Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Futility of Unscrewing the Inscrutable, Part 2 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

Transcript

The Futility of Unscrewing the Inscrutable, Part 2 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Have you ever been on the receiving end of help
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: that only made things worse? A well-meaning friend whose words
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: cut deeper than the wound itself. Job knew that pain
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all too well. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: shows us how Job's friends, while he was suffering, buried
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: him with shame. And we'll see how Job responded. There's
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a lesson here for anyone who's ever tried to comfort
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a hurting soul, and for anyone who's been hurt by
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the comforting. It all points us back to God. Chuck
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: titled his message, The Futility of Unscrewing the Inscrutable.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: There are times my heart truly goes out to Job.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: This is one of those times. I doubt that anyone
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: has ever called you a maggot or a worm. I
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: think Bildad had absolutely no use, no use for Job.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Get out of my life. His final speech ends with
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: this kind of major put down. There are a lot
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: of sideline lessons to learn from our studies, and one
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: of them is whenever you have the opportunity to minister
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to whomever, Putting them down never helps.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Never.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: But that's what these men seem to be so good at.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: So is it any wonder that Job begins with a
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: series of sarcastic verbal.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Slams in return?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: What a help you are to the weak. How you
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: have saved the arm without strength. Seems like the Hebrew
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: is saying how you have saved with your arm the
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: one without strength. That seems to be the idea. What
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: counsel you have given to one without wisdom. What helpful insight.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: What helpful insight you have abundantly provided.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: My, my, my.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: To whom have you uttered words? And whose spirit was
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: expressed through you? Oh, you have really got the corner
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: on truth built at. What Job lacked in tact, he
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: made up for in total honesty. By the way, sores
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: will do that to you. There's something about pain and
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the continuation of it that finally removes most of the
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: tact and just gets down to.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: The red, raw facts of life.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Even those who were stubborn and rebellious, when they have
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: a lot of pain, there's then a lot of reality.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: There's no tact here with Job.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: When you're covered with sores and you're running a high
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: fever and you haven't gotten the sleep you need and
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: you haven't gotten the food you should have and your
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: body is emaciated, you're candid. A lot of help you've been, Bildad.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm just going to be painfully honest here
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and say, sometimes we who give wrong counsel need that
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: kind of response. We who have these pious words for
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: those who are going through something that we can't even imagine,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: We who have those big answers and long, drawn-out, sometimes
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: put-downs and shame-based comments for things they were going through,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: we need to be told off. Bildad deserved that kind
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: of response. Remember that little prayer I gave you a
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: couple of times ago? Lord, help me today not to
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: add to anybody's burden.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Remember that?
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I hope you wrote that down. I've got that on
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: my desk, and I read it now every morning. Lord,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: help me not to add to anybody's burden. Help me
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: to speak truth. And where I can, help me to comfort.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: And where I don't know, help me to say it.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: And where I feel badly for someone, help me to
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: say that.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: But help me not to add to their burden.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: If they're going to hell and back through their experience,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I don't need to assist them along the way in
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: any put down. I need to be a comfort to them.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Bill Dad didn't learn that. that principle. Now what's interesting
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: is that Job becomes the teacher. Instead of Bildad teaching Job,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Job decides, since you don't have any answers, let me
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: tell you about this God who hasn't revealed all the
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: whys and wherefores in his activities. Beginning at verse 5
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: over to verse 13, Job takes Bildad through the paces.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: And here is what we would call a fascinating cosmological explanation.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: He starts with the departed spirits of the dead, and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: he goes all the way to the top of the universe.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: And in a simple, general manner, Job says to Bildad,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: God is in control of every bit of it. He
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: knows about it, he understands it, and he is responsible
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: in the midst of all of it. None of it
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: is a surprise to the living God. He begins with
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: verse 5, the departed spirits. He uses three words to
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: describe their location.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Waters, Sheol, and Abaddon.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: The departed spirits tremble under the waters and their inhabitants.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Naked is Sheol before him. Sheol is the place of
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: the departed dead. And Abaddon has no covering. It's a
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: synonym for Sheol. This is a resplendent mosaic of the
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: living God's.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Superiority over all.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: He's sovereign.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: He is sovereign even over the departed spirits covered by
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the waters in the place of Sheol and Abaddon.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Now look at where he moves.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: the earth on nothing. Isn't this amazing? This is an
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: ancient piece of literature. but it's pure truth. He hasn't
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: been contaminated by the evolutionary thinking of the scholars of
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: the 20th century or 21st century. He just believes by
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: faith that when God put it together, he stretched it
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: out over empty space and he hangs the earth on nothing, right?
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: That's no problem with God.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: He made stuff out of nothing. He made nothing. I mean,
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: it's all his. He put it all together.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: It's the way they say it in the Hebrew, as
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: you began in the beginning.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: God made the heavens and the earth.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, the theories today that we're told about creation
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: takes more faith to believe them than the fiat word
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: of God.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: God simply states it. Let it be and it becomes
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: and he hangs it on nothing. This is beautiful.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Job is beginning to teach Bildad, whether Bildad's listening or not,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: who knows. But the beautiful thing is that Job has
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: a relationship with God that Bildad never heard of. And
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: in that relationship, he relies on God for whatever he needs.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Some time ago, a teacher sent me a very interesting
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: piece written by a 21st century teacher to the school
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: administration to describe the dilemma of being a teacher in
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: this world in which we live.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: Let me see if I've got this right.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: You want me to go into that room with all
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: those kids and fill their every waking moment with a
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: love for learning? Not only that, I'm supposed to instill
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: a sense of pride in their ethnicity, behaviorally modify disruptive behavior,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: observe them for signs of abuse and T-shirt messages. I'm
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: to fight the war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: check their backpacks for.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Guns, and raise their self-esteem.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I am to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, and sportsmanship
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: and fair play, how and where to register to vote,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: how to balance a checkbook, how to apply for a job.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I'm to check their heads occasionally for lice, maintain a
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: safe environment, recognize signs of potential antisocial behavior, offer advice,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: write letters of recommendation for student employment and scholarships, encourage
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: respect for the cultural diversity of others, and oh yeah,
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: always make sure that I give the girls in my class.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: 50% of my attention.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I'm required by my contract to be working on my
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: own time, summer and evenings, at my own expense toward
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: advanced certification and a master's degree. And after school, I
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: am to attend committee and faculty meetings and participate in
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: staff development training to maintain my employment status. I am
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: to be a paragon of virtue, larger than life, such
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: that my very presence will awe my students. into being
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: obedient and respectful of authority. I am to pledge allegiance
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: to supporting family values, a return to the basics, and
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: to my current administration. I am to incorporate technology into
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: the learning and monitor all websites while providing a personal
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: relationship with each student. I am to decide who might
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: be potentially dangerous and are liable to commit crimes in
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: school or who is possibly being abused, and I can
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: be sent to jail for not mentioning these suspicions. I
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: am to make sure all students pass the state and
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: federally mandated testing in all classes, whether or not they
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: attend school on a regular basis or complete any of
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the work assigned. Plus, I am expected to make sure
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: that all of the students with handicaps are guaranteed a
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: free and equal education, regardless of their mental or physical handicap.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I am to communicate frequently with each student's parent by letter, phone, newsletter,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: and grade card. I'm to do all of this with
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: a bulletin board, a 45-minute more or less plan time,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and a big smile. All on a starting salary that
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: qualifies my family for food stamps in many states.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: Is that all?
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: And you want me to do all of this and
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: expect me not to pray?
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: You want me, Bill Dad, to do all of these.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Things and you don't even help me turn again to
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: the living God?
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: Let me tell you about this God.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you about the reason I can keep
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: going and not give up and not take my own life.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about him and talk truth. And don't
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: be afraid to say those tough words, I don't know.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: So since you won't say.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Them, let me explain to you the vastness of.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: The incredible incomprehensibility of his nature, the inscrutable power of
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: his person, controlling those who have gone beyond to death.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: as well as still being involved from the creation of
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: this earth, verse 8, wrapping the waters in his clouds
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: and the cloud does not burst under them. He obscures
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: the face of the full moon and spreads his cloud
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: over it. He's inscribed a circle on the surface of
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: the waters. Perhaps that has a reference to the rainbow.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Perhaps it has a reference to the curvature of the
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: earth and the vastness of the seas. Maybe it was
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: an ancient reference to the creation of this canopy about
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: this earth. At the boundary of light and darkness, the
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: pillars of heaven tremble and are amazed at his rebuke.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: He quieted the seas with his power. Only he can
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: do that. By his understanding, he shattered Rahab. He mentions
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: later the piercing of the fleeing serpent. Those are poetic
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: pictures of evil. He is in charge of all of that.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: He has all of that under his control. By his breath,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: the heavens are cleared. Behold, says Job when he gets
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to verse 14. I love this 14th verse. As magnificent
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: as all of these things are, what I have shared
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: represents only the fringes.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Isn't that a great word? The fringes. The edges of
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: his ways.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: They are merely.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Quiet whispers of his voice. They're just the hushed tones
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: of what he's revealed.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: How faint a word we hear.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Of him, but his mighty thunder Who can understand?
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Another way of saying is that who can withstand? We
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: who live in Texas hear a little of thunder. Every
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: once in a while, there come a real frog strangler.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: And just before that rain comes, there is a lightning
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: through the skies. Man, it's worth staying up for it late.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: You know, the whole neighborhood lights up.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: Wow, look at that.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: And then you go.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: You're ready for this.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: That's the thunder you can hear.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: But that's just his whisper. If he ever let it loose,
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: we'd all be deaf.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: We'd fall flat. That's Job's concept of the living God.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Build that. Tell me that.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, when you put the vastness of this universe
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: in this kind of setting, in the stellar spaces, in
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the natural elements, in the life below, on and above
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the seas, and on the earth with the reptiles and
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: the fish and the fowls and the natural elements about us,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: and to think that he, in all of the galaxies
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: around all of this universe, he comes and finds that
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: little green pea called earth and locates us and knows
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: even the hairs on our head.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: It is high.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I cannot attain to it.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: What is man that you are mindful of him or
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the son of man that you visit him? I need
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: that when the sores on my body are running with
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: pus and.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: The fever won't go down.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Job ends where Bildad should have begun. Who can understand
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: which reminds me of the three most unusual English words
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: you will ever hear adults say.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Do it again. I don't know. Tomorrow morning,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: before you shave, guys.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: As you look at what we have to look at
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: every day, practice the words.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: So that when someone at the office brings up an
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: issue that is beyond you, say, I.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Don't know.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: When they talk about how God is a good God,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: and they've listened to the televangelist who told them how
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: everything works out great, just in the next 30 minutes,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: if you give enough, it'll work out great. And it's
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: amazing how all of it's going to be downhill slide.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Just trust him.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: After all, he's got this wonderful plan, and you'll be
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: able to enjoy it. Just give to us.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: 1-800, just call the number.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: You remind them you don't know.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Say it. Say it again. Say it again. Say it again.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: You know the living God by faith, but you don't
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: know his ways. His ways are higher than your ways.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: His thoughts are greater than your thoughts.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: You don't have to know. If you say you know,
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: you're phony.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Most brilliant men you can study under, I've had the
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: privilege in theology to study under, and every one of them.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: Knew how to say those words.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Which began to teach me how incredibly vast is my
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Heavenly Father and that He is trustworthy. And I can
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: believe in Him without being able to explain His ways.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: And I can put my hand on the arm of
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: the friend I'm with at the hospital and say, not
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: only do I not know, No one knows. How unsearchable
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: are his judgments and unfathomable are his ways. Doesn't mean
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: he's not in control. It just means he isn't obligated
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: to explain himself.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: Why did my dog die?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Why did my dog get hit in the street when
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: my neighbor's dog is 20 years old? Why is it
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: that this tragedy happened at this time when, in fact,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: these countries, a tragedy would wake them up maybe? What
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: is it about our family that goes through when that family?
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: In the final analysis, he knows and he does all
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: things well.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: I am the clay. He is the potter. I am
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: the disciple. He is the Lord.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I am the sheep.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: He is the shepherd.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: That means I am to be humble and trusting and available,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: not making demands, willing to adjust, to be submissive, to listen,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: to learn, to adapt to his leading, wherever it may go,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: whether I'm comfortable, happy, or not. That is obedience. Job,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: by now, is beginning to see it, and even at
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: the end of his brief explanations is who can understand.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: It's a good time to return to my opening statement.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: The study of Job is essentially the study of God.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: It's essentially a study of God. I return again to Tozer.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: the thought of God. And the weightiest word in any
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: language is its word for God. A right conception of
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: God is basic not only to systematic theology but to
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: practical Christian living.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: As well.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: The Christian conception of God current in these years is
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: believers something amounting to moral calamity. The first step down
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: for any church is taken when it surrenders its high
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: opinion of God. The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Church today is to purify. and elevate her concept of
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: God in all her prayers and labors that should have
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: first place. We do the greatest service to the next
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: generation of Christians by passing on to them, undimmed and undiminished,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: that noble concept of God which we received from our
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past. This will prove
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: of greater value to them than anything that art or
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: science can devise. Train yourself to think.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Theologically. Make it a determined purpose to think.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: God's thoughts as you practice, I don't know. That's where
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: faith steps in. What I cannot prove, And his word states,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I believe. Even if I cannot explain it or in
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: human terms defend it.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: I believe it. Let's bow our heads together.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: You've been very gracious to sit and to listen. Not
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: an easy sermon to preach and an even harder one
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: to hear. From the profound life of a remarkable suffering man,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: there emerges a story of life today. A life that
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: includes tragedies, heartaches, heartbreaks. The permissive will of God allowing
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: events of evil to transpire as evil men and women
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Plan against good things and even innocent.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Lives like children.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: You don't have to understand. But having come to an
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: end of your own ability to explain, you must accept
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: at that point faith somewhere fits into this equation. And
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I trust him whose ways are higher than mine. Though mysterious,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I still believe he is good. Though inscrutable, I still
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: believe God has integrity.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Though the story doesn't end happily ever.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: After, I still believe he is a God of grace.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: The cross looms large on the horizon as you look
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: toward the future. And you must, each one of us
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: must come to terms with it. Its message is a
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: message of obedience, where the Son of God took the
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: sins of the world and owned them, who his own
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: self bore our sins in his body on the tree.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: The sacred text says.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Your way to God, not understanding all about him, but
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: having a relationship with him, must take you through the cross.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: where you acknowledge that your sins were paid for as well,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: and you trust him to take you where you cannot
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: go on your own, to a place of forgiveness in
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: this life and to eternal heaven in the next one.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Believe today. Trust him now.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Behold, our Father, we have touched only the fringes of
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: your ways. We have heard only a faint word. Were
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: you to reveal it all, who could possibly take it in?
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Who could survive? We hold you in awesome.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Adoration.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: We sit before you in silent respect. Forgive us for
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: filling spaces with meaningless words and attempting to justify your hand.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: When you need no defender.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: I pray that you will help us.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: As our paths cross.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: The Job's of our lives. Or as we endure them ourselves.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: To be more gracious and less dogmatic. To be quicker
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: to say.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: We're here.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: But we can't explain all the whys. May we remember
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Lord that. You are the father. We are the children.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: You are the Lord. We are the servants. As we're
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: dismissed today, our Father, from this time of worship, give
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: us comfort in knowing that he who is inexplicable and
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: inscrutable and unfathomable loves us, cares for us, and of
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: all things has provided a way to know him. Thank
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: you for Christ. who loved us and gave himself for us.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: And becoming a man, he identified.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: With our ways.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Thank you for the path you have opened to heaven
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: by faith. We walk it confident in Christ and not
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: of ourselves. In his matchless name we pray, everyone said.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: Amen.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: When someone we love is hurting, the kindest words are
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: often the simplest. I'm here, but I don't understand this
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: any more than you do. We don't have to defend God.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: We don't have to explain the mystery. Our role is
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to point one another to the one who loves us.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: This is Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll titled today's message,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: The Futility of Unscrewing the Inscrutable. As much as we
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: might try, we can't dismiss the raw authenticity of Job's story.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: It's not just a distant parable, something tragic that happened
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: to someone else somewhere else a long, long time ago.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: We know it's relevant because we've been there. We've been
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: confused by God too. We've been stymied by his ways.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: But here's what Chuck Swindoll wants you to know. The
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: God who met Job in the most confusing season of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: his life is the same God who is present in yours.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: That's not only the testimony of Job. It's the message
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: in a classic book that Chuck wrote. Finding God When
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the World's on Fire isn't a book for people with
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: all the answers. It's a book for the rest of us.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: And we'd like to send you a copy today. It's
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: our gift to you when you include a contribution to
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: support the ministry of Insight for Living. Call us at
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash donate. And then while
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: you have a little extra time this weekend, we invite
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: you to sit down and watch a riveting conversation between
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Chuck Swindoll and media personality Dave Ramsey. The two men
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: go farther back than most of us realize. Dave first
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: encountered Chuck's Bible teaching decades ago through Insight for Living.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: In this interview, Dave and Chuck talk about stewardship, debt-free living,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and the threat of redemption that God weaves through every season,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: even the ones we're sure will ruin us. To hear
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and see the interview between Chuck and Dave Ramsey, stop
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: by insight.org slash conversations. That's insight.org slash conversations. I'm Bill Meyer.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Join us again when Chuck Swindoll continues his comprehensive study
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: on the life of Job, Monday on Insight for Living.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: The preceding message, The Futility of Unscrewing the Inscrutable, was
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: copyrighted in 2002, 2004, and 2025, and the sound recording
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: use is strictly prohibited.