Nobody to Speak For Me

But I'm going to take it. [music] I'm going to take it on the cross. [music] Job said, "God, please take the rod from me." Jesus said, "Give me the rod. [music] Give me the pain. Give me the heartache. Let me take it all to the cross. Cuz [music] he can pay it through his perfection, through his riches, [music] through his glory. If you have a Bible, go and grab it and open it to [music] Job chapter 8. Job chapter 8. If you open kind of the middle of your Bible, you get to the Psalms, just go left a little bit and you'll hit Job in there. But in Job chapter 8, as you're flipping there, we're going to see how Job kind of unpacks some stuff and and wants someone to be speaking on his behalf. But before we get there, uh, here's what I have a question for you. Is when you think about when someone gets in trouble, like I'm talking about real trouble in our city and in our country, where do they go? When you do something, you're like, "Man, I screwed up bad." Not with your wife, but with the law. You call a lawyer. I've never had to do that personally. I'm I'm glad to say that. But as I was driving yesterday, I'm going down Grand to a birthday party, literally in the Great Skate parking lot, but not Great Skate. That brings back some childhood memories for me. Uh, but as I'm there, I'm just passing billboard after billboard for injury attorneys. And I want to give you guys a little bit of a test and see how much you actually pay attention to the world around you. All right. So, first, does anyone know the accident injury attorney for the Suns? >> Sweet James. I heard that. All right, my bro. All right, there's one of us. Okay, this is not a good sign. Um, you might know this test. Uh, learner and row is the way to go. Call 977. >> All right, these are my people. I'm I'm here. All right, I feel a little better. You know that one. It's like ingrained in your head if you ever watch a son's game or just radio or whatever else that stuff gets to it. But as I'm driving through, I'm seeing billboard after billboard. One of the most annoying one is like Rafi. Like I don't feel like I trust him. Okay. Like there just that it just feels aggressive. Uh, at the bus stop there was one, this is my favorite. Need money question mark and then it was the their like advertisement like do I jump in front of a bus and get hit and then call you? I don't know. It's just crazy. But you might wonder what does that have to do with the book of Job? Well, today as we get in the book of Job, Job is going to get to this point in his life in chapter 9. And in chapter 9:33, it kind of is the hinge in the center of our text today that we're going to take some time to get to and then work from. But he says this statement, "Is there anyone who can speak on my behalf? Is there any mediator for me?" And if we're honest, sometimes in our life, we feel like nobody's speaking for us. When we think of like, God, why is all this stuff happening? God, like why did my car break down? Why? Why is my marriage a wreck? Why is my job not getting better? Why is why do I feel like I'm getting closer in my devotional life, but I just feel like I'm always trying to go? It's like, God, can someone help speak on my behalf? Advocate for me so my life can get better. Today, as we dive into Job, we see Job is a man who had the perfect life, who 4,000 years ago, before America existed, he had the American dream. He had the money and the family. He was in church. He was entrenched. But for circumstances outside of his control, for once, he didn't even know why. His life just started to fall apart. And behind the whole scene in chapter 1, it was this discussion between God and Satan. Satan saying, "If I were to take all his blessings away, he would curse you and not follow you." And as we've gotten into this text, we've seen this over and over again. is would we still choose to follow God even especially when our life starts to fall apart? Well, today as we continue to build on this, it comes to this suffering reality that we've been going through is the book of Job takes us from why to who. Not why all these things happen, but who is behind it all. But today, we unpack a little bit more of this. But who will speak for me? When it feels like there's no advocate out there for us. When it feels like you don't have Rafi or Learner and Row on speed dial and you need someone instead to speak for you on your marriage and in your job and in your daily life is how do we begin to seek God through that? How do we begin to trust him? And here's the three things we're going to see from Job today is when nobody will speak for me, I am left with three statements today. And here's the first we see out of chapter 8 is an answer that I can't use. An answer that I can't use. Starting in verse one of chapter 8 says, "Then build the shoe replied." This is Job's second friend that comes to we looked at his first friend Elephaz last week. He was not a friendly or nice guy. Billad is much worse. And next week we'll meet his third friend. Job needed new friends. That's why we see throughout all this, right? But he says this, "How long will you go on saying these things? Your words are a blast of wind. Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the rebellion." As Billad starts his speech, he starts it in a harsh way. He's like, "Dude, your your wind your words are a blast wind." He's like, "Job, you're a blowhard. you just keep saying things and you don't stop talking. You keep complaining, but he's like, "Hey, they mean nothing." Now, shockingly, nobody's called me like a blowhard or saying, you know, all my words are like a blast of wind, which shocks me cuz I talk a lot. Um, I've been accused of talking fast. I think you just need to listen faster. If I'm talking too fast, uh, you know, there's two ways that goes. But he's like, his friend doesn't open in a nice soft way. He just tells like, "Job, stop talking. you're you're you're talking too much and you're saying a bunch of nothing. But then in verse two or verse three, he says a very true statement. Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? And the answer to that is absolutely not. Like God is just, God is holy. God is righteous. But then it's sounding good. It's sounding like, okay, maybe this is going to go all right. But then he says this statement in verse four. Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion. Job, a man who dug 10 graves for his 10 kids, is told by one of his friends, "Your kids got what they deserved." Imagine someone in your life, someone who you trusted, someone who you let speak into you is all of a sudden laying this at your feet, just speaking this harshness right to you. And as Job is taking in what may be one of the crulest statements his friends say, and his friends say this in different aspect of your kids got what they deserve. And this might be the harshest of them all. Billad isn't being hateful. Billad is just following the system that his that he believes in in his life happens. He's following the formula that he's been given. And where did he get this formula? Check out verse 8. He says uh in verse 8 of chapter 8, he says, "For ask the previous generation and pay attention to what their ancestors discovered since we were only born yesterday and know nothing." This is an extremely just wise statement here and I love this is today I think we are coming into an age of more and more arrogance that technology is increasing like it's like if you were born before the internet you had to look in an encyclopedia like you didn't know anything right like now post internet we have all this knowledge at our fingertips now AI we don't even have to think we just have robots for that okay they do it for us and there's this easy way of we almost thinking like previous generations are ignorant job wrote these words in the book of Job 4,000 years ago. And honestly, he sounds more literate than all of us in this room and watching online. And and in here, Bill Dad says something smart. He says, "Man, look at past the past generations. They were smart. They they knew this. It sounds good." But then he says, "Our days on this earth are but a shadow. So true." And he says this, "Will they teach Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding?" Now, uh, Eleph or I'm sorry, build out here is kind of building on Elephas a little bit differently from last week. If you joined us last week, Elephaz, uh, preached this theology of almost karma. And, and he did it from his own experience. He's like, you do good things, good things happen. You do bad things, bad things happen. But here, Billad kind of shifts and his authority is tradition. He's like, hey, Job, ask the old-timers. Ask the wise guys around it. They will tell you that the righteous prosper and the wicked fall. The church people will be okay and the sinners are not so much. And we give him this much credit is verse 9 as he said is this humble verse where he says less of him. He's like hey I'm leaning on the wisdom of old and I'm trusting those who have came before me. One of the things I love about Cross Church, especially here in Surprise, is we're in this weird place of bellroad. And bell road is like kind of this great unifier of terrible traffic, but also this unifier of you have Sun City communities, you know, uh more and then you also have young surprise and you have this blend of these young families and those in the retirement age of theirs. And it's all this great amazing conglomeration of all these people who have left California and Washington and Oregon and we all love you and you escaped and you're here now. Praise the Lord. And and and we come together and and our church reflects that. We're a multi-generational church. And I love it because I have so many wise men and women that I look to in our church and I'm like I want to grow up and be like them. I I I like say it. I tell my wife I was like I want to be like Carol Key and Ron and Larry and so many and there are so many wise people in our church and you know the older you get you do get a little more wise and you know why? Because you've made more mistakes in your life. [snorts] Sometimes wisdom isn't you actually got smaller smarter but you're like hey I I did that thing I I had to call learner and row so I learned not to do that thing again. Right? is like I called Rafie bad idea. Then I went with sweet James and it was better that time. And here's the thing is like we have this wisdom that gets passed down from age to age and that's great. And hopefully there's people in your life that are speaking into you. But hear this is tradition can only hand down what it was handed. Meaning if the formula was wrong in your grandfather's generation, it's still going to be wrong in yours. An age does not ripen in error and truth. And Bill Dad had inherited a formula that it sounded good on the surface, but Bill Dad couldn't explain why a guy who seemed to be blameless was suffering in a way that made no sense in this situation. So he closes his speech with this formula in verse 20. Listen to this. He says, "If I had sinned, what have I done?" Oh, I'm sorry. I'm I'm going back to chapter 7. That was a good one, too. Verse 20 of chapter 8. He says, "Look, God does not reject a person of integrity, and he will not support evildoers. This sounds right. Instead, he will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy. Your enemies will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will no longer exist." You see, he has aspects of truth here is that God will welcome a person of integrity. God will bring us in when we are faithful in following him. He will not support evil. And he even gets tender for a second here. He's like, "Job, I think your mouth will be filled with laughter." He's like, "Job, I think you're a good guy. Job, I think this is great, but here is why Job could not use this answer." Cuz Bill dad's whole argument was, "Job, you have done something wrong. Just like Elephaz said, you need to repent and God will restore you." The problem is Job's looking around. And he's like, I don't know what to repent of in this situation. Joseph is like, I've made mistakes, but this wasn't one of them. He's like, I didn't make a mistake that led to my health failing and my money being gone and my kids dying. This and all of a sudden, he's looking at this. He's like, I don't have He's like, I can't confess something here cuz I don't have something to confess in this specific situation. So, when Job gets this answer that he cannot use, it leads to the second thing that we see in here. and for us today is there is an argument that I cannot win. Keep going in verse 9. It says, "Then Job answered." And as Job answers, he says this, "Yes, I know what you've said is true, but how can a person be justified before God?" And he continues on in verse three. He says, "If one wanted to take him to court," this sets up the whole kind of this whole idea of this courtship that we're going to see, this court uh this uh illustration in this chapter, he says, "If he were to take God to court, he could not answer him once and a thousand times." As Job answers, he's like, "Hey, Bill Dad, I'll give you this. God is just. We'll agree on that. But he's like, "But forget my specific case for a second." He's like, "Let's just talk about people in general." He says, "How could any human being in history win a court case against God?" And notice the language he starts to use in this chapter. He's like, "How can you take him to court? How can you answer him? He's my judge." He summons, condemns. Chapter 9 is soaked in this courtroom language. This was the birth of sweet James, right? That came here. And here, Job is starting to draft a lawsuit clause by clause, but he's realizing it can never be filed. Look at verse 14 of chapter 9. Skip down for just a second. He says this, "How then can I answer him or choose my arguments against him?" He's talking about God. He [snorts] says, "Even if I were in the right, man, what a powerful statement. I could not answer. I could only beg my judge for mercy. If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said. He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause. He doesn't let me catch my breath, but fills me with bitter experiences. If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one. If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? Even if I were in the right, he says this again, my own mouth would condemn me. If I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty. You see the problem that Job unpacks here? He's saying, "Hey, if we were going to a courtroom with God in it, do you know who God would be in that courtroom? The judge." He's like, "I'm not even arguing with a defense attorney or a prosecutor. I'm arguing with the judge himself. And and as he continues to build this out, he he's saying, "Hey, not only is he the judge, but verse 19, he says, if it's a matter of justice is who can summon him?" He's like, "If I have a subpoena, I watch a lot of lawyer shows." And right, you see like the bike messenger who like runs into a car and then he's like, "I'm sorry, what was your name?" He's like, "I'm Bob." He's like, "You've been summoned to court." Right? Um like you can't hire that bike messenger to go summon God to court. Like that subpoena doesn't have a poll. And then if God doesn't show up to your court, right? You can't be like, I'm going to send out an arrest warrant for God. See if he shows up. Right? Is there's no one big enough to handle that to subpoena God. There's also, as Job's going to build in a second, there's no court above God's court where you can file an appeal to the charge you get. In verse 20, this might be the most self-aware sentence in the whole debate. He says, "Even if I were right, my mouth would condemn me." Job knows that in this moment, he didn't do anything wrong to deserve what was happening in his life at this time. But Job also knew that wasn't a perfect man. Job sinned before in his life. Job would sin after this. Job had sin. He had issues. He had things and ways that he has wronged God. He said, "And as soon," He's like, "Even if I'm blameless in this court," he's like, "As soon as I open my mouth, I will say something that will condemn me." I know it's crazy to think about, but I think there's about one or two times a year where the husband is actually right in an argument with his wife. All right. I know that's a pretty big wager right there. I I think it is. All right. I've been married for uh 10 12 years or whatever and there's been like twice, you know, every year that I'm right. But here's the thing. Even if I am right, even if I'm through my slideshow proving my points how I'm right, the more my mouth opens, the more I condemn myself. And Job's like, "Man, I I I know I'm right in this situation, but as soon as I start to unpack it, I'm going to find out really quickly this is a case that I cannot win." You know, one of the terrible things about being an adult is cars. I hate cars. Can we just have flying cars in the Jetsons already that like never get in accidents or do anything? Cars just they break down. Cars just have issues all the time. Josh's one of Josh's cars died in the church parking lot for two weeks and then he finally got it out and now I think it's dead in Safeway or something like that. But cars are just a drain. And like I'm in constant fear that one of my cars is always going to break down. And then I'm like I don't I I could I don't want to have to spend more money for a new car. We got a Honda Odyssey. It's worked great for us. We got four kids. So we got to pack those kids into that van. And and it's coming up on I bought an extended warranty for like 7 years, 100,000 mi warranty. And I there's these signs that my transmission something's wrong. Like it's not dead. It's still going. All right. But I'm like I think it's wrong. So I'm like I'm at like 99,000 miles. So I go to the dealer. I'm like, "Hey, we got to fix this thing." Like I'm telling you now, like fix it. So when it dies, like we're not going to have this. And as I'm going through the paperwork, I got Honda Care and this extended warranty. They're like, "Oh, your seven years started from when the car was manufactured, and you bought it 2 years after it was manufactured, so it actually expired last year." It's like, "Can I stab you with this pet?" No, I'm just kidding. And as I'm looking over, I'm like, literally, I had the handshake. I like talked to the, you know, the the guys who if you work in a car dealer, Jesus loves you, but I might not. Uh, but we said, he's like, "This is 7 years, 100,000 from when we signed this." That was great in his words, but that's not what the paper said and that's all that matters. And I called Honda like and they're like, "Would you like to file a complaint?" I was like, "I would." I was like, "Now, would this help me my warranty?" They're like, "No, we don't own the actual franchise, so you just have to go them." I was like, "The people I signed with, they're like, "Yeah, you could go ask them about it." I was like, "I could set up a blowup mattress outside their place and annoy them for a week straight and they would just be like, "Bro, the contract says this." And Job is at a point where he's like, "Man, I know I didn't do anything wrong in this. I know this was not my fault, but when I look at my life and I were to present it to God, it's a no-win case cuz there is sin in my life against the holy, righteous God of the universe." He's like, "There is no way that I would win this." And check out verse 30 of chapter 9 as he continues and starts to close uh starts to work to this. He's like, "Well, what do I do if I can't win this? There has to be some option." He says this, "Well, if I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lair," he's like, "Maybe I can just clean up my life a little bit. I can just be a super Christian for a little while and all of a sudden my life will get better. I'll clean up my act." But verse 21, but then you dip me in a pit of mud and my own clothes despise me. There's a segment of people who are like, "Hey, I don't have my life together now. My life's a wreck, but I'll come to church once I fix myself up a little bit. I'm going to stop this addiction. I'm going to all of a sudden like get my life in order. I'm going to start reading my Bible. I'm going to start praying. I'm going to fix my life now. And then I'll go before God and God's going to be like, "You're a good person. Give me the stamp of approval and I'm going to walk off and things are going to be great." But Job's like, "Even if I clean myself up with mud, once I stand in front of the holy God of the universe, it's going to be like I fell in mud again, and you're going to see the dirt of my life." And as he comes to this realization that no matter what, he can't fix himself. He can't clean up himself. He cannot win this argument before God. This whole thing cracks open in verse 32 and 33 of chapter 9. And I just love this. He says here, "For he is not a man like me that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court, for there is no mediator between us to lay his hand on both of us." Job's like, "I'm out of options. My life is a mess. I've lost my money. I've lost my kids. I've lost my health. The book of Job says he was covered in boils and was seeping ooze day and night. He's like, I can't win this case. But here's the crazy thing is Job actually doesn't stop talking there. He feels like he's on his alone. He feels like no one can advocate for him. He feels like there's no way that he can win this case with God. But then this is the thing that usually I think follows this when we come to this point where we feel like nobody can speak on our behalf. We have these answers we can't use. We have this argument that we can't win. But here's where it ends for Job in chapter 11. In chapter 10 it sees this uh appeal that he cannot stop. Keep going in chapter 10 in verse one. He says this. I am disgusted with my life. I will give vent to my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, "Do not declare me guilty. Instead, let me know why you prosecute me." Job's like, "I can't win the argument. I don't understand why this is happening, but I'm going to keep appealing to God that something has to change." And here's what's so great about this and I love is that Job is directing his thoughts to God. He's not talking to his friends here. He's not talking to Elephas or Bill Dad. He's talking directly to God. He's like, "Hey, I know I can't win this argument, but God, I'm just going to ask for your mercy." Over and over and over again. And listen to how he starts to appeal to him in chapter 10:8. He says, "Your hands, God, shaped me and formed me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Please, God, remember that you formed me like clay? Will now you return me to dust? Do not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese. You clothed me with skin and flesh and you wo me together with bones and tendons. You gave me life and you gave me faithful love in your care has guarded my life. Job starts when he realizes that he has no amount of truth and justification on his side for the fact that he is just a broken person. He starts to appeal to God as his father and as his creator. He appeals to the artist and God. He's like, "God, you made me." Does the potter destroy his own work, his own clay? And and here's what's crazy is Job is arguing against God using God. Think about that for a second. And that's a scary thing to in your prayers like start if you if you can't win an argument with God, just start arguing with God with God's own words and his own ability, right? Like Job starts and moves to him, but he's appealing to the love inside God's heart. The pain that he describes, he's like, "God, you know it. God, you know what is is here." But this is what I love and this is what's so important here is church. He is not arguing and praying to God saying, "God, I deserve better than this." He's not saying that because he knows at the bottom line, even if he's innocent in this area, he's not innocent in other areas of his life. He's not saying I deserve better, but he's praying, God, you are better. That even though my life is a wreck now, you still love me through it. And I know you love enough to see me through this situation. And God, would you bring me through this? And I love here that even though Job didn't know why this was happening, it wasn't God that was doing this, but it was Satan wreaking havoc behind the scenes, he's still seeing the glimmer of hope that he's trying to rely on God. But here's the deal is this chapter actually does not end on a happy note. And we won't dress it up here. And I think we got to feel the weight of Job's depression here because after he says all this, after he hears his dumb friend talk, after he gives his case, after then he gives his appeal, he ends in verse 18 through 22 in our passage. He says this, "God, why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen. I wish I had never existed, but had been carried from the womb to the grave. Are my days not few? Stop it. Leave me alone so that I can smile a little before I go to a land of darkness and gloom, never to return. It is a land of blackness, like the deepest darkness, gloomy and chaotic, where even the light is like the darkness. Great way to start your week on a Sunday, right? Like this dude Job is depressing. And even as he ends this, we see these glimmers of hope. You're like, "All right, Job, you're finally getting on the right track." Like chapter 3, if you were with us, super depressing. If you didn't read it, go read it this week, just to pick you up a little bit. And he like bears his soul. He asks these questions. Why was I born? Why am I alive? Why is all this even happening? God, why? Why? Why? And then as we see him building his case, as we see him appealing to God, we're like, Job, you're figuring out. And then the depression just sinks back in. And here's an important thing I think for all of us to hear is sometimes we think that depression may be a season and we can just get past it and it's gone and we're good. Anxiety is a season we can get past it and we're good. And there will be seasons where you get past your depression, you get past your anxiety, you get past the darkness that looms in our life, but grief is a loop in our life. It'll go away for a season, but in the darkness of our soul, it comes back. And Satan loves when it comes back. He loves when our addictions rear their head. He loves when the darkness comes back and he tries to pry in that. And when it starts to come back in here, Job is feeling and it's going to lead into next week as his next friend talks and he's just as dumb as the other two. But then Job's going to respond again. And it seems like he can't get out of this cycle. But the question for us today is how do we get out of it? When we are in the situation they Job is in. When we feel like in the spiritual court of life like there is no one to speak for us, no one to plead on our behalf. When we feel like we need a spiritual sweet James to come alongside us and talk, how do we get through? Because we see in Job 8 through10, we see an answer that can't be used from a friend that is of no use. In chapter 9, we see an argument that if we were to argue we are a good person before God, we would fall short every time. We see an appeal of just love me anyway, God. Just be generous anyway. Even though I'm a sinner, even though I'm a wreck, you'll figure it out, God. Just keep loving me cuz you created me and it still falls short. How in the world do we hang hang in here? And how in the world do we push past in the spiritual court of life? Well, it all comes back to verse 33 of chapter 9 where Job says that there is no mediator between us to lay his hand on both of us. Job's like, "Here's the problem. The reason I can't get by, the reason I can't break through, the reason that this doesn't matter is I can't talk to God. I can't just zip up to heaven and all of a sudden have a face tof face conversation with God. I can't just bring God down to me. None of it matters. I can't do this. But 2,000 years later, Job's question changes because there is one word in that statement where he says, "There is no mediator." That technically was not correct. because there already was a mediator. We hadn't seen the fulfillment of the mediator yet. We hadn't seen the fruition of the mediator yet. But 2,000 years after Job writes his agony down in and shows his grief on full display, a man named Paul who started churches all across our known world. He writes in 1 Timothy chapter 2 the answer directly to his question. When he says there is no mediator, Paul writes and said, "For there is one God. This God we are in spiritual court with." And listen to this. In one mediator between God and mankind. Now, I know you already see the answer up there. But here's what's amazing. He doesn't say sweet James. He doesn't say learner and row. He doesn't say Rafi, right? Instead, there is one mediator between God and mankind. And he says, "The man Christ Jesus, >> Amen. >> who gave himself as a ransom for all." And here's where the book of Job points to. And here's the beauty of this passage is Job feels dejected. Job feels thrown down. Job feels like there is no hope. He is pleading, "Can I just get a neutral party?" He says, "Can I have someone who can put his hand on God and put his hand on me and say, "Hey, let's just figure this out together." He wanted an umpire to call balls and strikes. And in this situation, he's like, "Call it a ball cuz I did not do anything wrong. There was no strike against me." But here's the thing is heaven did not send a neutral mediator. And this is the enduring truth that comes out of this passage and comes to the New Testament is nobody can argue your case before God. Not the deadbeat [music] lawyers around here that are just looking for money and want you to get hit by a bus. All right? That nobody can argue your case before God. But here's the thing. Jesus already has. He is not a neutral party. He is not just someone that says, "Hey, you're innocent." Because you're not. When Jesus came down here to mediate with one hand on the throne and one hand in our brokenness and he can understand both. He is fully God [music] having the power of the creator of the universe to cast out demons to heal the blind to heal the sick. He did all of that but also had one hand in our humanity. [music] He knew what brokenness looked like. He knew what pain looked like. He knew what friends abandoning him looked like. He knew all the stuff [music] that we have gone through looked like. And when he mediates on our behalf, he doesn't say, "Hey, they're innocent. They're good. They're fine. They didn't do anything wrong." [music] Instead, when the sentence is handed out, Jesus says, "That's my sentence to bear." [music] The reason he went to the cross [music] is not because he is guilty, but because we are. And in the spiritual court of eternity, when we are put on the stand before God, we come up guilty, guilty, guilty. The Romans says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We deserve a separation, a life, a death, an eternity away from the God of the universe. But Jesus said, "No, no, no. I see that sin. I see that eternity that you should pay because you are broken, because you are sinful, but I'm going to take it. I'm going to take it on the cross. [music] Job said, "God, please take the rod from me." Jesus said, "Give me the rod. Give me the pain. [music] Give me the heartache. let me take it all to the cross [music] because he can pay it through his perfection, through his riches, through his glory. And church, [music] this is the beauty of it all. He paid our ransom as Paul said. [music] So that no longer do we have to feel the hopelessness of Job [music] to say nobody speaks for me but instead we can see the hope of the Savior that he has paid our price [music] and we can know him for all of eternity. So church, how do we live this out this week? [music] If you are a believer in the room, here's my encouragement for you. Cuz you will go through seasons where you ask, "Why, [music] God, God, why is this happening? Why is my car breaking down? Why is my boss a jerk? Why is my marriage strained? Why aren't my kids [music] doing this?" And you might question, you might be pleading your case before God. God, I've been going to church. God, I've been in Bible group. God, I've even been serving a nursery. Why is this happening to me? [music] Stop pleading your case before God and start trusting in the savior of the universe. And here's if you want to see, not only do you believe in the perfect advocate, but you also get to be an advocate for others. [music] You know what Job's friends never did? They never prayed for him. They preached at him. They screamed at him. They condemned [music] him. but they never prayed to God on his behalf in front of him. We have no record of it. [music] Maybe you need to pray for someone to be their advocate that they [music] can find Christ, that they can find a new life in him. And if that is not you today, if you are in this room, if you are watching online, [music] we want to extend the invitation this morning to say yes to Christ. >> [music] >> to say yes to the mediator between us and God, [music] between holiness and sin, our lawyer, our God, our judge, our king, our redeemer, and the spiritual court of eternity [music] that changes everything for us now and forever more. [music] That is the God that we follow. [music] That is the advocate who mediates on our behalf. [music]