Responding to Lies in Difficult Times
In our exploration of Job chapters 15 to 21, we delve into the intense exchanges between Job and his friends during a pivotal moment of suffering. We see Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, become increasingly hostile, accusing him of wickedness and suggesting that his suffering is a direct result of his sin. They adhere to a retribution theology that insists suffering is always a punishment for wrongdoing, which Job vehemently rejects. Instead, Job maintains his innocence and expresses his unwavering faith in God, famously declaring that he knows his Redeemer lives, despite his dire circumstances.
As we navigate through these chapters, we uncover the lies that can emerge during difficult times, such as the belief that suffering indicates a lack of fear or knowledge of God, or that God has abandoned us. Job’s responses serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of holding onto truth amidst despair. He appeals to God as his advocate and affirms his belief in resurrection and redemption, ultimately encouraging us to trust in God’s promises, even when we cannot understand our suffering. This sermon invites us to reflect on our own responses to adversity and the truths we cling to in our faith journey.
Key Takeaways
- Suffering does not equate to a lack of fear or knowledge of God; it can occur even among the faithful.
- Job's declaration of faith in his Redeemer serves as a powerful reminder of hope and resurrection amidst suffering.
- We must be vigilant against the lies that suggest God has abandoned us during difficult times; His promises remain true.
- Job's friends exemplify how false accusations can arise in times of distress, urging us to seek truth rather than listen to lies.
- In our struggles, we can appeal to God as our advocate, trusting in His control over our circumstances.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- What lies do we tend to believe about ourselves or God during difficult times?
- How can we remind ourselves of God's promises when we feel abandoned or alone?
- In what ways can we support others who are suffering, based on Job's experience?
- How does Job's declaration of faith in his Redeemer challenge our understanding of suffering?
- What practical steps can we take to ensure we are responding to our struggles with truth rather than lies?
Job 15-21
Job 15-21
Responding to Lies in Difficult Times:
Lie #1: “Your suffering reveals you no longer fearGod.” (Ch. 15)
Truth: “My suffering is under God’s control, and I will appealto Him.” (Ch. 16-17)
Lie #2: “Your suffering reveals you must not knowGod.” (Ch. 18)
Truth: “I know Christ is my Redeemer, and because He is risen, I will rise too.” (Ch. 19)
Lie #3: “Your suffering reveals God has abandonedyou” (Ch. 20)
Truth: “We can’t know all of God’s ways, but He promises that nothing can separateus from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ch. 21)
Transcript
· Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix.
· How are you?
· Good.
· And God said, let there be light.
· Amen.
· Amen.
· I am Pastor DJ.
· Welcome.
· And I just wanted to say how grateful I am to be the pastor here.
· It is a gift from God, is a calling from God, of course, and a gift to pastor and
· this church is truly, it's just a grace that I can't explain.
· And I love Cross Church Phoenix, I really do.
· I love you from the bottom of my heart and thank you.
· It is just a joy, it really is.
· It's just awesome.
· So thank you.
· I am humbled and honored.
· Let's open our Bibles to Job chapter 19.
· We'll be, if you have a handout, you'll see we're in Job 15 to 21.
· And you say that sounds like a lot and it is.
· And there's a reason for it, which I will get into.
· If you don't have an outline, there's some in the back.
· But I want to start off by thanking Brian, our brother Brian, for preaching last week.
· He did an excellent job.
· Amen.
· I think he did great.
· And preaching on Zophar's chapter and Zophar gets his speech, the third friend in the
· mix and Job responds and we will get into round two in just a moment.
· But I also want to say another thank you to those who are bringing and donating clothing.
· We have so much, in fact, that we're going to be opening the clothing drive to the
· whole church.
· So any, if you are here and you are in need, come Saturday.
· If you have no of others who are in need, invite them and bring them Saturday.
· It's this Saturday, We Care Weekend, 5 p.m. here at the church.
· We will have the clothing drive.
· We will, we are still collecting food as well.
· If you are bringing food in, we are collecting it in the ministry office in the second
· room inside there.
· You can bring it in there.
· And we will deliver all of that on Sundays when we're going to deliver the food to
· the shelter.
· But we're going to open this up to everybody.
· So come on Saturday.
· I think it's going to be a great time.
· So here, 5 p.m.
· The first 30 minutes of the clothing drive will be for our guests.
· And then after they've gone through, come one, come all of you need, if you
· know, needs women and children's clothing is what we have, obviously, because it's
· for the shelter.
· But come, come grab what you need.
· We are blessed, truly.
· One of the reasons why I think we're doing the right thing is because we ran
· into so many snags along the way for We Care Weekend.
· We were originally going to bring this to them on their property and the city
· won't let us.
· They own that.
· And so then we were going to do it in the backyard and have open the big fire
· gate.
· Not allowed to do that either.
· Just found out.
· We thought we could.
· So we made a plan and then we can't.
· So we're doing it here.
· And it's going to be great.
· And just be in prayer, please, for us as we prepare.
· I'm really hoping that some of these barriers won't keep them from coming.
· I pray that they will, that our neighbors will come.
· And again, come one, come all.
· Invite anyone else that you know who might be in need because we've got lots
· of blessings for them.
· It's going to be fun.
· And like the hosts said, Audrey and Brian, thank you.
· We have a meeting in here after church if you're volunteering for that.
· And then pizza with the pastors in the back in the kids area.
· But it's going to be fun.
· We're going to have games, backyard open.
· It's going to be a great time.
· And then the following Sunday, the 25th, we are doing a barbecue kind of
· food fellowship thing.
· So like I said, invite, invite, invite.
· It's going to be great.
· Well, as you know, Brian covered chapters 11 through 14 last week.
· And if you think of this portion of Job kind of like a boxing match,
· chapters 3 through 14 are round one.
· The first two chapters open the book, provide us this introduction and this
· thing that's going on between God and Satan.
· And then chapter three, Job just pours his heart out.
· They sit together, him and his three friends sit for a week in silence.
· And then Job kicks it off.
· The friends all reply.
· And round one, ding, ding, ding, is underway.
· Well, round one came to a close last week.
· The opening of chapter 15 is round two of this match here,
· the spiritual emotional boxing match.
· If you look at your outline, like we said, we are covering chapters 15 to 21.
· And the reason for that is that Job's friends.
· So remember, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, they're basically going to say
· the same things on repeat.
· They've already been saying similar things all along.
· But in these chapters, they really start sounding like a broken record.
· As we look at these chapters, you'll see also an increased hostility towards Job
· from his friends.
· They are angrier.
· They are more confrontational.
· They are upset.
· They are very frustrated with Job because Job has rejected their
· retribution theology.
· If you remember what retribution is, it is that God blesses you if you do good,
· and then God puts you into suffering mode if you do bad, like it's this one-for-one.
· And Job rejects that.
· He says, I'm not hiding any sin.
· I'm not unrepentant of anything.
· I can't think of anything that I've done, but I'm still suffering.
· And we'll get into all of this here in a minute.
· Also here in round two, each friend will make bold accusations against Job,
· and they will each now go from this kind of softer, more comforting-ish thing,
· although so far last week was pretty, you know, confrontational already.
· But they will move to now boldly calling Job outright wicked.
· They are all three going to say, all right, Job, if you won't listen to us,
· you must be wicked.
· So this morning, though, what I want us to see, and we'll look at Job's response to each,
· but this morning, responding to lies in difficult times.
· Responding to lies in difficult times.
· That's our heading this morning.
· Let's pray.
· Father, I thank you for this morning.
· I thank you for this precious church, God.
· It is an honor to walk through the Word of God, fellowship,
· and serve alongside such a loving, gracious, kind church.
· Lord, I am able to do this with joy, and I thank you for it.
· Pray that you would give us ears to hear what your Spirit has to say this morning
· to the church here, Cross Church of Phoenix.
· In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
· Well, let's stand as we read some scripture together.
· We are just this morning going to read an excerpt from chapter 19.
· If you're able, if you're unable to stand, you can stand with us in spirit.
· We are going to read one of the highlights, one of the bright spots in Job's responses,
· and it's found in Job 19, verses 23 through 27.
· So Job is speaking at this point, and he says this,
· I wish that my words were written down.
· Oh, they are.
· I wish, granted, that they were recorded on a scroll,
· or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead.
· But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust.
· He's talking about the earth.
· He'll stand, his Redeemer will.
· Even after, get verse 26, even after my skin has been destroyed yet,
· I will see God in my flesh.
· I will see him myself.
· My eyes will look at him, not as a stranger.
· He's saying, not anyone else, my eyes.
· And he says, my heart longs within me.
· Amen.
· Thanks.
· You can be seated.
· One of the byproducts of being in despair or depression and the like
· is being susceptible to lies.
· Being down in the dumps, as Job is,
· and perhaps maybe you have been or are now,
· can make you, can make me more vulnerable to believing lies.
· Lies about ourselves, lies about God, or both.
· When we're suffering and when we're hurting,
· oftentimes we are more prone,
· because of the mental or emotional state we're in,
· we are more prone to give credit to lies.
· As Eliphaz opens his second little speech in chapter 15,
· and you can turn back there if you're still in 19,
· we're going to be flipping around in our Bibles today.
· You guys remember the old sword drills when you're,
· if you grew up in church, a sword drill and you're trying to find,
· we're doing a miniature sword drill through Job,
· but it's only a few chapters and it's only a few pages,
· but we're going to be doing some back and forth
· because I want to show you some things.
· But if you look in chapter 15,
· Eliphaz will follow a certain flow in his setup.
· And I want you to see this as we go, as you read,
· and I'm encouraging all of us to read these chapters in their entirety,
· both on your own and in Bible groups.
· But all three of Job's friends will do
· and set up their response in the same way.
· For example, all three of them will start their speech by mocking Job.
· If you look at chapter 15, verses 1 through 3,
· it says,
· Then Eliphaz the Timonite replied,
· Does a wise man answer with empty counsel,
· or fill himself with the hot east wind,
· meaning you're full of hot air.
· Again, he says,
· Should he argue with useless talk or with words that serve no good purpose?
· In other words, Job, you're full of hot air.
· Your words are meaningless.
· You should be listening to us.
· Why should we ever listen to you?
· It's useless.
· You could flip over quickly to chapter 18, verses 1 through 3,
· to see Bildad does the same.
· 18, verse 1,
· Then Bildad the Shuhai replied,
· How long until you stop talking?
· Show some sense and then we can talk.
· Why are we regarded as cattle, as stupid in your sight?
· Now my kids are going to remind me after church that I said stupid from the pulpit.
· Daddy, you're not supposed to do that because we encourage them to not.
· But it's in the scriptures this time.
· It's in there a few times.
· One of my favorite proverbs, my life verse, is that I am too stupid to be a man.
· That's proverbs, and that's one of mine.
· That's me and Zach.
· Yeah, yeah, we got this, dude.
· Behold, I am too stupid to be a man.
· Thank you, thank you, Solomon.
· But same from Bildad, right?
· He's saying, Do you think we're stupid, Job?
· When are you going to stop talking and listen to us?
· And if you flip over to chapter 20, verses 1 through 3, we get Zophar's version of this.
· Job 21, verse 3.
· Then Zophar the Nahamathite replied,
· This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset.
· So he's mad.
· I have her rebuke that insults me, and my understanding makes me reply.
· My understanding, I am so smart.
· How dare you not listen to me, Job?
· So I am compelled to answer, because you've upset me.
· So they all mock Job, then they accuse Job of being wicked.
· So again, a little bit of a flipping back and forth, but go back to 15.
· I just want you to see this in your own reading.
· If you look at Job 15, verse 20,
· Eliphaz introduces the wicked man.
· Job 15, verse 20, he says,
· A wicked man rise in pain all his days.
· Then if you look at the rest of chapter 15, from verses 21 down to the end,
· you will see in each and every verse a bunch of he's, him's, his.
· It's all over, and they all refer back to verse 20 about the wicked.
· So for example, verse 24 of chapter 15, just to kind of give you an example.
· Trouble and distress terrify him.
· You could insert the word the wicked man.
· Trouble and distress terrify the wicked man, overwhelming the wicked man
· like a king preferred for battle.
· For the wicked man has stretched out his wicked man hand against God
· and has arrogantly opposed the Almighty.
· So he's talking about the wicked all through the rest,
· and you can trace this to the end, even in the plural they.
· Wicked people conceive trouble.
· In a good exercise, and you're probably not going to be able to see it,
· but if you went through and highlighted everything after the wicked
· and all the he's and him's, it really pops off the page.
· It shows you some emphasis in some things.
· And so all three friends do this.
· If you go to chapter 18, real quick, real quick like,
· chapter 18 beginning at verse 5.
· So they open their speeches mocking Job, they make these statements,
· and then they get to the statement about the wicked.
· So Eliphaz lectures Job on the profile, right?
· The doomed end of the wicked, and he's saying, and you're the man.
· Kind of like what Nathan does to David,
· and by the way, Job, you're that wicked man I'm talking about.
· Bildad does the same, Job 18 verse 5.
· Yes, the light of the wicked is extinguished.
· The flame of his fire does not glow.
· Then what? If you look at the whole rest of the chapter,
· all these he's, his, and him's, these are pronouns,
· all the way to the end, all of it implying Job,
· you're this wicked man, you're that guy.
· And one more example for Zophar,
· so you can see the consistency here, Job chapter 20 verse 5,
· Zophar does the same thing, he will introduce the wicked.
· In Job 20 verse 5, Zophar says,
· the joy of the wicked has been brief,
· and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment.
· And then what? You guessed it, right?
· He's, him's, and his's, all this stuff throughout the rest of chapter 20
· from the wicked introduction of the wicked on
· for the rest of the chapter, all pointing to Job, this is you.
· So chapters 15, 18, and 20, where each friend speaks,
· all start with mocking Job and then telling him
· and giving him a lecture on being wicked, okay?
· So that's what I want you to see, part of what I want you to see.
· Also, on top of all of that, each of them make an accusation.
· So this is the last time I'm going to ask you to go back to 15,
· but go back to 15, I promise you, okay?
· We're seeing some things here.
· In Job 15 verse 4,
· this is Eliphaz's summary accusation, okay?
· He says, 15-4,
· but you, Job, even undermine the fear of God
· and hinder meditation before him.
· Translation, Job, you don't fear God,
· nor do you even meditate before him,
· meaning you don't even spend time with God.
· Now we know that this is not true about Job,
· because the first two chapters, remember,
· we always need to keep them in mind,
· God himself declared Job is one who fears God and turns from evil.
· God knows Job's heart, the friends don't.
· But I want to take each accusation that Job's friends make against him
· and for our purposes, as we make a modern application,
· we have a them-then, this is what is going on with Job then to an us-now,
· how do we make sure that we do this faithfully?
· These are lies.
· I want you to see different lies that each friend creates.
· This is lie number one in your outline.
· Lie number one, your suffering reveals you no longer fear God,
· to put it in terms for us today.
· Eliphaz believes Job's suffering means he doesn't fear God
· or respect, reverence, whatever words you want to use,
· he does not fear God anymore.
· And he accuses Job of exactly that
· and then goes on his spiel about the wicked later in the chapter.
· Well, we don't have Job's friends, thankfully,
· but we have our own accuser, far worse, Satan,
· who will play these same mind games with us
· when we're going through difficult times in our own lives.
· Satan may come and attack you with the thought,
· you know why you're suffering?
· You want to know why you're suffering, DJ?
· Or insert your name here.
· You don't actually fear God.
· You don't respect him.
· You don't revere him.
· And because you don't fear God, God is against you.
· That is basically what Eliphaz is telling Job
· and it's what Satan can tell us when we're going through it.
· How do we respond to such thoughts?
· Well, with truth, that's how.
· And the truth, number one, my suffering is under God's control
· and I'll appeal to him.
· And we see Job do this in Job 16.
· I will just sample some of his response here.
· And again, I encourage you to read through.
· Job 16, 19 to 22, Job is speaking in response.
· He says, even now, my witness is in heaven
· and my advocate is in the heights.
· My friends scoff at me as I weep before God.
· I wish that someone might arbitrate between a man and God,
· another allusion to Christ as the advocate,
· as a man pleads for his friend,
· for only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return.
· So Job will say a lot in 16 and 17 in response to Eliphaz,
· but he hangs his hat on the truth, on appealing to God
· and trusting his advocate who is in heaven,
· his witness who is in heaven.
· He knows God is still in control,
· though he's broken and hurting.
· The opening of chapter 17 reveals that, right?
· He outright says, 17 verse one, my spirit is broken.
· And when you're going through difficult times, remember,
· it's under God's control, first of all,
· and your advocate, Christ, is in heaven,
· and you can appeal to him.
· Go to him in prayer, pour your heart out to him,
· and submit to him.
· The second accusation quickly comes from Bildad,
· and it's at the end.
· He puts his at the end here, Job 18, verse 21,
· after lecturing Job on the wicked,
· he says this in chapter 18, 21, indeed,
· such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
· and this is the place of the one who does not know God.
· So Bildad's speech culminates in the accusation
· that Job must not know God at all.
· He's so wicked.
· So this leads to our second lie, number two,
· your suffering reveals you must not know God.
· Our accuser, Satan, can come to you and I
· in our trials and difficulties and tempt you,
· and tempt all of us, we, us, to question
· whether you ever knew God in the first place, right?
· Satan will say, if you knew God,
· he wouldn't let this bad thing happen to you, right?
· If you really knew God,
· he would have kept this terrible thing
· from happening to your family.
· If you really knew God,
· he wouldn't have allowed you to lose that loved one,
· or in Job's case, 10 of those loved ones.
· If you really knew God,
· he wouldn't have allowed you to feel that pain
· or know that sorrow.
· So Job, if you really knew God and weren't wicked,
· surely all of these things in the first few chapters
· would have never happened to you.
· That is the lie.
· How does Job respond to Bill Dad's accusation
· that he must not know God?
· Well, it's in chapter 19, verses 25 to 27, we read it.
· Job says, but I know my Redeemer lives
· and he will stand on the dust at last.
· Even after my skin has been destroyed,
· yet I will see God in my flesh.
· How's that?
· I will see God in my flesh.
· But I will see him myself.
· My eyes will look at him.
· This is emphatic repetition and not as a stranger.
· My heart longs within me.
· He's like, I will see him myself.
· You're like, okay.
· And he's like, my eyes will look at him.
· You're like, Job, you just said that you'll see.
· He's repeating himself for emphasis.
· He wants you to know,
· I am going to see God someday.
· Notice Job uses the same word
· against Bill Dad in chapter 19.
· Bill Dad says, and there's a lot more in Hebrew than this.
· This is just kind of like a teaser.
· It's so good.
· Hebrew is very ironic and picture oriented.
· But Job purposely uses the same Hebrew word for no.
· Bill Dad says right at the end,
· the wicked one, this is the one who does not know God.
· And in chapter 19, verse 25, Job says, but I know.
· Same word in Hebrew.
· It's yada means to know in Hebrew.
· Job is actually saying, you know what?
· Yes, I do know.
· You want to know what I know that my Redeemer lives.
· And he will stand on the earth on the dust, verse 25.
· And look what else Job says.
· Even after my skin has been destroyed.
· Translation, after I die, I will die.
· Just read Ecclesiastes.
· You're going to die, right?
· I will die yet I will see God in what?
· My flesh, how?
· And he goes on to make sure that you and I
· are not confused by what he's saying, right?
· I will see him myself.
· My eyes will look at him.
· Not as a stranger, an alternate translation can be,
· and no one else, but he's saying it's me.
· And it doesn't mean that no one else on the planet
· will ever see God like him.
· No, he's saying, but this is for me, Job.
· I know I'm going to.
· I know my Redeemer lives and I'm going to see God.
· It's emphatic.
· I will see him.
· And he says, my heart longs within me, right?
· So Job knows two things for sure.
· He doesn't know why the wicked prosper.
· He doesn't know what's going on,
· but he knows these things.
· His Redeemer lives and he believes in resurrection.
· He will be resurrected from the dead.
· Job declares somehow, someway,
· God will redeem and resurrect him from death
· so that he could see God face to face in glory.
· So the truth we hold onto in our difficult times is this.
· I know Christ is my Redeemer,
· and because he is risen, I'll rise too.
· No matter what you're going through, no,
· not just like think, no, you can know
· that your Redeemer lives, that Christ is risen.
· And we have this beautiful, wonderful, glorious promise
· that because he's risen, you and I will be too.
· I'm tempted to get in a whole nother sermon
· about the resurrection.
· I could be here for like another hour.
· We got to do that someday.
· Everyone will be resurrected,
· but one to judgment, one to glory.
· Hold onto that one.
· But Job believes even this early
· in biblical world history in resurrection.
· Romans 6, 5 says, if we've been,
· for if we have been united with him,
· Christ, in a death like his,
· Romans 6 is what we quote in baptism,
· we shall certainly be united with him
· in a resurrection like his.
· No matter what your suffering,
· no matter your suffering, this promise is true
· for those in Christ.
· And our final lie is in chapter 20 from Zophar.
· At the end of chapter 20, Zophar says,
· the wicked person's inheritance from God
· is God's anger.
· Zophar kind of has a wicked person sandwich.
· He says, this is the wicked person.
· He does this.
· This is his stuff.
· This is him's stuff.
· And then he ends it at verse 29.
· This is the wicked person's lot from God,
· the inheritance God ordained from him.
· And he's talking about God's anger
· towards that person, towards the wicked.
· Ultimately, what Zophar is implying is Job,
· to Job is that God is angry with him
· and turning him away.
· So lie number three is this.
· Your suffering reveals God has abandoned you.
· And I'm glad the word lies there.
· It's hard for me to even say that falsehood, right?
· One of the worst attacks or lies
· Satan can come at us with
· when we're going through difficult times
· is that God has abandoned us.
· Maybe you've been there.
· Maybe you've asked yourself,
· does God even care about me, right?
· Or Satan, our accuser, can come and say,
· he doesn't care about you.
· He's actually against you.
· Maybe you've thought to yourself,
· is he even here?
· Does he even care?
· Has he left me?
· Has he abandoned me?
· And what we see in Job's response to Zophar
· is 21 is very much full of lament and frustration.
· But he says this in Job 21, verse 22.
· Can anyone teach God knowledge
· since he judges the exalted ones?
· He's judged over angels, over humanity.
· How could a human teach him anything?
· Job's argument in chapter 21 is very much
· a why do the wicked prosper kind of argument.
· So he is flustered and frustrated.
· He can look at the wicked
· and say they seem to be doing just fine.
· They have kids.
· They have a nice home.
· I mean, they're given power.
· And you can even turn on the news.
· You can let wicked people are in prominent places.
· Why did these things happen?
· He looks at himself.
· I'm a worshiper of God.
· I know I love God.
· I'm not holding sin.
· I'm not unconfessed.
· I'm not withholding any repentance.
· And I'm in misery.
· Why, why, why?
· The wicked don't always perish
· like my friends are telling me.
· Sometimes they prosper and do just fine.
· But the truth is this.
· We can't know all of God's ways.
· That's what Job's saying.
· But what do we have?
· We have promises.
· But he promises that nothing can separate us
· from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
· Paul reminds us of this in Romans 8, 38, 39.
· Paul says, for I am sure,
· not, well, I really hope,
· I am sure that neither death nor life,
· nor angels, nor rulers,
· nor things present,
· nor things to come,
· nor powers, nor height,
· nor depth,
· nor anything else in all creation
· will be able to separate us
· from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
· Translation, no thing and no one.
· Not even time.
· Not even, no time.
· Nothing present can.
· Nothing in the future can.
· Separate us from the love of God
· and Christ Jesus our Lord.
· That is a promise in scripture
· that we have in Christ.
· No matter how much we suffer,
· no matter how difficult life gets,
· know that God has not abandoned you.
· We don't know why God allows what he allows Job
· if you read chapter 21.
· He doesn't either.
· He's at a loss in chapter 21, truly.
· We don't know God's ways,
· but we know God's promises,
· and he'll be faithful.
· And I think for some of us, perhaps,
· we don't have the same bad friends,
· nor do we even need the same bad friends to get this way.
· We don't have friends feeding us falsehoods
· and making accusations against us,
· but we do it to ourselves.
· We're our own worst friend.
· We're our own bad friend,
· uncomforting friend.
· We get into our own heads
· when we're down and out and struggling,
· and we don't need friends to do this.
· We do this to ourselves.
· But may we remember that these truths, right,
· take it all back to Scripture,
· may we remember these truths and hold on to them
· when we're in the deepest depths of despair.
· We know, we know, we know that our Redeemer lives,
· and we have this hope in Christ.
· And hope, the biblical definition of hope is not like,
· well, I hope the Cardinals win, which will never happen.
· And that is like, that might be my first force reference
· in two years, but it happened.
· But I just came to my mind.
· But like, it's not a very hopeless hope.
· It's not even a questioning.
· Hope in Scripture is an assurance,
· a conviction of something that is true.
· And we know it.
· Our hope is definite and in Christ.
· I want to invite the worship team up.
· And I shared with 9 o'clock service,
· I know we're running short on time.
· I'm trying to be better at this.
· But I just wanted to draw your attention to a story in Acts
· when Saul, before Paul was Paul,
· he was Saul and he was persecuting the church
· in Acts chapter 8, 7 and 8, really.
· And God meets him on the road to Damascus.
· Bright light shining, speaks to him,
· knocks him off of his feet,
· and he's actually has trouble with his vision after it.
· And God says, Paul, you need to go to this dude
· named Ananias' house.
· He's gonna help you out.
· Well, God works on both sides,
· so God also tells Ananias, hey,
· Ananias, this dude named Saul's coming.
· You need to help him out.
· That's my summary, okay?
· Ananias is like, God, is this the same Saul?
· You know Saul, right?
· Saul who's like persecuting and like killing Christians.
· Like is he gonna come kill me?
· And God says something so powerful,
· it's always stuck with me,
· especially aspiring to the ministry.
· He says this, don't, this is DJ's paraphrase,
· but he says, don't you worry about Saul, Paul,
· for I will show him the things he must suffer
· for my name's sake.
· God is predicting suffering for Paul.
· It ain't gonna be the good life.
· It's gonna be hard.
· And if you read the epistles
· and you read the rest of the New Testament,
· Paul does suffer very much
· and entrusts himself to God every time.
· And we must do the same.
· Be encouraged.
· When you're suffering,
· just go to the truths of scripture.
· I hope you'll hold onto those three truths
· that Job holds onto
· and hold onto all the other promises in scripture.
· Let's pray.
· Father, I thank you for this morning
· and for your word
· and just for the impact that this has had on my life.
· I pray on the lives of your people.
· God, I truly do thank you
· for the gift of fellowship
· with this body of Christ here.
· I really do thank you for it.
· Help us, Lord, to remember these truths
· in Jesus' name.
· Amen.
· Let's stand as we sing our last song.
Part of Series
Transcript
· Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix.
· How are you?
· Good.
· And God said, let there be light.
· Amen.
· Amen.
· I am Pastor DJ.
· Welcome.
· And I just wanted to say how grateful I am to be the pastor here.
· It is a gift from God, is a calling from God, of course, and a gift to pastor and
· this church is truly, it's just a grace that I can't explain.
· And I love Cross Church Phoenix, I really do.
· I love you from the bottom of my heart and thank you.
· It is just a joy, it really is.
· It's just awesome.
· So thank you.
· I am humbled and honored.
· Let's open our Bibles to Job chapter 19.
· We'll be, if you have a handout, you'll see we're in Job 15 to 21.
· And you say that sounds like a lot and it is.
· And there's a reason for it, which I will get into.
· If you don't have an outline, there's some in the back.
· But I want to start off by thanking Brian, our brother Brian, for preaching last week.
· He did an excellent job.
· Amen.
· I think he did great.
· And preaching on Zophar's chapter and Zophar gets his speech, the third friend in the
· mix and Job responds and we will get into round two in just a moment.
· But I also want to say another thank you to those who are bringing and donating clothing.
· We have so much, in fact, that we're going to be opening the clothing drive to the
· whole church.
· So any, if you are here and you are in need, come Saturday.
· If you have no of others who are in need, invite them and bring them Saturday.
· It's this Saturday, We Care Weekend, 5 p.m. here at the church.
· We will have the clothing drive.
· We will, we are still collecting food as well.
· If you are bringing food in, we are collecting it in the ministry office in the second
· room inside there.
· You can bring it in there.
· And we will deliver all of that on Sundays when we're going to deliver the food to
· the shelter.
· But we're going to open this up to everybody.
· So come on Saturday.
· I think it's going to be a great time.
· So here, 5 p.m.
· The first 30 minutes of the clothing drive will be for our guests.
· And then after they've gone through, come one, come all of you need, if you
· know, needs women and children's clothing is what we have, obviously, because it's
· for the shelter.
· But come, come grab what you need.
· We are blessed, truly.
· One of the reasons why I think we're doing the right thing is because we ran
· into so many snags along the way for We Care Weekend.
· We were originally going to bring this to them on their property and the city
· won't let us.
· They own that.
· And so then we were going to do it in the backyard and have open the big fire
· gate.
· Not allowed to do that either.
· Just found out.
· We thought we could.
· So we made a plan and then we can't.
· So we're doing it here.
· And it's going to be great.
· And just be in prayer, please, for us as we prepare.
· I'm really hoping that some of these barriers won't keep them from coming.
· I pray that they will, that our neighbors will come.
· And again, come one, come all.
· Invite anyone else that you know who might be in need because we've got lots
· of blessings for them.
· It's going to be fun.
· And like the hosts said, Audrey and Brian, thank you.
· We have a meeting in here after church if you're volunteering for that.
· And then pizza with the pastors in the back in the kids area.
· But it's going to be fun.
· We're going to have games, backyard open.
· It's going to be a great time.
· And then the following Sunday, the 25th, we are doing a barbecue kind of
· food fellowship thing.
· So like I said, invite, invite, invite.
· It's going to be great.
· Well, as you know, Brian covered chapters 11 through 14 last week.
· And if you think of this portion of Job kind of like a boxing match,
· chapters 3 through 14 are round one.
· The first two chapters open the book, provide us this introduction and this
· thing that's going on between God and Satan.
· And then chapter three, Job just pours his heart out.
· They sit together, him and his three friends sit for a week in silence.
· And then Job kicks it off.
· The friends all reply.
· And round one, ding, ding, ding, is underway.
· Well, round one came to a close last week.
· The opening of chapter 15 is round two of this match here,
· the spiritual emotional boxing match.
· If you look at your outline, like we said, we are covering chapters 15 to 21.
· And the reason for that is that Job's friends.
· So remember, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, they're basically going to say
· the same things on repeat.
· They've already been saying similar things all along.
· But in these chapters, they really start sounding like a broken record.
· As we look at these chapters, you'll see also an increased hostility towards Job
· from his friends.
· They are angrier.
· They are more confrontational.
· They are upset.
· They are very frustrated with Job because Job has rejected their
· retribution theology.
· If you remember what retribution is, it is that God blesses you if you do good,
· and then God puts you into suffering mode if you do bad, like it's this one-for-one.
· And Job rejects that.
· He says, I'm not hiding any sin.
· I'm not unrepentant of anything.
· I can't think of anything that I've done, but I'm still suffering.
· And we'll get into all of this here in a minute.
· Also here in round two, each friend will make bold accusations against Job,
· and they will each now go from this kind of softer, more comforting-ish thing,
· although so far last week was pretty, you know, confrontational already.
· But they will move to now boldly calling Job outright wicked.
· They are all three going to say, all right, Job, if you won't listen to us,
· you must be wicked.
· So this morning, though, what I want us to see, and we'll look at Job's response to each,
· but this morning, responding to lies in difficult times.
· Responding to lies in difficult times.
· That's our heading this morning.
· Let's pray.
· Father, I thank you for this morning.
· I thank you for this precious church, God.
· It is an honor to walk through the Word of God, fellowship,
· and serve alongside such a loving, gracious, kind church.
· Lord, I am able to do this with joy, and I thank you for it.
· Pray that you would give us ears to hear what your Spirit has to say this morning
· to the church here, Cross Church of Phoenix.
· In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
· Well, let's stand as we read some scripture together.
· We are just this morning going to read an excerpt from chapter 19.
· If you're able, if you're unable to stand, you can stand with us in spirit.
· We are going to read one of the highlights, one of the bright spots in Job's responses,
· and it's found in Job 19, verses 23 through 27.
· So Job is speaking at this point, and he says this,
· I wish that my words were written down.
· Oh, they are.
· I wish, granted, that they were recorded on a scroll,
· or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead.
· But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust.
· He's talking about the earth.
· He'll stand, his Redeemer will.
· Even after, get verse 26, even after my skin has been destroyed yet,
· I will see God in my flesh.
· I will see him myself.
· My eyes will look at him, not as a stranger.
· He's saying, not anyone else, my eyes.
· And he says, my heart longs within me.
· Amen.
· Thanks.
· You can be seated.
· One of the byproducts of being in despair or depression and the like
· is being susceptible to lies.
· Being down in the dumps, as Job is,
· and perhaps maybe you have been or are now,
· can make you, can make me more vulnerable to believing lies.
· Lies about ourselves, lies about God, or both.
· When we're suffering and when we're hurting,
· oftentimes we are more prone,
· because of the mental or emotional state we're in,
· we are more prone to give credit to lies.
· As Eliphaz opens his second little speech in chapter 15,
· and you can turn back there if you're still in 19,
· we're going to be flipping around in our Bibles today.
· You guys remember the old sword drills when you're,
· if you grew up in church, a sword drill and you're trying to find,
· we're doing a miniature sword drill through Job,
· but it's only a few chapters and it's only a few pages,
· but we're going to be doing some back and forth
· because I want to show you some things.
· But if you look in chapter 15,
· Eliphaz will follow a certain flow in his setup.
· And I want you to see this as we go, as you read,
· and I'm encouraging all of us to read these chapters in their entirety,
· both on your own and in Bible groups.
· But all three of Job's friends will do
· and set up their response in the same way.
· For example, all three of them will start their speech by mocking Job.
· If you look at chapter 15, verses 1 through 3,
· it says,
· Then Eliphaz the Timonite replied,
· Does a wise man answer with empty counsel,
· or fill himself with the hot east wind,
· meaning you're full of hot air.
· Again, he says,
· Should he argue with useless talk or with words that serve no good purpose?
· In other words, Job, you're full of hot air.
· Your words are meaningless.
· You should be listening to us.
· Why should we ever listen to you?
· It's useless.
· You could flip over quickly to chapter 18, verses 1 through 3,
· to see Bildad does the same.
· 18, verse 1,
· Then Bildad the Shuhai replied,
· How long until you stop talking?
· Show some sense and then we can talk.
· Why are we regarded as cattle, as stupid in your sight?
· Now my kids are going to remind me after church that I said stupid from the pulpit.
· Daddy, you're not supposed to do that because we encourage them to not.
· But it's in the scriptures this time.
· It's in there a few times.
· One of my favorite proverbs, my life verse, is that I am too stupid to be a man.
· That's proverbs, and that's one of mine.
· That's me and Zach.
· Yeah, yeah, we got this, dude.
· Behold, I am too stupid to be a man.
· Thank you, thank you, Solomon.
· But same from Bildad, right?
· He's saying, Do you think we're stupid, Job?
· When are you going to stop talking and listen to us?
· And if you flip over to chapter 20, verses 1 through 3, we get Zophar's version of this.
· Job 21, verse 3.
· Then Zophar the Nahamathite replied,
· This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset.
· So he's mad.
· I have her rebuke that insults me, and my understanding makes me reply.
· My understanding, I am so smart.
· How dare you not listen to me, Job?
· So I am compelled to answer, because you've upset me.
· So they all mock Job, then they accuse Job of being wicked.
· So again, a little bit of a flipping back and forth, but go back to 15.
· I just want you to see this in your own reading.
· If you look at Job 15, verse 20,
· Eliphaz introduces the wicked man.
· Job 15, verse 20, he says,
· A wicked man rise in pain all his days.
· Then if you look at the rest of chapter 15, from verses 21 down to the end,
· you will see in each and every verse a bunch of he's, him's, his.
· It's all over, and they all refer back to verse 20 about the wicked.
· So for example, verse 24 of chapter 15, just to kind of give you an example.
· Trouble and distress terrify him.
· You could insert the word the wicked man.
· Trouble and distress terrify the wicked man, overwhelming the wicked man
· like a king preferred for battle.
· For the wicked man has stretched out his wicked man hand against God
· and has arrogantly opposed the Almighty.
· So he's talking about the wicked all through the rest,
· and you can trace this to the end, even in the plural they.
· Wicked people conceive trouble.
· In a good exercise, and you're probably not going to be able to see it,
· but if you went through and highlighted everything after the wicked
· and all the he's and him's, it really pops off the page.
· It shows you some emphasis in some things.
· And so all three friends do this.
· If you go to chapter 18, real quick, real quick like,
· chapter 18 beginning at verse 5.
· So they open their speeches mocking Job, they make these statements,
· and then they get to the statement about the wicked.
· So Eliphaz lectures Job on the profile, right?
· The doomed end of the wicked, and he's saying, and you're the man.
· Kind of like what Nathan does to David,
· and by the way, Job, you're that wicked man I'm talking about.
· Bildad does the same, Job 18 verse 5.
· Yes, the light of the wicked is extinguished.
· The flame of his fire does not glow.
· Then what? If you look at the whole rest of the chapter,
· all these he's, his, and him's, these are pronouns,
· all the way to the end, all of it implying Job,
· you're this wicked man, you're that guy.
· And one more example for Zophar,
· so you can see the consistency here, Job chapter 20 verse 5,
· Zophar does the same thing, he will introduce the wicked.
· In Job 20 verse 5, Zophar says,
· the joy of the wicked has been brief,
· and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment.
· And then what? You guessed it, right?
· He's, him's, and his's, all this stuff throughout the rest of chapter 20
· from the wicked introduction of the wicked on
· for the rest of the chapter, all pointing to Job, this is you.
· So chapters 15, 18, and 20, where each friend speaks,
· all start with mocking Job and then telling him
· and giving him a lecture on being wicked, okay?
· So that's what I want you to see, part of what I want you to see.
· Also, on top of all of that, each of them make an accusation.
· So this is the last time I'm going to ask you to go back to 15,
· but go back to 15, I promise you, okay?
· We're seeing some things here.
· In Job 15 verse 4,
· this is Eliphaz's summary accusation, okay?
· He says, 15-4,
· but you, Job, even undermine the fear of God
· and hinder meditation before him.
· Translation, Job, you don't fear God,
· nor do you even meditate before him,
· meaning you don't even spend time with God.
· Now we know that this is not true about Job,
· because the first two chapters, remember,
· we always need to keep them in mind,
· God himself declared Job is one who fears God and turns from evil.
· God knows Job's heart, the friends don't.
· But I want to take each accusation that Job's friends make against him
· and for our purposes, as we make a modern application,
· we have a them-then, this is what is going on with Job then to an us-now,
· how do we make sure that we do this faithfully?
· These are lies.
· I want you to see different lies that each friend creates.
· This is lie number one in your outline.
· Lie number one, your suffering reveals you no longer fear God,
· to put it in terms for us today.
· Eliphaz believes Job's suffering means he doesn't fear God
· or respect, reverence, whatever words you want to use,
· he does not fear God anymore.
· And he accuses Job of exactly that
· and then goes on his spiel about the wicked later in the chapter.
· Well, we don't have Job's friends, thankfully,
· but we have our own accuser, far worse, Satan,
· who will play these same mind games with us
· when we're going through difficult times in our own lives.
· Satan may come and attack you with the thought,
· you know why you're suffering?
· You want to know why you're suffering, DJ?
· Or insert your name here.
· You don't actually fear God.
· You don't respect him.
· You don't revere him.
· And because you don't fear God, God is against you.
· That is basically what Eliphaz is telling Job
· and it's what Satan can tell us when we're going through it.
· How do we respond to such thoughts?
· Well, with truth, that's how.
· And the truth, number one, my suffering is under God's control
· and I'll appeal to him.
· And we see Job do this in Job 16.
· I will just sample some of his response here.
· And again, I encourage you to read through.
· Job 16, 19 to 22, Job is speaking in response.
· He says, even now, my witness is in heaven
· and my advocate is in the heights.
· My friends scoff at me as I weep before God.
· I wish that someone might arbitrate between a man and God,
· another allusion to Christ as the advocate,
· as a man pleads for his friend,
· for only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return.
· So Job will say a lot in 16 and 17 in response to Eliphaz,
· but he hangs his hat on the truth, on appealing to God
· and trusting his advocate who is in heaven,
· his witness who is in heaven.
· He knows God is still in control,
· though he's broken and hurting.
· The opening of chapter 17 reveals that, right?
· He outright says, 17 verse one, my spirit is broken.
· And when you're going through difficult times, remember,
· it's under God's control, first of all,
· and your advocate, Christ, is in heaven,
· and you can appeal to him.
· Go to him in prayer, pour your heart out to him,
· and submit to him.
· The second accusation quickly comes from Bildad,
· and it's at the end.
· He puts his at the end here, Job 18, verse 21,
· after lecturing Job on the wicked,
· he says this in chapter 18, 21, indeed,
· such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
· and this is the place of the one who does not know God.
· So Bildad's speech culminates in the accusation
· that Job must not know God at all.
· He's so wicked.
· So this leads to our second lie, number two,
· your suffering reveals you must not know God.
· Our accuser, Satan, can come to you and I
· in our trials and difficulties and tempt you,
· and tempt all of us, we, us, to question
· whether you ever knew God in the first place, right?
· Satan will say, if you knew God,
· he wouldn't let this bad thing happen to you, right?
· If you really knew God,
· he would have kept this terrible thing
· from happening to your family.
· If you really knew God,
· he wouldn't have allowed you to lose that loved one,
· or in Job's case, 10 of those loved ones.
· If you really knew God,
· he wouldn't have allowed you to feel that pain
· or know that sorrow.
· So Job, if you really knew God and weren't wicked,
· surely all of these things in the first few chapters
· would have never happened to you.
· That is the lie.
· How does Job respond to Bill Dad's accusation
· that he must not know God?
· Well, it's in chapter 19, verses 25 to 27, we read it.
· Job says, but I know my Redeemer lives
· and he will stand on the dust at last.
· Even after my skin has been destroyed,
· yet I will see God in my flesh.
· How's that?
· I will see God in my flesh.
· But I will see him myself.
· My eyes will look at him.
· This is emphatic repetition and not as a stranger.
· My heart longs within me.
· He's like, I will see him myself.
· You're like, okay.
· And he's like, my eyes will look at him.
· You're like, Job, you just said that you'll see.
· He's repeating himself for emphasis.
· He wants you to know,
· I am going to see God someday.
· Notice Job uses the same word
· against Bill Dad in chapter 19.
· Bill Dad says, and there's a lot more in Hebrew than this.
· This is just kind of like a teaser.
· It's so good.
· Hebrew is very ironic and picture oriented.
· But Job purposely uses the same Hebrew word for no.
· Bill Dad says right at the end,
· the wicked one, this is the one who does not know God.
· And in chapter 19, verse 25, Job says, but I know.
· Same word in Hebrew.
· It's yada means to know in Hebrew.
· Job is actually saying, you know what?
· Yes, I do know.
· You want to know what I know that my Redeemer lives.
· And he will stand on the earth on the dust, verse 25.
· And look what else Job says.
· Even after my skin has been destroyed.
· Translation, after I die, I will die.
· Just read Ecclesiastes.
· You're going to die, right?
· I will die yet I will see God in what?
· My flesh, how?
· And he goes on to make sure that you and I
· are not confused by what he's saying, right?
· I will see him myself.
· My eyes will look at him.
· Not as a stranger, an alternate translation can be,
· and no one else, but he's saying it's me.
· And it doesn't mean that no one else on the planet
· will ever see God like him.
· No, he's saying, but this is for me, Job.
· I know I'm going to.
· I know my Redeemer lives and I'm going to see God.
· It's emphatic.
· I will see him.
· And he says, my heart longs within me, right?
· So Job knows two things for sure.
· He doesn't know why the wicked prosper.
· He doesn't know what's going on,
· but he knows these things.
· His Redeemer lives and he believes in resurrection.
· He will be resurrected from the dead.
· Job declares somehow, someway,
· God will redeem and resurrect him from death
· so that he could see God face to face in glory.
· So the truth we hold onto in our difficult times is this.
· I know Christ is my Redeemer,
· and because he is risen, I'll rise too.
· No matter what you're going through, no,
· not just like think, no, you can know
· that your Redeemer lives, that Christ is risen.
· And we have this beautiful, wonderful, glorious promise
· that because he's risen, you and I will be too.
· I'm tempted to get in a whole nother sermon
· about the resurrection.
· I could be here for like another hour.
· We got to do that someday.
· Everyone will be resurrected,
· but one to judgment, one to glory.
· Hold onto that one.
· But Job believes even this early
· in biblical world history in resurrection.
· Romans 6, 5 says, if we've been,
· for if we have been united with him,
· Christ, in a death like his,
· Romans 6 is what we quote in baptism,
· we shall certainly be united with him
· in a resurrection like his.
· No matter what your suffering,
· no matter your suffering, this promise is true
· for those in Christ.
· And our final lie is in chapter 20 from Zophar.
· At the end of chapter 20, Zophar says,
· the wicked person's inheritance from God
· is God's anger.
· Zophar kind of has a wicked person sandwich.
· He says, this is the wicked person.
· He does this.
· This is his stuff.
· This is him's stuff.
· And then he ends it at verse 29.
· This is the wicked person's lot from God,
· the inheritance God ordained from him.
· And he's talking about God's anger
· towards that person, towards the wicked.
· Ultimately, what Zophar is implying is Job,
· to Job is that God is angry with him
· and turning him away.
· So lie number three is this.
· Your suffering reveals God has abandoned you.
· And I'm glad the word lies there.
· It's hard for me to even say that falsehood, right?
· One of the worst attacks or lies
· Satan can come at us with
· when we're going through difficult times
· is that God has abandoned us.
· Maybe you've been there.
· Maybe you've asked yourself,
· does God even care about me, right?
· Or Satan, our accuser, can come and say,
· he doesn't care about you.
· He's actually against you.
· Maybe you've thought to yourself,
· is he even here?
· Does he even care?
· Has he left me?
· Has he abandoned me?
· And what we see in Job's response to Zophar
· is 21 is very much full of lament and frustration.
· But he says this in Job 21, verse 22.
· Can anyone teach God knowledge
· since he judges the exalted ones?
· He's judged over angels, over humanity.
· How could a human teach him anything?
· Job's argument in chapter 21 is very much
· a why do the wicked prosper kind of argument.
· So he is flustered and frustrated.
· He can look at the wicked
· and say they seem to be doing just fine.
· They have kids.
· They have a nice home.
· I mean, they're given power.
· And you can even turn on the news.
· You can let wicked people are in prominent places.
· Why did these things happen?
· He looks at himself.
· I'm a worshiper of God.
· I know I love God.
· I'm not holding sin.
· I'm not unconfessed.
· I'm not withholding any repentance.
· And I'm in misery.
· Why, why, why?
· The wicked don't always perish
· like my friends are telling me.
· Sometimes they prosper and do just fine.
· But the truth is this.
· We can't know all of God's ways.
· That's what Job's saying.
· But what do we have?
· We have promises.
· But he promises that nothing can separate us
· from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
· Paul reminds us of this in Romans 8, 38, 39.
· Paul says, for I am sure,
· not, well, I really hope,
· I am sure that neither death nor life,
· nor angels, nor rulers,
· nor things present,
· nor things to come,
· nor powers, nor height,
· nor depth,
· nor anything else in all creation
· will be able to separate us
· from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
· Translation, no thing and no one.
· Not even time.
· Not even, no time.
· Nothing present can.
· Nothing in the future can.
· Separate us from the love of God
· and Christ Jesus our Lord.
· That is a promise in scripture
· that we have in Christ.
· No matter how much we suffer,
· no matter how difficult life gets,
· know that God has not abandoned you.
· We don't know why God allows what he allows Job
· if you read chapter 21.
· He doesn't either.
· He's at a loss in chapter 21, truly.
· We don't know God's ways,
· but we know God's promises,
· and he'll be faithful.
· And I think for some of us, perhaps,
· we don't have the same bad friends,
· nor do we even need the same bad friends to get this way.
· We don't have friends feeding us falsehoods
· and making accusations against us,
· but we do it to ourselves.
· We're our own worst friend.
· We're our own bad friend,
· uncomforting friend.
· We get into our own heads
· when we're down and out and struggling,
· and we don't need friends to do this.
· We do this to ourselves.
· But may we remember that these truths, right,
· take it all back to Scripture,
· may we remember these truths and hold on to them
· when we're in the deepest depths of despair.
· We know, we know, we know that our Redeemer lives,
· and we have this hope in Christ.
· And hope, the biblical definition of hope is not like,
· well, I hope the Cardinals win, which will never happen.
· And that is like, that might be my first force reference
· in two years, but it happened.
· But I just came to my mind.
· But like, it's not a very hopeless hope.
· It's not even a questioning.
· Hope in Scripture is an assurance,
· a conviction of something that is true.
· And we know it.
· Our hope is definite and in Christ.
· I want to invite the worship team up.
· And I shared with 9 o'clock service,
· I know we're running short on time.
· I'm trying to be better at this.
· But I just wanted to draw your attention to a story in Acts
· when Saul, before Paul was Paul,
· he was Saul and he was persecuting the church
· in Acts chapter 8, 7 and 8, really.
· And God meets him on the road to Damascus.
· Bright light shining, speaks to him,
· knocks him off of his feet,
· and he's actually has trouble with his vision after it.
· And God says, Paul, you need to go to this dude
· named Ananias' house.
· He's gonna help you out.
· Well, God works on both sides,
· so God also tells Ananias, hey,
· Ananias, this dude named Saul's coming.
· You need to help him out.
· That's my summary, okay?
· Ananias is like, God, is this the same Saul?
· You know Saul, right?
· Saul who's like persecuting and like killing Christians.
· Like is he gonna come kill me?
· And God says something so powerful,
· it's always stuck with me,
· especially aspiring to the ministry.
· He says this, don't, this is DJ's paraphrase,
· but he says, don't you worry about Saul, Paul,
· for I will show him the things he must suffer
· for my name's sake.
· God is predicting suffering for Paul.
· It ain't gonna be the good life.
· It's gonna be hard.
· And if you read the epistles
· and you read the rest of the New Testament,
· Paul does suffer very much
· and entrusts himself to God every time.
· And we must do the same.
· Be encouraged.
· When you're suffering,
· just go to the truths of scripture.
· I hope you'll hold onto those three truths
· that Job holds onto
· and hold onto all the other promises in scripture.
· Let's pray.
· Father, I thank you for this morning
· and for your word
· and just for the impact that this has had on my life.
· I pray on the lives of your people.
· God, I truly do thank you
· for the gift of fellowship
· with this body of Christ here.
· I really do thank you for it.
· Help us, Lord, to remember these truths
· in Jesus' name.
· Amen.
· Let's stand as we sing our last song.
Job