Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Reeling and Recovering from Devastating News │ Msg 222

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Reeling and Recovering from Devastating News │ Msg 222 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: I want to read for you and then ask you
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  Speaker 1: to participate in the reading at the end in a
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  Speaker 1: worshipful manner, unlike we normally end the scriptures. You'll be
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  Speaker 1: ready for it when we get there. And I want
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  Speaker 1: to read the passage like the dear Dr. Chafer, I understand,
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  Speaker 1: used to read it when he would read Job 1,
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  Speaker 1: 12 through 22. Then the Lord said to Satan, behold,
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  Speaker 1: all that he has is in your power, only do
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  Speaker 1: not put forth your hand on him. So Satan departed
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  Speaker 1: from the presence of the Lord. Now what happened on
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  Speaker 1: the day when his sons and his daughters were eating
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  Speaker 1: and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, that a
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  Speaker 1: messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing
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  Speaker 1: and the donkeys feeding beside them and the Sabaeans attacked
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  Speaker 1: and took them. They also slew the servants with the
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  Speaker 1: edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to
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  Speaker 1: tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came
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  Speaker 1: and said, the fire of God fell from heaven and
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  Speaker 1: burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them.
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  Speaker 1: And I alone have escaped to tell you. While he
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  Speaker 1: was still speaking, another also came and said, the Chaldeans
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  Speaker 1: formed three bands and made a raid on the camels
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  Speaker 1: and took them and slew the servants with the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the sword. And I alone have escaped to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: While he was still speaking, another also came and said,
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  Speaker 1: your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine
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  Speaker 1: in their oldest brother's house. And behold, a great wind
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  Speaker 1: came from across the wilderness and and struck the four
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  Speaker 1: corners of the house, and it fell on the young people,
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  Speaker 1: and they died. And I alone have escaped to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his
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  Speaker 1: head and fell to the ground and worshiped. And said.
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  Speaker 1: Naked I came from my mother's womb. Naked. I shall return.
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  Speaker 1: The Lord gave. The Lord has taken away. Blessed. Be
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  Speaker 1: the name of the Lord. Through all this. Job did
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  Speaker 1: not sin or blame God.
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  Speaker 2: Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the.
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  Speaker 1: Name of the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: Blessed be the name.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed be the name.
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  Speaker 3: Blessed be.
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  Speaker 1: The name of the Lord. It's one thing to read that.
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  Speaker 1: It's one thing to sing that. It's another thing To
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  Speaker 1: believe it and say it. Our father. Blessed be your
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  Speaker 1: name when you give. Blessed be your name. When you take.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed be your name at the birth of our children.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed be your name. At their death. Blessed be your
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  Speaker 1: name when they serve you. Blessed be your name when
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  Speaker 1: they fight with you. Blessed be your name when our
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  Speaker 1: home is full of nice things. Blessed be your name
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  Speaker 1: when we don't even have a home. Blessed be your
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  Speaker 1: name when the car is new. Blessed be your name
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  Speaker 1: When the car is old. Blessed be your name when
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  Speaker 1: the church is growing. Blessed be your name. When the
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  Speaker 1: growth stops. Blessed be your name when we're getting along.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed be your name. When we can't get along. Blessed
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  Speaker 1: be the name. The Lord. You are to be most blessed.
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  Speaker 1: No one else gives like you give. No one else
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  Speaker 1: has the right to take as you have that right.
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  Speaker 1: Because you have given, we today are able to give.
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  Speaker 1: And we glory in your name because we can give.
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  Speaker 1: And for those who can't, we glory in your name.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed be the name of the Lord. In the name
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord, we give and we pray. God's people said.
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  Speaker 1: December 7, 1941. November the 22nd, 1963. September the 11th. 2001.
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  Speaker 1: If you've lived as long as I have, those three
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  Speaker 1: dates are like creases permanently etched in your brain. We
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  Speaker 1: remember where we were, we remember what we were doing,
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  Speaker 1: we remember how we felt. Devastating news. The Imperial Army
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  Speaker 1: of Japan has now bombed our ships and our men
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  Speaker 1: and women in the military at Pearl Harbor. Some crazed
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  Speaker 1: gunner has assassinated our president, Daley Plaza, Dallas, Texas. A
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  Speaker 1: group of unnamed terrorists have found their way onto airplanes
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  Speaker 1: they've turned into missiles And in lower Manhattan, the Twin
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  Speaker 1: Towers are no longer there. And a wing of the
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  Speaker 1: Pentagon is destroyed. And in the quiet countryside of southwest Pennsylvania,
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  Speaker 1: of all things, another plane has gone down. All of
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  Speaker 1: us remember the last. In the wake of the last
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  Speaker 1: tragedy or atrocity, I'd rather call it, a name has emerged.
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  Speaker 1: Many others have been heroic, but this one especially, the
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  Speaker 1: name of a man we've never met, who is now
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  Speaker 1: in our mind a hero, Todd, Todd Beamer. Faithful husband
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  Speaker 1: and devoted father of two, wife Lisa carrying their third.
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  Speaker 1: And we know now, having traced back and listened to
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  Speaker 1: recordings that he called GTE communication center in Oak Brook, Illinois.
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  Speaker 1: And he spoke with a superior, interestingly, a woman with
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  Speaker 1: the same first name as his wife, Lisa Jefferson. And
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  Speaker 1: in the conversation, mixed with tears and panic and some
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  Speaker 1: calm words, he asked her to pray with him the
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  Speaker 1: Lord's Prayer. And following the prayer, his last words, are
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  Speaker 1: you guys ready? Let's roll. And indeed they did. And
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  Speaker 1: they diverted that missile from killing yet more than it
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  Speaker 1: did all on board as that ill-fated United Flight 93
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  Speaker 1: crashed into a meadow in Pennsylvania. He was just a
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  Speaker 1: passenger on the plane, Todd Beamer was not trained to
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  Speaker 1: fight terrorists. Probably never dreamed he ever would or perhaps
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  Speaker 1: ever could. But he did and they did. And without
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  Speaker 1: realizing it, he had lived his whole life for that
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  Speaker 1: moment and became in that unusual way, even in his
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  Speaker 1: short life, heroic. As I heard of the report, the
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  Speaker 1: words from the 19th century of Henry Longfellow came to mind.
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  Speaker 1: The heights by great men reached and kept were not
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  Speaker 1: attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept,
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  Speaker 1: were toiling upward in the night. Funny, isn't it? We
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  Speaker 1: would never consider something we're going through as heroic. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know if you've ever thought of it, but the
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  Speaker 1: way we will be remembered by some will be for
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  Speaker 1: them heroic. Travel back with me centuries to a date
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  Speaker 1: no one could name, to a place few could point
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  Speaker 1: out on a map, to a setting that seemed idyllic,
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  Speaker 1: a man who hadn't been trained in to endure the
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  Speaker 1: loss of everything, lost everything. And though himself also a
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  Speaker 1: good husband and a devoted and faithful father and a
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  Speaker 1: splendid businessman whose life was marked by integrity, watched it
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  Speaker 1: all leave in one fell sweep of events. And interestingly,
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  Speaker 1: Job would be remembered not for being healthy, wealthy, and wise,
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  Speaker 1: but for enduring the loss of everything. Even in the
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  Speaker 1: biblical days, when James took up his pen to write, said,
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  Speaker 1: you have heard of the endurance of Job, hupomone, endurance
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  Speaker 1: to abide under the load. You have heard of the
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  Speaker 1: man who endured under the the load of the loss
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  Speaker 1: that hit him like a ton and a half pallet
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  Speaker 1: of bricks. One after another, after another, after another. And
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  Speaker 1: he endured. And for that he was heroic. How many
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  Speaker 1: lives facing radical surgery in a hospital have taken comfort
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  Speaker 1: from the life of Job? How many bereaving Grieving parents
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  Speaker 1: laying their son or daughter to rest long before they
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  Speaker 1: ever dreamed it would ever happen. Thinking they themselves would
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  Speaker 1: go before the daughter or son have turned to Job
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  Speaker 1: and found in his life and in his endurance the
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  Speaker 1: hope to go on. How many who have had failed
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  Speaker 1: businesses have turned to Job and discovered a reason they
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  Speaker 1: can make it because of He made it. There is
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  Speaker 1: no date. There was no warning. There was no explanation
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  Speaker 1: before the fact. And therefore, there could be no understanding
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  Speaker 1: at the time why it happened like it did. We
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  Speaker 1: forget that because we know why. We've read Job 1
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  Speaker 1: and we've read Job 2 and we know of this
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  Speaker 1: strange cosmic agreement between the giver of light and life
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  Speaker 1: and the ultimate wicked spirit, Satan. We know the deal
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  Speaker 1: that was struck. Job knew none of it. None of it.
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  Speaker 1: And he didn't know for the longest time, if I may,
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  Speaker 1: maybe never, till he died. The whole story. But acting
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  Speaker 1: with the character he had developed over years of trusting
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  Speaker 1: God and walking with Him, the loss of everything did
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  Speaker 1: not cause him to curse God and turn against Him.
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  Speaker 1: I think Philip Yancey is on to something. He writes
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  Speaker 1: in his 1988 bestseller, Disappointment with God, it helps to
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  Speaker 1: think of the Book of Job as a mystery play,
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  Speaker 1: a whodunit detective story. Before the play itself begins, we
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  Speaker 1: in the audience get a sneak preview, as if we
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  Speaker 1: have showed up early for a press conference in which
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  Speaker 1: the director explains his work, chapters one and two. He
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  Speaker 1: relates the plot and describes the main characters, then tells
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  Speaker 1: us in advance who did what in the play and why.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, he solves every mystery in the play except one.
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  Speaker 1: How will the main character respond? Will Job trust God
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  Speaker 1: or deny him? Later, when the curtain rises, we see
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  Speaker 1: only the actors on stage. Confined within the play, get this,
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  Speaker 1: they have no knowledge of what the director has told
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  Speaker 1: us in the sneak preview. We know the answer to
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  Speaker 1: the whodunit questions, but the star detective, Job, does not.
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  Speaker 1: He spends all his time on stage trying to discover
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  Speaker 1: what we already know. He scratches himself with shards of
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  Speaker 1: pottery and asks, why me? What did I do wrong?
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  Speaker 1: What is God trying to tell me? To the audience,
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  Speaker 1: Job's questions should be mere intellectual exercises, for we learn
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  Speaker 1: the answers in the prologue, the first two chapters. What
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  Speaker 1: did Job do wrong? Nothing. Nothing. He represents the very
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  Speaker 1: best of the species. Didn't God call Job blameless and upright?
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  Speaker 1: A man who fears God and shuns evil? Why then
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  Speaker 1: is Job suffering? Not for punishment. Far from it. He
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  Speaker 1: has been selected as the principal player in a great
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  Speaker 1: contest of the heavens. But he didn't know it. All
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  Speaker 1: he knew is one day things were great and the
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  Speaker 1: next day things were horrible. The next day he was
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  Speaker 1: healthy and the following hours he was sick unto death.
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  Speaker 1: And he never knew why. I have found in life
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  Speaker 1: that when you don't know why you're suffering, the suffering
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  Speaker 1: is harder. If I could just pinpoint the reasons. If
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  Speaker 1: I could just find a sin that I could confess
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  Speaker 1: and having confessed it and dealt with it, maybe the
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  Speaker 1: suffering will be easier to bear and I'll get out
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  Speaker 1: from under this. But when I cannot find one, certainly
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  Speaker 1: not one that would merit this kind of experience, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just like Job, I'm at a loss and so are you.
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  Speaker 1: There's an interlude that passes that I don't want you
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  Speaker 1: to miss. between verses 12 and 13 of chapter 1.
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  Speaker 1: I know that familiarity with the book has caused some
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  Speaker 1: people to sort of yawn their way through Job. I
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  Speaker 1: regret that. This is sort of like seeing a movie
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  Speaker 1: for another time. As people will say, I saw more
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  Speaker 1: the second time. I saw even more the third time.
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  Speaker 1: If you will, act like you've never read this before.
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  Speaker 1: That'll help. Please notice the end of verse 12. So
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  Speaker 1: Satan departed. The beginning of verse 13. Now it happened. Stop.
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  Speaker 1: All the scene between God and Satan is invisible. As
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  Speaker 1: I've said, not known by Job. We know from what
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  Speaker 1: we read later that the kids have all gone to
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  Speaker 1: Job Jr. 's home for a little feast time together.
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  Speaker 1: All ten of them. having fun as only grown family
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  Speaker 1: members can have, if they're still talking together. And this
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  Speaker 1: family is. They're eating and they're feasting and they're having
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  Speaker 1: one great time. And the father, being the good father
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  Speaker 1: that he is, not super pious, but genuinely concerned, the
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  Speaker 1: father goes to prayer. Perhaps one of the kids will
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  Speaker 1: have begun to drift, or maybe something will be said
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  Speaker 1: that will cause another to do something off-color or inappropriate
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  Speaker 1: and would somehow hurt the relationship that she has or
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  Speaker 1: he has with the Lord. And so Job turns to
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  Speaker 1: prayer and is on his knees in his bedchamber. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time, if you were to look out Job's window,
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  Speaker 1: you would see the oxen plowing the field, preparing for
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  Speaker 1: the next crop. It's a sunny afternoon, a little cloud
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  Speaker 1: in the distance, but not much. There are sheep grazing
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  Speaker 1: on the field and donkeys are feeding nearby. The camels
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  Speaker 1: are being made ready for the next trucking experience along
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  Speaker 1: the caravan, as Job is involved in that trucking business
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  Speaker 1: we mentioned last time. All of the field hands are
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  Speaker 1: at work, working with animals they know by name. Sons
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  Speaker 1: and daughters are having one great time telling family stories
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  Speaker 1: and laughing over recent events. And if you listen closely
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  Speaker 1: through the door, you could hear the prayers of a
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  Speaker 1: good father as he remembers one child after another by name.
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  Speaker 1: Dads do that. suddenly there's a knock at the door
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  Speaker 1: and Job normally is not interrupted by any of the
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  Speaker 1: servants but this messenger has something worth interrupting to say
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  Speaker 1: and after that Job's life will never be the same
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  Speaker 1: again ever it's like the phone call you would get
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night it's like the rap
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  Speaker 1: at the door It's like the visit from someone who
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  Speaker 1: is an official from the government. And the messenger bursts
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  Speaker 1: in without being told it's okay. And he says to Job,
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  Speaker 1: the ox and the oxen were plowing and the donkeys
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  Speaker 1: were feeding beside them. And those people from Sheba, they attacked.
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  Speaker 1: We talked about the possibility of coming. They've attacked and
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  Speaker 1: they took those animals, all of those animals, and they
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  Speaker 1: cut the servants to ribbon while he was still speaking.
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  Speaker 1: Another one came on the scene. And he said there
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  Speaker 1: was this bolt of lightning. It was like fire from
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  Speaker 1: heaven that came down. And it consumed all of the sheep.
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  Speaker 1: And all of the field hands who take care of
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  Speaker 1: the sheep. And I'm the only one left. And another
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  Speaker 1: pushes him aside. And says Job you wouldn't believe it.
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  Speaker 1: But three raids from the Chaldeans. Have hit that area
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  Speaker 1: where we had the camels. And they have taken all
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  Speaker 1: the camels away. And they have killed every one of
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  Speaker 1: the servants. And I alone am left. And Job is
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  Speaker 1: not even able to get up off his knees. At
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  Speaker 1: least thinking I've got my kids. And there's one more
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  Speaker 1: that says, Job, Job, the sons. No, no, no, no, no.
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  Speaker 1: There was this tornado that swept through the wilderness and
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  Speaker 1: wooden carts were thrown in the air and the wheels
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  Speaker 1: were blown apart and it came right over the house
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  Speaker 1: of your oldest son and the house exploded and every
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  Speaker 1: one of the kids was killed. I have in my
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  Speaker 1: library half a shelf of books on Job. One of
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  Speaker 1: them is a treasured volume that has some wonderful works
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  Speaker 1: of art in it. And as I thumbed through the
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  Speaker 1: book just this past week, I came across the artwork
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  Speaker 1: of Gustav Dore circa 1860, two woodcut prints showing two
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  Speaker 1: scenes that the scripture leaves almost too sacred to describe
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  Speaker 1: of Job. They're both called Job hearing of his ruin.
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  Speaker 1: And one of them shows an older man with his
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  Speaker 1: forehead across his eyes. His mouth is open. There's a
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  Speaker 1: little spittle.
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  Speaker 3: And it's like the wailing cry of a daddy after
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  Speaker 3: the news of everything gone and now the kids as well.
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  Speaker 1: The next scene that Dory paints and puts in woodcut
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  Speaker 1: shows a man prostrate. flat on his face, barefoot, alone.
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  Speaker 1: Also named Job, hearing of his ruin. And what about
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  Speaker 1: his wife? She lost everything too. For those of us
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  Speaker 1: who have seen Saving Private Ryan, there is a very
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  Speaker 1: moving scene in a country house, the Ryan family. And
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  Speaker 1: the mother is at the kitchen sink and she's working
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  Speaker 1: and she looks up in a brief moment and she
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  Speaker 1: detects coming along the country road toward the front of
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  Speaker 1: the house a strange car painted in olive drab with
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  Speaker 1: government license plates. And there are four stars in her window.
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  Speaker 1: And she clutches her apron to her face. We regret
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  Speaker 1: to inform you, Mrs. Ryan, and she hears of the
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  Speaker 1: death of three of her four sons. And she drops
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  Speaker 1: to her knees. It is the most moving setting. The
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  Speaker 1: audience is as silent as you are. And that sets
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  Speaker 1: the whole plot for the finding and saving of Private
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  Speaker 1: Ryan to preserve the family name. Forgive me if this
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  Speaker 1: doesn't sound fair, but I will tell you there is
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  Speaker 1: some sense of dignity in the loss of a son
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  Speaker 1: to preserve the liberty of the United States of America.
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  Speaker 1: There is a nobility in placing those precious remains in
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  Speaker 1: a casket and in a grave, knowing they died right.
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  Speaker 1: But Job lost all ten in a freak storm directed
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  Speaker 1: by Satan. And for the first time in 35, 40 years, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: and Mrs. Job are childless. And when you read the
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  Speaker 1: account and come to the end of the 19th verse,
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  Speaker 1: as four trembling messengers are standing there, a couple of
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  Speaker 1: them still bleeding from the escape, You have to pause
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  Speaker 1: and let the grief seep in. I would plead with
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  Speaker 1: all of you who love the Bible. Leave room for
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  Speaker 1: its emotion. It's full of it. Those who tell me
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  Speaker 1: the Bible bores them tip their hand in telling me
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  Speaker 1: they have just read words. They've not. Let their emotions run.
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  Speaker 1: The only one taking delight in this scene is Satan.
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  Speaker 1: He and his demonic hosts on the edge.
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  Speaker 4: Of their seat of authority, as it were, watching, waiting
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  Speaker 4: for the cursing that's.
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  Speaker 1: Going to come from those lips. He can't make it.
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  Speaker 1: Spoiled man that he is. We've taken it all. See
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  Speaker 1: the then in verse 20? I don't know how long.
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  Speaker 1: Could have been all the rest of the afternoon he
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  Speaker 1: lay there. He could have stumbled outside to look for
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  Speaker 1: himself in the distance to see the house. now a shambles,
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  Speaker 1: holding the bodies of his children. And I'll tell you,
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  Speaker 1: as painful as the words of the messengers were, as
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  Speaker 1: he played them over in his mind, something even worse
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  Speaker 1: was the silence of God. Not one word of comfort
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  Speaker 1: from the heavenlies. You've been there, haven't you? No one
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  Speaker 1: to answer why. No one to explain the reason for
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  Speaker 1: the ruin. Alexander White puts it so well. Job's sorrows
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  Speaker 1: came not in a single spy, but in battalions. Before
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  Speaker 1: he could catch his breath from one, there was another.
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  Speaker 1: And from the other, yet another. And maybe he lay
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  Speaker 1: on that ground until the dew fell. I read this
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  Speaker 1: two dozen times in the Hebrew. There are nine words
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  Speaker 1: in the Hebrew text of verse 20, which tells us
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: what Job did before it tells us in 21 what
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Job said. And of the nine words, five are verbs.
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  Speaker 1: The English version I use has 19 words, but Still
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: five verbs. When you read your Bible, not only catch
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: the emotion and enter into that, pay attention to the verbs.
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  Speaker 1: They will move you through the action of the event.
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  Speaker 1: Let them say what they say. Job peeled himself off
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  Speaker 1: the ground. He arose. The next verb tells us of
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: a strange thing. He tore his robe. The word for
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: robe is a garment that fits over a loose tunic,
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  Speaker 1: like a dress one would wear that goes down below
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  Speaker 1: the knees, called a tunic in biblical days. This was
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the seamless garment Jesus wore until they stripped him naked
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  Speaker 1: for the crucifixion, and they gambled for that piece of garment,
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  Speaker 1: not wanting to tear it. This is not the tunic, however.
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  Speaker 1: This is the robe that kept him warm at night.
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  Speaker 1: And he reached, and not finding a seam, but finding
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  Speaker 1: a part of the fabric, he rips it. And in
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the ripping of the robe, he is announcing his horrible grief.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: The anguish, and it's used several times in the Old
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Testament for the express. of grief. The tearing of the robe.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: And then we read the third verb. He shaved his head.
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  Speaker 1: The hair is always pictured in the scriptures as the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: glory of an individual. The worth. And the shaving of
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the head is the picture of the... loss of glory,
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  Speaker 1: the unworthy moment in time. And every artist picture that
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  Speaker 1: shows Job following this moment shows him bald, no hair.
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  Speaker 1: And this time he falls to the ground, not in
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a collapse of vacuous grief, but for another purpose. Look
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: at the last verb. Shaka. Shaka is a verb that
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: means to fall prostrate in utter submission and worship. I
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: dare say most of you have never ever worshiped on
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: your face on the ground. The most ancient form of
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  Speaker 1: obeisance and submission to the Father, I suggest you try
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: this sometime, palms down, face down, knees and toes touching
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  Speaker 1: the ground, body fully extended, pouring out your heart in worship.
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  Speaker 1: The only one cursing is Satan. He hated it. He
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: hated it that Job would live through this and of
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: all things, worship a God who would allow this kind
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of thing to happen. There wouldn't be one in 20
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  Speaker 1: million on this earth who would do that. And he
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: thought Job was one of the millions but he didn't realize.
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  Speaker 1: As many who knew Todd Beamer in growing up years
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: would have ever imagined he would have been that kind
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: of man. The wicked spirits sit with their mouths wide
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: open as it were as they watch a man who
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: follows all of his adversities with adoration, who follows all
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  Speaker 1: of his woes with worship, no blame, no bitterness, no cursing,
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  Speaker 1: no fist raised high to the heavens, saying, how dare
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: you do this after I've walked with you all these years?
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  Speaker 1: None of that. Instead, look at what he says. Oh,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: this is magnificent. This is one magnificent response. Naked I
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  Speaker 1: came as he looks back to his birth. Naked I
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: will return as he looks ahead to his death. Think
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: of that. At birth, we all come naked. At death,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: we all leave naked. As we're prepared for burial, We
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: have nothing in coming. We have nothing when we depart.
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  Speaker 1: So everything we have in time is given. All we
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  Speaker 1: have is skin wrapped around bones and organs and muscles.
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  Speaker 1: That's all we have. And a soul for which we
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  Speaker 1: must give account before our God. And Job's taking care
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  Speaker 1: of that. And he calls into perspective that which is right,
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  Speaker 1: get it, the one who gave and has put everything
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: on loan to me in time, has chosen and has
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: every right to choose this manner, has chosen to take
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: everything away. I won't take anything with me anyway. Blessed
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: be his name for loaning it to me while I
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  Speaker 1: had it. Get it, affluent Americans, as we are. Get
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: it when you walk through your house and see those
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: wonderful belongings. Get it when you and I get behind
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  Speaker 1: the wheels of our cars and drive them on loan,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: on loan. Get it when the business falls and fails.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: It was on loan. When the stocks rise and when
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the stocks fall, it's on loan. What'd you bring to
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: this scene? A naked body and not too good looking
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: one at that? And what would you have when you
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: leave a naked body and a... I'll leave it at that.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Just added a lot of wrinkles. I've never seen a
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: hearse pulling a U-Haul. You take nothing! Because you brought nothing.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Which means you own nothing. What a grand revelation. Listen
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: to me. You don't even own your children. They're God's children.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: On loan. For you to take care of. Rear. Release.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: And pray for. This is a perfect moment to pause
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: and look. At one statement Paul makes in 1 Timothy
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: 6 verse 7. Please. 1 Timothy 6. And having looked
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: at it, go back to Job 1.21 and put it
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: in the margin of your Bible and memorize it this week.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 6.7. It will help you when the interest
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: rate goes up. We have brought nothing into the world,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: so we cannot take anything out of it either. If
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: we have food and covering with these, verse 8 adds,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: we shall be content. Put that not only in the
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: margin of Job 121, put that in another crease in
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: your brain. We brought nothing. We take nothing. In the meantime,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: we borrow everything. As a good friend of mine tried
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: to teach me years ago, God owns it all. I
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: know your name is on the title. I know. It
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: won't be when you're gone. I know you built that
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: place and you're proud of it. That's nothing wrong with that.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with having it nice. Nothing wrong with having
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: things in it. Nothing wrong with driving a fine car.
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  Speaker 1: We've gone over this before. It's not about that. The
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: problem comes when the car drives us and the possessions
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: own us. They never owned Job. This is the curve
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  Speaker 1: that he threw back into the heavens, into the face
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: of Satan. In your face, Lucifer. I never set my
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: affections on them in the first place. And I've understood
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: from the get-go, when we had our first until we
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: had our tenth, they're all God's. The one who gave
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: it all, and the one who had the right to
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: take it all, whenever he wanted it all, was the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: same one deserving of all my praise. Blessed be his name.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: And I love the benediction through all this Job did
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  Speaker 1: not sin, nor did he blame God. Get this lesson.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Get it really clear. When you understand that everything you
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: have is on loan, then you are better prepared to
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: release it when the owner wants it back. And the
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: less time you will spend between utter, sheer, and understandable grief...
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: and worship. That is why I believe a memorial service
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: at a funeral can be one of the most meaningful
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: worship services of one's experience. Because we can't take it
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: with us. My good friend and one of my mentors
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: in the early years of my ministry, Ray Stedman, tells
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: a true story. He had traveled to a site for
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: ministry through a week, had forgotten there was a very
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: nice evening dinner he was to attend and speak at. Therefore,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: he needed a nice suit that he had failed to
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: bring with him. He realized it toward the afternoon when
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: the hour was getting late. He was located near a
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: funeral home and he thought maybe for a pretty quick
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: moment the funeral director would at least loan me a
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: suit that would have gone on a cadaver. And he
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: went over and he bargained with him and got the suit.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: And he said, that evening, Chuck, as I stood up
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: to speak, I was addressing all the people, and as
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: was my common practice, I reached down to put my
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: hand in my pocket, and I realized their cadaver suits
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: have no pockets. I read this past week, shrouds have
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: no pockets. We enter the world with fists clenched, As
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: little babies. But we always leave the world. With hands. Open.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: On our chests. Naked. Naked. And in the interlude. Lord God.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed be your name. For loaning me. All that you've
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: loaned me. Through all this, Job did not sin. Isn't
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: that wonderful? Nor did he blame God. Why blame God?
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: As Francis Anderson has written, God has given him a
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: rehearsal for death. All things belong to God, absolutely. To
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: be given as gift, not claim. To be taken back
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: without wrong. There is no talk of human rights. The
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Lord is the sovereign owner of all, and Job rejoices
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: in this wonderful fact. When perspective returned, he put his
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: arm around his grieving precious wife, held her close, and whispered,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: God gave. For some unrevealed reason, he chose to take back.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: This entire message could have been delivered in three words.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Some of you are thinking, why didn't you do that?
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: You can help finish the sentence. You'll know the third word.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Hold everything loosely. Say it again. Hold everything loosely. Let's
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: bow our heads. If you've never met the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: He's a master. He's the master worth following. And is available.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Is available to you. A relationship with him will give
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: you a perspective like Job's. Todd Beamer had that relationship with.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: his wife, who survives him now with their new baby,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: tells their story of Todd's salvation and her confidence that
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: God brought along Todd for such a moment as that.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: What perspective. I invite you to visit the cross and
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: to look up and see a man who was God
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Who held everything loosely. Even his own life. And at
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the age of 33. Paid the supreme penalty for sins.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Not his sins but ours. And invite you to come
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: to him. Like a little child. I urge you to
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: do that today. And then you will say with fellow Christians,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name, Lord,
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: for having loaned me what you have. These precious children
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: I tuck in bed at night. Or I walk to
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: the altar and give in marriage. Or I put my
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: arms around you. Loving them and their children. I bless
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: your name. Because you gave them. And I will bless you.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: If you choose to take them. They were never mine.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: To begin with. Blessed. Be the name. Of the Lord.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: the name of the Lord. Yes, blessed be the name.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Blessed be the name.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Blessed be the name of the.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Lord. And we shall bless your name forever and ever,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: our great God. Even if we don't understand. Even if
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: we cannot ever explain. You need no defending. We need
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: to worship you. Blessed be your name. For what you
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: have given. And for your sovereign right to take. Blessed
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: be your name. In the name of Jesus. We pray.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Everyone said, Amen. InterVarsity Press for excerpts from the Tyndale
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Old Testament Commentary on Job, copyrighted in 1976 by Francis I.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: Anderson, and the Zondervan Corporation, for excerpts from the book
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: Disappointment with God, copyrighted in 1988 by Philip Yancey.