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Good evening, everybody. Let's
all stand and we'll start off with a word of prayer. Brother
Bob, would you open us with a prayer, please? Amen. Let's all take your hymn
notes. Turn on hymn number 288. 288, I Am Resolved. ♪ I am resolved,
oh God, when you make a determined demand. ♪ Thanks that I'm hired,
thanks that I'm humbled. ♪ Please have a word, my son. ♪ I will hasten to Him, hasten
so glad and free ♪ ♪ Jesus, the greatest I am, I will come to
Thee ♪ ♪ I am strong to go to the Savior, He is in my strife
♪ ♪ And if He makes us do Him ♪ ♪
Makes us to put Him free ♪ ♪ Choose God, be free as I am ♪ ♪ I will
come to Thee ♪ ♪ I am song to follow the Savior ♪ ♪ Pray for the truth
each day ♪ ♪ Be my Savior to all the world ♪ Hey man, let's turn to hymn number
321. Hymn number 321, where he leads
us, follow. Sweet are the promises, kind
is the word. There are more than any blessed
man ever heard. Most of my men cry and sing as
I sing. In the great example is the plan,
and for me it's the law. Follow, follow Jesus every day. Sweet as the tender love of Jesus
I shall, sweeter for the healing of the mortals below. I'll turn
the air in what I play and for what I sing, be the great example
as the padding for me. Let's do His loving work, come
what may. Weary every night and pain I
swing this way Trust in His promises, faithful and sure Made upon the
standing of my soul, yes He will The way is of God Amen. Thank you. May we sing. My faithful Father, Enduring front, your tender mercy's
like a river with no end It overwhelms me, covers my sin. Each time I come into your presence,
I stand in wonder once again. Your grace still amazes me. Still a mystery each day I fall
on my knees Cause your grace still amazes me Your grace still
amazes me Oh, patient Savior, you make
me whole. You are the author and the healer
of my soul. What can I give you? Lord, what can I say? I know there's no way to repay
you. Only to offer you my praise. Your grace still amazes me. It's still a mystery each day
I fall on my knees Cause your grace still amazes me Your grace
still amazes me It's deeper It's wider It's stronger It's higher
It's deeper, it's wider, it's stronger than anything My eyes
can't see your grace Still amazes me, your love is still a mystery
each day I fall on my knees, cause your grace still amazes
me. Your grace still amazes me. Well, amen, it's good to be in
the Lord's house tonight and to have each one of you with
us. We're gonna be in the book of Job, and so you can go ahead
and get there, Job chapter three. I have a few thank yous and stuff
I wanna share. First of all, dear Shawnee Mission
Baptist Temple, first please allow me to extend our gratitude
to you all who cared and thought to invest in the ministry of
Anchor Baptist Church as well as our people. We're deeply humbled
to know the love and charity that has been extended to us
for our work here in Portsmouth, Virginia. And this was the guy
that we gave money to help. He's the one that was, ex-Navy
guy, and his son was out doing block work, and a guy took a
gun, placed it alongside his head, and discharged it, just
being mean. And anyhow, that was this guy
right here, and he appreciates our help, and so good to be able
to help that brother. And then got a letter here. from Nathan Kirkman from Mount
Logan Baptist Church in North Logan, Utah. And he says, I want
to say thank you for the gift towards our startup costs at
Brigham City Baptist Church and for my family's dental need.
I'm still overwhelmed at the generosity of God's people during
the Home Missions Conference at Heartland and rejoicing that
God is still using men and their families to plant independent
Baptist churches in America. And so thankful to be able to
help that family also. And then I got this letter. And
I don't know if you recognize these people or not. They haven't
been gone very long at all. But the first missionary letter
from the Marino family. And it says, dear pastor and
supporting church. You'd think it'd be a little
more broken down than that. Like, hey, Brother Metzinger.
But anyhow, that's what we get for randomly sending these out,
right? It says, thank you so much for giving and praying for
us as we transition from Kansas to California. We've been praying
to be in our new home by the end of January and we almost
made it. We arrived in California on February 3rd. We attended
the church playing conference in Oklahoma City during the first
week of January. The Lord allowed us to present
our need there and used the attending pastors to provide for various
needs we had as well as provide some needy monthly support. We
give God the glory for his doing exceedingly above all that we
ask or think. Our first service was a blessing.
I preached from Joshua 1 about moving forward. It was an exciting
time as we became members of the church and had a fellowship.
They did all the Baptist stuff. I hope they took an offering,
right? Because they had a fellowship, they had food, they had preaching.
I'm sure they took an offering. And it says there were some visitors
for our first service and some guests the week before that.
We'll be following up on soon. This week, we're looking forward
to getting some connections in Southern California area and
receiving the shipping container with our household items. Prayer
requests settling into our new home, make contacts in the community,
church growth numerically and spiritually, new church location. With love and gratitude, the
Marino family. So I called Brother Charles on
Thursday, or Tuesday, just checking on him, seeing how things went,
you know, and if he preached a good message or laid an egg
on Sunday. And so he said things went really
good. That was the first night, Monday
night was their first night to stay in their apartment. Their
stuff doesn't get there till like tomorrow or the next day.
He said, so we had this blow-up mattress And he said, about 4
o'clock in the morning, I had to tell everybody, get off the
mattress. We need to blow it back up so we can finish sleeping.
So, you know, the fun things. Nothing but a blow-up mattress
in a two-bedroom apartment. It's good to be young, right?
That would not sit well with me. I'd be looking for a holiday
inn or something. But anyhow, I'm glad they're
young and I'm glad that God's working in their life. They're
willing to be used for his glory. By the way, most of you probably
saw the post on Facebook. We've got a young couple coming
to be with us the weekend, 24th, 25th, 26th of February. This is a young couple I met
down at Heartland at the Missions Conference. that he had eight
different churches or eight different ministries wanting his attention,
four of them he was able to discern and get away from, and there
were four of us left, and we've been praying, they've been praying,
and he called me Monday and said, I really believe God wants us
to come and to look over the church and all that you have
going on, so pray for them as they come, you know, it's a two-way
street. It's us looking for someone to work with our young people,
and we'll be training him so that he can go out and do ministry
among Spanish people. He speaks Spanish fluently, and
he either wants to go to Mexico and start a work, or he wants
to plant a Spanish church here in America. And I told him, I
said, we'd love to help you. We'd love to mentor you and get
you ready to make that next step. So they'll come work with our
young people, kind of like Brother Chuck did. Come work with young
people, learn the ministry, and then when God tells them it's
time to go, we'll be helping another young man go into the
ministry, okay? The only thing about this guy
in comparison to Brother Chuck is he's a little bit taller.
No, I'm teasing. I'm cheesing. He will be graduating in May,
okay, so it won't be immediately. They'll move right here. It'll
be sometime in the middle part of May after graduation. They
would move here. And so he's going to really be
green, okay, really green. So, you know, we like to take
our staff guys and preach them to help them develop to be better
preachers. And, you know, by the time we
sent Chuck out of here, he's a pretty good preacher. Remember
those early days, 10-minute sermons? Most of you really relished those,
right? So maybe you'll get some of those.
The other side of that with a green preacher is they'll preach way
too long. So I'm just saying, I don't know
what we'll get there, OK? But the plan is we'll have some
time on Saturday, kind of a meet and greet thing. And then on
Sunday, he'll teach the young people. And Sunday afternoon,
he'll preach. And then we have to have the
announcement of the vote for two meetings and so we'll announce
that Wednesday night and again Sunday morning. We'll vote Sunday
afternoon if we get that far in the process. So just be ready. Come praying. We want the perfect
one that God has for us. And, you know, things can look
good on the outside and on the inside not be good. So we want
God to discern all that and give us a leading in that area, right? I'm excited. I don't know about
you. I'm excited about having someone here to help share the
load. And so please be praying for him. Get magazine, Soar the Lord. It comes free. That's why I get
it, I think. I don't know. But every time
in Soar the Lord, they have, I don't know, probably 20, 30-page
little paper. And about half of those pages,
they have columns on either side on the inside index. And they
have kind of news stories, things of interest that happen across
America. I saw this story. I wanted to share it with you.
TikTok, China's Trojan horse in America. And it's interesting,
we had a president that said TikTok was dangerous, and they
all ridiculed him, made fun of him. But national security expert,
Frank Ganefi, is deeply concerned by the inroads China could be
gaining through a wildly popular video app and through personally
owned drones from a manufacturer, From a manufacturer the Department
of Defense has blacklisted. Senator Mark Warren of Virginia
joined Fox News Sunday, by the way this guy's a Democrat, admitting
Donald Trump was right. I bet that stuck on his teeth
as he said it. Donald Trump was right in agreeing
with the former president that TikTok is an erroneous threat. National security analyst Frank
Gaffey Jr. also agrees, telling America
Family News that Warner's statements to Fox as a chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee were spot on. According to Gaffey, TikTok
should be banned. The increasingly popular video
hosting platform is used to share a wide range of content, from
pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, and almost anything imaginable.
The platform is particularly popular among adolescents. As
Gavi explains, evidence enough does exist, TikTok gathers up
the personal information on any device to which it is connected,
he notes, such as the retinal scan used to open a phone, stored
health information, stored bank account information, a person's
location, and more. That ought to be enough to turn
it off, throw it away. The app also has the ability to turn
on your microphone and turn on your camera as a surveillance
collection device, unbeknownst to you, he adds. For Geffeny,
the Chinese-owned TikTok, there's only one of many national security
threats facing the United States. There was also a balloon that
was flying through the air that was a national security threat.
Anyhow. Another one includes aerial drones made by the CCP
vendor DJI. He explains while they may be
considered cool Christmas gifts for us, they're essentially another
weapons platform for the CCP. Gaffney fears the CCP can commandeer
the drones at any time to survey and gather information in real
time or even fly into a structure. That's my warning from Sore the
Lord to you. All right, let's go to the Book
of Job. Book of Job, this is our second
lesson in the Book of Job. We are looking in Job 3, 4, 5,
6, and 7. Okay, we see Job talking in chapter
three, we see Elphaz talking in four and five, and then we
see Job giving a defense in chapter six and seven. We begin reading
in verse number one of chapter three. After this opened Job
his mouth and cursed his day. And Job spake and said, let the
day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was
said, there is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness. Let
not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon
it. Let darkness and the shadows
of death stain it. Let a cloud dwell upon it. Let
the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, Let darkness
seize upon it. Let it not be joined into the
days of the year. Let it not come into the number
of months. Lo, let that night be solidary. Let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it that curse
the day, who are ready to rise up their morning. Let the stars
of the twilight thereof be dark, let it look for light, but have
none, neither let it see the dawning of the day, because it
shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from my
eyes. Let's pray. Lord, we love you.
And we thank you for our time together tonight, our prayers
that you would open our hearts and our minds, make us receptive
to your word, allow the Holy Spirit to have power and freedom
to move in our lives and our hearts, give us wisdom beyond
ourselves, help us to grow in grace and knowledge and truth.
As we take time to study here for a little bit this evening,
might it spark more study in our lives that we might draw
closer to you. We love you and we thank you
for your goodness. We ask these things in your name,
amen. So Job's come to a point of great
despair, okay? We say that Job cursed the day. It wasn't like he began using
foul language. He was just looking at the day
that he was born saying, man, the despair of where I am in
life makes me wish I'd never been born. And he goes through
this discourse here in the first 10 verses talking about how that
he wishes he hadn't have been born. It just seemed like there
was great difficulty all around him. And I would hate to ask
for a show of hands of people that are sitting here that might
have felt the same way at some point in your life. I know there
was a time in my life, a couple of different times, that I faced
despair and depression and just felt like, what's the use? You
know, as we read through the Bible, we find that Job wasn't
the only one, right? Elijah sat there, and he had
been up to the mount, he had fought the Baal and Jezebel and
all those, and then we find him sitting under a tree, sucking
his thumb, wishing that he had never been born, you know, that
it was just such great tragedy and despair that was placed upon
him. And so we have to realize that in the midst of despair,
that we can draw close to the Lord and gain our help from him. And so the first thing we see
in Job's despair, chapter three, is I wish I'd never been born.
He kind of curses the day that he was born, wishing that it
could be blotted off the calendar, wishing that no one would ever
mention it again. Then he goes on in verses 11
through 19, and the wish is that I wish I'd been stillborn. Where
Job, the next best thing to never being born, would have been dying
at birth. He laments that his mother let
him live. Boy, I'm telling you, the guy
really has to be depressed to be at that point in life, doesn't
he? I mean, you talk about low, he has to be low. And then we
come to letter C, and it is, why is life given to those in
despair? Verses 20 through 26. Job wonders
why life is given to the miserable. He has no peace or rest, only
trouble. Says, look, I have no peace here. I have no happiness. I'm in this
time of despair. I've lost all my wealth. I've
lost my children, my family. Here I am at a point that now
my own body is suffering through these horrible boils, and I sat
here in this great anguish, and I just wish I'd never been born. Never been born. And so we find
one of his three friends, Elpas, His denunciations, chapter four
and chapter five, Elphaz is basically saying, you need to practice
what you preach. Job's encountered the weak in
the past, and Elphaz rebukes him for not heeding his own advice
now. He's encouraging, look, you need
to take your own advice. When things were good, you need
to apply those things to your life now. And then the second
thing we see is that he says, does the innocent person perish? At verse number seven of chapter
four, he says, remember, I pray thee, whoever perished being
innocent, or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I've seen, they
that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same." You know, you're
like, man, what kind of a friend are you? You're here accusing
me of having done wrong before the Lord. You're accusing me
of being full of sin and unrighteousness, and yet we know that Job was
a good, righteous man, right? And we want to kind of mark this
down and kind of think about this, that sometimes when trials
come into our life, It's just stuff that's happening to us.
It's not because we're at odds with God, but it may appear to
those around us like we are at odds with God. Don't lose your
faith because of what others wanna say to you while you're
in that time of difficulty. We need to learn to draw close
to God. He is our strength. He is our bulwark, right? I love
that word, bulwark. I like to work that into a sermon
wherever you can. He's our bulwark. He is our fighter. He defends us. And as long as
we know that I'm right before God and I'm living my life to
bring righteousness to him and hard times come, I'm not gonna
walk away from the one who loves me and cares for me and watches
for me. Elpaz goes on, he says, by the blast of God they perish,
and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. The roaring
of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth
of the young lions are broken. The old lion perisheth for lack
of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad."
You know, I'm like, hey, El Paz, I really think you need to lighten
up a little bit here. I think you really need to consider the
whole picture. I think you need to consider
that maybe Job is a righteous man, and maybe just because he
is not Finding God's blessing at this point in his life doesn't
mean that he's become unrighteous, that he's walked away from God,
that he's allowed sin into his life. He has stayed close to
God. Don't come in here bringing shame
upon him. And really, it's bringing shame
upon God. It's like accusatory. God, here's
a man that's walked away from you, and you're bringing all
this judgment upon him. God, why aren't you bringing
more? Why don't you just totally consume him? But Job stays, stays
true. Elipaz helps him to see that
this isn't something I've done. I have remained righteous. I
have sought to walk with God. It came in a night vision, the
third thing. It came in a night vision, 12 through 17. Elipaz
claims to have received his knowledge from a spirit in the middle of
the night. I usually say that's bad pizza
talking. Seeing a spirit in the middle
of the night really doesn't line up with the Bible unless it has
to do with witches and the witch of Endor and those kind of things.
The Holy Spirit may speak to you at night, but I don't think
he's a spirit that appears in the middle of the night. Anyhow,
our fourth point is that he's alive in the morning, dead by
evening. Elipaz claims that humans cannot
be trusted and that they are frail and die in ignorance. Well,
there's no doubt, there's a lot of people that are gonna die
in ignorance. And they're gonna die in ignorance
because they refuse to accept the truth that Jesus saves. I
mean, it's gonna happen, right? We're gonna witness the people
our whole life, or their whole life, and they're gonna come
to a point, they never accept Jesus Christ as their Savior,
they're gonna die, and when they stand before God, they'll have
no excuse. They'll say, well, I was ignorant,
I didn't know. But God's gonna say, wait a minute,
did you not see the stars in heaven? Did you not notice the
sun? Did you not notice the beauty that I placed around you? And
oh, by the way, I sent that guy around to talk to you about the
Lord, to give you tracts, to share with you the good news
of Jesus Christ. I had signs when you were watching
your sporting events saying John 3, 16. I had people witness to
you and sing good godly Christmas carols at Christmas time. And
so no one's going to stand there innocently before God and say,
I never knew about you. Because truth is, the Bible talks
about that his handiwork show forth the glories of God. The
godless are born to grief. Chapter 5, 1 through 7. And again,
Job said to be suffering from his sin. He says, call now, verse
number one of chapter five, call now if there be any that will
answer thee, and to which of the saints wilt thou turn? For
wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.
I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his
habitation. His children are far from safety,
and they are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver
them. Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even
out of the thorns, and the robbers swalloweth up their substance.
Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth
trouble spring up out of the ground, yet man is born unto
trouble as the sparks fly upward. Boy, isn't that the truth? We're
born to trouble. I mean, just, it happens. Life
happens. Has anyone had a perfect life?
Anyone here never had any trouble? And I'm telling you, we had our house robbed one time,
and then I had my motel room robbed one time. I've had my
car broken into and robbed. It's just life. What happens,
it's kind of the odds are stacked against us. We've had health
issues. I'm sure you've had health issues.
We've had flu, we've had sick kids, we've had sick kids that
stayed up and prayed over all night long, praying that they
would get better. We share those things, right? Why does that happen? Because
that's what life is. But isn't it good to know as
a child of God that we can turn to him in the midst of our need?
And then man will fail us, and the depravity of man is all about
us and wants to pull us down, and yet God is good. We're born
to trouble. Trouble's gonna come our way.
Hard times are gonna come our way. Hey, if they haven't come
yet, they will come. And that's why you're staying
here tonight, to just be reminded, be a Job. Don't turn and walk
away from God just because difficulty comes. Draw closer to him. Draw closer to him. I was reading
a book just this last week and it was talking about the need
for adversity in our life and it ever surrounds us and we need
adversity because it's through adversity that we grow. If the Christian never has adversity,
he never grows in faith. But when we have needs and when
we have issues that come into our life, our faith is stretched
and we develop more faith and more faith and more faith. And
we look back one day and we go, man, how did I get all the way
from there to here? And you begin to look back over
and you say, oh, there was that trying time there and it took
faith and there was that trying time there and it took faith
and there was that trying time there and it took faith and it
took faith and it took faith. And as long as we continue to
exercise, draw closer to God, and we continue to exercise that
faith, then when hard times come, if anything, we look back and
go, God was there when this happened, and so I'm just gonna keep trusting
Him. I'm not gonna turn away from Him. I'm not gonna quit
walking with Him. I'm gonna trust God. He's developing
my faith. Present your case to God. Chapter
five and verses eight through 17, Elpaz urges Job to bring
his case before God, who is able to do anything. And aren't you
thankful that God is able to do anything? And he's telling
him, look, you need to bring your case before God. And I'd
say, El Paz, you're right on, man. We do need to bring our
hurts before God. He's the only one who can help
us. Don't despise God's discipline, 517 through 27. And if we are in need of discipline
and God is indeed disciplining us, then it needs to drive us
not away from God, but to turn back to God, confess our sins,
falling before Him, and seeking to right that wronged relationship. But just because hard times come,
doesn't mean that someone's done something wrong. Hard times come
because that's life. The third thing we find is Job's
defense. So Elpaz has had his chance in
chapters four and five to present his wisdom, and now Job in his
defense speaks chapter six and chapter seven, and Job responds
to Elpaz's ill-informed rebuke. And he says, don't I have a right
to complain? Job argues that the greatness
of his sorrow gives him a right to complain. Some people will
say this. Some people will say, don't ever
question God. Why not? Why not? There's been times I've
questioned God. Sometimes you get so low that
why not say, God, I don't understand this. And God, I'll probably
never understand that this side of glory If you can give me some
insight, I'd like to have it. I don't understand it, but I'm
gonna trust you in it, right? There's nothing wrong with asking
God. Why? Why is this happening? I think
it is good for us to search ourselves in the midst of trial and testing.
And we ought to look back. Is everything really right between
me and God? Am I failing in my Bible reading
or my praying or my faith? Have I become lax in those things?
Have I become accustomed to the world, and I love and embrace
the world more than I love and embrace my Savior? It never hurts
to ask those questions. God, would you help me to see
if this is an issue between you and me? I want to make it right.
If not, God, I need your strength to go ahead. I need strength
to go ahead, that I might be able to finish this course, and
that my faith might grow, that I might be more like you. The
second thing we find here is I wish that God would kill me. He makes that statement again
in chapter six, verses 18 through 13. Job takes comfort in having
never denied God's word, and he still wishes to die. He still
wishes to die. I would say this. I don't think
it's necessarily so wrong to wish that you weren't alive. The wrong begins when you think
about how you're going to end your life. I don't think God
ever planned for man to end his own life. God is the giver and
the taker of life. I truly believe that. He is the
one that sees us as we're being formed in the belly. Can you
imagine that? Before wherever that little body,
he sees the cells dividing. He already knows what you're
gonna be, a male or a female. He already knows if you're gonna
have brown eyes or green eyes or blonde hair. He already knows
all that stuff while we're being formed in the belly. And he sees
us as we grow old. And he sees us and he still loves
us and cares for us. Can I just be honest here just
a minute? There's some times that I watch
people get so old that they've forgotten who they are. I've had them forget who I was.
And I love Brother Brewer, he was like my preacher daddy and
he had gotten to the point where he forgot who I was. And I'm
like, man, all those years we traveled together and we went
to Colorado and went fishing together, and now here he is
at a point in life where he doesn't remember anymore. That doesn't
change his relationship to God. He's still safe and secure. Heaven's
his eternal home. He may just forget for a little
while. And God's always given me the grace to look at that
and go, Man, I'm sorry that's happened. I'll be honest with
you, I prayed many times, Lord, don't let that happen to me.
I told my boys, I said, you know, if I die any time past this point
in my life, just know I had a great life. But I really don't want
to live to be that burden on others. I don't want to be that
burden. But you know, I have no control
over that. It'd be wrong for me to say, well, I've determined
this is where I'm gonna end it. I was reading about Abraham today. You know, Abraham, when he first
got the promise, as God was making promises to him, he said, I'm
gonna give you the land, and I'm gonna give you a seed. And
remember, his seed's gonna be like the stars in heaven and
the sand on the sea. He's 75 years old. I'm not even close to 75 years
old, Bob. Years ago, I went to Abilene.
Have you been to Abilene? Abilene's kind of a neat place.
They've got the Eisenhower Museum. And we went into the Eisenhower
Museum, and it was Thanksgiving weekend, our whole family's together.
We went in, and I went to the movies. They had a Eisenhower. film thing there, and they talked
about Eisenhower. Do you realize that he was in
his 70s when he became president? A lot of great things happen
to older people. You know, a lot of great things,
because they've got a lot of wisdom that comes along in life.
So, you know, if I'd be like, hey, you know, my knees hurt,
and you know, I'm just kind of tired of this life, I'm just
gonna end it. You know, you might end your
life, and God might have had some great plans for you in the
next four or five years, and you cut it short. Who gives us
the authority to decide when our life's gonna end? Wouldn't
the creator God who created us, wouldn't that belong to him,
that authority, to decide when our life is gonna be over and
when our usefulness is over? I still remember my Grandma Ollie,
sweetest grandma you'd ever want. She had lived quite a life, my
Grandma Ollie, and she came to live with us the last, let's
see, she moved to Lamar. and lived in a housing area for
about three years. She lived with us probably six
or seven years, right as I was going through that 14, from 14
till I was about 20, my Grandma Ollie lived in our house. And
we took our double-wide garage and we converted it into an apartment
for Grandma Ollie. And it was so cool to go in and
visit with Grandma Ollie, because she would tell you things like
what it was like to travel in a covered wagon. She would tell you what it was
like to go to the town square for the 4th of July. Boy, they would really like this
today. They'd go to the town square,
and they would block off one horse trough so the horses wouldn't
use it that day, and they'd put a dipper on it, and that's where
everybody got a water fountain. She had cool stories, man. Talking
about a covered wagon going across someplace in the covered wagon,
and they got ready for bed that night and found out that they
had bed bugs in the little rocker thing that the baby was sleeping
in. Just all kinds of stories, and I'm just so glad that my
grandma lived and lived with us and I could hear those stories
myself and to be able to cherish them here in my life and realize,
you know, I've had it pretty easy. My life's been pretty easy
compared to my grandma Ollie's, and she lived to be mid-80s in
her life. And so if grandma can live to
be mid-80s, then I just need to suck it up and toughen up,
right? God's the giver and taker of life. And so we just need
to trust God. Job goes on, fourth thing here,
and he says, show me where I'm wrong. Chapter six in verses
22 through 24, Job challenges his critic, Eliphaz, to show
him where he's guilty. He said, did I say, bring unto
me, or give a reward for me of your substance, or deliver me
from my enemy's hand, or redeem me from the hand of the mighty?
Teach me, and I'll hold my tongue, and cause me to understand wherein
I have erred. He said, This stuff just come
upon me. I didn't do anything to deserve
this. I'm just gonna trust God. And
then he goes on, fifth thing is stop assuming my guilt. Verses 25 through 30, Job maintains
his innocence and rebukes his friend for assuming that he's
guilty. And then sixth thing is life
is long and hard. Chapter seven, one through five.
I would hope that I could come to a point where I could say,
life is long and it's hard. Otherwise, that means I'm going
to die early, right? And I'm not, well, I guess I've
kind of lived too long to die too early, right? But, you know,
it's kind of a good thing to get through life and go, you
know, life's long. And yet, isn't it amazing how
fast it is? Does anyone else look at it and go, man, tax season
is going to be here like that. I mean, I'm already digging out
tax stuff, trying to find where did all my money go, you know?
Trying to get all that lined up. And I hate to just tell you
this, it's gonna be camp time, like that. And it's gonna be
Christmas, like that. And the older I get, the faster
it goes. And it's like, can someone just stop this thing? But no,
that's the way it is. Life is long, and I look back,
and sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's been difficult,
but God's been good. Seventh thing is that life is
but a breath. Kind of amazing. Chapter seven,
verse six, my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are
spent without hope. One of the neat things we did
in the Philippines was Brother John and Miss Pam took us to
a place where they weave rugs. They got these big looms, big
old humongous looms, and they take the shuttle, which has the
yarn fastened to it, and they go just like that, and it goes
sliding down through these different loom thingies. They go sliding
down, and then they let their foot off, and a different set
come up, and they sing it back and back and forth and back and
forth. They're moving those up and down, and they're weaving. They're
weaving rugs or whatever it is at that time. And I just sat
there and watched that shuttle, and it just flew down through
there. And they grabbed it, and they flew it back and back and
forth. That thing was going. And I'm like, yeah, that's my
life right there. That's it. That's it. Going way too fast. The good
days, you want to have them slow down because they're so good.
And the bad days, you want them to just hurry up and speed up
and go on and get over with, right? Chapter seven, verse 11 through
21, Job's complaining and he says, why have you made me your
target? God complains that God has terrified him with nightmares
and has made him his target. He asked God, why should he go
to all this trouble for no apparent reason and for such an insignificant
person? Let's remember we're not insignificant
people. God's created us in his image,
and he allows things into our life to grow our faith that we
might be more like him. Let's not fail in our growth
to the Lord. Lord, we love you tonight, and
we thank you for your blessings to us. Pray to God that you would
go before us, that you would help us to think upon Job this
week, maybe to do some review ourself. through the scriptures
to think about our relationship with you. Might we draw strength
and comfort for the days and the weeks ahead that we might
remain faithful to you. We love you and we ask these
things in your name. Amen.
Job's Despair
Series Job
| Sermon ID | 292315758226 |
| Duration | 48:18 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Language | English |
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