Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / What If You Suddenly Lose Everything │ Msg 212

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What If You Suddenly Lose Everything │ Msg 212 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: We're engaged in a rather unusually titled series, two single
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Speaker 1: syllable words, what if? What if? My desire in bringing
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Speaker 1: this series is to rivet you to reality. It is
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Speaker 1: easy for the Christian to live in another realm, sort
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Speaker 1: of halfway between heaven and earth, We are so anxious
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Speaker 1: for our home there, it is easy to lift above
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Speaker 1: the realities of everyday life. Don't want you to do that.
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Speaker 1: That is not the way we're designed to live, nor
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Speaker 1: what really pleases our God. And because of this series,
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Speaker 1: we are thinking about certain situations that are anything but theoretical.
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Speaker 1: As we will see as time moves ahead from one
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Speaker 1: Sunday to the next, these are all situations that could
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Speaker 1: very well, might very well be true of one of us.
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Speaker 1: Last time, what if God wanted to do something great
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Speaker 1: through you? We looked at the life of Moses. Today,
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Speaker 1: what if you suddenly lose everything? Job is the one
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Speaker 1: who will guide us into that answer. I don't know
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Speaker 1: how many folks have asked me if we're going to
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Speaker 1: be in Job this time as long as we were
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Speaker 1: the last time we were in Job. I remember one
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Speaker 1: little child asked her mother, how old was I when
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Speaker 1: Pastor Chuck began teaching in the book of Job? The
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Speaker 1: parent wasn't able to answer the question. Today, just one Sunday,
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Speaker 1: we'll get a glimpse of a man who lost everything
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Speaker 1: suddenly and responded to it magnificently. And I'd like to
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Speaker 1: invite you to turn in your Bibles to the ancient
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Speaker 1: book of Job. Unknown to most people, this is one
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Speaker 1: of the oldest books of the Bible. Job is one
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Speaker 1: of the patriarchs. As best we can tell, he lived
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Speaker 1: in the era of Abraham, perhaps even before Abraham. And
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Speaker 1: from the ancient account emerges a scene that we find
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Speaker 1: nowhere else in all of Scripture. As we think about
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Speaker 1: that searching question, what if you and I, like Job,
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Speaker 1: were to lose everything? I'll read excerpts from the first
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Speaker 1: two chapters and out of respect for the word of
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Speaker 1: God and the God of the word, may we stand
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Speaker 1: for the reading of the scriptures. I'm reading from the
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Speaker 1: New Living Translation. There once was a man named Job
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Speaker 1: who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless,
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Speaker 1: a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed
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Speaker 1: away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters.
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Speaker 1: He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen,
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Speaker 1: and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was,
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Speaker 1: in fact, the richest person in that entire area. Verse 6.
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Speaker 1: One day, the members of the heavenly court came to
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Speaker 1: present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser, Satan, came
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Speaker 1: with them. Where have you come from, the Lord asked Satan.
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Speaker 1: Satan answered the Lord, I've been patrolling the earth, watching
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Speaker 1: everything that's going on. Then the Lord asked Satan, have
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Speaker 1: you noticed my servant Job? He's the finest man in
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Speaker 1: all the earth. He's blameless. A man of complete integrity.
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Speaker 1: He fears God and stays away from evil. Satan replied
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Speaker 1: to the Lord, yes, but Job has good reason to
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Speaker 1: fear God. You have always put a wall of protection
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Speaker 1: around him and his home and his property. You have
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Speaker 1: made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich
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Speaker 1: he is. but reach out and take away everything he
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Speaker 1: has and he will surely curse you to your face.
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Speaker 1: Skipping over to chapter two, verse one. One day the
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Speaker 1: members of the heavenly court came again to present themselves
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Speaker 1: before the Lord and the accuser Satan came with them.
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Speaker 1: Where have you come from, the Lord asked Satan. Satan answered,
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Speaker 1: the Lord, I've been patrolling the earth, watching everything that's
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Speaker 1: going on. Then the Lord asked Satan, have you noticed
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Speaker 1: my servant Job? He's the finest man in all the earth.
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Speaker 1: He's blameless, a man of complete integrity. He fears God
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Speaker 1: and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity,
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Speaker 1: even though you urged me to harm him without a cause.
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Speaker 1: Satan replied to the Lord, skin for skin, a man
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Speaker 1: will give up everything he has to save his life,
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Speaker 1: but reach out and take away his health, and he
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Speaker 1: will surely curse you to your face. All right, do
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Speaker 1: with him as you please, the Lord said to Satan,
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Speaker 1: but spare his life. The most intriguing of all the
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Speaker 1: statements in scripture, many of them found right here in
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Speaker 1: these first two chapters and the outworking of this 42
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Speaker 1: chapter book on Job. Our hope is that God will
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Speaker 1: enlighten us and then give us application for it as
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Speaker 1: we live in this 21st century. Please be seated. I
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Speaker 1: learned from one of my teachers years ago at seminary
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Speaker 1: as we were studying the journey of the Israelites going
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Speaker 1: through the wilderness and the fact that they ultimately resisted
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Speaker 1: and resented the manna that was provided every day for
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Speaker 1: their provision. And they rebelled and complained no matter how
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Speaker 1: good God was to them. And we all were discussing
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Speaker 1: how a person could complain for having food catered every
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Speaker 1: day as they're making their way across the wilderness. He
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Speaker 1: had a great response. Dr. Pentecost, who was teaching the course, said,
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Speaker 1: it takes a heavenly appetite to enjoy a heavenly food.
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Speaker 1: I would build on that same statement and add it
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Speaker 1: takes a heavenly perspective to understand this earthly message of Job.
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Speaker 1: Some of you don't have that perspective. I don't mean
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Speaker 1: that to sound insulting or degrading. It's just that you
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Speaker 1: live your whole life on the horizontal plane, and you
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Speaker 1: can't imagine a God allowing something like this to happen
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Speaker 1: to a great man like Job. It's because you lack
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Speaker 1: the proper perspective. See, life isn't about you or me
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Speaker 1: or Job. God doesn't exist to make us happy. God
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Speaker 1: exists for his own glory. His hope is to help
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Speaker 1: us realize that regardless of what happens, it is always
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Speaker 1: for our good and for his glory. The only way
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Speaker 1: you can gain a perspective like that is to have
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Speaker 1: a relationship with his son, Jesus. During this morning worship service,
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Speaker 1: our prayer, we who gather and know the Lord, is
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Speaker 1: that you who have come without knowing the Lord will
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Speaker 1: ultimately realize your need for Christ, who not only will
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Speaker 1: forgive your sins, and gave you a home in heaven,
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Speaker 1: he will change your whole perspective on life, how to
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Speaker 1: live it, and how to accept the blows that occur,
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Speaker 1: even though they seem to us unfair and cruel and inappropriate.
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Speaker 1: We need a vision, the kind of vision the Lord
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Speaker 1: can give through his Son. Let's pray. We do ask that,
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Speaker 1: our Father. It's a simple prayer, but we ask it
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Speaker 1: today that you will remove the scales from eyes that
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Speaker 1: are now blind, that you will open hearts that are
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Speaker 1: now closed, that you will use your inspired word as
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Speaker 1: you lift these terms from the pages of our Bibles
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Speaker 1: and give them wings to fly. and to find their
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Speaker 1: way into lives, including our own. May we realize that
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Speaker 1: you've not simply recorded a few days in history, but
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Speaker 1: you have written truth to live by, truth to believe,
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Speaker 1: truth to die for. Say that to us in a
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Speaker 1: number of ways today, our Father, as we realize the
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Speaker 1: relevance of your word. Guard us from thinking that we
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Speaker 1: make it relevant. It has been delivered to us in
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Speaker 1: a relevant way for our times. We must simply get
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Speaker 1: out of the way and allow the words to say
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Speaker 1: what they mean and what they mean to each one
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Speaker 1: of us. So speak today, we pray, as you give
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Speaker 1: us this fresh vision of yourself. Now, Lord, we give
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Speaker 1: our gifts today because we believe in the work of
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Speaker 1: ministry and we believe that what takes place beyond these
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Speaker 1: walls is on your heart and therefore it's on ours.
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Speaker 1: You have told us through your son in his final
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Speaker 1: words to go to all the world and to make
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Speaker 1: disciples of all the nations, delivering your message to the
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Speaker 1: end of the earth. May we be faithful to do
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Speaker 1: that and may these gifts help make that happen. We
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Speaker 1: ask it in the name of the one who is
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Speaker 1: our vision, Christ himself. And for his sake we pray.
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Speaker 1: Everyone said amen. There are times when sudden losses are
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Speaker 1: borderline unbearable. It's the suddenness of it that almost collapses
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Speaker 1: us emotionally. We suddenly lost our sense of security as
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Speaker 1: a nation when we were bombed at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
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Speaker 1: I was alive then, a little boy, remembering my mother
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Speaker 1: and dad as we were sitting in a car on
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Speaker 1: our way to a vacation spot, and my dad said,
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Speaker 1: we'll turn around now. We can't go here if we
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Speaker 1: are at war. It's like it was yesterday. Suddenly, it
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Speaker 1: seemed unbearable. On the 22nd of November, 1963, we suddenly
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Speaker 1: lost our president, assassinated in the city of Dallas. All
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Speaker 1: of us remember where we were when it happened. We
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Speaker 1: suddenly lost many of our freedoms on 9-11 when the
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Speaker 1: terrorists attacked us. And they would have done more had
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Speaker 1: they not been stopped. Everything seemed to change. Those living
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Speaker 1: in Tohoku, Japan, lost everything. It was the 11th of March, 2011,
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Speaker 1: when off the coast there was a massive earthquake that
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Speaker 1: led to a tsunami that wiped out everything. By the
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Speaker 1: time the wave hit the coast, village, homes, businesses, cars, buses,
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Speaker 1: everything was lost. These are only a few of the
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Speaker 1: disasters I can mention. I can name hurricanes that devastated
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Speaker 1: entire shorelines and vast regions beyond. Tornadoes that have suddenly
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Speaker 1: swept through farmlands and little towns and busy cities, taking lives,
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Speaker 1: indiscriminately destroying homes, and all the belongings of those who
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Speaker 1: lived in them. And there have been fires. My wife
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Speaker 1: could tell you when she was four years old, standing
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Speaker 1: in front of their little farmhouse in Tyler, Texas, watching
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Speaker 1: their home burn to the ground, everything lost that they owned.
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Speaker 1: Then there have been explosions that have blasted cities. There
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Speaker 1: have been floods and lifted homes off their foundation and
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Speaker 1: swept them away as people scurry if they're able to
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Speaker 1: escape for their lives. Earthquakes that suddenly hit and bring
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Speaker 1: down freeways and buildings and destroying homes and terrifying rogue
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Speaker 1: waves at sea that topple great ships and fishing vessels
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Speaker 1: and airline disasters that suddenly, suddenly snuff out hundreds of lives.
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Speaker 1: And if that isn't enough, I could name the cruelest
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Speaker 1: of all When monsters walk into classrooms where there are
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Speaker 1: little innocent children sitting at their desks and randomly murders them.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly the parents are without their children. Or cynical high
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Speaker 1: school students with long and heavy weapons walking onto a
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Speaker 1: campus gunning down classmates. How about the old naval yard?
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Speaker 1: September 2013, the 16th, on an otherwise quiet morning in Washington, D.C.,
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Speaker 1: people had gone to work. Twelve of them never got
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Speaker 1: home as a man murders them indiscriminately. It's easy for
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Speaker 1: us to sit in this place, almost on the sidelines,
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Speaker 1: really a little disconnected. I mean, that's not going to
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Speaker 1: happen to me. That is not going to happen to
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Speaker 1: one of my loved ones. Oh, wait, stop. You don't
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Speaker 1: know that. You and I have lived long enough to
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Speaker 1: know Could happen at any time to any one of us.
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Speaker 1: Another bombing, another terrorist attack, another explosion, another murder, another
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Speaker 1: terrible car collision. Cynthia and I are acquainted with a
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Speaker 1: family who lived in another place at another time in
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Speaker 1: our lives. I was serving another church and I remember
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Speaker 1: getting the story from this husband. He had said goodbye
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Speaker 1: to his family as the wife and the three children
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Speaker 1: were off to Their classes in the gym, they were acrobats,
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Speaker 1: and they were learning how to handle themselves on the
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Speaker 1: rings and all of the equipment in the gym. And
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Speaker 1: the kids looked forward to it every week, and she
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Speaker 1: took them to the local college, and there they enjoyed
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Speaker 1: the evening. They didn't get home. And the dad, the husband,
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Speaker 1: waited for them and waited and finally heard in the
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Speaker 1: distance a siren. a little too close to home, and
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Speaker 1: he thought, well, at least I'm going to go make
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Speaker 1: sure my family's okay. He went up over to the summit,
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Speaker 1: and there had been a horrible, horrible collision. Wife and
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Speaker 1: all three children died. Died suddenly. And he went home alone.
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Speaker 1: I don't know how many times at breakfast when Cynthia
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Speaker 1: and I have prayer together, I will ask for safety
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Speaker 1: on the road as we drive. For how many thousands
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Speaker 1: are killed every day thanks to drunk drivers or people
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Speaker 1: texting messages while not looking at where they're going. That
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Speaker 1: safety alone is tenuous in our time. My hope in
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Speaker 1: this series is to rivet you to reality, to guard
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Speaker 1: you from yawning your way through life as if you're
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Speaker 1: now safe and secure and a little smug. You've paid
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Speaker 1: your dues, whatever that means. You've earned a right to
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Speaker 1: enjoy where you live and what you've got, and after all,
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Speaker 1: you're pretty well fixed. Not really. You don't know what
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Speaker 1: a day will bring forth. Now, in order to bring
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Speaker 1: us all back to reality, we need to take a
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Speaker 1: trip together. The date of the trip the sands of
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Speaker 1: time have erased, not even the scholars of ancient literature
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Speaker 1: can locate for sure the land of us. The place
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Speaker 1: can't be located and the setting is almost so idyllic
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Speaker 1: it seems unreal. I mean this is some kind of man.
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Speaker 1: We're going to meet a man who had no clue
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Speaker 1: what the future held for him and suddenly Nothing was
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Speaker 1: ever the same. Ever. They lost it all. No warning.
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Speaker 1: No knowledge ahead of time. Not even a little whisper
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Speaker 1: in the night saying, be ready tomorrow, Job. You'll lose
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Speaker 1: it all. The story begins rather innocuously if you have
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Speaker 1: your Bible open. My Bible in the version I'm using
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Speaker 1: begins so simply, there once was a man named Job.
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Speaker 1: We notice the kind of man he was immediately before
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Speaker 1: the verse is over, we're told he was blameless. He
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Speaker 1: was a man of complete integrity. Look at the word complete.
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Speaker 1: No corruption in him. No one could criticize Job for
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Speaker 1: not paying his bills. No one could point a finger
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Speaker 1: of blame at him. Complete integrity. And on top of that,
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Speaker 1: he feared God and he stayed away from evil. It
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Speaker 1: wasn't perfect. No one's perfect. No human being qualifies as perfect.
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Speaker 1: But he stayed away from it. He didn't traffic in transgressions.
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Speaker 1: He didn't play around with sin. He walked with God.
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Speaker 1: He had seven sons and three daughters. By now, they're
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Speaker 1: all adults. They're living their lives, and they're living there
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Speaker 1: on the same ranch as he, quite likely. Their homes
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Speaker 1: have been built, and he's heavy with riches. If I
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Speaker 1: count correctly, some 11,000 animals, at least the numbers named here,
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Speaker 1: and And even in this day, that would be a
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Speaker 1: sign of some measure of wealth, and that along with
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Speaker 1: the camel caravans that brought in and left with goods
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Speaker 1: so that this man is in fact the richest person
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Speaker 1: in that entire area. Nothing wrong with any of that.
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Speaker 1: If you live your life thinking there's something wrong with riches,
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Speaker 1: you've missed a whole lot in life. What a narrow,
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Speaker 1: erroneous way to live. Usually that kind of mentality goes
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Speaker 1: with those who are envious. He's blessed because God has
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Speaker 1: blessed him. In fact, he doesn't even walk away from
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Speaker 1: his children when they're adults. You read in verses 4
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Speaker 1: and 5 of his time in prayer for them when
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Speaker 1: they're celebrating, and he prays that even in their celebration,
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Speaker 1: they won't compromise. They won't get drunk, or they won't
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Speaker 1: have fights, or they won't... live lives that are displeasing
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Speaker 1: to their Lord. He cares about them. Perhaps he says,
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Speaker 1: my children may have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.
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Speaker 1: So he prays for them that that won't happen. This
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Speaker 1: is a good man. You'd love to have him for
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Speaker 1: a neighbor or a dad. He's rich, remember? Yeah. One day,
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Speaker 1: look how it starts. Look at that next verse. Just
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Speaker 1: like with Moses, one day he saw the burning bush.
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Speaker 1: One day, the members of the heavenly court notice a
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Speaker 1: change of location. Unlike most other sections of scripture, you
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Speaker 1: are suddenly removed from this earthly scene and you're brought
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Speaker 1: into the third heaven where the Lord God dwells on
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Speaker 1: his throne. It's called here the courts of heaven. There's
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Speaker 1: an interesting scene where the Lord in an unusual moment
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Speaker 1: allows Satan to come into his presence. He came before
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Speaker 1: the Lord and the accuser is asked, where have you
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Speaker 1: come from? He answers, I've been patrolling the earth watching
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Speaker 1: everything that's going on. By the way, that still goes on.
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Speaker 1: He's watching every move you make. He knows every chink
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Speaker 1: in your armor. He's aware, aware of what you're doing
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Speaker 1: and what you're saying and what you believe and he
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Speaker 1: hates you for it. if you're a follower of the
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Speaker 1: living God. So the accuser says, I've been watching everything
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Speaker 1: go on. And the Lord says to him, have you
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Speaker 1: noticed my servant Job? In case you wonder if the
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Speaker 1: Lord knows of you, don't wonder any longer. He knows
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Speaker 1: where you are. He knows what you're doing. He knows
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Speaker 1: what you're thinking. He knows your situation thoroughly, completely. In fact,
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Speaker 1: he says to Satan, have you noticed Job? This is
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Speaker 1: one blameless man. He's a man of complete integrity. He
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Speaker 1: fears me and he stays away from evil. You noticed him?
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Speaker 1: With a sneer, Satan replies, yeah, but Job has good
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Speaker 1: reason to fear you. You've always put a wall of
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Speaker 1: protection around him and his home and his property. He's
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Speaker 1: your pet. He's one of your favorites. You got this
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Speaker 1: invisible wall around him. I mean, who would believe in you?
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Speaker 1: Treat it like that. You reach out and you touch
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Speaker 1: his life. You take away everything he has and he
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Speaker 1: will surely curse you to your face, God. All right.
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Speaker 1: You may test him. The Lord says, do whatever you
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Speaker 1: want with everything he possesses. But look at the boundary.
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Speaker 1: Look at the limit here. But do not harm him physically. Well,
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Speaker 1: Satan has a field day. The next paragraph begins with
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Speaker 1: another one day, but it's a day Job would never forget.
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Speaker 1: Because it hit one after another, I'm going to read
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Speaker 1: it like that. Follow along with me quickly here. One
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Speaker 1: day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting at the
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Speaker 1: oldest brother's house, a messenger arrived at Job's home with
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Speaker 1: this news. Your oxen were plowing with the donkeys feeding
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Speaker 1: beside them when the civilians raided us. They stole all
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Speaker 1: the animals and killed all the farmlands. I'm the only
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Speaker 1: one who escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking,
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Speaker 1: another messenger arrived with his news. The fire of God
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Speaker 1: has fallen. from heaven and burned up your sheep and
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Speaker 1: all the shepherds. I'm the only one escaped to tell you.
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Speaker 1: While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with
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Speaker 1: this news. Three bands of Chaldeans, the raiders, have stolen
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Speaker 1: your camel and killed your servants. I'm the only one
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Speaker 1: escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another
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Speaker 1: messenger arrived with this news. Your sons and daughters, no, no, stop.
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Speaker 1: The cattle and the sheep and the camels I can handle.
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Speaker 1: All of the stuff of the ranch I can take,
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Speaker 1: all of the things that I've accrued, no problem. All
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Speaker 1: of my ability to earn a living, not a problem.
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Speaker 1: But my children, look at this last messenger. Your sons
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Speaker 1: and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's home. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: there's that word again. Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in
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Speaker 1: from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides.
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Speaker 1: like a tornado it would be, the house collapsed, all
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Speaker 1: your children are dead. Can hardly imagine that. Let me
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Speaker 1: say on behalf of you who are not too familiar
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Speaker 1: with the word of God and even less familiar with
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Speaker 1: the God of the word, that you will read some
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Speaker 1: things in scriptures that will cause you and your critical
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Speaker 1: friends To say, look, here's an example of how cruel
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Speaker 1: God can be. But please, don't think stupid statements like that.
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Speaker 1: God can't be cruel. God can't do bad things. God
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Speaker 1: doesn't dangle his followers. So you know when you hear
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Speaker 1: comments like that, that are so dreadfully horizontal in perspective,
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Speaker 1: doesn't represent what this is all about. But you can't
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Speaker 1: help but say, what's happening here? Remember the scene, you
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Speaker 1: football fans, of the late Vince Lombardi as he's walking
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Speaker 1: the sidelines of the Green Bay Packers when they weren't
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Speaker 1: doing so well, and he stands there in his overcoat saying,
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Speaker 1: what's going on out there? Remember that line? He said
28:47
Speaker 1: a little more, but it's not appropriate that I say
28:51
Speaker 1: it all. And it's, what do you feel like saying here?
28:53
Speaker 1: What's going on here? What's going on here? Hold it.
29:01
Speaker 1: Just hold your questions till we get it all in
29:05
Speaker 1: front of us. As if that isn't enough, there's another
29:09
Speaker 1: one day. Chapter 2, verse 1. The court comes together.
29:14
Speaker 1: The accuser appears again. How are things going? Oh, they're
29:18
Speaker 1: going all right. I've been watching the earth, everything going on,
29:20
Speaker 1: the Lord said to Satan. Have you noticed, Joe, by
29:23
Speaker 1: the way? See, I left it out. We'll come back
29:26
Speaker 1: to it in a moment. But Job responded beautifully. You
29:29
Speaker 1: notice Job? Notice there was no cursing of me. Notice
29:33
Speaker 1: he never once sinned against me in all of his losses.
29:38
Speaker 1: Even standing beside 10 graves which he had dug. You
29:43
Speaker 1: notice Job. Satan comes again to accuse different people on
29:55
Speaker 1: the earth and he's perturbed. He's perturbed because, obviously, Job
30:03
Speaker 1: has not yielded to what he thought he would do.
30:07
Speaker 1: When you've got your heart right, your possessions don't drive
30:10
Speaker 1: your life. Your Lord drives your life. When you're rich
30:14
Speaker 1: and you're walking with God, your riches don't hold you
30:16
Speaker 1: to God. Your faith does. When your riches are taken,
30:22
Speaker 1: it doesn't impact your faith. Your faith is strong. You
30:25
Speaker 1: have cultivated it, quite likely, before you got rich. So Satan,
30:32
Speaker 1: knowing that Job passed that test beautifully, the Lord said,
30:38
Speaker 1: have you noticed my servant? And Satan's response, verse 4,
30:42
Speaker 1: is even more impudent. Impudence on top of insulting. Skin
30:48
Speaker 1: for skin. A man will give up everything he has
30:52
Speaker 1: to save his life, but you reach out and you
30:55
Speaker 1: touch him and take away his health. He will curse
30:58
Speaker 1: you to your face. Isn't it interesting that Satan is
31:02
Speaker 1: not at all impressed with Job's righteous response? Satan exists
31:09
Speaker 1: completely removed from anything righteous. He is not impressed by it.
31:14
Speaker 1: He is not intimidated by it. He is not put
31:17
Speaker 1: off by it. He is angered by it. So he
31:22
Speaker 1: finds another reason. You take away his help and you'll
31:26
Speaker 1: hear cursing like you've never heard from lips. Look at
31:30
Speaker 1: the limitations. Verse 6. Alright, do with him as you please,
31:35
Speaker 1: the Lord said to Satan, but spare his life. Spare
31:43
Speaker 1: his life. Please observe the boundary. Satan is not in charge.
31:51
Speaker 1: He's being given permission to go so far and admittedly
31:57
Speaker 1: it leaves us feeling a bit of a mystery about this,
32:02
Speaker 1: because some of you were cynical enough to think, how
32:05
Speaker 1: cruel of God, how wrong of God to permit that.
32:12
Speaker 1: Because you see, your life is all about you. It's
32:16
Speaker 1: about your being comfortable and safe and happy and healthy
32:21
Speaker 1: and secure, because after all, that's what life's, no, it isn't,
32:24
Speaker 1: it isn't at all. That's a human perspective. The book
32:31
Speaker 1: of Job, like no other book, opens our eyes to
32:34
Speaker 1: another perspective that most miss. Satan left the Lord's presence,
32:42
Speaker 1: struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot. I
32:45
Speaker 1: take it that these are skin ulcers, the likes of
32:48
Speaker 1: which you and I have never seen on another body.
32:51
Speaker 1: From the crown of his head to the sole of
32:53
Speaker 1: his feet, he erupts into oozing, painful boils. and they itch.
33:03
Speaker 1: He now sits with a piece of broken pottery, scratching,
33:10
Speaker 1: trying to calm the itching, wiping away the pus and
33:16
Speaker 1: the blood. And his wife says, curse God, you'd be
33:27
Speaker 1: better off dead. Before you're too harsh on Mrs. Jobe,
33:35
Speaker 1: you remember she too has lost 10 children. Let's be
33:38
Speaker 1: careful here. Little respect for this dear lady. Her counsel
33:47
Speaker 1: is not wise. In fact, he calls it foolish and
33:49
Speaker 1: inappropriately so. But she doesn't get it at all. And
33:54
Speaker 1: her hope is his relief. Haven't you said about someone
33:58
Speaker 1: who is suffering and suffering and suffering It would just
34:01
Speaker 1: be better off if he would die. If only she
34:04
Speaker 1: could die. It's that kind of thing. By the way,
34:07
Speaker 1: there isn't a hint for the next chapters in the
34:10
Speaker 1: book all the way through chapter 42 of a thought
34:13
Speaker 1: of suicide. It isn't about that. Because Job's life is
34:20
Speaker 1: not his own. He's got the right perspective. Now, now
34:27
Speaker 1: we dig deeper. His first response in verse 21 of
34:32
Speaker 1: chapter 1 is, I came naked from my mother's womb
34:36
Speaker 1: and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord
34:39
Speaker 1: gave me what I had and the Lord has taken
34:41
Speaker 1: it away. Praise the name of the Lord. He's not
34:45
Speaker 1: in denial. If you think so, you missed the fact
34:48
Speaker 1: that he grieves, verse 20. Shaves his head. He is
34:54
Speaker 1: in deep, bone deep grief. But he says now, God
35:02
Speaker 1: is too loving to do anything cruel. I'm going to
35:07
Speaker 1: trust him. In fact, when he's answering his wife in
35:13
Speaker 1: verse 10 of chapter 2, you talk like a foolish woman.
35:17
Speaker 1: Should we accept only good things from the hand of
35:19
Speaker 1: God and never anything bad? There's not a televangelist in
35:22
Speaker 1: the country that would preach on that verse. Because to some,
35:28
Speaker 1: he is all about good, prosperity, relief, money, benefits, you, you.
35:39
Speaker 1: What heresy. This is truth. Shall we not receive from
35:48
Speaker 1: the hand of God whatever he sovereignly chooses, what we
35:53
Speaker 1: would call good or bad? Shall we not, sweetheart? Shall
35:58
Speaker 1: we not serve a God like that? That's the thought
36:03
Speaker 1: of that verse. In fact, it says, so in all
36:06
Speaker 1: this Job said nothing wrong. Well, let's back off a
36:14
Speaker 1: few moments. It's been pretty intense. So let's get a
36:17
Speaker 1: little perspective. I believe you believe everything we've read. I
36:22
Speaker 1: don't believe you doubt it. I believe every person listening
36:25
Speaker 1: right now has entered a little bit into Job's world.
36:28
Speaker 1: Some of you more than others. It's too painful for
36:31
Speaker 1: a few of you because you too have suddenly lost
36:33
Speaker 1: someone very near and dear to you or you're in
36:36
Speaker 1: the process of losing them. It's almost more than you
36:38
Speaker 1: can stand. Stay with me. Please. There's something we're all
36:44
Speaker 1: going to gain from this and it's called doctrinal theology.
36:51
Speaker 1: Which will help equip you for your sudden loss. You see,
37:00
Speaker 1: I don't think that we prepare for sudden losses suddenly.
37:04
Speaker 1: We prepare for whatever comes slowly. And the process of losing, hurting,
37:13
Speaker 1: being tested, going through trials, we prepare like the crescendo
37:18
Speaker 1: mark on a musical score, we prepare ourselves for when
37:22
Speaker 1: the hammer falls and we're not ready to give up
37:27
Speaker 1: the faith because you see, this is not a book
37:30
Speaker 1: about suffering. It's a book about faith. I appreciate the
37:37
Speaker 1: honesty of Philip Yancey in his book, Disappointment with God,
37:42
Speaker 1: a book you need to read. Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God.
37:50
Speaker 1: have a rather lengthy quote I want to read to you.
37:53
Speaker 1: I will read it carefully, and I hope interestingly, so
37:57
Speaker 1: that you can enter into what is on the page
38:01
Speaker 1: of this book, pages 163 to 165, excerpts. Yancey admits,
38:09
Speaker 1: I now believe I misread the book of Job, or
38:13
Speaker 1: more accurately, did not take into account the entire book.
38:19
Speaker 1: Despite the fact that all but a few pages of
38:21
Speaker 1: Job deal with the problem of pain, I'm coming to
38:25
Speaker 1: the conclusion that Job is not really about the problem
38:28
Speaker 1: of pain. Suffering contributes the ingredients of the story, not
38:38
Speaker 1: its central theme. I repeat, suffering contributes the ingredients of
38:45
Speaker 1: the story, not the central theme. Just as a cake,
38:50
Speaker 1: is not about eggs and sugar and flour and milk
38:53
Speaker 1: and shortening, but uses those ingredients in the process of
38:59
Speaker 1: creating a cake. Job is not about suffering. It merely
39:06
Speaker 1: uses such ingredients in the larger story, which concerns even
39:10
Speaker 1: more important questions, cosmic questions. Seen as a whole, Job
39:17
Speaker 1: is primarily about faith in its starkest form. Continuing to read,
39:29
Speaker 1: it helps to think of the book of Job as
39:31
Speaker 1: a mystery play, a whodunit, a detective story. Before the
39:38
Speaker 1: play itself begins, we are in the audience getting a
39:42
Speaker 1: sneak preview, as if we have showed up early for
39:45
Speaker 1: a press conference in which the director explains his work.
39:50
Speaker 1: chapters one and two. Stay with this. He's onto something.
39:56
Speaker 1: He relates the plot and describes the main characters, then
40:00
Speaker 1: tells us in advance who did what in the play
40:04
Speaker 1: and why. In fact, he solves every mystery in the
40:09
Speaker 1: play except one. How will the main character respond? Will
40:16
Speaker 1: Job trust God? or deny him. Later, when the curtain rises,
40:24
Speaker 1: we see only the actors on stage, confined within the play.
40:28
Speaker 1: They have no knowledge of what the director has told
40:32
Speaker 1: us in the sneak preview. We know the answer to
40:36
Speaker 1: the whodunit questions, but the star detective, Job, does not.
40:47
Speaker 1: He spends all his time on stage trying to discover
40:50
Speaker 1: what we already know. He scratches himself with shards of
40:54
Speaker 1: pottery and asks, why me? What did I do wrong?
41:01
Speaker 1: What is God trying to tell me? To the audience,
41:05
Speaker 1: Job's questions should be mere intellectual exercises, for we learn
41:10
Speaker 1: the answers in the prologue. The first two chapters, we
41:15
Speaker 1: did we realize that Job did nothing wrong. He represents
41:23
Speaker 1: the very best of the species. Didn't God call Job
41:27
Speaker 1: blameless and upright, a man who fears him and shuns evil?
41:32
Speaker 1: Why then the suffering? Not for punishment. Far from it.
41:41
Speaker 1: He has been selected as the principal player in a
41:44
Speaker 1: great contest of the heavens. Finally, this quote. I would
41:53
Speaker 1: certainly not deny the strangeness of this heavenly contest. On
41:58
Speaker 1: the other hand, I could say it offers a rare
42:00
Speaker 1: peek through the keyhole of eternity. Get this. When people
42:06
Speaker 1: experience pain, questions spill out. The very questions that tormented Job.
42:13
Speaker 1: Why me? What's going on? Does God care? Is there
42:23
Speaker 1: a God? This one time in the raw recounting of
42:28
Speaker 1: Job's travail, we the onlookers, not Job, are granted a
42:34
Speaker 1: view behind the curtain. What we long for, the prologue
42:40
Speaker 1: to Job provides. A glimpse into how the world is run.
42:48
Speaker 1: As nowhere else in the Bible, the book of Job
42:50
Speaker 1: shows us God's point of view, including the supernatural activity
42:55
Speaker 1: normally hidden from us. God is not on trial in
43:01
Speaker 1: this book. Job is on trial. The point of the
43:07
Speaker 1: book is not suffering. Where is God when it hurts?
43:12
Speaker 1: The prologue dealt with that issue. The point is faith.
43:16
Speaker 1: Where is Job? when it hurts. How is he responding
43:22
Speaker 1: to understand the book of Job? I must begin there.
43:29
Speaker 1: Let me say to all of you in the ministry
43:34
Speaker 1: or connected in any way to our ministry, Stone Bride
43:37
Speaker 1: Community Church or Insight for Living or whatever may be
43:40
Speaker 1: our relationship, my great goal in life is to teach
43:44
Speaker 1: you one great truth. And that is this, God is
43:53
Speaker 1: in charge. He is everything. He is all the things
44:02
Speaker 1: that make up his character, goodness and grace and love
44:05
Speaker 1: and mercy and justice and kindness and wrath and understanding
44:10
Speaker 1: and on and on. I could go with the characteristics.
44:12
Speaker 1: It is all about God. But we forget that. in
44:18
Speaker 1: our horizontal oriented world where everything is about us. That
44:24
Speaker 1: spirit of entitlement that you hate to see emerge in
44:28
Speaker 1: your children and your grandchildren and sometime in yourself is
44:33
Speaker 1: prevalent all over this planet. How few are those who
44:38
Speaker 1: do not ask, why? But what is there for me
44:44
Speaker 1: to learn in this, oh God? What is it you
44:48
Speaker 1: were teaching me? How could I best honor you in
44:53
Speaker 1: the midst of this I'm experiencing that I can't explain
44:58
Speaker 1: to anyone, especially my cynical friends who were telling me
45:04
Speaker 1: what Job's wife told him? You see, this now helps
45:10
Speaker 1: explain what we read at the end of chapter one
45:15
Speaker 1: Look at Job's response. This is marvelous. Job stood up
45:20
Speaker 1: and tore his robe in grief. Don't tell me Job
45:25
Speaker 1: is in denial. He's tearing his robe in a moment.
45:31
Speaker 1: He's shaving his head. He's sitting in the city dump, bankrupt.
45:38
Speaker 1: He is grieved to the bone. And he cries out
45:43
Speaker 1: to his God. but please read on. He says, it says,
45:52
Speaker 1: then he shaved his head, fell to the ground, to what?
45:58
Speaker 1: To worship. To worship. To worship. Oh God, in this
46:11
Speaker 1: awful moment, having lost everything I would count dear except
46:15
Speaker 1: my precious wife, Oh God, I have no one to
46:20
Speaker 1: turn to but you. And it's to you I give
46:24
Speaker 1: maximum praise as I release all other things to you.
46:30
Speaker 1: Nothing else in my hands would I bring. I simply
46:33
Speaker 1: come before you by faith, trusting you to do what
46:37
Speaker 1: for me is best, though I cannot explain it to
46:40
Speaker 1: myself or to others. And then he adds, Beautiful perspective.
46:47
Speaker 1: I came naked from my mother's womb. I will be
46:49
Speaker 1: naked when I leave. The Lord has given to me
46:52
Speaker 1: what I had. The Lord has taken it away. Praise
46:55
Speaker 1: the name of the Lord. He gave me all 10
46:56
Speaker 1: of our children. Praise his name. He gave me good
46:59
Speaker 1: health and I praise his name. He gave me all
47:03
Speaker 1: the things that we've enjoyed. He gave me an enormous income,
47:07
Speaker 1: more than I needed that I might give to others.
47:09
Speaker 1: He gave me this lovely home. He provided for me
47:12
Speaker 1: a wonderful future, love and and a relationship in our family,
47:16
Speaker 1: harmony and joy, now he's chosen to take it. That's
47:24
Speaker 1: his sovereign right. You see, God doesn't exist to make
47:29
Speaker 1: you healthy and happy. He exists to glorify his own name.
47:37
Speaker 1: And you are the channel through which the glory comes.
47:43
Speaker 1: Get that. I'll be 79 next month, and I'm just
47:49
Speaker 1: now old enough to begin to get it. So there's
47:53
Speaker 1: hope for you. Believe me, age helps. Over the process
48:00
Speaker 1: of time, over the passing of years, less and less
48:06
Speaker 1: becomes all that important, but what is really important becomes
48:10
Speaker 1: so important you're ready to die for it because you
48:13
Speaker 1: now get it. I don't have a corner on all
48:16
Speaker 1: of this. I'm learning with you, but I know more
48:18
Speaker 1: than I knew when I was 50. And I understand
48:22
Speaker 1: more than I knew when I was 35. I now
48:26
Speaker 1: know that there are some things about my God I
48:29
Speaker 1: no longer have to question because that doesn't characterize my God.
48:34
Speaker 1: I do know now from the experiences I've had too
48:37
Speaker 1: numerous to mention that he is truly in charge. And
48:41
Speaker 1: the most important thing going on is the invisible. supernatural. T.S.
48:48
Speaker 1: Eliot put it this way, to believe in the supernatural
48:52
Speaker 1: is not simply to believe that after living a successful
48:55
Speaker 1: material and fairly victorious life here one will continue on
48:59
Speaker 1: to exist in the best possible substitute for this world
49:03
Speaker 1: or that after living a starved and stunted life here
49:08
Speaker 1: one will be compensated with all the good things one
49:11
Speaker 1: has gone without. It is to believe that the supernatural
49:16
Speaker 1: is the greatest reality here and now. Get that. The
49:24
Speaker 1: supernatural is the greatest reality here and now. Not what
49:29
Speaker 1: you can touch or buy or own or produce. It
49:35
Speaker 1: is knowing that your Heavenly Father is at work for
49:42
Speaker 1: His glory, for our good, to build us into the
49:47
Speaker 1: image of His Son, Christ. That's what it's about. If
49:53
Speaker 1: it takes the loss of that, take the loss. If
49:59
Speaker 1: it takes the absence of this, accept the absence. If
50:04
Speaker 1: it takes your broken dreams and an abandonment of what
50:07
Speaker 1: you had counted on all your life, abandon it. It
50:12
Speaker 1: is all about God who gives and takes away. Praises
50:20
Speaker 1: be his name. Love the end of that second chapter.
50:26
Speaker 1: In all this, Job said nothing wrong. I am impressed. Finally,
50:38
Speaker 1: we see a guy who gets it. He's not cavalier
50:45
Speaker 1: about it. Remember, he's grieving. But in his grief and
50:49
Speaker 1: sense of earthly loss, he realizes the most important thing
50:57
Speaker 1: in life is the supernatural, the invisible. Real living is
51:03
Speaker 1: eternal living. Real perspective is an understanding of what isn't seen.
51:10
Speaker 1: Real maturity is guiding one's life according to the intangibles.
51:18
Speaker 1: When you get to the end and he's got his
51:20
Speaker 1: body covered with boils from head to foot, verse seven
51:23
Speaker 1: of chapter two, look at that, look at that. Oozing,
51:30
Speaker 1: ulcers bursting from his skin to the point where he
51:35
Speaker 1: could not sit or lie down without intense pain, winds
51:39
Speaker 1: up sitting in bankruptcy At the city dump, we would
51:46
Speaker 1: call it. He scrapes his skin with a piece of
51:52
Speaker 1: broken pottery. It's itching so badly. He sits among the
51:56
Speaker 1: ashes and his dear wife comes along and says, are
51:59
Speaker 1: you still trying to maintain your integrity? Just curse God
52:03
Speaker 1: and die. Wait. Before you have a smart remark about
52:08
Speaker 1: this wife, she too has lost 10 children. Hold on.
52:16
Speaker 1: Let's cut her some slack. She's not Job. She's Mrs. Job.
52:24
Speaker 1: She has a right to see it from another perspective.
52:26
Speaker 1: She's got wrong counsel, and Job knows it's wrong. But
52:30
Speaker 1: they have the kind of relationship where she can speak
52:32
Speaker 1: honestly to him. She wants him to be relieved. He's
52:37
Speaker 1: better off dead. Haven't you said that? about those who
52:41
Speaker 1: suffer and suffer and suffer and suffer and suffer and suffer?
52:45
Speaker 1: Of course you have. Why don't the Lord just take them?
52:50
Speaker 1: That's the way she's looking at this. He says to her,
52:57
Speaker 1: you talk like a foolish woman. Come on, sweetheart. Look
53:04
Speaker 1: at what he asked. Should we not accept good things
53:07
Speaker 1: from the hand of God and never anything bad? How
53:10
Speaker 1: about that perspective? You mentioned that in today's secular world.
53:16
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, there we go again. There's your God
53:19
Speaker 1: of the Christians. You know what? You show your stupidity
53:24
Speaker 1: when you respond like that. God does not have one
53:31
Speaker 1: cruel cell in his being. First of all, he doesn't
53:35
Speaker 1: have any cells, but God is not cruel. God is
53:40
Speaker 1: not unjust. God, hang on, is sovereign. Sovereign. If you
53:49
Speaker 1: learn nothing else at Stonebriar Community Church throughout my ministry,
53:52
Speaker 1: for however long God gives me life, learn that God
53:56
Speaker 1: is in control. Learn that God is in control. Learn
54:03
Speaker 1: that what you are going through is divinely guided by
54:07
Speaker 1: a Heavenly Father who loves you too much to do
54:10
Speaker 1: anything cruel to you. That doesn't make sense. I didn't
54:15
Speaker 1: say it would make sense. To God, it's perfect sense.
54:21
Speaker 1: But of course, He lives in a realm that is
54:23
Speaker 1: beyond our comprehension. He walks to a drumbeat. He doesn't
54:28
Speaker 1: really walk. He exists in a drumbeat. I've got to
54:30
Speaker 1: be careful how I refer to Him, don't I? He
54:33
Speaker 1: isn't just like an old man with a big beard
54:36
Speaker 1: blowing wind out of the north that you see on
54:38
Speaker 1: the old maps. That's not God. He's incomprehensibly great. He's omniscient.
54:45
Speaker 1: He's omnipotent. He's omnipresent. He's eternal. He's good. He's gracious.
54:50
Speaker 1: He's loving. And he's just. And he's always right. He
54:56
Speaker 1: is so profound that I spend my years as somewhat
55:00
Speaker 1: of a theologian thinking, Lord, will I ever get this?
55:04
Speaker 1: Will I ever, ever get this? And now I've come
55:09
Speaker 1: to the age where I've begun to get it. Am
55:13
Speaker 1: I saying it's easy? I'm not saying it's easy. I'm
55:16
Speaker 1: saying I'm getting it. In all of this, Job said
55:21
Speaker 1: nothing wrong. That's what happens when you traffic in the
55:26
Speaker 1: realm of the supernatural in your perspectives. Okay. Let's talk
55:35
Speaker 1: about you.
55:36
Speaker 2: Okay.
55:38
Speaker 1: Let's talk about you and me. Four things I want
55:42
Speaker 1: to mention. Here we go. Number one, everything starts with
55:47
Speaker 1: the kind of person you are. Everything starts with the
55:52
Speaker 1: kind of person you are becoming. I could put it
55:55
Speaker 1: that way. What kind of person are you becoming? If
56:01
Speaker 1: increasingly more selfish, every loss will be detrimental to your walk.
56:07
Speaker 1: In fact, sudden losses will capsize you, and you may
56:11
Speaker 1: lose your mind. I say that with a measure of compassion.
56:18
Speaker 1: If you are becoming an individual who really is cultivating
56:22
Speaker 1: a knowledge of the living God, it's remarkable what that
56:27
Speaker 1: cultivation will do as you live your life before him.
56:33
Speaker 1: You're developing an understanding of and a trust in his word.
56:38
Speaker 1: You're beginning to see that makes sense. That's true. I'm
56:44
Speaker 1: getting it. You can see the plays before anybody runs them.
56:53
Speaker 1: The book tells you about them. F.B. Meyer once wrote,
56:59
Speaker 1: no man suddenly becomes base, as he refers to David's
57:02
Speaker 1: fall in 2 Samuel chapter 11 with Bathsheba. I would
57:08
Speaker 1: borrow from Meyer's words and say, no one suddenly becomes
57:12
Speaker 1: ready for a huge loss. You know how you're a
57:17
Speaker 1: little bit better prepared for it? You're listening today. You're
57:23
Speaker 1: being equipped with truth. and it helps put steel in
57:27
Speaker 1: your bones. It helps stabilize you emotionally so that you
57:32
Speaker 1: don't panic or run and try to escape the harsh
57:39
Speaker 1: hardships that are inevitably to come. So everything starts with
57:47
Speaker 1: the kind of person you are. Now, second, I want
57:54
Speaker 1: you to glance ahead and answer, what will happen in
58:00
Speaker 1: the future? I'll tell you ahead of time. Here's the
58:05
Speaker 1: answer in the back of the book. You don't know.
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Speaker 1: That represents your knowledge of this afternoon, tomorrow morning, next week,
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Speaker 1: when you graduate from school or if you graduate, your health,
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Speaker 1: your family, I adore my wife. I have for over
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Speaker 1: 58 years. I want to have her all the rest
58:32
Speaker 1: of my life. Oh, God, please. And I really mean that.
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Speaker 1: I really want to have her all my life. I
58:38
Speaker 1: may not. She may not have me. Does that mean
58:42
Speaker 1: we've served a false God? No, it means God's God.
58:46
Speaker 1: And he makes those choices. If he is paramount in
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Speaker 1: my mind, my life doesn't revolve around my wife nor
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Speaker 1: hers around me. That's an unhealthy way to live. So
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Speaker 1: I hold all of that loosely, or I train myself
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Speaker 1: to do that. I'm doing that now better than I
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Speaker 1: did early on in our marriage, when I wrote her
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Speaker 1: all those poems and told her we'd be together forever.
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Speaker 1: I don't know that. And you don't either. We have
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Speaker 1: our children. We think we'll have them forever. You don't
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Speaker 1: know that. Why on earth would we not have asked Job?
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Speaker 1: He lost ten. So, to prepare you for not being
59:34
Speaker 1: crushed when the blow comes, memorize, write this down, James 4,
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Speaker 1: 13 to 16. James 4, 13 to 16, which says,
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Speaker 1: in part, what is your life? A puff of smoke,
59:56
Speaker 1: a fog, a vapor, that appears for a little while
1:00:01
Speaker 1: and then vanishes away. You do not know what your
1:00:04
Speaker 1: life will be like tomorrow. And so we ought to say,
1:00:07
Speaker 1: if the Lord wills, we will live. That's a good
1:00:10
Speaker 1: place to start. And then we will do this or that.
1:00:14
Speaker 1: Memorize James 4, 13 to 16. It'll help you. It'll
1:00:18
Speaker 1: stabilize you. If you don't, you will not be as stabilized.
1:00:23
Speaker 1: And when something happens in the future, you will be stunned.
1:00:29
Speaker 1: and perhaps even tempted to walk away from your God.
1:00:32
Speaker 1: Satan would love that, by the way. He loves it
1:00:36
Speaker 1: when we do things like that. Here's a third. This
1:00:38
Speaker 1: is a warning. Some people will give you wrong advice. Why?
1:00:45
Speaker 1: Because they're looking at life horizontally. They want you to
1:00:48
Speaker 1: be relieved. They want you to be happy. But sometimes
1:00:56
Speaker 1: the things they say are erroneous. and they'll even make
1:00:59
Speaker 1: you confused. So may God give you the filter you
1:01:03
Speaker 1: need to turn off things that you have no business
1:01:06
Speaker 1: listening to because they will derail you. People mean well,
1:01:14
Speaker 1: but they say dumb things and it doesn't help. Job's friends,
1:01:21
Speaker 1: the rest of this book, spend their time telling him
1:01:24
Speaker 1: dumb things. If it hadn't been for your doing this,
1:01:28
Speaker 1: and if you hadn't done that wrong, and if you
1:01:30
Speaker 1: hadn't failed here, then you'd be a healthy man. What
1:01:33
Speaker 1: did you do wrong? You have secret sin? You're not
1:01:35
Speaker 1: telling anybody? Tell us, Job. You can trust us. There's
1:01:38
Speaker 1: got to be something wrong. No man suffers like this
1:01:40
Speaker 1: that hasn't been sinful. Yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. Nonsense, nonsense.
1:01:46
Speaker 1: Job had to have the filter to say, you guys
1:01:48
Speaker 1: are wrong. Or he would have never made it to
1:01:51
Speaker 1: the end of the book. So I'll warn you ahead
1:01:56
Speaker 1: of time, put on your thinking cap, as they used
1:01:59
Speaker 1: to tell us in school. Discern, this is not good advice.
1:02:04
Speaker 1: This is not from the Lord. So how will we respond?
1:02:09
Speaker 1: After the discernment of turning off erroneous counsel, turning away
1:02:12
Speaker 1: from wrong advice, you'll feel the freedom to grieve. Job did.
1:02:18
Speaker 1: And you must grieve. Don't think it's spiritual not to cry.
1:02:22
Speaker 1: That's inhumane. Don't ever tell someone they need to stop crying.
1:02:28
Speaker 1: God gives us tears when we're sad. He gives us
1:02:30
Speaker 1: laughter when we're happy. So let the tears flow. Grieve.
1:02:36
Speaker 1: I don't think you get over grief until you fully
1:02:38
Speaker 1: expressed it. So you grieve. Here's the fourth. How will
1:02:44
Speaker 1: you respond? Think now about then. How will you respond?
1:02:53
Speaker 1: Will you deny? Will you become bitter and blame? Will
1:02:58
Speaker 1: you throw a pity party? Will you decide to give
1:03:02
Speaker 1: up on life? Will you try to escape to some
1:03:06
Speaker 1: idyllic place? On and on I could go. The simple
1:03:14
Speaker 1: fact is God is in charge. You sense God's hand
1:03:21
Speaker 1: in it. That's why you worship. Lord, in all my grief,
1:03:25
Speaker 1: I want you to know I still claim you as
1:03:27
Speaker 1: my father, my guide, my God, my Lord. You're the
1:03:32
Speaker 1: sovereign of my life, and I submit myself to you.
1:03:36
Speaker 1: I accept the fact that God is in this, even
1:03:40
Speaker 1: though I cannot fathom the plan. I want to close
1:03:47
Speaker 1: with one of the finest pieces of writing I've ever read.
1:03:51
Speaker 1: It's the work of A.W. Tozer in a little book
1:03:53
Speaker 1: called The Root of the Righteous. Listen carefully. It was
1:04:02
Speaker 1: the enraptured Rutherford who could shout in the midst of
1:04:06
Speaker 1: serious and painful trials, praise God for the hammer, the file,
1:04:12
Speaker 1: and the furnace. The hammer is a useful tool. But
1:04:17
Speaker 1: the nail, if it had feeling and intelligence, could present
1:04:20
Speaker 1: another side of the story. For the nail knows the
1:04:24
Speaker 1: hammer only as an opponent, a brutal, merciless enemy who
1:04:29
Speaker 1: lives to pound it into submission, to beat it down
1:04:32
Speaker 1: out of sight, and to clinch it into place. That
1:04:35
Speaker 1: is the nail's only view of the hammer, and it's
1:04:38
Speaker 1: accurate except for one thing. The nail forgets that both
1:04:43
Speaker 1: it and the hammer are servants of the same workman.
1:04:49
Speaker 1: Let the nail remember that the hammer is held by
1:04:54
Speaker 1: the workman and all resentment toward it will disappear. The
1:05:00
Speaker 1: carpenter decides whose head shall be beaten next and what
1:05:06
Speaker 1: hammer shall be used in the beating. That is the
1:05:09
Speaker 1: sovereign right of the carpenter. The file is more painful still.
1:05:18
Speaker 1: For its business is to bite into the soft metal,
1:05:21
Speaker 1: scraping and eating away the edges till it has shaped
1:05:24
Speaker 1: the metal to its own will. Yet the file has
1:05:27
Speaker 1: in truth no real will in the matter, but serves
1:05:31
Speaker 1: another master as the metal also does. It is the master,
1:05:36
Speaker 1: not the file, that decides how much shall be eaten
1:05:39
Speaker 1: away and what shape the metal shall take. and how
1:05:42
Speaker 1: long the painful filing shall continue. Let the metal accept
1:05:47
Speaker 1: the will of the master, and it will not try
1:05:49
Speaker 1: to dictate when or how it shall be filed. As
1:05:54
Speaker 1: for the furnace, it is the worst of all. Ruthless
1:05:59
Speaker 1: and savage, it leaps at every combustible thing that enters
1:06:04
Speaker 1: it and never releases its fury, never relaxes its fury
1:06:08
Speaker 1: till it has reduced it all to shapeless ashes. All
1:06:12
Speaker 1: that refuses to burn is melted to a mass of
1:06:15
Speaker 1: helpless matter without will or purpose of its own. When
1:06:19
Speaker 1: everything is melted that will melt and all is burned
1:06:22
Speaker 1: that will burn then and not till then, the furnace
1:06:26
Speaker 1: calms down and rests from its destructive fury. With all
1:06:32
Speaker 1: this known to him, how could Rutherford find it in
1:06:35
Speaker 1: his heart to praise God for the hammer, the file,
1:06:38
Speaker 1: and the furnace? The answer is simple. He loved the
1:06:43
Speaker 1: master of the hammer. He adored the workman who wielded
1:06:48
Speaker 1: the file. He worshiped the Lord who heated the furnace.
1:06:58
Speaker 1: In our travels somewhat recently, we were in Amsterdam. While
1:07:04
Speaker 1: in Amsterdam, we visited the home of the late Corrie
1:07:08
Speaker 1: ten Boom, and we saw the hiding place. Our room
1:07:16
Speaker 1: was as silent as this room is right now. We
1:07:20
Speaker 1: saw the hole through which those Jews would push themselves
1:07:26
Speaker 1: into between the walls. And there they would stand and
1:07:31
Speaker 1: take turns sleeping as a large piece of furniture was
1:07:36
Speaker 1: pushed in front of the hole that they might hide
1:07:39
Speaker 1: from the brutal Nazis who had been told that someone
1:07:43
Speaker 1: is hiding in this home. They could hear the boots
1:07:47
Speaker 1: outside the wall. They existed inside this small space. Four
1:07:54
Speaker 1: to six Jews and a bucket. Is it any wonder
1:08:01
Speaker 1: when Corrie ten Boom lives through their being found out
1:08:08
Speaker 1: and the loss of her papa and her family and
1:08:13
Speaker 1: all that she held dear that she was able to
1:08:17
Speaker 1: say to audiences year after year until she finally died,
1:08:26
Speaker 1: there is no pit so deep, but that he is
1:08:29
Speaker 1: not deeper still. She understood. She accepted the hammer, the file,
1:08:40
Speaker 1: and the furnace, even though she suddenly lost it all.
1:08:51
Speaker 1: She taught me before her death as she was in
1:08:53
Speaker 1: our church during those last months. Pastor Svendal, she would say,
1:08:57
Speaker 1: hold everything loosely. Hold everything loosely. Hold your children loosely.
1:09:06
Speaker 1: Hold everything loosely. If you don't, it will hurt when
1:09:11
Speaker 1: the father pries your fingers loose and takes them from you.
1:09:20
Speaker 1: Let's pray. I have no idea what the future holds.
1:09:26
Speaker 1: I do not know where you are or what you're
1:09:28
Speaker 1: going through. But I'm here today to tell you it
1:09:32
Speaker 1: is not accidental. God knows what he's about. May he
1:09:43
Speaker 1: give you grace to trust him. to deepen your faith
1:09:51
Speaker 1: in him, even when you cannot explain why. Help us, Lord,
1:10:02
Speaker 1: in the midst of all of this, to realize that
1:10:07
Speaker 1: no one on this planet loves us like you do,
1:10:09
Speaker 1: that there is not one who knows best for us
1:10:13
Speaker 1: better than you know, and who is not guiding us
1:10:17
Speaker 1: more unerringly than you are guiding us. So, Father, teach
1:10:22
Speaker 1: us to quietly submit and to stop the fight, the argument,
1:10:31
Speaker 1: and to realize you do all things well, as Job
1:10:37
Speaker 1: ultimately realized by the end of the story. Help us,
1:10:42
Speaker 1: our Father, in this journey from earth to heaven, to
1:10:47
Speaker 1: learn to stay out of your business, to accept from
1:10:53
Speaker 1: you our faithful Father, ever-present Lord and good God, to
1:11:04
Speaker 1: accept what you send and to release what you take.
1:11:11
Speaker 1: I ask it. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
1:11:24
Speaker 2: The preceding message, What If You Suddenly Lose Everything, was
1:11:27
Speaker 2: copyrighted in 2013 and 2015, and the sound recording was
1:11:31
Speaker 2: copyrighted in 2015 by Charles R.
1:11:34
Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc.
1:11:36
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
1:11:40
Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited. In the preceding message, Charles R.
1:11:45
Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc.
1:11:46
Speaker 2: Is grateful to Zondervan Publishing House for permission to use
1:11:49
Speaker 2: the book Disappointment with God, Three Questions No One Asks Aloud,
1:11:54
Speaker 2: copyrighted in 1988 by Philip Yancey.