July 23, 2025 • 58 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. We're so thankful that
you are here with us again this week. My name
is Rick Burgess, host of the Rick Burgess Show. That's
my day job, do that Monday through Friday. To find
out more about the weekly show, you can go to
rickburgesshow dot com. The Wednesday Bible Study is part of
a larger men's discipleship strategy. You can access that strategy
(00:23):
at the manchurch dot com. We are a resource for
men's ministry, providing individual resources for men, forty week curriculum
for small groups, and also speakers for your gatherings and
your your events. We do conferences for men all of that,
so you can find that full service at the manchurch
(00:44):
dot com. If you're having a hard time establishing a
men's ministry and your church or your community that is sustainable,
we are here to help. And boy, can we send
you to some some references two to see what two thousand,
five hundred and thirty something churches now all across the country,
(01:04):
so there's a lot of people you can talk to,
many of them, you know, four some five years into
the strategy. So if we can help you in any way,
let us know a couple of new things to consider.
One is a brand new resource for men and individual resource.
Really men are women. We're getting a lot of really
great reviews from women who are reading this particular book.
(01:27):
It's called Men Don't Run in the Rain. It was
an honor to write this book to honor my dad.
I was fortunate enough to have an outstanding father who
was not perfect by any stretch, but had wisdom almost
like you wouldn't even try. And so we go through
a lot of the things that he taught me and
(01:47):
give you biblical application. You can find that wherever you
get books, and we do have it at the Manchurch
dot com as well. Also, I want to talk to
you about a brand new podcast. This podcast is focused
on spiritual warfare. It is called Strange Encounters. We really
prayed about this and the folks at Blaze TV wanted
(02:08):
us to consider it. There's a lot of obsession out
there with the supernatural, a lot of it unhealthy. But
so what we wanted to do is give some biblical clarification.
If you want supernatural, the Bible's got all you can stand,
but you need to understand angels, demons, this spiritual battle
(02:28):
that's going on all around us and see if we
can't help you discern that, and also be careful with it.
We don't want you obsessing over it. But sadly, when
you look at the Western Church, there's an incredible amount
of ignorance involving this as well, and it's rarely ever
spoke of. So we do that on the podcast Strange Encounters.
You can follow that podcast and find it to wherever
(02:49):
you get podcasts. Just look for Strange Encounters with Rick Burgess.
So we're continuing now our study through the Book of Job.
Today will be in Job chapter twenty three, read a
very provocative book of the Bible. We are learning a
lot and today we will continue that study. If you've
missed any of it, go back and get the archives
(03:09):
at Themanchurch dot com. You'll see a little drop down
menu there you can watch or listen to those archives.
You can also access Bible studies pasted over the last
decade if you so desire. So let's open up in
a word of prayer, Lord, thank you for today help
us to properly discern the power of your Holy Word,
through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we walk
(03:30):
through this next chapter in this historical interaction between you
and a man named Job and his friends. And Lord,
may we learn from it in your holy name, we
pray Amen. All Right, So we're gonna Last week Elafhaz
had his last thing to say, He had nothing new
to say. He even started contradicting himself and kind of
(03:54):
started reaching a little bit. So you're not even going
to see Job acknowledge elfas at all. He's not even
going to respond to it. He's gonna he's gonna take
his attention. He's going to focus off his friends and
he's going to focus on God. Now, this is going
to be a lot to ponder as we go through this,
(04:15):
because maybe some of you in the room may be
your teacher. Maybe some of you that are watching and listening,
you've been here, and what you're going to find now
is you're going to find a man who has no
doubt that God is real. You're a man who has
walked with God, who completely believes in God. But it's
(04:38):
becoming frustrated with God. He is. He knows he's innocent,
he knows what his friends have said that that does
not apply to him. And he's gone as far as
to say, I'm not sure that applies period. Based on
what I've seen, I think our theology is flawed. And
now he is going back to what he's done a
(05:00):
few times, and he's going to cry out to God.
And he's becoming frustrated. I'm not going to use another
word he is. He's becoming frustrated with what he is
interpreting or considering is a better word. God's apathy with
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all this. Why don't you You don't really seem to
care about this, and I can't get you to answer me.
I can't get any guidance from you. I just feel
like I'm out here floundering. My friends aren't helping me.
If you sent them to me, they didn't. They're not
following your instructions. And I don't know really where to turn.
I don't know what we're doing here, and I don't
(05:42):
fully understand why this is happening. I'm not going to
even acknowledge what this eliphast has said. And uh. I
long to hear from you. Uh. And it doesn't seem
that I can find you. Where are you? Maybe you've
(06:03):
been there, you know. I can recall some of the
calamities of my own life, and we all got them,
you know, it's it's a part of the fallen creation.
And usually, if if usually the more severe the calamity,
the quicker we want answers. Uh you know, the quicker
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we want to understand it. And God doesn't operate that way,
and and to try to get him to is is
kind of a waste of time. Though he does hear us,
and now you will find throughout scripture. I'm thinking of Jeremiah,
who just got at the end of his rope. I'm
(06:47):
thinking about Elijah. Uh So I want you to know that,
I mean, you got we got to handle it the
right way. God is not afraid of our complaining. He's
not afraid aid of our questions. He's not afraid of
our frustration because he's been there as long as he's
(07:08):
been dealing with human beings, He's dealt with it. And
some of the people that he has used in some
of the most powerful ways are people that at times
just became exhausted with what he had called him to
do and just asked him to let up. You know,
I even think about in the New Covenant, the Apostle Paul,
you know, Second Corinthians of the Thorn in the Flesh.
(07:30):
You know, we studied that here Paul got to understanding
it pretty quick, but there was definitely a time when
he said, I have pleaded with God about this, and
I think that one of the hardest parts of the
relationship with this one and only living God is to
understand that he's not the problem that we are the
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reason why we can't. The day's coming is going to
be changed for the redeemed. But this, I mean we
had him. We we there was a time we could
walk with him, you know, in the cool of the day,
and we we messed that up. And because of his holiness,
there's a distance now now through Jesus. You know that
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that that chasm. You know, we're back connected through Jesus
and the Spirit of God. But but our intimacy with
God is still not what it's going to be because,
as we've said, if you have repented of your sin,
you have left faith in yourself, put your faith in Christ.
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You have left your own authority, and you have confessed
that Christ is now your authority. You have entered that
narrow gate. You are pursuing Christ. You've you've you've been justified.
And now is that wrestling match of sanctification, which is
just a mess. I mean, it is a frustrating process,
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and that's what we're in right now. And but there's
gonna come a day you can't forget that when we're
gonna be glorified, And oh how long for that day
when when this flesh is just finally over the flesh
as it continues to fight for its life through the
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sanctification process. Is so frustrating. And I find myself much
more frustrated with my flesh than I do God. But
you can understand that when you're in situations like Joe,
when you can't quite put your finger on why this
is being allowed and you want God to answer it. Now,
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remember this will help you a little bit with Joe.
Before we're ready to say, well I thought he was, well,
just hang on we now. I'm holding up the Bible
for those of you that can't see it. We have this.
I can't tell you that most of the time when
I find the answer from God, I find it in
here because He's already said it. Job didn't have that.
(10:02):
So anything Job's going to get from God has got
to come from God. Uh, nobody has. God hasn't finished
his revelation about himself. So Job doesn't have it, but
we do so a lot of times we could, we
could end a lot of our frustration if we would
just learn the word of God. Because I can't tell
you how many times I've been in a situation I go, well,
(10:24):
according to this, this, this in scripture, this is what
God's doing right here, you know. And so he starts out,
we're going to change the speaker as we do in
verse one. Then Job answered, and remember he didn't answer elphas.
He's just gonna answer, he said, today, Also, my complaint
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is bitter, and my hand is heavy on account of
my groaning. Remember he's he's had a bitter and he's
used these terms bitter and complaint back in chapter seven two,
verse eleven. And here it is again. Now I will
tell you that when you have the Hebrew here and
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and the translator trying to translate it into English, him
using this Hebrew word that seems to be interpreted into
English as his as his hand, it's it's problematic. Uh.
The the commentators, you know, they say, really, yeah, the
Hebrew word here is hand. But when you try to
(11:29):
say in English what he's saying, it's really more likely
that he is saying that that his hands are just heavy,
that they're they're they're they're not. The feeling on him
is not just his hands, It really should be that
his whole body. He just feels like that, that there's
just a heaviness of an oppression that's on him on
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account of these groanings. I think what he's saying here,
the most clear interpretation is this suffering and the groaning
has gone on so long. I can't even really lift
my hands anymore. I can't. I can't get myself going.
You ever had that feeling depression come on you and
(12:14):
you just don't You just don't think you can get going.
And he's saying, I don't think I can. I can
continue with this much longer. I'm having a harder time
as time goes on of trying to put on a
good face about this, right, I mean, I know my
first thought every time I'm in difficulty is how long
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am I going to be here? You know? I was
reading I'm reading a book right now from a neurosurgeon,
Lee Warren, and it's it's really a fascinating book. It's
called I Have Seen the End of You. And what
he's talking about as as a follower of Christ as
a neurosurgeon, and it guess is applied to any physician.
(13:00):
But when you're dealing with the brain, when when they
call the brain people in, it's it's a biggie, you know.
And uh, you know, you call the orthopedic in, it
may not be it may be a mild inconvenience. When
you you called the brain people in, it it's big.
And And what he's talking about is knowing who God
is and understanding that and praying for these patients. He said,
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But then when that MRI and and that scan comes
up and I see the most aggressive form of cancer,
I can't pronounce it that has practically a zero survival rate,
and I see it. He and that's where he got
the term. He said, I've seen the end of you.
You know, it's it's over and and he goes and
I and every time I see this, it's over and
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and it's talking about his ongoing struggle and these patients
he meets. Well, one time he was trying to figure
out a patient and he met this devout family of
faith and he said, you know, I felt pretty certain
by what I was hearing that when I got in there,
it was not going to be good. But he said,
(14:08):
because I looked at the scan, and he said, the
whole brain was just covered in cancer. And he said,
and it just came from a sinus scan guy being
considered for sinus surgery. And the doctor the NT knew
enough he could see a little bit of the brain
and the scan he said that the brain doesn't look healthy.
Something that would look right, and so he called him in.
(14:31):
So when he goes in to simply get a BOPS,
he said, you know, I was accustomed to the nobody panic,
could be an infection. Let me get in there. I'll
get a biopsy, and let let's not get ahead of ourselves.
And he said, as soon as he went in, the
brain was in such bad shape that the attempt to
get the bop sye it just started falling apart and
just started rupturing everywhere. And the guy died just from
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him trying to get the BOBS. And so he goes,
I go back in and and I have to tell
the family, and he says, I start then start questioning myself,
where did I mess that up? Should I not have
tried that? He goes before the peer board, They clear him.
Everybody says, this is the procedure. Nothing you could have done.
The brain was in such bad shape the minute you
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went to touch it. This was gonna happen. Nobody who
did it. And what you were doing is what we do.
It's the protocol. So he's been cleared of all that
and he hears that this family wants to meet with him,
and he goes, well, here we go. He said, this
is where they're going to wear me out. And he's
dreading it. And he gets all this stuff together to
try to show them what he went through and all
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this and try to and he sits down and they're
sitting around him, and he said, they begin to thank him,
and he said, okay, and then he realizes they're not
blaming him at all. And what they said was, we
want to tell you the prayer that we prayed. The
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wife with the husband, the dad with the son, the
mom with the son, the kids said, you know, he
was a devout foller of Christ. He has a brilliant mind.
He loves to read, he loves to do research. And
he prayed that if he is terminal, we prayed to
God that he die soon, and we prayed that he
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not go over the two to three year period of
getting where he can't eat, he can't read, he can't
do anything. It's a miserable ride to the finish. And
we just prayed that if it was terminal, that God
would be gracious and he would die quick and he
would die peacefully. And all you did was put him
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to sleep to take the biob see, and he woke
up in the presence of Jesus. And I want you
to know, that's what we prayed. So basically, weren't you
weren't involved in this, you know, the Lord answered our prayer.
But what it was in that case, it was not
going to be long. He shortened it because he was
going to end up at the same place, you know,
(17:00):
because this was not a brain that was going to
have any chance of survival. So that's always it, isn't
it if we're going to be in for a long haul.
I mean, if we were honest, we would say, Okay,
if I'm gonna if I'm gonna suffer for you, I'm good.
But I hope it ain't long, you know. And so
(17:20):
this is where Job was saying, I just I'm having
a hard time keep coming up and keeping this good attitude,
which he's kind of losing, And he said in verse
three old that I knew where I might find him
tell Hi about God, that I might come even to
his seat. Okay, now watch you a little bit here.
(17:42):
So we've seen this in chapter six, verse eight, chapter eleven,
verse five, Chapter fourteen, verse thirteen, Chapter thirteen, verse twenty three,
this longing of job to find God. And you know
what he's saying. Have you ever had this happen? I
bet every hand and here we go up, and I
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bet every hand out there we'll go up. If you're driving,
don't do it? Okay? Have you ever just said I
just wish I didn't have to keep trying to figure
this out. I wish I could just sit down with
you and talk. Yes, how quick you'd get to the
answer you're looking for if you could just somehow say,
can I just pull up a chair? I mean, I'd
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love to just look at you. Okay, I've been made
fully righteous by Jesus, if he'll come with me, because
if not, your holiness will kill me. I wish that
I could just sit here with you and you just
tell me what you're doing. I'd love to hear it
straight from you. And that's what he's said, of course
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he's going to get an encounter with God that's coming up,
that he's gonna kind of rethink this verse four. I
would lay my case before him and watch out here
and fill my mouth with arguments. Now, I think sitting
down and listening is a better way to go about
it as opposed to sitting down and arguing to argue
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with God, which who told us this? This is We's
already covered this. He said that you're wasting your time
arguing with God. But here he said, I want, I
want to state my case to you, and I would
like to argue with you about my innocence. Now, don't
miss that. That's a big one to hang on to,
because where Job is a little bit flawed in this.
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It is true that he's not being punished because of
his wickedness, but it is not true that he's innocent.
Nobody's innocent in front of God, not even Job. Okay, Now,
Job is gonna get a clarification on this that's coming
from God, and he's gonna, by the way, he's gonna
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get his moment with God. And I think what we
should all say is to be real careful what you
hope for. Okay, and so job is getting, he getting,
he's in a little bit. I remember, you don't know
if your daddy ever told you when you started maybe
going after you're going through puberty and you started getting
a little bit of a little cockiness to you, And
my daddy would tell me, now, look now, don't don't
(20:12):
don't so don't let that mouth write a check now
that the rest of you can't cash. You know it,
And you know it's just just be real careful with that.
And so as my daddy told me, And guess how
easy God could say this boy, you ain't lived long
enough to handle me. You know what. I didn't know
what he meant, But now it's sixty the way I
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look at young people, I know exactly what he was
talking about. You know, there's an old man's strength that's
not in the weight room, is it? So? So I would,
like he said, I wouldn't know what he would answer
me and understand what he would say to me. If
God answers my questions, then I will finally know what
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is going on. Okay, there's one way I would know,
if God would just answer me. How many of you
have have thrown prayers and thrown prayers and thrown prayers,
and it just I'm hello, I'm not, I'm not helloh nothing,
nobody's on the line. And but see, I want us
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to understand take away from the study this week. Just
because you haven't heard an answer, Please don't ever equate
that with he didn't hear it, Because he heard it.
He absolutely heard it. So we go to six. Would
he contend with me and the greatness of his power?
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Now this is watch out. Now, I would not be afraid.
You know why, he says, I'm not. I wouldn't be
afraid because I know I'm right with him. I don't
have anything to be afraid of. Well, I guess you don't.
You you're confident that he's not against you. But we
always should fear God. Uh. You know, if let's look
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at the Gospel of John. If you got you can
flip over there real quick to the New Testament. And
some of you saying, Rick, I'd like for us to
get back to the New Testament at some point that
was that was a good run. Here we've been. We've
been hanging out here in the Old Testament for for
for years now. So so go to John chapter two,
and then I want you to look at verse twenty eight.
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I'm sorry, not verse twenty eight, I think, because there's
not twenty eight verses into what was There goes my
penmanship again. So this is oh, I know, no, it's
First John. Okay, it's First John. I know what this
is talking about. Now, No, this is talking about the redeemed.
And this is one of the beautiful things about the redeemed,
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the right of Hebrews. Remember we stood of Hebrews talked
about this too in Hebrews ten thirty one, that those
of us that have been redeemed, you know, we don't
we don't have to shrink back at the presence of God.
I mean, I know that Job's trying to say that.
It's not exactly the same thing. But if you remember
(23:10):
and when Paul, I mean, when John is taking on
the Gnostics, do y'all remember this, and he says, looking
twenty eight of First John, Chapter two, twenty eight, and
now little children abide in him, so that when he appears,
we may have confidence and not shrink from him in
shame at his coming. So this is kind of where
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Job is. He's like, if I'm innocent, I really don't
have anything to fear standing before God, and I got that.
And you see there's in the New Testament if you've
been redeemed, because listen, think about it. If you're redeemed,
the coming of the Lord is something to celebrate. If
you're not, and you've been just saying I got more time,
(23:55):
I got more time, I got more time, and suddenly
here he comes that you're not celebrating because that means
the grace age is over and now here comes the
King who will judge all those who rejected him. So
that is that's not the same confidence. And then and
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we were studying Hebrews and it's in ten thirty nine,
but we are not of those who shrink back and
are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve
their souls. So yeah, that's kind of it's Old Testament.
But that's kind of what job is kind of banking on.
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But can I tell you this in the New Covenant,
you can count on it. You've been made fully righteous,
if you've been redeemed fully righteous. The coming of the
Lord should be something that we look forward to, not
something we shrink back from. So seven, they're an upright
man could argue with him, and I would be a
quitted forever by my judge. I will tell you I
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would be acquitted by God. If I got to stand
in front of him, I would be acquitted by God.
I can't seem to find God. Look at look at
look at eight. He says. Behold, I go forward, but
he's not there. And backward, but I do not perceive him.
I can't find God. Where is he? I can't find
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him anywhere. I can't find him to the east or
the west. I can't find him to the north, to
the south. And I am And I'm telling you, if
I could get in front of him, I would be
acquitted because I am innocent. Do you ever ever feel
that way? I can't find him. I'm searching, I'm crying out,
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I'm pursuing. I can't find God. I don't know where
he is. Will always know if you are redeemed, he
is not abandon you, you know, just just his presence.
You've got to trust that he's there. He even tells
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us that he's near to the broken hearted. So if
you know, I don't. I don't know. Apparently Job didn't
didn't have Ps. Thirty four or eighteen, But we do,
uh and and we know that he's near to the
broken hearted. So if you're hurting and you're struggling, you
know what, you can bank on that he is near.
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He may not have revealed himself to you, you know
what I would like to suggest, coming from someone who
makes this mistake all the time, So don't sometimes just
shut up, stop pleading, start, stop crying out, and just
rest and be still and know that he is God.
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That's right out of scripture too, you know. I remember this.
This is when when we we we did something that
I you know, I don't talk about it as much
when I'm preaching, and maybe I should because it's such
a wonderful moment. It's one of the things, you know,
(27:13):
that we dealt with at you know, with the death
of our youngest son, was that he died in the
swimming pool on our property at our house. I mean,
I still see it every day. I went to that
same pool yesterday and backwashed and wrenched it and go
out there and scoop stuff out of it all the time.
But it doesn't bother me. And the reason why it
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doesn't bother me is that that pool don't belong to
the devils as much as he is. He he thought
it would that pool's not going to represent death. So
one of the things that we did, because we trust
the Lord, is we when when Brodie decided and fully
understood about repentance and decided to follow Jesus and was redeemed,
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is that we decided that he'd be baptized in the
very pool where his brother died. We're gonna take that back.
So when I go out there, I don't just see
the death of one of my children. I also see
the saving of another one. And ultimately, I mean, even
Brauner left that place right into the presence of the Lord.
And so when Sherry decided to do that, she took
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all these balloons and they were white, and she worked
even within the she's allergic even two balloons, but she
didn't care. And she put a Bible verse in every
one of them, and there was healing put in them.
And then when after he was baptized, we released these
different promises of God. Well they they all went except one.
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And one of them popped when she was trying to
get them set up, and it popped, and she was like,
well that one popped, and she looked and the verse
was laying there, and she picked it up. And it
was the verse of God saying I will fight your
battle for you. Just be still and know that I'm
that I am God. And she just said, well, there
it is again. And so this is one of those
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things that when you say you can't find God, that
just isn't true. You may not be getting the sign
you're looking for. But he is not a bandaging He
has not abandoned, he's not gone. He is in the
middle of all this, right in the middle of it,
whatever it is. So so then we get to ten,
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and now Job's going to double down on his innocence,
and he says after eight and nine that he goes forward,
he's not there nine on the left hand when he
is working, I do not behold him. He turns to
the right hand, but I do not see him. That's
that north south east west ten. But he knows the
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way that I take. When he has tried me, I
shall come out as gold. You know, I still believe
even though I can't seem to find him and I
can't seem to hear from him, I still believe that
he can see me and he knows the truth. Can
I ask you this? And it's been one of the
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hardest things for me this year. This has been a
terrible year. On this. Is God knowing the truth enough
for you? Or do you just have to be vindicated before? Man?
What if God said to you, I know that you're
right in the conflict that you're in. I know what
people say about you is not true, But it is
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me knowing that enough for you. What if I told
you that you're going to be misunderstood by these people.
There'll never be a moment on earth where you have
your glorious vindication and all the people that have said
bad things about you, and all the people you've been
in conflict, they never on this side of heaven are
(30:54):
ever proven wrong, and you never get to have your day.
But I know the truth? Is that enough you? Yeah?
I have struggled with that for seven full months and
some change. Is that enough? I'll have to get back
(31:18):
to you on that. I'm working on that. But but
but that that's that's really job is like you almost
you almost said, but I want everybody this accused me
to know. But I know that God knows. So I
know that if I had this trial, that God's gonna
(31:40):
say that I was innocent, that this this suffering that
he's causing is for some other reason, not because I'm wicked,
I know that, But you know what he's thinking. I
just kind of wanted to be said out loud. I
want I want God to speak for me, and and
he wants that moment. And he's saying, look at this,
(32:03):
this is faith though he is showing a tremendous amount
of faith right here. Here's the three things he's saying.
God knows my situation. God is testing me, and I
will emerge a better man. He knows the way that
I take. When he has tried me, I shall come
(32:24):
out as gold. Now hang on, hang on, all right,
and you boy, y'all going to say a lot of
you who have known me for a long time, you
know exactly where I'm headed. Because you're like, if he
reads First Peter one one more time, But I am
going to because did you hear him using the gold
I come out as gold and all that? So one
(32:46):
Peter Chapter one, This use the first verse I send
people when they're crying out, why am I in this
difficult situation? Peter? Remembering First Peter, he's talking about persecution
of the church. Second Peter out for false teachers. The
first Peter is, hey, the outside world, they're coming after us.
And remember when we study this, literally was happening to
(33:08):
the church when you had you know the Romans, I
mean you got, I mean you got. It's just complete
all out persecution. Nero is a madman. Okay, he's rounding
them up and he's killing them. He's lighting his streets
with the bodies of Christians. You're sitting in your house
like right now. And first Peter, we'd be sitting just
(33:32):
like this and hoping we didn't hear this, and a
knock on that door could be they're gonna kill all
of us. And so here's what here's what Peter said
in this You rejoice though now for a little while,
if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so
(33:53):
that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold,
may perry, though it be tested by fire, may be
found a result in the praise and the glory and
the honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And here
we are in the Old Testament, sitting here with Job
(34:14):
and his words are But he knows the way that
I take. When he has tried me, I shall come
out as gold. Can you say God knows my situation.
God is testing me and the harder one. I will
emerge a better man, I will emerge a better woman.
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Whatever the case may be, I'll be better for it.
I'm better for it. I know some of the difficulties
that everybody in this room has been through. Those of
you that emerge from it, you're better. I would say
that you're more devoted to Jesus than you were before it.
(35:01):
Me too, So eleven, look, let me just tell you
hard truth. Okay, just take it with you. I'm sorry.
I wish this wasn't the case. The reason why God
keeps using suffering is it works. It's effective, It gets
the job done. We are too stubborn and too sinful
(35:24):
to just get in line without discipline, without correction, without difficulty,
without refinement. You know, I was talking to somebody just
the other day. I'll be very vague, but it was
beautiful and this person had been through a very difficult
(35:48):
thing in their marriage, very difficult and clear attack. Well,
now the marriage is flourished. I mean, it's more powerful
than ever, not better than anything they've ever known. And
(36:11):
we were we were discussing this at one point and
we both agreed. I said, you know, Satan had been
better off he just left your marriage alone. It really
wasn't all that great, y'all. Both were apathetic, just going
through the motions. And he's so stupid that he got
(36:32):
played again by God by being allowed to attack your marriage,
and it saved it. If you just left you alone,
you probably wouldn't have made it. That's why. That's why
it works the church. And when you know, when the
church is the least effective, when it's not being persecuted,
(36:54):
it becomes a social, spiritual social club where people just
out of meander around, get to see each other again. Here,
here are things they've probably heard before from the preaching.
And then the small groups glad to see each other
and they worry about where they're going to lunch, and
they checked that off the list. But now if it
comes into persecution, go back to nine to eleven, go
(37:17):
back to the pandemic. When you start being told you
may not get to go to church. Well, suddenly we
all became real devoted to the church, didn't we. And
we were we were, we were, we were, we were
aimening like we hadn't before. We were we were on
fire by golly, we'll stand up. But then you just
kind of let us have easy times. Before you know it,
(37:43):
I remember, I saw something careful. Rick. If you've ever
been in a situation where you have tried to put
the work in to study the Word of God and
be prepared to teach it, it gets really aggravating when
(38:06):
the people that you are going to teach don't seem
to care. They drag into the class of eight, not
because of anything important, just because they hung around and
drank coffee a little longer, peddled around out in the lobby,
and you've sitting there and you've prepared this message and
(38:26):
you've got you've got thirty minutes to teach it, and
they walk in about fifteen minutes into it, as if
who cares, cup coffee in hand took time to stop
and get that you knew the running late. And can
(38:47):
I say, as a teacher, that infuriates me because I'm like,
how can you care so little about the unpacking of
the holy Word of God and the hours that the
teacher has spent preparing this to teach it to you,
And that's your attitude about it. That's why when I
(39:07):
look around this room and I see these faces that
come here week after week after week. I'm not talking
about vacation. I'm not talking work. I'm not talking about
being sick, being injured. Ninety percent of this room unless
it is a legitimate excuse, you're here. And I see that,
and I appreciate that, and I can't tell you how
(39:29):
much that encourages me. I know when y'all miss, there's
a reason nobody I will say, I would say almost
one hundred percent now of the people that are devoted
to this every Wednesday, if they miss it was legitimate,
it wasn't because they were just piddling around. And I
really appreciate that. So here is that's why suffering works,
(39:52):
because I promise you, mister, I'm piddling around at the
coffee shop or where they serve coffee and donuts out
in the lobby, when when if those people were in calamity,
they'd be sitting ready to go right when the Bible
studies start hoping to hear from the Lord. I promise
you that you be on time. So so let's go
(40:16):
to eleven. My foot has held fast to his steps.
I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
Look notice steps in way this is what you see,
you know, make watch your steps, be in his way.
You know the part of the Bible, the wisdom literature,
(40:36):
that's what I'm about, the Proverbs and tom the wisdom literature.
You'll find these words a lot there, you know, watch
your steps, be sure you're going his way. It speaks
to God's steps, God's way. Like we said about obedience,
which is what doing God's will, God's way. Job is
saying I've walked in his ways and I'm gonna go
(40:58):
a step further. I haven't just sometimes walked in his ways.
I haven't wavered. He's now throwing his resume. Look, my
foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept
his way, and I have not turned aside. Man, can
(41:19):
I say that about myself? I can't. You know what
I hope to be able to. I've had moments in
my life that I could say that. But do I
consistently do that every day of my life? No? You know,
sometimes I find myself going I know we all think
(41:41):
a long life is a blessing. I'm not so sure
because you have to stay consistent a lot longer, you know,
and and you know, and it made it easier, you know,
I was. I was so glad to be done with
the hormones of a young man. Thank goodness. You know
that's why one thing I like about being older. I mean, hey,
(42:02):
it's still there, but it don't run me like it
used to. You know what I mean. I mean, it's
like I found a little bit of victory over you
know what, good gracious? I mean, you're young man. You
think what the world's going on with me? And if
Satan wants to get me, I know how he's gonna
get me. So Verse twelve. I have not departed from
the commandments of his lips. I have treasured the words
(42:22):
of his mouth more than my portion of food. How
about this, I haven't just I haven't just you know,
followed his steps. I haven't just followed his way. I've
consumed his commandments. I've eaten his word. I've been nourished
by the very words of God. That's what sustains me.
How about you don't don't you love when you finally
(42:46):
get in the word of God? And I just get
so frustrated with the years of my life that I
wasn't when I finally fell in love with the word
of God. I felt so silly that I was ever
interested in anything else to that level. How could I
have been as interested in stupid things as I now
am as interested in the Bible. Those things didn't hold
an ounce of what this is. Those things are fine,
(43:09):
but please don't equate them in your life to be
as important as the word of God. God sent me
an email this week, wanted me to talk about on
the show. On these we do emails on the show,
what do you think about pastors that never make their time?
They're always going over their time. It just frustrates me.
We got plans and things are supposed to do. They
always go over their time. And I said, you be
real careful. I can't believe you care about that that much.
(43:32):
I wonder, whatever it is, would you be upset if
somebody said they've added another SEC game this year now
there's going to be nine? Probably not, but yet you,
I said, you have? You got the clock on the
pastors of that level. Now, Look, I do think that
we should be good stewards of people's time. Like I
(43:53):
don't want to tell y'all good luck getting back to
work today. We're going two hours, okay. I think that
we need to be a good steward of people's time.
But if you're nitpicking the pastor over ten minutes, you know,
five minutes here, fifteen minutes there on the Lord's Day
that you know, God forbid. It's kind of like like
I say about you know, when we started celebrating the
entire month of June, we started selling break sexual deviancy,
(44:16):
and we give the men and women who have died
for the freedoms we have. They get a Monday. I mean,
they get a Monday, Okay, I mean. And so during
the week, you know, you've had all this time to
do whatever you want to do. You've been running around.
The Lord said, could I get a couple of hours
from you on Sunday? And most of the time I
was this way, you ain't getting two hours. I'm either
you gonna go to Sunday school or'm gonna go to worship.
(44:37):
We ain't doing both, you know what I mean. Well, look,
keep in mind, this is a guy writing this email
and the time that Sunday Night service is gone. You know,
Sunday night services all died because nobody will go, you know,
so so and here's a guy going there's no more
Sunday Night, you know, and that's Sunday morning, and I'm
on complain because I keep noticing the pastor doesn't hit
(44:58):
his time. I told you all when Jack, remember Jack
that was here. Now he's had to move for work.
But do you remember Jack came to Christ in this class? Okay?
You remember that brand new had nothing, didn't know anything
about the faith. Nothing was not cultural Christian at all,
was a redeemed real thing. His first experience with Jesus
(45:18):
was hearing the show, ended up in this Bible study
and coming to church with us. Okay, I baptized it.
I'll never forget he used to sit by me at
every service, and I'll never forget when our pastor would go,
I know I'm going over my time and he looks down.
I wanted to cover that. Well, let me just do that,
and he really know to me. He goes, why is
he Why is he not getting to finish his message?
(45:39):
And I said, what do you mean? He goes, well,
didn't he prepare all week for this man? This is
got nothing. He's figured it out. He's only been following
Jesus for a week. Okay, And he goes, I don't
understand why he's worried about Why don't he just finish.
I didn't know what to say to him because we
got to get out of here. I don't know what
to you, Jack, I don't know, you know, He's like,
where we were going, I like to eat, to be honest,
(46:02):
I mean, and uh and and I hope we beat
the Methodists. You know, it's hard to beat them to
the early lunch and and he uh, but but I
mean he really could not. He was not trying to
be provocative. He truly didn't understand it. Listen to the
logic of this. He said, I figure, if the preacher
has prepared a message, shouldn't he just finish it? So
(46:25):
we're not going to get the whole message. He's cutting
it short. And here he was trying to learn everything.
He's like, this is something I don't know. You may
be thinking he's gonna say something you've heard a hundred times.
He didn't say this, but I'm just I'm now paraphrasing.
I guess that's what he's thinking. That y'all may not
care if you don't hear the whole message. I really
would like to hear it. And again, I'm not talking
(46:47):
about Look, we got some people, I mean, they can
pray to the point that you forgot you even praying,
you know you you can quence the Holy Spirit. You know.
I've gone to Men's events before where the praise and
worship team did nine songs nine with Men nine and
all I can think about is what I'm saying tonight
is over. I mean, these men left us about three
(47:07):
songs ago, you know, and then you got to get it.
So you do need There's nothing wrong with being strategic
and being wise and understanding how human beings work. But
if you're clocking the pastor on five to fifteen minutes
a little over on his message, that that's nitpicky, especially
when you wouldn't do that on the things you really love,
(47:28):
you know. I mean, I mean, if your wife said
we're going to have some good evenings together this week,
We're gonna do a bunch of them, I doubt he
would say, nonh, I cut it short, you know what
I mean. So so you know what I mean. It's like,
this is the most important thing in the world, and
you want to be sure that you don't get too
much of this. I don't need to have too much
(47:49):
of this Bible study. So this is what Job is saying.
I have consumed your words. I am nourished by your words,
and now he's getting frustrated thirteen. But he is unchangeable,
and who can turn him back what he desires? That
he does? You know, he's realizing I don't even know
(48:12):
why I'm arguing about this. God's gonna do whatever he's
gonna do. That actually brings me peace, right. I don't
want it to be on me. I mean, I don't
want God. Can you imagine for God to go? I'm
not really sure where to go here. Let's ask Rick,
what do you think I should do? You know? I
mean I don't want that kind of responsibility. I'm flawed. Yes,
(48:36):
I understand it might be frustrating sometimes that you feel
like I can't get God to change. I want to say,
let's sleep in the peace that God's not gonna change that.
God does what he does, because that means what he
does is right. He actually knows more than us. I
know some of us can't wait to tell him what
to do, you know, but he knows more than us.
(49:00):
Who was that that said that? I remember hearing one
time that you know, when we get to heaven, some
people are actually gonna try to tell God what to do.
I should think that was outrageous. Who was it? Was
it Steve? I can't remember who said that. He goes.
The longer I live, I started thinking, I think that
may happen, you know, by watch away people. I think
there's some people think they're really going to say, hey,
now that I've gotten, now that I'm here, i'd like
(49:21):
to I'd like to correct you in a few things. So,
but he says he's gonna do what he's gonna do,
no matter, no matter what I say, you know, and
and and even the fact that he's apathetic is what
job thinks. He's not answering me right now. Well, he's
not answering me, and there's no way for me to
make him answer me. That's true fourteen. For he will
(49:42):
complete what he appoints for me, and many such things
are in his mind. God's decree, my suffering against me
is gonna be completed. And here's what he's realizing, and
we need to realize it too. He's gonna end it
whenever he ends it. I remember that when on my
(50:05):
dad's last day on earth, I remember the doctor trying
to tell me exactly when he was gonna go and
I said, we'll see, he's gonna go whenever the Lord
releases him and draws him to him, he's not gonna
go because when you say he's gonna go, when God says,
And of course he told me he'd be gone in
two hours, and he was gone in about fourteen hours.
So because I knew that something's gonna hang on until
(50:27):
everybody got there, and he did, uh so fifteen Therefore,
I'm terrified at his presence. There you go, when I
consider I'm in dread of him? Doesn't this feel like
a wake up call? You ever were randed on and
on and really randed and al so you stopped and said,
wait a minute, I think I'm I want I want
to take a step back. Now. I'm really starting to
(50:49):
think about if God said to me, okay, hoss, come
face me. And now I'm kind of terrified to thought
of that. Maybe I shouldn't be asking for that. I'm
dreading facing him. And you know, we're going to get
those who don't know the rest of job. Mister. I'mad
(51:10):
at God is going to hear the voice of the
Great I am say, now, who is it that's questioning me?
I'm good? Sorry about that you know what I mean?
You ever, Yeah, that's uh yeah. I remember one time
my little brother he was really really really wearing Daddy
(51:32):
out one time, I mean wearing him out, and didn't
know that Dad was following him. He thought when he
left the room that Dad was still in the room,
and Dad followed him all the way back there into
the bedroom. And about that time, my brother heard the
voice gregor you finished now, And he turned around and
saw Dad and heard everything he said. And I just
kind of did that where you start trying to back out,
(51:53):
you know, the room. I said, I think I'm gonna
leave you with him, But I remember seeing Greg's face.
That's kind of how Joe. Right now, sixteen, God has
made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. Frustration
this is what happened. Look rasee hand of this ever
happened to you. Frustration made you bold, too bold. He's
(52:17):
so frustrated, so frustrated that it has produced a boldness
that is not wisdom. And now he's realizing I have
just stood here and openly demanded God to face me.
Don't do that, okay, don't demand answers from God, because
(52:39):
you may get them right It's one of the things
that you learn anytime you ever sit down with people
and want to get their opinion of you. Remember, if
you decide to ask people questions, they're going to answer them,
(53:01):
So be careful what you ask. Right seventeen Yet, I'm
not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness
covers my face. I feel like I'm in the dark.
(53:21):
I don't understand any of this. But then he comes
back after you know he's considered it all now, and
he basically says, this situation is so bad, I'm not
going to be silent. I want to know. I'm mad
(53:45):
that you want to answer me. I'm terrified that I
just told you to answer me. But it's so bad,
I'm gonna stay with it. I want to know. I
want you to tell me what you're doing. I want
to hear what's going on. You ever had anybody come
sit down and tell you you don't have to know,
(54:05):
this is everything's gonna work itself out. Do you want
to know? You ever been in one of those situations?
Do you really want to know? Be careful when you
answer that question. Have you ever found out something you
wish you had never known? Have you ever been afraid
(54:29):
to ask your kids something because you're afraid they're gonna
answer you honestly and you're afraid of what they're gonna say.
I actually had a situation like this happened in the
last few year where I was talking and I said, look,
it's not gonna change the outcome of anything. There's no
need for you to hear this, the details of all this,
(54:52):
the goriness of it. And the person said I want
to know, and I said, you really don't, You really don't.
Let's just it's not gonna change the outcome. The outcome
is gonna be the same once you get to the
outcome without without going through that hurt. You don't want
to know that. And he said I want to know.
(55:17):
And I said, okay, I'll set the meeting up, and
we did, and I had to sit there and watch
them know, and I think about a quarter of the
way into it, they started thinking, I wish I had
just listened and not not had this meeting, so you
(55:41):
can you can trust and say whatever you do is
write and I know that you're doing this for my
own good. And you know, I thought that, I mean,
I think about the boldness of Paul. I mean, you know,
it's actually quite humble to admit that you're conceded, you know.
(56:03):
And Paul said that this thorn that I begged God
to remove from my flesh. If I remember this from
our study of Second Corinthians, Paul actually knows why God
won't do it. He said, He's doing this because it
keeps me from becoming conceited. You know, that's a lot
to deal with when you've seen God work through you
the way he was working through Paul, and you even
(56:26):
got to see that the third Heaven. You went into
the presence of God and saw heaven, and you've seen
people be healed by your jacket. And you're leading almost
single handedly the entire redemption of the Gentiles, preaching the
(56:49):
New Covenant to them. You're certainly still dealing with the Hebrews,
but you're pretty much the only one going after the Gentiles.
It was a success, tessful ministry, frustrating, but Paul had
been carried through so many things, and how about this,
here's a big one. Even after he ascended, he came
back and appeared to me face to face, terrifying. That's
(57:15):
pretty big, you know. So he knew that it was
for his own good. So maybe sometimes it's better for
us to come to our own conclusion that this is
best for us, as opposed to keep asking God to
show us why we need this, because He may just
(57:39):
tell you or show you and you might not have
wanted to know. Let's pray, Lord, thank you for today.
Thank you for this very honest and all of us
can understand the pleading of job. We can. We're excited
(58:00):
to learn even more. Thank you, Lord for just tolerating us.
That's the mystery. That you tolerate us, that you're so merciful,
and you're so gracious, your judgment, your wrath, worthy of
our fear, that we understand. That makes all the sense
in the world. It's this mercy and grace and you
(58:22):
continue to refine us and teach us and mold us
through this sanctification process, that you just continue to be
there with us. That's what is mind boggling. We're so
thankful for it. Show us your ways. Lord, We trust
you and only you. Thank you, Lord for seeing us
through the difficulties of life and using those to teach
(58:42):
us to make us better. And your holy name, we
pray Amen.
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. We're so thankful that
you are here with us again this week. My name
is Rick Burgess, host of the Rick Burgess Show. That's
my day job, do that Monday through Friday. To find
out more about the weekly show, you can go to
rickburgesshow dot com. The Wednesday Bible Study is part of
a larger men's discipleship strategy. You can access that strategy
(00:23):
at the manchurch dot com. We are a resource for
men's ministry, providing individual resources for men, forty week curriculum
for small groups, and also speakers for your gatherings and
your your events. We do conferences for men all of that,
so you can find that full service at the manchurch
(00:44):
dot com. If you're having a hard time establishing a
men's ministry and your church or your community that is sustainable,
we are here to help. And boy, can we send
you to some some references two to see what two thousand,
five hundred and thirty something churches now all across the country,
(01:04):
so there's a lot of people you can talk to,
many of them, you know, four some five years into
the strategy. So if we can help you in any way,
let us know a couple of new things to consider.
One is a brand new resource for men and individual resource.
Really men are women. We're getting a lot of really
great reviews from women who are reading this particular book.
(01:27):
It's called Men Don't Run in the Rain. It was
an honor to write this book to honor my dad.
I was fortunate enough to have an outstanding father who
was not perfect by any stretch, but had wisdom almost
like you wouldn't even try. And so we go through
a lot of the things that he taught me and
(01:47):
give you biblical application. You can find that wherever you
get books, and we do have it at the Manchurch
dot com as well. Also, I want to talk to
you about a brand new podcast. This podcast is focused
on spiritual warfare. It is called Strange Encounters. We really
prayed about this and the folks at Blaze TV wanted
(02:08):
us to consider it. There's a lot of obsession out
there with the supernatural, a lot of it unhealthy. But
so what we wanted to do is give some biblical clarification.
If you want supernatural, the Bible's got all you can stand,
but you need to understand angels, demons, this spiritual battle
(02:28):
that's going on all around us and see if we
can't help you discern that, and also be careful with it.
We don't want you obsessing over it. But sadly, when
you look at the Western Church, there's an incredible amount
of ignorance involving this as well, and it's rarely ever
spoke of. So we do that on the podcast Strange Encounters.
You can follow that podcast and find it to wherever
(02:49):
you get podcasts. Just look for Strange Encounters with Rick Burgess.
So we're continuing now our study through the Book of Job.
Today will be in Job chapter twenty three, read a
very provocative book of the Bible. We are learning a
lot and today we will continue that study. If you've
missed any of it, go back and get the archives
(03:09):
at Themanchurch dot com. You'll see a little drop down
menu there you can watch or listen to those archives.
You can also access Bible studies pasted over the last
decade if you so desire. So let's open up in
a word of prayer, Lord, thank you for today help
us to properly discern the power of your Holy Word,
through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we walk
(03:30):
through this next chapter in this historical interaction between you
and a man named Job and his friends. And Lord,
may we learn from it in your holy name, we
pray Amen. All Right, So we're gonna Last week Elafhaz
had his last thing to say, He had nothing new
to say. He even started contradicting himself and kind of
(03:54):
started reaching a little bit. So you're not even going
to see Job acknowledge elfas at all. He's not even
going to respond to it. He's gonna he's gonna take
his attention. He's going to focus off his friends and
he's going to focus on God. Now, this is going
to be a lot to ponder as we go through this,
(04:15):
because maybe some of you in the room may be
your teacher. Maybe some of you that are watching and listening,
you've been here, and what you're going to find now
is you're going to find a man who has no
doubt that God is real. You're a man who has
walked with God, who completely believes in God. But it's
(04:38):
becoming frustrated with God. He is. He knows he's innocent,
he knows what his friends have said that that does
not apply to him. And he's gone as far as
to say, I'm not sure that applies period. Based on
what I've seen, I think our theology is flawed. And
now he is going back to what he's done a
(05:00):
few times, and he's going to cry out to God.
And he's becoming frustrated. I'm not going to use another
word he is. He's becoming frustrated with what he is
interpreting or considering is a better word. God's apathy with
(05:21):
all this. Why don't you You don't really seem to
care about this, and I can't get you to answer me.
I can't get any guidance from you. I just feel
like I'm out here floundering. My friends aren't helping me.
If you sent them to me, they didn't. They're not
following your instructions. And I don't know really where to turn.
I don't know what we're doing here, and I don't
(05:42):
fully understand why this is happening. I'm not going to
even acknowledge what this eliphast has said. And uh. I
long to hear from you. Uh. And it doesn't seem
that I can find you. Where are you? Maybe you've
(06:03):
been there, you know. I can recall some of the
calamities of my own life, and we all got them,
you know, it's it's a part of the fallen creation.
And usually, if if usually the more severe the calamity,
the quicker we want answers. Uh you know, the quicker
(06:25):
we want to understand it. And God doesn't operate that way,
and and to try to get him to is is
kind of a waste of time. Though he does hear us,
and now you will find throughout scripture. I'm thinking of Jeremiah,
who just got at the end of his rope. I'm
(06:47):
thinking about Elijah. Uh So I want you to know that,
I mean, you got we got to handle it the
right way. God is not afraid of our complaining. He's
not afraid aid of our questions. He's not afraid of
our frustration because he's been there as long as he's
(07:08):
been dealing with human beings, He's dealt with it. And
some of the people that he has used in some
of the most powerful ways are people that at times
just became exhausted with what he had called him to
do and just asked him to let up. You know,
I even think about in the New Covenant, the Apostle Paul,
you know, Second Corinthians of the Thorn in the Flesh.
(07:30):
You know, we studied that here Paul got to understanding
it pretty quick, but there was definitely a time when
he said, I have pleaded with God about this, and
I think that one of the hardest parts of the
relationship with this one and only living God is to
understand that he's not the problem that we are the
(07:53):
reason why we can't. The day's coming is going to
be changed for the redeemed. But this, I mean we
had him. We we there was a time we could
walk with him, you know, in the cool of the day,
and we we messed that up. And because of his holiness,
there's a distance now now through Jesus. You know that
(08:15):
that that chasm. You know, we're back connected through Jesus
and the Spirit of God. But but our intimacy with
God is still not what it's going to be because,
as we've said, if you have repented of your sin,
you have left faith in yourself, put your faith in Christ.
(08:37):
You have left your own authority, and you have confessed
that Christ is now your authority. You have entered that
narrow gate. You are pursuing Christ. You've you've you've been justified.
And now is that wrestling match of sanctification, which is
just a mess. I mean, it is a frustrating process,
(08:57):
and that's what we're in right now. And but there's
gonna come a day you can't forget that when we're
gonna be glorified, And oh how long for that day
when when this flesh is just finally over the flesh
as it continues to fight for its life through the
(09:17):
sanctification process. Is so frustrating. And I find myself much
more frustrated with my flesh than I do God. But
you can understand that when you're in situations like Joe,
when you can't quite put your finger on why this
is being allowed and you want God to answer it. Now,
(09:40):
remember this will help you a little bit with Joe.
Before we're ready to say, well I thought he was, well,
just hang on we now. I'm holding up the Bible
for those of you that can't see it. We have this.
I can't tell you that most of the time when
I find the answer from God, I find it in
here because He's already said it. Job didn't have that.
(10:02):
So anything Job's going to get from God has got
to come from God. Uh, nobody has. God hasn't finished
his revelation about himself. So Job doesn't have it, but
we do so a lot of times we could, we
could end a lot of our frustration if we would
just learn the word of God. Because I can't tell
you how many times I've been in a situation I go, well,
(10:24):
according to this, this, this in scripture, this is what
God's doing right here, you know. And so he starts out,
we're going to change the speaker as we do in
verse one. Then Job answered, and remember he didn't answer elphas.
He's just gonna answer, he said, today, Also, my complaint
(10:45):
is bitter, and my hand is heavy on account of
my groaning. Remember he's he's had a bitter and he's
used these terms bitter and complaint back in chapter seven two,
verse eleven. And here it is again. Now I will
tell you that when you have the Hebrew here and
(11:07):
and the translator trying to translate it into English, him
using this Hebrew word that seems to be interpreted into
English as his as his hand, it's it's problematic. Uh.
The the commentators, you know, they say, really, yeah, the
Hebrew word here is hand. But when you try to
(11:29):
say in English what he's saying, it's really more likely
that he is saying that that his hands are just heavy,
that they're they're they're they're not. The feeling on him
is not just his hands, It really should be that
his whole body. He just feels like that, that there's
just a heaviness of an oppression that's on him on
(11:52):
account of these groanings. I think what he's saying here,
the most clear interpretation is this suffering and the groaning
has gone on so long. I can't even really lift
my hands anymore. I can't. I can't get myself going.
You ever had that feeling depression come on you and
(12:14):
you just don't You just don't think you can get going.
And he's saying, I don't think I can. I can
continue with this much longer. I'm having a harder time
as time goes on of trying to put on a
good face about this, right, I mean, I know my
first thought every time I'm in difficulty is how long
(12:36):
am I going to be here? You know? I was
reading I'm reading a book right now from a neurosurgeon,
Lee Warren, and it's it's really a fascinating book. It's
called I Have Seen the End of You. And what
he's talking about as as a follower of Christ as
a neurosurgeon, and it guess is applied to any physician.
(13:00):
But when you're dealing with the brain, when when they
call the brain people in, it's it's a biggie, you know.
And uh, you know, you call the orthopedic in, it
may not be it may be a mild inconvenience. When
you you called the brain people in, it it's big.
And And what he's talking about is knowing who God
is and understanding that and praying for these patients. He said,
(13:23):
But then when that MRI and and that scan comes
up and I see the most aggressive form of cancer,
I can't pronounce it that has practically a zero survival rate,
and I see it. He and that's where he got
the term. He said, I've seen the end of you.
You know, it's it's over and and he goes and
I and every time I see this, it's over and
(13:47):
and it's talking about his ongoing struggle and these patients
he meets. Well, one time he was trying to figure
out a patient and he met this devout family of
faith and he said, you know, I felt pretty certain
by what I was hearing that when I got in there,
it was not going to be good. But he said,
(14:08):
because I looked at the scan, and he said, the
whole brain was just covered in cancer. And he said,
and it just came from a sinus scan guy being
considered for sinus surgery. And the doctor the NT knew
enough he could see a little bit of the brain
and the scan he said that the brain doesn't look healthy.
Something that would look right, and so he called him in.
(14:31):
So when he goes in to simply get a BOPS,
he said, you know, I was accustomed to the nobody panic,
could be an infection. Let me get in there. I'll
get a biopsy, and let let's not get ahead of ourselves.
And he said, as soon as he went in, the
brain was in such bad shape that the attempt to
get the bop sye it just started falling apart and
just started rupturing everywhere. And the guy died just from
(14:54):
him trying to get the BOBS. And so he goes,
I go back in and and I have to tell
the family, and he says, I start then start questioning myself,
where did I mess that up? Should I not have
tried that? He goes before the peer board, They clear him.
Everybody says, this is the procedure. Nothing you could have done.
The brain was in such bad shape the minute you
(15:16):
went to touch it. This was gonna happen. Nobody who
did it. And what you were doing is what we do.
It's the protocol. So he's been cleared of all that
and he hears that this family wants to meet with him,
and he goes, well, here we go. He said, this
is where they're going to wear me out. And he's
dreading it. And he gets all this stuff together to
try to show them what he went through and all
(15:36):
this and try to and he sits down and they're
sitting around him, and he said, they begin to thank him,
and he said, okay, and then he realizes they're not
blaming him at all. And what they said was, we
want to tell you the prayer that we prayed. The
(15:57):
wife with the husband, the dad with the son, the
mom with the son, the kids said, you know, he
was a devout foller of Christ. He has a brilliant mind.
He loves to read, he loves to do research. And
he prayed that if he is terminal, we prayed to
God that he die soon, and we prayed that he
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not go over the two to three year period of
getting where he can't eat, he can't read, he can't
do anything. It's a miserable ride to the finish. And
we just prayed that if it was terminal, that God
would be gracious and he would die quick and he
would die peacefully. And all you did was put him
(16:40):
to sleep to take the biob see, and he woke
up in the presence of Jesus. And I want you
to know, that's what we prayed. So basically, weren't you
weren't involved in this, you know, the Lord answered our prayer.
But what it was in that case, it was not
going to be long. He shortened it because he was
going to end up at the same place, you know,
(17:00):
because this was not a brain that was going to
have any chance of survival. So that's always it, isn't
it if we're going to be in for a long haul.
I mean, if we were honest, we would say, Okay,
if I'm gonna if I'm gonna suffer for you, I'm good.
But I hope it ain't long, you know. And so
(17:20):
this is where Job was saying, I just I'm having
a hard time keep coming up and keeping this good attitude,
which he's kind of losing, And he said in verse
three old that I knew where I might find him
tell Hi about God, that I might come even to
his seat. Okay, now watch you a little bit here.
(17:42):
So we've seen this in chapter six, verse eight, chapter eleven,
verse five, Chapter fourteen, verse thirteen, Chapter thirteen, verse twenty three,
this longing of job to find God. And you know
what he's saying. Have you ever had this happen? I
bet every hand and here we go up, and I
(18:03):
bet every hand out there we'll go up. If you're driving,
don't do it? Okay? Have you ever just said I
just wish I didn't have to keep trying to figure
this out. I wish I could just sit down with
you and talk. Yes, how quick you'd get to the
answer you're looking for if you could just somehow say,
can I just pull up a chair? I mean, I'd
(18:23):
love to just look at you. Okay, I've been made
fully righteous by Jesus, if he'll come with me, because
if not, your holiness will kill me. I wish that
I could just sit here with you and you just
tell me what you're doing. I'd love to hear it
straight from you. And that's what he's said, of course
(18:43):
he's going to get an encounter with God that's coming up,
that he's gonna kind of rethink this verse four. I
would lay my case before him and watch out here
and fill my mouth with arguments. Now, I think sitting
down and listening is a better way to go about
it as opposed to sitting down and arguing to argue
(19:05):
with God, which who told us this? This is We's
already covered this. He said that you're wasting your time
arguing with God. But here he said, I want, I
want to state my case to you, and I would
like to argue with you about my innocence. Now, don't
miss that. That's a big one to hang on to,
because where Job is a little bit flawed in this.
(19:29):
It is true that he's not being punished because of
his wickedness, but it is not true that he's innocent.
Nobody's innocent in front of God, not even Job. Okay, Now,
Job is gonna get a clarification on this that's coming
from God, and he's gonna, by the way, he's gonna
(19:50):
get his moment with God. And I think what we
should all say is to be real careful what you
hope for. Okay, and so job is getting, he getting,
he's in a little bit. I remember, you don't know
if your daddy ever told you when you started maybe
going after you're going through puberty and you started getting
a little bit of a little cockiness to you, And
my daddy would tell me, now, look now, don't don't
(20:12):
don't so don't let that mouth write a check now
that the rest of you can't cash. You know it,
And you know it's just just be real careful with that.
And so as my daddy told me, And guess how
easy God could say this boy, you ain't lived long
enough to handle me. You know what. I didn't know
what he meant, But now it's sixty the way I
(20:33):
look at young people, I know exactly what he was
talking about. You know, there's an old man's strength that's
not in the weight room, is it? So? So I would,
like he said, I wouldn't know what he would answer
me and understand what he would say to me. If
God answers my questions, then I will finally know what
(20:53):
is going on. Okay, there's one way I would know,
if God would just answer me. How many of you
have have thrown prayers and thrown prayers and thrown prayers,
and it just I'm hello, I'm not, I'm not helloh nothing,
nobody's on the line. And but see, I want us
(21:17):
to understand take away from the study this week. Just
because you haven't heard an answer, Please don't ever equate
that with he didn't hear it, Because he heard it.
He absolutely heard it. So we go to six. Would
he contend with me and the greatness of his power?
(21:38):
Now this is watch out. Now, I would not be afraid.
You know why, he says, I'm not. I wouldn't be
afraid because I know I'm right with him. I don't
have anything to be afraid of. Well, I guess you don't.
You you're confident that he's not against you. But we
always should fear God. Uh. You know, if let's look
(22:03):
at the Gospel of John. If you got you can
flip over there real quick to the New Testament. And
some of you saying, Rick, I'd like for us to
get back to the New Testament at some point that
was that was a good run. Here we've been. We've
been hanging out here in the Old Testament for for
for years now. So so go to John chapter two,
and then I want you to look at verse twenty eight.
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I'm sorry, not verse twenty eight, I think, because there's
not twenty eight verses into what was There goes my
penmanship again. So this is oh, I know, no, it's
First John. Okay, it's First John. I know what this
is talking about. Now, No, this is talking about the redeemed.
And this is one of the beautiful things about the redeemed,
(22:49):
the right of Hebrews. Remember we stood of Hebrews talked
about this too in Hebrews ten thirty one, that those
of us that have been redeemed, you know, we don't
we don't have to shrink back at the presence of God.
I mean, I know that Job's trying to say that.
It's not exactly the same thing. But if you remember
(23:10):
and when Paul, I mean, when John is taking on
the Gnostics, do y'all remember this, and he says, looking
twenty eight of First John, Chapter two, twenty eight, and
now little children abide in him, so that when he appears,
we may have confidence and not shrink from him in
shame at his coming. So this is kind of where
(23:31):
Job is. He's like, if I'm innocent, I really don't
have anything to fear standing before God, and I got that.
And you see there's in the New Testament if you've
been redeemed, because listen, think about it. If you're redeemed,
the coming of the Lord is something to celebrate. If
you're not, and you've been just saying I got more time,
(23:55):
I got more time, I got more time, and suddenly
here he comes that you're not celebrating because that means
the grace age is over and now here comes the
King who will judge all those who rejected him. So
that is that's not the same confidence. And then and
(24:18):
we were studying Hebrews and it's in ten thirty nine,
but we are not of those who shrink back and
are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve
their souls. So yeah, that's kind of it's Old Testament.
But that's kind of what job is kind of banking on.
(24:40):
But can I tell you this in the New Covenant,
you can count on it. You've been made fully righteous,
if you've been redeemed fully righteous. The coming of the
Lord should be something that we look forward to, not
something we shrink back from. So seven, they're an upright
man could argue with him, and I would be a
quitted forever by my judge. I will tell you I
(25:05):
would be acquitted by God. If I got to stand
in front of him, I would be acquitted by God.
I can't seem to find God. Look at look at
look at eight. He says. Behold, I go forward, but
he's not there. And backward, but I do not perceive him.
I can't find God. Where is he? I can't find
(25:27):
him anywhere. I can't find him to the east or
the west. I can't find him to the north, to
the south. And I am And I'm telling you, if
I could get in front of him, I would be
acquitted because I am innocent. Do you ever ever feel
that way? I can't find him. I'm searching, I'm crying out,
(25:49):
I'm pursuing. I can't find God. I don't know where
he is. Will always know if you are redeemed, he
is not abandon you, you know, just just his presence.
You've got to trust that he's there. He even tells
(26:10):
us that he's near to the broken hearted. So if
you know, I don't. I don't know. Apparently Job didn't
didn't have Ps. Thirty four or eighteen, But we do,
uh and and we know that he's near to the
broken hearted. So if you're hurting and you're struggling, you
know what, you can bank on that he is near.
(26:30):
He may not have revealed himself to you, you know
what I would like to suggest, coming from someone who
makes this mistake all the time, So don't sometimes just
shut up, stop pleading, start, stop crying out, and just
rest and be still and know that he is God.
(26:51):
That's right out of scripture too, you know. I remember this.
This is when when we we we did something that
I you know, I don't talk about it as much
when I'm preaching, and maybe I should because it's such
a wonderful moment. It's one of the things, you know,
(27:13):
that we dealt with at you know, with the death
of our youngest son, was that he died in the
swimming pool on our property at our house. I mean,
I still see it every day. I went to that
same pool yesterday and backwashed and wrenched it and go
out there and scoop stuff out of it all the time.
But it doesn't bother me. And the reason why it
(27:34):
doesn't bother me is that that pool don't belong to
the devils as much as he is. He he thought
it would that pool's not going to represent death. So
one of the things that we did, because we trust
the Lord, is we when when Brodie decided and fully
understood about repentance and decided to follow Jesus and was redeemed,
(28:00):
is that we decided that he'd be baptized in the
very pool where his brother died. We're gonna take that back.
So when I go out there, I don't just see
the death of one of my children. I also see
the saving of another one. And ultimately, I mean, even
Brauner left that place right into the presence of the Lord.
And so when Sherry decided to do that, she took
(28:24):
all these balloons and they were white, and she worked
even within the she's allergic even two balloons, but she
didn't care. And she put a Bible verse in every
one of them, and there was healing put in them.
And then when after he was baptized, we released these
different promises of God. Well they they all went except one.
(28:47):
And one of them popped when she was trying to
get them set up, and it popped, and she was like,
well that one popped, and she looked and the verse
was laying there, and she picked it up. And it
was the verse of God saying I will fight your
battle for you. Just be still and know that I'm
that I am God. And she just said, well, there
it is again. And so this is one of those
(29:10):
things that when you say you can't find God, that
just isn't true. You may not be getting the sign
you're looking for. But he is not a bandaging He
has not abandoned, he's not gone. He is in the
middle of all this, right in the middle of it,
whatever it is. So so then we get to ten,
(29:31):
and now Job's going to double down on his innocence,
and he says after eight and nine that he goes forward,
he's not there nine on the left hand when he
is working, I do not behold him. He turns to
the right hand, but I do not see him. That's
that north south east west ten. But he knows the
(29:52):
way that I take. When he has tried me, I
shall come out as gold. You know, I still believe
even though I can't seem to find him and I
can't seem to hear from him, I still believe that
he can see me and he knows the truth. Can
I ask you this? And it's been one of the
(30:12):
hardest things for me this year. This has been a
terrible year. On this. Is God knowing the truth enough
for you? Or do you just have to be vindicated before? Man?
What if God said to you, I know that you're
right in the conflict that you're in. I know what
people say about you is not true, But it is
(30:34):
me knowing that enough for you. What if I told
you that you're going to be misunderstood by these people.
There'll never be a moment on earth where you have
your glorious vindication and all the people that have said
bad things about you, and all the people you've been
in conflict, they never on this side of heaven are
(30:54):
ever proven wrong, and you never get to have your day.
But I know the truth? Is that enough you? Yeah?
I have struggled with that for seven full months and
some change. Is that enough? I'll have to get back
(31:18):
to you on that. I'm working on that. But but
but that that's that's really job is like you almost
you almost said, but I want everybody this accused me
to know. But I know that God knows. So I
know that if I had this trial, that God's gonna
(31:40):
say that I was innocent, that this this suffering that
he's causing is for some other reason, not because I'm wicked,
I know that, But you know what he's thinking. I
just kind of wanted to be said out loud. I
want I want God to speak for me, and and
he wants that moment. And he's saying, look at this,
(32:03):
this is faith though he is showing a tremendous amount
of faith right here. Here's the three things he's saying.
God knows my situation. God is testing me, and I
will emerge a better man. He knows the way that
I take. When he has tried me, I shall come
(32:24):
out as gold. Now hang on, hang on, all right,
and you boy, y'all going to say a lot of
you who have known me for a long time, you
know exactly where I'm headed. Because you're like, if he
reads First Peter one one more time, But I am
going to because did you hear him using the gold
I come out as gold and all that? So one
(32:46):
Peter Chapter one, This use the first verse I send
people when they're crying out, why am I in this
difficult situation? Peter? Remembering First Peter, he's talking about persecution
of the church. Second Peter out for false teachers. The
first Peter is, hey, the outside world, they're coming after us.
And remember when we study this, literally was happening to
(33:08):
the church when you had you know the Romans, I
mean you got, I mean you got. It's just complete
all out persecution. Nero is a madman. Okay, he's rounding
them up and he's killing them. He's lighting his streets
with the bodies of Christians. You're sitting in your house
like right now. And first Peter, we'd be sitting just
(33:32):
like this and hoping we didn't hear this, and a
knock on that door could be they're gonna kill all
of us. And so here's what here's what Peter said
in this You rejoice though now for a little while,
if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so
(33:53):
that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold,
may perry, though it be tested by fire, may be
found a result in the praise and the glory and
the honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And here
we are in the Old Testament, sitting here with Job
(34:14):
and his words are But he knows the way that
I take. When he has tried me, I shall come
out as gold. Can you say God knows my situation.
God is testing me and the harder one. I will
emerge a better man, I will emerge a better woman.
(34:37):
Whatever the case may be, I'll be better for it.
I'm better for it. I know some of the difficulties
that everybody in this room has been through. Those of
you that emerge from it, you're better. I would say
that you're more devoted to Jesus than you were before it.
(35:01):
Me too, So eleven, look, let me just tell you
hard truth. Okay, just take it with you. I'm sorry.
I wish this wasn't the case. The reason why God
keeps using suffering is it works. It's effective, It gets
the job done. We are too stubborn and too sinful
(35:24):
to just get in line without discipline, without correction, without difficulty,
without refinement. You know, I was talking to somebody just
the other day. I'll be very vague, but it was
beautiful and this person had been through a very difficult
(35:48):
thing in their marriage, very difficult and clear attack. Well,
now the marriage is flourished. I mean, it's more powerful
than ever, not better than anything they've ever known. And
(36:11):
we were we were discussing this at one point and
we both agreed. I said, you know, Satan had been
better off he just left your marriage alone. It really
wasn't all that great, y'all. Both were apathetic, just going
through the motions. And he's so stupid that he got
(36:32):
played again by God by being allowed to attack your marriage,
and it saved it. If you just left you alone,
you probably wouldn't have made it. That's why. That's why
it works the church. And when you know, when the
church is the least effective, when it's not being persecuted,
(36:54):
it becomes a social, spiritual social club where people just
out of meander around, get to see each other again. Here,
here are things they've probably heard before from the preaching.
And then the small groups glad to see each other
and they worry about where they're going to lunch, and
they checked that off the list. But now if it
comes into persecution, go back to nine to eleven, go
(37:17):
back to the pandemic. When you start being told you
may not get to go to church. Well, suddenly we
all became real devoted to the church, didn't we. And
we were we were, we were, we were, we were
aimening like we hadn't before. We were we were on
fire by golly, we'll stand up. But then you just
kind of let us have easy times. Before you know it,
(37:43):
I remember, I saw something careful. Rick. If you've ever
been in a situation where you have tried to put
the work in to study the Word of God and
be prepared to teach it, it gets really aggravating when
(38:06):
the people that you are going to teach don't seem
to care. They drag into the class of eight, not
because of anything important, just because they hung around and
drank coffee a little longer, peddled around out in the lobby,
and you've sitting there and you've prepared this message and
(38:26):
you've got you've got thirty minutes to teach it, and
they walk in about fifteen minutes into it, as if
who cares, cup coffee in hand took time to stop
and get that you knew the running late. And can
(38:47):
I say, as a teacher, that infuriates me because I'm like,
how can you care so little about the unpacking of
the holy Word of God and the hours that the
teacher has spent preparing this to teach it to you,
And that's your attitude about it. That's why when I
(39:07):
look around this room and I see these faces that
come here week after week after week. I'm not talking
about vacation. I'm not talking work. I'm not talking about
being sick, being injured. Ninety percent of this room unless
it is a legitimate excuse, you're here. And I see that,
and I appreciate that, and I can't tell you how
(39:29):
much that encourages me. I know when y'all miss, there's
a reason nobody I will say, I would say almost
one hundred percent now of the people that are devoted
to this every Wednesday, if they miss it was legitimate,
it wasn't because they were just piddling around. And I
really appreciate that. So here is that's why suffering works,
(39:52):
because I promise you, mister, I'm piddling around at the
coffee shop or where they serve coffee and donuts out
in the lobby, when when if those people were in calamity,
they'd be sitting ready to go right when the Bible
studies start hoping to hear from the Lord. I promise
you that you be on time. So so let's go
(40:16):
to eleven. My foot has held fast to his steps.
I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
Look notice steps in way this is what you see,
you know, make watch your steps, be in his way.
You know the part of the Bible, the wisdom literature,
(40:36):
that's what I'm about, the Proverbs and tom the wisdom literature.
You'll find these words a lot there, you know, watch
your steps, be sure you're going his way. It speaks
to God's steps, God's way. Like we said about obedience,
which is what doing God's will, God's way. Job is
saying I've walked in his ways and I'm gonna go
(40:58):
a step further. I haven't just sometimes walked in his ways.
I haven't wavered. He's now throwing his resume. Look, my
foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept
his way, and I have not turned aside. Man, can
(41:19):
I say that about myself? I can't. You know what
I hope to be able to. I've had moments in
my life that I could say that. But do I
consistently do that every day of my life? No? You know,
sometimes I find myself going I know we all think
(41:41):
a long life is a blessing. I'm not so sure
because you have to stay consistent a lot longer, you know,
and and you know, and it made it easier, you know,
I was. I was so glad to be done with
the hormones of a young man. Thank goodness. You know
that's why one thing I like about being older. I mean, hey,
(42:02):
it's still there, but it don't run me like it
used to. You know what I mean. I mean, it's
like I found a little bit of victory over you
know what, good gracious? I mean, you're young man. You
think what the world's going on with me? And if
Satan wants to get me, I know how he's gonna
get me. So Verse twelve. I have not departed from
the commandments of his lips. I have treasured the words
(42:22):
of his mouth more than my portion of food. How
about this, I haven't just I haven't just you know,
followed his steps. I haven't just followed his way. I've
consumed his commandments. I've eaten his word. I've been nourished
by the very words of God. That's what sustains me.
How about you don't don't you love when you finally
(42:46):
get in the word of God? And I just get
so frustrated with the years of my life that I
wasn't when I finally fell in love with the word
of God. I felt so silly that I was ever
interested in anything else to that level. How could I
have been as interested in stupid things as I now
am as interested in the Bible. Those things didn't hold
an ounce of what this is. Those things are fine,
(43:09):
but please don't equate them in your life to be
as important as the word of God. God sent me
an email this week, wanted me to talk about on
the show. On these we do emails on the show,
what do you think about pastors that never make their time?
They're always going over their time. It just frustrates me.
We got plans and things are supposed to do. They
always go over their time. And I said, you be
real careful. I can't believe you care about that that much.
(43:32):
I wonder, whatever it is, would you be upset if
somebody said they've added another SEC game this year now
there's going to be nine? Probably not, but yet you,
I said, you have? You got the clock on the
pastors of that level. Now, Look, I do think that
we should be good stewards of people's time. Like I
(43:53):
don't want to tell y'all good luck getting back to
work today. We're going two hours, okay. I think that
we need to be a good steward of people's time.
But if you're nitpicking the pastor over ten minutes, you know,
five minutes here, fifteen minutes there on the Lord's Day
that you know, God forbid. It's kind of like like
I say about you know, when we started celebrating the
entire month of June, we started selling break sexual deviancy,
(44:16):
and we give the men and women who have died
for the freedoms we have. They get a Monday. I mean,
they get a Monday, Okay, I mean. And so during
the week, you know, you've had all this time to
do whatever you want to do. You've been running around.
The Lord said, could I get a couple of hours
from you on Sunday? And most of the time I
was this way, you ain't getting two hours. I'm either
you gonna go to Sunday school or'm gonna go to worship.
(44:37):
We ain't doing both, you know what I mean. Well, look,
keep in mind, this is a guy writing this email
and the time that Sunday Night service is gone. You know,
Sunday night services all died because nobody will go, you know,
so so and here's a guy going there's no more
Sunday Night, you know, and that's Sunday morning, and I'm
on complain because I keep noticing the pastor doesn't hit
(44:58):
his time. I told you all when Jack, remember Jack
that was here. Now he's had to move for work.
But do you remember Jack came to Christ in this class? Okay?
You remember that brand new had nothing, didn't know anything
about the faith. Nothing was not cultural Christian at all,
was a redeemed real thing. His first experience with Jesus
(45:18):
was hearing the show, ended up in this Bible study
and coming to church with us. Okay, I baptized it.
I'll never forget he used to sit by me at
every service, and I'll never forget when our pastor would go,
I know I'm going over my time and he looks down.
I wanted to cover that. Well, let me just do that,
and he really know to me. He goes, why is
he Why is he not getting to finish his message?
(45:39):
And I said, what do you mean? He goes, well,
didn't he prepare all week for this man? This is
got nothing. He's figured it out. He's only been following
Jesus for a week. Okay, And he goes, I don't
understand why he's worried about Why don't he just finish.
I didn't know what to say to him because we
got to get out of here. I don't know what
to you, Jack, I don't know, you know, He's like,
where we were going, I like to eat, to be honest,
(46:02):
I mean, and uh and and I hope we beat
the Methodists. You know, it's hard to beat them to
the early lunch and and he uh, but but I
mean he really could not. He was not trying to
be provocative. He truly didn't understand it. Listen to the
logic of this. He said, I figure, if the preacher
has prepared a message, shouldn't he just finish it? So
(46:25):
we're not going to get the whole message. He's cutting
it short. And here he was trying to learn everything.
He's like, this is something I don't know. You may
be thinking he's gonna say something you've heard a hundred times.
He didn't say this, but I'm just I'm now paraphrasing.
I guess that's what he's thinking. That y'all may not
care if you don't hear the whole message. I really
would like to hear it. And again, I'm not talking
(46:47):
about Look, we got some people, I mean, they can
pray to the point that you forgot you even praying,
you know you you can quence the Holy Spirit. You know.
I've gone to Men's events before where the praise and
worship team did nine songs nine with Men nine and
all I can think about is what I'm saying tonight
is over. I mean, these men left us about three
(47:07):
songs ago, you know, and then you got to get it.
So you do need There's nothing wrong with being strategic
and being wise and understanding how human beings work. But
if you're clocking the pastor on five to fifteen minutes
a little over on his message, that that's nitpicky, especially
when you wouldn't do that on the things you really love,
(47:28):
you know. I mean, I mean, if your wife said
we're going to have some good evenings together this week,
We're gonna do a bunch of them, I doubt he
would say, nonh, I cut it short, you know what
I mean. So so you know what I mean. It's like,
this is the most important thing in the world, and
you want to be sure that you don't get too
much of this. I don't need to have too much
(47:49):
of this Bible study. So this is what Job is saying.
I have consumed your words. I am nourished by your words,
and now he's getting frustrated thirteen. But he is unchangeable,
and who can turn him back what he desires? That
he does? You know, he's realizing I don't even know
(48:12):
why I'm arguing about this. God's gonna do whatever he's
gonna do. That actually brings me peace, right. I don't
want it to be on me. I mean, I don't
want God. Can you imagine for God to go? I'm
not really sure where to go here. Let's ask Rick,
what do you think I should do? You know? I
mean I don't want that kind of responsibility. I'm flawed. Yes,
(48:36):
I understand it might be frustrating sometimes that you feel
like I can't get God to change. I want to say,
let's sleep in the peace that God's not gonna change that.
God does what he does, because that means what he
does is right. He actually knows more than us. I
know some of us can't wait to tell him what
to do, you know, but he knows more than us.
(49:00):
Who was that that said that? I remember hearing one
time that you know, when we get to heaven, some
people are actually gonna try to tell God what to do.
I should think that was outrageous. Who was it? Was
it Steve? I can't remember who said that. He goes.
The longer I live, I started thinking, I think that
may happen, you know, by watch away people. I think
there's some people think they're really going to say, hey,
now that I've gotten, now that I'm here, i'd like
(49:21):
to I'd like to correct you in a few things. So,
but he says he's gonna do what he's gonna do,
no matter, no matter what I say, you know, and
and and even the fact that he's apathetic is what
job thinks. He's not answering me right now. Well, he's
not answering me, and there's no way for me to
make him answer me. That's true fourteen. For he will
(49:42):
complete what he appoints for me, and many such things
are in his mind. God's decree, my suffering against me
is gonna be completed. And here's what he's realizing, and
we need to realize it too. He's gonna end it
whenever he ends it. I remember that when on my
(50:05):
dad's last day on earth, I remember the doctor trying
to tell me exactly when he was gonna go and
I said, we'll see, he's gonna go whenever the Lord
releases him and draws him to him, he's not gonna
go because when you say he's gonna go, when God says,
And of course he told me he'd be gone in
two hours, and he was gone in about fourteen hours.
So because I knew that something's gonna hang on until
(50:27):
everybody got there, and he did, uh so fifteen Therefore,
I'm terrified at his presence. There you go, when I
consider I'm in dread of him? Doesn't this feel like
a wake up call? You ever were randed on and
on and really randed and al so you stopped and said,
wait a minute, I think I'm I want I want
to take a step back. Now. I'm really starting to
(50:49):
think about if God said to me, okay, hoss, come
face me. And now I'm kind of terrified to thought
of that. Maybe I shouldn't be asking for that. I'm
dreading facing him. And you know, we're going to get
those who don't know the rest of job. Mister. I'mad
(51:10):
at God is going to hear the voice of the
Great I am say, now, who is it that's questioning me?
I'm good? Sorry about that you know what I mean?
You ever, Yeah, that's uh yeah. I remember one time
my little brother he was really really really wearing Daddy
(51:32):
out one time, I mean wearing him out, and didn't
know that Dad was following him. He thought when he
left the room that Dad was still in the room,
and Dad followed him all the way back there into
the bedroom. And about that time, my brother heard the
voice gregor you finished now, And he turned around and
saw Dad and heard everything he said. And I just
kind of did that where you start trying to back out,
(51:53):
you know, the room. I said, I think I'm gonna
leave you with him, But I remember seeing Greg's face.
That's kind of how Joe. Right now, sixteen, God has
made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. Frustration
this is what happened. Look rasee hand of this ever
happened to you. Frustration made you bold, too bold. He's
(52:17):
so frustrated, so frustrated that it has produced a boldness
that is not wisdom. And now he's realizing I have
just stood here and openly demanded God to face me.
Don't do that, okay, don't demand answers from God, because
(52:39):
you may get them right It's one of the things
that you learn anytime you ever sit down with people
and want to get their opinion of you. Remember, if
you decide to ask people questions, they're going to answer them,
(53:01):
So be careful what you ask. Right seventeen Yet, I'm
not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness
covers my face. I feel like I'm in the dark.
(53:21):
I don't understand any of this. But then he comes
back after you know he's considered it all now, and
he basically says, this situation is so bad, I'm not
going to be silent. I want to know. I'm mad
(53:45):
that you want to answer me. I'm terrified that I
just told you to answer me. But it's so bad,
I'm gonna stay with it. I want to know. I
want you to tell me what you're doing. I want
to hear what's going on. You ever had anybody come
sit down and tell you you don't have to know,
(54:05):
this is everything's gonna work itself out. Do you want
to know? You ever been in one of those situations?
Do you really want to know? Be careful when you
answer that question. Have you ever found out something you
wish you had never known? Have you ever been afraid
(54:29):
to ask your kids something because you're afraid they're gonna
answer you honestly and you're afraid of what they're gonna say.
I actually had a situation like this happened in the
last few year where I was talking and I said, look,
it's not gonna change the outcome of anything. There's no
need for you to hear this, the details of all this,
(54:52):
the goriness of it. And the person said I want
to know, and I said, you really don't, You really don't.
Let's just it's not gonna change the outcome. The outcome
is gonna be the same once you get to the
outcome without without going through that hurt. You don't want
to know that. And he said I want to know.
(55:17):
And I said, okay, I'll set the meeting up, and
we did, and I had to sit there and watch
them know, and I think about a quarter of the
way into it, they started thinking, I wish I had
just listened and not not had this meeting, so you
(55:41):
can you can trust and say whatever you do is
write and I know that you're doing this for my
own good. And you know, I thought that, I mean,
I think about the boldness of Paul. I mean, you know,
it's actually quite humble to admit that you're conceded, you know.
(56:03):
And Paul said that this thorn that I begged God
to remove from my flesh. If I remember this from
our study of Second Corinthians, Paul actually knows why God
won't do it. He said, He's doing this because it
keeps me from becoming conceited. You know, that's a lot
to deal with when you've seen God work through you
the way he was working through Paul, and you even
(56:26):
got to see that the third Heaven. You went into
the presence of God and saw heaven, and you've seen
people be healed by your jacket. And you're leading almost
single handedly the entire redemption of the Gentiles, preaching the
(56:49):
New Covenant to them. You're certainly still dealing with the Hebrews,
but you're pretty much the only one going after the Gentiles.
It was a success, tessful ministry, frustrating, but Paul had
been carried through so many things, and how about this,
here's a big one. Even after he ascended, he came
back and appeared to me face to face, terrifying. That's
(57:15):
pretty big, you know. So he knew that it was
for his own good. So maybe sometimes it's better for
us to come to our own conclusion that this is
best for us, as opposed to keep asking God to
show us why we need this, because He may just
(57:39):
tell you or show you and you might not have
wanted to know. Let's pray, Lord, thank you for today.
Thank you for this very honest and all of us
can understand the pleading of job. We can. We're excited
(58:00):
to learn even more. Thank you, Lord for just tolerating us.
That's the mystery. That you tolerate us, that you're so merciful,
and you're so gracious, your judgment, your wrath, worthy of
our fear, that we understand. That makes all the sense
in the world. It's this mercy and grace and you
(58:22):
continue to refine us and teach us and mold us
through this sanctification process, that you just continue to be
there with us. That's what is mind boggling. We're so
thankful for it. Show us your ways. Lord, We trust
you and only you. Thank you, Lord for seeing us
through the difficulties of life and using those to teach
(58:42):
us to make us better. And your holy name, we
pray Amen.
Host
Rick Burgess
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