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Episode 56: Mark and Job · North Bible Recap

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good day, everybody.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad that you have joined us for episode number five at North Bobble Recap.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad that you're here with us, and I am so thrilled to have again the week a month, and now we've got Christian Venez back with me.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Excited to talk about today.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are starting two different books.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're starting the Gospel of Mark and also the Book of Job.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna be digging in into those two.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're gonna spend some time there.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I said this kind of last week and I'm I'm kind of feeling it each week now.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's like wow, uh, this has been a lot to uh to take in and to really uh turn over in me and been put on paper, and then you're doing the same thing.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you very much for doing this.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, super excited to be able to do this to help all of you guys.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if this is helpful, do do us a huge favor, share this with someone.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and just ask them what are your biggest takeaways from this podcast?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but please please do, and just also uh put a like in the podcast and um let people know and put a put a comment.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: That'll really help us out to be able to get it out to more people because uh we we want to share this with as many people as possible, uh obviously our church family and then beyond your friends, family, whoever that may be.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's kind of dive into uh today.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let's start with the book of Mark.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel of Mark or the gospel according to Mark, as some Bibles will present it.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the main thing that we need to know is who is Mark?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mark is a young man who is a disciple by Peter.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, his name is actually John Mark.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: We see him in the book of Acts.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's a young man that got his gospel from Peter.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so he was a disciple of Peter.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So his eyewitness, um, he gets it from from the apostle Peter.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the audience of the gospel of Mark is very important for us to understand why he's writing the way that he's writing.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, most likely is uh Roman Gentile believers uh in Rome.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing you're gonna see in this gospel is that it's very fast-paced, and it's fast-paced because of the audience who he is writing to.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's known to believe there was Greek um Roman, I mean Gentle Romans, and Romans understood authority, and everything they did was fast paced.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: So then you read the gospel of Mark and you see how fast it is, is because the people who are listening to this gospel, this is the language that they understand.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we have talked about this, you have talked about this in your sermons, how the gospels are not a specific picture of Jesus, but it's a portrait of Jesus.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Each gospel uh has a different agenda because they're reaching different groups of people.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Mark is reaching a Greek, Gentile, Roman world.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So he is portraying Jesus in a specific way.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's talking to the Jews as well.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but this is why you're gonna see um the fast base in it.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think what you're talking about, the different portrait of Jesus you get from each one of the gospels, it's important to understand.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like sometimes we read the story and we think, well, it seems a contradiction from you know the way it was stated in the book of Luke and then the book of Mark.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: If if you and I, and you get two other people, okay, uh Crystal's filming here, throw her into the mix.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's say three of us, us three, and we see a a wreck, and all three of us see the wreck.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: But we're all gonna see it differently.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And we're and so then when we give the report to the officer, um, it's may sound a little contradictory because you're gonna see from your lens, and she's gonna see from her lens, and I'm gonna see from my lens uh how the things unfold in the accident.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, is any one of those then not true?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, they're all true.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's just gives you a different picture and actually gives you a more holistic picture of actually what happened because not any one of us can capture all of it.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so important then we know why each writer is writing specifically to the audience.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you understand the audience, you understand why they're trying to do.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes this you know, the Bible has 66 books.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they're different audiences, but it's important every time that you start a book, try to understand and read.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a study Bible, um, a lot of times when it starts, it would give you like a little bit of information about the writer and all of that.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Read that because it will help you understand why.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the theme in the book of Mark is that Jesus is the suffering servant.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes back to Isaiah and those prophecies of Isaiah.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So he portrays Jesus as the suffering servant.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you're gonna have scriptures in the book of Mark where he says, I didn't come to be served, but to serve.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is gonna be the main theme of Mark throughout his gospel.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Mark chapter 10, verse 44 says, The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: So good.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is a turning point in the book of Mark.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get to it uh next week, specifically about this.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you see here how Mark it is uh portraying Jesus as a suffering servant.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Mark has unique features, like we talked about, each gospel uh is portraying Jesus in a different way.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So some of the unique features on the book of Mark that I would like for you guys, as you guys are reading, to pay attention to this.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I said this already, fast pace.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Over 40 times you read immediately, immediately, immediately.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately Jesus began to teach in the synagogue, immediately he healed the man.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see this phrase often.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, it is showing us and other other translations it could be suddenly.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, suddenly, yeah, suddenly or immediately, but those are just and that's pretty powerful.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the the the whole point of that is because there is constant action.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is moving.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how the gospel ends, it's like now you and I need to continue to share the gospel with people.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there is this um, we we're reading the stories of Jesus, but now we have actions to take um in the in the gospel.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's no birth story.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you read uh Matthew and you read Luke, you're gonna see the the birth of Jesus, the story of that.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, it's not concerned about that because of the audience who he is writing to, but you see that it's fast-paced, no birth story.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: He goes into Jesus performing miracles.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And even in the book of John, there's not like the classic birth story, but it is in the beginning, God created the, you know, yeah.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you have He goes even to the book of Genesis.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, so yes, it wasn't the physical birth, but he's going back to in time.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So now there is uh authority, you see the authority of Jesus.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus speaks with authority, heals with authority, and forgives sins with authority.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, go going back into what I said earlier about the audience, Romans respected uh action, commands.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So Mark highlights that in his in his gospel.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um now there are three major themes in the book of Mark.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the identity of Jesus.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus is uh often tells people not to spread what they know about him.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna study this a little bit more when we go get into the into the chapters, but you're gonna see where Jesus, when he heals a man, he says, Don't tell anybody.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is key for us to understand because it will help us understand why Mark is writing this way.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, There there is this like uh, you will say like a secrecy of who he is, but the second theme is the messianic secret in the gospel of Mark.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus often tells people not to spread the word because he it's not that he didn't want to tell people that he was the messiah, he didn't want people to have the wrong idea of the messiah because they were hoping and waiting for a ruler, a king who will come and conquer Rome.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when people see his authority, he goes, tells them, don't say anything, because he's trying to protect people from thinking, oh, our messiah is here, our our our military commander is here.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what what what would happen is what Jesus is doing is he he would know perfectly when the time would be.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: And and then when that time would come, then he knew that okay, all it's going to the cross.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: They think it's a military leadership and a coup that's going to take over and push the Romans out.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is his kingdom is not of this world, it's of another world.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is very important to understand because I used to struggle with this some 20 plus years ago when I was like, why is it all that I'm saying, no?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Don't tell anybody else.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: You'd think you'd want to, I'd want somebody to promote me.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd want, but no, no, he he he knew that exactly they were going to, they were misperceiving um what a messiah was meant to do in God's kingdom.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's very important.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he his title, the title that he gave his his himself is the son of man.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: He is the son of man.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people were waiting for that messiah, and he he protects that.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And now I said earlier, there will be a turning point.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be in chapter 10 when when he says, I didn't come to serve to be served, but to serve.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but something that happens, it's in uh Mark chapter 8, when he asks his disciples, who do you say that I am?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is Peter that says, You are the Christ.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that moment is what that finally the disciples understand that he is the Messiah.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but uh another theme.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the first theme was the identity of Jesus, the messianic secret, and then the suffering servant.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: For the first half of the book, chapter one through chapter eight, he shows his authority in action.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the turning point is gonna be Peter's confession in Mark chapter eight, uh, in that that shifts from his suffering, death, and resurrection.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Peter uh immediately said, No, you're not gonna die.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because even though he confessed him as the Christ and as the Messiah, Peter was hoping to Jesus to be the military power.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's why he says, I'm the son of man, you know, to to to all the the to to the to the audience.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so let's look at there's some key literary devices here that I think that you you know you have presented that I feel like is very, very good to for the audience to hear.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So one thing that you're gonna notice when you're reading uh the book of Mark, it's this literary device that is known as marking sandwiches.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's marking like mark, and it's a sandwich.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So what's a sandwich?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Bread, meat, bread.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's a sandwich.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you like sandwiches.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love sandwiches.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love sandwiches.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: I try to avoid them as much as I can, but they are delicious.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the reality just I don't know if this happens to you.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons why I love sandwiches because I love bread.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so bread is in the in the end of it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what's more most important in a sandwich?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: The meat, yeah, whatever it's in the center.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna see stories in the book of Mark where things are not gonna make sense.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: For example, Jesus um is going to heal Gyro's daughter in chapter five.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Starting with the story of Jairus, his daughter.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then there is a woman who intervened, and then it's it goes back to the story of Jairus.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's impossible to understand this story without understanding what Jesus is doing to the woman with the issue of blood.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a sandwich.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Gyro's daughter, the woman with the issue of blood, and then gyros' daughter again.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: We see another one with the fig tree.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus and his disciples are walking and he curses the fig tree.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting, we're gonna get to it uh next week.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: In the in in the in the with the fig tree, Jesus cursed this fig tree, and it says, This is one of the things that I just when I read them, I didn't really understand them for a long time.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: It says, it wasn't in season.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So why would Jesus curse a fig tree if it's not in season?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then it goes and it goes to the temple, and then it goes comes back to the fig tree.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot understand what Jesus is saying without understanding it.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is the temple that is out of season, yeah, because now he is gonna be the sacrifice, the sacrifice servant.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you see, you see this litter, uh, this marking sandwiches throughout the book of uh of Mark, uh, and there are some triads in the book of Mark.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: You see things that are repeated three times.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we know that Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus is in a boat three times, and the disciples fall asleep three times.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: All these things are not by chance.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Mark is doing this on purpose.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is like, okay, what do all these things matter uh to us?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Mark shows us that Jesus is both powerful and sacrificial, authority expressed through his service.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: He is powerful, but he's gonna become the sacrifice for humanity, which is the whole thing that Mark is trying to get both Jews and Gentiles uh to understand.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when you I think one of the things that you have um we talked about a little bit is what Mark lays out is the big question is that he answers right off the bat.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: He really just says, Jesus is the Messiah right at the beginning of the book.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Then he switches gears and says, and and he just leaves it with everybody else, yeah.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Eyewitnesses, accounts, and stuff to be able to.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: But the big question of the book is who do you say Jesus is?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that rings for us today.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: When you read Mark chapter one, let's read it.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: It says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he starts his gospel telling you Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is the Christ, meaning he is the Messiah.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Depends on what translation you read, it will say Messiah or or the Christ.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, very important for us to understand uh and and to pay attention to these things because he tells us who Jesus is in verse one, but he doesn't tell you again until like chapter 10 that he is the messiah.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 8, sorry, that he is the messiah, but he gives lots of evidence, he gives a lot of evidence throughout.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: So uh then we have we go into uh the baptism of Jesus.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for us to understand, uh, every time that you you you mention this, if we get in a wreck, we all have a different perspective.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, when Jesus is baptized in the book of Mark, my challenge and my homework to you guys that are listening is go read how Jesus is baptized in them in the book of Matthew.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Mark says this, and a voice came from heaven.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You are my beloved son, with uh you I am well pleased.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: God spoke to Jesus in the book of Matthew.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: God is addressing the audience, this is my beloved son.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: But in the book of Mark, it is that personal relationship.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why is Mark saying, This is my son instead of uh sorry, saying you are my son instead, like Matthew says, This is my son, is because people don't know who Jesus is.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in the book of Mark, the disciples don't know who Jesus, they're following him and they still don't understand who Jesus is.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's good.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: The high priests don't know who Jesus is.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: King Herod, who should know, also don't know.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So G they that this is why uh Mark is saying, um, this is the son of man, this is the son of God.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he doesn't portray him as the Messiah just yet.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so you when you talk about they don't know him yet.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Jesus is 30 years of age when he comes onto the scene.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and John the Baptist says, Oh, there he is.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then he gets baptized.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you know, my beloved son, you are um and and but what what about the previous 30 years?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: You got the glimpse of him being born, you got the eight days after he is born when he is uh wanted to be circumcised and dedicated in the temple, then you got age 12, where the Bible's very clear that he is just blowing the minds of the the brilliant, you know, uh teachers and doctors of the uh synagogue with his questions and statements and stuff.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he's 12 years of age.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then it says that from there on he just continued to grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God and with man.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: But what was going on all the way till 30 years of age?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Most most believe that he probably you know walked alongside his father and uh helped and and and then what we in church history and what we believe in him, his father not be there, but somewhere, maybe in his teens, somewhere, maybe in his twenties, that his father died.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe he was just being what given an example of what it means to be a good son to his mother, yep, and to be a hardworking man, and to be able to just provide for his family until the opportunity, until that time when God said, Okay, now now at 30 years of age, you're going to um spend these next three and a half years laying the groundwork to go to the cross.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um then we go on into Mark chapter one.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls his first disciples.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter one, sixteen, would you read that?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Passing along, you can stop me whenever you need to.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is Mark chapter one, verse sixteen.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Passing along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And here we go, immediately they left their nets and followed him.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And here we go, immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what does that tell us us as disciples of Jesus?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: That immediately we should just follow the voice of God, whatever he's asking us to do.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this is every time that we're reading the word of God, it's not just to read it, oh, how cool these stories are.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be asking the question to me, am I immediately dropping anything to follow after Jesus?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: What are the nets that we have?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm sure that you as a pastor for many, many years, you have heard multiple excuses of why people cannot go follow Jesus.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, so we see the first Jesus see them and immediately they follow him.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately they follow him.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are the things that are holding you back?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: You that are they're listening, you're watching, that Jesus is telling you to drop, to follow him, because we cannot follow God and our own desires at the same time.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I we just see here that Mark is making it very clear that once Jesus spoke, those disciples still didn't know much about him.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: We know that because they're confused later on, too, but they knew something about this man.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and these are the things that we don't we don't know how much they knew about Jesus, but they probably knew some things about about this man.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, so we see uh also chapter one, verse 21.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, here we have Jesus, his healing with authority.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay um and it says verse 21, it says, and they went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogues and was teaching, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he thought them as one who had authority and uh not as the scribe.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus has authority.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and immediately there was in their synagogues a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you done to us, Jesus of Nazareth?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Very important.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: The religious leader don't know who Jesus is, but we have a demon possessed man who has an unclean spirit that calls him by name.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are Jesus of Nazareth.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, have you come to destroy us?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know who you are, the one, uh, the holy one of God.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him, be silent again.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: He don't want the wrong um idea of who he is uh with the Hebrews, um, and come out of him.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the unclean spirit convulsing him and cried out a loud voice, come out of him.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they were all amazed.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love that because he says, and they were all amazed.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: They were not supposed to be amazed.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: They were they supposed to know who Jesus was, they supposed to know who the Messiah was.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: The people who should have known Jesus were amazed by the things that he was doing.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so when we read these things about amazement in the in the gospel, we have to see who are the people who are amazed.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: These are the people who've been waiting for the Messiah.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the they have the prophecies, they have the scrolls, and when Jesus comes, they're amazed, but they still don't know who he is.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so they were questioning among themselves, saying, What is this?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: A new teaching with authority?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: He commanded even the unclean spirits to obey him.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the majority of Jesus' ministry in the book of Mark is gonna be in the Galilee area, and we see him going from one side to the other.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So uh he says, uh, calm out, be quiet.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: People were amazed, people that were not supposed to be amazed.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, now the disciples also asked this question on the boat.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Is they they asked this question of who is this?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because even though they were following him, they still didn't know all the authority that he had.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: So good, so good.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just God's word never gets old to me.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just so beautiful.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And and I know that when you talk about this authority, this power uh that he had that they were amazed with.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think that it's important to dive into where did this come from?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: He must have been spending time with God.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: He must have been early mornings.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: I know that in chapter number one and verse 35 of the book of Mark, he points out immediately.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then other times throughout the book of Mark, that he early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Desolate place and there he prayed.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Very important because as you say, um we need this in our personal life.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: I know you do this uh every morning, every night.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: You have talked about this in this podcast.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: How would you suggest if someone that is listening to have this practice of getting away?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: How would you suggest that somebody start today?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I think sometimes uh you've we've all heard this kind of little analogy, which is a little funny and humorous, but uh, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I think some people uh want to take off and immediately have this three-hour prayer time and read your Bible all day, and it it's it's not doable uh versus being able to take little bites spiritually, so to speak, where you say, Okay, I'm gonna give seven minutes today.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I encourage that people do seven minutes.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: I just like that word.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a uh it speaks to the fullness of God, it speaks to completeness.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but just to say seven minutes, seven minutes I'm going to just sit and meditate and think on the things of God.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Also, I would encourage people when they start praying is just to pray out loud.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to for everybody to hear you, yeah.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just enough that you can hear yourself.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because it to me, it gives focus.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: So because if I'm just sitting there and thinking, my mind's thinking about everything else.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's all types of, but when I'm actually saying words, it actually does me good because I'm able to focus.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so, one, just keep it simple.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, keep it simple.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: And remember also that when you're reading God's word, it that's communion with God too.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: It it can be prayer.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you take God's word and allow and you just you read a scripture and then you just all of a sudden you repeat that to yourself and just think about that as a prayer that you begin to pray.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: But again, let yourself grow into it.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: No one that works as an athlete or you're gonna start exercising, or if you're gonna go on a diet, yeah.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you you you don't jump in full board, you you begin to ease into it and then let it grow.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritual, spiritual practices and growing spiritually.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love that you say that.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: You start easy, you know, don't overcomplicate it.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we overcomplicate things.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know when I started my journey of reading the Bible when I was a teenager, I was selling about reading the Bible and I was all in.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I was I'm gonna read the whole Bible in three months.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: That was probably one of the worst decisions I made because then you feel like it is impossible to do.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if you think of like, I'm gonna spend 30 minutes in prayer, seven minutes is hard.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, especially, but I like that you talk say it out loud because I struggle with I start thinking about other things, but if I'm saying it out loud, if I'm praying out loud, I'm more, I'm more I'm more focused.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we see Jesus early in the morning.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So find ways to to do that early in the morning.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Mark chapter two, Jesus calls Levi, Matthew.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that to me, and if you if you want to add anything in this too, uh, but to me, that is probably the craziest, this, the craziest disciple that Jesus called.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is how we know that we're not we're we're not far for God to use us because Levi, Matthew, is a tax collector, a traitor.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh people did not like him.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: They did not like tax collectors because tax collectors, what they would do, they would collaborate with Rome to tax um the Hebrews.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but but then this is also an Israelite.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: This this is one of them.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's one thing to be upset with the a Roman.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, it's another thing to have one of your own people, yeah, who in their mind has betrayed them and is working with the Romans.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: He is crawled in bed, so to speak, with the Romans, and so a very hated Jew.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love how even uh the chosen we we had Dallas Jenkins with us this this past weekend at North.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you haven't listened to that interview, highly encourage you to go listen to it.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: But one of those things, Matthew, how who Matthew is, I love that that uh um that episode where when he calls him from in the tax booth, I think they did a great job to portray him.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or what would it look like uh for Matthew to be a tax collector?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I just love what it says.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and he passed by and he saw Levi, the son of Alphaus, sitting in the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and he rose and followed him.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um to me, it's like this is you have said this in in your sermons uh in the past that the significance of having Peter and Levi, Matthew, together in the same circle, because probably Levi taxed Peter before.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, so um no, so that I can I can only imagine the tension that's going on among uh those disciples.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's dive into chapter three, and then I'm gonna give you a few thoughts from chapter three and and then I'm gonna let you unpack chapter four a little bit, okay?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: So in chapter three, um Jesus uh one heals on the Sabbath, which is like a oh big no-no.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big no-no in the Jewish people.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he really it's amazing how many times he does uh do a healing on the Sabbath.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: He is uh pointing out that um that he's come to bring life, not death.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: He's come to bring hope to people.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the Sabbath is meant not meant for us to be slave to, it's meant to be a blessing to us.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so he the crowds begin to follow Jesus, so you go from individuals following Jesus in chapter three to the crowds following Jesus.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to point out, and it's one that I'm gonna actually talk about and unpack in my message this coming weekend, is in uh Mark chapter number 13, it says that afterward Jesus went on the mountain.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, now he's gathering a lot of people, he has some followers, and uh then there's a growing crowds that's going on, and then he goes up on the mountain and he called out the ones he wanted to go with him.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and they came to him.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so in one of the other gospels, basically he spent the night in prayer uh before he called these out.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then it says, Then he appointed twelve, and this is the appointing of the twelve individuals uh that we know as the apostles, um and he called them his apostles, and they were to accompany him, and he would send them out to preach, giving them authority to cast out demons.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, then it lists those twelve individuals.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: But the three things that jump out to me that God has given to them, and it's given to us today, is one, he's inviting us to partner with him, to partner with him.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh from the beginning in Genesis, we were called to partner with God.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: Man blew it, sin entered, but God was always still trying to partner with us.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, if you're listening to this, God's wanting to partner with you.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like just God's out there and he just like, oh, you're just his little pun.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: And no, no, he's saying, partner with me.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when Jesus came down to earth, that was literally he's saying, I'm gonna partner with you.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then we're to preach about Jesus everywhere we go, to preach about him, to talk about him.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're listening to me, like, oh, I'm not a preacher, yes, you are.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Every one of us calls a preacher to preach is just to proclaim, it's to say, it's to confess, it's to testify to who Jesus is.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so we are to do that in our workplace, in our apartments, everywhere we go.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, is the power.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: He gave them power over demons, he gave them power over the sick, he gave them power, and so we get power from Jesus.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: So we are to partner with Jesus, we are to preach about Jesus, and we have power from Jesus that backs up the message of Jesus.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we have that because the Holy Spirit lives within us.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Part of our faith faith framework is that we need the Spirit of God in our lives.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: We have the Spirit of God in our lives, and we have to learn how to walk in the Spirit and know to believe the words of Jesus, because Jesus said greater things than this, you will see, you will do.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that is for us who are reading his word.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I love I love that you said that he wants to partner with us and he wants to use us in that, that, that, that, in that way.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And before we move on to chapter number four, I just want to point out also in chapter number three, it's Jesus and the prince of demons.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: He really um people begin to like, hey, how can you cast out demons?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: You must have Satan.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, no, no, no, Satan would be divided.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: You don't do in basically he's pointing out that his power is from heaven above.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and then the very end of chapter three, he talks about the true family of Jesus.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, whenever his mother and brothers are outside and they're asking for him.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Always confused me in the beginning.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was a young, a young guy, I was I always read this and I'm like, I'm kind of confused why Jesus talks this way.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: But go ahead, sorry.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then basically they're asking for him, and of course, there's a crowd of people, and he's ministering inside, and he says uh to somebody, he says, They say your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus replied, Who is my mother and who are my brothers?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Then he looked at those around him and said, Look, these are my mother and brothers.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone, this is the key, who does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's pointing out it's about obedience to God's will, surrender to his plan, and you're a part of the family of God.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that you will never regret in your life is obeying the Lord.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna you'll probably regret.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you have many regrets, Pastor Rodney, but I think obeying the word of God has never been one of those Absolutely.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's just important.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think as long as we think that by obeying God we're losing, it's what the enemy wants us to believe, but we don't lose when we obey the word of God, though.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're really walking in the purpose that He created us uh to be.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so chapter four, uh, this is the last chapter last chapter we're gonna cover.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna move on to the book of Job, but we have the parable of the sower, uh, the purpose of this uh of the parables.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke in parables.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um now the purpose of the parables wasn't always to bring clarity.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: He does talk, but he brings the clarity to the disciples.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: He explained what these things are.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on to talk about how the kingdom of God is the size of a mustard seed.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you're gonna see a couple immediately in there, so for you to pay attention what you're reading.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to focus when Jesus calms a storm.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in the disciples.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: You will see this often that they cross to the other side.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's really hard to keep track because Jesus keeps going from one side of to the other.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna uh talk about this uh next week when we talk about the next chapters.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's going from one side to the other because in one side of the of this of the sea um or or um or the lake, it's uh the Israelites, the other side are the gentiles.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a purpose where he's going back and forward, but in this occasion, there's a storm.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is asleep, they wake him up, they're worried, and um Jesus calms the storm.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I wanna I want to read.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the disciple says.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it says verse 30 39, and he woke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still, and the wind cease, and there was a great calm.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: He said to them, Why are you so afraid?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: You still have no faith?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I talked about the messianic secret.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has not revealed himself to the disciples yet, they don't know that he's the Christ, they don't know who is him, but they're following him.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I just it it's to me, um, what is kind of crazy is like they've been following Jesus, they've been seeing him delivering people from demon possessions, yeah, but they didn't know the type of authority that he had because they're asking, Who is this?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: What type of teaching is this?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, that's chapter one through chapter four.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot more we cannot cover everything.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh good.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that and that's the point.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: We we are actually doing our best to get this done in the time frame we are.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one of the key things throughout there is when Jesus is forgiving sins, that blows people's mind in the book of Mark.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's move on.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Let's move on to um um the book of Job.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we're look at we're gonna cover a lot of ground here, Job chapters one through twenty.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, today.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and you just jump in on some stuff uh if you want, but we're gonna try to move through this quickly.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: But it's important to understand the book of Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: Most people believe it's the oldest story in the Bible, and I think that's kind of across the board with most theologians.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was a time b before uh Abraham, yep, and it was before there was any Jews and Israelites, uh, it was before the law of Moses.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, many of those events, it but but the thing it it's about this is about helping people deal with issues of suffering and faith.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the audience is uh written for God's people, Israel, um, but it's also for anyone who's wrestling with the question of why uh do the righteous suffer?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's the age-old question.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was there when it was this was written, um, and this story happened some 4,000 plus years ago.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it's still very much on the top of people's minds today.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Why do I have to suffer?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Why do they have to go through that?
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: Why the abuse?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Why wars?
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Why those things?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the book explores why good people suffer and because he was righteous.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's very the it points out right off the bat that he was a righteous man and how we are to respond when life just seems to make no sense whatsoever.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if you really kind of put this in a summary, the book of Job reminds us that we won't always understand why behind our pain, but we can trust the who.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: That God's wisdom is higher, his justice is sure, and that his presence is enough.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the key verses in today's chapters one through twenty is Job chapter number thirteen and verse number fifteen.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's not one that like you just want to kind of go around quoting all the time, but it is key.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: Very important.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh some of the key takeaways is just God's wisdom is beyond ours.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's also key to be honest with God.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what Job points out.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: He was very raw.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: His prayers, his questions, uh, his expressions of faith.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: God can handle that.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, God's okay.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then faith means trust.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: It means not fully understanding, it means that I just trust you anyway, no matter what I'm dealing with.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, just real quick, in chapter number one is the test of uh Job's faith.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, he was the Bible basically says he was perfect and great, not perfect, but blameless.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: And he was a man that just honored God.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: He offered sacrifices to God, and then it says Satan, who is Satan, we know, uh, begins to come and and throw this out to God.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, well, the only reason he serves you is because you bless him and protect him and you go walk.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: It must be easy to be job.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because he was probably known as the richest person, too.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when he talks about like hit the type of wealth that he had.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the reasons why we can date that it was before Abraham or during that time, is because his rich uh his wealth didn't come from money, it was about livestock.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's for chapters talking about how he's offering sacrifices for himself and his kids, and just in case that's one of the things like I'm gonna offer this sacrifice just in case one of them sinned too.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, so go ahead.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: He has he has so much money.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's very wealthy, he has seven sons, three daughters.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then all of a sudden, um he Satan comes and says, Well, and then God says, Well, yeah, you can test him.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, but um, but know this you cannot touch him physically.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: That was the first thing.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh Lord, if I'm if I'm Job, I'm like, God, why did you do that?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: God had a lot of faith in Job.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: And there's there's things that we don't understand.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: We can't see in the uh in the spirit realm.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: God ultimately knows what's best we don't.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, there's four events that happen.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's a raid from an enemy that comes in and takes a lot of the livestock out, and then there is a fire that like destroys a bunch of sheep and uh the shepherds that with that, and then there's a uh another raid come in of enemy that just kills off a bunch of their camels and takes off stuff and kills their servants, and then there's a tornado.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Bible does not say a tornado, but since we're in Oklahoma, it's a tornado because it was just as a strong wind came and collapsed the house that his children were in, feasting and having a great time, and it killed all of them.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this is back to back to back to back to back.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's happening very fast.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, which speaks to how fragile life is.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and how oftentimes we think that we can control things we can't.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why it's important today to trust in God and to live for him and to surrender him and make those decisions.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Am I gonna serve though you slay me, yet I will serve you?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's a hard one to swallow, but we gotta get there.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: And in Job 1, in verse 20 and 20 through 22, Job says, Nicked I came into the world, naked, and naked I will leave.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says these words The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: Also in chapter number two, his own wife.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: That was the toughest.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: When I was reading that, I was like, ooh.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: His own wife says, just curse God and die.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because not only does now he have the physical thing, now he has because it Satan goes back to him and says, Okay, uh, he's still serving you, yes, but if you will let me uh throw afflictions on him, then he'll stop.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: He'll then God says, Okay, you can touch his physical body, but don't kill him.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: And now he has these boils on him, he's very sick, and his wife is just like, just curse God and die.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: That would be hard.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: That would be hard.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:55
  unknown: Yeah.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: I heard one minister say, Now, don't take this personally out there, but he said, Well, the one thing that that God should have let Satan take was his wife.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because she wasn't very Yeah.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: When I read that, it was like, Oh my goodness, this is probably the person that would love him the most that have been besides him, and it's saying, Curse your God.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's we don't see uh uh Job doing that.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well he kind of does, but really doesn't.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: But he's questioning God why these things are happening to him.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: And and and that and that's important to understand because even Jesus would say, and we're coming out of the book of Mark, he he would say, You must love me more than mother, father, brother, sister, or wife.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's important to understand is that my first loyalty and priority is Jesus Christ to him alone.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and I I can't love my wife, and I can't love my kids the way I need to if I don't have that understanding.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: So then in chapter number three is Job's lament.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we're not gonna spend a lot of time on this right here, but it is important because he just wells out to God in his deep suffering.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: He offers honest cries.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: He is even wishing for death.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's calling out in verse number 11 of chapter three says, Why did I not perish at birth and die as I as I came into the from the womb?
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: Basically saying, I'd I'd just rather have been dead than to face what I'm facing now.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've never been there, um you will at some point.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know when that's going to be in your life, where you just feel this utter, like, just take me home, God.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: But that's where we lean in and trust God more than ever.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so you got Job, and then tell us about kind of what what begins to happen over the next many chapters.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a long portion of the book of Job where he's having these conversations with three friends that come in.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know how good of a friend they were, but uh they can they come in uh to Job, they're having these conversations, and chapter four uh uh comes this guy, his name is Eliphath.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm saying it.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Probably wrong.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Close enough.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: But close enough.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we have in chapter four, seven through eight, he argues that the innocent do not perish.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh pretty much what they're telling what he's telling him is like if you were really righteous, these things would not be happening to you.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that was the normal that's how people thought back then.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: That was a normal way of thinking.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's kind of kind of today, too.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: I I think it's important to understand, and we we won't break down every single dialogue back and forth, but you have uh the three that you mentioned, uh Hilm and then um Bildad and then uh Zophar.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then later on there was El Elihu who comes into the picture also.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there ends up being four of them.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: And what basically Job's argument and what I'm holding here is a piece of paper.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I would highly encourage any of you, if you don't follow the Bible project, go uh follow the Bible project.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: It has a great breakdown of every book of the Bible.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then also this right here is actually a handwritten, it's a it's artist work of kind of what they get.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're if you're doing the Bible reading through our app, I believe that this video will be on the app.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's connected there.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can go get that.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: But basically, there's there's three emphasis here.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: Job says I'm innocent.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: He was.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and he was.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: God even said he was innocent.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so here's the implication is that my suffering is not um divine justice, he's saying.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I I don't deserve this.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so then the conclusion is either God doesn't run according to the justice as we think, because here here's the whole emphasis of the argument of the friends is that okay, God is just, God runs the world with according to justice, therefore you must have sinned if you are going through this.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Job is saying, No, I'm innocent, um, my suffering is not because of divine justice, and if it is that God's way of doing justice is not uh uh according to the way we're saying things are being done, and or God is unjust, he's saying.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: But ultimately he is leaning into trusting God that even though I cannot figure out his ways, his ways are higher than mine, but I'm gonna trust him anyway.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then later on, uh, when the other guy comes in, um Elihu, basically he says, God is just, God runs the world in justice, and maybe you're suffering to prepare you for something else down the road and to build your character and so forth.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And God's justice and punishment in our life is not because he's just trying to, you know, we do understand that we go through things, we grow in those things.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but yet God is not just wanting to punish us for punishment's sake, or because we, you know, we did something back when we were a little kid, and right now I'm dealing with something that I dealt with back then.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: He uses the pain, absolutely, but he's not causing it in this either.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: God, God is not the one causing the pain.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's the accuser, it's Satan.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I think sometimes people misunderstand, oh, what happened to Job?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: God did that.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, he allowed that to happen, but he wasn't the author of that pain.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and sometimes we think um that the things that are happening, it is God doing no, the Bible says that he uses everything for the good, but he's not doing this intentionally uh to Job.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the things that I I struggle when I read the story of Job, um, and the whole point of this book, God never answers why these things happen to Job.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I think that sometimes I feel like I deserve an answer from God, and it's my pride, um, but God never explains it.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God just teaches us and uses it to form us.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, and and that is true.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I want to fast forward down to chapters number nine and ten.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Job is now, again, there's this back and forth.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: One of his friends would give a reply to Job's lament, and then Job would reply to that friend, and then that some other friend would say something, and then there'd be a re and so Job is replying here to Bildad.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: And in this, he points out something that is very key to this whole book.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: He talks about God's greatness and power, man's inability to contend with God, but then he begins to express this desire for a mediator between him and God.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: Knowing that I need somebody to represent me.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: And in chapter number nine and verse number two, it says, But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is key to think about because what Job is doing, because everything points to one person in the Bible, and that is Jesus.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's pointing forward.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: In verse number 33, if only there were someone to mediate between us.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_01: If only there was someone to mediate before us.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_01: What is God Job is reflecting on the idea that God created him and that God loves him, and that he's going to trust in God, and that somewhere in the future, maybe that there is going to be a mediator between man and God, somebody who will literally take upon themselves the punishment, the worst that Satan can bring.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: And yet that person will walk out perfect.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: That is so good.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: It is so good.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've ever connected that uh as a shadow for the the king who's gonna come, the suffering servant, like Mark talks about um in the book of Job.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is the oldest story in the Bible, and even then you can see that everything points to our savior.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, going on down like to chapter number 19, is that um Job replies to Bildad again, but he's feeling this abandonment by his friends.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the friends, you mentioned something yesterday to me about this, is that I think that they were doing the best that they could with what they had.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: What they knew.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we you know, we have a a a lot better picture of Jesus and the gospel and the because we have the word of God.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: And even we still struggle on how to love people while going through difficulties, how to care for them, how to say the right words.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that they were trying, yeah.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, even though it was misguided in some in some in many respects.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Job is uh one of the key scriptures there in chapter number nine nineteen is verse number twenty-five through twenty-six.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this is so important um because this is our hope.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's placing a bold declaration of his hope in the redeemer.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and he says it this in verse number 25, 26, and 27.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: But as for me, I know that my redeemer lives.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: In his pain, in his suffering, he's proclaiming his redeemer, and he will stand up on the earth at last.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: And after my body has been has decayed, yet in my body I will see God.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now he's speaking to a resurrection, he's speaking that this body is going to decay, but in my body I'm going to have a new body, and I will see God, and I will see him for myself.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: I am overwhelmed at the thought.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: He is speaking to an afterlife.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_01: He is speaking of what to come, and he's speaking of that hope that we all have.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: So therefore, no matter how dark the day is, no matter how deep the valley is, hold on to your faith and trust in God.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because someday this life will pass and you will have eternal life in the presence of Christ.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's so good.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: Give us so much hope.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's one of the things that the book of Job and the story of Job give us is hope.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: That even though we might be going through those dark seasons, dark places, we don't know how long Job was suffering.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know um we're gonna talk about it more.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: We know that God blessed him tremendously after that.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: But in those moments of pain, um he questioned God.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's a bad thing that we question God.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just love how he talked about that, you know, as for me, I know that my redeemer leaves.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_01: So let's look at the big picture of these first um 20 chapters.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: And help me walk through this.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: Number one is human suffering raises deep questions about God's justice, and that's what they're wrestling with.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that's okay.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: Wrestle with it, but take it to God.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's then the friends um they wrongly assume that suffering equals punishment.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's that was that was where they were messing up.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then Job maintains his innocence but wrestles with despair.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that's so I think of Jacob, where he wrestled with God.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I know some of nights where I have literally can't sleep, and I get up and I just there's a wrestling with God.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's a bit of like, okay, God, I don't know what's going on.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I'm facing this, I don't know what's happening, but I'm gonna I'm gonna take it to you and I'm gonna wrestle this out with you.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: We need to get better at doing that instead of talking to people, going on rants on Facebook.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: But actually just taking it to the to the Lord in prayer.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing is the glimpse of the Redeemer and the mediator point, it points us towards Christ.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: That there's gonna be a day that our Redeemer and he came, but now that he's gonna come back.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's put in kind of those first 20 chapters, uh, and I we covered a lot there.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I I want to give just a little nugget from the book of Proverbs, okay?
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, to wrap us up for today.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that is in Proverbs chapter 25, verse number nine.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: And just one sent one sentence there.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: When arguing with your neighbor, don't betray another person's secret.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: That is so good.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I know I've made mistakes in the past that I've opened my mouth, and I've had plenty of people that have betrayed some secrets on me.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's hurtful.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote this down.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote this down in my in my little personal time.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: When your emotions get the best of you, you'll say things you'll regret, hurting others and harming your reputation.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_01: The answer is self-controlled life where you live surrendering heart, soul, and mind to the Holy Spirit.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is being filled with God's word more than your wants and taking captive every thought, aligning them to the will of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we got another episode.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much, Christian.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you joining me.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_01: And we're we're gonna we got we're about to unpack another one uh for next week.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so, episode number six, again, share it with somebody.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: I like it, make comments, please.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: It will help us out, and then also you'll be helping somebody else out.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, until next time, we'll see you for the North Bob.