone can go
- 7:50Speaker 2: through the motions, but something really effective. One of his
- 7:55Speaker 2: closest confidants later said, he always took criticisms very, very meekly.
- 8:03Speaker 2: One could say exactly what one liked in the way
- 8:05Speaker 2: of criticism. He wanted the full critical value from his subordinates.
- 8:11Speaker 2: He added, I cannot recall a single minister, serving officer,
- 8:16Speaker 2: or civil servant who was removed from his office because
- 8:21Speaker 2: he stood up to Churchill and told him that he
- 8:23Speaker 2: thought his policy and proposals were wrong. The courageous Prime
- 8:28Speaker 2: Minister of Great Britain made it a consistent habit never
- 8:32Speaker 2: to overrule the service chiefs of staff, even when he
- 8:36Speaker 2: strenuously disagreed with their decisions. Grace under pressure. One of
- 8:46Speaker 2: the most eloquent examples of this would be King David
- 8:49Speaker 2: when Absalom took over the throne. His father... David was
- 8:56Speaker 2: forced to abdicate the throne because Absalom stole the hearts
- 9:00Speaker 2: of the people through his deceptive means. Absalom came to
- 9:06Speaker 2: the throne and David didn't want to kill or fight
- 9:10Speaker 2: with his own son, so he simply left it in
- 9:13Speaker 2: his hands and went away along with his mighty men.
- 9:18Speaker 2: While David was escaping, He was walking in an area
- 9:23Speaker 2: recorded for us in 2 Samuel 16 where there appeared
- 9:27Speaker 2: on the scene some fool named Shimei. And you haven't
- 9:33Speaker 2: met a snotty man until you have met Shimei. 2
- 9:38Speaker 2: Samuel 16 beginning at verse 5 down through verse 14.
- 9:43Speaker 2: You can turn some other time. We read, he cursed
- 9:47Speaker 2: continually as he came. He threw stones at David and
- 9:52Speaker 2: at the servants of King David, saying as he threw them,
- 9:57Speaker 2: get out, get out you. man of bloodshed, you worthless fellow.
- 10:06Speaker 2: If you could read it in the Hebrew, it wouldn't
- 10:08Speaker 2: read worthless fellow, but I'm going to leave that for
- 10:11Speaker 2: another time. Now, how did David respond to this nut
- 10:16Speaker 2: who is throwing stones at him and screaming at him
- 10:20Speaker 2: with these put downs? Well, before I tell you David's response,
- 10:24Speaker 2: let me tell you Abishai's response. He asked David, may
- 10:28Speaker 2: I go over there and cut off his head? I
- 10:32Speaker 2: love that line. I love it. Had I been David...
- 10:39Speaker 2: Shimei wouldn't have known his head was off until he sneezed.
- 10:42Speaker 2: I mean, it would be one quick slice and it
- 10:46Speaker 2: would be over. But David, grace under pressure. He said,
- 10:51Speaker 2: let him alone. Let him curse. Perhaps the Lord will
- 10:56Speaker 2: look on my affliction and return good to me instead
- 11:00Speaker 2: of his cursing this day. Grace under pressure. One of
- 11:06Speaker 2: my seminary colleagues said, has written several books, and I
- 11:10Speaker 2: came across his wise words recently. God gives us over
- 11:16Speaker 2: to such bruisings because they are part of the process
- 11:20Speaker 2: to make us what he intends us to be. The
- 11:24Speaker 2: hurting makes us sweeter, more mellow. We learn to let
- 11:30Speaker 2: go of what we want. It makes us calm and strong.
- 11:36Speaker 2: Then he adds, I think he must have smiled when
- 11:38Speaker 2: he wrote it. Our Lord was nailed to the cross,
- 11:41Speaker 2: so you can count on being nailed to the wall.
- 11:45Speaker 2: Grace under pressure. Being attacked lately, accused, unfairly criticized, verbally,
- 11:59Speaker 2: brutally assaulted, perhaps by somebody who doesn't even know what
- 12:04Speaker 2: he's talking about. It's tough to take that without swinging
- 12:09Speaker 2: back with a verbal weapon in return. I think part
- 12:15Speaker 2: of the reason the Lord is keeping us in the
- 12:16Speaker 2: book of Job is to learn how to respond under
- 12:19Speaker 2: such situations. There is no finer example of grace under
- 12:24Speaker 2: pressure than this man whose book bears his name. Job
- 12:31Speaker 2: has been, well, he suffered badly. the loss of bankruptcy,
- 12:38Speaker 2: the death of his ten children, that's grieved him, the
- 12:45Speaker 2: attacks of his friends who were once close to him,
- 12:51Speaker 2: and the disease that ravaged him on top of all
- 12:54Speaker 2: that with the fever and the swelling and the sleepless
- 12:58Speaker 2: nights and the dreadful days. And you rarely see Job
- 13:05Speaker 2: losing it. If anything, at his worst, he simply says
- 13:11Speaker 2: to the Lord, I am at a loss to know
- 13:14Speaker 2: what's happening or why. What is being said isn't true,
- 13:20Speaker 2: and what you're doing I cannot explain, but all I
- 13:26Speaker 2: can do is trust you. And he does it page
- 13:31Speaker 2: after page after page After page, from chapter 3 to
- 13:38Speaker 2: chapter 41, it happens over and over and over again.
- 13:46Speaker 2: They run in cycles. Trouble is like that, isn't it?
- 13:52Speaker 2: The first cycle is over. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar swung
- 13:59Speaker 2: at him and often hit him. The second cycle is over. Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar,
- 14:07Speaker 2: once again, took him on. He answered each one, usually
- 14:12Speaker 2: with great wisdom. Now we're back to the third cycle.
- 14:17Speaker 2: And we're not surprised to read that old name again,
- 14:19Speaker 2: Eliphaz the Temanite, responded. All of this reminds me of
- 14:26Speaker 2: a song we used to sing as junior high kids.
- 14:29Speaker 2: Back when I was a kid, the earth was cooling.
- 14:32Speaker 2: I remember sitting on the church bus, singing with my
- 14:36Speaker 2: other friends, same song, third verse, could get better, gonna
- 14:41Speaker 2: get worse. Remember that? We sang it till the bus
- 14:44Speaker 2: driver wanted to drive us all into the river, I
- 14:47Speaker 2: can assure you. That's where we are with Eliphaz the Temanite.
- 14:51Speaker 2: Same song, same stuff, same stuff, nothing new. Let me
- 14:56Speaker 2: cut to the chase. He makes three accusations against Job
- 15:00Speaker 2: in chapter 22. Verses 1 to 11, you're a sinner.
- 15:06Speaker 2: Verses 12 to 20, you have hidden your sins, so
- 15:10Speaker 2: you're a hypocrite. Verse 21 to the end of the chapter,
- 15:15Speaker 2: chapter 22, verse 30, you're in need of repentance. You're
- 15:20Speaker 2: a sinner, you're a hypocrite, you need to repent. You're
- 15:25Speaker 2: a sinner, you're a hypocrite, you need to repent. That's
- 15:29Speaker 2: what he says in chapter 22. I mean the gall
- 15:34Speaker 2: it took for him to stand there and say that
- 15:36Speaker 2: to a man who is literally fevered with these boils
- 15:41Speaker 2: that are all over him and racked with grief over
- 15:45Speaker 2: the loss of his family and his home and his business.
- 15:52Speaker 2: But he says it straight. Verse 5 of chapter 22,
- 15:55Speaker 2: Eliphaz accuses, is not your wickedness great? and your iniquities
- 16:00Speaker 2: without end. Why would he say that? Look at the
- 16:03Speaker 2: condition you're in. Nobody loses everything, including family and business
- 16:07Speaker 2: and home and health, without being guilty of sin. You
- 16:11Speaker 2: must be a terrible sinner in light of all that
- 16:14Speaker 2: you've lost. Correct observation, he's lost everything. Wrong conclusion. It
- 16:20Speaker 2: wasn't because he was sinful. But Job doesn't answer. Remember,
- 16:23Speaker 2: this is grace under pressure. Is not your wickedness great,
- 16:29Speaker 2: your iniquities without end? You have taken pledges of your
- 16:32Speaker 2: brothers without cause and stripped men naked. He's got a
- 16:36Speaker 2: vivid imagination. Job never did that, but he's accusing him
- 16:39Speaker 2: of it. So it's a false accusation. To the weary
- 16:44Speaker 2: you have given no water to drink, and from the
- 16:46Speaker 2: hungry you have withheld bread. Job never did that, but
- 16:49Speaker 2: he's accusing him of it. Job sits in silence and
- 16:52Speaker 2: takes it. Verse 9, you have sent widows away empty
- 16:56Speaker 2: and the strength of the orphans has been crushed. Wrong again.
- 17:00Speaker 2: Never did that. Falsely accused. Job says nothing. Therefore, as
- 17:05Speaker 2: a result of your wrongdoing, Job, snares surround you and
- 17:10Speaker 2: sudden dread terrifies you. Darkness so that you cannot see
- 17:17Speaker 2: and abundance of water covers you. He's speaking poetically. You
- 17:21Speaker 2: have gotten the full reaction of the living God who
- 17:26Speaker 2: can't stand sinfulness like you have been modeling. Because you
- 17:30Speaker 2: are sinful, you are going through such things. Job's character
- 17:36Speaker 2: was so pure before all of the trouble started that
- 17:39Speaker 2: the devil picked him out as the one he wanted
- 17:41Speaker 2: to pick on. And the Lord allowed it, knowing that
- 17:45Speaker 2: Job's character would be able to withstand it. The antithesis
- 17:49Speaker 2: is true. The opposite of what he's being accused of.
- 17:55Speaker 2: The critic didn't know his facts. And by the way,
- 17:57Speaker 2: how could he have known them? He hasn't even been
- 17:59Speaker 2: on the scene. He only showed up after the sickness occurred.
- 18:04Speaker 2: Let me add a word about habitual critics. They never
- 18:07Speaker 2: get their facts straight. Habitual critics have a great imagination.
- 18:14Speaker 2: They only need a little bit to go on and
- 18:16Speaker 2: then they can build a whole case. Because they have
- 18:19Speaker 2: the gift of criticism, let's say. That's their calling. Their
- 18:25Speaker 2: calling is to make you miserable. And they put together
- 18:28Speaker 2: a mass of facts, but they can't prove them. Just
- 18:31Speaker 2: as Eliphaz could not prove these. But he's there nevertheless accusing.
- 18:36Speaker 2: Let me say this too. Even though they weren't true,
- 18:38Speaker 2: they were hard to hear. Even though what is being
- 18:43Speaker 2: said against you cannot be proven, it's hard for... You
- 18:47Speaker 2: to sit there and take it and to know that
- 18:49Speaker 2: other people are listening in and he is no doubt
- 18:51Speaker 2: or she is no doubt telling them as well. To
- 18:55Speaker 2: make matters worse, he steps into that next realm. You
- 18:59Speaker 2: are a hypocrite. You have hidden your sins. He invites
- 19:02Speaker 2: Job to look back. Is not God in the height
- 19:06Speaker 2: of heaven? Look also at the distant stars, how high
- 19:09Speaker 2: they are. First, he says, look up. Look up, Job.
- 19:13Speaker 2: You say, what does God know? Can he judge through
- 19:16Speaker 2: the thick darkness? Clouds are a hiding place for him
- 19:19Speaker 2: so that he cannot see. He walks on the vault
- 19:21Speaker 2: of heaven. Would you keep to the ancient path which
- 19:24Speaker 2: wicked men have trod? Look back now, Job. Look back
- 19:28Speaker 2: and see what other men have done. You're doing just
- 19:30Speaker 2: what they have done. They were snatched away before their time,
- 19:34Speaker 2: whose foundations were washed away by a river. They said
- 19:38Speaker 2: to God, depart from us, and what can the Almighty
- 19:40Speaker 2: do to them? That's what you're doing, Job. So Eliphaz
- 19:47Speaker 2: is telling him off. Tough criticism. It's hard enough to
- 19:51Speaker 2: be told you're a sinner, but to be told on
- 19:53Speaker 2: top of that that you're a hypocrite adds a low blow.
- 19:59Speaker 2: It's hard to show grace under pressure at a time
- 20:01Speaker 2: like that. Warren Wiersbe writes, a hypocrite is not a
- 20:05Speaker 2: person who fails to reach his desired spiritual goals, All
- 20:09Speaker 2: of us fail in one way or another. A hypocrite
- 20:13Speaker 2: is a person who doesn't even try to reach any goals,
- 20:16Speaker 2: but he makes people think he has. His profession and
- 20:21Speaker 2: his practice never meet. The old Puritan preacher Stephen Charnock
- 20:28Speaker 2: once said, It is a sad thing to be Christians
- 20:32Speaker 2: at a supper, heathens in our shops, and devils in
- 20:40Speaker 2: our closets. No question about it. Hypocrisy is an awful thing.
- 20:46Speaker 2: Jesus was death on it. In Jesus' day, he took
- 20:51Speaker 2: on nothing harder than he took on hypocrisy. One of
- 20:55Speaker 2: the major reasons the Sermon on the Mount was preached
- 20:57Speaker 2: was because of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Our God
- 21:02Speaker 2: despises hypocrisy. But the fact is, Job is not guilty
- 21:08Speaker 2: of He's hiding nothing. By now, Job's confessed everything. I mean,
- 21:13Speaker 2: have you ever hurt so badly that you went back
- 21:16Speaker 2: and went over every step of your life and the
- 21:19Speaker 2: pain continued and then you went back and you manufactured things? Well,
- 21:24Speaker 2: maybe I did this. Maybe I did that. And you
- 21:26Speaker 2: rehearse in your mind before the Lord. If I was
- 21:30Speaker 2: doing this or if I was guilty of that, you
- 21:33Speaker 2: go there in hopes that somehow there might be a relief.
- 21:36Speaker 2: Job's done all of that. In fact, he's recorded a
- 21:39Speaker 2: number of times when he's brought his life before the Lord.
- 21:42Speaker 2: This is a wonderful man being treated like a piece
- 21:45Speaker 2: of trash. Well, Eliphaz decides he needs to preach an
- 21:50Speaker 2: evangelistic sermon to Job, and maybe he will get saved.
- 21:54Speaker 2: And so in verses 21 to 30, he delivers an
- 21:58Speaker 2: excellent evangelistic sermon. Only problem, Job's already saved. As Harry
- 22:04Speaker 2: Ironside used to say, there are two things you can't save.
- 22:07Speaker 2: Seats and saints. And Job's a saint. He's already in
- 22:12Speaker 2: the family. He doesn't need the message, but I've done that.
- 22:16Speaker 2: Preached a wrong message to a great audience and I've
- 22:19Speaker 2: suffered for it as well. Look at verse 21. Yield
- 22:22Speaker 2: now and be at peace with him. Thereby good will
- 22:25Speaker 2: come to you. Please receive instruction from God's mouth and
- 22:28Speaker 2: establish his words in your heart. He has done that.
- 22:32Speaker 2: If you return to the Almighty, he doesn't need to.
- 22:34Speaker 2: You will be restored if you remove unrighteousness far from
- 22:37Speaker 2: your tent. He's already done that. And place your gold
- 22:40Speaker 2: in the dust. Verse 25. Then the Almighty will be
- 22:43Speaker 2: your gold and choice silver to you. Then you will
- 22:46Speaker 2: delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
- 22:49Speaker 2: He's going on and on and on with this message.
- 22:52Speaker 2: And Job just patiently sits there. You do that sometime
- 22:56Speaker 2: when I preach.
- 22:56Speaker 1: I understand.
- 22:57Speaker 2: I understand. I have to do that sometime and I
- 23:00Speaker 2: hear other people preach and they're maybe preaching a message
- 23:03Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily apply. Job has a message being delivered.
- 23:07Speaker 2: It's a great message, but he doesn't need it. He
- 23:11Speaker 2: doesn't need it. He's probably walking as close to the
- 23:15Speaker 2: Lord as he has ever walked in his life. Problem
- 23:18Speaker 2: is he can hardly move because of his pain. And
- 23:22Speaker 2: Eliphaz has interpreted that incorrectly. But he demonstrates grace under pressure. Interesting,
- 23:28Speaker 2: in these 30 verses, not once does Job interrupt. Let
- 23:33Speaker 2: me ask you a hard question. Would you have sat
- 23:35Speaker 2: there and let all that be said without interrupting? I mean,
- 23:40Speaker 2: wouldn't you at least a time or two say, wait
- 23:43Speaker 2: a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a
- 23:46Speaker 2: minute before you go any further. Prove that. Where are
- 23:51Speaker 2: my witnesses or where are your witnesses that say I'm
- 23:54Speaker 2: guilty of that? Prove it. And he doesn't do that.
- 23:58Speaker 2: Grace under pressure. There's a lot to learn before we
- 24:02Speaker 2: move to chapter 23. There's a lot to learn from
- 24:05Speaker 2: Job's self-control. I don't know how old he was by now.
- 24:10Speaker 2: I think he's getting up in years. But one of
- 24:12Speaker 2: the things he's learned over the years that those people
- 24:17Speaker 2: learned that I quoted earlier is that you just sometimes
- 24:20Speaker 2: take it on the chin. You just sometimes let it
- 24:24Speaker 2: go by you. If you know it's not true, even
- 24:28Speaker 2: though that person would swear that it's true, you let
- 24:31Speaker 2: it go on by. Just let it go on. Let
- 24:35Speaker 2: them go right on believing. Job, by the way, in
- 24:38Speaker 2: chapter 23 and 24, never once answers Eliphaz. He talks
- 24:44Speaker 2: to and about the Lord, but he doesn't once address Eliphaz.
- 24:49Speaker 2: I think that's pretty significant. After all, Eliphaz is not
- 24:53Speaker 2: going to justify him. The Lord will.
- 25:06Speaker 1: There's freedom in those words, isn't there? When you know
- 25:09Speaker 1: the truth, you don't have to answer every accusation. You
- 25:12Speaker 1: don't have to win every argument. You can let it
- 25:14Speaker 1: go on by and trust the Lord to be your defender.
- 25:18Speaker 1: That's grace under pressure. Chuck Swindoll will have more to
- 25:21Speaker 1: say on Insight for Living. He titled today's message, How
- 25:25Speaker 1: to Handle Criticism with Class. It's number 12 in a
- 25:29Speaker 1: 22-part collection of messages. To access these recordings on Chuck's
- 25:33Speaker 1: study in the book of Job, just go to insight.org
- 25:36Speaker 1: slash series, or you can find them on the Insight
- 25:40Speaker 1: for Living mobile app. Insight for Living is pleased to
- 25:43Speaker 1: provide companion resources for every study that Chuck presents, and
- 25:47Speaker 1: this biographical series on Job is no different. For instance,
- 25:51Speaker 1: Chuck wrote a practical book that pairs naturally with his study.
- 25:55Speaker 1: His book is titled Finding God When the World's on Fire.
- 25:59Speaker 1: You know, suffering has a way of stripping away every
- 26:01Speaker 1: answer we thought we had. It challenges tidy theology. It
- 26:05Speaker 1: makes us second guess our confident prayers. Suffering tests the
- 26:10Speaker 1: assumption that following the rules means we're spared from heartache. Well,
- 26:14Speaker 1: Job discovered something better than easy answers. He discovered a
- 26:18Speaker 1: God who shows up in the dark, and so can you.
- 26:21Speaker 1: Chuck Swindoll's book, Finding God When the World's on Fire,
- 26:24Speaker 1: is an honest, Bible-based companion for anyone whose faith is
- 26:28Speaker 1: being tested by real life, by loss, by illness, by uncertainty,
- 26:33Speaker 1: by a world that refuses to settle down. Chuck doesn't
- 26:37Speaker 1: pretend the hard things aren't hard. He just shows us
- 26:40Speaker 1: that God is bigger than all of it. This is
- 26:42Speaker 1: one of the last times we'll mention this featured resource.
- 26:46Speaker 1: So contact Insight for Living with your contribution today and
- 26:49Speaker 1: we'll send it to you with our gratitude and our prayers.
- 26:52Speaker 1: Request the book Finding God When the World's on Fire
- 26:55Speaker 1: by going to insight.org slash donate or call 800-772-8888. I'm
- 26:59Speaker 1: Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll describes how to
- 27:14Speaker 1: handle criticism with class, Tuesday on Insight for Living. The
- 27:22Speaker 1: preceding message, How to Handle Criticism with Class, was copyrighted
- 27:26Speaker 1: in 2002, 2004, and 2025, and the sound recording was
- 27:27Speaker 1: copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights
- 27:30Speaker 1: are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use
- 27:41Speaker 1: is strictly prohibited.