Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Reeling and Recovering from Devastating News │ Msg 222 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: I want to read for you and then ask you
- 0:03Speaker 1: to participate in the reading at the end in a
- 0:07Speaker 1: worshipful manner, unlike we normally in the scriptures. You'll be
- 0:11Speaker 1: ready for it when we get there. And I want
- 0:14Speaker 1: to read the passage like the dear doctor Chaffer, I understand,
- 0:17Speaker 1: used to read it when he would read Job one
- 0:20Speaker 1: twelve through twenty two. Then the Lord said to Satan, behold,
- 0:27Speaker 1: all that he has is in your power. Only do
- 0:30Speaker 1: not put forth your hand on him. So Satan departed
- 0:36Speaker 1: from the presence of the Lord. Now what happened on
- 0:39Speaker 1: the day when his sons and his daughters were eating
- 0:41Speaker 1: and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, that a
- 0:45Speaker 1: messenger came to Job and said, the oxen replowing of
- 0:49Speaker 1: the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked and
- 0:52Speaker 1: took them. They also slew the servants with the edge
- 0:55Speaker 1: of the sword, And I alone have escaped to tell you.
- 0:58Speaker 1: While he was still speaking, another also came and said,
- 1:01Speaker 1: the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up
- 1:04Speaker 1: the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And I
- 1:07Speaker 1: alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking,
- 1:10Speaker 1: another also came and said, the Chaldeans formed three bands
- 1:13Speaker 1: and made a raid on the camels, and took them
- 1:16Speaker 1: and slew the servants with the edge of the sword.
- 1:18Speaker 1: And I alone have escaped to tell you. While he
- 1:21Speaker 1: was still speaking, another also came and said, your sons
- 1:25Speaker 1: and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their
- 1:27Speaker 1: oldest brother's house. And behold, a great wind came from
- 1:30Speaker 1: across the wilderness, had struck the four corners of the house,
- 1:34Speaker 1: and it fell on the young people, and they died.
- 1:41Speaker 1: And I alone have escaped to tell you. Then Job
- 1:48Speaker 1: arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and
- 1:56Speaker 1: fell to the ground and worshiped, and said, naked, I
- 2:05Speaker 1: came from my mother's womb. Naked I shall return. The
- 2:13Speaker 1: Lord gave the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the
- 2:21Speaker 1: name of the Lord. Through all this, Job did not
- 2:32Speaker 1: sin or blame God. Blessed be the name. Blessed be
- 2:47Speaker 1: the name, the blessed be the name. Bless her be
- 3:00Speaker 1: the name. Blessing be the name. It's one thing to
- 3:23Speaker 1: read that, It's one thing to sing that. It's another
- 3:28Speaker 1: thing to believe it and say it. Our Father, Blessed
- 3:36Speaker 1: be your name. When you give. Blessed be your name
- 3:42Speaker 1: when you take. Blessed be your name at the birth
- 3:48Speaker 1: of our children. Blessed be your name at their death.
- 3:58Speaker 1: Blessed be your name when they serve you you. Blessed
- 4:03Speaker 1: be your name when they fight with you. Blessed be
- 4:10Speaker 1: your name. When our home is full of nice things.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Blessed be your name when we don't even have a home.
- 4:21Speaker 1: Blessed be your name when the cars new. Blessed be
- 4:26Speaker 1: your name when the cars old. Blessed be your name
- 4:35Speaker 1: when the church is growing. Blessed be your name when
- 4:40Speaker 1: the growth stops. Blessed be your name when we're getting along.
- 4:49Speaker 1: Blessed be your name when we can't get along. Blessed
- 4:56Speaker 1: be the name of the Lord. You are to be
- 5:04Speaker 1: most blessed. No one else gives like you give. No
- 5:11Speaker 1: one else has the right to take, as you have
- 5:14Speaker 1: that right. Because you have given, we today are able
- 5:19Speaker 1: to give. And we glory in your name because we can,
- 5:27Speaker 1: and for those who can't, we glory in your name.
- 5:32Speaker 1: Blessed be the name of the Lord. In the name
- 5:38Speaker 1: of the Lord, we give, and we pray. God's people
- 5:43Speaker 1: said December seventh, nineteen forty one. November the twenty second,
- 5:51Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three September the eleventh, two thousand and one.
- 6:01Speaker 1: If you've lived as long as I have, those three
- 6:03Speaker 1: dates are like creases permanently etched in your brain. We
- 6:10Speaker 1: remember where we were, we remember what we were doing,
- 6:14Speaker 1: We remember how we felt. Devastating news the Imperial Army
- 6:22Speaker 1: of Japan has now bombed our ships and our men
- 6:29Speaker 1: and women in the military at Pearl Harbor. Some crazed
- 6:35Speaker 1: gunner has assassinated our president. Daily Plaza, Dallas, Texas. A
- 6:45Speaker 1: group of unnamed terrorists have found their way onto airplanes
- 6:54Speaker 1: they've turned into missiles, and in Lower Manhattan, the when
- 7:00Speaker 1: towers are no longer there, and a wing of the
- 7:04Speaker 1: Pentagon is destroyed. In the quiet countryside of southwest Pennsylvania,
- 7:14Speaker 1: of all things, another plane has gone down. All of
- 7:20Speaker 1: us remember the last. In the wake of the last
- 7:24Speaker 1: tragedy or atrocity, I'd rather call it, a name has emerged.
- 7:30Speaker 1: Many others have been heroic, but this one, especially the
- 7:34Speaker 1: name of a man we've never met, who is now
- 7:37Speaker 1: in our mind a hero. Todd Todd Beemer, faithful husband
- 7:45Speaker 1: and devoted father of two, wife Lisa, carrying their third
- 7:53Speaker 1: and we know now having traced back and listening to recordings,
- 7:56Speaker 1: that he called GTE Communication Center in oak Brook, Illinois,
- 8:04Speaker 1: and he spoke with a superior, interestingly a woman with
- 8:08Speaker 1: the same first name as his wife, Lisa Jefferson, And
- 8:12Speaker 1: in the conversation mixed with tears and panic and some
- 8:16Speaker 1: calm words, he asked her to pray with him the
- 8:19Speaker 1: Lord's Prayer, and following the prayer, his last words are
- 8:28Speaker 1: you guys ready, let's roll. And indeed they did, and
- 8:35Speaker 1: they diverted that missile from killing yet more than it
- 8:39Speaker 1: did all on board as that ill fated United Flight
- 8:44Speaker 1: ninety three christ into a meadow, Pennsylvania. He was just
- 8:54Speaker 1: a passenger on the plane. Todd Beemer was not trained
- 8:57Speaker 1: to fight terrorists, probably never dreamed he ever would or
- 9:03Speaker 1: perhaps ever could. But he did, and they did, and
- 9:11Speaker 1: without realizing it, he had lived his whole life for
- 9:14Speaker 1: that moment and became, in that unusual way, even in
- 9:22Speaker 1: his short life, heroic. As I heard of the report,
- 9:28Speaker 1: the words from the nineteenth century of Henry Longfellow came
- 9:31Speaker 1: to mind. The heights by great men reached and kept
- 9:36Speaker 1: were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their
- 9:41Speaker 1: companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. Funny, isn't
- 9:48Speaker 1: it We would never consider something we're going through as heroic.
- 9:54Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever thought of it, But
- 9:57Speaker 1: the way we will be remembered by some be for
- 10:00Speaker 1: them heroic. Travel back with me centuries to a date
- 10:06Speaker 1: no one could name, to a place if you could
- 10:09Speaker 1: point out on a map to a setting that seemed idyllic.
- 10:17Speaker 1: A man who hadn't been trained to endure the loss
- 10:22Speaker 1: of everything, lost everything, and though himself also a good
- 10:28Speaker 1: husband and a devoted and faithful father and a splendid
- 10:34Speaker 1: businessman whose life was marked by integrity, watched it all
- 10:39Speaker 1: leave in one fell sweep of events. And interestingly, Job
- 10:47Speaker 1: would be remembered not for being healthy, wealthy, and wise,
- 10:55Speaker 1: but for enduring the loss of everything. Even in the
- 11:01Speaker 1: biblical days, when James took up his pen to write, said,
- 11:07Speaker 1: you have heard of the endurance of Job, who pulled money,
- 11:11Speaker 1: endurance to abide under the load. You have heard of
- 11:14Speaker 1: the man who endured under the load of the loss
- 11:20Speaker 1: that hit him like a ton and a half pallid
- 11:24Speaker 1: of bricks, one after another after another after another. And
- 11:31Speaker 1: he endured, And for that he was heroic. How many
- 11:36Speaker 1: lives facing radical surgery in a hospital have taken comfort
- 11:41Speaker 1: from the life of Job. How many bereaving grieving parents
- 11:49Speaker 1: laying their son or daughter to rest long before they
- 11:54Speaker 1: ever dreamed of whatever happened, thinking they themselves would go
- 11:58Speaker 1: before the daughter or so, and have turned to Job
- 12:01Speaker 1: and found in his life and in his endurance the
- 12:05Speaker 1: hope to go on. How many who have had failed
- 12:07Speaker 1: businesses have turned to Job and discovered a reason they
- 12:14Speaker 1: can make it because he made it. There is no date,
- 12:21Speaker 1: There was no warning, There was no explanation before the fact,
- 12:28Speaker 1: and therefore there could be no understanding at the time
- 12:32Speaker 1: why it happened like it did. We forget that because
- 12:36Speaker 1: we know why. We've read Job one, and we've read
- 12:43Speaker 1: Job two, and we know of this strange cosmic agreement
- 12:48Speaker 1: between the giver of light and life and the ultimate
- 12:54Speaker 1: wicked spirit, Satan. We know the deal that was rock.
- 13:01Speaker 1: Job knew none of it, none of it, and he
- 13:07Speaker 1: didn't know for the longest time, if I may, maybe
- 13:12Speaker 1: never till he died. The whole story, but acting with
- 13:19Speaker 1: the character he had developed over years of trust, trusting
- 13:26Speaker 1: God and walking with him, the loss of everything did
- 13:30Speaker 1: not cause him to curse God and turn against him.
- 13:36Speaker 1: I think Philip Yancey is on to something he writes
- 13:39Speaker 1: in his nineteen eighty eight bestseller Disappointment with God. It
- 13:44Speaker 1: helps to think of the Book of Job as a
- 13:46Speaker 1: mystery play who done it? Detective story. Before the play
- 13:52Speaker 1: itself begins, we in the audience get a sneak preview,
- 13:56Speaker 1: as if we have showed up early for a prescnt difference,
- 14:00Speaker 1: in which the director explains his work chapters one and two.
- 14:06Speaker 1: He relates the plot and describes the main characters, then
- 14:11Speaker 1: tells us in advance who did what in the play
- 14:15Speaker 1: and why. In fact, he solves every mystery in the
- 14:23Speaker 1: play except one, how will the main character respond? Will
- 14:29Speaker 1: Job trust God or deny him? Later, when the curtain rises,
- 14:37Speaker 1: we see only the actors on stage, confined within the play.
- 14:43Speaker 1: Get this, They have no knowledge of what the director
- 14:46Speaker 1: has told us in the sneak preview. We know the
- 14:51Speaker 1: answer to the who done it questions, but the star
- 14:55Speaker 1: detective Job does not. He spends all his time on
- 15:02Speaker 1: stage trying to discover what we already know. He scratches
- 15:07Speaker 1: himself with shards of pottery and asks, why me, what
- 15:12Speaker 1: did I do wrong? What is God trying to tell
- 15:16Speaker 1: me to the audience? Job's questions should be mere intellectual exercises,
- 15:23Speaker 1: For we learned the answers in the prologue the first
- 15:26Speaker 1: two chapters. What did Job do wrong? Nothing? He represents
- 15:34Speaker 1: the very best of the species. Didn't God call Joe
- 15:37Speaker 1: blameless and upright? A man who fears God and shunes evil?
- 15:41Speaker 1: Why then, is Job suffering not for punishment? Far from it.
- 15:47Speaker 1: He has been selected as the principal player in a
- 15:50Speaker 1: great contest of the heavens. But he didn't know it.
- 15:57Speaker 1: All he knew is one day things were great, and
- 15:59Speaker 1: the next day things were horrible. The next day he
- 16:03Speaker 1: was healthy, and the following hours he was sick unto death.
- 16:10Speaker 1: And he never knew why. I have found in life
- 16:17Speaker 1: that when you don't know why you're suffering, the suffering
- 16:19Speaker 1: is harder. If I could just pinpoint the reason, if
- 16:25Speaker 1: I could just find a sin that I could confess,
- 16:30Speaker 1: and having confessed it and dealt with it, maybe the
- 16:33Speaker 1: suffering will be easier to bear, and I'll get out
- 16:36Speaker 1: from under this. But when I cannot find one, certainly
- 16:40Speaker 1: not one that would merit this kind of experience, I'm
- 16:45Speaker 1: just like Job. I met a loss, and so are you.
- 16:50Speaker 1: There's an interlude that passes that I don't want you
- 16:54Speaker 1: to miss between verses twelve and thirteen of chapter one.
- 17:01Speaker 1: I know that familiarity with the book has caused some
- 17:04Speaker 1: people to sort of yawn their way through Job. I
- 17:09Speaker 1: regret that this is sort of like seeing a movie
- 17:12Speaker 1: for another time, as people will say, I saw more
- 17:16Speaker 1: the second time, I saw even more the third time.
- 17:20Speaker 1: If you will act like you've never read this before,
- 17:23Speaker 1: that'll help. Please notice the end of verse twelve, So
- 17:28Speaker 1: Satan departed the beginning of verse thirteen. Now it happened.
- 17:37Speaker 1: Stop all the scene between God and Satan is invisible.
- 17:42Speaker 1: As I've said, not known by Job. We know from
- 17:47Speaker 1: what we read later that the kids have all gone
- 17:49Speaker 1: to Job Junior's home for a little feast time together,
- 17:53Speaker 1: all ten of them having fun has only grown family
- 17:56Speaker 1: members can have if they're still talking together, and this
- 18:01Speaker 1: family is. They're eating and they're feasting, and they're having
- 18:04Speaker 1: one great time. And the father, being the good father
- 18:07Speaker 1: that he is not superpious but genuinely concerned, the father
- 18:11Speaker 1: goes to prayer. Perhaps one of the kids will will
- 18:17Speaker 1: have begun to drift, or maybe something will be said
- 18:19Speaker 1: that will cause another to do something off color or
- 18:23Speaker 1: inappropriate and would somehow hurt the relationship that she has
- 18:30Speaker 1: or he has with the Lord, and so Job turns
- 18:34Speaker 1: to prayer and he's on his knees in his bedchamber.
- 18:38Speaker 1: At the same time, if you were to look out
- 18:40Speaker 1: Job's window, you would see the oxen plowing the field,
- 18:43Speaker 1: preparing for the next crop. It's a sunny afternoon, a
- 18:47Speaker 1: little cloud in the distance, but not much. There are
- 18:51Speaker 1: sheep grazing on the field, and donkeys are feeding nearby.
- 18:55Speaker 1: The camels are being made ready for the next trucking
- 18:57Speaker 1: experience along the caravans. Job is involved in that trucking
- 19:01Speaker 1: business we mentioned last time. All of the field hands
- 19:06Speaker 1: are at work, working with animals they know by name.
- 19:09Speaker 1: Sons and daughters are having one great time telling family
- 19:12Speaker 1: stories and laughing over recent events. And if you listen
- 19:15Speaker 1: closely through the door, you could hear the prayers of
- 19:18Speaker 1: a good father as he remembers one child after another
- 19:21Speaker 1: by name, Dad's do that. Suddenly there's a knock at
- 19:27Speaker 1: the door, and Job normally is not interrupted by any
- 19:31Speaker 1: of the servants, but this messenger has something worth interrupting
- 19:34Speaker 1: to say, and after that Job's life will never be
- 19:40Speaker 1: the same again. Ever. It's like the phone call you
- 19:45Speaker 1: would get in the middle of the night. It's like
- 19:48Speaker 1: the rap at the door. It's like the visit from
- 19:53Speaker 1: someone who is an official from the government. And the
- 19:58Speaker 1: messenger bursts in without being told it's okay, and he
- 20:01Speaker 1: says to Job, the ox and the oxen were plowing
- 20:03Speaker 1: and the donkeys were feeding beside them, and those people
- 20:06Speaker 1: from Sheba they attacked. We talked about the possibility of coming.
- 20:09Speaker 1: They've attacked, and they took those animals, all of those animals,
- 20:13Speaker 1: and they've put the servants to ribbon. While he was
- 20:15Speaker 1: still speaking, another one came on the scene and he said,
- 20:19Speaker 1: there was this sub bolt of lightning. It was like
- 20:21Speaker 1: fire from heaven that came down and it consumed all
- 20:25Speaker 1: of the sheep and all of the field hands who
- 20:27Speaker 1: take care of the sheep, and I'm the only one
- 20:29Speaker 1: left in. Another pushes him aside and says, Job, you
- 20:31Speaker 1: wouldn't believe it, but three raids from the Chaldeans have
- 20:35Speaker 1: hit that area where we had the camels, and they
- 20:37Speaker 1: have taken all the camels away and they have killed
- 20:40Speaker 1: every one of the servants, and I alone and left,
- 20:42Speaker 1: and Job is not even able to get up off
- 20:45Speaker 1: his knees, at least thinking I've got my kids in
- 20:48Speaker 1: There's one more that says, Job, Job, the sons, no, no, no,
- 20:54Speaker 1: no no. There was this to arnado that swept through
- 21:01Speaker 1: the wilderness, and wooden carts were thrown in the air,
- 21:04Speaker 1: and the wheels were blown apart, and it came right
- 21:06Speaker 1: over the house of your oldest son, and the house exploded,
- 21:10Speaker 1: and every one of the kids was killed. I have
- 21:19Speaker 1: in my library half a shelf of books on Job.
- 21:23Speaker 1: One of them was a treasured volume that has some
- 21:25Speaker 1: wonderful works of art in it. And as I thumbed
- 21:29Speaker 1: through the book just this past week, I came across
- 21:32Speaker 1: the art work of Gustav Dore circa eighteen sixty two
- 21:37Speaker 1: woodcut prints showing two scenes that the scripture leaves almost
- 21:47Speaker 1: too sacred to describe of Job. They're both called Job
- 21:53Speaker 1: hearing of his ruin, and one of them shows an
- 21:58Speaker 1: older man with his forehead across his eyes. His mouth
- 22:05Speaker 1: is open as a little spittle, and this like the
- 22:09Speaker 1: wailing cry of a daddy after the news of everything
- 22:15Speaker 1: gone and now the kids as well. The next scene
- 22:19Speaker 1: that Dory paints and puts in woodcut shows a man prostrate,
- 22:26Speaker 1: flat on his face, barefoot alone, also named Job, hearing
- 22:37Speaker 1: of his ruin and what about his wife? She lost
- 22:46Speaker 1: everything too.
- 22:51Speaker 2: For those of us.
- 22:52Speaker 1: Who have seen saving Private Ryan, there is a very
- 22:54Speaker 1: moving scene in a country house the Ryan family, and
- 23:03Speaker 1: the mother is that the kitchen sink, and she's working,
- 23:05Speaker 1: and she looks up in a in a brief moment,
- 23:11Speaker 1: and she detects coming along the country road toward the
- 23:14Speaker 1: front of the house a strange car painted in olive
- 23:22Speaker 1: drabb with government license plates. And there are four stars
- 23:33Speaker 1: in her window, and she clutches her apron to her face.
- 23:48Speaker 1: We regret to inform you, missus Ryan, and she hears
- 23:53Speaker 1: of the death of three of her four signs. She
- 24:00Speaker 1: drops to her knees. It is the most moving setting.
- 24:06Speaker 1: The audience is as silent as you are, and that
- 24:12Speaker 1: sets the whole plot for the finding and saving of
- 24:14Speaker 1: Private Ryan, to preserve the family name. Forgive me if
- 24:21Speaker 1: this doesn't sound fair, but I will tell you there
- 24:23Speaker 1: is some sense of dignity in the loss of a son.
- 24:27Speaker 1: To preserve the liberty of the United States of America.
- 24:33Speaker 1: There is a nobility in placing most precious remains in
- 24:38Speaker 1: a casket and in a grave, knowing they died right.
- 24:48Speaker 1: But Job lost all ten in a freak storm directed
- 24:56Speaker 1: by Satan, all of them, and for the first time
- 25:03Speaker 1: in thirty five forty years, mister and missus Job are childless.
- 25:12Speaker 1: And when you read the account and come to the
- 25:15Speaker 1: end of the nineteenth verse, as four trembling messengers are
- 25:21Speaker 1: standing there, a couple of them still bleeding from the escape,
- 25:30Speaker 1: you have to pause and let the grief seep in.
- 25:37Speaker 1: I would plead with all of you who love the
- 25:40Speaker 1: Bible leave room for its emotion. It's full of it.
- 25:49Speaker 1: Those who tell me the Bible bores them tip their
- 25:52Speaker 1: hand in telling me they have just read words. They've
- 25:57Speaker 1: not let their motions run. The only one taking delight
- 26:06Speaker 1: in this scene is Satan. He and his demonic hosts
- 26:11Speaker 1: on the edge of their seat of authority, as it were, watching,
- 26:18Speaker 1: waiting for the cursing that's going to come from those lips.
- 26:26Speaker 1: He can't make it, spoiled man that he is, We've
- 26:35Speaker 1: taken it all. See the then in verse twenty, I
- 26:42Speaker 1: don't know how long could have been all the rest
- 26:47Speaker 1: of the afternoon he lay there. He could have stumbled
- 26:51Speaker 1: outside to look for himself in the distance, to see
- 26:57Speaker 1: the house shambles holding the bodies of his children. And
- 27:07Speaker 1: I'll tell you, as painful as the words of the
- 27:10Speaker 1: messengers were as he played them over in his mind,
- 27:14Speaker 1: something even worse was the silence of God. Not one
- 27:20Speaker 1: word of comfort from the heaven. Miss You've been there.
- 27:30Speaker 1: Haven't you no one to answer?
- 27:33Speaker 2: Why?
- 27:36Speaker 1: No one to explain the reason for the ruin? Alexander
- 27:42Speaker 1: White puts it so well. Job's sorrows came not in
- 27:46Speaker 1: a single spy, but in battalions. Before he could catch
- 27:53Speaker 1: his breath, from one there was another, and from the
- 27:55Speaker 1: other yet another. And maybe he lay on that ground
- 27:58Speaker 1: till the dew fell. Then I read this two dozen
- 28:08Speaker 1: times in the Hebrew. There are nine words in the
- 28:11Speaker 1: Hebrew text of verse twenty which tells us what Job did,
- 28:17Speaker 1: before it tells us in twenty one what Job said.
- 28:20Speaker 1: And of the nine words, five are verbs. The English
- 28:25Speaker 1: version I use has nineteen words, but still five verbs.
- 28:30Speaker 1: When you read your Bible, not only catch the emotion
- 28:32Speaker 1: and enter into that, pay attention to the verbs. They
- 28:36Speaker 1: will move you through the action of the event. Let
- 28:40Speaker 1: them say what they say. Job peeled himself off the
- 28:45Speaker 1: ground he arose. The next verb tells us of a
- 28:51Speaker 1: strange thing.
- 28:53Speaker 2: He core his robe.
- 28:56Speaker 1: The word for robe is a garment that fits over
- 28:58Speaker 1: a loose tunic, like a dress one would wear that
- 29:02Speaker 1: goes down below the knees, called a tunic in biblical days.
- 29:06Speaker 1: This was the seamless garment Jesus wore until they stripped
- 29:10Speaker 1: him naked for the crucifixion, and they gambled for that
- 29:13Speaker 1: piece of garment, not wanting to tear it. This is
- 29:17Speaker 1: not the tunic, however, this is the robe that kept
- 29:21Speaker 1: him warm at night. And he reached and not finding
- 29:24Speaker 1: a scene, but finding a part of the fabric, he
- 29:27Speaker 1: riffs it, And in the riffing of the robe, he
- 29:31Speaker 1: is announcing his horrible grief, the anguish, and it's used
- 29:37Speaker 1: several times in the Old Testament for the expression of grief,
- 29:40Speaker 1: the tearing of the robe. Then we read the third verb, he.
- 29:46Speaker 2: Shaved his head.
- 29:48Speaker 1: The hair is always pictured in the scriptures as the
- 29:51Speaker 1: glory of an individual the worth, and the shaving of
- 29:55Speaker 1: the head is the picture.
- 29:57Speaker 2: Of the.
- 29:59Speaker 1: Loss of glory, the unworthy moment in time, and every
- 30:08Speaker 1: artist picture that shows Job following this moment shows him bald,
- 30:18Speaker 1: no hair, and this time he falls to the ground,
- 30:23Speaker 1: not in a collapse of vacuous grief, but for another purpose.
- 30:31Speaker 1: Look at the last verb. Shaka shaha is a verb
- 30:41Speaker 1: that means to fall prostrate in utter submission and worship.
- 30:54Speaker 1: I dare say most of you have never ever worshiped
- 30:58Speaker 1: on your face on the ground, the most ancient form
- 31:03Speaker 1: of obeisance and submission to the Father. I suggest you
- 31:08Speaker 1: try this sometime. Palms down, face down, knees and toes
- 31:13Speaker 1: touching the ground, body fully extended, pouring out your heart
- 31:22Speaker 1: in worship. The only one cursing is Satan.
- 31:32Speaker 3: He hated it.
- 31:34Speaker 1: He hated it that Job would live through this and
- 31:38Speaker 1: of all things, worship a god who would allow this
- 31:43Speaker 1: kind of thing to happen. There wouldn't be one in
- 31:47Speaker 1: twenty million on this earth who would do that. And
- 31:53Speaker 1: he thought Job was one of the millions. But he
- 31:57Speaker 1: didn't realize as many who knew Todd Beemer in growing
- 32:04Speaker 1: up years would have ever imagined he would have been
- 32:07Speaker 1: that kind of man. The wicked spirits sit with their
- 32:13Speaker 1: mouths wide open, as it were, as they watch a
- 32:17Speaker 1: man who follows all of his adversities with adoration, who
- 32:21Speaker 1: follows all of his woes with worship. No blame, no bitterness,
- 32:25Speaker 1: no cursing, no fist raised high to the heavens, saying
- 32:30Speaker 1: how dare you do this? After I've walked with you
- 32:33Speaker 1: all these years? None of that. Instead, look at what
- 32:40Speaker 1: he says. Oh, it's magnificent. This is one magnificent response.
- 32:49Speaker 1: Naked I came, as he looks back to his birth.
- 32:56Speaker 1: Naked I will return as he looks ahead to his death.
- 33:01Speaker 1: Think of that. At birth, we all come naked. At death,
- 33:08Speaker 1: we all leave naked. As we're prepared for burial. We
- 33:15Speaker 1: have nothing in coming, We have nothing when we depart.
- 33:23Speaker 1: So everything we have in time is given. All we
- 33:29Speaker 1: have is skin wrapped around bones and organs and muscles.
- 33:33Speaker 1: That's all we have, and a soul for which we
- 33:36Speaker 1: must give a count before our God. And Job's taking
- 33:41Speaker 1: care of that. And he calls into perspective that which
- 33:45Speaker 1: is right?
- 33:46Speaker 2: Get it?
- 33:48Speaker 1: The one who gave and has put everything on loan
- 33:54Speaker 1: to me in time has chosen and has every right
- 33:58Speaker 1: to choose this manner, has chosen to take everything away.
- 34:04Speaker 1: I won't take anything with me anyway. Blessed be his
- 34:09Speaker 1: name for loaning it to me while I had it.
- 34:16Speaker 1: Get that. Get it, affluent Americans as we are. Get
- 34:23Speaker 1: it when you walk through your house and see those
- 34:25Speaker 1: wonderful belongings. Get it when you and I get behind
- 34:28Speaker 1: the wheels of our cars and drive them on loan,
- 34:32Speaker 1: on loan. Get it when the business falls and fails.
- 34:39Speaker 1: It was on loan. When the stocks rise, and when
- 34:43Speaker 1: the stocks fall, it's on loan. What'd you bring to
- 34:48Speaker 1: this scene? A naked body and not too good looking
- 34:51Speaker 1: one at that, And what will you have when you leave?
- 34:55Speaker 1: A naked body and a I'll leave it at then
- 35:01Speaker 1: just added a lot of wrinkles. I've never seen a
- 35:05Speaker 1: hearse pulling a U haul. You take nothing because you
- 35:14Speaker 1: brought nothing, which means you own nothing. What a grand revelation.
- 35:21Speaker 1: Listen to me, You don't even own your children. They're
- 35:26Speaker 1: God's children on loan for you to take care of
- 35:31Speaker 1: rear release and pray for. This is a perfect moment
- 35:39Speaker 1: to pause and look at one statement Paul makes in
- 35:43Speaker 1: First Timothy six, verse seven. Please First Timothy six, and
- 35:52Speaker 1: having looked at it, go back to job one twenty
- 35:56Speaker 1: one and put it in the margin of your Bible,
- 35:59Speaker 1: and memorize it this week first Timothy six'. Seven it
- 36:06Speaker 1: will help you when the interest rate goes. Up we
- 36:12Speaker 1: have brought nothing into the, world so we cannot take
- 36:16Speaker 1: anything out of it. Either if we have food and
- 36:21Speaker 1: covering with these verse eight, ads we shall be. Content
- 36:25Speaker 1: put that not only in the margin Of job one point,
- 36:29Speaker 1: One put that in another crease in your. Brain we brought,
- 36:34Speaker 1: Nothing we take. Nothing in the, meantime we borrow. Everything
- 36:43Speaker 1: as a good friend of mine tried to teach me years,
- 36:46Speaker 1: Ago god owns it. ALL i know your name is
- 36:53Speaker 1: on the. TITLE i know it won't be when you're.
- 36:57Speaker 1: GONE i know you built that place and you're proud of.
- 37:03Speaker 1: It that's nothing wrong with. That nothing wrong with having
- 37:05Speaker 1: a nice nothing wrong with having things in, it nothing
- 37:09Speaker 1: wrong with driving a flying. Car we've gone over this.
- 37:11Speaker 1: Before it's not about. That the problem comes when the
- 37:14Speaker 1: car drives us and the possessions on. Us they never Owned.
- 37:23Speaker 1: Job this is the curve that he threw back into the,
- 37:27Speaker 1: heavens into the face Of. Satan in your, Face, LUCIFER
- 37:35Speaker 1: i never set my affections on them in the first,
- 37:38Speaker 1: place And i've understood from the get, go when we
- 37:43Speaker 1: had our first until we had our, tenth they're all.
- 37:46Speaker 1: Gods the one who gave it all and the one
- 37:51Speaker 1: who had the right to take it all whenever he
- 37:54Speaker 1: wanted it all was the same one deserving of all my.
- 37:58Speaker 1: Praise blessed be his, name AND i love the. Benediction
- 38:06Speaker 1: through all this job did not, sin nor did he Blame.
- 38:15Speaker 1: God get this. Lesson get it really. Clear when you
- 38:21Speaker 1: understand that everything you have is on, loan then you
- 38:26Speaker 1: are better prepared to release it when the owner wants it,
- 38:29Speaker 1: back and the less time you will spend between, utter
- 38:37Speaker 1: sheer and understandable grief and. Worship that is WHY i
- 38:46Speaker 1: believe a memorial service at a funeral can be one
- 38:50Speaker 1: of the most meaningful worship services of one's, experience because
- 38:57Speaker 1: we can't take it with. Us my good friend and
- 39:02Speaker 1: one of my mentors in the early years of my,
- 39:04Speaker 1: Ministry Ray, steedman tells a true. Story he had traveled
- 39:09Speaker 1: to a site for ministry through a, week had forgotten
- 39:13Speaker 1: there was a very nice evening dinner he was to
- 39:16Speaker 1: attend and speak. At, therefore he needed a nice suit
- 39:20Speaker 1: that he had failed to bring with. Him he realized
- 39:24Speaker 1: it toward the, afternoon when the hour was getting. Late
- 39:29Speaker 1: he was located near a funeral, home and he, thought
- 39:32Speaker 1: maybe for a pretty quick, moment the funeral director would
- 39:38Speaker 1: at least loan me a suit that would have gone
- 39:43Speaker 1: on a. Cadaver and he went, over and he bargained
- 39:48Speaker 1: with him and got the, suit and he said that Evening.
- 39:51Speaker 1: Chuck AS i stood up to, SPEAK i was addressing
- 39:54Speaker 1: all the, people and as was my common, PRACTICE i
- 39:57Speaker 1: reached down to put my hand in my, pocket AND
- 40:02Speaker 1: i realized their cadavers suits have no. POCKETS i read
- 40:11Speaker 1: this past, week shrouds have no. Pockets we enter the
- 40:18Speaker 1: world with fists clenched as little, babies but we always
- 40:23Speaker 1: leave the world with hands open on our, chests.
- 40:33Speaker 3: Naked.
- 40:36Speaker 1: Naked and in the, Interlude Lord, god blessed be your
- 40:45Speaker 1: name for loaning me all that you've loaned me through
- 40:52Speaker 1: all this. Job did not? Sin isn't that? Wonderful nor
- 40:57Speaker 1: did he Blame? God why Blame? God As Francis anderson has,
- 41:05Speaker 1: Written god has given him a rehearsal for. Death all
- 41:09Speaker 1: things belong To god absolutely to be given as, gift
- 41:15Speaker 1: not claim to be taken back without. Wrong there is
- 41:20Speaker 1: no talk of human. Rights The lord is the sovereign
- 41:24Speaker 1: owner of, all And job rejoices in this wonderful. Fact
- 41:30Speaker 1: when perspective, returned he put his arm around his grieving precious,
- 41:34Speaker 1: wife held her, close and. Whispered god gave for some unrevealed,
- 41:44Speaker 1: reason he chose to take. Back this entire message could
- 41:51Speaker 1: have been delivered in three. Words if some of you were,
- 41:55Speaker 1: thinking why didn't you do? That you can help finish the.
- 42:02Speaker 1: Sentence you'll know the third, word hold everything. Loosely say it,
- 42:13Speaker 1: again hold everything. Loosely let's bower. Heads if you've never
- 42:26Speaker 1: met The Lord Jesus, christ he's a. Master he's a
- 42:33Speaker 1: master worth following and is, available.
- 42:39Speaker 2: Is available to.
- 42:39Speaker 1: YOU a relationship with him will give you a perspective
- 42:44Speaker 1: Like Job. Todd Todd beemer had that. Relationship his, wife
- 42:52Speaker 1: who survives him now with their new, baby tells their
- 42:57Speaker 1: story Of Todd south and her confidence That god brought
- 43:05Speaker 1: Along todd for such a moment as.
- 43:07Speaker 3: That what?
- 43:10Speaker 1: PERSPECTIVE i invite you to visit the cross and to
- 43:17Speaker 1: look up and see a man who Was, god who
- 43:21Speaker 1: held everything, loosely even his own, life and at the
- 43:26Speaker 1: age of thirty, three paid the supreme penalty for, sins
- 43:32Speaker 1: not his, sins but, ours and invites you to come
- 43:38Speaker 1: to him like a little. CHILD i urge you to
- 43:46Speaker 1: do that.
- 43:47Speaker 2: Today.
- 43:51Speaker 1: And then you will say with Fellow, Christians blessed be
- 43:58Speaker 1: the name of The. Lord blessed be your, Name, lord
- 44:04Speaker 1: for having loaned me what you, have these precious, CHILDREN
- 44:08Speaker 1: i tuck in bed at, night OR i walk to
- 44:13Speaker 1: the altar and give in, marriage OR i put my
- 44:17Speaker 1: arms around loving them and their. CHILDREN i bless your
- 44:23Speaker 1: name because you gave, them AND i will bless you
- 44:28Speaker 1: if you choose to take. Them they were never mine
- 44:31Speaker 1: to begin.
- 44:32Speaker 3: With blessed.
- 44:38Speaker 1: Be the name of The.
- 44:41Speaker 2: Lord blessed be the.
- 44:54Speaker 1: Name blessed be m.
- 45:02Speaker 2: Blessa be.
- 45:12Speaker 3: Yes said the less it'd, Be.
- 45:38Speaker 1: And we shall bless your name forever and, ever Our Great.
- 45:42Speaker 1: God even if we don't, understand even if we cannot ever,
- 45:49Speaker 1: explain you need no. Defending we need to worship. You
- 46:00Speaker 1: blessed be your name for what you have given and
- 46:06Speaker 1: for your sovereign right to. Take blessed be your name
- 46:14Speaker 1: in the name Of, jesus we. Pray everyone said.
- 46:22Speaker 4: Amen the preceding, message reeling and recovering From Devastating news
- 46:29Speaker 4: was copyrighted in two thousand and, two and the sound
- 46:31Speaker 4: recording was copyrighted in two thousand and four By Charles, Rswindall.
- 46:35Speaker 4: Inc all rights are reserved. Worldwide in the preceding, Message CHARLES. R, Swindell.
- 46:41Speaker 4: Inc is grateful to the following sources for permission to
- 46:44Speaker 4: quote from their. Materials Inter Varsity press for excerpts from
- 46:48Speaker 4: The Tyndale Old Testament commentary On, job copyrighted in nineteen
- 46:52Speaker 4: seventy six By FRANCIS. I, anderson and The Soondervan. Corporation
- 46:58Speaker 4: for excerpts from the book Disapp appointment With, god copyrighted
- 47:02Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty eight By Philip yancy