Latest / Time with God with John North / Making Choices Under Pressure Pt. 4

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Making Choices Under Pressure Pt. 4 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. As we go through this week, we're taking
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: time each day at this time of day to just
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: open the Bible and say, God, what do you have
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to say to us about our lives? What a great
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: thing that is to put in as a practise in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: your life, to take personal time, you and your Bible.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: With God each day.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: The Bible is God's self-revelation. He uses it to speak
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: into our lives. If you really want to know what
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: God says about life, what God reveals about Himself, if
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  Speaker 1: you want to know and understand the one that you love,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you need to take time every day and just read
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the Bible with an open heart to God, saying, Speak
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to me.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And then you need to speak back to him, make
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: it a real conversation. Respond to what he's saying to you.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Talk to him about the issues of your day. Invite
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: him to be involved in your life, not just blessing
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: what you're doing, but asking him, God, what are you
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  Speaker 1: doing in my life and how do I need to
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  Speaker 1: bring my life in line with your plan and purposes?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: There's nothing better than a life lived in relationship with God.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: We're looking this week at the theme of making choices
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  Speaker 1: under pressure and looking at the life of Job in
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  Speaker 1: the Bible and what incredible pressure Job faced. You remember
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  Speaker 1: that God said to Satan, Have you noticed Job, how
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  Speaker 1: he honours me, how he loves me, how he's living
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  Speaker 1: this blameless life.
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  Speaker 1: And Satan said, Well, of course he does. You're making
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  Speaker 1: life easy for him, so naturally he's going to want
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  Speaker 1: to live for you, but he doesn't really love you.
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  Speaker 1: He just loves your blessings. And if you take those away,
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  Speaker 1: he'll turn around and curse you.
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  Speaker 1: And God said, OK.
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  Speaker 1: Try it then. You take away all the things in
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  Speaker 1: his life, but just don't touch him, and all these
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: calamities happen that just destroy Job's business. And then to
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: cap it all off, all his children are killed in
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: an accident in their house. The house collapsed on them.
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  Speaker 1: But in spite of this, Job still loved God and
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  Speaker 1: trusted God. His wife said to him, Curse God and die.
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  Speaker 1: And Job said, Why would I only trust him when
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  Speaker 1: things are good? That's not faith.
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  Speaker 1: I trust him
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  Speaker 1: And God came back to Satan and said, See, Job
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  Speaker 1: still loves me, and Satan said, Well, of course he does.
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  Speaker 1: You haven't touched him himself.
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  Speaker 1: And God said, OK, you can attack his health as well.
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  Speaker 1: But he's still going to trust me.
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  Speaker 1: You can't kill him, though.
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  Speaker 1: And so Satan begins bringing these awful boils all over
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  Speaker 1: Job's body from the soles of his feet to the
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  Speaker 1: top of his head. Job's sitting there scraping his skin
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  Speaker 1: with these boils. Uh, his friends are coming and saying,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: all this is happening because you must have sinned against
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: God somehow. And isn't that what we often think? If
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  Speaker 1: you're walking with God, if you're a person of faith,
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  Speaker 1: God's going to make your life beautiful and wonderful. Your
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  Speaker 1: business will be great. Everything will be good. Well,
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  Speaker 1: That's what his friends were telling him. Something's got to
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  Speaker 1: be wrong for this to be happening. And Job said,
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  Speaker 1: I know nothing's wrong. And he struggled. It wasn't all easy.
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  Speaker 1: He questioned God, Why would you be letting this happen?
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  Speaker 1: But in the end, God comes to Job and reveals
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  Speaker 1: Himself to Job as he is. And as a result
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  Speaker 1: of that, Job comes back to God in Job 42:2.
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  Speaker 1: Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you
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  Speaker 1: can do all things and that no purpose of yours
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  Speaker 1: can be thwarted.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: You know, Job's choice at the end just seems like madness.
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  Speaker 1: No one would blame Job for cursing God. His wife
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  Speaker 1: prompted him to. His friends said something's wrong.
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  Speaker 1: But
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  Speaker 1: If Job had gone that way, that action would not
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  Speaker 1: have been fruitful. Instead, Job acknowledged, God, you are sovereign.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot see what you're doing.
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  Speaker 1: But I know I can trust you.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, as Bruce Wilkinson has said, dependence upon God.
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  Speaker 1: Makes heroes of ordinary people like you and me if
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  Speaker 1: you will trust God and His purposes even when you
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  Speaker 1: cannot imagine what He might be doing through the personal
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  Speaker 1: pain you're experiencing.
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  Speaker 1: You will find God's goodness in the end.
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  Speaker 1: I'm John North.