“My Redeemer Lives!” – Job 19:23-27

Somebody tell me what you are looking forward to. Are you going on vacation? Getting a raise? Your kids are moving out? Tell me something that excites you to think about. I look forward to the holidays and spending time eating and fellowshipping with my church family and my Blair family. Only eight more weeks until I get to eat my Mama’s homemade oatmeal bread! That’s something to look forward to.

Everybody needs something to look forward to. The problem with the holidays, and so many other things that we look forward to, is that they come and then they are gone and afterward there is a let-down because it’s over and rarely does the reality of it match the hype we have in our minds and so we now have to come up with something else to look forward to.

In fact, how many of you have ever taken that dream vacation you wanted and did everything you wanted to do and saw everything you wanted to see and had a great time and then came home and went to work the next day and as you sat at your office desk, what did you do? You planned your next vacation, didn’t you? Why? Because, while there is fulfillment in work and there is happiness with family and relaxation with friends, God has placed inside of us a yearning for something more and something different.

Do you ever feel like you just don’t really belong where you are? Do you feel out of place; like something is just not quite right? Even during a wonderful vacation or time spent with family and friends, you feel like there has to be more to it than this, right? That’s okay, because you should feel like that because there is something better and that is what we should really be looking forward to.

As followers of Jesus, we are just passing through this world; a very temporary stop for us but also a test; a temporary test for how we will live eternally. And as visitors to this world, we should yearn for something more, something better. In Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter, Abraham is mentioned as looking forward to something. Now, Abraham was loaded. He had everything a man could want, at least in Old Testament Middle East times.

It says in Hebrews 11:9-10, “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

My dear family, make no mistake. Satan has attacked us as a church and has attacked you individually and he will continue to attack until we are all dead. That’s his job. That’s what he is supposed to do. Just expect it. And we may never understand why God allows him to torment us but we don’t have to understand why. God has told us that His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9) and it is not our job to try to figure out why things happen to us. It is just our job to try to know Him better through scripture and prayer and the Holy Spirit living in us.

But we do have something better to look forward to just like Job did when he was attacked. We are continuing our look at the life of Job and how he responded to satanic attack. We have seen that he did some things right and he did some things wrong but in chapter 19, we see what should be some encouragement to us just like it encouraged Job.

Let’s look at Job 19:23-27. This has been much more fun to study than some other parts of Job where Job talks about wishing he was dead and wishing his buddies would just be quiet and leave him alone. Here he takes just a quick break from that to affirm the one thing he has to look forward to. Job is stricken with horrible sores from his head to his toes. He has lost everything he owns, including his ten children. He is sitting on a garbage dump listening to three arrogant and misguided friends tell him how bad he is and he assumes he is about to die and that much is fine with him.

Listen to what Job may be thinking could be his last words in Job 19:23-27.

"Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, 24that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! 25I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. 26And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

What an amazing passage! It is amazing for a couple of reasons. First, it’s amazing that Job knows this. Verse 25 says, “I know…” This is a definite, experiential knowledge. Well, how did he know because there was no Bible written at this time, certainly no New Testament that talks about Jesus and His coming again? That could only have been revealed to him by God with Whom Job has a relationship.

It’s also amazing because he uses the word “Redeemer.” That word is “Go-el” in the original Hebrew and it has several connotations. We know what it means to redeem a coupon at the store. We take a worthless piece of paper and trade it for something that has worth. That’s part of it but for those in Job’s day, there was more to it.

The best illustration of a redeemer is found in the little book of Ruth. All you ladies know that book, right? “It’s so romantic! That big hunk, Boaz, comes and redeems the widow Ruth and they live happily ever after.” Right? But in that example of a redeemer, we see a great picture of grace and mercy and generosity because Boaz didn’t have to redeem Ruth.  Ruth made out way better than Boaz in that deal. If you have never read that story, you should. You will really like it, especially if you are a woman because, if it were a movie, it would definitely be a chick flick.

But everybody can appreciate the fact that we, like Ruth and like Job, have a Redeemer. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood.” What makes Jesus our Redeemer is the price He paid for us, the price of His blood, His body, His death for us. We deserve death because of our sin. He paid that price because He had no sin. That is redemption.

Tom carried his new boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string. How smoothly the boat sailed! Tom sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream.

Tom ran along the sandy shore as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went home. A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see -- sure enough -- it was his! Tom hurried to the store manager: "Sir, that's my boat in your window! I made it!" "Sorry, son, but someone else brought it in this morning. If you want it, you'll have to buy it for one dollar."

Tom ran home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. "Here's the money for my boat." As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, "Now you're twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you."  Good News Publishers, Westchester, IL.

That’s a great picture of redemption. God created us and through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, He bought us out of slavery to sin. Now, that’s great news, isn’t it? The problem that a lot of people have, though, is that they think that God bought us through Jesus just to let us go free to live however we want and because we walked the aisle and prayed a prayer that God is now our genie in a bottle that will protect us from anything bad that happens. That’s wrong on several levels.

Yes, we sing all the time about how God has set us free and we quote the scripture that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17), and we should because that is true but don’t misunderstand that. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians 4. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. We are redeemed by Jesus when we accept Him to be our Lord, our Master, our King.

We are no longer under the Old Testament Law that says we have to make sacrifices of animals for our sins. That sacrifice was made by Jesus. But now we are slaves, servants of God redeemed; bought with a price, to do what God wants done in our lives as revealed through scripture and prayer. And if that is not how you see yourself then I am concerned about your salvation. I’ll just be honest.

Romans 6:18 says, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” This is how it is. You are going to be a slave to sin and the Law or you are going to be a slave to God. Take your pick. One or the other. All through scripture, the men and women of God are referred to as servants of God. Moses and Abraham were called God’s servants. Paul, Peter, James Jude and even Job whom we are studying were all called God’s servants.

If you are redeemed, it means you have been created by God and now He owns you, just like the little boy with his boat. So, when God says to not take His name in vain (Ex. 20) or to not be drunk with wine (Eph. 5), we obey. When He says to put away anger and filthy talk (Col. 3), obey your parents (Eph. 6), or even (gasp!) to do all things without complaining as it says in Philippians 2:14, when God says it we know it is a command from our Creator and Redeemer and we just do it even when it is difficult because there is no greater title in all creation than “Servant of God.”

Now…just like on the infomercials, “But wait! There’s more!” There is more to being redeemed and being set free from sin. There is more to being the servant of God because you can’t be a servant of God unless – well, let me put it like Galatians 5:13 puts it. “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Serve one another!

And that’s not just Paul’s idea. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Giving His life as a ransom is what it means to redeem and since we have been redeemed by Jesus, we are now followers of Jesus and servants of God and all of that adds up to being servants of other people as well.

In Mark 9:35 Jesus said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And about now some of you are thinking, “Wow, this is not what I signed up for. I thought being a Christian meant I would go to church every now and then and I would pray when I needed something and God would be my little lucky rabbit’s foot that would make good things happen to me as I lived my own life.”

Well, I am sorry if that’s what you were led to believe but that is not the Gospel and that is not what it means to be a Christian and is not how a true believer acts because “giving your life to Jesus” means you also give your life to all of the rest of us as well. That is not my idea. That’s not even Paul’s idea. In fact, he told the church at Corinth, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.” (2 Cor. 4:5)

Paul knew what it meant to be redeemed. It’s a wonderful thing! What a privilege! What grace has been shown to us by God! We don’t have to be slaves to sin anymore. That’s not what we do. We don’t have to be under the Law any more. Now we are just under grace. But there is also responsibility that goes with that privilege, like any privilege. We are servants of God and servants of each other.

If you were here last Sunday, you know we had a great service. We did things a little different, even for us and I just saw so many people wanting to help the others in their church family with scripture and advice and so much prayer and it was just a great time of people serving people, just like we are called to do.

Now, I know nobody can make it to church every Sunday. Sometimes emergencies come up or you’re on vacation and go to another church or you are sick or whatever. But if going to church and being with your church family is an option like anything else there is to do on Sundays, then something is desperately wrong with your relationship with the Lord. How can you be a servant of God or a servant to others if you are on the couch or on the lake or golf course? You can’t and you are being disobedient.

Now, I have to tell you something. I was working on this part of the message last week upstairs and Cody walked by and looked in and said, “What’s wrong?” I said, “I’m getting preachy and I don’t like it.” I don’t want to sound that way but I have to tell you the truth and I have said before that I believe this is the area that is this church’s biggest problem.

Satan has attacked us as a church and as individuals and I have seen so many times people get attacked and they just give up and roll over into the fetal position and cry about their problems there at the house because they don’t feel like going to church. Well, I bet if you broke your leg, you wouldn’t really feel like going to the hospital, but you would because that is where you get medical help.

Satan attacks us physically and mentally and relationally and every other way and when he does, this is the place you get help. We proved that last week. And as redeemed servants of God and servants of each other, this should be a priority. I understand this church is not for everybody. I know some people are morons and can’t understand how wonderful this church is and if they can’t then they should go somewhere else. Find another Bible-believing, God-fearing, Jesus-loving body of believers to be a part of. It’s part of how you survive satanic attacks.

Can you imagine what Job was going through? He lost everything except for three or four people in his life that only gave bad advice. They actually made him feel worse than he already did. He needed a church family to fall back on, didn’t he? He needed a Christ Fellowship to gather around him and comfort him with scripture and prayer and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom.

How about you today? Maybe that’s what you need. Grab somebody by the arm and come down front and pray or pray with them right where you are. Maybe God is showing you somebody that needs you to go to them. Let’s spend some time right now just praying with each other.