“Praise Songs” – Psalm 95

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  How many of you have nothing for which to be thankful?  How many of you have lots of things for which to be thankful?  How many of you just wish Thanksgiving was over and done so we could get on with Christmas because you need some more stuff?  I don’t know about you but I don’t need any more stuff and I love the Thanksgiving holiday.  And if you can’t think of anything for which to be thankful, you and I seriously need to talk! I’m thankful for this time and this place.  I’m thankful for this group of people who consistently prove themselves to be loving and generous even to people who are not members here or to people who can’t repay you.  I’m thankful for the freedom we have to meet and the health we all have that allows us to be here.  I’m thankful for my family.  I watched a Billy Graham special on TV the other night and afterward heard several people talk about his integrity and how he never had any kind of sexual or financial scandal and I was reminded of my dad.

Pop rarely had stadiums full of people to preach to but he was always faithful to do and say what God wanted him to do and say and never a hint of anything inappropriate.  And he did that for something like 50 years!  That’s pretty incredible to me.  And I say all that just to say how thankful I am for him and my family for modeling how a Christian is supposed to act.  And while very few of them are perfect, I am very thankful for them.  😊 I’m thankful for my dogs. I’m thankful for my house and a reliable car; for my health, for friends, for history, for all kinds of blessings that God has given me.  And did you catch that last one?  Did you hear me say I was thankful for history?  Is anybody else here thankful for history?  Do we have any history teachers here today?  I figure they are pretty thankful for history but maybe for reasons that differ from mine.

I haven’t always been thankful for history.  I remember history class in school, trying to memorize all those dates and places and wars and generals.  I understand that those who don't study the past will repeat its errors.  But I’m pretty sure that those who do study it will find other ways to mess up.  But today I’m thankful for history because it proves God’s goodness, His mercy, His forgiveness, love, generosity and power.  That’s why we have this little jar of pebbles up here.  This is a reminder of our history that shows God’s provision and protection over this church when we are obedient.  If you don’t know what it is, I would love to tell you about it later. And while there are blessings for obedience, history also reminds us of what happens when we rebel against all-powerful God.  It is quite the motivation for us to stay true to what He wants us to do when we remember the consequences of disobedience.  We don’t want to dwell on the past and be drawn into joy-sucking guilt that comes from remembering all the bad things we might have done.  But a healthy remembrance of the consequences will certainly keep us from repeating them.

And that is exactly what our psalm is all about this morning.  We can be thankful for history because it reminds us of the good things God has done and it helps us stay obedient as well.  Let’s look at Psalm 95.  There are only 11 verses but they are packed full of good, rich, life-giving words for us to live by.  And it is believed to have been written by my favorite psalmist, David.  So that’s good too.  And we know that David was the author, not because it says so in the psalm but because the Holy Spirit revealed it to the author of Hebrews who quotes it in Hebrews 4:7 and gives the credit to David. So, let’s read Psalm 95.  You should have a Bible there in front of you if you didn’t bring one.  I believe it to be very important that you see what God’s Word says and not to just hear it read.  Psalm 95 says:

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;     let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving  and extol him with music and song. ³ For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods. ⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him. ⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land. ⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God     and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,
⁸ “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
    as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

I only have two real points today.  I want us to look at praising God and how and why we are to do that.  And I want us to look at provoking God and how and why we should not do that.  Everybody likes to be praised.  Everybody needs to be praised.  You can tell people that didn’t grow up with nurturing parents because they are the ones who praise themselves and then hope that you will join in.  I heard the story about the little boy that said, “Daddy, let’s play darts.  I’ll throw and you say, Wonderful!” But we don’t praise God because He is a needy youngster.  We praise God because, according to the psalmist, we have joy!  That’s what he says in verse 1 and for some of you that may be quite the assumption.  I stand up here and watch how you sing and some of you look like, instead of singing, “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”, you ought to be singing, “Just A Little Closer To Getting Out Of Here”.  It ought not to be that way.  We ought to have joy in our lives if anybody does and it ought to show in our worship.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. His mind, wit and work earned him the unofficial title of "the greatest justice since John Marshall." At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career by saying: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." (http://www.sermonillustrations.com/)

Ouch!  That stings.  That’s awful.  But it makes me wonder how many people visit a church and never go back because of the attitudes and actions (or lack of) of the people in the church.  We learned a while back that part of the fruit of the Spirit is joy.  And you get that joy, not by trying to get joy, but by focusing on being closer to and more like Jesus.  Do you know that Jesus wants you to have joy?  John 16:24 says, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”  He wants you to be full of joy and we should.  James 1 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” because in the end you will not lack anything.

And do you know what people who don’t lack anything do?  They shout!  David says to shout out loud to the Rock of our salvation!  Let me tell you something.  I went to a football game the other day.  I don’t even like football but I went because I like the people I see there.  I’m a social footballer.  But do you know what I did there?  Some guy was running somewhere and he did it pretty well, I thought, and so I shouted. I shouted because some kid I didn’t know outran some other kids I don’t know in a game that I don’t remember who won and matters very little in the scheme of things.  How much more should I get excited and shout when I think about the Rock of my salvation.  When I think of God’s unfailing strength as a fortress and refuge for me, I get excited.  Who do I call when I need help?  I call on God and He answers me and he protects me and He provides for me.  He is my deliverer from Hell and from guilt and shame.  

David knew this as well as anybody since he literally had to hide in caves and buildings to keep Saul from killing him.  And David would cry out to God and God answered him and protected and provided for him.  So, David says to shout.  Get excited.  Now, I know, I understand that not everybody is vocal in their worship.  I’m not saying you should fake it or be dramatic about it.  I won’t judge you in your worship.  In fact, I’ll make a deal with you.  If you want to worship with your hands up and jumping up and down or crying and laughing, that’s just fine.  I won’t pay much attention to you because your worship is not about me.  And if you want to worship quietly, that’s fine too because your worship is not about me.

But let me tell you about the average unbeliever (and probably too many believers).  Their life pretty much consists of going to work, taking the kids to soccer practice and watching TV where they can vicariously have some excitement through a movie star.  And they save up all year so they can take a vacation to go have some excitement somewhere so they don’t go crazy the other 51 weeks of the year. And if they come to church and see us looking and acting like undertakers, as Justice Holmes said, then what’s the attraction?  There is a good movie on.  I might as well go play some golf.  At least there is some excitement to it.  Folks, we have been bought with a price and redeemed from Hell and to Heaven!  That’s kind of a big deal.  We have a Rock of salvation that we can count on today and every day.

Come before Him with thanksgiving and with music and song.  That’s how we are to praise God.  Now let’s look at why we are to praise God.  The reason is not just because He is our Rock.  In fact, our worship of God is not all about any of us.  It’s about Who He is and what He has done, not just in our lives but in all of creation.  The fact that we are to approach Him with joy does not mean that we are to be flippant or irreverent.  We should always remember His majesty as is described in verses 3-5.  The ancient pagan world had different gods for every aspect of life and for every corner of the world but the psalmist describes everything as fitting in God’s hands.  The One Who created all things holds all things and controls all things.  That is the definition of majesty.

A couple of months ago, I traveled up through new Mexico and Colorado through the most beautiful country I have ever seen.  The mountains were majestic.  The rivers were majestic.  The valleys covered in flowers and wildlife…were majestic.  And I use that word “majestic” today because that was the word that kept coming to me as I went along.  And it’s surprising because until then I don’t think I had ever actually used the word before.  “Majestic” just didn’t fit into my vocabulary.

But it is the perfect word to use to describe the creation of the King.  It is appropriate to use that word when it is the King that created, sustains and controls all of that.  Now I want you to look at verses 6 and 7 again.  It says to “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; ⁷ for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”  

Do you notice what it doesn’t say to do?  It says nothing about speaking.  The psalmist says we are to come, bow down and kneel.  There is a time for coming with loud shouts and singing for joy and there is a time to just be still and know that He is God, submitting yourself to Him and His Kingdom knowing that we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.  How do we praise Him?  With loud shouts and with silent submission.  Why do we praise Him?  Because He tells us to and because he is worthy and because we have joy in that knowledge.

The end of verse 7 starts a transition from encouraging us to praise to discouraging us from provoking.  I’m quite sure that nobody here this morning would say they have ever tried to provoke God.  We would never do that.  We know better, right?  So, we can just skip over this part since it surely doesn’t apply to us at Christ Fellowship. The nation of Israel was God’s chosen people.  It still is.  They are special to him and only He knows why He chose them but He did.  And they knew it.  He told them over and over from Genesis and Exodus on.  And so surely because they were special He would overlook a small amount of provoking.  It wasn’t really a big deal.  When the psalmist mentions Meribah and Massah he is reminding them of the time in the desert when they didn’t know where they were going to get water and they were ready to stone Moses.

It was just a short lapse of faith.  They weren’t trying to provoke God.  They were just starting to get thirsty and uncomfortable and things looked bad so they complained a little bit.  That’s all.  How did they provoke God?  It says they hardened their hearts.  They forgot Him.  They shut Him out of their situation and relied on their own knowledge and ability.

God’s special people temporarily hardened their hearts in forgetfulness and look what God said in verses 9 and 10. “…though they had seen what I did.  ¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation.”  By just being forgetful of God, they suffered His wrath for 40 years.  If God’s chosen, special people can suffer for that, who are we to think that the United States should be any different?  Who are we to think that we as individuals or even as a church will not suffer God’s wrath if we harden our hearts in forgetfulness.

But do you know what the worst of it is?  You know how we provoke God; by forgetting Him and not acknowledging Him but the reason why we should not provoke God comes in the very last verse.  “They shall never enter my rest.”  Can you imagine God’s special people wandering around in circles out in the desert just waiting to die?  Can you imagine the futility of life?  How difficult it must have been to struggle through life day in and day out only so at the end you can die?

But that is the price we pay even today when we disobey.  When we harden our hearts in forgetfulness of all that God has done or we lack the faith He requires of us, do you know what happens?  We miss out on His rest.  We miss out on His peace and joy and the ability to just let our hands hang down and know that He is God and that he is in control and that he loves us.

How much is that worth?  How much would you pay to have that kind of peace?  If you knew that in the end everything was going to be ok; that everything was going to work out for your good and the good of God’s Kingdom, would you pay $1000?  A million?  Everything you have?

Let me tell you a secret.  That’s what God wants.  He wants all that you have.  He wants your effort, yes.  And, yes, I’ll even tell you He wants your money.  But He also wants your sin.  He wants your guilt.  He wants your pain and your fear and your doubts and your regrets and He will trade you all of that for all that He has.

He says, give me your worries and I will give you rest.  Give me your regrets and I will give you joy.  Give me your life and I will give you the life of my Son Jesus.  I will give you a full life here on earth plus all the riches and glory of Heaven when you die; co-heirs with Jesus to everything that the Creator, Sustainer and Controller can give. That’s what happens when you trust Jesus to be your Sacrifice and your Savior.

“Ask Job Why God Allows Suffering” – Job 42

I’ve told you before that one of these days I was going to tell you a story where I’m the hero; where I do something great and wonderful and we’ll all laugh and rejoice and that will be a good day.  But that’s not today.  Years ago, I was asked to teach an adult Sunday School class for the first time at another church I was going to.  So, I started doing it and I rocked along for a few months, I guess, and people seemed to really enjoy it and were inviting others and I got some compliments along the way.  Do you know what happened?

I started believing it.  I started thinking, “Hey, I’m pretty good at this.  I gotta admit I’m really bringing it.”  Well, you can probably guess the moral of this story but let me give you a few gory details.  I got up one Sunday morning just raring to go, teaching on the passage in Acts 27 where Paul was shipwrecked.  I was prepared and ready to bless this little group with my knowledge and grasp of difficult spiritual truths.

I remember standing up behind this little podium and I got all my notes out and I was just as confident as I could be, knowing that God was really using me.  But for some reason I had a hard time getting the words out.  I managed to say something about where the passage was and that Paul got shipwrecked but that was about as deep as it got.  I stuttered and stammered like I was using the dictionary for text.  The dictionary would have been more beneficial though.

I had notes but they didn’t make sense and I got lost and pretty soon it wasn’t just Paul that had a shipwreck.  I’m looking around for somebody to throw me a life jacket.  Finally somebody did.  Somebody stood up and just said what that passage meant to them.  Then somebody else stood up and did the same and somebody looked up some words and somebody else testified about it and I remember literally just sitting down behind that podium and trying to hide until I could finally call on somebody to dismiss us.

I was humiliated.  I left the room and went and found a quiet place and just bowed my head and let God talk.  What could I say?  “Why God?”  I knew why immediately.  The only thing to say was, “I’m sorry” and “Thank you for showing me.”  There are not many weeks that go by that I don’t remember that situation and I never want to be there again although it still happens sometimes and I’m sure I need it even today.

So, I’m preaching today to all of us about how to really know God and how to hear from Him and how to ask Him the deep questions of life like why God allows suffering.  Job found out and the situation God put him in makes mine not worth repeating.  I want to ask you to turn to the end of the book of Job; to chapter 42.  Job is in between the books of Esther and Psalms in the Old Testament.  It’s on page ??? in most of the Bibles in the pews.

We read before about how even God considered Job to be the most righteous and upright man on the planet and yet God used Satan to take everything away from Job, including his family, his health and all his possessions.  Now what you miss by only reading the first and last chapters is the introduction of Job’s three friends who wax poetically for chapter after chapter about how Job has obviously sinned and just needs to repent of that sin and then God would bless him again.

Then over and over, Job answers them by swearing his innocence, as, in fact, he was innocent.  But Job’s three friends just insist on giving him bad advice.  Do you have any friends like that?  They mean well but they are just totally wrong.  Another friend comes in at one point and basically says, “Y’all listen to me.  I have perfect knowledge.” (Chapter 36) His advice is even worse.  Do you have any friends like that?  If not, then your friends probably do.  😊

Now, listen to how Job answers his buddies when they again make the assumption that he is being punished for his sins.  In chapter 29, he answers them by saying that not only was he not guilty but, “When I went to the gate of the city
    and took my seat in the public square,
⁸ the young men saw me and stepped aside
    and the old men rose to their feet;
⁹ the chief men refrained from speaking
    and covered their mouths with their hands;
¹⁰ the voices of the nobles were hushed,
    and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
¹¹ Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
    and those who saw me commended me,
¹² because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
    and the fatherless who had none to assist them.
¹³ The one who was dying blessed me;
    I made the widow’s heart sing.
¹⁴ I put on righteousness as my clothing;
    justice was my robe and my turban.
¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind
    and feet to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the needy;
    I took up the case of the stranger.
¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the wicked
    and snatched the victims from their teeth.

I hope you can get the whole picture here and see what is really going on.  Job, as he is saying this, is sitting in dust and ashes, wearing torn robes with a shameful lack of hair on his head and face for the time, owning nothing and covered head to toe with sores and boils…and he is proud.  Do you see it?  I, I, I…me, me, me…look at who I am and what I have done…as I sit here king of the dung heap.

It would be laughable if we were all not just like him.  The problem of the sin of pride is that it is so easy to be proud…even of your humility.  In “The Screwtape Letters”, C.S. Lewis wrote about a senior demon instructing a lesser demon who was having a hard time getting his assigned human to sin.  The older demon advised the younger that if he couldn’t convince the man to sin then just let the man be proud of that fact.  Either way, Satan wins when we give in to the sin of pride.

God says in Proverbs that pride goes before destruction.  He says in Psalms that men are so consumed with themselves that their thoughts are far from God.  This is proved in the book of Job in that even while Job was so afflicted, he was still proud and from chapter 2 all the way to chapter 38 Job and his buddies talk about the situation and what they wished would happen and Job actually says to God at one point in chapter 13, “Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply to me.”  (Verse 22) 

Now, I am a big proponent of learning scripture and then praying back to God what He has written in His Word but I do not recommend ever saying this to God.  Don’t even memorize it.  I say that because in chapter 38 Job gets this wish.  I know I told you to find chapter 42 and I will get there in just a minute but you need to see what God says to Job in chapter 38.  He starts out with the question, “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?”  Then He says, “³ Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”

Then for the next couple of chapters Job goes three rounds with the Creator of the universe…and it’s not pretty.  God asks him something like 150 different questions that are completely unanswerable.  Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?  Have you seen the gates of death?  Where is the rain stored?  Have you seen the storehouses of snow?  Do the lightning bolts take orders from you?  Did you give the horse its strength?  On and on and on He goes humiliating Job with question after question.

He ends by talking about how small and powerless man is compared even to some of the animals God has created.  He says at the end for Job to consider the alligator (or Leviathan). “He looks down on all that are haughty.  It is king over all that are proud.” (Verse 34) God verbally pokes Job in the chest with His mighty right hand.

Do you remember that iconic picture of Mohammed Ali standing over Sonny Liston who is on his back in the middle of the ring?  I have a picture in my mind of God standing over Job something like that.  Job is done.  Stick a fork in him.  It’s over for him. He finally gets to the point where he can say to God – and here is where we pick up in chapter 42

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.  ⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

W.A. Criswell said, “Before God can remake us, He must unmake us.  And before God can bring us to life, we must die.”  He’s not talking about physical death.  He’s talking about dying to one’s self; dying to one’s own will, plans, dreams and hopes and honestly saying to God, “I see Who You are and I see who I am and I despise myself in comparison.”

My friend Scott Parrish always says that Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good.  He came to make dead people alive.  But we are only really alive spiritually when we die to ourselves by allowing God to have control over our lives.  It’s not optional to be a disciple of Jesus and it is exactly what God was teaching Job.  We talked a few weeks ago about how God is the source of all things and I believe that is important to learn but I also believe that having the knowledge about the proper term for what God does – does he allow it or cause it – is not the whole lesson God wants us to learn.

The lesson He really wants us to learn is that no matter what He does – cause or allow, good or bad, bless or curse – our job is just to trust Him; to trust His character that is love and His judgment that is true - and to make Him look good in it.  This life isn’t about us!  Quit trying to be comfortable in this wisp of smoke that is this life and seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.

You have heard it said that it’s not about thinking less of yourself.  It’s about thinking of yourself less.  Abraham – the great Abraham, father of Israel – said in Genesis, “Behold, behold, I have taken upon me to speak to the great High God, I who am but dust and ashes” [Genesis 18:27]. 

Do you remember what the tax collector said in Luke 18?  “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  When King David came to God in Psalm 51 he said he had a broken and contrite heart.   Do you know what these people all have in common?  Do you know what David and Abraham and Job and throw in the thief on the cross and the prodigal son and Paul when he said he was spiritually crucified with Christ – do you know what all these people had in common?

They heard from God.  They knew God in a new and real way.  They were able to come before the Creator of the universe, the One who keeps the stars, tells the ocean where to stop and clothes Himself in glory and splendor and truly have a relationship.  They were able to talk to Him and hear from Him, receive blessings from Him and trust Him in the tragedies because they knew Him and He knew them.

Andrew Murray said, "The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised while he is forgotten because ... he has received the spirit of Jesus, who pleased not Himself, and who sought not His own honor.”

He also said this: “Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is for me to have no trouble; never to be fretted or vexed or irritated or sore or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised.”

I believe the book of Job should at least teach us two things.  It should teach us that God is sovereign and will do whatever He wants with or without our opinions on the matter and when we understand that God is love that should bring us great peace.

The other thing is that sovereign God will not put up with pride.  If you want to truly know God and fellowship with Him you better see yourself as you truly are and humble yourself or He will do it for you.  Truly knowing God is at the same time a one-time thing and a life-long process.  We have been talking about the process of humbling ourselves and coming to the realization of who we really are compared to Almighty God.

But it starts with a first step.  That first step also involves humbling ourselves but it begins with repenting of our sin and trusting Jesus as our Savior.  That is lived out in a life that is obedient to what God wants.  Just as Jesus Himself said in the garden before His death, “Not my will but yours be done, Father.”

Can you honestly say that?  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) You too can have a relationship with the Father of all creation through His Son Jesus Christ.  There is no other way.  Today is the day of salvation.  Do it today.

“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.

“Job’s Depression” – Job 3

Just this week, I listened to a local pastor friend of mine describe going hiking a few years ago with some of his friends up to the top of a huge mountain. He said they got to the top but he did not describe the beautiful scenery or the fresh air or the sunlight. He said his only thought was wanting to throw himself off the cliff face so he could die.

He was a pastor. He had a wife and kids and a good church but he said there was such a darkness in his life and he didn’t know how to get out of it and he felt the only way out was suicide. He didn’t describe the darkness or any other reasons for his feeling that way…and he didn’t have to.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 300 million people worldwide have depression. One of their reports found that in many countries, people with common mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia routinely suffer gross human rights violations - including shackling, torture and imprisonment. Now, I’m no doctor but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t help. (https://www.france24.com/en/20181010-has-world-gone-mad-mental-health-disorders-rise-every-country-globally)

That same report said that cases of depression have been on the rise for years and have spiked in recent years and will cost trillions of dollars. While some of the costs will be the direct costs of healthcare and medicines or other therapies, most are indirect - in the form of loss of productivity, and spending on social welfare, education and law and order.

That’s just the financial aspect of it. What’s the cost to people’s lives and families and the cost of so many people living in that same kind of darkness my friend went through? What’s the cost to a person’s mind who lives without hope or reason for their suffering? What price does a person pay who feels like they are worthless or that nobody cares for them?

Maybe you have been there. If not, I bet you know someone who has. As we continue in our study of the profound book of Job, we see clearly that Job suffered from depression. And some may read this and think, “Well, of course he does. Who wouldn’t be depressed if they lost nearly everything they had?”

But if you excuse it in Job, then what is going to happen when tragedy hits you? And it will hit you sooner or later. Will you just excuse it in your own life as a part of the grief process and allow yourself to be pulled deeper and deeper into that darkness? Or will you use scripture, prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to lift you out of that hole that so many fall into?

Turn to Job chapter three this morning, please. We have read the first two chapters and have seen Job lose his health and his wealth. He is left with a foolish talking wife and three well-meaning but foolish talking friends and not much else. He has literally been sitting on a pile of rubbish with painful sores all over his body for a week and now we hear his first real speech and it is not pretty. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said: 3 “May the day of my birth perish,
    and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
    may God above not care about it;
    may no light shine on it.
5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
    may a cloud settle over it;
    may blackness overwhelm it.
6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;
    may it not be included among the days of the year
    nor be entered in any of the months.
7 May that night be barren;
    may no shout of joy be heard in it.

11 “Why did I not perish at birth,
    and die as I came from the womb?
12 Why were there knees to receive me
    and breasts that I might be nursed? “Why is light given to those in misery,
    and life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death that does not come,
    who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
22 who are filled with gladness
    and rejoice when they reach the grave?
23 Why is life given to a man
    whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
24 For sighing has become my daily food;
    my groans pour out like water.
25 What I feared has come upon me;
    what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I have no peace, no quietness;
    I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

One thing I have learned about depression this week as I have been studying is that reading about depression…is depressing. Everybody gets bummed out at times in their life and there are seasons of grief for anybody that lives any length of time because we are all going to lose people that we love, whether it is to death or divorce or something else. But some people struggle with depression more than others and there may never be any clear reason why that is.

The question we need to ask is how to get out of it as quickly as possible. This is not to say that we should try to hurry through the grief process when we lose a loved one. You are going to grieve, whether you want to or not. Everybody grieves differently and for different lengths of time and to different depths and none are necessarily wrong. You can put off grieving by getting busy with work or something else but at some point, you have to work through that grief. That’s just how God made us and it is ultimately good for us.

What’s bad is when we grieve to the point of such depression that we, like Job, wish we were dead. Or maybe years have gone by and the depression hasn’t gotten any better at all and it just overtakes a person and they just can’t get out of the darkness, the hopelessness or the feelings of unworthiness and so they stop trying.

Unlike Job’s friends, we need to know how to help people that we love that we see in this condition but we also need to know how to help ourselves. We have nearly all been attacked by Satan recently and we need to know the right way, the biblical way to respond to those attacks.

Let’s talk about our options. Just for instance, let’s say that God allows Satan to attack you physically. Maybe he takes away your health or your wealth in some way like he did to Job. People in the panhandle of Florida know what that looks like just this week after Hurricane Michael ripped through there. What are our options when something like that happens to us? What are some ways that we can handle that?

What did Job do? Well, the very first thing he did, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, was to fall down in true and peaceful worship as it says in chapter one verse twenty. He also tore his robe and shaved his head and went and sat on a dung heap. I guess those are some other options for us but I don’t recommend it.

Some people self-medicate with drugs or alcohol and I think we all know the consequences of doing that. Some people ignore it and just busy themselves with work like I said earlier and try not to think about it. The problem with all of those is that every time you try not to think about your issues, at some point they always come back to our minds. And isn’t that where almost all our battles are fought? In our minds?

When you are battling grief, the battlefield is in your mind. When you are trying to resist temptation, it starts in your mind. For the drug addict, the alcoholic, the murderer, the porn addict and even the one being attacked by Satan with physical issues, the battlefield is always in the mind.

In 1835 a man visited a doctor in Florence, Italy. He was filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep. He couldn't eat, and he avoided his friends. The doctor examined him and found that he was in prime physical condition. Concluding that his patient needed to have a good time, the physician told him about a circus in town and its star performer, a clown named Grimaldi. Night after night he had the people rolling in the aisles. "You must go and see him," the doctor advised. "Grimaldi is the world's funniest clown. He'll make you laugh and cure your sadness." "No," replied the despairing man, "he can't help me. You see, I am Grimaldi!" (http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/d/depression.htm)

So many times, the despair is never known by other people because those in depression have gotten used to faking it. I think of people like comedian Robin Williams who killed himself a couple of years ago. His battle wasn’t on the outside. His battle, like so many others’, was mental. The physical problems may be bad but the mind is often the worst problem we can have. So, what can we do to get out of that mental darkness?

Well, I have the answer. But if this answer was my idea, I would understand your skepticism. Who am I to address anybody else’s grief? I’m no doctor or scholar about anything, including grief, but the Apostle Paul most certainly was. The apostle Paul – “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?” (2 Cor. 11)

Yes, THAT Apostle Paul was also the same guy that said in Philippians 4, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” The question is, how did Paul do it? And this is the point in the sermon where you might expect your pastor to say, “Just accept Jesus into your life to be your Savior and all your depression will go away.” Or I might say, “Just have faith in God and all your darkness will turn to light.” Or maybe, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” Or “Cleanliness is next to godliness” or “God helps those who help themselves” or anything else that sounds good but just isn’t true. None of that is how Paul overcame depression to have peace, joy and contentment.

Paul tells us that there is work to be done and decisions to be made. Since those dark thoughts are dark places in the mind and the mind is the battlefield and all those struggles start in our thought life, Paul first tells us to take every thought captive. Write this down in the flyleaf of your Bible. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says to take every thought captive. This is not easy to do and you have to make the conscious decision to do it but, as a true believer, you can do it with the help of the Holy Spirit.

What it means to take those thoughts captive is to take a mental picture of those thoughts. In your mind, make the decision to take a snapshot of that darkness, that dread or feeling of hopelessness if you are struggling with depression. If you struggle with temptation or sin or addiction, this works just as well for that. Take a mental picture of that struggle and here is what I do: put it in a mental picture frame. That’s right. Frame it. See how pretty my mental frame is with its gilded edges and crystal glass?

Now, with that mental picture of your depression safely behind that pretty frame…throw it on the ground and smash it! Stomp on it! Smash it to pieces because if you don’t, that picture will continue to take you captive, but God gives us the power to overcome our thoughts and feelings through Jesus Christ. So, take that thought captive and destroy it. That’s step one.

But what happens if you just stop there? That thought is going to come right back, isn’t it? So, you have to replace it with something else. Paul tells us what step two is in Philippians 4:8. Write that in the flyleaf of your Bible as well.  “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.”

I know some of us have done this before but we are going to do it again. I’m passing out a copy of this verse for you to keep handy and I want you to write on it. Where it says, “whatever is true”, write something that is true. Let’s all do it right now. Somebody tell me something that is true. How about the fact that Jesus is coming back? Maybe you would rather write that Jesus loves you or you love your spouse or dogs are better than cats. Whatever you want. Write that on the piece of paper. Then go to the next one. What is something noble? Right? Pure? Etc.

Here’s why I want you to write all that on there and to keep it handy. The next time you feel yourself getting depressed or tempted to sin, you might remember to take that thought captive but when you go to replace it with a thought of something pure or lovely, it is hard to do in the heat of battle. You have to have that stuff loaded up and ready to go and easy to find or your good intentions will be beaten down by Satan’s attacks.

As it is, you may have to do this every five minutes for a while. It’s a hassle. It’s hard to do. It’s way easier to just curl up in bed and marinate in the darkness and cry out like Job did that you wish you were dead. But it’s worth the hassle and you can do it. Let me read the last part of a verse I have already read this morning. In Philippians 4, when Paul said he could be content in whatever circumstance he was in, he ended by saying what has become a favorite verse for lots of people but is sometimes taken out of context.

Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Do you believe that? Of course you do, but too many people think that goes for anything they want to do. “I can win this race through Christ who strengthens me.” “I can get this job through Christ who strengthens me.” “I can win this lottery through Christ who strengthens me.”

That is not what this is saying. When it is God’s will for you to do something, He will empower you to do it. He is not going to ask you, command you or put you in a position to do something that will be impossible if the power of Christ is giving you strength.

A few years ago, on New Year's Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was the sponsor for this float…was Exxon Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas. (sermonillustrations.com)

That’s just what it is like when a Christian, a child of the Most High King, the Creator of the universe, struggles with depression. You have the power that rose Jesus from the grave at your disposal through prayer, scripture and the Holy Spirit living inside of you and it is not God’s will that you stay depressed. But you have to make the decision and you have to put in the work of taking those thoughts captive and replacing them with something of God and He will help you to do that.

Now, I don’t know what people do who don’t have that power behind them. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for them when they suffer loss. But when you humbly go to God and ask Him to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1:9 says He will do just that. Allow Him to change your life today if you never have. We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.

“The Prosperity Gospel” – Job

How much is one plus one? It’s not a trick question. The answer is, of course, two. How do you know? It’s obvious, right? Anybody can see that if you have one and you add one more then you have two. Okay, good. Now, from what direction does the sun rise? From the east. How do you know? It’s obvious. We can see it if we get up early enough, right? It’s obvious. If I throw this ball straight up in the air, where will it land? It will come straight back down, right? How do you know? It’s obvious. We can see it. It’s easily provable.

Now, does God love you? Of course He does. How do you know? We can see it. It’s obvious. We can read John 3:16 and it says it plainly but all you have to do is look around. It’s obvious. Plus, He has to love us because we are so lovable, right? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Is God, our Heavenly Father, wealthy? Yes. How do you know? It’s obvious but Psalm 50 tells us He owns everything. Genesis says He is the Creator. Everything we have is a gift from Him. We can see that.

So, if our Heavenly Father loves us and is inconceivably wealthy then He obviously wants us to be wealthy as well, right? He wants us to be rich. He wants us to be healthy and it just makes sense that the better life we live, the more health and wealth we will get. Isn’t that right? No??? Well, you love your kids and if they were good to you, then one of them asked you for something, you would give it to them, wouldn’t you?

If your seven-year old asked you, “Daddy, I want a new car” then you would get it for him, wouldn’t you? If you had the money, surely you would buy him a nice, shiny new chainsaw if he asked nicely, wouldn’t you? “Daddy, I’ve been good. Can I have a 30.06?” You surely wouldn’t deny your precious seven-year old, would you? Why not?

“Why not?” is because it doesn’t make sense. Everybody knows you don’t buy that kind of stuff for a little kid. It wouldn’t be good for them and yet, so many people believe that if we live a good life – you know, at least better than that other guy – that God will give us good things like health and wealth. I mean, it just makes sense.

So, what’s the problem with that line of thinking? Well, first of all, it’s not truthful and so when somebody has something bad happen in their life, their first thought is that they must be doing something that displeases God and that may or may not be the case. The problem is, you can’t associate one with the other. Jesus said in Matthew 5 that God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

It’s sort of the converse of thinking that since your neighbor never goes to church and doesn’t claim to be a Christian and, yet, he has the nicest house and a new car and a nice boat and a pretty wife and his life is way better than yours so obviously God doesn’t care how we live or the neighbor would be punished. That is all incorrect thinking and is exactly what Satan wants you to think. Satan wants you to parallel God’s physical and material blessings with good, moral living. And that just makes sense to us. That’s how we would do it if we were God, isn’t it?

If I had to come up with a way to get to Heaven, my logic would say that you have to deserve it. Your good deeds have to outweigh your bad deeds. You have to work your way into Heaven. That is what every other religion says because every other religion is man’s logic and man’s thinking. Every other religion started with some guy sitting under a tree trying to figure out what he would do if he were God and it just makes sense to correlate good deeds with God’s physical blessings and if you do enough good deeds, you get into Heaven.

Let’s go to Job chapter one this morning and I want you to see that is exactly what Satan wants you to think. He wants you and expects you to think that this life is all about works and rewards. In Job chapter one, which we read last week, it’s just another day in the office for God as He has a meeting with all His angels and the deceiver, the liar, the accuser, Satan, also shows up.

It is my opinion, from reading Revelation chapter 12 that Satan and all his demons were kicked out of Heaven when Jesus was resurrected and so Satan no longer has access to God like he did back then but in the old, old, old days of Job, evidently Satan could come and go like the other angels. You know the story. God asks Satan what he thinks about Job and this is the response found in Job chapter one, verses 9-11.

“Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10"Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

Do you see that? Satan assumes and expects Job to be into this whole “God thing” for what he can get out of it materially. It makes sense to Satan. We’ll see that it also makes sense to Job’s friends but what’s scary is that it makes sense to a lot of preachers nowadays.

Video from 0:00 to 1:17. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=give+and+God+will+give+it+back+double&&view=detail&mid=BD7E6D79B1EACDBE7E96BD7E6D79B1EACDBE7E96&&FORM=VRDGAR (Joel Osteen)

Hang on just a second while I try to find in scripture where “God promises to pay you back double for every unfair situation.” I want you to know that I watched quite a bit more of that because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t taking him out of context. I am not. Now, what he and many others like him are saying is that if you will just hang in there through the difficult times, that no matter what you lose, God will pay you back. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me. And Job is a great example of that actually happening, so it has to be true, right?

In the book of Job, Job rants and raves for chapter after chapter about how innocent and upright he is and how he doesn’t deserve for God to do this to him so he obviously believes that good works equal God’s material blessings and sin leads to God’s anger. And his friends respond to every monologue of Job with each one in turn having their own monologue trying to convince Job that the only reason God would do this to him is because there is sin in his life.

It reminds me of the passage in John 9 with the blind man. Y’all remember this passage. It’s one of our favorites around here where the man says to the Pharisees, “I don’t know. All I know is I was blind but now I see.” But that passage started out with the disciples asking Jesus when they saw the blind man, “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?”

They just assumed that sin was the cause of the blindness. Now, I have to say that this could also sound similar to what I preach a lot around here about BOOCOD (Blessings of Obedience and Consequences of Disobedience). Is that true? Are there really blessings when we are obedient and consequences when we are disobedient? Absolutely there are blessings and consequences.

The problem comes with a twisting of scripture that comes from a twisted way of thinking. So many people, including Brother Osteen there, as well as Job and his friends and even Satan himself have a view of God that is not quite correct. They take scripture and they take their view of God and mash them up to fit into a nice, pretty, manageable package that they can understand and when God doesn’t fit into that package, what happens? They blame God.

They take the verse in Genesis 1 that says we are made in God’s image and think that means that God is really, really smart but if we try hard enough, we can pretty much figure Him out. When God said in Isaiah 55 that, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," that means He will always and continually blow your mind. You will never understand Him completely and I have found that the more that I try to understand Him in scripture and in prayer, the more that I need to understand.

Here is what I do know. What God promises is not health and wealth. He never promises that if you are a good boy or girl that He will give you stuff. He never promises that you will never get sick and He doesn’t promise that if you have enough faith that He will heal you when you are sick. I’m sorry but He doesn’t.

And when you think you have found a verse or passage that does promise those things then just ask the Apostle Paul why he prayed three times and wasn’t healed. Ask the disciples where their big houses and fancy chariots were. Ask Jesus Himself why He had no place to lay His divine head at night. No, God never promises that but here is what else I know. He does make some wonderful promises.

2 Peter 1:4 says, “And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

“To share his divine nature”? That sounds pretty good! What does that mean? Well, what is God’s divine nature? He is loving and forgiving, merciful and gracious, tender, compassionate and always there for us. I want some of that because that is not my natural self. That sounds like a good promise.

How about Matthew 11:28-29?

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Rest for your souls! What’s that worth? I’ll take some of that.

Oh! Here goes with Philippians 4! That Paul knew what to say! “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”

The Bible is full of God’s promises but let me give you just one more. One of the last things Jesus said to His disciples and to us before He left this earth is found in John 14. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Peace! What a great promise! Thank you, Lord, for peace in a world that does not know it. When we talk about BOOCOD and the blessings of obedience, peace is the blessing of obedience. It’s not health and wealth. It’s not even understanding. God gives peace when the world around you falls apart and it will fall apart for you and for everybody at one time or another.

Do you know what the main theme of the book of Job is? Do you want to know what God wanted Job to learn more than anything else? “Quit trying to figure me out and just trust me. And when you do that, I will give you peace.”

Jesus said in John 15, “Abide in Me. Remain in Me. Hang out with Me.” God wants you to know Him and to be more like Him. He wants to reveal Himself to you but you will never understand Him completely. He doesn’t expect that or promise that. What He wants is just for you to know Him better and better every day.

Years ago, I went with my family to New Braunfels to Schlitterbahn Water Park. Has anybody ever been there? Have you ever been to any kind of water park or even a public swimming pool? If you have, you know it can be kind of scary, not because of the wild rides but because there are some people…let’s just say, who need to cover up a little more than what they are covering. Know what I mean?

I was probably 30-40 pounds lighter back then but I would normally never take my shirt off even then. I’m sure not doing it now for any reason. But as we walked around, I started to feel a little better about myself physically as I compared myself to some of the other people walking around.

Let me just say that just because a bathing suit will physically go on your body, DOES NOT mean you should wear it. And you can’t go wrong with a dark t-shirt over whatever you wear. But I started to feel better about myself as I compared myself to others. The problem is, there’s always that one guy. Right? There is always the body-builder who shows up with his supermodel girlfriend to ruin the day because compared to him…where’s my shirt?

It’s the same way when I compare myself to other people spiritually. You know, compared to some people, I look pretty good. Even when I don’t do well at all, there’s always Hitler, right? I’m a superstar compared to him. I don’t feel so bad when I compare myself to Hitler or murderers or people who do mean things to dogs. God must really love me compared to those people!

But when I see God and see who He really is and compare myself to Him and I see who I really am, I am embarrassed. I’m ashamed. I pull my shirt over my head, wishing He couldn’t see me and I don’t understand how He could love me at all. The good news is that I don’t have to understand. I don’t have to understand Him at all. I don’t have to feel lovable. I just have to trust Him and He gives me peace.

I may go through great difficulties. In fact, I will and you will go through great difficulties and maybe God will answer your “Why?” question but maybe not. He doesn’t promise to make you understand. He promises to be with you and to bring you peace as you abide, trust, obey and follow Him and make Him look good.

Trust Him today. Ask Him to forgive your sins. Repent of those sins and allow Him to change your life, not just once, but continually, as He makes you more like Him. Do that right now.

Prayer

- -----Mom’s Bible: My goal in life should not be to be happy or free from pain but to make God look good.