Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Graceless Words for a Grieving Man │ Msg 922 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Graceless Words for a Grieving Man │ Msg 922 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: It's funny how you sometimes get a song on your mind.
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  Speaker 1: It happened to me last Thursday afternoon and on into
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  Speaker 1: Friday morning. I was sitting in my study and I
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  Speaker 1: kept going over this old spiritual that used to be
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  Speaker 1: sung in a choir years ago in the Deep South.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody's talking about heaven. They going there Heaven. Remember that Heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Go ahead. Everybody's talking about heaven. They going there, Heaven, Heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Now you know, that's an amazing song. Not that the
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  Speaker 1: words of that significant, it's just everybody smiles when they
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  Speaker 1: sing it, and they're saying it ain't going to heaven.
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  Speaker 1: And I thought, that's a lot like Grace. Everybody's talking
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  Speaker 1: about Grace. Ain't going there either. Everybody's talking about Grace.
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  Speaker 1: We wouldn't know it if we met it face on.
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  Speaker 1: Most people aren't even ready for it when it's presented
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  Speaker 1: to them. Not long ago, a student from a college
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  Speaker 1: in Missouri True Story wrote this, I left work early
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  Speaker 1: so I could have some uninterrupted time studying right before
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  Speaker 1: the final in my class. When I got to class,
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  Speaker 1: everybody was doing their last minute studying. The teacher came
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  Speaker 1: in said he would review with us for just a
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  Speaker 1: little bit before the test, we went through the review,
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  Speaker 1: most of it right from the study guide, but there
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  Speaker 1: were some things he was reviewing that I had never
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  Speaker 1: heard of. When questioned about it, he said that they
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  Speaker 1: were in the book, and we were responsible for everything
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  Speaker 1: that was in the book. We really couldn't argue with that. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: it was time.
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  Speaker 2: To take the test.
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  Speaker 1: Our prof instructed leave them face down on the desk
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  Speaker 1: until everyone has one, and then I'll tell you when
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  Speaker 1: to start. When we turned them over, every answer on
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  Speaker 1: the test.
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  Speaker 2: Was already filled.
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  Speaker 1: In the bottom of the last page, said the following.
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  Speaker 1: This is the end of the final exam. All the
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  Speaker 1: answers on.
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  Speaker 2: Your test are correct, you will receive.
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  Speaker 1: An A on the final exam. The reason you passed
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  Speaker 1: the test is because the creator of the test took
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  Speaker 1: it for you. All the work you did in preparation
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  Speaker 1: for this test did not help you get an A.
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  Speaker 1: You have just experienced grace. He then went around the
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  Speaker 1: room and asked each student individually questions like.
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  Speaker 2: What is your grade? And do you deserve the grade
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  Speaker 2: that you are receiving?
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  Speaker 1: And how much did all your studying for the exam
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  Speaker 1: help you achieve this final grade. Now I'm not a crier,
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  Speaker 1: writes this student. I'm not a crier by any stretch
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  Speaker 1: of the imagination, but I had to fight back tears
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  Speaker 1: when answering those questions and thinking about how the Creator
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  Speaker 1: had passed the test for me. Discussion afterwards went like this,
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  Speaker 1: I have tried to teach you all semester that you
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  Speaker 1: are a recipient of grace.
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  Speaker 2: I've tried to.
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  Speaker 1: Communicate to you that you need to demonstrate this gift
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  Speaker 1: as you work with young people. Don't hammer them. They
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  Speaker 1: are not the enemy. Help them, for they will carry
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  Speaker 1: on your ministry if it is full of grace. Thinking
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  Speaker 1: about how some of us had probably studied hours and
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  Speaker 1: some just a few minutes, but had all received the
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  Speaker 1: same grade, he pointed to a story Jesus told in
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  Speaker 1: Matthew twenty. The owner of a vineyard hired people to
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  Speaker 1: work in his field and agreed to pay them a
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  Speaker 1: certain amount of money. Several different times during the day,
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  Speaker 1: he hired more workers. When it was time to pay them,
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  Speaker 1: they all received the same amount. When the ones who
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  Speaker 1: had been hired first in the morning began complaining, the
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  Speaker 1: boss said, should you be angry because I am kind?
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  Speaker 1: The teacher said he had never done this kind of
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  Speaker 1: final before and probably would never do it again. But
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  Speaker 1: because of the content of many of our class discussions,
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  Speaker 1: he felt like.
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  Speaker 2: We needed to experience grace.
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  Speaker 1: Why didn't I have a teacher like that when I
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  Speaker 1: was taking those final exams? Why didn't you?
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  Speaker 2: Oh everybody's talking about grace, we.
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  Speaker 1: Go in there, not on your life. Oh we love
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  Speaker 1: it coming from God, but just don't expect it from
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  Speaker 1: falling folks like us. Too bad. Of all the things
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  Speaker 1: job had to endure, the final insult was enduring the
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  Speaker 1: graceless presence of alleged friends. Stop and do a quick review.
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  Speaker 1: When the bottom dropped out of his life, he lost
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  Speaker 1: his property and dwellings and a way to make a
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  Speaker 1: living because all of his servants were killed. And then
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  Speaker 1: he lost all ten of his children, all now grown,
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  Speaker 1: which he no doubt buried with his own hands. He
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  Speaker 1: and his wife, And then he lost his health and
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  Speaker 1: running itching sores oozing with puss covered his body from
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  Speaker 1: his hair to his toenails. So miserable was this man
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  Speaker 1: he could not rest during the day or sleep at night,
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  Speaker 1: not for very long, and he wound up living at
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  Speaker 1: the city dump place called the ash Heap, where dung
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  Speaker 1: was finally deposited and burned, and there he lost his hope.
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  Speaker 1: A small handful of men left their homes with the
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  Speaker 1: intent to bring him comfort and sympathy checked Job two eleven.
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  Speaker 1: That's why they left to come to Job. They were
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  Speaker 1: friends about his age, maybe a little older, maybe one
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  Speaker 1: or two younger. But his contemporaries came leaving home and
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  Speaker 1: going to the trouble of traveling to the city dump
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  Speaker 1: of Us, the town where Job lived, and they sat
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  Speaker 1: in silence, staring at him, trying to believe it was
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  Speaker 1: the same man that they had seen in their previous reunion,
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  Speaker 1: because now he was swollen and dirty and broken, and
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  Speaker 1: his head was shaved. And then their worst mistake of all,
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  Speaker 1: they started to talk to it, and they unloaded the truck.
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  Speaker 1: They judged him, they shamed him, They blamed him, one
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  Speaker 1: cruel statement after another, with graceless, blunt words. They humiliated him,
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  Speaker 1: and the book includes it all. I'm simple enough to
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  Speaker 1: think that Joe probably kept a journal, or his wife did,
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  Speaker 1: who could have remembered such philosophical meanderings as filled the
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  Speaker 1: poetical part of the book. And these men spoke to
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  Speaker 1: him in cycles. You remember The first round of insults
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  Speaker 1: came from Elephas, and then Bill Dad, and then so
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  Speaker 1: far strange names real men, But all three of them
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  Speaker 1: spoke and Jove answered and that finished that first cycle.
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  Speaker 1: That was done, and wouldn't you know it, a second
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  Speaker 1: cycle began. In the second cycle, which starts in chapter fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: Lafaz takes off the gloves. It's time to really get
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  Speaker 1: down to business job, and there is not even a
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  Speaker 1: hint of grace, not a hint. Now, I understand you're
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  Speaker 1: all looking ahead to see how many more chapters of
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  Speaker 1: this are we going to be going through. When I
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  Speaker 1: walk down the aisles and greet people before a church
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  Speaker 1: service starts, I like to say hello and get to
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  Speaker 1: know folks, and normally they answer back that they're glad
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  Speaker 1: to be here and or they've looked forward to coming.
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  Speaker 1: Now I'm hearing more and more. Now, how long are
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  Speaker 1: we going to be in job? My kids are now
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  Speaker 1: emailing me get past job Dad. How graceless? Huh? I
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  Speaker 1: understand you think I wouldn't love. I'm taking it in chunks.
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing chapters, folks, today, three chapters. We're not going
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  Speaker 1: to analyze this thing to the point of giving blood. However,
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  Speaker 1: you got to take enough time to appreciate the messages
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  Speaker 1: that they are teaching us. Lafast speaks the same second time.
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  Speaker 1: Actually he throws his fist. They're called words. In chapter
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  Speaker 1: fifteen he delivers a series of rebukes. These are graceless
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  Speaker 1: words for a grieving man, in case you wonder what
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  Speaker 1: they sound like. They begin with pride verse two. Should
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  Speaker 1: a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill himself
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  Speaker 1: with the east wind? The word himself is really in
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  Speaker 1: the Hebrew belly. Should he fill his belly with east wind?
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  Speaker 1: There's pride in verse two, followed by insult. Should he
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  Speaker 1: argue with useless talk or with words which are not profitable? Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: you do away with reverence, You hinder meditation before God.
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  Speaker 2: Then there's guilt, for your guilt teaches.
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  Speaker 1: Your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty,
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  Speaker 1: You deceiver. You Your own mouth condemns you. So there's condemnation,
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  Speaker 1: not I, I'm not the one condemning. Just listen to
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  Speaker 1: what you're saying. Job, your own lips testify against you.
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  Speaker 1: And then in seven eight and nine, there is exaggeration
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  Speaker 1: and sarcasm, where one humiliating question after another is later
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  Speaker 1: asked verse seven, were you the first man to be born?
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  Speaker 1: In other words, you think you have a monopoly on
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  Speaker 1: truth and wisdom?
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  Speaker 2: Job?
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  Speaker 1: Were you brought forth before the hills? Do you hear
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  Speaker 1: the secret counsel of God? Has he somehow how brought
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  Speaker 1: you into a corner and whispered?
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  Speaker 2: Do you his insights?
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  Speaker 1: You think you've got a corner on inspired information?
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  Speaker 3: Job?
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine a man with the gall to stand
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  Speaker 1: before a man literally shrinking in pain, and unloading such
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  Speaker 1: a verbal truck on him one after another? You say, maybe, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I can imagine it happened to me. It maybe did?
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  Speaker 1: Or truth be told in a vulnerable moment of admission.
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  Speaker 1: You may have done this with one of your own kids,
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  Speaker 1: or with someone who you felt had it coming. They
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  Speaker 1: just had it coming.
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  Speaker 2: Well, job didn't?
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  Speaker 1: Verse nine? What do you know that we don't know?
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  Speaker 1: What do you understand that we don't? Verse eleven Are
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  Speaker 1: the consolations of God too small for you? Even the
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  Speaker 1: words spoken gently with you? He saw himself and his
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  Speaker 1: friends as speaking gently gently referring to God. Behold, he
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  Speaker 1: puts no trust in his quote, Holy ones and the
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  Speaker 1: heavens are not pure in his sight how much less
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  Speaker 1: one who is detestable and corrupt, man who drinks iniquity
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  Speaker 1: like water. Well, those are sharp teeth, aren't they. Having
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  Speaker 1: rebuked him, he follows it with reminders of the fate
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  Speaker 1: of the wicked seventeen to thirty five.
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  Speaker 2: Job, because you're wicked, you writhe.
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  Speaker 1: In pain verse twenty So there's pain.
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  Speaker 2: All your days. You're getting what you deserve.
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  Speaker 1: Job, numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless
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  Speaker 1: verse twenty one. After constant misery, there's terror. Sounds of
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  Speaker 1: terror are in his ears. While at peace, the destroyer
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  Speaker 1: comes upon him. He does not believe that he will
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  Speaker 1: return from darkness, and he is destined for the sword.
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  Speaker 1: So there's terror and loss and torment, and then there's
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  Speaker 1: fear Verse twenty three. He wanders about for food, saying
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  Speaker 1: where is it? He knows that a day of darkness
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  Speaker 1: is at hand. And finally, distress and anguish terrifying, there's
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  Speaker 1: this overpowering distress and anguish. Why eliphas just tell Job,
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  Speaker 1: why all right? Verse twenty five, Because he that's job.
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  Speaker 1: You have stretched out your hand against God. You conduct
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  Speaker 1: yourself arrogantly against the almighty.
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  Speaker 2: That's why.
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  Speaker 1: And Elifaz backs away and stares at him with that glare.
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  Speaker 1: You are getting exactly what you deserve. You are getting
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  Speaker 1: exactly what you deserve. The style of communication is not
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  Speaker 1: that unusual to those who lack grace. May not be
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  Speaker 1: this brutal, may not be this sharp. But have you
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  Speaker 1: noticed when you deal with people who deal back with
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  Speaker 1: you lacking grace? When you're down, they kick you. When
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  Speaker 1: you're struggling, they add to your pain. When you're confused,
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  Speaker 1: they blame and shame, and when you're drowning they hold
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  Speaker 1: you under. Other than that, they're pretty good friends. And
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  Speaker 1: you know what makes it just bitterly cruel? The man
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  Speaker 1: is in such grief. Cynthia'sn't My longtime friend. Doctor Lucy
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  Speaker 1: Maybury Foster died last Monday. He had already and she
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  Speaker 1: and her family had been through an enormous amount. Lucy
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  Speaker 1: had earlier been married to Trevor, got his training at
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  Speaker 1: Mayo's and became one of the fine ear nose and
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  Speaker 1: throat surgeons in the Dallas area. He was one of
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  Speaker 1: the four who had traveled to the Focus on the
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  Speaker 1: Family retreat in Montana and was flying back. The plane
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  Speaker 1: crashed and four fine men of God died in that crash.
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  Speaker 1: The Maybury's son, the older son, Dan, had been on
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  Speaker 1: his honeymoon one day. So Dan returned home and was
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  Speaker 1: in some of those flights looking for the hope of
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  Speaker 1: his father's life, only to finally ultimately.
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  Speaker 2: Face the fact his dad had perished.
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  Speaker 1: The city of Dallas mourned, had made the headlines, and
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  Speaker 1: some of you were at the funeral as we who
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  Speaker 1: loved one or more of those men reeled in disbelief.
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  Speaker 1: Lucy determined that she would not give up. Her family
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  Speaker 1: surrounded her with love and affection. Three almost grown some
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  Speaker 1: grown children put their arms around Lucy, and she around them.
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  Speaker 1: And she for ten years, finished her education, earned her PhD.
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  Speaker 1: And became the first woman teacher at Dallas Seminary. Wonderful
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  Speaker 1: story of determination through her grief, Wonderfully the Lord brought
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  Speaker 1: to her a man named C. L. Foster from South Texas.
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  Speaker 1: C L. And Lucy fell in love, and five years ago,
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  Speaker 1: almost to the date of her death, recently five years ago,
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  Speaker 1: they married. And along with some of you, SYNTHI and
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  Speaker 1: I were in the audience the day that they married.
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  Speaker 1: It was it was like charming.
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  Speaker 2: This is so great of God to do this.
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  Speaker 1: Monday morning, Lucy breathed her last in the arms of
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  Speaker 1: her beloved husband, l in a vehicle, racing to the
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  Speaker 1: hospital in hopes of saving her life. We buried her own.
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  Speaker 2: Thursday.
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  Speaker 1: It was my privilege to sit for more than two
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  Speaker 1: hours and to talk with the family who had already
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  Speaker 1: been through the shock of the losing of their dad,
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  Speaker 1: and now these three having to deal with the loss
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  Speaker 1: of their mother and cl who had lost his first
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  Speaker 1: wife in tragic circumstances in a car crash. Sitting there,
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  Speaker 1: you could see the wheels turn and the tears running
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  Speaker 1: from his eyes. C. L. Foster and those children didn't
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  Speaker 1: need any condemnation. They didn't need any rebuke, They didn't
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  Speaker 1: need any insulting, humiliating questions. They needed grace. They needed grace.
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't help but think of that when I saw
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  Speaker 1: Job as he sits here taking this awash in his grief,
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  Speaker 1: trying his best to really believe that this man who
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  Speaker 1: was once a friend is saying such a thing. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking, Lord, if you teach me, and if you
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  Speaker 1: teach through me to others, something through this, teach us
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  Speaker 1: the value.
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  Speaker 2: Of grace, about grace show.
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  Speaker 1: Me again that it is always appropriate, always needed, not
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  Speaker 1: just by a student taking a final exam.
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  Speaker 2: You need it, I need it.
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  Speaker 1: The person sitting just next to you that you've never met,
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  Speaker 1: or behind you, that person needs it.
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  Speaker 2: You have no idea what.
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  Speaker 1: That person is going through. If you did, chances are
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  Speaker 1: you'd be prompted even quicker to show grace.
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  Speaker 2: But there's everything.
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  Speaker 1: Inside us that turns and we get wrong side out.
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  Speaker 1: Or I have a good friend who says, we get sideways,
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  Speaker 1: We get sideways with people and we just have to
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  Speaker 1: just gouge them.
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  Speaker 2: Stop stop the gouging.
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  Speaker 1: I tell you, I admire the thirty eight verses that
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  Speaker 1: follow Eliphaz's rebuke and unfair reminders. A job in effect
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  Speaker 1: says you want to take the gloves off, I'll do it.
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  Speaker 1: My hands are covered with sores, but I'll take the
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  Speaker 1: gloves off. And I'll find four responses in job that
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  Speaker 1: are admirable, and honestly, I do not find them shocking.
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  Speaker 1: Some of you may. First of all, he is disgusted
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  Speaker 1: with his friend. I mean that is an appropriate response.
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  Speaker 1: Don't answer out loud. Ever been disgusted with a friend. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I'll answer for you. Yeah, how many times. Look at
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  Speaker 1: verse two, Sorry comforters, are you all? How's that for
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: an opening line of disgust. Sorry comforters, that's an oxymoron.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe you're not familiar with the terms some of you are,
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  Speaker 1: I realize Webster defines an oxymoron a combination of contradictory
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: words like governmental intelligence. That would be an oxymoron, or
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: teenage innocence. That's another one that comes to mind. Sorry comforters,
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  Speaker 1: you think this is comfort? What a sorry example of
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  Speaker 1: comfort you are? One man writes, Job complains that often
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  Speaker 1: he has heard many such things as these comforters speak,
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  Speaker 1: but in his present plight, such pious platitudes serve only
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  Speaker 1: to increase his sorrow. I thought I was hurting before
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  Speaker 1: you showed up, but now that you've talked man, the
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  Speaker 1: pain is unbearable. He is disgusted with these people. By
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  Speaker 1: the way, no extra charge for this little insight.
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  Speaker 2: People who are.
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  Speaker 1: Graceless don't usually connect the dots unless you are really strong.
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  Speaker 1: In return, he just goes. So you have to plan
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  Speaker 1: a blow right on the schnazul. You know, you have
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  Speaker 1: to be sure that you get through. So sometime bear
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  Speaker 1: with me, Sometime you have to fight poison. With poison,
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  Speaker 1: you have to be blunt in return, or they'll walk
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  Speaker 1: all over you and stomp you into the dirt. Job
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  Speaker 1: says you are a sorry comforter. Speaking the truth cuts
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  Speaker 1: through the fuzzy, vague, feel good.
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  Speaker 2: Verse beads that often characterizes our talk.
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  Speaker 1: That's why I plead with all of us to learn
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  Speaker 1: how to speak truth. Ideally in love.
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  Speaker 2: But if I've got to.
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  Speaker 1: Have truth without love, I'll take truth. It's better with love,
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  Speaker 1: but truth is always best. Truth hurts is a familiar saying,
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  Speaker 1: but there are times it's unvarnished.
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  Speaker 2: Direct blows are needed.
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  Speaker 1: You know when you sometimes hear them when you lose
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  Speaker 1: your job and someone who is in authority and has
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  Speaker 1: the unhappy task of facing you with the loss of job.
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  Speaker 1: That person, if there's integrity, you know what I mean,
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  Speaker 1: if things are in place, it's appropriate that person at
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  Speaker 1: that at that moment is telling you things you should
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  Speaker 1: never forget. He or she is cutting through the veneer
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  Speaker 1: and getting to.
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  Speaker 2: The reason you have lost that job.
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  Speaker 1: And in this case, job is saying your words are
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  Speaker 1: wrongly stated. There's a bad motive, there's a there's an
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  Speaker 1: intent that that's tarnished. There are words used that are brutal,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm telling you you are a sorry comforter. The
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: second after disgust, he's distressed verse seven, And if you
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: will allow me, he is distressed at God. Now bear
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: with that. I know that's shocking for some of you
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: to hear it, but it happens. He's talking about God.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I think correctly. The h in verse seven is capitalized.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: He has exhausted me. Ugh, he even sees him as angry.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Verse nine. His anger has torn me and hunted me
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: down and gnashed at me with his teeth. Verse eleven.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: God hands me over to ruffians. Look at these guys
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: that showed up. He tosses me into the hands of
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: the wicked. Now watch this. It's like he's a rag
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: doll in the mouth of a rottweiler. I was at
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: ease Verse twelve. He shattered me. He grasped me by
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the neck and has shaken me to pieces, set me
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: up as his target. Verse thirteen. His arrows surround me
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: without mercy. He splits my kidneys apart open. He pours
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: out my gall on the ground and breaks through me
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: with breach after breach, runs at me like a warrior.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: That's the way I'm feeling, says Job.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: He is distressed.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: If you find fault with Job, it's because you've never
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: been there. There's not a counselor who has been in
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the work of counseling very long before she or he
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: meets up with someone who is distressed over the way
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: God's treating them. They don't understand it. Remember, Job still
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: doesn't know the plan between Satan and God. We were
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: introduced to it clearly in chapters one and two. Job
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: never was in on that conversation. He doesn't know why
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: one day the bottom drops out, and tornadoes and fires
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and death and destruction and finally.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Ill health and all of that breaks on him and
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: God doesn't say a word to him.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: And he's visited with God all of his adult life,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: No wonder he's distressed. I had been through times. I'll
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: confess to you where I have just said in unguarded moments, God,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: what in the world are.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: You up to?
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: What is this about?
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: To the best of my knowledge, I am not doing
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: this wrong. I am not doing it for the wrong motive.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I haven't gone into this in any way. Please me
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: or placate somebody else. I'm trying to walk in obedience and.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Boom boom, boom boom.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: It's like you're driving home from work and you had
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: a bad day at the office and the guy behind
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: you runs into you, and the guy ind of Ferrari
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: in front of you, you run into him, mate, Ferrari
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: drivers tend not to like that when you hit him
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: from the rear and he climbs out of his car.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: When you get home, you don't have any milk, and
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: your dog's hungry and he's been gnawing on a cab
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and your kids are mean and they're gnawing on each other,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and you're out of money, and you think, wait a minute.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: What is this all about? God, what is this about?
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: And no answer comes, and tomorrow's worse than today, and
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: next week is intensifying all of it, making last week
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: look like a piece of cake. On top of all
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: of that, you lost your job. And on top of that,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I just could go on and on. Your imagination's as
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: good as mine, Believe me. In the unguarded moments, when
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the lights are out and the doors are closed and
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Swindle isn't around to listen, and nobody's gonna tell on you,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: you think like this or you are weird.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: You are weird.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Don't tell me you're too spiritual to think like that.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: You see him running at you like a warrior, and
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: of all things, he doesn't even tell you why, And
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: so you could guess the third reaction. He is depressed.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: He is depressed. Look over here at seventeen one and two.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished. The grave
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: is ready for me. Shirley Mockers are with me, and
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: my eye gazes on their provocation. Eugene Peterson renders this
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: in the message, my spirit is broken, my days used up,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: my grave Doug in waiting. I believe what brought job
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: to this point of a depression. I believe it's best
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: expressed in the Latin words deis absconditis. I came across
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: those words this week. Deus dieus is the word in
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Latin for God. Absconditis gives us our word abscond. What
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: does abscond mean? Webster says it means to conceal, to
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: depart secretly and hide oneself. He's gone. I can't figure
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: him out. When I pray, I don't get answers. When
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: I devote myself even more deeply to doing his will
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: for all the right reasons. I continue to lose, and
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the heavens are brass. God has absconded with the blessings
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: hold on tight. C. S. Lewis said it like this,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and a grief observed. Meanwhile, where is God? This is
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: so happy, you have no sense of needing him. You
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: will be or so it feels welcomed with open arms.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: But go to him when your need is desperate, when
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: all other help is vain. And what do you find?
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: A door slammed in your face and a sound of
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: double bolting on the inside. After that silence, you may
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: emphatic the silence will become. Deis absconditis. It expresses the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: problem without any ruffles and without any literary lease. He's
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: hit bottom, disgusted, distressed, depressed, and finally completely despondent and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: ready to die Verse eleven of chapter seventeen. My days
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: are pasted, My plans are torn apart, even the wishes
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: of my heart. You know what that sounds like. My
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: dreams are dashed, my hopes are gone. They make night
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and today saying the light is near in the presence
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: of darkness. Now look look at this verse. If I
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: look for shie Old as my home, that's the grave.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Shay Old is the Hebrew word for the place of
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the departed spirit. If I look for the grave as
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: my home, I make my bed in the darkness. If
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I call to the pit, that's where I'm going to
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: be dropped in my coffin. If I call to the pit,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: you are my father to the worm which is down
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: there getting ready to eat on my body. You are
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: my mother and my sister. Where now is my hope.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Let's call this job's requiem.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Will it go down with me to shie Old? Shall
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: be together, go down into the dust. One man renders.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: If all I have to look forward to is a
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: home in the graveyard, If my only hope for comfort
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: is a well built coffin. If a family reunion means
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: going six feet under, and the only family that shows
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: up his worms, you.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Call that hope.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: No.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: If hope and I are to be buried together, I
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: suppose you'll all come to the double funeral. You know
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: what he's thinking. Everybody's talking about Heaven. Ain't going there Heaven, Heaven.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to the grave. You know what he's missing.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: You know what he's missing. He is missing what only
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: grace can bring him. He has no grace from anybody
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: around him, nobody there to reassure him. He is totally confused.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Philip Yancey, in an outstanding book, Disappointment.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: With God, tells this true story.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Once a friend of mine went swimming in a large
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: lake at dusk. As he was paddling at a leisurely
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: pace about a one hundred yards off shore, a freak
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: evening fog rolled in across the water. Suddenly he could
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: see nothing, no horizon, no landmarks, no objects or lights
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: on the shore. Because the fog diffused the light, he
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: could not even make out the direction of the setting sun.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: I pictured this for thirty minutes. He splashed around in panic.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: He would start off in one direction, lose confidence, and
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: turn ninety degrees to the right or left. That made
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: no difference which way he turned. He could feel his
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: heart racing uncontrollably. He would stop and float, trying to
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: conserve energy and force himself to breathe slower. Then he
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: would blindly strike out again. At last, he heard a
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: faint voice calling from the shore. He pointed his body
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: toward the sounds, and followed them to safety. Yancey adds,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: something like that sensation of utter lostness must have settled
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: in on Job as he sat in the rubble and
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: tried to comprehend what had happened. He too had lost
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: all landmarks, all points of orientation. Where should he turn? God,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: the one who could guide him through the fog, stayed silent.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: But Satan had challenged whether Job's faith could serve with
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: no outside help or explanation. When God accepted those terms,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: the fog rolled in around Job. You could read Job's
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: story then breathe a deep sigh of relief. God settled
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: that problem after proving his points so decisively. Surely he
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: will return to his preferred style of communication, communicating clearly
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: with his followers. You could think so, unless, that is,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: you read the rest of the Bible. I hesitate to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: say this because it is a hard truth and one
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I do not want to acknowledge. But Job stands as
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: merely the most extreme example of what appears to be
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: a universal law of faith. The kind of faith God
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: values seemed to develop, seems to develop best when everything
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: fuzzes over. When God stays silent, and when the fog
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: rolls in disgusted, distress, depressed, despondent. The chapter ends, why
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I love the Bible. On this earth, everybody doesn't live
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: happily ever after. That's a fairy tale. Or to borrow
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: from my military life, that's a croc. You're believing a
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: hoax if you're waiting for it to get better, this
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: earth doesn't deliver better. That's why we need grace. Marriage
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: doesn't get easier, it gets harder. All right, there's one
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: honest couple here ready to admit it. Work doesn't get easier,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: it gets more complicated. Child rearing doesn't get easier. These
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: people with babies one in two years old, they think
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: they got it tough. Wait till they're fourteen, and wait
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: till they're eighteen. Don't aimen that. You know, you discourage
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: the high schoolers. It gets harder. You thought you were
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: fat when you got married, Look today, it gets harder.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: We're all I always tell brides and grooms enjoy the pictures.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: You'll never be thinner.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Never, it's harder. We need grace.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: We need grace, grace, grace, God's grace. We need grace
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: to survive. We need grace to drive. We need grace
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: to stay married. We need grace to keep a church
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: in unity. We need grace, Grace, grace. When we were
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: going under, grace, don't kick us, don't hold us under.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: You know, if I called the shots, I would have
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: relieved job five minutes after it all had gone. You know,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I'd have brought all those kids back to life. I'd
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: have cut the lips off of elephants after three sentences.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: That's the way I'd do it. Cut those lips off. Baby,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: that didn't work, I'd take the neck, you know, just
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: go after it. Who needs elephants? But you know, you
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: know you probably wouldn't mature a lot under my kind
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: of style. You just enjoy the comfort. We'd all go
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: on a motorcycle ride and have fun. As Cynthia says
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: to me sometimes, honey, if everybody handled things like you
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: want it, all we'd bring to the party is balloons.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Nobody would think to bring the food. So the fox
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: rolled in all helld is broken, loose, Welcome to the
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: human race. That's why the Savior died. That's why God
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: gives us salvation, because we'd fouled it up. We'd come
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: in our own works, and be proud that we got
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: there by our own effort. Strut around heaven like a peacock. Hey,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: what'd you do to get here? How many servants you preached? Forty?
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: I preached eighty? Well, I preached two hundred and fifty.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Graham I preached eighty million. Then we'd all be there
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: because of pride. Nobody will feel that they've deserved it,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: because we get there by grace. Through many dangers, toils
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and snares, I have already come tis. Grace has brought
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Get it, Get it, Quit working for it, quit lavering
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: over it like somehow you gotta keep him on the
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: cross and you hold him up and maybe you'll make it. Nope,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: given our own way, would all be worse than elephants.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: And so even though Job thinks he's gonna miss heaven,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: even though he thinks the grave is the end, bless him.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: There is a tomorrow, and there is a way beyond
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: isy grass of sweet The sound that say.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: Like me was w was.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: B business great twas blonde.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: H through many.
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: Tosses, ay, come, t is great?
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: But he said me, stand up and kick it up.
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: Not here.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, when we bend and uh lons.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: Bright thes we more.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, let's say.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: To see God, prase.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Thank your Father for your grace. Thank you for loving
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: us when we're running away from you. Thank you for
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: pursuing us when we don't want to have anything to
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: do with you. Thank you for when you find us,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: for holding us close, for giving us, understanding us, renewing us,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: and helping us to go. We love you, Father, We
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: learn from you, and we praise you. Blessed be the
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: name of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Let
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: me pray everybody said Amen.
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: The preceding message, Graceless Words for a Grieving Man, was
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: copyrighted in two thousand and two, and the sound recording
• 47:19
  Speaker 5: was copyrighted in two thousand and four by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: All rights are reserved worldwide. In the preceding message, Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
• 47:28
  Speaker 5: Is grateful to the Soonderban Corporation for permission to quote
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: from the book Disappointment with God, copyrighted in nineteen eighty
• 47:36
  Speaker 5: eight by Philip Yancey.