September 14, 2025 • 52 mins
*Special Episode- Session #1 from a Women's retreat I recently taught.
What happens when our world collapses around us? When suffering strikes without warning or explanation, our response reveals what truly lives in our hearts. Through the powerful contrasting stories of Job and Jonah, this episode explores the fundamental question: how can we glorify God through our pain?
The glory of God—His honour, reverence, and splendor—isn't just some abstract concept. For believers, Scripture tells us we've become living temples containing God's glory at all times. Yet our actions and attitudes can either reveal or veil this divine presence. The crucial difference lies not in experiencing pain (both Job and Jonah suffered), but in how we process that pain—with God or apart from Him.
Job lost everything—his children, wealth, health, and reputation—yet initially responded with astonishing faith: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Even when questioning God through his suffering, Job kept bringing his heartache directly to God. When God finally appeared, Job immediately repented and was restored to a place of honour as an intercessor. Contrast this with Jonah, who technically obeyed God's command to preach to Nineveh but remained bitter when God showed mercy to his enemies. Jonah missed participating in a beautiful revival because he couldn't surrender his anger and judgment.
Where are you fixing your eyes when life falls apart? On yourself? On others? Or on Jesus? The answer determines not whether God will be glorified—He will be regardless—but whether you'll experience the profound joy of participating in His redemptive work. Today, make the choice to bring your wounds to the Healer rather than nursing them in isolation. Your pain might just become the very platform where God's glory shines brightest.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie Colbeth (00:00):
Kiora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a
place for women to be encouragedby God's holy word.
(00:21):
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am over for women to be
encouraged by God's Holy Word.
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Hello everybody, and welcomeback to Whispers of Grace.
I know it's been a while sinceI've put anything up.
(00:41):
We've had some exciting lifechanges over here that I've
needed to just pause andreconnect with the Lord and take
some space.
But I was so blessed lastweekend to be invited to speak
at a women's conference and Itaught two of the sessions and
they were wonderful.
I had such a good time withthese women and it reminded me
(01:02):
how much I love to teach to agroup of people, because it's
more interactive and I feed offthe audience, and I really
should have recorded thosesessions then, but I didn't.
But I had a few requests thatsaid Can you please go back and
record this and put it on thepodcast for me?
So this is my labor of love foryou.
I will do these sessions again,but it's probably going to be a
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bit different, because when Istudy and record for the podcast
.
I'm very specific and carefulabout the things that I say and
it's much more scripted in thethought over, which is why it
takes me such a long time to doit.
But today is going to be muchmore like when I teach live,
where I've just got a set ofnotes that are not comprehensive
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and I'm just kind of followingwhere the Spirit leads.
So if it feels a bit different,that is why, yeah, but this
retreat, the theme of it, wasPsalm 115.1.
It says Not unto us, o Lord,not unto us, but to your name
give glory because of your mercyand because of your truth.
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So the theme of the retreat wasglorifying God.
And as I was studying andpraying about this, the Lord
really put two specific storiesto kind of compare and contrast,
to learn about how to glorifyGod.
So what does it mean to glorifyGod?
The Hebrew word glory means tohonor or to reverence, to bring
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glory or dignity.
It can also be used for wealthor splendor and, as my friend
Gemma said, it's to make Godfamous or to shine a spotlight
on him.
And back in the Old Testament,when we saw the glory of God, it
was that Shekinah.
It was the glory of God thatwould came to dwell with the
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people of Israel.
It kind of settled in amongthem and it stayed there and, if
you remember, all the way backto the tabernacle, which is kind
of we were walking through thatnow in the life of Moses, but
in the tabernacle, when theglory of God came, it settled
right into the heart of thetabernacle in the Holy of Holies
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, that glowing ball of light,that was the glory of God that
came and settled with them.
And it's amazing because theIsraelites had the glory of God.
They could look and see it.
They had a pillar of cloud, apillar of fire that would follow
them around.
They had manna from heaven.
They had all these physicalrepresentations of God all
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around them.
God was doing miracles anddoing amazing things.
Yet over and over again, we seeIsrael doubting him, losing
their faith, not being willingto walk into the promised land,
even though they see God, whichis interesting because even
though his glory was with them,it didn't always inspire them to
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have true faith or to even walkin faithfulness.
So I want to look at what thatlooks like today, because we
don't have the tangible Shekinahof God.
But First, corinthians 316tells us do you not know that
you are the temple of God, thatyou are the temple of God and
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that the spirit of God dwells inyou.
So, although we may not havethe temple or the tabernacle
anymore, the word of God tellsus that we ourselves have become
the tabernacle.
We have become that temple thatliterally, physically, contains
the glory of God If you are abeliever and you've accepted
Jesus Christ to be your master.
So this is our state of being.
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We have the glory of God withinus at all times when we're
sleeping, when we're awake, whenwe're at work, when we lose our
temper, when we're frustrated,when we're at church, when we're
distracted, when we'rescrolling too much on social
media, the glory of God isdwelling within us.
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It's with us.
So how is it that, if we bodilyhave the glory of God, that
sometimes we can block or veilthat peace of God with our
actions and in our flesh?
So the question is, how do wemake him known?
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If we can veil his glory and ifit cannot be seen through our
lives and our actions and ourwords, what do we need to do to
make the glory of God known andseen by others?
So, in order to glorify God, orto glorify anything.
We have to cease to glorifyourselves.
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So if we want to glorify God,we can't be glorifying ourselves
.
And in talking about this I wantto talk about an amazing figure
in the Bible, job.
So I'm sure many of us arefamiliar with Job's story.
It's one of the oldest books ofthe Bible that we have.
It's long before the law wasgiven.
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This man walked with God.
So if you're not familiar withhis story, I would encourage you
to turn to the book of Job andread about it, because it's
incredible.
But essentially there was thisfaithful, godly man on the earth
that was super wealthy butloved God.
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It said that he offeredsacrifices for his children and
was committed to the Lord.
And then we see this kind ofheavenly scene where Satan comes
and has this conversation withGod about Job and God says to
him have you considered myservant, job?
And Satan essentiallychallenges God and said oh, of
course he's faithful to you.
Look how much he has.
He's wealthy, and you'veblessed him and you haven't let
anybody do anything nasty ormean to this dude.
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Of course he loves you.
And God says well, let's put itto the test and see.
You can test him.
You can test him, you can tryhim.
So Satan comes and heessentially destroys Job's
entire life.
The Chaldeans sweep in andsteal his cattle.
His children die, all of hispossessions are taken away,
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pretty much just with it.
Within one day, all of thesethings happen and Job loses
almost everything in his lifethat's precious to him, except
for his wife, who was stillaround, to later say to him Job,
why don't you curse God and die?
Not such a surprise that Satanleft her around, but this
amazing man lost everything.
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And then at the end of it itsays that he's just sitting on
this ash heap the ash heap ofhis life, possibly, where his
children lost their lives, andhis skin is breaking out with
boils and he's sitting there insackcloth and ashes and he's
scraping his wounds with thisbroken pottery.
So we have this picture of thisman who went from the highest
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mountain to the lowest valley insuch a short amount of time and
through all of this, job didnot actually sin against God.
Job 1.22,.
This is what Job says.
After the loss of his childrenand his possessions and all of
these things, job falls on theground and he worships and he
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says naked I came from mymother's womb and naked, I will
depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord hastaken away.
May the name of the Lord bepraised.
So I don't understand that kindof faith in this man.
But God took everything fromhim and he still understood who
God was and who he was in lightof it and he accepted it.
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Later on, like I said, job'swife comes to him and says Job,
why don't you just curse God anddie like be done with it all?
And Job 2, 10 tells us this iswhat job said shall we accept
good from god and not trouble inall this?
Job did not sin in what he said.
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So again, this deepunderstanding in this man that
he accepted good and he alsoaccepted trouble.
Job understood his place and heunderstood god's real place,
god as the giver, the ultimateauthority, who is sovereign over
all things, blessing andadversity.
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And Job realized that he didn'thave any entitlements, he
didn't bring anything into theworld and he knew he could take
nothing out.
So we have this really deepunderstanding.
And again, this glorifies God,Because a man that can walk
through this much trouble andstrain and loss and heartache
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and still give God the glory,that only is a work of God in
somebody's heart, because ourflesh does not do that.
So, job, he started out strong,but as time wore on you know,
know the days and the weeks andthe months sitting on this ash
heap covered in boils hisfriends finally come to him and
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they're just the worstcomforters in the world, because
all they do is spout this badtheology that I hear reflected
in the world a lot today.
They start to Job if only youwould confess your sin, then you
could be forgiven and you canget your things back, or maybe
God would just let you die.
So his friends tell himstraight up the reason you have
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lost all of these things, thereason you are in pain, the
reason that you are suffering,is because you have sinned
against God.
Now we know from the word thatthis is absolute rubbish.
This is corrupt theology thattends to draw people away from
God, but yet our hearts go there.
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Very often when we struggle,it's Lord, what have I done?
Or, in the adverse case, lord,I have done so much for you, I
have been so faithful.
Why have you done this to me?
And we kind of have theseentitlements, as though God owes
us a good life, god owes ushealth, god owes us prosperity.
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God owes us all the thingswe're praying for.
So these friends come and startto say these things to Job.
So these friends come and startto say these things to Job, and
Job and his friends go on andon and on for chapters and
chapters, and chapters, back andforth, with the friends
throwing these accusations andJob defending himself and saying
no, I have been righteous,there is nothing hidden in my
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life, there's no sins around thecorner that I'm keeping.
My life has been clean and hasbeen honest.
I did nothing to deserve what'shappened to me.
But we see Job start to questionwhy God has abandoned him,
because he doesn't understand ithimself, and I think the bad
theology and counsel of thesefriends really starts to tear
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him down.
And Job starts to insist thathis own righteousness certainly
demands a better treatment.
He complains to God in chapter13 and says oh that I knew where
I might come and find him, thatI might come to his seat.
I would lay my case before himand fill my mouth with arguments
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.
So here we see Job start to bea bit contradictory to his first
.
Statements were that he didn'texpect anything from God, but
now he's starting to say God,where are you?
I want to come before yourthrone and lay my case down
before you and fill my mouthwith arguments.
He continues on in chapter 13to say why are not times of
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judgment kept by the Almighty,and why do those who know him
never see his days?
So he starts to have thisunrest.
And yet at the same time, inJob 13, 15, he says though he
slay me, yet I will trust him.
So Job has this deepunderstanding that only God is
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God.
He's not going to rebel andwalk away from him, because
where would he go.
But he is still questioning whythese things have happened to
him.
And then he goes on to cursethe day of his birth and he just
bemoans his situation and he'spouring out his anguish and his
sorrow and his pain before God.
And then, after all of this,god actually shows up.
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In Job 38.3,.
God actually comes down tospeak to Job and he says gird up
your loins like a man.
I will question you and youshall declare to me.
So then God comes on the sceneand he doesn't come and answer
any of Job's questions.
He doesn't tell him why he losthis family.
He doesn't tell him why hisservants were all carried off or
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killed.
He doesn't tell him why he losthis livestock and all of his
wealth or in his health.
God doesn't answer Job'squestions like Job was wanting.
God just comes and tells himabout creation.
God asks him questions likewhere were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth?
Job, where does light dwell andwhere does darkness go?
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And he goes into all of thesecreatures, the ostrich and the
jackal and he goes through allof these different animals and
asks Job questions about howthey give birth and how the land
is renewed and all of thesequestions about nature.
And God is essentially sayingif you're going to be God's
critic but you don't have theanswers to these things, how
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simple are you?
Job 40, verse 2, says this doyou still want to argue with the
Almighty?
Are you God's critic?
But do you have the answers?
So God is showing up andshowing Job that he doesn't have
any of the answers to thesemost basic questions.
Yet he thinks he can put God ontrial for what God has allowed
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in Job's life.
And it is in this moment thatJob repents.
In Job, chapter 40, verses threeto five, it says Then Job
replied to the Lord I am nothing.
How could I ever find theanswers?
I will cover my mouth with myhand.
I have said too much alreadyand I have nothing more to say.
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So here we see Job with moreunderstanding.
He is centered again.
Job acknowledges once again thesovereignty of God, that God is
just too big and too perfectand too powerful for Job to
comprehend and for Job to putinto a tiny box of cause and
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effect in his life.
And he does something amazinghere, because he immediately
repents.
He repents in dust and ashesand he admits his mistakes.
He admits that his mouth ranaway with him, that he had far
too many words to say about whathappened to him, and it's it's
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really beautiful to see howhumble his heart is.
Job 42, one through eight saysthen Job replied to the Lord, I
know that you can do anythingand that no one can stop you.
You asked who is this thatquestions my wisdom with such
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ignorance?
It is I, and I was talkingabout things.
I knew nothing about things fartoo wonderful for me.
You said listen and I willspeak.
I have some questions for youand you must answer them.
I had only heard about youbefore, but now I have seen you
with my own eyes.
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I take back everything I saidand I sit in dust and ashes to
show my repentance.
After the Lord had finishedspeaking to Job, he said to
Eliphaz the Temanite I am angrywith you and your two friends,
for you have not spokenaccurately about me as my
servant Job has.
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So take seven bulls and sevenrams and go to my servant Job
and offer a burnt offering foryourselves.
My servant Job will pray foryou and I will accept his prayer
on your behalf.
I will not treat you as youdeserve, for you have not spoken
accurately about me as myservant Job has.
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Servant Job has.
In this section we see arepentant Job for his doubt and
for the fact that he thought hecould put God on trial.
Job repents and God immediatelyasks him to serve as a priest,
as an intercessor between hisfriends these poor counselors
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that had this bad theology andGod.
So we see something absolutelybeautiful happen here.
We see Job glorify God, I thinkin his honesty, the fact that
he poured his heart and his soulout through all of these
chapters because of this deep,dark pain that he was
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experiencing.
But the whole time he wasbringing these requests to God.
He didn't turn his back on Godand walk the other way and tell
everyone else all of thesetroubles in his heart and make
all these questions to the worldor go badmouth God or turn away
from him.
Job brought all of these deepquestions and this deep anguish,
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his misunderstanding and hispain to the Lord.
I think this is key in Job'sstory in glorifying God.
When he walked through pain andsuffering and deep, deep,
unimaginable loss, he did itwith God.
He brought all of thoseemotions and frustrations and
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all of that in his heart thatwas stored up.
He brought it to the Lord.
There is so much that we canlearn here and how to glorify
God in our pain from this man.
Because we need to do it with,because we need to do it with
Jesus.
He is the sovereign one who hasthe answers.
He is the only one thatunderstands the depth of our
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pain.
Yet so often we turn our backand we want to mourn without him
, we want to struggle withouthim, we want to question or
doubt, we want to have all ofthese crises of faith, but we
want to do it without himinstead of doing it with him.
We want to question or doubt,we want to have all of these
crises of faith, but we want todo it without him instead of
doing it with him.
God invites us into arelationship For those of us
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that are married or have reallygood friendships.
We fight, we come withdisagreements, we have deep
issues, sometimes that takeyears to solve, things that can
follow you around for a longtime.
We don't set those things asideand ignore them.
That is just setting yourselfup for a really poor
relationship, for deep, deepcaverns that will eventually
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destroy the relationship.
We understand that in ourrelationships with people, or if
we don't, then that's probablywhy we have trouble with our
relationships with people.
Or if we don't, then that'sprobably why we have trouble
with our relationships withpeople, because we've got all
these pockets of bitterness andpockets of unforgiveness in our
heart that have just lived therefor such a long time.
We just continue to ignore them.
If you have a storage place ofall of this pain and anger and
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unforgiveness, it's really hardto be open and honest with
somebody and it's impossible totrust them.
So in our relationships, we knowthat we have to work through
these things with one another,but for some reason we apply
different rules with the Lord,we feel like, because he's holy
and because he's God, we can'tbring him our doubt, we can't
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bring him our anger, we cannotbring him anything except for
faith and right hearts.
But that's not true, becauseGod knows every thought that is
in your heart.
He knows all of your pain.
He knows all of your struggles.
God is well acquainted with allof your doubt and with your
rage.
He knows every piece of it andhe asks us to bring it to him
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when we act like the only heartthat we can bring God is one
that we're proud of.
We have misunderstood ourrelationship with God, because
he makes space for us to befleshly, for us to be fallen,
for us to be human.
That is why he is God fleshly,for us to be fallen, for us to
be human.
That is why he is God, and heexpects us to come and hold his
hand, like a little child thatdoesn't understand what's
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happening, and cling to him forthe answers.
And I think that's one of thethings that Job glorified God in
so much in his struggles and inhis life.
And, yes, his mouth runs awaywith him in that he's calling
God to account for the actionsthat have happened to him, but
he does it with God, which is, Ithink, why when Job repents
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here, the Lord immediately putshim in the place of a servant
and an intercessor and a priest.
God is saying my servant, job,will act as the intercessor for
his three friends that thoughtthat they were holy and
righteous and on the right path,but actually had pulled all of
these wrong conclusions aboutthe character of God.
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Their theology was crooked,which is why they needed to
repent.
Job was in a perfect place toact as an intercessor because he
knew what worship really was.
Job had a beautifully honestrelationship with God.
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He kept talking to the Lordthrough his pain, and Job was
acquainted with his own sins andhe was very quick to repent.
When God showed up and showedJob who he was, job humbled
himself before the Lord.
Now, that is glorifying to God,because we are not always going
to get it right.
We are going to say things thatare wrong.
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Our theology is sometimes goingto be off.
Our hearts will certainly leadus astray, and, over and, over
and over again, we are going toneed off.
Our hearts will certainly leadus astray and, over and, over
and over again, we are going toneed to repent.
We need to understand thatabout ourselves and the best
place to do that is right beforethe Lord.
Now I want to take what we'vejust read and kind of absorbed
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about Job and I want to contrastand compare it with the life of
Jonah, because it's reallyinteresting to put the two of
these men side by side and kindof see how God is glorified and
how he's not, because I thinkthere's such a beautiful heart
difference between the two ofthese men, because we know that
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God is glorified and God ishonored through obedience.
1 John 14 15 says if you love me, keep my commands.
James 1 22 says do not merelylisten to the word and so
deceive yourselves, do what itsays.
So there's no getting aroundobedience.
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If we claim that we areblood-bought believers of Christ
, we need to obey the Lord.
Yes, we will make mistakes, wewill fall, we will stumble.
He knows that.
But it says if you love me,you'll keep my commands.
That talks about a godlyrepentance and an obedience.
So obedience is essential.
But I want to take a look atJonah, who technically did obey
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God in the end but I think hadthe most corrupt heart.
So if you are following alongin your Bible, you can flip over
to the book of Jonah.
If not, I will walk you throughit.
The book of Jonah, chapter one,says Now the word of the Lord
came to Jonah, the son ofAmittai, saying Arise, go to
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Nineveh, that great city, andcry out against it, for their
wickedness has come up before me.
God comes and speaks to thisguy.
The voice of God is telling himto do something.
He tells him to get up and togo to Nineveh, which is an
incredibly pagan society.
Verse three says but Jonaharose to flee to Tarshish from
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the presence of the Lord.
So essentially, god tells Jonah, go to Nineveh.
And Jonah goes the exactopposite direction.
He hops on a boat and fleesJust peace out, god, I'm not
going there.
And goes the exact oppositedirection.
He hops on a boat and fleesJust peace out, god, I'm not
going there.
And goes the opposite way.
So direct disobedience.
But as soon as they get out tosea, a giant storm comes and all
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of the sailors are wonderingwhat do we do?
We're all going to die.
And even these pagan sailorscome and wake Jonah up and say
hey, call on your God, maybehe'll save us.
And they cast lots and theshort lot falls to Jonah.
So they know that there'ssomething going on with this guy
.
And Jonah says I'm a Hebrew.
I fear the Lord and the God ofheaven.
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He's the one who made the seaand everything that's all around
.
I've disobeyed him.
If you chuck me into the ocean,the storm will stop.
So can you imagine being thisdisobedient prophet?
You're on this boat.
You thought you were gettingaway, but now there's this
massive storm that comes and youknow it's over.
Just throw me into the oceanand I'm going to die.
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I can't imagine.
I've seen movies of these greatstorms that happened.
Being thrown into that cold,dark water is absolutely
terrifying.
And he's in this water.
He's getting thrashed around bythese raves and I wonder how
long it was before he realizedthat he was actually swallowed
by this giant fish, because hemust have been super disoriented
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, just thrashing around in thewater like not knowing what to
do.
And then it says that Godprepares a fish that come and
swallows this man whole.
Now I know to our modern mindsthat seems so impossible, but
the Bible tells us that ithappened.
Now something incredible ithappens here, at the end of
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chapter one.
It says now the lord hadprepared a great fish to swallow
, jonah.
And jonah was in the belly ofthe fish three days and three
nights.
Can you imagine three days andthree nights in utter darkness,
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no sounds, except maybe thegurgling digestion that's
happening inside of this animal?
You're inside of a whale'sbelly.
The stomach acid is eating awayat his skin.
It says that he's covered inseaweed and there's all of these
like nasty smells.
Can you imagine thinking do Ieat?
Do I not eat?
Where am I?
Is this ever going to end?
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And in that pitch black state ittook him three days and three
nights before he called out toGod.
That was how stubborn and angrythis man was, because in verse
17, it tells us that Jonah wasin the belly of the fish for
three days and three nights.
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And then Jonah prayed to theLord, his God, from the fish's
belly.
Can you imagine being that deadset against what God wanted to
do?
God gave him a really simpleinstruction go to Nineveh and
cry out against them.
He said no, so hard that he ranthe opposite direction, was
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willing to die and be thrown inthe ocean and then suffered for
three days and three nights inthe belly of a fish before he
was willing to humble himselfand cry out to God.
Now this is a man that is eatenup with hatred, with anger,
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with bitterness.
He absolutely despises thesepeople in Nineveh.
That is how hard his heart is.
But he eventually gets to thepoint where he prays to the Lord
from the fish's belly.
This is what he says.
I cry out to the Lord because ofmy affliction, and he answered
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me Out of the belly of Sheol.
I cried and you heard my voice,for you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas, andthe floods surrounded me.
All your billows and your wavespassed over me, and then I said
I have been cast out of yoursight.
Yet I will look again towardyour holy temple.
The water surrounded me, evento my soul, and the deep closed
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around me.
Weeds were wrapped around myhead.
I went down to the moorings ofthe mountains.
The earth with its bars closedbehind me forever.
Yet you have brought my lifefrom the pit.
O, my Lord.
When my soul fainted within me,I remembered the Lord and my
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prayer went up to you, into yourholy temple.
Those who regard worthlessidols forsake their own mercy,
but I will sacrifice to you Withthe voice of thanksgiving.
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.
So we see this beautiful,heartfelt prayer.
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That is an awesome parallel ofJesus.
But it's interesting becausethe only reason that he's
repenting is because he's inthis situation.
He can't change right.
He's in the belly of this fishand we'll see this reflected as
we continue to read through thestory.
But in chapter 2, verse 10, itsays so.
The Lord spoke to the fish andit vomited Jonah onto dry land.
(31:04):
And the word of the Lord came toJonah a second time saying
arise, go to Nineveh, that greatcity, and preach to it the
message that I tell you.
So Jonah arose and went toNineveh.
So I can imagine this manlooked and smelled terrifying.
He probably had white gross.
(31:25):
You know your fingers getpruney, like when you're in the
water for a long time.
Can you imagine that over awhole body that's just been like
sitting in stomach acid of awhale for all this time, like it
just probably was disgusting,and he smelled like who knows
what and he just got vomited upon a beach.
And God tells him let's trythis again.
Go to Nineveh and tell themwhat I'm going to tell you.
(31:48):
It says so.
Jonah arose and went to Ninevehaccording to the word of the
Lord.
So now he's obeying, right,like we talked about at the
beginning of the section, thatobedience that is critical.
Now, nineveh was an exceedinglygreat city, a three-day journey
in extent, and Jonah began toenter the city on his first day
walk.
And then he cried out and saidyet 40 days and Nineveh shall be
(32:19):
overthrown.
That's it Really simple message, right?
40 days, nineveh is going to beoverthrown.
He just walks through the cityand pronounces this, and this is
what God does.
In chapter three, verse five, itsays so the people of Nineveh
believed God.
They proclaimed a fast and theyput on sackcloth, from the
greatest to the least, even theking puts on sackcloth and
repents in dust and ashes.
(32:40):
And the king tells everyonedon't eat or drink anything.
Everybody needs to be clothedin sackcloth and cry out to this
mighty God because maybe, justmaybe, he will relent and turn
away and not kill us all.
And then, in verse 10, it saysthen God saw their works, that
(33:01):
they turned from their evil way,and God relented from the
disaster that he had said hewould bring upon them.
And he did not do it.
So we see the compassionate,amazing heart of God and that
these people who had lived anincredibly wicked life, but at
(33:22):
this simple word from thisprophet, they all repented.
So their sins had reached sohigh that God was ready to
destroy them.
But because they truly repentedin dust and ashes, this
glorious, gracious, good,compassionate God was ready to
forgive them.
Forgave them Now.
(33:45):
That is a beautiful story in andof itself, but what I want to
focus on is the prophet In Jonah, chapter four.
It says this, but it displeasedJonah exceedingly and he became
angry.
So Jonah watches God's workbecause only God could bring a
(34:06):
nation to repentance with justthis simple statement.
Right, I'm sure Jonah wascreepy to look at.
He was probably this likefreaky smelling fish man walking
through this town, essentiallysaying if you don't repent,
you're all going to die.
But the spirit of God fell andliteral revival is breaking out.
People are repenting andturning to the one true God,
(34:31):
which is the biggest thing thatwe can rejoice at as children of
God.
Right is when people turn fromdarkness and enter into light.
This should be the thing thatwe can always rejoice at,
regardless of who it is.
But yet we see Jonah's heart,the bitterness, the anger, the
rage, the unforgiveness, thejudgment.
(34:52):
The callous heart of Jonah hereis angry.
He's watching revival bloombefore his eyes.
He's getting to be themessenger that brings revival,
and yet he is angry.
(35:12):
It said that it displeased Jonahexceedingly.
And then this is Jonah'sresponse in chapter four, verse
two and so he prayed to the Lord.
Ah Lord, was not this what Isaid when I was still in my
country?
Therefore, I fled previously toTarshish, for I know that you
(35:37):
are gracious and merciful, god,slow to anger and abundant in
loving kindness, one who relentsfrom doing harm.
So Jonah prays and says this isthe reason why I left.
This is why I decided to go theopposite direction that you
(35:58):
told me to go in, because I knewwho you were.
I knew that you were graciousand merciful and slow to anger,
abundant in loving kindness, andthat you would relent from
doing harm.
That right, there is next level.
Jonah was willing to disobeyGod because he knew that God
(36:25):
would offer forgiveness.
Can you imagine the type ofheart that says I knew that you
were compassionate and graciousand I wasn't willing to let you
show all of that to these wickedpeople that I hate because I
want them to all die.
This guy is so bitter, he is so,so deep in his sin that he
cannot even rejoice over therepentance of these people.
(36:48):
He goes on and says in versethree therefore now, oh Lord,
please take my life from me, forit is better for me to die than
to live Now.
He would rather die than seehis enemies come to faith in God
(37:08):
.
Then God comes to him and saysis it right for you to be so
angry?
He's just asking the question,jonah, what's happening in your
heart?
Is it a right thing, are youfeeling a righteous anger here
that I've shown compassion?
In verse 5, it says so Jonahwent out of the city and sat on
the east side, and there he madehimself a shelter and sat in it
(37:29):
under the shade so he might seewhat would become of the city.
So now he's sulking like alittle kid.
He made this little shelteroutside the city and he's
sulking like a little kid.
So he made this little shelteroutside the city and he's
sitting back waiting.
He's just hoping for the fireof God to come and devour this
place and the sun comes out andit gets hot, and it says that
the Lord prepared a little plantand it comes over Jonah and it
(37:51):
gives him some shade for hishead because God takes
compassion on him that he'ssitting in this miserable mopey
state.
He sends this plant to give himsome shade.
And it says that Jonah was sograteful for this plant.
But as the morning started todawn the next day, it says that
God prepared a worm, so the wormcame and damaged the plant so
(38:15):
that the plant withered, so nowthere's no more shade over
Jonah's head and the sun came up.
And it says that there was thiscrazy east wind and the sun
beat on Jonah's head so that hegrew faint and he wished again
that he would die.
This is just this reminds me ofa toddler, like a toddler that's
in timeout, going through allof these emotions, like the
(38:37):
angry, you know, pounding andkicking the floor and screaming,
and the rage like how dare you,god?
And then the quiet sulking oflike hugging their knees and
like looking at you with thedaggers in their eyes, and then,
just like you know, all thosewaves of emotion.
I just see Jonah going throughthis.
This is a man that God pickedto be his mouthpiece.
It's just wild to see thislittle rant that's happening.
(39:01):
And then God comes to him againin verse nine and says then God
said to Jonah is it right foryou to be so angry?
He asks him again tocontemplate what he's feeling
Again.
To contemplate what he'sfeeling Because God has given us
emotions for a reason.
When we have anger in our heart, it's supposed to tell us
(39:24):
something.
It's not just oh, don't beangry, I'm a Christian, I'm not
supposed to feel like that.
God comes to Jonah twice now andsays is it right for you to be
angry?
That anger, it's like anindicator on your dashboard in
your car.
When the oil light goes off, itmeans you need to check the oil
.
You can't just turn the lightoff on the dashboard and think
(39:45):
you're good.
You need to check what'shappening on the inside of the
engine.
So God is saying Jonah, checkyour anger.
The light is flashing.
What's going on in your heart?
He's giving Jonah opportunitiesto repent, but he's not taking
them Because Jonah responds toGod it is right for me to be
angry, even to death.
(40:06):
So yet again, he will notrepent.
And then God says at the end ofthis book but the Lord said you
have had pity on the plant forwhich you didn't labor and or
make it grow, which came up in anight and it perished in a
night.
And should I not pity Nineveh,that great city in which are
(40:28):
more than 120,000 persons whocan't discern between their
right and their left hands, andmuch livestock?
This is where the book ends,jonah's still unrepentant and
God telling him hey, jonah,you're really, you're more upset
about this little plant thanyou are about this giant city of
(40:50):
Nineveh.
And the Lord points out here,it says there are more than
120,000 persons who can'tdiscern between their right and
their left hand, who can'tdiscern between their right and
their left hand, children, godis reminding Jonah hey, even if
all of this makes you so angry,there are thousands of children
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and livestock.
It says, that don't even knowthey're right from their left
hand.
They can't even have angeredyou, they haven't even chosen to
be wicked yet.
Yes, they've been born intothis wicked nation, or the
animals.
They didn't choose where theywere going to be.
So these are innocents, god'spointing out.
There are innocents in the cityand I chose to take compassion
on them, jonah.
(41:34):
There are innocents in the cityand I chose to take compassion
on them, jonah.
And the sad state of affairs isthat Jonah still would rather
die than even show compassion onthese children, and we don't.
That's all we get.
That's how the book ends.
Now this is not usually the waythat we hear it in Sunday school
.
Now there is so many differentways that we could go and so
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many things that we could drawout of the story, but what I
really want to focus on is theglorification of God.
So now I asked this question atthe retreat and everybody
looked at me with questioningfaces.
Now, was God glorified?
Did he receive glory?
Now, that's a confusing.
(42:17):
It's a confusing questionreally, because yes, he
absolutely did receive glory.
Because we read that revival issparked, right, so God is
glorified.
Obedience, even though it was abegrudging obedience, an
obedience that never touched hisheart.
But in this instance, I thinkGod was glorified despite Job.
(42:40):
Right.
Like God can use a donkey tospeak truth, god can use a pagan
king, somebody filled withwickedness, to proclaim truth.
Even the demons know that Godis who he is and tremble.
The messenger doesn't have tobe pure and perfect, because the
message is what carries thepower.
It is the God of that message.
(43:01):
So God was glorified in thatNineveh repented, revival broke
out and there was real, realrepentance.
Jonah could have taken thisopportunity to dive in.
He could have said you knowwhat?
I'm going back in there, I'mgoing to teach these people who
the real God is.
Guess what.
Here's what we know about him.
Here's what's happened to thepatriarchs in the past.
(43:22):
Here's his character.
He could have shown them who Godwas, but he missed out.
He chose to stay stuck in hisbitterness, in his anger, in his
own wicked, wicked heart thathe missed out on being a part of
a revival.
He didn't get to partake ofthat glory.
He pouted, he sulked, he waslike an angsty teenager the
(43:47):
whole way.
So God was glorified becauseGod is God, and even through our
disobedience he is glorified.
Even through a broken andcorrupt world that can be filled
with pain and wickedness, godis glorified because he is God.
He is so far above all of thosethings that he can still
(44:07):
receive glory even in thebrokenness.
But Jonah did not get topartake of this part of God's
glory, and that is a sad shame,because I bet you I don't know
what happened after this.
We don't know.
This is as far as we get withthe book, but this man missed
out, whereas when we look at Job.
(44:30):
Job entered in, job sufferedand Job's heart was torn apart.
But because he brought it toGod and he repented when he was
shown to be wrong, he got topartake of the glory with God.
But Jonah, even through hisbegrudging obedience, missed out
(44:50):
.
Are you missing out on the worksof God because you have a
broken heart, because you areangry, because you are bitter,
because you are not willing tooffer forgiveness to those
people or to that person, orbecause you are holding on to
(45:10):
something that is not yourburden to bear?
Holding on to something that isnot your burden to bear?
Now, the thing that we can takeaway from this is to be where
that nasty root of bitterness,unforgiveness, of anger and that
is exactly what Satan wants isfor these deep, dark veins to
(45:31):
just nestle themselves in ourheart so that we can see the
works of God and not even have aheart to rejoice in them.
Colossians 3.2 tells us setyour mind on things that are
above, not on things that are onthe earth.
Second Corinthians 4.18 says sowe fix our eyes not on what is
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seen but on what is unseen,since what is seen is temporary
but what is unseen is eternal.
I think these two verses giveus a key to success here,
because we can get stuck, we gethurt.
I think some of the wounds thatwe carry around will be scars
with us till the day that we die.
And just because we've forgivensomeone does not mean that that
(46:19):
scar completely goes away.
I think we can be hurt very,very deeply and I don't want to
act like forgiveness is such asimple thing or that whatever
happened to you is small,because in many cases it's not.
I think about Corrie ten Boom,who's one of my favorite people
to think about and remember.
This woman who walked throughthe Holocaust and survived, but
(46:42):
she was abused and mistreated.
She saw so many people that sheloved and cared for die at the
hand of the Nazis, and yet shecame through it and was able to
offer forgiveness to the peoplearound her that caused that kind
of harm.
Now, that is something thatonly God can do, but that story
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brings so much glory to God andI think it has to do with where
Corrie ten Boom was fixing hereyes, with where Job was fixing
his eyes.
If we look at ourselves, we aregoing to be discouraged.
If we look at others, if welook at the world.
We're going to be discouragedIf we keep looking at our pain.
(47:26):
We're going to be discouraged,but if we look at Jesus, we will
find healing, we will find hope, we will find courage.
We will find a reason to wakeup tomorrow, even in the midst
of the pain and the trials.
Now I am not disparagingcounseling or really looking at
(47:48):
your pain, because I think thatis essential to be healed from
it.
You can't avoid it either.
You can't just lock it into adeep, dark dungeon and hope that
it heals.
I think you need to open upthose doors and let it air out.
God's got to get in there anddo some healing, and sometimes
you need to talk your waythrough all of that garbage
that's been buried for such along time, and I think that is
(48:10):
good and healing.
But who are we fixing our eyeson?
Are we looking at ourselves?
Are we fixing our eyes onourselves?
Because I know sometimes we getso fixated on our own actions,
what we did right and what wedidn't, and keeping a score and
a tally and little boxes, andthat is what we get so obsessed
with.
(48:30):
Or we look at others.
Are they approving of us?
Are they doing what's right andwe like to judge, judge, judge
and point the finger.
We look at others are theyapproving of us, are they doing
what's right?
And we like to judge, judge,judge and point the finger and
look at everybody else again.
This will distract us, it willget us off path.
But if we fix our eyes on Jesus, if we can set our mind on
things above I think of thethermostat in the house you can
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just set it at the temperaturethat you want the house to be
and when it goes too low or itgoes too high, it corrects it
right, it sets it in one place.
That's how we're supposed tofix our eyes on Jesus.
That's the kind of setting thatit's talking about.
If we're looking at Jesus, hecan heal us, he can show us who
(49:14):
he is again, because that's whatcured Job.
Job had all of these doubts andpains and all of his inner
anguish, and God showed up andjust told him about what he did,
just on creation.
Just a few chapters about whatGod does, and it was enough to
heal Job's heart.
It was enough to correct hisvision, to renew that
(49:36):
understanding of sovereignty, torenew the understanding of his
place in the grand scheme ofthings was God.
That is why the Bibleconsistently tells us to keep
looking to God, the author andthe finish of our faith.
We have to fix our eyes or wewill get so distracted by our
own pain, by our own loss, byour own frustration or by our
(49:59):
own failures.
So today, my friends, I want usto think about that.
Where are we looking?
Where is our gaze when we getfrustrated and overwhelmed, when
we experience loss, when we getthat diagnosis or we lose the
job or something that our heartswas really set on falls apart,
(50:20):
when we experience people aroundus that hurt us, that lie to us
, that take advantage of us,when the world offers us pain,
do we do it with Jesus?
Do we walk hand in hand in thepain with him or do we turn away
?
Do we run it with Jesus?
Do we walk hand in hand in thepain with him or do we turn away
?
Do we run away from it?
Because that there lies the key.
(50:40):
We need to fix our eyes on him.
We need to look at him becausehe wants to be glorified in that
pain.
He wants to be glorified in thesuffering, and we will choose
today, we will choose every daywhether or not.
We get to walk with God inglorifying himself in our
situation or, like Jonah, we'regoing to disobey.
(51:00):
God's still going to get theglory, but we're going to miss
out.
We won't be a part of it.
Our hearts will not rejoice atthe works of God anymore.
So I hope that you take thisheart check to heart, and I just
want to offer up a quick prayerfor all of us.
Lord, we thank you for your wordthat you speak truth, that you
(51:21):
give us life, lord, and that youshow us these people's lives,
that we can learn from such abeautiful lessons in their lives
.
Lord, I pray that you wouldgive us the humility of Job,
that you would give us thecorrect understanding of your
sovereignty and of our place inyour world.
Lord, I pray that you wouldkeep us from the bitterness,
(51:45):
from the unforgiveness and fromthe anger of Jonah.
Lord, for those of us that areharboring those things in our
heart, god, by your spirit,would you cleanse them out of us
.
Lord, it is not an easy thing,but I pray, as we surrender
those things to you, that wewould be made new.
Lord, we ask that you wouldglorify yourself in our hearts
(52:07):
and in our minds and in ourwords and in our actions, the
things that we do on this earth.
Lord, would you receive all theglory and all the honor and all
the praise.
Amen, thank you.
Kiora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a
place for women to be encouragedby God's holy word.
(00:21):
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am over for women to be
encouraged by God's Holy Word.
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Hello everybody, and welcomeback to Whispers of Grace.
I know it's been a while sinceI've put anything up.
(00:41):
We've had some exciting lifechanges over here that I've
needed to just pause andreconnect with the Lord and take
some space.
But I was so blessed lastweekend to be invited to speak
at a women's conference and Itaught two of the sessions and
they were wonderful.
I had such a good time withthese women and it reminded me
(01:02):
how much I love to teach to agroup of people, because it's
more interactive and I feed offthe audience, and I really
should have recorded thosesessions then, but I didn't.
But I had a few requests thatsaid Can you please go back and
record this and put it on thepodcast for me?
So this is my labor of love foryou.
I will do these sessions again,but it's probably going to be a
(01:26):
bit different, because when Istudy and record for the podcast
.
I'm very specific and carefulabout the things that I say and
it's much more scripted in thethought over, which is why it
takes me such a long time to doit.
But today is going to be muchmore like when I teach live,
where I've just got a set ofnotes that are not comprehensive
(01:47):
and I'm just kind of followingwhere the Spirit leads.
So if it feels a bit different,that is why, yeah, but this
retreat, the theme of it, wasPsalm 115.1.
It says Not unto us, o Lord,not unto us, but to your name
give glory because of your mercyand because of your truth.
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So the theme of the retreat wasglorifying God.
And as I was studying andpraying about this, the Lord
really put two specific storiesto kind of compare and contrast,
to learn about how to glorifyGod.
So what does it mean to glorifyGod?
The Hebrew word glory means tohonor or to reverence, to bring
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glory or dignity.
It can also be used for wealthor splendor and, as my friend
Gemma said, it's to make Godfamous or to shine a spotlight
on him.
And back in the Old Testament,when we saw the glory of God, it
was that Shekinah.
It was the glory of God thatwould came to dwell with the
(02:57):
people of Israel.
It kind of settled in amongthem and it stayed there and, if
you remember, all the way backto the tabernacle, which is kind
of we were walking through thatnow in the life of Moses, but
in the tabernacle, when theglory of God came, it settled
right into the heart of thetabernacle in the Holy of Holies
(03:18):
, that glowing ball of light,that was the glory of God that
came and settled with them.
And it's amazing because theIsraelites had the glory of God.
They could look and see it.
They had a pillar of cloud, apillar of fire that would follow
them around.
They had manna from heaven.
They had all these physicalrepresentations of God all
(03:41):
around them.
God was doing miracles anddoing amazing things.
Yet over and over again, we seeIsrael doubting him, losing
their faith, not being willingto walk into the promised land,
even though they see God, whichis interesting because even
though his glory was with them,it didn't always inspire them to
(04:03):
have true faith or to even walkin faithfulness.
So I want to look at what thatlooks like today, because we
don't have the tangible Shekinahof God.
But First, corinthians 316tells us do you not know that
you are the temple of God, thatyou are the temple of God and
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that the spirit of God dwells inyou.
So, although we may not havethe temple or the tabernacle
anymore, the word of God tellsus that we ourselves have become
the tabernacle.
We have become that temple thatliterally, physically, contains
the glory of God If you are abeliever and you've accepted
Jesus Christ to be your master.
So this is our state of being.
(04:50):
We have the glory of God withinus at all times when we're
sleeping, when we're awake, whenwe're at work, when we lose our
temper, when we're frustrated,when we're at church, when we're
distracted, when we'rescrolling too much on social
media, the glory of God isdwelling within us.
(05:11):
It's with us.
So how is it that, if we bodilyhave the glory of God, that
sometimes we can block or veilthat peace of God with our
actions and in our flesh?
So the question is, how do wemake him known?
(05:32):
If we can veil his glory and ifit cannot be seen through our
lives and our actions and ourwords, what do we need to do to
make the glory of God known andseen by others?
So, in order to glorify God, orto glorify anything.
We have to cease to glorifyourselves.
(05:54):
So if we want to glorify God,we can't be glorifying ourselves
.
And in talking about this I wantto talk about an amazing figure
in the Bible, job.
So I'm sure many of us arefamiliar with Job's story.
It's one of the oldest books ofthe Bible that we have.
It's long before the law wasgiven.
(06:15):
This man walked with God.
So if you're not familiar withhis story, I would encourage you
to turn to the book of Job andread about it, because it's
incredible.
But essentially there was thisfaithful, godly man on the earth
that was super wealthy butloved God.
(06:38):
It said that he offeredsacrifices for his children and
was committed to the Lord.
And then we see this kind ofheavenly scene where Satan comes
and has this conversation withGod about Job and God says to
him have you considered myservant, job?
And Satan essentiallychallenges God and said oh, of
course he's faithful to you.
Look how much he has.
He's wealthy, and you'veblessed him and you haven't let
anybody do anything nasty ormean to this dude.
(06:58):
Of course he loves you.
And God says well, let's put itto the test and see.
You can test him.
You can test him, you can tryhim.
So Satan comes and heessentially destroys Job's
entire life.
The Chaldeans sweep in andsteal his cattle.
His children die, all of hispossessions are taken away,
(07:19):
pretty much just with it.
Within one day, all of thesethings happen and Job loses
almost everything in his lifethat's precious to him, except
for his wife, who was stillaround, to later say to him Job,
why don't you curse God and die?
Not such a surprise that Satanleft her around, but this
amazing man lost everything.
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And then at the end of it itsays that he's just sitting on
this ash heap the ash heap ofhis life, possibly, where his
children lost their lives, andhis skin is breaking out with
boils and he's sitting there insackcloth and ashes and he's
scraping his wounds with thisbroken pottery.
So we have this picture of thisman who went from the highest
(08:02):
mountain to the lowest valley insuch a short amount of time and
through all of this, job didnot actually sin against God.
Job 1.22,.
This is what Job says.
After the loss of his childrenand his possessions and all of
these things, job falls on theground and he worships and he
(08:24):
says naked I came from mymother's womb and naked, I will
depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord hastaken away.
May the name of the Lord bepraised.
So I don't understand that kindof faith in this man.
But God took everything fromhim and he still understood who
God was and who he was in lightof it and he accepted it.
(08:49):
Later on, like I said, job'swife comes to him and says Job,
why don't you just curse God anddie like be done with it all?
And Job 2, 10 tells us this iswhat job said shall we accept
good from god and not trouble inall this?
Job did not sin in what he said.
(09:10):
So again, this deepunderstanding in this man that
he accepted good and he alsoaccepted trouble.
Job understood his place and heunderstood god's real place,
god as the giver, the ultimateauthority, who is sovereign over
all things, blessing andadversity.
(09:32):
And Job realized that he didn'thave any entitlements, he
didn't bring anything into theworld and he knew he could take
nothing out.
So we have this really deepunderstanding.
And again, this glorifies God,Because a man that can walk
through this much trouble andstrain and loss and heartache
(09:53):
and still give God the glory,that only is a work of God in
somebody's heart, because ourflesh does not do that.
So, job, he started out strong,but as time wore on you know,
know the days and the weeks andthe months sitting on this ash
heap covered in boils hisfriends finally come to him and
(10:13):
they're just the worstcomforters in the world, because
all they do is spout this badtheology that I hear reflected
in the world a lot today.
They start to Job if only youwould confess your sin, then you
could be forgiven and you canget your things back, or maybe
God would just let you die.
So his friends tell himstraight up the reason you have
(10:35):
lost all of these things, thereason you are in pain, the
reason that you are suffering,is because you have sinned
against God.
Now we know from the word thatthis is absolute rubbish.
This is corrupt theology thattends to draw people away from
God, but yet our hearts go there.
(10:56):
Very often when we struggle,it's Lord, what have I done?
Or, in the adverse case, lord,I have done so much for you, I
have been so faithful.
Why have you done this to me?
And we kind of have theseentitlements, as though God owes
us a good life, god owes ushealth, god owes us prosperity.
(11:17):
God owes us all the thingswe're praying for.
So these friends come and startto say these things to Job.
So these friends come and startto say these things to Job, and
Job and his friends go on andon and on for chapters and
chapters, and chapters, back andforth, with the friends
throwing these accusations andJob defending himself and saying
no, I have been righteous,there is nothing hidden in my
(11:38):
life, there's no sins around thecorner that I'm keeping.
My life has been clean and hasbeen honest.
I did nothing to deserve what'shappened to me.
But we see Job start to questionwhy God has abandoned him,
because he doesn't understand ithimself, and I think the bad
theology and counsel of thesefriends really starts to tear
(12:00):
him down.
And Job starts to insist thathis own righteousness certainly
demands a better treatment.
He complains to God in chapter13 and says oh that I knew where
I might come and find him, thatI might come to his seat.
I would lay my case before himand fill my mouth with arguments
(12:22):
.
So here we see Job start to bea bit contradictory to his first
.
Statements were that he didn'texpect anything from God, but
now he's starting to say God,where are you?
I want to come before yourthrone and lay my case down
before you and fill my mouthwith arguments.
He continues on in chapter 13to say why are not times of
(12:44):
judgment kept by the Almighty,and why do those who know him
never see his days?
So he starts to have thisunrest.
And yet at the same time, inJob 13, 15, he says though he
slay me, yet I will trust him.
So Job has this deepunderstanding that only God is
(13:07):
God.
He's not going to rebel andwalk away from him, because
where would he go.
But he is still questioning whythese things have happened to
him.
And then he goes on to cursethe day of his birth and he just
bemoans his situation and he'spouring out his anguish and his
sorrow and his pain before God.
And then, after all of this,god actually shows up.
(13:33):
In Job 38.3,.
God actually comes down tospeak to Job and he says gird up
your loins like a man.
I will question you and youshall declare to me.
So then God comes on the sceneand he doesn't come and answer
any of Job's questions.
He doesn't tell him why he losthis family.
He doesn't tell him why hisservants were all carried off or
(13:56):
killed.
He doesn't tell him why he losthis livestock and all of his
wealth or in his health.
God doesn't answer Job'squestions like Job was wanting.
God just comes and tells himabout creation.
God asks him questions likewhere were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth?
Job, where does light dwell andwhere does darkness go?
(14:17):
And he goes into all of thesecreatures, the ostrich and the
jackal and he goes through allof these different animals and
asks Job questions about howthey give birth and how the land
is renewed and all of thesequestions about nature.
And God is essentially sayingif you're going to be God's
critic but you don't have theanswers to these things, how
(14:39):
simple are you?
Job 40, verse 2, says this doyou still want to argue with the
Almighty?
Are you God's critic?
But do you have the answers?
So God is showing up andshowing Job that he doesn't have
any of the answers to thesemost basic questions.
Yet he thinks he can put God ontrial for what God has allowed
(15:02):
in Job's life.
And it is in this moment thatJob repents.
In Job, chapter 40, verses threeto five, it says Then Job
replied to the Lord I am nothing.
How could I ever find theanswers?
I will cover my mouth with myhand.
I have said too much alreadyand I have nothing more to say.
(15:26):
So here we see Job with moreunderstanding.
He is centered again.
Job acknowledges once again thesovereignty of God, that God is
just too big and too perfectand too powerful for Job to
comprehend and for Job to putinto a tiny box of cause and
(15:49):
effect in his life.
And he does something amazinghere, because he immediately
repents.
He repents in dust and ashesand he admits his mistakes.
He admits that his mouth ranaway with him, that he had far
too many words to say about whathappened to him, and it's it's
(16:11):
really beautiful to see howhumble his heart is.
Job 42, one through eight saysthen Job replied to the Lord, I
know that you can do anythingand that no one can stop you.
You asked who is this thatquestions my wisdom with such
(16:32):
ignorance?
It is I, and I was talkingabout things.
I knew nothing about things fartoo wonderful for me.
You said listen and I willspeak.
I have some questions for youand you must answer them.
I had only heard about youbefore, but now I have seen you
with my own eyes.
(16:53):
I take back everything I saidand I sit in dust and ashes to
show my repentance.
After the Lord had finishedspeaking to Job, he said to
Eliphaz the Temanite I am angrywith you and your two friends,
for you have not spokenaccurately about me as my
servant Job has.
(17:14):
So take seven bulls and sevenrams and go to my servant Job
and offer a burnt offering foryourselves.
My servant Job will pray foryou and I will accept his prayer
on your behalf.
I will not treat you as youdeserve, for you have not spoken
accurately about me as myservant Job has.
(17:35):
Servant Job has.
In this section we see arepentant Job for his doubt and
for the fact that he thought hecould put God on trial.
Job repents and God immediatelyasks him to serve as a priest,
as an intercessor between hisfriends these poor counselors
(17:56):
that had this bad theology andGod.
So we see something absolutelybeautiful happen here.
We see Job glorify God, I thinkin his honesty, the fact that
he poured his heart and his soulout through all of these
chapters because of this deep,dark pain that he was
(18:17):
experiencing.
But the whole time he wasbringing these requests to God.
He didn't turn his back on Godand walk the other way and tell
everyone else all of thesetroubles in his heart and make
all these questions to the worldor go badmouth God or turn away
from him.
Job brought all of these deepquestions and this deep anguish,
(18:39):
his misunderstanding and hispain to the Lord.
I think this is key in Job'sstory in glorifying God.
When he walked through pain andsuffering and deep, deep,
unimaginable loss, he did itwith God.
He brought all of thoseemotions and frustrations and
(19:02):
all of that in his heart thatwas stored up.
He brought it to the Lord.
There is so much that we canlearn here and how to glorify
God in our pain from this man.
Because we need to do it with,because we need to do it with
Jesus.
He is the sovereign one who hasthe answers.
He is the only one thatunderstands the depth of our
(19:26):
pain.
Yet so often we turn our backand we want to mourn without him
, we want to struggle withouthim, we want to question or
doubt, we want to have all ofthese crises of faith, but we
want to do it without himinstead of doing it with him.
We want to question or doubt,we want to have all of these
crises of faith, but we want todo it without him instead of
doing it with him.
God invites us into arelationship For those of us
(19:48):
that are married or have reallygood friendships.
We fight, we come withdisagreements, we have deep
issues, sometimes that takeyears to solve, things that can
follow you around for a longtime.
We don't set those things asideand ignore them.
That is just setting yourselfup for a really poor
relationship, for deep, deepcaverns that will eventually
(20:11):
destroy the relationship.
We understand that in ourrelationships with people, or if
we don't, then that's probablywhy we have trouble with our
relationships with people.
Or if we don't, then that'sprobably why we have trouble
with our relationships withpeople, because we've got all
these pockets of bitterness andpockets of unforgiveness in our
heart that have just lived therefor such a long time.
We just continue to ignore them.
If you have a storage place ofall of this pain and anger and
(20:33):
unforgiveness, it's really hardto be open and honest with
somebody and it's impossible totrust them.
So in our relationships, we knowthat we have to work through
these things with one another,but for some reason we apply
different rules with the Lord,we feel like, because he's holy
and because he's God, we can'tbring him our doubt, we can't
(20:55):
bring him our anger, we cannotbring him anything except for
faith and right hearts.
But that's not true, becauseGod knows every thought that is
in your heart.
He knows all of your pain.
He knows all of your struggles.
God is well acquainted with allof your doubt and with your
rage.
He knows every piece of it andhe asks us to bring it to him
(21:23):
when we act like the only heartthat we can bring God is one
that we're proud of.
We have misunderstood ourrelationship with God, because
he makes space for us to befleshly, for us to be fallen,
for us to be human.
That is why he is God fleshly,for us to be fallen, for us to
be human.
That is why he is God, and heexpects us to come and hold his
hand, like a little child thatdoesn't understand what's
(21:44):
happening, and cling to him forthe answers.
And I think that's one of thethings that Job glorified God in
so much in his struggles and inhis life.
And, yes, his mouth runs awaywith him in that he's calling
God to account for the actionsthat have happened to him, but
he does it with God, which is, Ithink, why when Job repents
(22:06):
here, the Lord immediately putshim in the place of a servant
and an intercessor and a priest.
God is saying my servant, job,will act as the intercessor for
his three friends that thoughtthat they were holy and
righteous and on the right path,but actually had pulled all of
these wrong conclusions aboutthe character of God.
(22:28):
Their theology was crooked,which is why they needed to
repent.
Job was in a perfect place toact as an intercessor because he
knew what worship really was.
Job had a beautifully honestrelationship with God.
(22:50):
He kept talking to the Lordthrough his pain, and Job was
acquainted with his own sins andhe was very quick to repent.
When God showed up and showedJob who he was, job humbled
himself before the Lord.
Now, that is glorifying to God,because we are not always going
to get it right.
We are going to say things thatare wrong.
(23:12):
Our theology is sometimes goingto be off.
Our hearts will certainly leadus astray, and, over and, over
and over again, we are going toneed off.
Our hearts will certainly leadus astray and, over and, over
and over again, we are going toneed to repent.
We need to understand thatabout ourselves and the best
place to do that is right beforethe Lord.
Now I want to take what we'vejust read and kind of absorbed
(23:36):
about Job and I want to contrastand compare it with the life of
Jonah, because it's reallyinteresting to put the two of
these men side by side and kindof see how God is glorified and
how he's not, because I thinkthere's such a beautiful heart
difference between the two ofthese men, because we know that
(23:57):
God is glorified and God ishonored through obedience.
1 John 14 15 says if you love me, keep my commands.
James 1 22 says do not merelylisten to the word and so
deceive yourselves, do what itsays.
So there's no getting aroundobedience.
(24:18):
If we claim that we areblood-bought believers of Christ
, we need to obey the Lord.
Yes, we will make mistakes, wewill fall, we will stumble.
He knows that.
But it says if you love me,you'll keep my commands.
That talks about a godlyrepentance and an obedience.
So obedience is essential.
But I want to take a look atJonah, who technically did obey
(24:41):
God in the end but I think hadthe most corrupt heart.
So if you are following alongin your Bible, you can flip over
to the book of Jonah.
If not, I will walk you throughit.
The book of Jonah, chapter one,says Now the word of the Lord
came to Jonah, the son ofAmittai, saying Arise, go to
(25:03):
Nineveh, that great city, andcry out against it, for their
wickedness has come up before me.
God comes and speaks to thisguy.
The voice of God is telling himto do something.
He tells him to get up and togo to Nineveh, which is an
incredibly pagan society.
Verse three says but Jonaharose to flee to Tarshish from
(25:29):
the presence of the Lord.
So essentially, god tells Jonah, go to Nineveh.
And Jonah goes the exactopposite direction.
He hops on a boat and fleesJust peace out, god, I'm not
going there.
And goes the exact oppositedirection.
He hops on a boat and fleesJust peace out, god, I'm not
going there.
And goes the opposite way.
So direct disobedience.
But as soon as they get out tosea, a giant storm comes and all
(25:52):
of the sailors are wonderingwhat do we do?
We're all going to die.
And even these pagan sailorscome and wake Jonah up and say
hey, call on your God, maybehe'll save us.
And they cast lots and theshort lot falls to Jonah.
So they know that there'ssomething going on with this guy
.
And Jonah says I'm a Hebrew.
I fear the Lord and the God ofheaven.
(26:13):
He's the one who made the seaand everything that's all around
.
I've disobeyed him.
If you chuck me into the ocean,the storm will stop.
So can you imagine being thisdisobedient prophet?
You're on this boat.
You thought you were gettingaway, but now there's this
massive storm that comes and youknow it's over.
Just throw me into the oceanand I'm going to die.
(26:35):
I can't imagine.
I've seen movies of these greatstorms that happened.
Being thrown into that cold,dark water is absolutely
terrifying.
And he's in this water.
He's getting thrashed around bythese raves and I wonder how
long it was before he realizedthat he was actually swallowed
by this giant fish, because hemust have been super disoriented
(26:58):
, just thrashing around in thewater like not knowing what to
do.
And then it says that Godprepares a fish that come and
swallows this man whole.
Now I know to our modern mindsthat seems so impossible, but
the Bible tells us that ithappened.
Now something incredible ithappens here, at the end of
(27:21):
chapter one.
It says now the lord hadprepared a great fish to swallow
, jonah.
And jonah was in the belly ofthe fish three days and three
nights.
Can you imagine three days andthree nights in utter darkness,
(27:41):
no sounds, except maybe thegurgling digestion that's
happening inside of this animal?
You're inside of a whale'sbelly.
The stomach acid is eating awayat his skin.
It says that he's covered inseaweed and there's all of these
like nasty smells.
Can you imagine thinking do Ieat?
Do I not eat?
Where am I?
Is this ever going to end?
(28:03):
And in that pitch black state ittook him three days and three
nights before he called out toGod.
That was how stubborn and angrythis man was, because in verse
17, it tells us that Jonah wasin the belly of the fish for
three days and three nights.
(28:23):
And then Jonah prayed to theLord, his God, from the fish's
belly.
Can you imagine being that deadset against what God wanted to
do?
God gave him a really simpleinstruction go to Nineveh and
cry out against them.
He said no, so hard that he ranthe opposite direction, was
(28:47):
willing to die and be thrown inthe ocean and then suffered for
three days and three nights inthe belly of a fish before he
was willing to humble himselfand cry out to God.
Now this is a man that is eatenup with hatred, with anger,
(29:10):
with bitterness.
He absolutely despises thesepeople in Nineveh.
That is how hard his heart is.
But he eventually gets to thepoint where he prays to the Lord
from the fish's belly.
This is what he says.
I cry out to the Lord because ofmy affliction, and he answered
(29:34):
me Out of the belly of Sheol.
I cried and you heard my voice,for you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas, andthe floods surrounded me.
All your billows and your wavespassed over me, and then I said
I have been cast out of yoursight.
Yet I will look again towardyour holy temple.
The water surrounded me, evento my soul, and the deep closed
(29:58):
around me.
Weeds were wrapped around myhead.
I went down to the moorings ofthe mountains.
The earth with its bars closedbehind me forever.
Yet you have brought my lifefrom the pit.
O, my Lord.
When my soul fainted within me,I remembered the Lord and my
(30:19):
prayer went up to you, into yourholy temple.
Those who regard worthlessidols forsake their own mercy,
but I will sacrifice to you Withthe voice of thanksgiving.
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.
So we see this beautiful,heartfelt prayer.
(30:39):
That is an awesome parallel ofJesus.
But it's interesting becausethe only reason that he's
repenting is because he's inthis situation.
He can't change right.
He's in the belly of this fishand we'll see this reflected as
we continue to read through thestory.
But in chapter 2, verse 10, itsays so.
The Lord spoke to the fish andit vomited Jonah onto dry land.
(31:04):
And the word of the Lord came toJonah a second time saying
arise, go to Nineveh, that greatcity, and preach to it the
message that I tell you.
So Jonah arose and went toNineveh.
So I can imagine this manlooked and smelled terrifying.
He probably had white gross.
(31:25):
You know your fingers getpruney, like when you're in the
water for a long time.
Can you imagine that over awhole body that's just been like
sitting in stomach acid of awhale for all this time, like it
just probably was disgusting,and he smelled like who knows
what and he just got vomited upon a beach.
And God tells him let's trythis again.
Go to Nineveh and tell themwhat I'm going to tell you.
(31:48):
It says so.
Jonah arose and went to Ninevehaccording to the word of the
Lord.
So now he's obeying, right,like we talked about at the
beginning of the section, thatobedience that is critical.
Now, nineveh was an exceedinglygreat city, a three-day journey
in extent, and Jonah began toenter the city on his first day
walk.
And then he cried out and saidyet 40 days and Nineveh shall be
(32:19):
overthrown.
That's it Really simple message, right?
40 days, nineveh is going to beoverthrown.
He just walks through the cityand pronounces this, and this is
what God does.
In chapter three, verse five, itsays so the people of Nineveh
believed God.
They proclaimed a fast and theyput on sackcloth, from the
greatest to the least, even theking puts on sackcloth and
repents in dust and ashes.
(32:40):
And the king tells everyonedon't eat or drink anything.
Everybody needs to be clothedin sackcloth and cry out to this
mighty God because maybe, justmaybe, he will relent and turn
away and not kill us all.
And then, in verse 10, it saysthen God saw their works, that
(33:01):
they turned from their evil way,and God relented from the
disaster that he had said hewould bring upon them.
And he did not do it.
So we see the compassionate,amazing heart of God and that
these people who had lived anincredibly wicked life, but at
(33:22):
this simple word from thisprophet, they all repented.
So their sins had reached sohigh that God was ready to
destroy them.
But because they truly repentedin dust and ashes, this
glorious, gracious, good,compassionate God was ready to
forgive them.
Forgave them Now.
(33:45):
That is a beautiful story in andof itself, but what I want to
focus on is the prophet In Jonah, chapter four.
It says this, but it displeasedJonah exceedingly and he became
angry.
So Jonah watches God's workbecause only God could bring a
(34:06):
nation to repentance with justthis simple statement.
Right, I'm sure Jonah wascreepy to look at.
He was probably this likefreaky smelling fish man walking
through this town, essentiallysaying if you don't repent,
you're all going to die.
But the spirit of God fell andliteral revival is breaking out.
People are repenting andturning to the one true God,
(34:31):
which is the biggest thing thatwe can rejoice at as children of
God.
Right is when people turn fromdarkness and enter into light.
This should be the thing thatwe can always rejoice at,
regardless of who it is.
But yet we see Jonah's heart,the bitterness, the anger, the
rage, the unforgiveness, thejudgment.
(34:52):
The callous heart of Jonah hereis angry.
He's watching revival bloombefore his eyes.
He's getting to be themessenger that brings revival,
and yet he is angry.
(35:12):
It said that it displeased Jonahexceedingly.
And then this is Jonah'sresponse in chapter four, verse
two and so he prayed to the Lord.
Ah Lord, was not this what Isaid when I was still in my
country?
Therefore, I fled previously toTarshish, for I know that you
(35:37):
are gracious and merciful, god,slow to anger and abundant in
loving kindness, one who relentsfrom doing harm.
So Jonah prays and says this isthe reason why I left.
This is why I decided to go theopposite direction that you
(35:58):
told me to go in, because I knewwho you were.
I knew that you were graciousand merciful and slow to anger,
abundant in loving kindness, andthat you would relent from
doing harm.
That right, there is next level.
Jonah was willing to disobeyGod because he knew that God
(36:25):
would offer forgiveness.
Can you imagine the type ofheart that says I knew that you
were compassionate and graciousand I wasn't willing to let you
show all of that to these wickedpeople that I hate because I
want them to all die.
This guy is so bitter, he is so,so deep in his sin that he
cannot even rejoice over therepentance of these people.
(36:48):
He goes on and says in versethree therefore now, oh Lord,
please take my life from me, forit is better for me to die than
to live Now.
He would rather die than seehis enemies come to faith in God
(37:08):
.
Then God comes to him and saysis it right for you to be so
angry?
He's just asking the question,jonah, what's happening in your
heart?
Is it a right thing, are youfeeling a righteous anger here
that I've shown compassion?
In verse 5, it says so Jonahwent out of the city and sat on
the east side, and there he madehimself a shelter and sat in it
(37:29):
under the shade so he might seewhat would become of the city.
So now he's sulking like alittle kid.
He made this little shelteroutside the city and he's
sulking like a little kid.
So he made this little shelteroutside the city and he's
sitting back waiting.
He's just hoping for the fireof God to come and devour this
place and the sun comes out andit gets hot, and it says that
the Lord prepared a little plantand it comes over Jonah and it
(37:51):
gives him some shade for hishead because God takes
compassion on him that he'ssitting in this miserable mopey
state.
He sends this plant to give himsome shade.
And it says that Jonah was sograteful for this plant.
But as the morning started todawn the next day, it says that
God prepared a worm, so the wormcame and damaged the plant so
(38:15):
that the plant withered, so nowthere's no more shade over
Jonah's head and the sun came up.
And it says that there was thiscrazy east wind and the sun
beat on Jonah's head so that hegrew faint and he wished again
that he would die.
This is just this reminds me ofa toddler, like a toddler that's
in timeout, going through allof these emotions, like the
(38:37):
angry, you know, pounding andkicking the floor and screaming,
and the rage like how dare you,god?
And then the quiet sulking oflike hugging their knees and
like looking at you with thedaggers in their eyes, and then,
just like you know, all thosewaves of emotion.
I just see Jonah going throughthis.
This is a man that God pickedto be his mouthpiece.
It's just wild to see thislittle rant that's happening.
(39:01):
And then God comes to him againin verse nine and says then God
said to Jonah is it right foryou to be so angry?
He asks him again tocontemplate what he's feeling
Again.
To contemplate what he'sfeeling Because God has given us
emotions for a reason.
When we have anger in our heart, it's supposed to tell us
(39:24):
something.
It's not just oh, don't beangry, I'm a Christian, I'm not
supposed to feel like that.
God comes to Jonah twice now andsays is it right for you to be
angry?
That anger, it's like anindicator on your dashboard in
your car.
When the oil light goes off, itmeans you need to check the oil
.
You can't just turn the lightoff on the dashboard and think
(39:45):
you're good.
You need to check what'shappening on the inside of the
engine.
So God is saying Jonah, checkyour anger.
The light is flashing.
What's going on in your heart?
He's giving Jonah opportunitiesto repent, but he's not taking
them Because Jonah responds toGod it is right for me to be
angry, even to death.
(40:06):
So yet again, he will notrepent.
And then God says at the end ofthis book but the Lord said you
have had pity on the plant forwhich you didn't labor and or
make it grow, which came up in anight and it perished in a
night.
And should I not pity Nineveh,that great city in which are
(40:28):
more than 120,000 persons whocan't discern between their
right and their left hands, andmuch livestock?
This is where the book ends,jonah's still unrepentant and
God telling him hey, jonah,you're really, you're more upset
about this little plant thanyou are about this giant city of
(40:50):
Nineveh.
And the Lord points out here,it says there are more than
120,000 persons who can'tdiscern between their right and
their left hand, who can'tdiscern between their right and
their left hand, children, godis reminding Jonah hey, even if
all of this makes you so angry,there are thousands of children
(41:13):
and livestock.
It says, that don't even knowthey're right from their left
hand.
They can't even have angeredyou, they haven't even chosen to
be wicked yet.
Yes, they've been born intothis wicked nation, or the
animals.
They didn't choose where theywere going to be.
So these are innocents, god'spointing out.
There are innocents in the cityand I chose to take compassion
on them, jonah.
(41:34):
There are innocents in the cityand I chose to take compassion
on them, jonah.
And the sad state of affairs isthat Jonah still would rather
die than even show compassion onthese children, and we don't.
That's all we get.
That's how the book ends.
Now this is not usually the waythat we hear it in Sunday school
.
Now there is so many differentways that we could go and so
(41:55):
many things that we could drawout of the story, but what I
really want to focus on is theglorification of God.
So now I asked this question atthe retreat and everybody
looked at me with questioningfaces.
Now, was God glorified?
Did he receive glory?
Now, that's a confusing.
(42:17):
It's a confusing questionreally, because yes, he
absolutely did receive glory.
Because we read that revival issparked, right, so God is
glorified.
Obedience, even though it was abegrudging obedience, an
obedience that never touched hisheart.
But in this instance, I thinkGod was glorified despite Job.
(42:40):
Right.
Like God can use a donkey tospeak truth, god can use a pagan
king, somebody filled withwickedness, to proclaim truth.
Even the demons know that Godis who he is and tremble.
The messenger doesn't have tobe pure and perfect, because the
message is what carries thepower.
It is the God of that message.
(43:01):
So God was glorified in thatNineveh repented, revival broke
out and there was real, realrepentance.
Jonah could have taken thisopportunity to dive in.
He could have said you knowwhat?
I'm going back in there, I'mgoing to teach these people who
the real God is.
Guess what.
Here's what we know about him.
Here's what's happened to thepatriarchs in the past.
(43:22):
Here's his character.
He could have shown them who Godwas, but he missed out.
He chose to stay stuck in hisbitterness, in his anger, in his
own wicked, wicked heart thathe missed out on being a part of
a revival.
He didn't get to partake ofthat glory.
He pouted, he sulked, he waslike an angsty teenager the
(43:47):
whole way.
So God was glorified becauseGod is God, and even through our
disobedience he is glorified.
Even through a broken andcorrupt world that can be filled
with pain and wickedness, godis glorified because he is God.
He is so far above all of thosethings that he can still
(44:07):
receive glory even in thebrokenness.
But Jonah did not get topartake of this part of God's
glory, and that is a sad shame,because I bet you I don't know
what happened after this.
We don't know.
This is as far as we get withthe book, but this man missed
out, whereas when we look at Job.
(44:30):
Job entered in, job sufferedand Job's heart was torn apart.
But because he brought it toGod and he repented when he was
shown to be wrong, he got topartake of the glory with God.
But Jonah, even through hisbegrudging obedience, missed out
(44:50):
.
Are you missing out on the worksof God because you have a
broken heart, because you areangry, because you are bitter,
because you are not willing tooffer forgiveness to those
people or to that person, orbecause you are holding on to
(45:10):
something that is not yourburden to bear?
Holding on to something that isnot your burden to bear?
Now, the thing that we can takeaway from this is to be where
that nasty root of bitterness,unforgiveness, of anger and that
is exactly what Satan wants isfor these deep, dark veins to
(45:31):
just nestle themselves in ourheart so that we can see the
works of God and not even have aheart to rejoice in them.
Colossians 3.2 tells us setyour mind on things that are
above, not on things that are onthe earth.
Second Corinthians 4.18 says sowe fix our eyes not on what is
(45:55):
seen but on what is unseen,since what is seen is temporary
but what is unseen is eternal.
I think these two verses giveus a key to success here,
because we can get stuck, we gethurt.
I think some of the wounds thatwe carry around will be scars
with us till the day that we die.
And just because we've forgivensomeone does not mean that that
(46:19):
scar completely goes away.
I think we can be hurt very,very deeply and I don't want to
act like forgiveness is such asimple thing or that whatever
happened to you is small,because in many cases it's not.
I think about Corrie ten Boom,who's one of my favorite people
to think about and remember.
This woman who walked throughthe Holocaust and survived, but
(46:42):
she was abused and mistreated.
She saw so many people that sheloved and cared for die at the
hand of the Nazis, and yet shecame through it and was able to
offer forgiveness to the peoplearound her that caused that kind
of harm.
Now, that is something thatonly God can do, but that story
(47:04):
brings so much glory to God andI think it has to do with where
Corrie ten Boom was fixing hereyes, with where Job was fixing
his eyes.
If we look at ourselves, we aregoing to be discouraged.
If we look at others, if welook at the world.
We're going to be discouragedIf we keep looking at our pain.
(47:26):
We're going to be discouraged,but if we look at Jesus, we will
find healing, we will find hope, we will find courage.
We will find a reason to wakeup tomorrow, even in the midst
of the pain and the trials.
Now I am not disparagingcounseling or really looking at
(47:48):
your pain, because I think thatis essential to be healed from
it.
You can't avoid it either.
You can't just lock it into adeep, dark dungeon and hope that
it heals.
I think you need to open upthose doors and let it air out.
God's got to get in there anddo some healing, and sometimes
you need to talk your waythrough all of that garbage
that's been buried for such along time, and I think that is
(48:10):
good and healing.
But who are we fixing our eyeson?
Are we looking at ourselves?
Are we fixing our eyes onourselves?
Because I know sometimes we getso fixated on our own actions,
what we did right and what wedidn't, and keeping a score and
a tally and little boxes, andthat is what we get so obsessed
with.
(48:30):
Or we look at others.
Are they approving of us?
Are they doing what's right andwe like to judge, judge, judge
and point the finger.
We look at others are theyapproving of us, are they doing
what's right?
And we like to judge, judge,judge and point the finger and
look at everybody else again.
This will distract us, it willget us off path.
But if we fix our eyes on Jesus, if we can set our mind on
things above I think of thethermostat in the house you can
(48:53):
just set it at the temperaturethat you want the house to be
and when it goes too low or itgoes too high, it corrects it
right, it sets it in one place.
That's how we're supposed tofix our eyes on Jesus.
That's the kind of setting thatit's talking about.
If we're looking at Jesus, hecan heal us, he can show us who
(49:14):
he is again, because that's whatcured Job.
Job had all of these doubts andpains and all of his inner
anguish, and God showed up andjust told him about what he did,
just on creation.
Just a few chapters about whatGod does, and it was enough to
heal Job's heart.
It was enough to correct hisvision, to renew that
(49:36):
understanding of sovereignty, torenew the understanding of his
place in the grand scheme ofthings was God.
That is why the Bibleconsistently tells us to keep
looking to God, the author andthe finish of our faith.
We have to fix our eyes or wewill get so distracted by our
own pain, by our own loss, byour own frustration or by our
(49:59):
own failures.
So today, my friends, I want usto think about that.
Where are we looking?
Where is our gaze when we getfrustrated and overwhelmed, when
we experience loss, when we getthat diagnosis or we lose the
job or something that our heartswas really set on falls apart,
(50:20):
when we experience people aroundus that hurt us, that lie to us
, that take advantage of us,when the world offers us pain,
do we do it with Jesus?
Do we walk hand in hand in thepain with him or do we turn away
?
Do we run it with Jesus?
Do we walk hand in hand in thepain with him or do we turn away
?
Do we run away from it?
Because that there lies the key.
(50:40):
We need to fix our eyes on him.
We need to look at him becausehe wants to be glorified in that
pain.
He wants to be glorified in thesuffering, and we will choose
today, we will choose every daywhether or not.
We get to walk with God inglorifying himself in our
situation or, like Jonah, we'regoing to disobey.
(51:00):
God's still going to get theglory, but we're going to miss
out.
We won't be a part of it.
Our hearts will not rejoice atthe works of God anymore.
So I hope that you take thisheart check to heart, and I just
want to offer up a quick prayerfor all of us.
Lord, we thank you for your wordthat you speak truth, that you
(51:21):
give us life, lord, and that youshow us these people's lives,
that we can learn from such abeautiful lessons in their lives
.
Lord, I pray that you wouldgive us the humility of Job,
that you would give us thecorrect understanding of your
sovereignty and of our place inyour world.
Lord, I pray that you wouldkeep us from the bitterness,
(51:45):
from the unforgiveness and fromthe anger of Jonah.
Lord, for those of us that areharboring those things in our
heart, god, by your spirit,would you cleanse them out of us
.
Lord, it is not an easy thing,but I pray, as we surrender
those things to you, that wewould be made new.
Lord, we ask that you wouldglorify yourself in our hearts
(52:07):
and in our minds and in ourwords and in our actions, the
things that we do on this earth.
Lord, would you receive all theglory and all the honor and all
the praise.
Amen, thank you.
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