September 3, 2025 • 58 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. Grateful that you are
here with us again today, and we have a lot
to cover. If you want to go ahead and turn
to where we're going to be, we'll be in Job
chapter twenty nine today, Job Chapter twenty nine. If you're
just joining this Wednesday Bible Study, we are working our
(00:20):
way through the Book of Job, word for word and
line by line, and it has been quite a journey.
Still a good bit left in the journey, but if
you have missed some of the others, you can always
catch the archives. The archives are found at Burgessministries dot
com by clicking on listen, or you can go to
(00:42):
Themanchurch dot com and use the media button and you
can listen or watch. We did find out that we
add ar that YouTube sometimes if you're going to the
video now the audio you can find them all. But
the video options apparently only go back so far, and
so I think we were discovering that may only go
(01:05):
back to like twenty eighteen, and so once these start
timing out, unfortunately, looks like the video archives start to
fade away, but the audio archives are always there, so
so the audio is is not going to have some gaps,
but you on the video option you may go back.
You know, if you go plus eight years back, you
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probably not can't find those anymore. But anyway, there's We've
been doing this for a decade and we've studied many
books of the Bible. We've studied some commentaries from other
other writers as well, so if you want to do
that you can also The manchurch dot Com is a
hub for men's discipleship. We do that in a number
(01:48):
of ways, but the formula is high Challenge. Nothing new there.
That's been around for a while, but we tried to
fill a gap that has been talked about but usually
just talked about, and that is the disciples part of
the equipping High Challenge followed by high equipping. Our High
Challenge is in the form of conferences. We'll be announcing
our twenty twenty six dates pretty soon and those tickets
(02:10):
are about to go and sell, but also in the
form of just individual churches doing events where our speakers
go and speak at Man Church services, wild game fees,
sports nights, whatever, and we send men out to do
that too. You can find all those by looking at
events at the manchurch dot Com. The high Equipping is
in the form of forty week curriculum. We have six
(02:33):
of those, so you could literally be in six years
of discipleship with just a turnkey approach. At the Manchurch
dot Com. We also do the equipping in the form
of individual resources for men to consume on their own
or maybe with their sons or just a couple of guys.
Those are in the forms of thirty one and forty
day devotionals, but also in the form of our brand
(02:55):
new full length book called Men Don't Run in the Rank.
So there's all the inform about the Manchurch dot Com.
Go there and we're happy to help you and just
continue to just be encouraged day by day, week by
week from the over twenty five hundred churches that are
using these holy spirit inspired you know, resources, but also
(03:20):
the strategy and just hearing the testimonies all over the country,
not just with individual men, but as we should know,
if you reach the man, you reach the family, you
change the dynamic of I mean, we've had churches saying
this has changed our entire environment here at the church
because the men got serious about growing spiritually and knowing
(03:42):
the Word of God. So we're going to jump into
today's study and if you want to turn with us
Job twenty nine. Lord, thank you for today, thank you
for the encouragement that we continue to receive. Thank you
for you know, forgive us, I would say, for being
surprised when we see transformation, when your word clearly says
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those that truly abide in You will be transformed. And
so we know this is the power, this is the source.
It comes from you. Lord. May we approach it today
expecting you to teach us, expecting you to grow us,
expecting you to confront us. We all need a confrontation
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with you. And Lord, we thank you for the patience
and the grace and the mercy that you've shown us,
and the love that we can never ever reciprocate. We
look forward to the day that our sanctification battle ends
and we are finally glorified, but we help us and
the time of the battle between the flesh and the spirit.
(04:46):
And for those out there that have yet to begin
that journey because they're lost, may today be the day
of salvation and your holy name, we pray. Amen. Okay,
So what is job twenty nine all about? Now? Jobs
the floor? Now, no one's interrupting him anymore. He has
the floor. So he is continuing to to to talk
(05:10):
and we talked about last week, which I don't know
about you guys and all of you out there, men
and women. I got so much out of that on
this this pursuit of wisdom, and even my wife and
I discussed over the weekend, you know, we we were
discussing that Job last week says that wisdom is found
exactly where Solomon tells us that it's found fear of
(05:30):
God doing what he says, and you know, we begin
to think, you know, did did Solomon have access to
this book? I mean did did he? Did he have
access to Job? Uh? Is did he see that? And
like a lot of us say, let me go test
to see if that's true, and and then to come
back and say, you know what, it's absolutely true? Or
did Solomon find it out on his own? And the
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answer is the same for all who seek wisdom. But
it was an interesting conversation. You know, it's the Book
of Job is an enigma. Uh. There's a lot to
talk about on where it came from, who wrote it,
But at the end of the day, we know the
Lord intended us to find it, or we wouldn't have
found it, and there's so much here. So now we're
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going to go from this pursuit of wisdom and we're
going to now, how many of you have ever you know,
not many Bible studies will ever use commentary from Bob Seger?
And rightfully so, how many of you from me? With
the Bob Seger song like a Rock? And what's Bob doing?
He's reminiscing on the good old days? Man. I was
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something to see. You know, if y'all want to stick
around afterwards, I'll tell you about my days in football
seventy five. I was something to see. Y'all missed it.
I hate you missed that. But you know how you
look back and you go, I remember my glory days. Now.
It's sad if looking back consumes more of your time
than looking forward. But you know, one of the things
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that big decisions I just made in my life is
when I took that principle that i'd heard from more
than one person. I don't know who to credit it with,
that says, you know, if if, if your if your
memories begin to exceed your future plans, you're on the
wrong track. And and and I had gotten to that point,
and and so I definitely got on a different track professionally.
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I'm not talking about spiritually, but you could say the
same thing spiritually. You could say, you know, some of
us have been talking about that mission trip for about
twenty years. We had done anything else. Uh So, but
what you're going to see right now is you're going
to see Job looking back, say, I remember before this
happened to me, my life was pretty good. I remember
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when everything between me and God seemed to be right.
Uh And and so you're gonna you're gonna catch that
now you In verse one, notice that the writer says,
and Job again took up his discourse and said and
and and and and said so so it's almost like
when when we look at some of the common and
(08:00):
Terry's a lot of discussion is it's almost like Job
is now saying things, maybe pausing looking at the three friends.
They're like, we got nothing else, and he just goes on.
Then he may be stopping to see him I got
any comments on that, and him I got any questions?
And you know I've done that. This is a lecture format,
(08:20):
so we don't do it in here, though in our
early days people attempted to do it here. But we
had to say, okay, let's let's let's save the questions
still after But have you ever been in a situation,
a smaller group where you're teaching and you do go
to the floor and say any comments, any questions, and
if you get nothing, you're kind of like nothing, Okay,
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we're moving on, right. And I've even looked at you
guys sometimes when we get into complicated stuff and say,
are y'all tracking with me? And and you know, sometimes
you nod your head, other times you look completely lost,
But I appreciate that, So no, I always look to
see if you're with me. And I know that hopefully
I can get this stuff down to where even I
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can understand it, so that means you should be able
to as well, because I'm not a very high goal.
So we know he had the floor. He's keeping the
floor now in verse two, and he says, old that
I were as in the months of old, as in
the days when God watched over me. I just wish
I could go back to that. You know where I
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am right now. I yearn for the bliss of yesteryear
when God watched over me. Now what does he also say?
Unlike now, I don't know where he's gone, but I
long for the days when I knew where he was
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and he watched over me, and he blessed me, and
he took care of me. And you know, we've had
some conversations, we've all talked. I want to warn you,
as your brother in Christ, until that, just to my
opening prayer, until that day of glorification. Don't you think
you're exempt from this feeling. I don't care how long
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you've been a follower of Jesus. I don't care how
long you've been redeemed. I don't care how intimately you
think you know God. In this falling creation, in this
falling body, there still comes those times where you feel
like I don't I've kind of gone a little dry here.
I'm in the desert, I'm in the wilderness. My wife
(10:30):
has this beautiful, beautiful message that she wrote and put
together that she has been using at women's conferences, and
we call it her Wilderness Message, and it is so
beautifully done. She's not as rough around the edges as me.
She's very eloquent. And it is an incredible discussion about
those times when you feel like I'm in I'm in
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the wilderness, and you know I was just talking to
a brother before we started. We all know this. There
are times that God allows us little room, but we
always have to ask the hard question. If I don't
feel close to him, have I moved, Maybe I've drifted.
Maybe I'm not into word like I was. Maybe my
prayer life's got a little got a little dry. Maybe
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I'm maybe I'm going through the motions. I'm not really
seeking anything. I've made the one of the worst mistakes
you can make in life, but definitely in your spiritual life,
to do what I'm good. I think I've done enough
to go to heaven. Don't think I'm going to Hell.
I'm gonna knock it out of gear and see if
I can't maneuver the rest of this my life and
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just kind of hold right here dangerous. You know what
I call that, grossly underestimating your opponent. You know, as
I as I've told you guys, you know, the prayer
that I pray most every day is the prayer against
my biggest enemy, which is me, my apathy, my flesh,
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my my distractions. So right now Job is yearning to
be close to God, and really he's saying being blessed
by God. Like he once was in verse three, when
his lamp talking about God shone upon my head, and
by his light I walked through darkness. I don't have
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any direction from him right now. I remember when I
had direction from him. Anybody ever been there? You ever
asked for direction on something and you just don't think
you're getting it. And those of you that may be
new to all this, let me tell you what don't do.
Because those of us have been at this a little longer,
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we've made the mistake. So let's keep you from making them.
If you don't, if you don't feel direction and you've
been praying for direction, don't just drudge ahead. Just wait,
just wait, just just hold on, you know, don't go. Well,
I didn't get that when I wanted it, so I
guess I'll do this now. There are timelines that come,
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and sometimes you have to go to just what you
already know and say, I think I can make a
decision because you've already told me this. But there's nothing
wrong with waiting and just holding what you got until
you get a little more clearer direction. And I'm telling you,
if you'll do that, it will usually come by being
the form of a person that walks up and said, hey,
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I'm I want to share something with you. Go that's
what I was looking for right there. Thank you. I
needed that. Or maybe you read something in scripture that
you may have even known and forgot about or didn't
apply it the right way, but always always look for
that direction. But what job is saying right now? You know?
The Lord's gentle guidance? I once had and I don't
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have it now, And oh how I yearned for the
times that I had it. I remember when I knew
exactly what to do, I knew what I was doing,
I knew why I was doing it, and I've lost
all that I have. No, I don't got it. I
don't have any idea what's going on. And I yearned
for that. You know, sometimes I think that the Lord
lets us sense that that stuff has gone away, so
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we will yearn for it again, because, let's face it,
we're just so prone to wonder, aren't we We're just
so prone to take him for granted. We're just so
prone to it. And sometimes God loves us enough to say,
let me show you what it's like to yearn from
me again, and uh, and you usually get back to
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it pretty quick like I said, we were saying today
we were talking about with nine to eleven coming up again,
the anniversary, we're talking about the day job. I do
a radio show during the week, and we were discussing
how the churches were packed, you know, and we were
talking about the reasons, you know, and and I don't
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don't when the churches were packed, fellow Americans, I don't
want you to confuse that with patriotism. There was a
lot of patriotism then, but that wasn't why of the
churches were packed. The churches were packed because people were afraid,
and they were yearning for the assurance of God, and
He loved us enough to let us all be terrified,
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and a lot of people were redeemed because they were afraid.
Now it didn't take long, did it, for the attacks
to stop? And then all of a sudden, those same
pews got available again, same chairs got available again. Now
sometimes you know, there might be some new faces in there,
but then some faces that had been there they left.
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But as anybody been to a church, it was packed
wall to wall. Lately, I have it not like that,
not like nine eleven was so so it doesn't take
us long to go back but he wants this guidance,
and then he goes to four. And this is what
reminds me of the Bob Seeger song. As I was
in my prime when the friendship of God was upon
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my tent man. I recall my prime when I could
relax and I could reflect, and I had a close
friendship with God. I yearn for the good old days.
Now do we sometimes yearn for the good old days?
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And we do some sort of pr trick on the
good old days? And if you really remember them correctly,
they weren't quite as good as you thought they were,
or remember them being you kind of elevated them a
little bit. And I remember hearing this from an older
gentleman one time, and it's when I was working labor
and Greg had told me this that he heard it
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of my brother when he was working with guys doing
blue collar stuff when he worked for the power company,
and he said he heard someone say, I remember when
a Coca Cola was a nickel, and one of the
guys Greg worked with, see yea, I remember that too,
and I couldn't afford one. Now they're a dollar, and
I didn't drink all of my want. You know, it's
all relative. You know, it might have been a nickel,
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but a nickel was hard to come by. Uh when
they cost to nicola. We we forget that part. Uh.
And and so so when you when you look at
this though, he says there was a time and he
and he's referring to it as his prime, that that
was the prime of my life. Uh, when when I
was able to to be to have a friendship with God,
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it was upon my house and I and I felt
so comfortable, and I was I was being so blessed
by God. I had such a peace that I could
just relax, reflect and just enjoy my friendship with God.
I didn't have all this dress, all this agony, all
this pain. And he yearns for those days. Remember, he's
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thinking God has abandoned him. Verse five, When the Almighty
was yet with me, and this one hurts, when my
children were all around me. I remember when my children
weren't dead. I remember when they were all around me.
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I remember when when the Almighty was yet with me.
Now see, he's assuming that the Almighty is not with
him now, and he knows something's up, and he doesn't
know why God's punishing him like this. Now, remember the
beautiful thing that we've watched all through the Book of
Job is never once does Job blame Satan for what's
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happening to him. He knows God's in charge of this somehow,
and he knows God's doing it or allowing it whatever
you're more comfortable with. And and and He's like, but
I just I want an answer from him. You know,
we covered that. I want to know. But right now,
I'm just going to reflect on what I didn't have
these questions, all my questions were answered, and my children
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were around me. I'd like to go back to that.
You know, have you ever had something like that? And
you go, Man, if I could just go back and
you know, and and just remember that. And and a
lot of times, especially when you have people that you
love are no longer here, or maybe you've gone through
what Job's going through, and you had children that died
before you, which is one of the most unnatural things
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one can experience, is that I'm at my child's funeral.
He's not at mine or she's not at mine, and
and I know what, We've got people in the room
that have been through that, and I've been through that,
and sometimes those those Flashiels flash will just come and say,
you know what, I wish I could go back to
that child was still here. I wish I could go
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back to how that felt to know my whole family
was with me. We didn't have this kind of duress.
We didn't have that. And what you have to be
careful of there, you have to be careful of there. Now. Look,
I know just I'm not being heartless here. I'm just
telling you you have to be careful to to just
take all the things that were accomplished in this thing
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you want to erase from your life and go back
like it never happened. You're also going to take all
the blessings that came from it, all the things God
taught you from it, all the things that glorified God
in it. And what you're really saying is I'll throw
all those away just to have my kid back. To
be careful with that, because I look at all the
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things that were accomplished in that, and I don't really
want to take those back. I'm not saying this is easy.
I'm just talking about difficult things. I got that, but
that really is the truth, and I cling to that
sometimes because I saw things get accomplished in the difficulties
of my life, including like some of you in here,
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the death earthly death of a child. But things were
accomplished in that that weren't going to be accomplished any
other way. You know, why, why why did my spouse
go before me? Well, God, God certainly wasn't surprised by that.
And if you say I'd like to have my spouse back,
we'll be careful because if you start pulling for that,
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you're also saying I want to erase everything God's done
through this and how dependent I've become to him, how
much better I know him. I don't want to give
those things back. That's the reason why every time somebody
comes to me and says I'm in difficulty, What advice
can you give me? I say, my first piece of
advice is, don't waste it? Man, I mean, man, don't
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make this count you. You find out everything God's teaching
in it, and you you, you, everybody of that, and uh,
it's beneficial. That's why he allows it, That's why he
causes it, because it works so anyway. But you certainly understand,
you know, do I still miss my child? Of course
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I do. Do I like it. I don't as my
wife said, can I argue with the results. I can't
argue with that either. I would have done it differently,
but I probably wouldn't have done it and produced as
much fruit as it has, you know, I can't argue
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with that. I think he knows what he's doing, and
I know that reunion is coming on God's time and perfection,
and I'll take it. It's one of those things that I,
you know, and be careful when you're talking about sickness.
You know, just the other day, and I won't name
any names, someone had lost their spouse who was very,
very sick, and the quote was, you know what, some
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days I would just take them back just like they were.
I understand that sentiment, you know. But so you want
them to come out of perfection and glorification so they
can be with you sick again, I don't think so. Yeah,
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I kind of feel good for them. I look forward
to going where they are. I don't want to pull
them back to where I am, you know. And so,
but he's obviously still in early morning and certainly understandable
that he wants to look back on when his children
were still around him. That's perfectly understandable. Verse six, when
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my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured
out for me streams of oil. So remember this God,
God has has not abandoned him. He thinks he has.
My children are gone. God's gone. But I remember when
they both were around me. Now six oil and cream.
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When you look at this, what he's talking about is
this wealth. They were in abundance. These are always tokens
in this time period of wealth and comfort. And what
he's really saying is, I remember when I had an
easy path. I didn't have a whole lot of difficulty
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maneuvering through life. It was greased with butter. Oil was
rolling out for me. I had wealth, I had comfort.
I had an easy way. Now, you know, we know
an easy way can be a blessing in a moment,
but an easy way isn't always the best way. Now, now,
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don't don't don't get you know, try to be some
doomsday person. If God offers you a period of time
of peace and and and wealth and and and and
health and and and life seems to be going easy,
we'll enjoy it. But don't ever think it's gonna be
like this for the rest of your life. But also
be grateful for the times that has been. I've had
times that my life was everything seemed to be. I mean,
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it was all coming together, baby, and I enjoyed it.
I did, and and on good days I have now
I still enjoyed them. But you know, there's been so
many things that have happened in my life. Now I
no longer hold them in high regard because I know
they're just moments. And as Solomon taught us, it's just vapors.
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It's that it's not what last, but they can be blessings.
So certainly enjoy it. Now he's going to talk about
he had also a place of honor before all this was.
He was held in high regard in the community. And look,
he says, here when I went out to the gate
of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square.
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Now understand Job had. We've learned a lot, and we're
gonna learn more today. I mean a lot. Job was
a very big deal in his community. He was the god.
Don't picture him as just a guy who was wealthy
and whatever. It was more than that. I mean, if Job,
(25:44):
You'll see, if Job walked into the room, he would
come command the floor. We'll see how Job feels about it.
So he was not a influential guy. He was the
influential guy in his community. And when you talk about
and you know, if you had a place at the
gates of the city, that meant that you served on
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a court that made decisions. This was a position of
honor and prestige to have a seat at the city gate.
Not everybody had a seat at the gate, but Job did.
And you're gonna find out that even when he got
in with the bunch that had the seats at the gate,
he was the most important person at the gate. And
he says, I remember that, look what he says, an ate.
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The young man saw me and withdrew, and the aged
rose and stood. Well. So if you were some young
whipper snapper and you thought you were really something, and
when Job walked into the room and you're like, hey,
let me ease over here to my seat, Job, don't
think I'm trying to take your spot. He was revered
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by the aged, and he was feared by the young.
You don't want to be on the wrong side of Job,
you know, if if you ever it always loved to
watch these young bulks when they think there's something. And
then some some older aged guy comes in there and
kind of puts them in their place. Feels good, doesn't he?
I like watching that? And you know they they kind
of you say it out in the in the in
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the wild. You ever seen you ever seen that young line.
And he thought he was ready to take to take
the leader of the pack. He did, he thought he
was ready. He thought he'd got there. And the old
man just whips him so bad. And then what does
he do. He just takes his head, He puts his
head down and goes, hey, I don't want any more
of this. And he'll ease back over in his spot
in the pack and say sorry about that. That's on me.
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I thought I was ready, and and so this is
he said. Young men treated me like that. They did,
they didn't want they didn't think they were ready for me.
And and and the aged that. When I now think
about this, it's one thing to say that young people
respected you. The older men respected I mean they they
stood when he when he came in. So that that
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remember what I'm telling you, He's not just a guy
who was influential in a group. He was likely the
most influential of the influential. Young and old respected him
and they stood in the honor of my presence, or
they withdrew in the honor of my presence. And I
remember that, and I miss that. I miss that prestige.
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I miss that honor. Nine the princes refrained from talking
and laid their hands on their mouth. Wow, even the
nobles wouldn't say anything bad about me. They would rather
cover their mouths than to speak ill to Job. And
he says, you know, they wouldn't say a bad word
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against my character, and they wouldn't say an unkind thing
about me. Even the nobles respected me. So really, you
can't find anybody in the community that didn't respect Job.
And now here's what he's saying in front of his friends.
And now here I am listen to y'all bad mouthed
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me and run me down. And now I'm nothing in
this community. I'm a wretch. And I miss the good
old days. I miss those. Now, let me caution us again,
don't waste time that you could be learning about the
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situation you're in reminiscing about the good old days. You
know that this is not a good example, you understand it,
But you gotta deal with what you're in right now.
And I also don't want us to fall victim to thinking,
especially in this room, because of the time of the
day we do it. Most everybody in here we're a
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little bit older. We've got a few exceptions, but the
majority of us are as old as me or older. Okay.
And where we got to be careful is not to
get so caught up in this good old days thing
that we think we're done. Everything I could do for
the Lord is in the past. No, it really how
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you finish and what you're doing now. I would go
as far as to say, if you've got your mental
and physical health, you got more freedom now than you've
had at any period of your life, and you ought
to be. With all this gray hair in here, we
are to be smarter than we used to be. We
are to have more wisdom than we once had. We
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have more to bring to the table now than we've
ever had. No offense to the young people, y'all are coming, okay,
But but just just by the years that we've been here, now,
I've I've been around some pretty old men that that
I'm shocked at how stupid they still are. But but, but, but,
but what I'm saying is we've we've you know what.
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What does the farmer's insurance guys say, we know a
thing of two because we've seen a thing or two. Right, So,
so there's something to that. And and and I think
we should learn from that. Now. I admit that I
think that a lot of this wisdom has been disrupted
by the invention of things like viagra. I think that
just just when we finally got to the point that
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we had our wits about us, somebody goes and get
some medication and cranks a bunch of old men up.
And now they're out doing stupid things in their old
age when they finally had some peace, you know what.
And so so I but but but I will tell
you there's a reason that some of that stuff starts
winding down, so we won't be so stupid, you know.
And and so I mean it don't it don't run
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us like it once did, right, okay? And and so
so there there's that there's a lot of wisdom that
comes with a lot of clarity. I mean, I'm not
even joking, there really is. And and and so don't
squander looking back on the good old days when God
said I got something I want you to do right now,
Even in the diffaul culty, I'll let you be in
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so verse ten, the voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouth.
Their silence honored him. Sometimes he walked in there where
a bunch of nobles were, and they would just be
quiet because of honoring him. And he said it was
as if they couldn't even speak when I came into
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the room. Do you all agree that he's not just
one of the influential, He may be the most in
this particular area. When the ear heard it, called me blessed,
and when the eyes saw it approved. Man. Let me
tell you something, I was in good standing with everyone.
My name when people heard it was a blessing. And
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when people saw me, they approved of the way I lived.
If you heard my name, they wouldn't have a bad
things said about me, And if you saw me walk
into a room, you would say, that's a good man
right there. Remember I talked about a lot we do
this with the man church, the term god fearing man.
Do you remember that said that this room's got enough
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ag in it that you probably did hear the term
that's a god fearing man. And there was no greater
compliment than any man in the community you could ever
be given. Hey, son, you see mister so and so
over there, that's a god fearing man right there. Job said,
everybody saw me as a god fearing man. They saw
me as a man of high character. I wonder now
if we have a generation that is even cares to
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be called a god fearing man? Is this a term
we even use anymore? Because that was one of the
things that if it was said about you, it meant
you had wisdom enough to fear God. You had wisdom
enough to be right with God, and you weren't stupid,
and you didn't lack wisdom. You lived a life that
was honoring to God. I don't even hear that phrase anymore.
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Maybe we should bring it back. And how many god
fearing people do we even know? Not god believing, god
fearing I know a lot of God believing people, but
I only know a few god fearing people. And Job
obviously passed that test and of public scrutiny verse twelve,
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because I now he's gonna talk about why he was
honored because I delivered the poor who cried for help
and the fabulous who had none to help him. You
know why I was honored because I took care of people.
I didn't just keep it for myself. I didn't just
take all these the wealth that I didn't take all
of this. I used my influence for good. I didn't
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usually just to blow myself up. You know, when there
were orphans, I took care of them. When they were widows,
I took care of them. Everybody did just honor me
because of my wealth. They honored me because of my actions,
because of the way I actually lived. And you know,
like we've said a thousand times, but it's worth repeating again,
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what we really believe is what we actually do. James
talks about this. It's not about earning redemption. It's just
saying that there's no way for you to truly experience
redemption and fruit and not be flowing. Works not be flowing.
It's the proof of redemption. And so, you know, like
I've said a hundred times, but it's worth saying again
because it's been a while. If I told y'all, I
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was concerned that this bottle was going to fill me
with microplastics, And every time you see me, I'm drinking
one of them. I don't think I really fear that
or or believe that, because if I believe that this
bottle of water was going to kill me, you wouldn't
see me sitting here drinking it. So I might tell
you I believe it's going to kill me, But you say,
but I watched the way you live. You don't really
believe it because you drink bottle of water all the time.
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So I think sometimes people say, well, I hear you
talking about that you believe in God, and I hear
you talking about that you fear God, and I hear
you saying you're a follower of Jesus, and I hear
you talk about how you have some reverence for the
teachings of Jesus, but I don't ever see you live
them out. So I don't think you really believe it,
because if you believed that, you would actually do it. Right.
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Remember my famous example of the guy about the mission
trip and who was saying that he didn't have to
go to the ends of the earth to do the
work of God, he could do it right here in
his own city. You remember that, which he's right, He's
one hundred cent right, And he pointed across the highway
at the apartment complex y'all remember that one. And so
I made the mistake of asking him what he was
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going to do for the apartment complex, what his game
plan was, and he didn't. He didn't have one. He
wasn't going to take care of the apartment complex. He
was diverting and making excuse for not doing ministry. What
he didn't want to do is do ministry. Said he
didn't want to travel to the ends of the earth
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and he wasn't required to, which is not And he said,
I told my kids, you know, we ain't gonna pay
for that trip. We can go right over here and
minister this apartment complex. And I said, so tell me
how you did it. What's your plan. We're gonna do
a block party. We're going to door to door. He
had no plan, and listen to this, and he never
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did it. So he didn't really believe that because he
didn't do it. He didn't do anything. And that's what
he really wanted to do, was nothing. So this is
the same thing we see here. He said, I didn't
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just you know, have good a good reputation. There's a
reason I had good reputation because I didn't just say
somebody should take care of those widows, and somebody should
take care of those orphans, and somebody needs to do this,
and somebody needs to do that. I actually did it.
So these things people were saying about me, they were
actually true. So but by the way I lived my life,
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you know, Jesus even tells us that. And that's the
Matthew seven. You know we always said, oh no, Matthew seven.
But really all he's saying is, if you want to
know who's with me, just watch them. If they're not
obeying my father, they're not with me. They say anything,
say they're doing this in my name, and they've done
all this in my name, and this is going on.
But if you don't see them obeying the will of
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my father, they're not mine. All kinds of people talk
about me, watch what they do, and then you'll know.
So he says, I've done this, and then and then
look at thirteen. The blessing of him who was about
to perish, came upon me, and I caused the widow's
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heart to sing for joy. When men were dying, they
came to me, and you know what, I said, your
family will be taken care of. I was a comfort
to the dying and I assured them before they died
that their wives and their children would not be left
with nothing. Because you realize in the culture here we're
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talking about, even though Job is not a Hebrew, you know,
Job is a gentile, but even in this culture, it
still was pretty common that women didn't really have any standing.
If you don't have a husband and you don't have sons,
you got nothing. And so when these men were dying,
what would they say, just like us now with life
insurance or you know, a will, what we want to
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know that if we die first, that our wives and
children are going to be all right. You know what?
Job said. They would come to me because I gave
them peace, that they could die in peace. Their family
be fine. I'll take care of them. Fourteen. I put
on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like
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a robe and a turban. He was clothed in righteousness.
What did that mean? You know what it meant if
you came to him on a deal or your case
came before him. He always was fair, he said, you know,
I didn't do anything that wasn't just. I didn't do
anything that wasn't fair. I treated people fairly based on
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the situation I was always just in whatever my ruling was,
I was fair to everyone. I didn't tilt the scale
toward people of influence versus people that maybe didn't have
as much influence, or our family versus another family. I
was always just. I was always fair, and righteousness flowed
from me. It was all I always judged correctly, inspired
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by God. And then fifteen he said, I was eyes
to the blind and feet to the lame. I took
care of those who were blind and lame. I guided them,
and I gave them support. What's one of the things
the foreshadowing Jesus said to look for? He said, I
want to look for how you treat the least of these?
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What about people that are blind and lame? Do you
just disregard them? Do you notice them? Do you help them?
Because the way you treat them is the way you
treat me. You know what, Job said. I was always
there to help those that needed help. If they had
physical elements, I'd be their eyes. If they couldn't walk,
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I'd be the person to take them where they needed
to go. I provided what they needed. So then he
goes and he says, I was a father to the needy,
and I searched out the cause of him who I
did not know. How about that I was a father
to the fatherless. Number one, I was a father to
the fatherless, the father to the fatherless. You know what else?
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He said, If you were a stranger and you were lost,
you don't know what's to doue, I'd help you. I'd
guide you. I'd help you get to where you were going.
Even if I didn't know you, I would still help you.
If you had a need, I'd guide you. So you
see the kind of man that job was. And so
you also can kind of understand why this has been
so difficult for him to hear from people that were
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supposedly his friends and knew him. Well, he's really saying,
I long for the days when everybody believed this about me,
And I don't know why you don't believe it now,
and it's all been thrown away. And I yearned for
the day when all the things y'all should know about
me y'all agreed. But you don't anymore. You don't agree
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with this anymore. And then he said, in seventeen, I
broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop
his prey from his teeth. What a visual, he said,
I rescued victims. If Job would have been seeing what
was going on with the human trafficking we see now,
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Job would have had a ministry that went inside the
sex trade, and he'd be delivering people out of it,
those of you that that had become prey to the unrighteous.
I will make sure they drop you out of their teeth.
I'll rescue you from the unrighteous. I'll help you to
be just pray to the predators in our society. Pretty
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good resume from Job. Then he goes on and he says,
I want to paint a picture of the rest of this,
but the bottom line, when we let's take this and
apply it to ourselves at the end of this list,
here's what we would say. Job was tender, he was generous,
he was a man of service, he was a man
(43:38):
of justice, and he was a man of bravery. That's
a good list. So now he says, and because of this,
I remember when I had an anticipation of a peaceful
death Verses eighteen through twenty. Then I thought, I I
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shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my
days as the sand. You know what I thought I
would live a really, really long life, and I thought
I would die peaceful death, and that doesn't seem to
be happening. I thought i'd have a lot of years,
and I thought i'd just kind of fade peacefully away.
(44:22):
And here I am apparently dying younger than he thought.
He thinks he's about to die, and it's not peaceful
at all. I'm dying sooner than I thought, and I'm
dying in a much worse way than I thought. I'm
suffering Verse nineteen. My roots spread out to the waters
(44:43):
with the dew all night on my branches. Thought I'd
be nourished, thought I'd be healthy. That's what these roots
are an example of. I really thought that I would
live a life that would be healthy. I wouldn't be sick,
I wouldn't be decrepit. I wouldn't be sores all over me.
I wouldn't be, you know, scratching myself with broken pieces
(45:06):
of pottery. I really thought that my roots would be
nourished all the way until the day of my death
Verse twenty. My glory fresh with me, and my bow
ever knew in my hand. I thought I would die
with honor, with my strength and my resilience until the
(45:29):
day I died. I did not think I would die
diseased and wasting away. You know, you remember even hearing
about Abraham, how Abraham seemed to have his vitality, you know,
(45:49):
all the way to the end, and job was like,
I kind of thought that would be me. I thought
I would have honor. I thought I would have strength.
I thought that I would be resilient until one night
when I went to sleep and the Lord would just
take me. But that's not what's happening. That's not what's happening.
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And here's one thing that is gonna be tough. Now, guys,
now listen up, and ladies that are watching and listening,
here's where it gets a little tough. Are you starting
to think that you might be delusional about how you're
gonna die? Because I think I have I think I'm
gonna go. But God may say, well, that's not my
(46:39):
plan for you. Are Do you trust me enough that
however you go, that's good enough for me? Is that
good enough for you? I don't want to lay in
the bed and suffer and God may say, yeah, but
I need you to. I don't. I don't want to
be sick in the world say, but I need you
(47:00):
to Your sickness is how I'll be glorified. I don't
want to be in an accident. I don't want to
be paralyzed. Maybe I need you to be And see
what Job was saying? He said, I thought I knew
(47:22):
how this was gonna go, and I was wrong. Is
that good enough? I mean, we are we gonna cut
deals with God now and say that you know, I
don't know about you, But the way I have lived
before redemption, and even the way that I've taken redemption
at times and abused it, I can't think of any
(47:48):
case I could make to God that I don't deserve this.
I can't believe you did this to me, because I
could just hear Hi from the cross going, well, I
can't believe you did this to me. Good luck paying
that one back. So why don't you to serve me
(48:09):
to the end? However I need you to serve, and
however I need you to go. Nothing wrong with praying
against that. Don't misunderstand me, don't I mean I don't
want to go. I'm not going to go volunteer for that.
I'll tell you what. I'll take a horrible disease God,
and I'm gonna start praying for that. I'm not doing that,
but I am going to pray the way my Lord
told me to. But your will be done. I got
(48:29):
a meeting coming up after this Bible study today. I
don't know how it's going to go. It's a pretty
important meeting. Uh. But you know, I finally had to
get to the point today where I just said to
the Lord, you know what what I do for a
living is yours, it's not mine. So how about this?
You just do it whatever you want. I tend to
(48:55):
sometimes think that there's all these people between me and
what you want me to do, but they're not. If
you want me to continue doing what I'm doing the
way I'm doing it, then that's what you'll do. If
you have another plan for what you want me to do,
how about this, Even if you have a plan that
says I don't even want you to do this anymore,
(49:16):
I want you to do something else. Am I ready
to say, oh oh no, no, I just want to
keep doing this for you. I'm all in on doing
this for you, but don't take this from me. What
if he were to say, well that platform's done, I
want you to go and do something a little more obscure,
and I'm going to know it. A handful of other
(49:38):
people might know it. This big platform thing. I'm done
with that. I'm handing that to the next person. I
need you to do something else. In my prayer today
that I was I thinking, I was honest since I
knew hee my thoughts, well, you know that's not what
I want. And then I just up reading and I
(50:00):
kept praying and I kept saying, but I guess I
need to get more in sync with what you want,
because I'm flawed and you're not. And I tend to
clean to things that maybe you don't want me to
cling to. I don't know. I'm ready, So I just pray,
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like Jesus told us to, I go ahead and make
my petition, cause we're supposed to do. And then we
were supposed to say at the end, but your will
be done, you will be done. And if I'm in
your will, that's good enough for me. But is it?
Or do we say that going as long as the
lines of what I want to do, That's that's a
(50:45):
tougher question, isn't it. Huh. I've already done a lot
of things I didn't want to do. He just made
me do. Yeah, right, and and I and I was
glad I did it because that because that glorified him.
Was it enjoyable all the time. Did I jump up
and down and say, Man, I'm glad that I'm here? No?
(51:07):
Was I comfortable? No? Not all the time. Was I
miserable at times? Yes? But was it wonderful in the
spiritual side of things? Sure was? It Sure was because
I saw God move, not just in the people they
(51:28):
had me serving, but in what he was doing to me.
He was changing me. So your will be done? Right,
and that's okay, let's get to where that brings us peace,
not angst. Now I'm not saying I'm there yet. I'm
just saying that's where we got to get. Saying your
will be done just got her to bring us peace.
You do what you know is right, and I'll follow.
(51:56):
I couldn't quite get the peace just right then, but
I'm but I'm getting there, you know, because I think
one of the things that I speaking for myself, I
don't want to speak for y'all. I benefit from him
stretching me, but I resist being stretched sometimes, and I'm
(52:19):
a little bit cautious about it. I don't enjoy being stretched.
I benefit from being stretched, but I don't go looking
for it, and I don't enjoy it, but I benefit
from it. And I got to get to the point
where that's enough. That's where we're going, that's where we're
trying to get. And you see Joe kind of wrestling
(52:41):
this out right now. Then next he said his well
received counsel. He said, there was a time, unlike y'all,
I actually had good counsel. Twenty one men listened to
me and waited and kept silent for my counsel. I mean,
my counsel was received. I've tried to counsel, y'all. Y'all
(53:02):
haven't given me good counsel, nor are you regarding my
counsel with any value. There was a time if I
had something to say, everybody took that as good advice.
Not now, but they did. Twenty two after I spoke,
they did not speak again. And my word dropped upon them.
Who do you think he's directing this app the three
(53:23):
still sitting there. I tell you one thing. I mean,
that's not what's happened here. I keep trying to tell
y'all that our theology is flawed, and ain't nobody listening
to me? I don't have unrepentance in and y'all keep
saying I do. There was a time my word would
have been good enough, but it wasn't ever felt that
way before. Somebody you thought knew that your word was enough,
(53:46):
and you said something and they questioned it. You were like,
when did I lose that standing that I do something?
As if something happened? And he can't quite put his
finger on that. He said, y'all are sticking to this theology.
No matter how many times I keep pointing out the
obvious flaws in it, y'all keep sticking with it. But
there was a time I used to have the final
(54:08):
word and was respected by people, and they didn't sit
here and keep on arguing with me. I don't know
who you might be directing that. At twenty three, they
waited for me as for the rain, and they opened
their mouths as for the spring rain. They anticipated my counsel.
They appreciated my words, they loved it. But I guess
(54:32):
those days are gone. Twenty four. I smiled on them
when they had no confidence, and the light of my
face they did not cast down when I encouraged people.
They did not respond in a way that brought me displeasure.
(54:54):
There was a time when I counseled somebody. They picked
their head back up. They listened and were encouraged by
what I said. They didn't question it. They didn't bring
me displeasure. They didn't argue with me. They looked for
that encouragement. Twenty five. I chose their way and sad
(55:15):
as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners. Do you remember back to
the Bob Seger song when he says I was something
to see. I was like a rock. And remember sitting
(55:41):
there looking at the fireplace, and he says, where is
that gone? Well, Joe's doing the same thing, or something
much more important than the good old days. You know
what he's saying. There was a time when I was
the man around here. I was a chief among men
and was the person that everyone looked to for comfort.
(56:05):
They looked too for wisdom, they looked too for help,
they looked to for counsel. I was like a person
who went to people who mourn, and I was a
comfort to them. But now I'm a rich I'm despised.
(56:28):
I'm mocked. I'm not listening to at all, and I
yearned for the days when I was. And you know
what he's saying again, Oh that someone would defend me,
(56:48):
Oh that God would defend me. I wish that God
would put me back into a place of honor. If
you know the end of this historical life, it's coming.
(57:09):
I want to say that to all of you. It's coming,
no matter what the world says about you, if you
are following Jesus Christ and you are obeying what He's
called you to do, no matter what the world thinks
about you, no matter how difficult your life may look,
no matter how people may disregard you. Oh the day
(57:32):
that you stand before the King of Kings and the
Lord of lords, and he looks at you, and you're
not tired anymore, You're not worred down anymore. All the
frustrations of a fall in creation and your fallen flesh
is over, and he says, well done, well done, my
good and faithful servant. All that matters is what I
(57:57):
say about you. It's what I say about you, not
what the world says about you. So what would he
say about you? What would he say about me. Let's pray, Lord,
thank you for today, thank you for this word, thank
you for this message, thank you for the conviction, the refinement,
(58:20):
the challenge of it. And Lord, thank you for you know,
giving us a heart for job. You can just hear
in his in his words, how he yearns for the
days when he was respected, when he was seeing of
a man of value. But Lord, our value is only
(58:43):
in you and the way you see us, and your
holy name. We pray Amen, thanks for being with us.
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. Grateful that you are
here with us again today, and we have a lot
to cover. If you want to go ahead and turn
to where we're going to be, we'll be in Job
chapter twenty nine today, Job Chapter twenty nine. If you're
just joining this Wednesday Bible Study, we are working our
(00:20):
way through the Book of Job, word for word and
line by line, and it has been quite a journey.
Still a good bit left in the journey, but if
you have missed some of the others, you can always
catch the archives. The archives are found at Burgessministries dot
com by clicking on listen, or you can go to
(00:42):
Themanchurch dot com and use the media button and you
can listen or watch. We did find out that we
add ar that YouTube sometimes if you're going to the
video now the audio you can find them all. But
the video options apparently only go back so far, and
so I think we were discovering that may only go
(01:05):
back to like twenty eighteen, and so once these start
timing out, unfortunately, looks like the video archives start to
fade away, but the audio archives are always there, so
so the audio is is not going to have some gaps,
but you on the video option you may go back.
You know, if you go plus eight years back, you
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probably not can't find those anymore. But anyway, there's We've
been doing this for a decade and we've studied many
books of the Bible. We've studied some commentaries from other
other writers as well, so if you want to do
that you can also The manchurch dot Com is a
hub for men's discipleship. We do that in a number
(01:48):
of ways, but the formula is high Challenge. Nothing new there.
That's been around for a while, but we tried to
fill a gap that has been talked about but usually
just talked about, and that is the disciples part of
the equipping High Challenge followed by high equipping. Our High
Challenge is in the form of conferences. We'll be announcing
our twenty twenty six dates pretty soon and those tickets
(02:10):
are about to go and sell, but also in the
form of just individual churches doing events where our speakers
go and speak at Man Church services, wild game fees,
sports nights, whatever, and we send men out to do
that too. You can find all those by looking at
events at the manchurch dot Com. The high Equipping is
in the form of forty week curriculum. We have six
(02:33):
of those, so you could literally be in six years
of discipleship with just a turnkey approach. At the Manchurch
dot Com. We also do the equipping in the form
of individual resources for men to consume on their own
or maybe with their sons or just a couple of guys.
Those are in the forms of thirty one and forty
day devotionals, but also in the form of our brand
(02:55):
new full length book called Men Don't Run in the Rank.
So there's all the inform about the Manchurch dot Com.
Go there and we're happy to help you and just
continue to just be encouraged day by day, week by
week from the over twenty five hundred churches that are
using these holy spirit inspired you know, resources, but also
(03:20):
the strategy and just hearing the testimonies all over the country,
not just with individual men, but as we should know,
if you reach the man, you reach the family, you
change the dynamic of I mean, we've had churches saying
this has changed our entire environment here at the church
because the men got serious about growing spiritually and knowing
(03:42):
the Word of God. So we're going to jump into
today's study and if you want to turn with us
Job twenty nine. Lord, thank you for today, thank you
for the encouragement that we continue to receive. Thank you
for you know, forgive us, I would say, for being
surprised when we see transformation, when your word clearly says
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those that truly abide in You will be transformed. And
so we know this is the power, this is the source.
It comes from you. Lord. May we approach it today
expecting you to teach us, expecting you to grow us,
expecting you to confront us. We all need a confrontation
(04:24):
with you. And Lord, we thank you for the patience
and the grace and the mercy that you've shown us,
and the love that we can never ever reciprocate. We
look forward to the day that our sanctification battle ends
and we are finally glorified, but we help us and
the time of the battle between the flesh and the spirit.
(04:46):
And for those out there that have yet to begin
that journey because they're lost, may today be the day
of salvation and your holy name, we pray. Amen. Okay,
So what is job twenty nine all about? Now? Jobs
the floor? Now, no one's interrupting him anymore. He has
the floor. So he is continuing to to to talk
(05:10):
and we talked about last week, which I don't know
about you guys and all of you out there, men
and women. I got so much out of that on
this this pursuit of wisdom, and even my wife and
I discussed over the weekend, you know, we we were
discussing that Job last week says that wisdom is found
exactly where Solomon tells us that it's found fear of
(05:30):
God doing what he says, and you know, we begin
to think, you know, did did Solomon have access to
this book? I mean did did he? Did he have
access to Job? Uh? Is did he see that? And
like a lot of us say, let me go test
to see if that's true, and and then to come
back and say, you know what, it's absolutely true? Or
did Solomon find it out on his own? And the
(05:51):
answer is the same for all who seek wisdom. But
it was an interesting conversation. You know, it's the Book
of Job is an enigma. Uh. There's a lot to
talk about on where it came from, who wrote it,
But at the end of the day, we know the
Lord intended us to find it, or we wouldn't have
found it, and there's so much here. So now we're
(06:12):
going to go from this pursuit of wisdom and we're
going to now, how many of you have ever you know,
not many Bible studies will ever use commentary from Bob Seger?
And rightfully so, how many of you from me? With
the Bob Seger song like a Rock? And what's Bob doing?
He's reminiscing on the good old days? Man. I was
(06:35):
something to see. You know, if y'all want to stick
around afterwards, I'll tell you about my days in football
seventy five. I was something to see. Y'all missed it.
I hate you missed that. But you know how you
look back and you go, I remember my glory days. Now.
It's sad if looking back consumes more of your time
than looking forward. But you know, one of the things
(06:56):
that big decisions I just made in my life is
when I took that principle that i'd heard from more
than one person. I don't know who to credit it with,
that says, you know, if if, if your if your
memories begin to exceed your future plans, you're on the
wrong track. And and and I had gotten to that point,
and and so I definitely got on a different track professionally.
(07:16):
I'm not talking about spiritually, but you could say the
same thing spiritually. You could say, you know, some of
us have been talking about that mission trip for about
twenty years. We had done anything else. Uh So, but
what you're going to see right now is you're going
to see Job looking back, say, I remember before this
happened to me, my life was pretty good. I remember
(07:39):
when everything between me and God seemed to be right.
Uh And and so you're gonna you're gonna catch that
now you In verse one, notice that the writer says,
and Job again took up his discourse and said and
and and and and said so so it's almost like
when when we look at some of the common and
(08:00):
Terry's a lot of discussion is it's almost like Job
is now saying things, maybe pausing looking at the three friends.
They're like, we got nothing else, and he just goes on.
Then he may be stopping to see him I got
any comments on that, and him I got any questions?
And you know I've done that. This is a lecture format,
(08:20):
so we don't do it in here, though in our
early days people attempted to do it here. But we
had to say, okay, let's let's let's save the questions
still after But have you ever been in a situation,
a smaller group where you're teaching and you do go
to the floor and say any comments, any questions, and
if you get nothing, you're kind of like nothing, Okay,
(08:41):
we're moving on, right. And I've even looked at you
guys sometimes when we get into complicated stuff and say,
are y'all tracking with me? And and you know, sometimes
you nod your head, other times you look completely lost,
But I appreciate that, So no, I always look to
see if you're with me. And I know that hopefully
I can get this stuff down to where even I
(09:02):
can understand it, so that means you should be able
to as well, because I'm not a very high goal.
So we know he had the floor. He's keeping the
floor now in verse two, and he says, old that
I were as in the months of old, as in
the days when God watched over me. I just wish
I could go back to that. You know where I
(09:24):
am right now. I yearn for the bliss of yesteryear
when God watched over me. Now what does he also say?
Unlike now, I don't know where he's gone, but I
long for the days when I knew where he was
(09:44):
and he watched over me, and he blessed me, and
he took care of me. And you know, we've had
some conversations, we've all talked. I want to warn you,
as your brother in Christ, until that, just to my
opening prayer, until that day of glorification. Don't you think
you're exempt from this feeling. I don't care how long
(10:09):
you've been a follower of Jesus. I don't care how
long you've been redeemed. I don't care how intimately you
think you know God. In this falling creation, in this
falling body, there still comes those times where you feel
like I don't I've kind of gone a little dry here.
I'm in the desert, I'm in the wilderness. My wife
(10:30):
has this beautiful, beautiful message that she wrote and put
together that she has been using at women's conferences, and
we call it her Wilderness Message, and it is so
beautifully done. She's not as rough around the edges as me.
She's very eloquent. And it is an incredible discussion about
those times when you feel like I'm in I'm in
(10:51):
the wilderness, and you know I was just talking to
a brother before we started. We all know this. There
are times that God allows us little room, but we
always have to ask the hard question. If I don't
feel close to him, have I moved, Maybe I've drifted.
Maybe I'm not into word like I was. Maybe my
prayer life's got a little got a little dry. Maybe
(11:13):
I'm maybe I'm going through the motions. I'm not really
seeking anything. I've made the one of the worst mistakes
you can make in life, but definitely in your spiritual life,
to do what I'm good. I think I've done enough
to go to heaven. Don't think I'm going to Hell.
I'm gonna knock it out of gear and see if
I can't maneuver the rest of this my life and
(11:34):
just kind of hold right here dangerous. You know what
I call that, grossly underestimating your opponent. You know, as
I as I've told you guys, you know, the prayer
that I pray most every day is the prayer against
my biggest enemy, which is me, my apathy, my flesh,
(11:56):
my my distractions. So right now Job is yearning to
be close to God, and really he's saying being blessed
by God. Like he once was in verse three, when
his lamp talking about God shone upon my head, and
by his light I walked through darkness. I don't have
(12:18):
any direction from him right now. I remember when I
had direction from him. Anybody ever been there? You ever
asked for direction on something and you just don't think
you're getting it. And those of you that may be
new to all this, let me tell you what don't do.
Because those of us have been at this a little longer,
(12:39):
we've made the mistake. So let's keep you from making them.
If you don't, if you don't feel direction and you've
been praying for direction, don't just drudge ahead. Just wait,
just wait, just just hold on, you know, don't go. Well,
I didn't get that when I wanted it, so I
guess I'll do this now. There are timelines that come,
(13:03):
and sometimes you have to go to just what you
already know and say, I think I can make a
decision because you've already told me this. But there's nothing
wrong with waiting and just holding what you got until
you get a little more clearer direction. And I'm telling you,
if you'll do that, it will usually come by being
the form of a person that walks up and said, hey,
(13:24):
I'm I want to share something with you. Go that's
what I was looking for right there. Thank you. I
needed that. Or maybe you read something in scripture that
you may have even known and forgot about or didn't
apply it the right way, but always always look for
that direction. But what job is saying right now? You know?
The Lord's gentle guidance? I once had and I don't
(13:46):
have it now, And oh how I yearned for the
times that I had it. I remember when I knew
exactly what to do, I knew what I was doing,
I knew why I was doing it, and I've lost
all that I have. No, I don't got it. I
don't have any idea what's going on. And I yearned
for that. You know, sometimes I think that the Lord
lets us sense that that stuff has gone away, so
(14:06):
we will yearn for it again, because, let's face it,
we're just so prone to wonder, aren't we We're just
so prone to take him for granted. We're just so
prone to it. And sometimes God loves us enough to say,
let me show you what it's like to yearn from
me again, and uh, and you usually get back to
(14:28):
it pretty quick like I said, we were saying today
we were talking about with nine to eleven coming up again,
the anniversary, we're talking about the day job. I do
a radio show during the week, and we were discussing
how the churches were packed, you know, and we were
talking about the reasons, you know, and and I don't
(14:49):
don't when the churches were packed, fellow Americans, I don't
want you to confuse that with patriotism. There was a
lot of patriotism then, but that wasn't why of the
churches were packed. The churches were packed because people were afraid,
and they were yearning for the assurance of God, and
He loved us enough to let us all be terrified,
(15:11):
and a lot of people were redeemed because they were afraid.
Now it didn't take long, did it, for the attacks
to stop? And then all of a sudden, those same
pews got available again, same chairs got available again. Now
sometimes you know, there might be some new faces in there,
but then some faces that had been there they left.
(15:31):
But as anybody been to a church, it was packed
wall to wall. Lately, I have it not like that,
not like nine eleven was so so it doesn't take
us long to go back but he wants this guidance,
and then he goes to four. And this is what
reminds me of the Bob Seeger song. As I was
in my prime when the friendship of God was upon
(15:54):
my tent man. I recall my prime when I could
relax and I could reflect, and I had a close
friendship with God. I yearn for the good old days.
Now do we sometimes yearn for the good old days?
(16:14):
And we do some sort of pr trick on the
good old days? And if you really remember them correctly,
they weren't quite as good as you thought they were,
or remember them being you kind of elevated them a
little bit. And I remember hearing this from an older
gentleman one time, and it's when I was working labor
and Greg had told me this that he heard it
(16:37):
of my brother when he was working with guys doing
blue collar stuff when he worked for the power company,
and he said he heard someone say, I remember when
a Coca Cola was a nickel, and one of the
guys Greg worked with, see yea, I remember that too,
and I couldn't afford one. Now they're a dollar, and
I didn't drink all of my want. You know, it's
all relative. You know, it might have been a nickel,
(16:58):
but a nickel was hard to come by. Uh when
they cost to nicola. We we forget that part. Uh.
And and so so when you when you look at
this though, he says there was a time and he
and he's referring to it as his prime, that that
was the prime of my life. Uh, when when I
was able to to be to have a friendship with God,
(17:19):
it was upon my house and I and I felt
so comfortable, and I was I was being so blessed
by God. I had such a peace that I could
just relax, reflect and just enjoy my friendship with God.
I didn't have all this dress, all this agony, all
this pain. And he yearns for those days. Remember, he's
(17:42):
thinking God has abandoned him. Verse five, When the Almighty
was yet with me, and this one hurts, when my
children were all around me. I remember when my children
weren't dead. I remember when they were all around me.
(18:02):
I remember when when the Almighty was yet with me.
Now see, he's assuming that the Almighty is not with
him now, and he knows something's up, and he doesn't
know why God's punishing him like this. Now, remember the
beautiful thing that we've watched all through the Book of
Job is never once does Job blame Satan for what's
(18:25):
happening to him. He knows God's in charge of this somehow,
and he knows God's doing it or allowing it whatever
you're more comfortable with. And and and He's like, but
I just I want an answer from him. You know,
we covered that. I want to know. But right now,
I'm just going to reflect on what I didn't have
these questions, all my questions were answered, and my children
(18:45):
were around me. I'd like to go back to that.
You know, have you ever had something like that? And
you go, Man, if I could just go back and
you know, and and just remember that. And and a
lot of times, especially when you have people that you
love are no longer here, or maybe you've gone through
what Job's going through, and you had children that died
before you, which is one of the most unnatural things
(19:07):
one can experience, is that I'm at my child's funeral.
He's not at mine or she's not at mine, and
and I know what, We've got people in the room
that have been through that, and I've been through that,
and sometimes those those Flashiels flash will just come and say,
you know what, I wish I could go back to
that child was still here. I wish I could go
(19:28):
back to how that felt to know my whole family
was with me. We didn't have this kind of duress.
We didn't have that. And what you have to be
careful of there, you have to be careful of there. Now. Look,
I know just I'm not being heartless here. I'm just
telling you you have to be careful to to just
take all the things that were accomplished in this thing
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you want to erase from your life and go back
like it never happened. You're also going to take all
the blessings that came from it, all the things God
taught you from it, all the things that glorified God
in it. And what you're really saying is I'll throw
all those away just to have my kid back. To
be careful with that, because I look at all the
(20:13):
things that were accomplished in that, and I don't really
want to take those back. I'm not saying this is easy.
I'm just talking about difficult things. I got that, but
that really is the truth, and I cling to that
sometimes because I saw things get accomplished in the difficulties
of my life, including like some of you in here,
(20:34):
the death earthly death of a child. But things were
accomplished in that that weren't going to be accomplished any
other way. You know, why, why why did my spouse
go before me? Well, God, God certainly wasn't surprised by that.
And if you say I'd like to have my spouse back,
we'll be careful because if you start pulling for that,
(20:56):
you're also saying I want to erase everything God's done
through this and how dependent I've become to him, how
much better I know him. I don't want to give
those things back. That's the reason why every time somebody
comes to me and says I'm in difficulty, What advice
can you give me? I say, my first piece of
advice is, don't waste it? Man, I mean, man, don't
(21:19):
make this count you. You find out everything God's teaching
in it, and you you, you, everybody of that, and uh,
it's beneficial. That's why he allows it, That's why he
causes it, because it works so anyway. But you certainly understand,
you know, do I still miss my child? Of course
(21:41):
I do. Do I like it. I don't as my
wife said, can I argue with the results. I can't
argue with that either. I would have done it differently,
but I probably wouldn't have done it and produced as
much fruit as it has, you know, I can't argue
(22:02):
with that. I think he knows what he's doing, and
I know that reunion is coming on God's time and perfection,
and I'll take it. It's one of those things that I,
you know, and be careful when you're talking about sickness.
You know, just the other day, and I won't name
any names, someone had lost their spouse who was very,
very sick, and the quote was, you know what, some
(22:26):
days I would just take them back just like they were.
I understand that sentiment, you know. But so you want
them to come out of perfection and glorification so they
can be with you sick again, I don't think so. Yeah,
(22:46):
I kind of feel good for them. I look forward
to going where they are. I don't want to pull
them back to where I am, you know. And so,
but he's obviously still in early morning and certainly understandable
that he wants to look back on when his children
were still around him. That's perfectly understandable. Verse six, when
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my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured
out for me streams of oil. So remember this God,
God has has not abandoned him. He thinks he has.
My children are gone. God's gone. But I remember when
they both were around me. Now six oil and cream.
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When you look at this, what he's talking about is
this wealth. They were in abundance. These are always tokens
in this time period of wealth and comfort. And what
he's really saying is, I remember when I had an
easy path. I didn't have a whole lot of difficulty
(23:51):
maneuvering through life. It was greased with butter. Oil was
rolling out for me. I had wealth, I had comfort.
I had an easy way. Now, you know, we know
an easy way can be a blessing in a moment,
but an easy way isn't always the best way. Now, now,
(24:11):
don't don't don't get you know, try to be some
doomsday person. If God offers you a period of time
of peace and and and wealth and and and and
health and and and life seems to be going easy,
we'll enjoy it. But don't ever think it's gonna be
like this for the rest of your life. But also
be grateful for the times that has been. I've had
times that my life was everything seemed to be. I mean,
(24:34):
it was all coming together, baby, and I enjoyed it.
I did, and and on good days I have now
I still enjoyed them. But you know, there's been so
many things that have happened in my life. Now I
no longer hold them in high regard because I know
they're just moments. And as Solomon taught us, it's just vapors.
(25:00):
It's that it's not what last, but they can be blessings.
So certainly enjoy it. Now he's going to talk about
he had also a place of honor before all this was.
He was held in high regard in the community. And look,
he says, here when I went out to the gate
of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square.
(25:23):
Now understand Job had. We've learned a lot, and we're
gonna learn more today. I mean a lot. Job was
a very big deal in his community. He was the god.
Don't picture him as just a guy who was wealthy
and whatever. It was more than that. I mean, if Job,
(25:44):
You'll see, if Job walked into the room, he would
come command the floor. We'll see how Job feels about it.
So he was not a influential guy. He was the
influential guy in his community. And when you talk about
and you know, if you had a place at the
gates of the city, that meant that you served on
(26:07):
a court that made decisions. This was a position of
honor and prestige to have a seat at the city gate.
Not everybody had a seat at the gate, but Job did.
And you're gonna find out that even when he got
in with the bunch that had the seats at the gate,
he was the most important person at the gate. And
he says, I remember that, look what he says, an ate.
(26:29):
The young man saw me and withdrew, and the aged
rose and stood. Well. So if you were some young
whipper snapper and you thought you were really something, and
when Job walked into the room and you're like, hey,
let me ease over here to my seat, Job, don't
think I'm trying to take your spot. He was revered
(26:51):
by the aged, and he was feared by the young.
You don't want to be on the wrong side of Job,
you know, if if you ever it always loved to
watch these young bulks when they think there's something. And
then some some older aged guy comes in there and
kind of puts them in their place. Feels good, doesn't he?
I like watching that? And you know they they kind
of you say it out in the in the in
(27:12):
the wild. You ever seen you ever seen that young line.
And he thought he was ready to take to take
the leader of the pack. He did, he thought he
was ready. He thought he'd got there. And the old
man just whips him so bad. And then what does
he do. He just takes his head, He puts his
head down and goes, hey, I don't want any more
of this. And he'll ease back over in his spot
in the pack and say sorry about that. That's on me.
(27:33):
I thought I was ready, and and so this is
he said. Young men treated me like that. They did,
they didn't want they didn't think they were ready for me.
And and and the aged that. When I now think
about this, it's one thing to say that young people
respected you. The older men respected I mean they they
stood when he when he came in. So that that
(27:56):
remember what I'm telling you, He's not just a guy
who was influential in a group. He was likely the
most influential of the influential. Young and old respected him
and they stood in the honor of my presence, or
they withdrew in the honor of my presence. And I
remember that, and I miss that. I miss that prestige.
(28:21):
I miss that honor. Nine the princes refrained from talking
and laid their hands on their mouth. Wow, even the
nobles wouldn't say anything bad about me. They would rather
cover their mouths than to speak ill to Job. And
he says, you know, they wouldn't say a bad word
(28:44):
against my character, and they wouldn't say an unkind thing
about me. Even the nobles respected me. So really, you
can't find anybody in the community that didn't respect Job.
And now here's what he's saying in front of his friends.
And now here I am listen to y'all bad mouthed
(29:07):
me and run me down. And now I'm nothing in
this community. I'm a wretch. And I miss the good
old days. I miss those. Now, let me caution us again,
don't waste time that you could be learning about the
(29:27):
situation you're in reminiscing about the good old days. You
know that this is not a good example, you understand it,
But you gotta deal with what you're in right now.
And I also don't want us to fall victim to thinking,
especially in this room, because of the time of the
day we do it. Most everybody in here we're a
(29:50):
little bit older. We've got a few exceptions, but the
majority of us are as old as me or older. Okay.
And where we got to be careful is not to
get so caught up in this good old days thing
that we think we're done. Everything I could do for
the Lord is in the past. No, it really how
(30:11):
you finish and what you're doing now. I would go
as far as to say, if you've got your mental
and physical health, you got more freedom now than you've
had at any period of your life, and you ought
to be. With all this gray hair in here, we
are to be smarter than we used to be. We
are to have more wisdom than we once had. We
(30:33):
have more to bring to the table now than we've
ever had. No offense to the young people, y'all are coming, okay,
But but just just by the years that we've been here, now,
I've I've been around some pretty old men that that
I'm shocked at how stupid they still are. But but, but, but,
but what I'm saying is we've we've you know what.
(30:55):
What does the farmer's insurance guys say, we know a
thing of two because we've seen a thing or two. Right, So,
so there's something to that. And and and I think
we should learn from that. Now. I admit that I
think that a lot of this wisdom has been disrupted
by the invention of things like viagra. I think that
just just when we finally got to the point that
(31:17):
we had our wits about us, somebody goes and get
some medication and cranks a bunch of old men up.
And now they're out doing stupid things in their old
age when they finally had some peace, you know what.
And so so I but but but I will tell
you there's a reason that some of that stuff starts
winding down, so we won't be so stupid, you know.
And and so I mean it don't it don't run
(31:39):
us like it once did, right, okay? And and so
so there there's that there's a lot of wisdom that
comes with a lot of clarity. I mean, I'm not
even joking, there really is. And and and so don't
squander looking back on the good old days when God
said I got something I want you to do right now,
Even in the diffaul culty, I'll let you be in
(32:01):
so verse ten, the voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouth.
Their silence honored him. Sometimes he walked in there where
a bunch of nobles were, and they would just be
quiet because of honoring him. And he said it was
as if they couldn't even speak when I came into
(32:25):
the room. Do you all agree that he's not just
one of the influential, He may be the most in
this particular area. When the ear heard it, called me blessed,
and when the eyes saw it approved. Man. Let me
tell you something, I was in good standing with everyone.
My name when people heard it was a blessing. And
(32:48):
when people saw me, they approved of the way I lived.
If you heard my name, they wouldn't have a bad
things said about me, And if you saw me walk
into a room, you would say, that's a good man
right there. Remember I talked about a lot we do
this with the man church, the term god fearing man.
Do you remember that said that this room's got enough
(33:09):
ag in it that you probably did hear the term
that's a god fearing man. And there was no greater
compliment than any man in the community you could ever
be given. Hey, son, you see mister so and so
over there, that's a god fearing man right there. Job said,
everybody saw me as a god fearing man. They saw
me as a man of high character. I wonder now
if we have a generation that is even cares to
(33:32):
be called a god fearing man? Is this a term
we even use anymore? Because that was one of the
things that if it was said about you, it meant
you had wisdom enough to fear God. You had wisdom
enough to be right with God, and you weren't stupid,
and you didn't lack wisdom. You lived a life that
was honoring to God. I don't even hear that phrase anymore.
(33:57):
Maybe we should bring it back. And how many god
fearing people do we even know? Not god believing, god
fearing I know a lot of God believing people, but
I only know a few god fearing people. And Job
obviously passed that test and of public scrutiny verse twelve,
(34:23):
because I now he's gonna talk about why he was
honored because I delivered the poor who cried for help
and the fabulous who had none to help him. You
know why I was honored because I took care of people.
I didn't just keep it for myself. I didn't just
take all these the wealth that I didn't take all
of this. I used my influence for good. I didn't
(34:47):
usually just to blow myself up. You know, when there
were orphans, I took care of them. When they were widows,
I took care of them. Everybody did just honor me
because of my wealth. They honored me because of my actions,
because of the way I actually lived. And you know,
like we've said a thousand times, but it's worth repeating again,
(35:11):
what we really believe is what we actually do. James
talks about this. It's not about earning redemption. It's just
saying that there's no way for you to truly experience
redemption and fruit and not be flowing. Works not be flowing.
It's the proof of redemption. And so, you know, like
I've said a hundred times, but it's worth saying again
because it's been a while. If I told y'all, I
(35:33):
was concerned that this bottle was going to fill me
with microplastics, And every time you see me, I'm drinking
one of them. I don't think I really fear that
or or believe that, because if I believe that this
bottle of water was going to kill me, you wouldn't
see me sitting here drinking it. So I might tell
you I believe it's going to kill me, But you say,
but I watched the way you live. You don't really
believe it because you drink bottle of water all the time.
(35:55):
So I think sometimes people say, well, I hear you
talking about that you believe in God, and I hear
you talking about that you fear God, and I hear
you saying you're a follower of Jesus, and I hear
you talk about how you have some reverence for the
teachings of Jesus, but I don't ever see you live
them out. So I don't think you really believe it,
because if you believed that, you would actually do it. Right.
(36:19):
Remember my famous example of the guy about the mission
trip and who was saying that he didn't have to
go to the ends of the earth to do the
work of God, he could do it right here in
his own city. You remember that, which he's right, He's
one hundred cent right, And he pointed across the highway
at the apartment complex y'all remember that one. And so
I made the mistake of asking him what he was
(36:40):
going to do for the apartment complex, what his game
plan was, and he didn't. He didn't have one. He
wasn't going to take care of the apartment complex. He
was diverting and making excuse for not doing ministry. What
he didn't want to do is do ministry. Said he
didn't want to travel to the ends of the earth
(37:02):
and he wasn't required to, which is not And he said,
I told my kids, you know, we ain't gonna pay
for that trip. We can go right over here and
minister this apartment complex. And I said, so tell me
how you did it. What's your plan. We're gonna do
a block party. We're going to door to door. He
had no plan, and listen to this, and he never
(37:23):
did it. So he didn't really believe that because he
didn't do it. He didn't do anything. And that's what
he really wanted to do, was nothing. So this is
the same thing we see here. He said, I didn't
(37:44):
just you know, have good a good reputation. There's a
reason I had good reputation because I didn't just say
somebody should take care of those widows, and somebody should
take care of those orphans, and somebody needs to do this,
and somebody needs to do that. I actually did it.
So these things people were saying about me, they were
actually true. So but by the way I lived my life,
(38:07):
you know, Jesus even tells us that. And that's the
Matthew seven. You know we always said, oh no, Matthew seven.
But really all he's saying is, if you want to
know who's with me, just watch them. If they're not
obeying my father, they're not with me. They say anything,
say they're doing this in my name, and they've done
all this in my name, and this is going on.
But if you don't see them obeying the will of
(38:29):
my father, they're not mine. All kinds of people talk
about me, watch what they do, and then you'll know.
So he says, I've done this, and then and then
look at thirteen. The blessing of him who was about
to perish, came upon me, and I caused the widow's
(38:49):
heart to sing for joy. When men were dying, they
came to me, and you know what, I said, your
family will be taken care of. I was a comfort
to the dying and I assured them before they died
that their wives and their children would not be left
with nothing. Because you realize in the culture here we're
(39:12):
talking about, even though Job is not a Hebrew, you know,
Job is a gentile, but even in this culture, it
still was pretty common that women didn't really have any standing.
If you don't have a husband and you don't have sons,
you got nothing. And so when these men were dying,
what would they say, just like us now with life
insurance or you know, a will, what we want to
(39:33):
know that if we die first, that our wives and
children are going to be all right. You know what?
Job said. They would come to me because I gave
them peace, that they could die in peace. Their family
be fine. I'll take care of them. Fourteen. I put
on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like
(39:54):
a robe and a turban. He was clothed in righteousness.
What did that mean? You know what it meant if
you came to him on a deal or your case
came before him. He always was fair, he said, you know,
I didn't do anything that wasn't just. I didn't do
anything that wasn't fair. I treated people fairly based on
(40:16):
the situation I was always just in whatever my ruling was,
I was fair to everyone. I didn't tilt the scale
toward people of influence versus people that maybe didn't have
as much influence, or our family versus another family. I
was always just. I was always fair, and righteousness flowed
from me. It was all I always judged correctly, inspired
(40:39):
by God. And then fifteen he said, I was eyes
to the blind and feet to the lame. I took
care of those who were blind and lame. I guided them,
and I gave them support. What's one of the things
the foreshadowing Jesus said to look for? He said, I
want to look for how you treat the least of these?
(41:02):
What about people that are blind and lame? Do you
just disregard them? Do you notice them? Do you help them?
Because the way you treat them is the way you
treat me. You know what, Job said. I was always
there to help those that needed help. If they had
physical elements, I'd be their eyes. If they couldn't walk,
(41:24):
I'd be the person to take them where they needed
to go. I provided what they needed. So then he
goes and he says, I was a father to the needy,
and I searched out the cause of him who I
did not know. How about that I was a father
to the fatherless. Number one, I was a father to
the fatherless, the father to the fatherless. You know what else?
(41:48):
He said, If you were a stranger and you were lost,
you don't know what's to doue, I'd help you. I'd
guide you. I'd help you get to where you were going.
Even if I didn't know you, I would still help you.
If you had a need, I'd guide you. So you
see the kind of man that job was. And so
you also can kind of understand why this has been
so difficult for him to hear from people that were
(42:10):
supposedly his friends and knew him. Well, he's really saying,
I long for the days when everybody believed this about me,
And I don't know why you don't believe it now,
and it's all been thrown away. And I yearned for
the day when all the things y'all should know about
me y'all agreed. But you don't anymore. You don't agree
(42:31):
with this anymore. And then he said, in seventeen, I
broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop
his prey from his teeth. What a visual, he said,
I rescued victims. If Job would have been seeing what
was going on with the human trafficking we see now,
(42:53):
Job would have had a ministry that went inside the
sex trade, and he'd be delivering people out of it,
those of you that that had become prey to the unrighteous.
I will make sure they drop you out of their teeth.
I'll rescue you from the unrighteous. I'll help you to
be just pray to the predators in our society. Pretty
(43:16):
good resume from Job. Then he goes on and he says,
I want to paint a picture of the rest of this,
but the bottom line, when we let's take this and
apply it to ourselves at the end of this list,
here's what we would say. Job was tender, he was generous,
he was a man of service, he was a man
(43:38):
of justice, and he was a man of bravery. That's
a good list. So now he says, and because of this,
I remember when I had an anticipation of a peaceful
death Verses eighteen through twenty. Then I thought, I I
(44:00):
shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my
days as the sand. You know what I thought I
would live a really, really long life, and I thought
I would die peaceful death, and that doesn't seem to
be happening. I thought i'd have a lot of years,
and I thought i'd just kind of fade peacefully away.
(44:22):
And here I am apparently dying younger than he thought.
He thinks he's about to die, and it's not peaceful
at all. I'm dying sooner than I thought, and I'm
dying in a much worse way than I thought. I'm
suffering Verse nineteen. My roots spread out to the waters
(44:43):
with the dew all night on my branches. Thought I'd
be nourished, thought I'd be healthy. That's what these roots
are an example of. I really thought that I would
live a life that would be healthy. I wouldn't be sick,
I wouldn't be decrepit. I wouldn't be sores all over me.
I wouldn't be, you know, scratching myself with broken pieces
(45:06):
of pottery. I really thought that my roots would be
nourished all the way until the day of my death
Verse twenty. My glory fresh with me, and my bow
ever knew in my hand. I thought I would die
with honor, with my strength and my resilience until the
(45:29):
day I died. I did not think I would die
diseased and wasting away. You know, you remember even hearing
about Abraham, how Abraham seemed to have his vitality, you know,
(45:49):
all the way to the end, and job was like,
I kind of thought that would be me. I thought
I would have honor. I thought I would have strength.
I thought that I would be resilient until one night
when I went to sleep and the Lord would just
take me. But that's not what's happening. That's not what's happening.
(46:15):
And here's one thing that is gonna be tough. Now, guys,
now listen up, and ladies that are watching and listening,
here's where it gets a little tough. Are you starting
to think that you might be delusional about how you're
gonna die? Because I think I have I think I'm
gonna go. But God may say, well, that's not my
(46:39):
plan for you. Are Do you trust me enough that
however you go, that's good enough for me? Is that
good enough for you? I don't want to lay in
the bed and suffer and God may say, yeah, but
I need you to. I don't. I don't want to
be sick in the world say, but I need you
(47:00):
to Your sickness is how I'll be glorified. I don't
want to be in an accident. I don't want to
be paralyzed. Maybe I need you to be And see
what Job was saying? He said, I thought I knew
(47:22):
how this was gonna go, and I was wrong. Is
that good enough? I mean, we are we gonna cut
deals with God now and say that you know, I
don't know about you, But the way I have lived
before redemption, and even the way that I've taken redemption
at times and abused it, I can't think of any
(47:48):
case I could make to God that I don't deserve this.
I can't believe you did this to me, because I
could just hear Hi from the cross going, well, I
can't believe you did this to me. Good luck paying
that one back. So why don't you to serve me
(48:09):
to the end? However I need you to serve, and
however I need you to go. Nothing wrong with praying
against that. Don't misunderstand me, don't I mean I don't
want to go. I'm not going to go volunteer for that.
I'll tell you what. I'll take a horrible disease God,
and I'm gonna start praying for that. I'm not doing that,
but I am going to pray the way my Lord
told me to. But your will be done. I got
(48:29):
a meeting coming up after this Bible study today. I
don't know how it's going to go. It's a pretty
important meeting. Uh. But you know, I finally had to
get to the point today where I just said to
the Lord, you know what what I do for a
living is yours, it's not mine. So how about this?
You just do it whatever you want. I tend to
(48:55):
sometimes think that there's all these people between me and
what you want me to do, but they're not. If
you want me to continue doing what I'm doing the
way I'm doing it, then that's what you'll do. If
you have another plan for what you want me to do,
how about this, Even if you have a plan that
says I don't even want you to do this anymore,
(49:16):
I want you to do something else. Am I ready
to say, oh oh no, no, I just want to
keep doing this for you. I'm all in on doing
this for you, but don't take this from me. What
if he were to say, well that platform's done, I
want you to go and do something a little more obscure,
and I'm going to know it. A handful of other
(49:38):
people might know it. This big platform thing. I'm done
with that. I'm handing that to the next person. I
need you to do something else. In my prayer today
that I was I thinking, I was honest since I
knew hee my thoughts, well, you know that's not what
I want. And then I just up reading and I
(50:00):
kept praying and I kept saying, but I guess I
need to get more in sync with what you want,
because I'm flawed and you're not. And I tend to
clean to things that maybe you don't want me to
cling to. I don't know. I'm ready, So I just pray,
(50:21):
like Jesus told us to, I go ahead and make
my petition, cause we're supposed to do. And then we
were supposed to say at the end, but your will
be done, you will be done. And if I'm in
your will, that's good enough for me. But is it?
Or do we say that going as long as the
lines of what I want to do, That's that's a
(50:45):
tougher question, isn't it. Huh. I've already done a lot
of things I didn't want to do. He just made
me do. Yeah, right, and and I and I was
glad I did it because that because that glorified him.
Was it enjoyable all the time. Did I jump up
and down and say, Man, I'm glad that I'm here? No?
(51:07):
Was I comfortable? No? Not all the time. Was I
miserable at times? Yes? But was it wonderful in the
spiritual side of things? Sure was? It Sure was because
I saw God move, not just in the people they
(51:28):
had me serving, but in what he was doing to me.
He was changing me. So your will be done? Right,
and that's okay, let's get to where that brings us peace,
not angst. Now I'm not saying I'm there yet. I'm
just saying that's where we got to get. Saying your
will be done just got her to bring us peace.
You do what you know is right, and I'll follow.
(51:56):
I couldn't quite get the peace just right then, but
I'm but I'm getting there, you know, because I think
one of the things that I speaking for myself, I
don't want to speak for y'all. I benefit from him
stretching me, but I resist being stretched sometimes, and I'm
(52:19):
a little bit cautious about it. I don't enjoy being stretched.
I benefit from being stretched, but I don't go looking
for it, and I don't enjoy it, but I benefit
from it. And I got to get to the point
where that's enough. That's where we're going, that's where we're
trying to get. And you see Joe kind of wrestling
(52:41):
this out right now. Then next he said his well
received counsel. He said, there was a time, unlike y'all,
I actually had good counsel. Twenty one men listened to
me and waited and kept silent for my counsel. I mean,
my counsel was received. I've tried to counsel, y'all. Y'all
(53:02):
haven't given me good counsel, nor are you regarding my
counsel with any value. There was a time if I
had something to say, everybody took that as good advice.
Not now, but they did. Twenty two after I spoke,
they did not speak again. And my word dropped upon them.
Who do you think he's directing this app the three
(53:23):
still sitting there. I tell you one thing. I mean,
that's not what's happened here. I keep trying to tell
y'all that our theology is flawed, and ain't nobody listening
to me? I don't have unrepentance in and y'all keep
saying I do. There was a time my word would
have been good enough, but it wasn't ever felt that
way before. Somebody you thought knew that your word was enough,
(53:46):
and you said something and they questioned it. You were like,
when did I lose that standing that I do something?
As if something happened? And he can't quite put his
finger on that. He said, y'all are sticking to this theology.
No matter how many times I keep pointing out the
obvious flaws in it, y'all keep sticking with it. But
there was a time I used to have the final
(54:08):
word and was respected by people, and they didn't sit
here and keep on arguing with me. I don't know
who you might be directing that. At twenty three, they
waited for me as for the rain, and they opened
their mouths as for the spring rain. They anticipated my counsel.
They appreciated my words, they loved it. But I guess
(54:32):
those days are gone. Twenty four. I smiled on them
when they had no confidence, and the light of my
face they did not cast down when I encouraged people.
They did not respond in a way that brought me displeasure.
(54:54):
There was a time when I counseled somebody. They picked
their head back up. They listened and were encouraged by
what I said. They didn't question it. They didn't bring
me displeasure. They didn't argue with me. They looked for
that encouragement. Twenty five. I chose their way and sad
(55:15):
as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners. Do you remember back to
the Bob Seger song when he says I was something
to see. I was like a rock. And remember sitting
(55:41):
there looking at the fireplace, and he says, where is
that gone? Well, Joe's doing the same thing, or something
much more important than the good old days. You know
what he's saying. There was a time when I was
the man around here. I was a chief among men
and was the person that everyone looked to for comfort.
(56:05):
They looked too for wisdom, they looked too for help,
they looked to for counsel. I was like a person
who went to people who mourn, and I was a
comfort to them. But now I'm a rich I'm despised.
(56:28):
I'm mocked. I'm not listening to at all, and I
yearned for the days when I was. And you know
what he's saying again, Oh that someone would defend me,
(56:48):
Oh that God would defend me. I wish that God
would put me back into a place of honor. If
you know the end of this historical life, it's coming.
(57:09):
I want to say that to all of you. It's coming,
no matter what the world says about you, if you
are following Jesus Christ and you are obeying what He's
called you to do, no matter what the world thinks
about you, no matter how difficult your life may look,
no matter how people may disregard you. Oh the day
(57:32):
that you stand before the King of Kings and the
Lord of lords, and he looks at you, and you're
not tired anymore, You're not worred down anymore. All the
frustrations of a fall in creation and your fallen flesh
is over, and he says, well done, well done, my
good and faithful servant. All that matters is what I
(57:57):
say about you. It's what I say about you, not
what the world says about you. So what would he
say about you? What would he say about me. Let's pray, Lord,
thank you for today, thank you for this word, thank
you for this message, thank you for the conviction, the refinement,
(58:20):
the challenge of it. And Lord, thank you for you know,
giving us a heart for job. You can just hear
in his in his words, how he yearns for the
days when he was respected, when he was seeing of
a man of value. But Lord, our value is only
(58:43):
in you and the way you see us, and your
holy name. We pray Amen, thanks for being with us.
Host
Rick Burgess
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