Latest / Time with God with John North / Making Choices Under Pressure Pt. 5

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Making Choices Under Pressure Pt. 5 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the end of the work week.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I hope you're looking forward to the weekend, but first,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: let's stop and take some time with God. We've been
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: having a great time this week looking at this theme
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of making choices under pressure and looking at the life
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of Job, who faced enormous pressure, the loss of everything
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: in his business, followed by the death of all of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: his children.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And then this horrible disease that brought painful boils all
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: over his body, even on the soles of his feet
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and all the way up to the crown of his head,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: his wife looked at him and said, Just curse God
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and die. His friends came to him and said, There's
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: got to be sin in your life that God would
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: be bringing blessing if you were walking with Him. And
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: if you're experiencing all of this, it has to be
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the result of.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Sin or lack of faith or something in your life
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and all of these things that would tend to discourage
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: so many of us. Job says, I'm trusting God. I'm
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: trusting God. What else can I do? I know he's
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: in control. I can't see what's happening. It's like one
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: of these tapestries, you know, where the weaving on the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: front is this beautiful picture, but on the back, if
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you turn it over, it's just this mess of strings
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and different colours hanging out.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: And we're on that bottom side we can't see the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: beautiful picture God is weaving. We just see the mess
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of strings that we're experiencing on the bottom.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And we have to trust just like Job. We have
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: to trust God. And I want to go back today
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to the beginning when these things first started happening in
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Job's life, and Satan was sure that Job would turn
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: around and curse God if God took his blessings away,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that it wasn't God that Job loved, rather, it was
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: just the blessings that God was bringing to Job's life.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And here's Job's response. When all those things are destroyed
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in his business and his children are all killed in
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that accident in their house.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: It says then Job arose and tore his robe and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: shaved his head.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: and fell to the ground.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And worshipped
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And he said,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Naked I came from my mother's womb.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And it looks like naked I'm going to return there.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: The Lord gave all these things God gave to me,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and the Lord has taken away.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Blessed be the name of the Lord. Through all this,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Job did not sin, nor did he blame God.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: You see, you can see God's hand of sovereignty in
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: your life without blaming God.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: And you look here again at Job's statement of complete
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: trust and submission to God's will in his life.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: You know, it's easy to talk that way and accept
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the good things that come our way as coming from
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: God and to say God is blessing me. God is
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: so good.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Our real challenge in life is to have a right
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: view of the tough times in our life, to have
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the courage to choose the road of faith and trust,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: even when things look so black to us.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: You know, chance is not a part of a Christian's vocabulary.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Either God is in control or He isn't.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And if he is, then we must choose to trust him,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: knowing that nothing comes into our life without his permission.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Elliot said, God is God.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Because he is God.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: He is worthy of my trust and obedience.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Listen, I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: A will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: what he is up to.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I'm John North.