# Sermon Title: Nobody to Speak For Me

Sermon transcript from Cross Church Surprise.
Series: Job
Date: October 4, 2026
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/surprise/episodes/sermon-title-nobody-to-speak-for-me

## Summary

Feeling unheard in your struggles? Ever wondered who speaks for you when life gets tough? Join us as we explore Job's cry for a mediator and discover the hope found in Jesus, our ultimate advocate. Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

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]